Who knows what's coming down the pipeline? (image courtesy Troy Holden)

At the moment, this situation is like a 7^th grade student council election. Back in my day, kids running for student council representative would gather votes through making outlandish promises that would appeal to a wide swath of eleven-year-olds, ignoring completely the feasibility of those changes. Like “Free candy all day!” or “No school on Fridays!” or “The Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync will perform an acoustic set together daily in the cafeteria, with biweekly guest appearances by 98 Degrees and Ricky Martin!” Keep in mind this was the late 1990s.

So here are eight awesome things I’d like to see on Conan’s new show, with no consideration of the practicality of any of these options.

Branch out in the top of the show. One of the best segments from Conan’s Tonight Show run was his very first cold open, where he appears to be sprinting across the country from New York to Los Angeles while Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” plays in the background. And – spoiler alert – his live show begins with a hilarious video segment featuring a fat and unshaven Conan bumbling around the house in a state of depression. Why begin the show every damn time with a monologue if you don’t have to? Let’s see more craziness at the top of the show!

ROCKING OUT. The “Legally Prohibited” Tour features several musical numbers where Conan fronts the band on guitar and vocals. The crowds have been eating this up and craving more, and with good reason – dude’s got chops. Please give us more of your rockstardom, Coco.

Rock. Star. (image courtesy JasonBaldwin)

More Clutch Cargo. Conan’s Tonight Show didn’t have enough Clutch Cargo, a bit where he’d talk to “celebrities” which were, in actuality, a static image of the interviewee with an impersonator’s lips on top. Past guests included Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (JINGLE ALL ZE VAY!), so why not update the segment with inane conversations with Barack Obama, Ahmadinejad, and Snookie and the Situation?

Pyrotechnics and explosions. Let’s break stuff! One of Letterman’s famous stunts during his time on Late Night was dropping stuff off of a five-story tall roof and showing the destruction. This bit wins every time – who doesn’t want to watch a 300 lb. safe demolish a car? Conan did some of this on the Tonight Show, one example being a monster truck crushing the world’s largest pumpkin. But why not up the ante and add lots and lots of fire? BLOW SHIT UP.

Integration with Time Warner’s other properties. When NBC merged with Universal, they acquired the rights to Walker, Texas Ranger, thus birthing one of Late Night’s classic segments: the Walker, Texas Ranger lever. Time Warner, aside from owning TBS, also owns HBO, TNT, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim, among other channels, and all of the Looney Tunes cartoons EVER MADE – so Conan will have unfettered access to that intellectual property. Conan + old school cartoons = ?

Conan, as someone else. Conan’s run on TV had actors or, more often, writers portray beloved characters, like Fed Ex Pope (Brian McCann), Frankenstein (Brian Stack), Masturbating Bear (?), the Slipnutz (Brian Stack, Andy Blitz, Jon Glaeser), and more. In these segments, Conan would play the straight one. But I’d like to see the guy take on more ridiculous roles himself – he made a hilarious Conando in spoofing overacted Spanish telenovelas, and reportedly played Slim Chestershucks, a cowboy, for his crew during their live shows in Texas. He has the chops, so let’s see some absurd Conan-fronted characters. Super hero, rock star, tax attorney – the options are endless.

More elaborate remotes. Conan shines when he improvises, and that’s doubly true whenever he ventures off of the studio lot. Because the TBS show will air only four nights a week – Monday through Thursday – the staff will have an extra empty day to plan, film, and tidy up remote segments off campus. I hear Mexico isn’t too far from Los Angeles…

Beard shaving. Conan now boasts an unemployment beard, not having shaved since he lost the Tonight Show a few months ago. It’s unclear as to whether he’ll want to keep the beard when he starts again on TBS, but should he decide to shave it, he could chip away at it over time and wean us off of the scruff. It’d be a ridiculous transition from his full beard into any one of these. Especially mutton chops. Or the Franz Josef.

A few weeks ago I leaked a sneak peek at the cover art for CHUCK NORRIS CANNOT BE STOPPED and I’m excited to officially announce that it is now on sale!

Buy: Amazon – B&N – Borders

By the time you finish reading the book, you will be able to answer the following important questions:

• Who owns all of the No. 1 pencils?
• Who won the 1993 International Jump Rope Championship while standing completely still?
• Who was Tiger Woods’ 3rd, 8th, and 16th mistresses?
• Whose TiVo only records John Wayne movies, old Ronald Reagan speeches, and Walker, Texas Ranger?
• Whose lungs are made from burlap sacks full of Beefaroni?

As always, there will be some incredible illustrated facts as well, like this one:

There are also a lot of changes coming to the website that are currently in the works and should be finished in the next few weeks. First, I’ll be moving all “Facts” related material from it’s current home at 4Q.cc, a domain name that is truly awful for anything but shortlinking these days, to a new home right here at WhatIsAwesome.com/Chuck. You’ll also be able to access “Facts” via webapp on your mobile phone browser (sorry, I can’t do iPhone/iPad apps, a certain 80s action star wouldn’t like it) as well as via Facebook. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted on those happenings.

Be sure to join the Facebook page as well to stay up-to-date with the latest happenings!

oh my god yes tell me more

Long before the days of the Frigidaire, the icebox or even a reliable means to make ice, people had to either a.) eat their food on the spot or b.) find ways to keep it from turning into a bacteria-fungus casserole at room temperature while they stored it for days, weeks or even months. Enter: curing.

Humans learned long ago that covering things in salt keeps the rot away, but it wasn’t until late in the Iron Age that we began mass-producing salt. The increase in available supply made it much more practical to use for everyday preparations like curing foods. I feel sorry for the first few generations that just covered their meats in granulated salt and left it there (dry curing) – must have been a bitter reunion when it was finally served. However, at some point in the Middle Ages we learned the technique of “brining.” Brining is submerging a cut of meat for a few weeks in a salt-water mixture (ideally you should be able to float an egg in the brine) along with some choice seasonings like pepper, garlic, coriander or whatever the local flavor may be. It is quite common to add sugar during the brining as well for an extra sweet kick in the mouth.

salt! smoke! history!

The oncologists, gun nuts and pee enthusiasts reading this may be interested to know: It used to be much more common to use potassium nitrate or “saltpeter” for brining. Saltpeter is a common ingredient for oxidizing gunpowder, can be obtained from decomposed urine and could very well give you cancer. It also has the effect of giving cured meats their distinctive reddish coloring.

Brining a cut of beef or pork brisket (or even turkey), giving it a rinse in fresh water and simmering it for several hours is called “corning” the meat. You can see where this is going, but you might be asking “Where is the corn?” Given the European roots of brining, it’s no surprise those cheeky Anglo-Saxons put a word to it – “corn” to them meant “small granule or pellet.” So in the case of cured meats, “corn” referred to the granules of salt used in the process Even up until colonial times the word “corn” meant any common grain. Thus, the maize that Native Americans introduced to settlers was called “Indian Corn” and the rest, as all the famed Etymologists of the world say, is history.

Oh, and from corned beef, the jump to pastrami isn’t a big one. Once you have a cured and rinsed chunk of meat, all you have to do is smoke it and cover it with crushed peppercorns and various other seasonings and there you have it – what the Yiddish called “pastrame,” the Turks called “pastrima,” and what most Americans affectionately call: “Holy shit that’s $3 a pound cheaper than ham!”

hello please make me a sandwich it’s important

 - Mike Beech lives in the Cleveland area and really just wanted to find out what the heck corned beef was all about.

Relieving stress in the office

A series of stupid stunts

Andrew Zimmern. Enough said. (Possibly NSFW)

And a general round-up of stupid to last at least a week

Gaurab Chakrabarti is rational.

• 1054 – The Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians (the who?) observe a supernova near the star Tauri. It was bright enough to be seen during the day for several months.
  

• 1634 – The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France. It would later become Quebec.
  

  Coat of arms of Trois-Rivières

• 1636 – Roger Williams establishes the city of Providence, Rhode Island

• 1776 – The second continental congress adopts the United States Declaration of Independence
  

  Yeah, America!

• 1778 – Kaskaskia is captured by George Clark and his men during the Illinois campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The population of Kaskaskia as determined by the 2000 census was 9.
• 1802 – The United States Military Academy opens at West Point, New York
• 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced.
  
• 1817 – Construction begins on the Erie Canal at Rome, New York. It would take 15 years to complete the 360+ mile canal.
• 1827 – New York State abolishes slavery.
• 1837 – The world’s first long-distance railway, Grand Junction Railway between Birmingham and Liverpool is opened. Today it is part of the West Coast Main Line, a railway system between London and Scotland.
• 1840 – The first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end (as opposed to simply “whenever you get there”) takes place aboard the Cunard Line’s RMS Britannia, a 700 ton wooden paddle steamer.
• 1845 – Henry David Thoreau embarks on his two year experiment in simple and solitary living at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts.

Walden Pond

• Walt Whitman’s seminal work, Leaves of Grass, is published in Brooklyn.
  

  Walt Whitman in 1887. Check out that beard.

• 1862 – 10-year-old Alice Liddell is told a story by Lewis Carroll. The story would eventually become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland when it would be published in November, 1865.
  

  Cover of the 1898 printing of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

• 1863 – After 47 days of fighting, the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi during the American Civil War ends. The town would not recognize Independence Day for almost eighty years following the battle.
• 1881 – The Tuskegee Institute opens in Tuskegee, Alabama
  

  The Tuskegee Institute in 1916

• 1886 – France offers the Statue of Liberty to the United States.
  

  As a lighthouse, the flames inside the statue's torch were the cause of death for hundreds of birds each night.

• 1892 - Western Samoa changes the location of the International Date Line such that the country recognizes 367 days per year.
• 1894 – Sanford B. Dole, relative of the pineapple magnate, proclaims the Republic of Hawaii.
• 1934 – The nuclear chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb is patented by Hungarian physicist, Leo Szilard, who would go on to later work on the Manhattan Project.
• 1939 – After being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig announces his retirement from baseball at Yankee Stadium. After a presentation by Babe Ruth, Gehrig addressed the crowd: –

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

–

“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

–

“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’s the finest I know.

–

“So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.”

• 1946 – The Philippines attains full independence from the United States after 381 years of colonial rule.
• 1947 – The Indian Independence Bill is passed by the British House of Commons, leading to British India being split into today’s India and Pakistan.
• 1959 – The 49-star-flag is debuted in Philadelphia after Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
  

  Congressmen celebrate Alaska's new statehood

• 1960 – Ten months after its admission as the 50th U.S. state on August 21st, 1959, the 50-star flag is debuted once again in Philadelphia.
• 1966 – The Freedom of Information Act is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• 1969 – The Zodiac Killer attacks his first two victims in Blue Rock Springs, California. One survives.
• 1976 – In 53 minutes, Israeli commandos rescue 102 hostages from a hijacked Air France flight from Israel to Paris who were being held in Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
• 1976 – On the other side of the globe, America celebrates its bicentennial.
  • Among other things, New Jersey offers a Bicentennial Lottery where the winner would receive $1,776 a week for 20 years ($1,847,040, all before taxes)
  • NASA paints an American flag and the official bicentennial logo on the side of its massive vehicle assembly building. Each star on the flag is six feet across, the blue background behind the stars is the size of a regulation basketball court, and each stripe is as wide as a road lane
    

    NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building in 1976. The bicentennial logo (the star on the right) wasn't replaced with the NASA logo until 1998.

• 1987 – World War II Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie is convicted of crimes against humanity.
• 1997 - NASA’s Pathfinder lands on Mars
  

  The surface of Mars upon Pathfinder's landing in 1997

• 2004 – The cornerstone is laid on the former World Trade Center site in New York City for One World Trade Center (no longer “Freedom Tower” — it’s official!)
  
• 2006 – North Korea fires six test missiles — four short-range, one medium-range, and one long-range, which is rumored to have failed mid-air above the Sea of Japan.
• 2009 – After 8 years of closure, the crown of the Statue of LIberty re-opens for guests.
  

Can you say Moonwalk?

Presenting the illusion that the dancer is stepping forward whilst actually moving backward, the moonwalk originated in 1943 but wasn’t made famous for nearly forty years in 1983 when Jackson preformed his signature move on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. I am willing to bet that just about every person in the world, baring the few tribes that have somehow avoided modern man, infants, and possibly the Amish, have tried to moon walk!  Annie is OK, and Michael is Awesome!

ABC, easy as…123

Rolling Stone magazine described the young Michael as “a prodigy” with “overwhelming musical gifts”, noting that Michael “quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer” after he began to dance and sing with his brothers. Though Michael sang with a “child’s piping voice, he danced like a grown-up hoofer and sang with the R&B/gospel inflections of Sam Cooke, James Brown, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder”.

She’s not my lover…

Billie Jean’ lyrics, written by Michael himself, refer to a real-life experience, in which the a mentally insane female fan claimed that Jackson fathered one of her twins. You gotta be pretty Awesome to have someone you’ve never met ACTUALLY BELIEVE you had sex with her!

Thriller: 60 million people can’t be wrong!

Where the red leather jacket become Awesome! Thriller has sold an estimated 110 million copies worldwide, with seven of the album’s nine songs released as singles, and all seven hitting the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 1984 Grammys. Almost as Awesome as this, in 2007, the inmates of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, a maximum security prison in Cebu, in the Cebu Province of the Philippines, imitated the zombie dance featured in the music video. That video was an instant hit, with 23 million views. MJ’s Thriller has 13 million more with 37 million views!

Front man for supergroup, USA for Africa

We Are The World was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie with solos appearances by some of the Awesome-est singers ever including; like Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, and Cyndi Lauper. Hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 17, 1985, followed by #1 in the UK, and finally making the top spot in almost every country throughout the world. Awesome!

Don’t Stop

Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough was Jackson’s first solo album away from Motown Records only took three months to hit the top of the charts and be certified gold! The music video was directed and produced by Nick Saxton featured a smiling Jackson floating over a background of disco lights and performing dance techniques while singing the song in a tuxedo. At one stage, Jackson is seen dancing in triplicate, which was considered innovative at the time.

Beat It

Even Weird Al’s spoof of this hit was gold! Well, Australian gold! According to Yankovic, in 1989 he presented his lyric which include: “Eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it. If it’s gettin’ cold, reheat it. Have a big dinner, have a light snack. If you don’t like it, you can’t send it back.  Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it.’ to Jackson for permission for the parody. Jackson allegedly thought it was amusing, and agreed to allow the parody. On October 19, 1989, the RIAA certified “Eat It” as a gold single. Awesome!

Bad

As I was putting this post together I was aiming at 10 Awesome Michaels. I asked my friends, searched google, wikipedia, youtube, and called my mom.  Those were the Top 8 Awesome ‘Michaels’ I came up with. I needed two more.

Until, I got 3! Captain EO Michael, Man in the Mirror Michael, and whoever is impersonating him on Sunset Blvd.

How Awesome are all of those? EO 3D was amazing, Man in the Mirror inspired millions and continues to today, and the creepy guy on Sunset Strip made a killing today! All 3 are pretty Awesome and had to make the list! Oh, and then there is always Michael and Magic. And of course, there’s always reason to marvel at MJ’s patent entitled “Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion.”

The Tonys

Named for: Mary Antoinette Perry

Born in 1888, Perry was part of a family which embraced the theatre and spent much of her childhood aspiring to become an actor like her aunt and uncle. It is unlikely that anyone reading this is terribly familiar with her work, but in the event any of you are, her most well-known appearance was in Harvey, which started as a Broadway show and later became a film. Both also featured Jimmy Stuart. It was during the run of the Broadway show that Perry died of a heart attack in 1946.

Perry gained additional notoriety during World War II where she and fellow actor Rachel Crothers founded the American Theatre Wing in New York City. At the time, it provided stage entertainment to soldiers serving in the armed forces. After the war, the organization focused more on supporting theatre as an institution. It was in this regard that The American Theatre Wing’s Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre was first established and awarded in 1947. As this is quite a mouthful, the name has since been shortened to simply “The Tony Awards.”

The Oscars

Named For: (Unsure)

It isn’t entirely known why the Academy Awards are nicknamed The Oscars. The first of two leading theories is that prolific actress and first female president of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (“The Academy”), Bette Davis, named the award after her husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. The alternative theory is that In 1931, it was reported that The Academy’s executive secretary, Margaret Herrick, claimed that the award statuette reminded her of her cousin, Oscar Pierce.  The article went on to claim that employees of The Academy adopted the name after learning this. Walt Disney has been quoted as thanking The Academy for his Oscar in 1932 and a 1934 article in Time Magazine is regarded as the first mentioning of “Oscar” in print.

It was not until 1939 that the AMPAS officially recognized “Oscar” as an official moniker for the statuette.

For those of you who may go on to win an Oscar, keep in mind that you can’t sell it. Since 1950, it has been stipulated by the AMPAS that neither recipients nor their heirs can sell a statuette without first offering to sell it back to the AMPAS for the low, low, price of just $1. Recipients who chose to not agree with this regulation are not permitted to keep the statuette.

The Emmys

Named For: Image Orthicon Tubes (bonus points to anyone who knows what these are without having to read about them)

As part of a campaign to improve its image, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, chose to establish an awards ceremony in the late 1940s. The name “Emmy” is an anthropomorphizing of “immy,” technical slang for an image orthicon tube – a crucial component of early television cameras.

Today there are multiple Emmy Award ceremonies. Best known are the Primetime and Daytime awards, but there are also Sports Emmys, Technology & Engineering Emmys, International Emmys, Student Emmys, and regional Emmys specific to local news and programming around the United States.

The Golden Globe Awards are also distributed for excellence in television, but its name is somewhat more straightforward since it is presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and recognizes top content from around the globe.

The Peabodys

Named For: George Foster Peabody

The Peabody Awards are somewhat of an underdog award compared to the previous three. Originated in 1940, the Peabody Awards are awarded for excellence in broadcasting – radio, television, and now internet. Films are not eligible to receive an award. Additionally, unlike the other awards which are distributed by industry organizations, The Peabodys are presented by the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. The University  had given Peabody an honorary degree for his dedication to public service and was the benefactor of substantial donations (for among other things, a fireproof building to hold the school’s library) from Peabody in reciprocation.

The Grammys

Named for: The Gramophone

Originally called the Gramophone Awards, the Grammys are the youngest major award ceremony starting in 1958. The ceremony is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and up until 1971, winners had the option of receiving their award at one of two award ceremonies – one in New York, the other in Los Angeles. In 1990, the manufacturer of the Grammy statue, Billings Artworks (whose slogan is “The Best Damn Awards Money Can’t Buy”) was asked to create a newer, larger version since the original statues would often begin to break over time. According to Billings, the physical awards seen during the show are not the actual awards – they’re blank. Winners receive their own customized awards after the ceremony ends.

Part One: Check-In

I flew from Boston Logan to LAX and am writing this post on my return trip to the east coast. Walking into the terminal, one is greeted with a classy almost club-like atmosphere that continues throughout the journey for the most part

The Self Check-In system is very clean and elegant:

You slide your credit card along the right side of the display and your boarding pass pops out (like toast!) of the small slot to the left.

After check-in varies a bit by airport. At Logan, VA has its own very quick security line leading to two gates. There isn’t much in there and you can’t really leave once you’re through the metal detectors. At LAX, there’s a lot more available to do once you’re inside the gating area. I jumped to the conclusion that VA must treat its employees quite well, as I noticed they all have matching luggage while I was waiting to board:

Part 2: Getting Comfy & Red

OK, so let’s say we’re on the plane. What’s so awesome? Pretty much everything. Let’s start with a tour of  Red. The in-flight “interactive environment” is central to pretty much everything on-board.

There are a few ways to use it, either via the touch-screen at every seat, or by the remote control in each armrest:

View of the remote through the armrest (you flip it open to pull it out) while an announcement was made over the PA system. The display at the top will otherwise display the TV channel that's playing on your screen.

The remote control out of its armrest.

I tend to grasp at gadgets quickly. Too quickly, sometimes. After a minute or so of playing around, it was time for the ultimate airline safety video:

Part 3: In the Air

And we’re off! Let’s finish the tour of Red since it’s not activated until after the safety video. There are a number of modules built into the system. I’ll describe them each in no particular order.

One of the convenient things about VA is that instead of flight attendants running through the cabin every few hours asking if you’d like to buy food or drinks, it’s all done through Red. (They do a single run-through for drinks early on, then it’s up to you). So if you want to get some nosh, bang on “Eat” or hit the corresponding button on the remote with a cake icon on it and look around.  As you can see above, if you’re watching TV, it appears as PIP as you browse the selections.

One of the other neat and unrelated things about the TV part is that if you bring up the program guide, you can tap a show that will air at a later time and it will pop up later with a reminder.

First page of drink selections available through Red. Standard airplane soft drinks are available for free.

Ordering food and drinks is just like shopping online, you pick out what you want, add it to a cart, and then pay by credit card. You can swipe your card on the underside of the display.

It goes without saying that Red’s primary service is for in-flight video:

Things you can watch

TV and Music Videos are free, the rest are a nominal fee. Premium TV includes content like HBO specials.

Besides watching things, there’s also a pretty extensive audio library in addition to satellite radio. You can use the system to create your own playlist too.

There are also games!

Now imagine my surprise when I saw this. Doom? Awesome! Here’s what it looks like:

You can play via the touch screen, which doesn’t really work for Doom, but that’s OK, because if you flip the remote control over, you’ve got a D-pad, action buttons, and full QWERTY keyboard:

Oh,  you can also use it to purchase items through Red with your credit card!  Check it out– I used my MetroCard for show:

There are a plethora of other neat options to play around with, including built in Google maps services with the plane’s current altitude and position, and remaining distance:

So let’s see, what else is there… each group of three seats has two standard 110v power plugs so you don’t need to drop extra cash on a special converter or anything. For those of you equipped with a laptop, that means that you can stay powered for your whole trip. Not only that, you can fly wireless! VA offers wifi access through GoGo for $12.95 per trip. I personally think it would be better to pay for wireless while in the terminal and get it free on the plane too, not so bad though. The speeds are also really great:

There is also really bright LED lighting above each seat instead of the standard incandescent bulbs.

At the end of each flight, I thought it was pretty clever how to wake everyone up, the crew just turns them all on at once. I guess at this point I should also mention that instead of typical white lighting inside the cabin, there’s really cool dark blue and purple mood lighting along the ceiling and walls. It’s like a club in the air.

So that’s it! I’ve loved the experience immensely and highly suggest flying them. It was just $119 from BOS to LAX one-way, grab a flight today at VirginAmerica.com. It’s really great to see that Richard Branson & company has dumped what I can only guess is a ton of money into the Virgin America brand, delivering a first-class experience with an economy price. The stuff they’re doing has to be keeping the folks at Southwest and JetBlue up at night.

For one reason or another, the danger surrounding Niagara Falls is attractive to daredevils. Perhaps one of the more memorable events to occur on the falls took place in 1990 and starred David Copperfield:

(The entire special can be viewed here.)

Obviously this clip was just one part of a multimillion dollar primteimte TV special.

Now get this. Fast forward to October 1st, 1995.  A wannabe stuntman by the name of Robert Overcracker tries to hit two birds with one stone. As a way to catapult himself into the stunt industry as well as raise money for the homeless, Mr. Overcracker arranged a stunt where he would ride a jetski off of the falls and safely land via a rocket-propelled parachute.

This, of course is not a particularly smart idea. As it turned out, that rocket powered parachute failed to open, sending Mr. Overcracker over the edge, his body never to be recovered, and raised more awareness for parachutes than for the homeless.

Miraculously, an Egyptian tourist snapped this incredible photo of the events:

Interestingly enough, Mr. Overcracker could have qualified for life insurance payout as a result of this ridiculous stunt too! I’m not sure whther or not he actually received anything, but hot damn, what a way to go.

• Wells Fargo Plaza in Houston and Kingdom Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia are the 44th tallest buildings in the world. Guess which is which.

• The 44th Congressional District covers an area from Orange County to Riverside County in California.
• The French Connection won Best Picture at the 44th Academy Awards.
• Haydin’s Symphony No. 44 was completed in 1772. Haydin requested the symphony to be played at his funeral.
• U2 won Record of the Year, The eponymous soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou? won Album of the Year, and Alicia Keys won Song of the Year (“Fallin’”) at the 44th Grammy Awards in 2002.
• The 44th Parallel North runs through France, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, Mongolia, Japan, Canada, and the United States.
• The 44th US Congress began March 4th, 1875 and ran through March 3rd, 1877.
• New Hampshire is the 44th Largest State in land area.
  
• Chile has the 44th Largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• The 44th Season of the NFL began in 1963. The Chicago Bears would go on to defeat the New York Giants in the NFL Championship Game that year.
• The liberal party won the 44th Nova Scotia general election with 51% of the vote
• The 44th Parallel South runs through New Zealand, Chile, and Argentina.
• In 1990, The Grapes of Wrath won Best Play at the 44th Tony Awards.
  
• The 44th World Science Fiction Convention held in Atlanta, Georgia in 1986 honored Ender’s Game for Best Novel and Back to the Future for Best Dramatic Presentation.
• The Polish 44th Infantry Division was among the first units of the Polish Army to defend the country from the Germans in World War II.
• Wyoming entered the union as the 44th State on July 10, 1890.
• The 44th Century will last from January 1st, 4001 to December 31st, 5000. The Mayan Calendar will end on October 14th, 4772.
• Skyang Kangri is the 44th tallest mountain (at 24,754 ft.) located on the Chinese-Pakistani border. It was first ascended by Japanese mountain climbers Yoshioki Fujioji and Hideki Nagata in 1976.
• In 2005, King County, Washington was the 44th out of 50 highest-income counties by personal per capita income in the US ($48,216).
• The 44th Super Bowl (XLIV) will be held at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida on February 7, 2010 and will be broadcast on CBS.
• You Nazty Spy! was the 44th short by The Three Stooges. It was the first Hollywood production to satirize Nazi Germany.
  
  The plot, courtesy of Wikipedia, is as follows:

  In the fictional country of Moronica, three munitions manufacturers—Messrs. Ixnay (Richard Fiske), Ohnay (Dick Curtis) and Amscray (Don Beddoe)—decide their country is in need of a change. They decide to implement a dictatorship, oust the king, and go about finding someone stupid enough to be a figurehead leader. Ixnay volunteers the three wallpaper hangers simultaneously working in his dining room-the Stooges.

  Ixnay presents Moe Hailstone, Curly Gallstone, and Larry Pebble with the offer to run Moronica. Moe is instituted as the leader (the Adolf Hitler role), with Curly as Field Marshal Gallstone, and Larry as Minister of Propaganda Pebble (an amalgam of Joseph Goebbels and Joachim von Ribbentrop). After his takeover, Hailstone proceeds to give a speech to the masses, cueing Larry to display signs reading “APPLAUSE”, “CHEERS” and even “HISS”. Moe “bonks” Larry after Larry accidentally raises the cue card for “HISS” at the wrong time during one of Hailstone’s speechs.

  However, the daughter (Lorna Gray) of the overthrown king pays Hailstone a visit, going by the name Mattie Herring (a spoof of World War I spy Mata Hari). The Stooges suspect she is a spy, and attempt to execute her. She escapes, and gathers a huge mob to storm Hailstone’s palace. The trio quickly abdicate, and flee into a lion’s den. A Lion is seen exiting wearing Hailstone’s hat.

• The 44th episode of Star Trek aired September 11th, 1996.
• Italy beat Belgium in the 44th Fed Cup, the most important competition in national women’s tennis, in 2006.
• Aishwarya Rai of India was named the 44th Miss World in Sun City, South Africa.
  
• Scottie Pippen of the Chicago Bulls was voted MVP at the 44th NBA All-Star game in 1994. The East All-Stars won, 127-118.
  
• Pirates of the High Seas was the 44th serial released by Columbia Pictures.
  
  Adventurer Jeff Drake sails to a Pacific island in aid of Kelly Walsh, an old friend whose freight line is being sabotaged by a ghost ship (such as the classic Flying Dutchman). Drake and Walsh’s investigation concerns the search for Walter Castell, an escaped convict who stole 5 million dollars in diamonds at the close of World War II. Several other people, including Walsh’s sister, all want to go to the island. Drake and his friends encounter multiple dangers when they are attacked by a gang also looking for the stolen diamonds. (Source: Wikipedia)
  
• The 44th episode of Desperate Housewives is entitled “I Know Things Now.”
• Ignacio Chavez was the 44th president of Nicaragua. His term lasted from January 1st to March 1st, 1891.
• The 44th mayor of New Orleans was Walter C. Flower whose term ran from April 27th, 1896 to May 7th, 1900.
• Joseph Rakowski served as 44th mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey. He is best known for addressing the issue of garbage trucks full of trash being stolen and driven from New York City  to Jersey City where they would be abandoned.
• 1946 marked the 44th season for the New York Yankees. The team finished with a 67-67 record.
• Asador Etxebarri was voted 44th best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine in 2008. It is located in Basque County in Biscay.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt served as 44th Governor of New York State.
• Charlie Chaplin received the 44th Academy Honorary Award for “the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century” in 1971.
  
• A 2006 study ranked Alabama as the state with the 44th highest gross state product of $160 billion or $29,697 per capita.
• The US Census Bureau estimated that Oakland, California was the 44th largest city in the United States with 397,067 people.
• The University of California – Santa Barbara has been rated 44th among national universities by US News and World Report
• Israel is estimated to have the 44th largest economy in the world.
• The 44th Giro d’Italia, a long distance cycling race, was held in 1961 and was won by Arnaldo Pambianco with a time of 111 hours, 25 minutes, 28 seconds.
• Sonny Bono was a member of the US House of Representatives from California’s 44th District from January 1995 to 1998. He was succeeded by his wife, Mary Bono Mack.
• The UK version of the 44th Now That’s What I Call Music! series was released in 1999 and is the biggest-selling Now album in history with 2.3 million copies sold. Take a look at the track listing and you’ll see why.
  
• The 44th animated film by Walt Disney Feature Animation was Brother Bear, released in 2003.
• A 2006 CNN/Money poll listed Lee’s Summit, Missouri as 44th on the list of 100 Best Cities to Live in the US.
• Canadian Charles Andrew MacGillivary was one of the most well known members of the 44th Infantry during World War II. Upon hearing of the attack on Pearl Harbor, MacGillivary volunteered for the US Army in 1942. In January of 1945, he single-handedly knocked out four German machine gun nests and killed 36 German soldiers. He also would lose his right hand in the process (no pun intended earlier). He would receive the Presidential Medal of Honor for his efforts later that year. The letter from President Truman is below:
  
• The first use of a sky lobby in a building was the 44th floor of the John Hancock Center in Chicago. A sky lobby was also located on the 44th floor of the World Trade Center in New York.

Know other 44ths? Sound off in a comment!