Mr. T and Trees

As much as I did a deep-dive on Mr. T a while back (or several deep-dives) I believe I missed that he was in the National Guard for a short stint and the legendary story, now posted on military.com, from his time there:

At some point during his military career, a platoon sergeant started "throwing his weight around." He ordered Pvt. Mr. T to chop down trees on the base but failed to mention how many. Mr. T axed 70 trees in 3.5 hours before the company commander ordered him to stop.

A tall tale? The new Chuck Norris? A modern day Paul Bunyan? I sure don't know. But, reddit has already made the connection to other obscure Mr. T Tree lore (from Curbed Chicago):

 Now, in honor of Curbed Outdoors Week, let's take a look back at one of the Chicago area's most infamous landscaping debacles: Mr. T's 1987 inexplicable destruction of more than 100 trees (actual tree counts vary) on the old Armour estate in Lake Forest... 

...The home in question was built in 1910 for a banker named Orville Elias Babcock, and it was later occupied by meatpacking magnet[sic] Laurance Armour... In 1986, Mr. T (a Chicago native, by the way) bought the sprawling English Tudor estate for $1.7 million... Then, a year later, he went all Paul Bunyan on the hundreds of trees that filled his property. He even wiped out four 12-foot topiary trees that had been sculpted to represent birds in nests....

The papers called it the 'Lake Forest Chainsaw Massacre.' Arborists were stunned. And for his part, Mr. T never bothered to fully explain why he fired up a chainsaw and, alongside hired workmen, got busy clearcutting the oaks, elms and maples that populated his seven-acre estate...

So, I don't know, it seems that Mr. T hates trees. If we're looking to see if this can be added to the Mr. T Cinematic Universe, it maps to the S03E05 "A-Team" episode "Timber!" where the A-Team helps out a lumber company, but I don't know of any other connections.

Radiohead - Lift (Live at Pinkpop)

This performance, officially released today by the Pinkpop channel, is from 1996. From this time, it would be another 21 years before this song would be officially released. But the official release would be a disappointment, in my opinion, because the studio version can't compare to this one perfect live version from 1996. 

Of course, I wasn't a fan of any of the long-awaited releases ("I Promise", "Man of War") so maybe it's just me.

NOPE

 

NOPE.

The Mitch Hedberg Project

 

In 2001, Mitch Hedberg filmed a pilot for MTV which would document the comedy tour of himself and his friends.

The show was not picked up and never aired. The footage has recently re-surfaced and is presented above.

It's quite rare to hear a new Mitch Hedberg joke, these days.

Late Show - The Best of Norm Macdonald

A two part compilation of Norm Macdonald's best appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Vanilla Coke Discontinued?

 A few weeks ago, I got the inexplicable urge to buy a Vanilla Coke.

I first visited a pharmacy, but it wasn't there. No surprise, this particular location is slowly going out of business. Then I went to another pharmacy, then another, then a Wawa. On this fourth location, I found one. 

Since then I've been curious. I looked for it at a Wegman's then a Weiss, then a 7-11. None available. Not a big deal, I just went back to the Wawa... not there this time.

Though I see no official word anywhere online, I theorize that Vanilla Coke is being discontinued. Everywhere where I might have found it, I see Coke Zero or the NEW Orange Coke, which is pretty good. It's possible that Coke is slowly and quietly phasing it out so as not to create a panic - a run on the bank if you will. 

Or not. But if you're a fan of Vanilla Coke, maybe keep an eye out and stock up. My impression is nobody really likes it much. It came out when I was in college so I suppose maybe I only like it due to some nostalgia.