BEATLES ARRIVE IN NEW YORK:
February 7, 1964

On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York's Kennedy Airport--and "Beatlemania" arrives. It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with "I Want to Hold Your Hand." At Kennedy, the "Fab Four"--dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark pudding bowl haircuts--were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane and onto American soil.
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(cf http://www.historychannel.com/tdih)

Personal note: One of the things I found noteworthy about last night's Superbowl half time show was that they asked Sir Paul McCartney to perform out of the desire to restore respect and dignity to the show. Anyone who lived through the arrival of the Beatles in 1964 can tell you how the establishment looked askance upon them, some people even condeming them as a bad influence on the nation's youth. Look how far we've come...

Tags: history, nyc

I never watched the Battlestar Galactica TV show when I was a kid, and I hadn't planned on watching the new series. However, quite a few people recommended it very strongly, including kradical and terri_osborne, and so gnomi and I started watching it. I'm grateful to acknowledge that the USA Network reran the first two episodes over the weekend, and that the Sci-Fi Channel is rerunning them as well, along with the third episode, so we can get caught up.

However, I now regret skipping the pilot when the Sci-Fi Channel broadcast it last year (or was it in 2003?). kradical told me that it's out on DVD, so we may go out and rent it, but before we do -- does anyone out there who's local to us own a copy and is willing to lend it to us?

Tags: personal, science-fiction, television

Dear folks at Saturday Night Live,

As someone who is admittedly into role-playing games, Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc., I wanted to let you know how incredibly funny I found the sketch from last week's show in which Paris Hilton is advertising a phone sex line for nerds.

However, I do have one minor complaint. The references made during the sketch to things like a "nerf herder" and "pon farr" made it clear that your staff had done its research. Actually knowing what these things referred to made the sketch that much more hilarious.

However, I was disappointed when your "dungeon master" character told the unseen Dungeons & Dragons nerd on the other end of the phone line to throw a saving throw on his twelve-sided die. Anyone who has ever played Dungeons & Dragons knows that saving throws are thrown on twenty-sided dice, not twelve-sided.

Sincerely,
Michael A. Burstein

(P.S. Yes, I agree with you that it's pathetic that I have nothing better to do with my time than pick on this little point.)

Note to all: Yes, I really did send this email to NBC. Including the P.S.

Tags: television