How I Rode Cold Notes Straight To The Top

by Kevin Burton    Today we finish up the Dictionary Scoop website’s list of jargon phrases used in journalism. As I did yesterday, I will add to the list.    “Above The Fold” is a term that refers to stories and pictures that appear in the top half of the front page. It’s the part …

Old Technology Before TV Had Its Tubes Tied

by Kevin Burton    Technology doesn’t march on anymore, it flies.    Actually, flying seems to pedestrian a concept to describe it. Teleports, is that the word I am looking for?    Today we’re looking at old technologies, finishing a list from the Dictionary Scoop website that we started yesterday.    Number 9 on the …

More Musing On Life, Baseball And Pete Rose

by Kevin Burton    One day I answered the phone and instead of a typical getting I heard, “Your boy’s in jail.”    Baseball was one of the few things that my father and I could talk about peacefully. But we had a disagreement about Pete Rose.    I loved Rose, who died Sept. 30 …

Science Made These Dreams Come True

by Dictionary Scoop    Humans love to predict the future. None of the things we have been able to create throughout history, from pyramids to airplanes, would have been possible without first imagining them.    During the 20th century, as the turn of the millennium approached, scientists, writers, and illustrators imagined technological innovations that, if …

“Peanuts” First To Introduce Minority Character

by Kevin Burton    “At the time of Charles Schulz’s death he had produced 17,897 strips, and Peanuts had run in more than 2,600 newspapers worldwide and been translated into 21 languages,” reports http://www.interestingfacts.com.    Today we continue yesterday’s post, presenting more facts from that website.    I know for a fact that the Peanuts gang speaks …

Facts About The “Peanuts” Comic Strip

by interestingfacts.com    Charlie Brown and his gang of lovable young’uns are bonafide stars when it comes to classic American comic strip characters.     Peanuts, the brainchild of cartoonist Charles Schulz, is so well-known that many of its quotes and common catchphrases are now a part of our cultural lexicon. (Think: “Good grief,” “AAUGH,” and …

“Here Comes Foster!” There Goes Al Michaels

by Kevin Burton    I love me some Al Michaels. Our sportscaster-sports consumer relationship goes back more than 50 years.    How much do I love Al Michaels?  Well, I watched the entire unwatchable Raiders-Chargers game Thursday because he was calling it. I didn’t even have any fantasy players involved.   And I’ve been watching …

Closing Credits For TV Icon Norman Lear

by Kevin Burton    The television shows produced by Norman Lear were a cultural backbone for 1970s America.  In this case, the backbone was connected to the funny bone.    When I read that Lear died Tuesday at 101, my mind went immediately to that instrumental piano-driven song that played over the closing credits for …

Turning My NFL Sunday Inside Out

by Kevin Burton    I don’t know what that was last Sunday, but it was something, and it was personal.    Was it a self-boycott, playing hooky, a tantrum ( I am good at those)?    I guess it was the fantasy football version of the line “I’m just tired and bored with myself” from …

Murder She Wrote: Author Under Arrest

by Faith Karini, Andi Babineau and Sara Finch, CNN    Kouri Richins’ husband was found dead at the foot of their bed last March.    She’d just closed on a house for her business, she told investigators at the time. Around 9 p.m., she brought her husband, Eric Richins, a celebratory Moscow Mule cocktail in …