Tidbits - February 2, 2017
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- Category: Archives
- Published on Wednesday, 01 February 2017 15:28
- Written by Ralph Shealy
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TIDBITS by RALPH SHEALY
SHOCKS
There are shocking things in life!
As I’ve stated many times before, I have two TVs in my den and in my bedroom. I turn off the volume on one of the sets, usually the one I’m watching sports.
In my bedroom, I mostly keep the volume up on the TV connected to the satellite, and the one connected to the antenna is volume-less.
Every night, I watch Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show,” but I rarely listen to it.
Friday night, I was watching my regular murder show on “ID,” when I turned to look at Jimmy Fallon, and did the old comedy double take.
Were my eyes deceiving me, or did I just see Saluda’s Bob Bowles on “The Tonight Show?”
I quickly turned my other TV to Channel 10 and soon Ann Bowles appeared!
It was a good skit, where the interviewer was trying to find common ground between Democrats and Republicans.
In Ann’s case, the common ground was they both first put ketchup on their hot dogs.
Bob was in the shop a few weeks and ago and told me he and Ann were going to take a trip to New York City, and they had posted a few pictures on Facebook while they were there.
The fact they were in NYC didn’t surprise me, but the fact out of 10 million people they got on “The Tonight Show” did!
Donna Kelley found the clip of Bob and Anne’s appearance and shared it with me on Facebook, and soon all my Facebook friends could see what I saw.
I’ve been to New York City three times, but was never in that group that wanted to get up early to stand in the crowd at “The Today Show” just so they could be on TV.
I did have one ironic experience on my first trip in 1970.
My buddies and I were standing near the stage door of a Broadway theater, because someone told us Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller were about to come out. (Phyllis was appearing in “Hello Dolly” at the time.)
While waiting, I began talking to a girl in the crowd, who was from Virginia. As it turned out she was a close friend of a guy who was on our hall at Carolina. That was no TV experience, but it was a one in 10,000,000 coincidence!
TECHNOLOGY
My Amazon Echo Dot continues to talk to the TV.
The other day, a commercial for the Dot came on, and one of the statements was, “Alexas, please turn down the thermostat to 64.”
My Alexas came on and said, “You are not set up to do that.”
Well, I knew that already.
We talk about our “smart phones,” but I continue to be amazed just how smart they are.
The other Saturday, my sister Dibbie and I were on our way Lexington to the birthday party for our great-niece Taylor Ann Bowdler.
The location was on the “Dam Road,’ Hwy. 6, North Lake Dr., etc.
While I had the GPS on my phone set up to the location, my plan was to drive through Lexington and hang a left on Number 6 at the “old Walmart.”
As I was approaching a stop light on 378, however, a message popped up on my phone that said, “Would like to take Old Cherokee Road?’
‘Yes, I would!”
Never in a thousand years would have I thought to take this road, even though I know it saves a bunch of time. I just don’t normally go that way to the Harbison area, so the road is not in my mindset.
But I will think about it from now on if I go that way, because my phone is really smart!
GOOD JOB FOR ME
Last week, I wrote about the awful shooting Carolina basketball team, and the very next game the Gamecocks scored 98 points, and those horrible shooters were lighting it up from outside.
The next game, however, they returned to awful and struggled to beat the worst team in the conference, Missouri.
The key word, though, is “beat.” Last season, the Gamecocks lost to a bad Missouri team, and that game probably kept Carolina out of the Big Dance.
WITH HER SMILE
In 1961 Mary Tyler Moore made her debut as Laura Petrie on the “Dick Van Dyke Show.” I was only ten-years-old, but it was love a first sight.
Fifty-six years later, I was deeply saddened by her passing last week.
The Sundance Channel ran a marathon of the last season of the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” Saturday. I had forgotten how funny the program was, and the last season did not feature some of the first, popular supporting cast members, Rhoda and Phyllis.
The famous last episode came on at 7:25 p.m. and 30 minutes later, when Mary turned out the lights of the WJM office, tears were running down my face. Forty years later, that program still meant a great deal to me.
Then over the weekend, I heard Mike Connors, star of “Mannix,” and Barbara Hale, Della Street on “Perry Mason,” had both died.
These two were also among my favorite TV characters.
I got to know Della before I met Mary!