I listen to the syndicated show "When Radio Was" that plays old radio shows every Sunday night on my local station. By coincidence, just a couple weeks ago they played a show (can't remember the name of it) that did recreations of historical events and the one they did was all about this race. Hard to imagine what they went through - - they all must have been much tougher (and crazier) than I am. At the same time though, I get the feeling that niether the contestants or the organizers really understood the conditions that they would face - - hard to believe that they thought they could just drive across the ice from Alaska to Siberia!

Also, if he was in the process of trying to get in the car when he got stabbed, how is the wound on his RIGHT thigh? It would have been fairly protected (up against the car) and the robber would have had to reach clear across his body to get at his right thigh, but his left thigh would have been exposed (unless this happened in England of course...)

This race came into the public conciousness due to an article in Sports Illustrated (I think in the 70's). The author, whose name I cannot remember had heard about this group of (crazy) people who were doing this as kind of an informal annual event, decided to enter and actually recruited a fairly famous race car driver to be his co-driver (I think it was Dan Gurney). They drove a barely street-legal racing car and it was a very entertaining story - - the movie was made based on the popularity of this article.

I believe that "false confinement" would refer to pretending to be pregnant or believing you are pregnant when you actually are not. Confinement is a (somewhat archaic) tem for pregnancy or the process of giving birth.

My favorites - -
Ugly old lady: I'll have you know I've got the body of a 20 year-old woman!
Benny: Well, you better give it back - - you're getting it all wrinkled!
Lady: Why, I've never been so insulted in my whole life!
Benny: You must not get out much!
Lady: Why, I never...!
Benny: That doesn't surprise me.

Benny (as a hillbilly sitting on cabin porch): Yeah, my uncle was born without a spine.
Visitor: Oh, the poor man - - where is he?
Benny (pointing): We keep him in that bucket over there.

I have a red pencil box.

The "bourbon/lead" shots line is a stone cold ripoff of a line from Calvin & Hobbes from one of Calvin's "Tracer Bullet" private eye fantasy strips....

That's not a moon!!! (well, somebody had to say it....)

I also guessed Sam - I figured that since Dora had been out of the room, she had no way of knowing it had been put back into one of the boxes, and so the reason the thief went through all of the boxes was that he was colorblind (an overwhelmingly male affliction), and since a colorblind person would hardly make a good jewler, that would rule out Buddy. (I know, I overthink stuff...)

I would love to have been one of these bridesmaids. Whas I would have done is continually gush about how much I am looking forward to being there for her "special day" and about how honored I am to be chosen, and all the while I would systematically avoid any meetings, goal, check-ins, weigh-ins (weigh-ins?? are you kidding me???) and make up increasingly ridiculous excuses (I couldn't make it because my dog had clinical depression and I didn't want to leave him alone, etc.) while at the same time sending the other bridesmaids pictures of me eating cheesecake and gorging at Taco Bell and denying I sent them and insisting they must be photoshopped. When the jig was finally up and the clueless idiot bride finally caught on, I would send a flaming e-mail to EVERYONE involved explaining how I had assumed the whole thing was a joke because NOBODY could possibly be that self-centered and disrespectful of others. I can guarantee you she would never speak to me again...

Ten years or so ago, I spent nights working by myself in a little room running printers and things for the company I still work for. I had limited radio reception and ended up getting hooked on old radio shows as one of the few stations I could get carried the syndicated "When Radio Was" show that replayed a lot of great stuff from the 40's & 50's. A lot of the comedy was just brilliantly written and hearing some of the old commercials that are included is kind of fascinating. I still listen every weekend.

When my best friend and I went to see it when it first came out, we DID consider it "the laugh riot of '75" - - we were 14 year olds expecting a chilling horror movie and instead spent much of the movie laughing out loud at the ridiculous looking rubber shark (and we were not the only ones in the theater doing so). As an adult now, I have seen it many times and consider it an excellent movie with a wonderful story and amazing acting, but at 14 that really wasn't what we went to movies for....

I recognize that thing - - it is an early mock-up of one of the chess pieces in the thrilling chess game scene in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's, for those of you in the U.K.) stone. Due to the low budget, instead of the normal story board process, the special effect group just made little metal figurines and worked out the scene on their kitchen stove.
Schrodingers Cat Dead or Alive, Black, size XL

When I was a kid, my dad worked for Boeing Aerospace and was always bringing home cool stuff that was just being tossed out. One of my prized posessions was an original photograph print from NASA of the first picture of the Earth taken from deep space (by the Lunar Orbiter 1). Sadly, this, along with lots of other amazing or one-of-a-kind promotional posters and original "artists conception" paintings related to Boeing contracts of that era were lost in a house fire. I have always wondered what, if anything, that picture and some of the other stuff I had on my bedroom walls would be worth today... The photo I am talking about can be seen here - - I am kind of surprised it is not included in this article. http://www.livescience.com/15706-earth-photo-snapped-45-years.html