Just The (Bare) Facts, Ma'am !

In 1949, there was a radio show (yes, we "watched" the radio) called Dragnet which went to television in 1951 and ran until 1959. The star of the show was an actor named Jack Webb, who played Detective Sergeant Joe Friday. His partner, Bill Gannon, was played by a few actors, the most memorable being Harry Morgan (who you may remember as Colonel Potter on the hit television series, MASH). The show was set in Los Angeles and was a police drama.

The character made several lines famous including, "My name's Friday-I carry a badge" and "Just the facts, ma'am," the second line being adopted by many men and used many times. I listened to the show on the radio and watched it on television during it's run. It brings back many fond memories.

Jack Webb appeared one evening on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and they did a parody of the Dragnet show that is just too good to pass up. If you know Carson, he always has a problem keeping a straight face and I'm sure you'll enjoy this video.

                                                             

I enjoy cooking and I'm pretty good at it. I was preparing something last evening and for some unknown reason, I remembered a dish I prepared about five years ago for a young lady that I invited to dinner. It's a simple recipe in principle, but a little tricky to prepare.

The recipe, called "snapper sapphire," is basically sauteed and broiled red snapper. topped with a very ripe, thinly sliced, Cuban plantain, lemon zest, salt, pepper and served with lime wedges. It is accompanied with wild rice and almonds and served with a small salad consisting of romaine lettuce, tomato wedges, croutons, parmesan cheese and a chunky gorgonzola cheese and olive oil dressing.

If things go as planned, I will be serving that Saturday night to a lady friend. The desert (other than the obvious) will be Hagen-Daz vanilla ice creamed topped with Amaretto liqueur. Yahtzee!

The Pictures: Today's trip to Internetland was fruitless so we're going to Eclecticville, where the growing amount of individual pictures are now ripe for display. In layman's terms, we have no theme but plenty of silly and inane pictures which I hope will amuse you.

This Date In History: 1642; Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the oldest college in the United States, holds its first commencement exercises. 1780; British agent John Andre is captured while carrying documents that reveal the treason of American general Benedict Arnold, who agreed to hand over the American fort at West Point to the British.

1846; German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovers the eighth planet, Neptune, on the basis of French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier's calculations of its position. 1912; After leaving the Biograph company to start his own film studio, director Mack Sennett releases the first Keystone comedy short starring Mabel Normand, Ford Sterling and Fred Mace.

1939; Sigmund Freud, the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis and one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, dies in London at the age of 83, having fled the Nazi takeover of Austria in 1938. 1952; U.S. senator Richard Nixon, a candidate for vice president, answers charges that he used an improper expense fund in the nationally televised "Checkers" speech in which he mentions his dog, Checkers.

Birthdays: Augustus, Roman emperor (63 BC), Louise Nevelson, sculptor (1900), John Coltrane, American saxophone player and composer (1927), Ray Charles, pianist and singer (1930), Bruce Sprinstein, singer and songwriter (1949).

The Hits Just Keep On Coming:

Two cavalry soldiers come upon an Indian scout lying on his stomach with his ear to the ground. One of the soldiers says to the other, "See that Indian? He's listening to the ground. He can hear things for miles in any direction.

Just then, the Indian lifts his head and says, "Covered wagon about two miles away. Have two horses, one brown, one black. Man, woman and child in wagon."

The calvary soldier says to his friend, "See that? The Indian knows how far away they are, how many horses they have, the color of each horse and the number of people in the covered wagon. Amazing!"

The second soldier says to the Indian, "How do you know all that information?" The Indian scout says, "Them run over me half hour ago."

                      

That's it for today my little coffee mugs. More tomorrow.

Stay Tuned !

Tags: JimSulliv3, Jimmy's Journal, pshemmingway, Dragnet, Jimmys AREA51, Snapper Sapphire, Possum's Journal, Jimmys-MySpace, My Space Karaoke, my perfect martini