It would seem good to post a Conan clip in honor of Larry King, seeing as how King made a huge number of appearances on Conan's various shows. But the problem is, I can't think of a good one. I mean, there are a number of good clips, but I know of no definitive highlight. So here's one:
But since this clip has been recommended to me by Youtube relentlessly for weeks, it seems kismet that I should share this also.
Over 15 episodes and 2 years, this youtube series has attempted to discover and re-create Colonel Sanders' original recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken. I see no record of it on the blog but I've been following this series for years. And now it's the final episode where they've reached a conclusion. Whether it's a satisfying conclusion is another question.
I have mixed feelings. I appreciate that we have a definitive, somewhat authoritative answer. That's the best we could hope for. But the secondary objective of trying to reverse-engineer the recipe is to be able to try it myself. But with the non-reveal of the exact amounts of ingredients, that becomes impossible. I don't think I can get a large sack of powder shipped from Ireland. Marion Kay Chicken Seasoning 99X is available though. I just need that industrial fryer.
Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? I'm here to say I think we've been lied to.
When I was a kid, I remember getting Cinnamon Dentyne or Big Red gum and it burning my mouth with hot fire. It was a quite a dilemma because what can you do? On the one hand, I want the pain to stop, on the other, I don't know where my next piece of gum is going to come from. But when you eat the spice cinnamon it doesn't do anything close to that level of setting your mouth on fire.
Cinnamon is tree bark from a certain variety of tree and it does contain a certain amount of a hot compound similar to capsaicin called cinnamaldehyde. When it's ground up and sitting in a jar, it loses a fair amount of kick which explains half of the discrepancy.
Well, then I guess making cinnamon candy hot is technically fair game. Nonetheless, the hot candies seem to be creating different amounts of concentrated oil in order to magnify the sting. Big Red stole my childhood.
Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.
In High School, one of my "Multimedia" projects was to make a roulette game in Macromedia Director. We had to pick a casino game and I picked roulette. The rules of roulette are so simple that I really was taking the lazy way out, programming-wise. But man, figuring out how to programatically spin the wheel to a random spot and animating it was very tricky. I don't remember why.
In 5th grade, for some reason, we did an entire history module on the Johnstown Flood. I remember it being harrowing, dark and depressing. And it was morbid. And depressing. I mention "depressing" twice because depression was a new phenomenon in 5th grade so it has particular noteworthiness. I have no idea why we did it except to say that in the 5th grade, any topic is as valid as any other so why not?
It should therefore come as no surprise that I officially have no particular interest in the Johnstown Flood. But being a huge fan of author David McCullough, I read his book "The Johnstown Flood" and it IS great. That McCullough can sure spin a yarn and particularly the way he synthesizes huge amounts of research into a digestible story is so impressive.
If you're curious about the subject or are looking for a good book, I recommend it.
