What The Puck?

Whenever the great Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters are discussed, no one ever talks about Peter Puck. 36 years ago, the one- by three-inch cartoon superstar began appearing between periods of hockey games in both the U.S. and Canada (where he was a regular fixture on "Hockey Night in Canada", the Canadian equivalent of Monday Night Football). Peter did nine 3-1/2 minute essays explaining the rules of hockey and the nuances between major and minor penalties. I think it's pretty funny in one of the episodes where Pete mentions that fighting is not allowed. Yeah right. Here then is Peter Puck, Book I, giving the basic rules of the game.

I Can Lick You And Your Whole Family!

Hundreds of rabbits enter the scene. Hunter's befuddled. A little clarinet lick, and end title. So ended the 1938 cartoon "Hare-um Scare-um"...

...Or did it?

When Good Players Make Way For Great Players

What the ascent of Gary Sheffield in the Mets' fortunes meant to the player he ultimately replaced. This account is written by former major leaguer Doug Glanville, and the player in question is former Met Marlon Anderson.

"Hollywood Squares", Old School

Has there been a game show with as many different theme music variations as "The Hollywood Squares", considering all the versions that have aired over the years? I generally don't link to these sorts of videos on YouTube, but this one is an exception. This is an end-of-show cut of one of the earlier versions of the show theme. Entitled "The Silly Song", it was composed by veteran television and film composer Jimmie Haskell and was used on the show from 1966-1969. It was supplanted by the composition more identified with that version of "Squares", which was called "Merrill and Bob's Theme" (honoring producers Heatter and Quigley) and was composed by William Loose.

There were maybe a half dozen more theme songs for "Squares" in the ensuing years, but this one seemed to be the most fun.

Forget Susan Boyle!

This guy is much better. Unfortunately I can't embed the player so here is the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL6Cb_U34dI

If you want to see a similar guy do the same but with a tire tube (remember them?), here are two clips.

Ed, Johnny, and Don

It's a little odd that the New York Lottery has resurrected its commercial with three classic voiceover announcers - one of whom is dead, another of whom is frankly not doing well, and another of whom is Johnny Gilbert. This spot promotes Mega Millions, with the NY lottery's nebbish narrator outranking Gilbert, Ed McMahon and the late Don LaFontaine in popularity while eating at a diner. I don't believe I've posted it before, but here it is.





Why is Ed McMahon saying "Hi-yo"? Well, it's something he did say on the Tonight Show, but not his most famous phrase - that would be "Heeeeeeere's Johnny". Johnny Carson had a trademark on the phrase (according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, it was cancelled in 2002), but I suspect that Ed simply does not do that line in public any longer out of respect for his old boss.

James Earl Jones Counts to 10

Big shock at the end!

Mackey Mini Movies

Citi Field



Mr. Met (I may need to reupload this video)



Bob Interview (again)



Here are our pictures, posted on Facebook. You do not need to have a Facebook account to see these pix.

Game Over...

Little to cheer about from a Mets baseball standpoint today as the team lost its final exhibition game to the Boston Red Sox, 9-3.

But what a venue! As much as I've enjoyed my visits to Shea over the years, I really think the Mets have a winner here. Many seats very close to the action here, and the uppermost seats don't seem as lofty as they were at Shea. We'll soon be posting a link to the gallery of pictures I took today. However, we will most certainly learn more about this terrific ballpark on future visits.

Your New World Class Home

Greetings from Citi Field. Though we got here a little late the sun is trying to peek through. This is going to be a nice place to watch a game or two. We will have a more detailed report later. For now, LET'S GO METS!

Baseball Time

Tomorrow is the official start of the baseball season, but the new New York ball parks are having their shakedown cruises this weekend. Both the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field are hosting games with the big-league clubs this weekend, and Robair and I will be at the Mets game today at Citi Field. We're really anxious to check out the new ballpark, even though it's going to be really windy and possibly showery. We'll have some pictures up here and maybe some Mini Mackey Movies up on YouTube.

The Mets won over the Red Sox last night, 4-3, at the first big-league action (albeit exhibition) in the park. Starting Monday you can watch the numbers on the no-hitter count start to rise again. Bring it on.

Happy Birthday

It's Aprll 2 and I would be derelict in my duties if I didn't wish a Happy Birthday to my good friend of two decades, Harry McCracken, former editor-in-chief of PC World Magazine and now operator of the Technologizer tech-info website.

Harry yesterday had an April Fool's piece on the site about the 45th anniversary of Technologizer. Back when it ran on mainframes and TRS-80's. There must be some reason he picked the number 45...

Additionally, Harry has been providing Technologizer-like content to his old home of PC World.