MythBusters Exhibit In Chicago!

Can you huff, puff and blow a house in? Does toast always tend to land butter-side down? Does running in the rain get you less wet than walking through it? Can you really make a canoe out of duct tape?
Spend a day as a MythBuster at MythBusters: The Explosive Exhibition to uncover the truth behind the myths for yourself. And while you’re at it, watch live demonstrations by our MythBusting facilitators and peruse props and gadgets from the show.
That sounds like fun. And there’s more.
“There are phone booths where visitors can time how long it takes them to change into superhero costumes,” Steve Johnson writes in the Tribune. “Another timer and a couple of ‘building ledges,’ one wide, one skinny, demonstrate just how extraordinary the characters in movies and video games are when they suspend their bodies for many seconds by few digits.”

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Posted on April 23, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

Inbox:
I wanted to quickly reach out on behalf of Animal Planet’s series Tanked to let you know this coming week (April 21st at 9pm e/p) a local tank will be featured in an episode based right out of Lemont!
Go on.
I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Tanked or if you caught any of last season but season two dunks viewers into the rowdy, family-owned business of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing (ATM), one of the country’s leading and most successful builders of aquariums.
Okay . . .
ATM is led by brothers-in-law, business partners, best friends and rivals, Wayde King and Brett Raymer, and is housed in a state-of-the-art, cavernous facility located in the center of Sin City. ATM literally has created thousands of enormous, jaw-dropping aquarium builds and conceptual tanks for ordinary joes and high-profile clients alike. This season, the guys must wade into the deep end to come up with creative solutions for some of the most outrageous and challenging builds they’ve ever tackled from a mobile school bus tank to a functional pinball machine tank and everything in between.
I’ll bite – no pun intended. Especially given that the pinball machine tank is in the Lemont episode. Let’s take a look.

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Posted on April 17, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“CBS News’ Mike Wallace, who died over the weekend at 93, is being hailed as an icon of broadcast journalism for his foundational role as 60 Minutes’ investigative bulldog,” former Tribune staffer John Cook writes for Gawker. “This is bullshit. He was a failed soap actor and vaudeville hack named Myron who just wanted to be on television.”
For evidence, Cook cites in part Wallace’s time in Chicago as a radio announcer. Indeed, Wallace got his start here – in a variety of roles including actor and shill but not journalist.
Let’s take a look.

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Posted on April 10, 2012

The Masterful Lectures Of 1952

“Professor Irving J. Lee (1909-1955) taught speech and general semantics at Northwestern University,” ThisIsNotThat notes. “In 1952, he presented six 30-minute televised presentations in Chicago that were later distributed as Talking Sense.”
Here is one example that was uploaded to YouTube today. Click through to ThisIsNotThat for more, including “What Is A Fact?” and “The Difficulty of Moderation.” Extended videos can be seen on YouTube here.

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Posted on April 6, 2012

By The Beachwood Bring Back The Real Bleachers Affairs Desk

Cubs promos through the years.
1. 1987.

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Posted on April 5, 2012