By request, the seventh episode in the series, “It’s Higgins, Sir” aired August 14, 1951, a summer replacement series for Bob Hope’s Pepsodent program starring Harry McNaughton, Vinton Hayworth, and our good friend Pat Hosley.

Jerry Haendiges, he of The Vintage Radio Place and the original source of this series, has provided us high-quality masters of this entire series from which to create the MP3 files; while we’re distributing 32kbps MP3 files of these programs, you can find excellent-quality audio CDs at his website - go to the order page and use #40958 A for this episode. (Also, high-quality MP3s of this program are also available from Jerry in his MP3 Catalog.)

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (iTunes, Juice, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 It's Higgins, Sir - A Day on the Farm [29:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

At this year’s Defcon convention (a hacker’s-and-crackers convention dealing with computer security), NBC Dateline producer Michelle Madigan attended as a conventioneer (allegedly refusing press credentials), allegedly carrying in her purse a hidden pinhole camera. She was busted, and…er…escorted off the premises:

Now I have to tell you, while you’ll probably never find anyone who is a stronger supporter of the freedom of the press (yes, I’m in the United States), a vital element in keeping the people of this country free and never more vital than today, I am getting a little weary of the tactics some “reporters” are using; many seem to think the First Amendment gives them carte blanch to do whatever they want, regardless of the legality or morality, to get a story — the more sensational, the better. Had this sleezy news magazine (anyone remember adding explosives to gas tanks?) just had its producer acquire press credentials, they might have gotten an excellent story about the good and the bad of computer security…instead, they wanted to ambush some thirteen-year-old bragging to impress the blonde, so they could put together some salacious “story” about the evils of kids learning about computer security with children seen through bug-eyed, night-visioned lenses.

She got what she deserved, in my humble opinion, and Dateline should issue a strong apology not only to the convention, but to the American people for abusing the Constitutional rights they have been guaranteed. I thought this nonsense was going away with the Weekly World News?

By request, the sixth episode in the series, “It’s Higgins, Sir” aired August 7, 1951, a summer replacement series for Bob Hope’s Pepsodent program starring Harry McNaughton, Vinton Hayworth, and our good friend Pat Hosley.

Jerry Haendiges, he of The Vintage Radio Place and the original source of this series, has provided us high-quality masters of this entire series from which to create the MP3 files; while we’re distributing 32kbps MP3 files of these programs, you can find excellent-quality audio CDs at his website - go to the order page and use #40957 B for this episode. (Also, high-quality MP3s of this program are also available from Jerry in his MP3 Catalog.)

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (iTunes, Juice, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 It's Higgins, Sir - Higgins Befriends a Hobo [29:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This morning, I was in a mood, so I washed out a Star Trek bone-china coffee cup and saucer and had my cappuccino in it this morning instead of a “normal” cup. And it got me thinking…

I really gotta either fix that Olympus camera or buy a new one…

Let me back up a little. Years ago, the Pfaltzgraff company (then based in York, PA) manufactured the bone-china dinnerware for the banquet scene in Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country. After a bit of nudging by the employees, they produced a 3,000-set limited-edition placesetting (plate, cup, saucer) primarily for their employees of the same dinnerware. There was something of a riot at the company store, what with everyone under the sun wanting to buy the things…I have mine thanks to the efforts of my mother, and her contacts pretty much everywhere including in the bowels of Pfaltzgraff itself. Heck, I even have a stack of un-numbered Certificates of Authenticity, again thanks to my mother, and no, you can’t have them to bootleg china sets. (I was surprised to see these selling for only ~$100…I would think they would be worth more, considering they were probably $50/set when initially sold. And if you see some clown on the Net saying the red “dots” are proof they are part of the same production run as the movie plates, ignore him since he’s full of crap. The dots are part of the original pattern from which the plates were modified - Patina, maybe?, and none of the sets were made contemporarily with the sets used in the film.)
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