Today without a clue means to have no knowledge of something, but it once had a different meaning. A clue (also spelled clew) was a globular ball formed from coiling worms or the like or, more specifically, a ball of thread. In Greek myth – the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur. Theseus entered the […]
Month: May 2015
Please put a heat-a-lator on the phone line – so funny!
In 1974, as an April Fool joke, a radio announcer told his audience that, since the community had experienced several nights of unusual below-zero temperature, the telephone company, at a specified time, would put “heat-a-lators” on all the lines to thaw them out. The disc jockey told his listeners to put their phone receivers in […]
First breaking news event covered by helicopter was in Baldwin Hills, Ca.
(KTLA, already a pioneer of live on-the-scene television coverage, used a helicopter to cover the disaster. Common today, this was perhaps the first such live aerial coverage of a breaking news event.) The Baldwin Hills Dam disaster occurred on December 14, 1963, when the dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir suffered a catastrophic failure and […]
AUTHOR SUNDAY – Russians in the house -Try to explain that experience to someone
Russians In The House! by Inez McCollum I am a member of a group, Friendship Force International, that hosts young professionals from Russia each Fall. The young adults are sponsored by the Library of Congress and visit our area to study the various city offices, civic organizations and human aid groups. I usually host two […]