RECENTLY RECEIVED E-MAIL:

From: Nigeria
To: you
Re: opportunity

Hello, my name is Scott Bowman, and I’m a Nigerian Prince. You may be wondering why me, a Nigerian Prince, is sending this e-mail to you, a lowly worm. I have one simple request: please get me the hell out of Nigeria. It’s really terrible here. I’m living in a shack with no running water and a wife who nags me 24/7. And there are a lot of bugs and sand and jungles and stuff. My dad, the king, won’t help me. He says I need to take responsibility for my life, like that will ever happen. So please send me money so I can get the hell out of here right away. Or send a plane ticket, preferably on Southwest because they don’t charge for bags. I have set up an address in your United State of New Jersey so you don’t have to spend extra to send me the money or plane ticket. Send it to:
Scott Bowman
144 Ridge Road
Bayonne, New Jersey 07002.
Thanks. By the way, did I mention I’m a Nigerian Prince? Maybe I’ll give you some jewels or something cool for helping me out. Thank you.

GREAT INVENTORS OF HISTORY!

Time once more for another installment in our continuing series:

GREAT INVENTORS OF HISTORY!

Today: Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell…

Thomas Edison was perhaps the greatest inventor America ever produced. He invented the light bulb, the phonograph and the motion picture camera, and held almost 11 hundred patents for his inventions.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone -- and his company, Bell Labs, came up with the transistor, the laser and the cellphone.Not content with those innovations, Bell Labs eventually expanded their corporate reach:

• To transportation with Bell Helicopters…
• To food with Taco Bell…
• And to music, with this 1968 hit by “house band” Archie Bell and the Drells:

archie bell

Not to be outdone, Edison and his group Edison Lighthouse came out with this number one hit from 1970:

edison lighthouse

Not to be out- outdone, Bell Labs came up with this smash for Anita Ward in 1979:

anita ward

Join us again for another installment of:

GREAT INVENTORS OF HISTORY!

click here to listen

The Musical Innertube

Over at

http://musicalinnertube.blogspot.com/

I have a podcast called, suprisingly enough, The Musical Innertube. When I was a radio disc jockey in the 70s and 80s, it was an honest-to-God "entertainment" job. You were expected to be an entertainer between records. Jokes, trivia, contests and banter with phone callers were part of the show. Some DJs subscribed to joke services, weekly one-page sheets of quips and one-liners snail-mailed by entreprenuerial jocks who re-packaged their punch lines for profit. Others, like me, produced pre-recorded sketches using voices and sound effects. The Musical Innertube is, then, one of my old radio shows with all the skits and none of the music (because the rights would cost too much).

Why "Musical Innertube"? One day, early on, I opened the microphone and TRIED to say, "And now, a musical interlude." Guess what came out? The name stuck.

By the way, just so we're clear: The Musical Innertube is not intended to replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. The Musical Innertube may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems such as cataracts or glaucoma. You should have regular eye exams. Thrush in the mouth and throat may occur. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before listening. Do not listen to the Musical Innertube while using long-acting beta2-agonists for any reason.

(Subscribe to the Musical Innertube at: www.musicaalinnertube.libsyn.com/rss)