Weird Stuff on Cable

Ragman, You don't need an excuse, lame or otherwise, for watching less than stellar programs. At least you don't need one with me. I watch all kinds of crappola.

I watch Pawn Stars too. I wish they'd get rid of Chumlee. He irritates the hell out of me. Nothing like an old gun to get the juices flowing with these folks. The only thing better than finding one is shooting one.

I watch Hard Core Pawn too. The whole family irritates the hell out of me. But the show, I think, is more representative of the pawn business.

I scared off a ghost? Who? Moi? Imagine that.

now see, I occasionally sit down and watch pawn stars with smoky.

I love chumley...

OK..here a burning question: can Chumley be that dumb? Or does he need instruction to remember how to breathe? Or is that an act for the sake of ratings? I saw him express an expert opinion about some video games and sports sneakers. So he does know something.

I loved the other day when they had a foot race in the parking lot with him and Big Hoss.

You scared off the ghost because you're not malleable. If they appeared, you'd tell them to go to hell and give them directions.

I don't dislike Chumlee because he's stupid. You can't help what you're born with. But he doesn't seem to have done much with what he's been given.

I agree that the savant demo of shoes and video games was a bit daunting.

I dislike him because he's arrogant, mean, nasty, irresponsible, lazy, and a LIAR. I don't like lying.

I liked the quarterback demo in the parking lot. Hey, if they were any closer to the hole, they would have been on the other side of the hole. Mens. It's that macho thing, isn't it.

I agree that I'm not malleable. I didn't know that ghosts require malleable. However, I doubt I would tell them to go to hell and give them directions. Not sure about the directions. I'd probably just tell them to go **** themselve--in whatever dimension they happen to be in.

More ghost shows. The tv airways are haunted. Two recently went to the Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, Mass. This has become a bed and breakfast. Both shows reported that the house is haunted and that Lizzie did it.

Three tattoo shows. Ink Master, a tattooing contest. The "human canvases" are nuts. One of the artists misspelled a word on her canvas. She's gone. The canvases vary in their reaction to pain. Some are stalwart. Some moan and wiggle. (Wiggling is not good when you're being tattooed.) One recently threw up.

Tattoo Nightmares relates to people who got lousy tattoos or tattoos that are no longer relevant. I love Helen. Helen is long gone. The tattooists must find a way to tattoo something on top of the offending tattoo so that it's no longer visible.

Tattoo something else is about floundering tattoo parlors. Some tattoo parlor expert comes in and fixes things up (like Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares and Restaurant Impossible).

There are now three shows (that I know of) involving hidden cameras and eating/drinking establishments. The food is good in these places, but the service is from hunger. The hidden cameras reveal just how from hunger it is.

Congratulations. I just realized you have the longest continuously running sig line on the site.

Who? Moi?

Is there a place where such info is revealed?

Rick must have just gotten his information about something hes appraising from Google just before the show started that night. Hes often full of **** on antiques..
His knowledge of art i pretty poor

The old man tries to be clever and hes not

Corrie is kinda dim too, but he had a rough life with Rick

CHUMLEE i a faker and a liar, I noted that. Your "Savant" statement has been mentioned by mrs F also. My son had a friend who was a video game killer. He is still a bum today.

You really need Chumlee to fire the old guns that may explode in your face. Hes (I believe) a distant relative and is expendable

I don't think that Chumlee is a relative. Of course it would explain how he's tolerated. Good point about him being the one to shoot all the old guns. Definitely expendable. Except that they got him a spectacular motorcycle for his birthday.

You and I can only speculate about what is planned and what is real. What's for TV and what actually happened.

I have to assume that people show up at a pawn shop with some spectacular stuff because the producers make it happen. Why would someone with a rare antique take it to a pawn shop instead of a dealer? Maybe they want to be on TV. Quien sabe?

Thats the dirty little secreat that is the basis of these shows. Either the seller is a dope or a criminal, otherwise why is he taking "Fence prices" for rare objects?
Any piece of art can be sold WAAAY above any estimate at the right auction(and the auction house takes only 20 to 30% based on how expensive is the item). You take your Warhol prints to the PAwn Stars and you get half of some estimate price that is probably made up rather than researched based upon recent prices.

Its like a yard sale with the PAwn SHop making out and the seller getting hosed a bit.

Caught in the Act. Hidden cameras are everywhere--in life and on tv.

People set up special cameras to watch for shoplifting. The spies can usually spot potential shoplifters. They don't appear to be shopping. They're mostly looking around to see if someone is watching them. People take all manner of stuff. Some sneakily. Some blatantly.

Then the spies begin the chase once the shoplifter steps foot outside the door. Why they don't have someone stationed at the door is beyond me. I guess we'd be missing the exciting chase.

Spin-offs up the wazoo.

Pawn Stars
Cajun Pawn

Hardcore Pawn
Hardcore Pawn Chicago

Storage Wars
Storage Wars Texas
Storage Wars New York City

Storage Hunters
Baggage Battles

Jon and Kate Plus Eight
The Six McGhees

All those damned Real Housewives

Still more ghost shows.

I'm sure there are more.

I've watched some of these shows all the way through. Others I've seen partly. Others I know about from promos. The one thing that seems consistent is that the producers find the most unpleasant, annoying people to feature in these shows. Not everyone, but enough to make me cringe.

I have to admit that there are some things that annoy the hell out of me that aren't personal characteristics. One of the ghost guys has a hair-do that irritates me no end. I can't watch.

I just saw that the LAncaster Newspapares had "Busted" the guys who are supposed to be these AMish "mafia" dudes. Not only is the whole show bogus, its plot line is phony and the "stars" arent even AMISH, they are a bunch of petty hoods who had minor crims records. The DA of Lancaster came out and gave the Newspapers a "Rap sheet" for each . WHile two guys were raised in PA "Dutch" homes so they picked up the dialect, the entire show and its premise is fake.
What really drives folks nuts is that stupidsky Americanus BELIEVES it. The tourist trade is now dealing in a spin off of people from New York wanting to see these spots where "Lebanon Levi Lives"

Maybe I should go up to New York and try to start a tourist business based on the lives of SPidey and Superman.

I dont know.

Don't know how to tell ya, fm. But Superman and Spiderman ain't here. Come to NY anyway. We can look at rocks in the Museum of Natural History. They've got some doozies.

I mentioned many, many ghost shows. They don't vary much. One thing they all have in common. They're looking for ghosts in supposedly haunted places.

Every time these people hear a sound, they jump and say,"What was that?"

I'm guessing it's the ghost, you joiks.

The new season is upon us for Fatal Attractions--the show where people keep wild animals as pets and are sometimes killed by them.

More venomous snake deaths, including suicide by black mamba. A venomous snake lover decided to end it all with Africa's "black death." A good choice. Many venomous snakes are reluctant to use their venom on stuff they're not planning to eat. Not so the black mamba. They're sufficiently aggressive to take a bite on general principle.

A doctor had a crocodile farm. He got careless. He got et.

I saw the one where this guy kept a hippo and was surprised all the way to the ER that the thing would attack him and slash him nd stomp him. Hippos never got the memo about the benefits of becoming tamed.

Perhaps he'll die(not the hippo, the guy)

Another show that is highly NOT reccomended is called "America Unearthed". Thi guy claims to be a forensic geologist, and he travels about the US Seeking out sites that were visited by Europeans in the years and centuries before Columbus. His field and investigative methods are all specious . For example, he was shown a stone covered "bsement -like" structure with a small carved stone rivulet and recieving pool (about 2ftX 3Ft and 6" deep). The rivulet came from a spring that was intercepted slightly uphill and the spring was channeled through a line of river rocks (acting like a filter) to let the water flow into the structure.
The guy claimed (and was busy trying to prove) that this structure was a"ceremonial bathing pool like those used by the Templars.
IT never occured to him that this whole thing was a spring house from colonial time. He never ever tried to follow up with multiple hypotheses that would get winnowed out by more evidence. NOPE, he was busy trying tofind TEMPLRS in Ohio.

But these shows have really big followings even though they are fundamentally bison- chips

Allso, have you seen this show called "Diggers".These two insane Montana hillwilliams go about the US with metal detectors defacing NAtional PArks. SOmehow they were digging up GETTYSBURG BATTLEFIELD.

WTF, its a FELONY to do that