Spirit of 76

No, ye socks, yours truly does not refer to the fact that tomorrow will mark 76 days of the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil leak.

I had enough time atop the proverbial soapbox yesterday.

Today, I refer to the revolutionary spirit of our founding fathers and mothers, which will be officially marked tomorrow as Independence Day.

The folks at The History Channel have gotten an early start, however.

They're running a marathon broadcast of their series on the American Revolution.

Compelling stuff.

It is all too easy as we scramble to get to the beach or neighborhood barbecue to overlook the guts it took to stand-up and topple an oppressive government 234 years ago.

The good news is that the guts displayed by our forefathers and foremothers allows us to freely engage in said scrambling.

And, when we feel oppressed by our government, we don't have to pick up our muskets and march off to the tune of fife and drums.

Because of their great sacrifices and those that came later, we can simply "remember in November" and cast our ballots to find the relief we need.

Still, there is something to be said about the accompaniment of fife and drums . . .

Lost

Today, yours truly counts himself lucky that he never got caught up in the whole "Lost" mania that has reached a crescendo in anticipation of the series finale.

To be sure, I gave it a shot.

I am, typically, a tv phenom junkie.

But, not in this case, I just couldn't bring myself to get "invested" in the meandering story line.

For those of you who did, however: enjoy.

But, I'm sticking with ESPN and the occasional reality tv fodder . . .

WDYTYA - Brooke Shields . . . and beyond?!

This may just be my personal opinion, but this week's episode of "Who do you think you are?" would have been worth watching even if the speakers are busted on your tv.

After all, the featured celebrity root-digger was Brooke Shields, who (as it turns out) is descended from a bunch of blue bloods who lived in some fancy palaces in Italy and France.

Anyway, yours truly was a little perplexed after watching the previews for the next episode, because the kind folks at NBC noted it wouldn't be aired for two more weeks . . .

Do any of ye socks know why they're taking a break like that?

There is some good news to report on this series. Just heard that it has been picked up for a second season.

Stay tuned, I guess. (Just not next week!)

Lisa Kudrow on WDYTYA

For ye socks who missed last night's episode of "Who do you think you are?" on NBC, they traced the roots of everybody's favorite "Friend."

Of course, yours truly refers to Lisa Kudrow.

What, you thought I meant David Schwimmer?!

Anyway, I supposed Kudrow kinda had to do an episode on her own roots since she is the executive producer of the new series.

I have to admit I didn't like it quite as much as the previous two episodes about Sarah Jessica Parker and Emmitt Smith. But, it was still good.

I won't spoil it for ye socks who have it on your DVR's, but basically Kudrow tracks her dad's family line back to Belarus and finds a living relative in Poland.

Next week: Matthew Broderick.

Who do you think Emmitt Smith is?

I know, I know. Most of ye socks from the Big D *think* he's a legendary Cowboy.


And, I suppose that's true.


But, we all know he was a legendary GATOR before that!


"22, Orange and Blue!"


Last night, we learned Emitt Smith's real background on the latest installment of NBC's new hit series "Who do you think you are?"


In case you missed it, the full episode is available for online viewing at http://www.hulu.com/search?query=Who+Do+You+Think+You+Are%3F&st=1


Interested?


How could you not be . . . unless of course you're a Packers fan . . . or, worse: A Nole!

You Tube Overload!

It's confession time, ye socks.

As noted in Friday's post, yours truly ended up watching the NBC premiere of "Who do you think you are?"

Well, I enjoyed it so much that I decided to see what episodes of the British version of the show might be available via YouTube.

Big mistake.

I've done very little else this fine Sunday afternoon, which seems like kind of a waste . . .

Fortunately, this fresh bowl of popcorn is assuaging my guilt . . .

Programming note . . .

Just in case ye socks have nothing better planned for this fine Friday evening . . .

NBC will be debuting its new genealogically-oriented TV series, "Who do you think you are?"

I understand they will be profiling the ancestral trail of Sarah Jessica Parker.

If the series is half as good as the British original, it will be worth your while to check it out!

Remember "Faces of America" on PBS tonight

I believe this week's episode focuses on immigrant ancestors.

Should be good.

Check your local listings for time & station!

(Or, you can watch it online tomorrow at http://www.pbs.org/ . . . )

Surviving Survivor . . .

Must-see TV around this little corner of heaven tonight centered on the 20th season premiere of Survivor.

In case ye socks don't follow the series, this time around they're reuniting former contestants and dividing them into two rival camps of "heroes" and "villains."

I was actually looking forward to seeing how Russell from last season would stack-up against Richard from the first season.

Evidently, though, Mr. Hatch was too busy serving a sentence for tax evasion to take part?!

Well, that turned out to be the least of my concerns.

With both eyes focused on the TV screen, yours truly failed to realize a certain scrumptious morsel was still sizzling hot and ended up scalding his lower lip.

@*()!&*%)#&*@($)&*)&*!!! That hurts! Imagine it's gonna leave a nasty blister, too . . .

Name that ghost!

Let me preface this post by saying it is merely the result of there being no Gator game to watch today.

Thus, yours truly found himself watching the Biography Channel's new series "Celebrity Ghost Stories."

Thru with the mocking laughter, yet?

OK, so the new show included the story of Joan Rivers' supposedly haunted apartment in New York City. I won't bore ye socks with the absurd details of her consultations with a voodoo priestess, but she did make the claim that the ghost who continues to lurk around the premises is a niece of J.P. Morgan named "Mrs. Spencer."

The genealogist in me found that vague identification unacceptable. So, after rolling my eyes at my own willingness to watch such tripe, I decided to attempt to at least ascertain precisely who the poor soul is supposed to be doomed to sharing the same cramped apartment with Ms. Rivers.

So far, no luck.

For starters, there were TWO men named John Pierpont (JP) Morgan:

1. John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837-1913) had four younger siblings, though only three sisters survived childhood to marry and have children of their own. The eldest was Sarah (1839-1896) who married kinsman George Hale Morgan and had at least one daughter: C. Lucy Morgan (1872). The second was Mary (1844) who married Walter Haynes Burns and also had at least one daughter: Mary Ethel Burns (1873). The third was Juliet (1847) who also married a kinsman, John B. Morgan, and had at least one daughter: Ursula Junius Morgan (1869). I couldn't find any marriage records for these nieces, but they were probably too old to be the culprits. Rivers said her ghost died only a couple of years before she moved into the apartment in the early 90s.

and

2. John Pierpont Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943) also had three sisters. I couldn't find anything about the youngest, Anne Tracy Morgan (1873-1952). But, the two older sisters did marry and have children. The first was Louise, who married Herbert Livingston Satterlee. They had at least two daughters, Mabel Satterlee Ingalls and Eleanor Satterlee Gibbs, but no Spencer marriage record for either. The second was Juliet (1870), who married William Pierson Hamilton (a grandson of Alexander Hamilton). They had two daughters: Helen, who married Arthur Woods (not Spencer!); and Elizabeth (who died in 1919).

I know, many of ye socks out there don't care for my postings of this much genealogical gibberish. So, I won't belabor the point any further. The bottom line is, I couldn't find any niece of either J.P. Morgan who carried the Spencer surname.

The thought did occur to me that the niece in question might have been a niece by marriage, but it's getting too late in the evening to go chasing down that line of thought. Anyone out there want to pick up where I left off?

Summer has officially arrived

I know, according to the calendar, summer arrived some time ago.

And, according to ye olde thermometer and the humidity it arrived *quite* some time ago in this little corner of heaven.

But, it wasn't official until last night's debut of Big Brother, my summertime guilty pleasure.

I don't know why I can't tear myself away from this train wreck.

Every summer, I get sucked into it--watching it 3 nights a week, even following it online, etc.

Ah, well, I suppose we're all entitled to a little frivolity. Whatever it takes to get thru the dog days . . .

Prediction: the female martial arts expert wins it all this year.

Uh . . .most of you are NOT celebrities at all . . .

In my failed attempt to find something worthwhile on tv this evening, I am embarrased to say that I found myself watching one of the most embarrassingly bad reality show's in the history of that genre: "I'm a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!"

First of all, the show's title is a misnomer.

Of the eleven "celebrities," I recognized only five of their names . . . the "biggest" name belonging to Lou Diamond Phillips.

Ye socks will remember him from "La Bamba" and "Young Guns."

Anyway, this train wreck is supposed to be polluting the airwaves Monday thru Thursday for the next three weeks.

Guess that's reason enough to turn off the tv and find something more constructive to do . . .

Curse of photographic memory

My Tuesday night guilty pleasure is NCIS. There, I've admitted it.

Tonight, though, I found myself actually yelling at the TV screen.

One of the characters got a hold of a passport while collecting evidence at a crime scene, and looked at it briefly.

Later, said passport disappeared and the character in question went thru some pretty humorous brain picking because he couldn't remember the name on the passport or even the country that issued it.

So, there I was: "HIS NAME IS MILOS, AND HE'S FROM SERBIA!!"

I'm sure my neighbors must've thought I'd lost my mind . . . maybe, I have!

Oh, well, they caught the guy without my help anyway. Imagine that . . .