Wednesday Night TV: "Watch Mr. Wizard" (1954)

I remember watching these when I was a wee little lad. I suppose some of these shows are the reason that I took such an interest in science. This led to experimenting with my brother's chemistry set. Wow, all of those wonderful chemicals. They were begging to be mixed together. So.......I mixed them together and came up with the best looking purple a kid had ever seen. Better yet, using the scientific method (translate this as "best guess") I concluded that it was also the best spider killer ever devised by man; or so I thought. I know this because I threw the mixture on a spider that was crawling on the brand new white aluminum siding of our house at the time. It didn't kill the spider, but gee.....that sure was a pretty purple! Unfortunately, my father did not share my enthusiasm for my new discovery or..........the color.

Fortunately for me, the siding people were just finishing up with their installation and were able to take the newly "decorated" section out and cut-in new pieces. Yay for me! It just goes to show you that 7 - 8 year old boys don't think much past the present. You could say that they live for the moment. You know, that sounds like guys of all ages.

Anyway, so much for my reminiscing and philosophizing. Let's watch the video. It's a classic.



© 2011 Barry T Horst

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Tuesday On Olde-Tyme Radio

In this weekly installment I will attempt to share some aspect of Old Time Radio; entertainment, serials, news, etc. As much as possible, the selection chosen will have some historical significance or will be as close to this date in history as is possible. Please bear with me as I attempt work this out.

The following clips are of the Invasion of Normandy as broadcast June 7, 1944 by George Hicks, Chief War Correspondent, Blue Network. The broadcast is in 3 separate clips. The clips are from the original transcription discs.


Clip 1 - Invasion of Normandy as broadcast June 7, 1944 by George Hicks, Chief War Correspondent, Blue Network.

Clip 2 - Invasion of Normandy as broadcast June 7, 1944 by George Hicks, Chief War Correspondent, Blue Network.

Clip 3 - Invasion of Normandy as broadcast June 7, 1944 by George Hicks, Chief War Correspondent, Blue Network.

All clips - Creative Commons license: Public Domain


© 2011 Barry T Horst

This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Monday Money: Notgeld #23

Back to the Notgeld.

This week I bring 4 specimens of Notgeld from Rothenburg. Rothenburg is the home the Schäfertanz Museum (Shepherd's Dance Museum). You will notice that the obverse of each specimen depicts a shepherd tending his flock with Rothenburg in the background. Also, take note that the obverse of each specimen has the signature of Herr Bürgermeister Lindermann.

All 4 pieces are of the 75 Pfennig denomination.

The reverse of the above specimen depicts a shepherd and shepherdess.


The above specimen depicts the Head Shepherd in his ceremonial garb on the reverse.


Both specimens, above and below, depict scenes from the Shepherd's Dance (Schäfertanz).



You may remember seeing Rothenburg in the cinema recently. It was used in portions of the film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Rothenburg was also the inspiration for the village in the 1940 Walt Disney movie Pinocchio.

© 2011 Barry T Horst

This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Sunday Movie Time: Detour (1945)

I found this movie over at the Internet Archive. This is what they have to say about today's movie: In a classic poverty-row noir, the protagonist struggles helplessly in the grip of inexorable fate. Currently rated 7.4 at the IMDB.

This was the first poverty-row film chosen by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry, in 1992. Don't miss it.

The copy you find here is sharper than the two that have already been uploaded. And the mpeg2 file contains nav packets, so you can load it into DVDAuthorGUI (a free program) and quickly create a DVD to watch on your television.



This movie may take a while to load depending upon your internet connection. Please be patient. I think you will be rewarded with a good movie. The movie was released in 1945 and is 1 hour 8 minutes in length.

© 2011 Barry T Horst

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Welcome Back To Me

Well, here I am after a 2 year absence. I can't really say why I was gone other than it seemed appropriate to take a break from everything. One thing lead to another and.....well,I'll try.

Originally I decided to take a short break for the beginning of the summer, after all I had just finished up another school year. Then things went south from there. There were many things that demanded my attention so I gave them my attention. By the end of the summer I had to prepare for a new school year. Had to leave the blog on the back burner. The school year began and well.....things seemed to go further south. Suffice it to say that it was not a stellar year, but I survived.

Along came last summer and I still had not returned to blog. I suppose other things demanded my time, or at least worked their way into it. Then, in the middle of a carefree summer; horrors, my computer bit the dust. Took awhile to get a replacement and the laptop was just to finicky to deal with. Summer turned into fall and a new computer. I was well into a new school year and things began to get much better at school, but by that time I had discovered Facebook. Yes, Facebook demanded a lot of my time. It seems that the games were a lot more fun. So I spent another year without the blog, but with a lot of Facebook.

The school year ended on a sad note (the death of a co-workers son and the still undecided fate of education funding in the State of Texas). By now I had decided that, for whatever reasons, it would be a good time to return to the blog.

So, here I am. I will try to continue my installments on my Notgeld collection. I will also be sharing assorted videos that I like and the occasional drivel that come up with or happen to find laying about.

© 2011 Barry T Horst

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Picture Monday, May 25, 2009: Notgeld #22

This week I take you to Tiefurt, Thuringia, Germany for an issue of Emergency Notgeld. This week I have 4 specimens; 1 - 25 Pfennig, 2 - 50 Pfennig, and 1 - 75 Pfennig examples. Each note has the profile of Duchess Anna Amalia on the obverse of each note. The reverse of each note has a famous landmark in the area. I hope you enjoy them.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


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