Sunday, May 14, 2006

Old Favorite meets New Favorite

Old Favorite:

Since we were young my mom tried to introduce us to television and movies that we didn't normally watch on a daily basis. That would include musicals. My brothers and I would moan and grown but if we actually sat down and watched them we usually enjoyed it.

Along with musicals she introduced us to British comedy that would be on the local PBS station, usually during telethons. The two that we liked the most were Red Dwarf and Mr. Bean. Red Dwarf was funny and I liked watching it but it clicked more with my younger brother. Mr. Bean clicked with me. I loved it!

I didn't go around telling everyone I knew that I was into Mr. Bean. People I went to high school with either hadn't ever heard of him and I would have to explain it to them. Or had stumbled upon it while flipping through channels and thought it was stupid and therefore I must be a weirdo for liking it.

Two of my best friends when I was in high school happened to be Mr. Bean fans too. What's so funny is that Michael and Kevin had both "stumbled" upon it and got hooked just as I did. It wasn't like one of us had introduced the other two to the show. We all had been secret fans of the show. One night when in conversation, I believe Kevin mentioned to Michael that there was going to be a Mr. Bean marathon. I freaked out right there on the spot! I started screaming at them (not really screaming but you know what I mean) "YOU LIKE MR. BEAN TOO!" If we hadn't have been such good friends already this would have cemented us to each other immediately.

From that point on any time there was a Mr. Bean episode on one of us would call the other two to make sure they knew it was on. The phone call went something like this: "Hey! Mr. Bean's on right now! I'll call you when it's over! Okay. Bye!" Then we would call each other afterwards to talk about the episode. The three of us would refer to different episodes when we were together, and Kevin was the best and copying Mr. Bean's actions and sounds. The others around us wouldn't have a clue as to what we were talking about but we were okay with that. The three of us knew and that was all that mattered.


*****

New Favorite:

On Sunday afternoons my favorite channels are TLC, Discovery Channel, and A&E. I love to watch the homemaker over shows, and the "Sell This House!" shows. I try to flip around but I find myself getting stuf on Discovery Channel quite a bit. That's because I LOVE Mythbusters!

I think it awakens that little bit of scientist in me. That "figure out what it does or how it works". When I was in Junior High there was program called O.M. or "Odyssey of the Mind". It seemed like an elite club of the smartest kids in our class. But on Wednesdays the adult leaders of the group would come to my advanced math class (most of the O.M. kids were in that class) so the rest of us could be a part of it as well. We were given an assignment and a list of items. And we had to figure out how to complete the assignment using only the items provided. It had a MacGyver feel to it. I loved it and always wished that I could have been in that group.

Mythbusters reminds me of O.M. They have a Myth, with a little background info and they use what they have available and what info they get and try to prove it or debunk it. Being the wife of an explosives technologist it also gives me an insight to the possibilities of what my husband does at work. (It's all top secret goverment stuff so he can't really TELL me.)

*****

How The Two Collide:

This afternoon I discovered that Discovery Channel was having a Mythbusters marathon. WOOT! On the episode I was tuned in to they were watching an episode of Mr. Bean where he is too lazy to paint his apartment using a paintbrush. Instead Mr. Bean puts a stick of dynamite in a bucket of paint, lights the fuse and then walks out of the room. At the same time his nosey neighbor walked in just as it exploded. It left a silloette of the neighbor on the wall but the rest of the room was thoroughly and evenly coated in paint.

Just seeing that little snippit of the episode had me laughing in remembrance of how silly Michael, Kevin and I were. The Mythbusters task was to try to prove whether puting dynamite in a bucket of paint would evenly paint a room. They did numerous tests, using a lifesize room with a dummy as the nosey neighbor and also scaled down tests. In the end the myth was busted but it was fun to watch. Before they did the test I asked my husband if he thought it would work, being the explosives expert that he is. He immediately said it wouldn't work but that didn't make me not want to watch any less.

Even though the myth was busted I really have the urge to call up the guys and say "You'll never guess what I just watched!"
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 5/14/2006 04:15:00 PM :: 14 Comments:

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