Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

What are you in for? Manslaughter You should've used our friend, Mr. Apostrophe. He can turn manslaughter into "man's laughter." and they can't lock you up for that, can they? ---------------------- Did anyone ever do this joke prior to Mrs Falbo? It sounded like a "meta" joke, when she did it, but that sort of implies somebody had done it without the meta at some earlier time. Just curious. By the way, I of course realize that the Mrs Falbo character is not among those in the SCTV collage I've reproduced here. Still: the train of association runs on its neurological tracks....

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is the astronomer who is now explaining the "Cosmos" to the lay audience in the revived television series of that name. Ah, the fond memories that name brings back. Of the original Carl Sagan series, I mean of course, which in 1980 became the most widely watched television series in the history of US public television. Sagan's Cosmos also coincided with something called Battle of the Network Stars, the sort of thing that today would be called "reality programming." It was a series of sporting or pseudo-sporting events involving established personalities. In the 1980 season, the ABC team included Scott Baio, CBS's team included Gregory Harrison, and NBC's, Pamela Helmsley. If those don't sound like top tier stars to you: the feeling is natural. These were TV personalities who could use the additional exposure that the silly games would get them. All of this is simply an excuse to go a little further down memory lane and reca...