If you're around my age, you learned a lot about sex by listening to Q107 on Sunday nights. That's when the Sunday Night Sex Show aired, featuring Sue Johanson.
Sue Johanson told it like it was, without fanfare. It was an open and frank talk about sex and it was both educational and interesting. I didn't just listen to her radio show on Q, I also caught her Cable 10 show, which we all called Sex With Sue. A little Googling tells me that wasn't the name, but that's definitely what we called it.
Sex With Sue is where we all learned that Sue Johanson looked like this:
And of course, who could forget her appearance on Degrassi Junior High as Dr. Sally? Not I, that's for sure.
Can't. Find. Clip. :-(
At some point, Sue Johanson broke through in the USA, which meant we had to share her. That's when stuff like this started to happen.
Ok, confession time... who out there learned some sex stuff from Sex With Sue?
When I was the age my son is now, I wanted an Omnibot 2000. I don't think I bothered asking for it, I just passive aggressively yearned for it.
Watching the new Muppet movie with the kids the other night, I saw a new character called 80s Robot. 80s Robot looks just like the Omnibot 2000 I desired almost 30 years ago.
As I recall, the Omnibot 2000 didn't just play cassette tapes and talk, it also carried stuff and moved with a remote control. It was awesome!
I subscribe to Retrontario's YouTube Channel's RSS feed, and days when he mass uploads new retro treats for us nostalgists feels an awful lot like Christmas morning. I call it Retrontariomas.
Yesterday was Retrontariomas, and the following gems were shared with us lucky SOBs.
There's this 1984 ad for Hubba Bubba I remember well:
There's this 1982 ad for ColecoVision (I went the Atari 2600 route):
There's this memorable campaign for Cadet's Cleaners that seemed to be everywhere in 1986:
And there's this amazing CityTV Channel 79 ID from the early 1970s that I just saw for the very first time. Wow...
You don't need me to tell you what happened ten years ago today. I wasn't going to write a "where were you ten years ago today" entry, but here it is. I'm sincerely curious what you remember about that day and where you were when you found out.
Below are two entries from the archives that are worth revisiting today. I wrote this one on February 5, 2003.
At 8:59 last night, I did what I do every night at that time when the Leafs aren't playing. I got ready to watch the Simpsons on the Comedy Network. Little did I know what I was in store for on this particular night...
It was The City of New York Vs. Homer Simpson, an episode I have seen twice: when it originally aired in '97 and in syndication in y2k. I won't bore you with the premise, but smack dab in the middle of this episode Homer finds himself in front of the World Trade Center after consuming more than enough crab juice. With nature calling loud and clear, he runs up tower one of the World Trade Center to visit the public bathroom on the observation deck only to find it closed so he has to run quickly to tower two. There are a bunch of jokes tossed back and forth between those in tower one to those in tower two, your typical New York exchanges. The twin towers of the World Trade Center played quite a role in this episode, and I hadn't seen it since 9/11/01.
It takes a shot of the towers in an episode of the Simpsons to finally bang home to me the fact that these towers are no longer there. Sure, for days after 9/11 I read and watched almost everything on the attacks and the towers and again on the first anniversary I revisited the horrific moments when the towers came down but watching Homer interact with these New York landmarks provided me with a moment of clarity.
The twin towers of the World Trade Center are no more and that sucks.
I wrote this one on September 11, 2004, the third anniversary of the attacks.
Ask anyone where they were three years ago today and they'll tell you. 2,749 people were killed in Manhattan, 184 people died in Washington and 40 died in Pennsylvania as a result of the worst act of terrorism ever to take place on North American soil.
I remember that day vividly. I had been working away in front of my PC in the office since 08:30 EST and the day seemed typical. I had a glass of ice water beside me and I had just finished reading and replying to my email. Walter arrived and shared some news he had just heard on his car radio. This is when the day stopped being typical. A plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York City.
At that moment, I had no idea it was a large commercial passenger plane that was flown into the tower intentionally. I immediately assumed it was a Cessna that had perhaps flown off course. Still, I found it intriguing and jumped on the web for further details. Soon thereafter, the reality of the situation became apparent. A second plane struck the second tower and this was no accident. About a half hour later a third plane struck the Pentagon and then a fourth plane went down in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The United States of America, our geographical neighbour, was under attack.
Fear. That was the primary emotion throughout the remainder of that day. We had no idea what was going to happen next and nothing felt as secure as it did when I awoke that morning. Nothing would ever again. I made contact with my wife who was pregnant with James at the time and heard through my mom that she and my brothers were okay and that gave me some personal relief. The large news websites were choking on the traffic that morning but I managed to stream a live news feed from CP24 which I stayed glued to. The occurrences and disposition of the day was surreal. So many dead, such devastation, so inhumane, so pointless.
I remember driving home that evening, looking towards the sky and realizing everything was different. I got home and wondered what world would be awaiting our son when he arrived. I felt such sympathy for those who lost loved ones that day and simultaneously felt relief that I wasn't one of them. I wondered if we would ever be able to laugh again and enjoy our freedoms and liberties once more.
We are now three years removed from that fateful day. We're laughing again, we're enjoying life, this nation is abuzz about a semi-final hockey game tonight at the ACC. I'm planning to enjoy a BBQ with my beautiful family who I adore with all my heart and then I'm going to watch the game and see Kid Rock at the Amp. We, as a society, have not only survived but have returned to enjoying this precious life. You can't kill spirit. You can't destroy hope. We've proved this. I can vouch for it.
"That some good can be derived from every event is a better proposition than that everything happens for the best, which it assuredly does not." - James K. Feibleman
Please leave a comment telling me where you were on 9/11 and what you remember about that infamous day.
Paperboy Published by Toronto Mike on May 26, 2011 @ 22:10 in Memories
In the late 80s, I played Paperboy on my Nintendo Entertainment System.
It first became one of my favourite games in the arcade where me and my buddy Chris would spend countless hours and quarters delivering newspapers along a suburban street.
As I recall, Paperboy was our go-to game until Wonder Boy, and Wonder Boy had us until the local variety store brought in Xenophobe.
Believe it or not, those graphics once blew my mind.
If you're around my age, you learned a lot about sex by listening to Q107 on Sunday nights. That's when the Sunday Night Sex Show aired, featuring Sue Johanson.
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8 comments
When I was the age my son is now, I wanted an Omnibot 2000. I don't think I bothered asking for it, I just passive aggressively yearned for it.
As a kid, I loved Happy Days. And if you love Happy Days, you love Fonzie, or The Fonz as I prefer to call him.
You don't need me to tell you what happened ten years ago today. I wasn't going to write a "where were you ten years ago today" entry, but here it is. I'm sincerely curious what you remember about that day and where you were when you found out.
In the late 80s, I played Paperboy on my Nintendo Entertainment System.