Category: 1990’s

Fabio Gets Goosed At Busch Gardens (Video)

March 30, 1999
Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Virginia introduces to the public their new rollercoaster they named Apollo’s Chariot. What better way to promote it than to hire Fabio who has graced numerous romance novels and has been compared to Apollo. The press was invited, and the cameras rolled as Fabio donned in a red velvet cape was led to the rollercoaster with women dressed as goddesses, two on each side of him to the front car for the inaugural ride.

As the rollercoaster zoomed at 70mph down the first drop of the ride, a goose nesting nearby flew into the speeding ride hitting the front of the car and bouncing off and hitting Fabio in the face. In full view of the media, the cameras show the ride coming to an end with Fabio’s face all bloodied. No bones were broken but there was swelling. The goose however died from the impact. The press was then ushered from the event.

Busch Gardens released a statement saying: “Safety is our number one priority, and our ride engineers are examining ways to enhance the safety of an already safe ride.” Fabio went on Good Morning America and stated “”It was not a freak accident, and it’s going to happen again,” Fabio said.  “A person — or even a child — can be killed.” It’s been over 20 years since the incident and not one person was ever struck by a bird. If you go on YouTube you sill see a couple of incidents but it is very rare. I’d love to know the odds of this happening.

Umpire John McSherry Dies During Game

On April 1, 1996, the Cincinnati Reds opened the Major League Baseball season by hosting the Montreal Expos. Seven pitches into the game, 51-year-old umpire John McSherry staggered away from home plate on unsteady legs and collapsed face-first to the ground. He likely died immediately of a massive heart attack, but he was officially pronounced dead an hour later. Another umpire, Tom Hallion, accompanied McSherry to a Cincinnati hospital. The remaining two umpires, after consulting with the Reds and Expos, decided to postpone the game. The decision did not sit well with outspoken Reds’ owner Marge Schott who was unhappy about having to issue rainchecks to the 50,000 spectators. (She later sent flowers to McSherry’s funeral, but reports claimed they were second-hand flowers she herself had received on Opening Day from a local TV station.) McSherry, who tipped the scales at over 300 pounds, was a stereotypical out-of-shape MLB umpire. Beginning in 1997, MLB insisted on tough new physical fitness standards for its arbiters.

Milk And Cereal

This is sort of a history of cereals we enjoyed as kids. Cereal actually started as a granola style concoction in the 1800’s that needed to be soaked in liquid to soften it up. Water made it soggy but the milk did the trick!

So which was your favorite as a kid? How about now as an adult? My all-time favorite is probably Lucky Charms. I also like Count Chocula from time to time. Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, Wheaties have stood the test of time unlike fad cereals like Mr. T and CP3Os . But what about Crispy Critters? Wow, think about that!

https://www.theretrosite.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Milkand-Cereal-1.mp4

Chevy Chase Talk Show

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In September 1993 still fresh off Johnny Carson’s retirement Fox Network wanted to get in the late-night talk show circuit. Dolly Parton was considered but her agent said no but recommended Chevy Chase who signs a $3 million contract. Chevy also secured the ownership right like Carson.

Fox was so confident in the show’s success they even went so far as to spend $1 million in renovating the old Aquarius Theater on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, then renaming it the Chevy Chase Theater.

Chase found it difficult to connect with his guests but was comfortable with his skits. The biggest issue was that he had trouble connecting with the audience which was apparent with many of the skits falling flat with them.

After five weeks or 29 shows, Fox pulled the plug. They promised sponsors 5-6 million viewers nightly but the average was fewer than 3 million. In the last week, it dropped below 2 million viewers.

Within 2 days of the show’s cancellation workers dismantled and painted over the Chevy Chase Theater sign. It is currently known as the Nickelodeon on Sunset and at the time of the writing, Google says it is permanently closed.

In an interview with A&E Biography interview “an entirely different concept than what was pushed on me. I would never do it again. What I wanted to have a whole different feel to it, much darker and more improv. But we never got there.”

Deep Blue v Kasparov

May 11, 1997 saw one of the most important milestones in human history occur. Strangely, it was attained at the expense of humans. On that date in New York City, Garry Kasparov, the reigning world chess champion and one of the greatest players of all time, lost the deciding game of a six-game series to an IBM computer nicknamed Deep Blue. Kasparov resigned after only 19 moves, giving Deep Blue the match with a record of two wins, one loss, and three draws. The previous year, Kasparov had beaten an inferior version of Deep Blue four games to two in a series played in Philadelphia. To those in the computer industry, the triumph of Deep Blue was a cause for celebration. To many chess followers and ordinary folks, however, the result was ominous: Artificial intelligence had surpassed one of the great minds in human history. Here is a six-minute video about the 1997 event.

After losing, Kasparov said that he sometimes saw deep intelligence and creativity in the machine’s moves, implying that during the second game, human chess players did some of the moves of the machine, which would be a violation of the rules. IBM denied cheating, saying the only human intervention occurred between games. The rules allowed the developers to modify the program between games, an opportunity they said they used to shore up weaknesses in the strategy of the computer which was revealed during the match. Kasparov requested printouts of the machine’s log files, however IBM refused. Later, IBM published the logs on the Internet.

Lorraine Warren Interview Part 1

Both videos were recorded on October 29, 2009 at their home in Monroe – Stepney home. I don’t know why she had a WV pillow behind her.

Since 1952 the Warrens have been the directors of the New England Society for Psychic Research and they have investigated over 4,000 hauntings. Here is a detailed early history of how they met. Here is Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DJeUcyS82g

Lorrain Interview Part 2

Ed and Lorraine Warren ghost hunters always called Connecticut home. I had the privileged of interviewing Lorraine on October 29, 2009 and posted it right away. I forgot about Part 2 but many have asked for it so here it is. Part 1 can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow2RgO30lPk

When we left off at the early years interview Ed was in the north Atlantic when the US Navy ship he was onboard collided with another ship and Ed’s strong ability to swim helped save a shipmate who did not know how to swim. Lorraine’s had appendix ruptured and doctors were afraid to operate. In Part 2 we pick up with Ed and Lorraine’s marriage and how they became know as “Artists on the Hill” in Stepney Village in Monroe, Connecticut way before their ghost-busting days.

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