The Mystery of the 52nd Minute

meme

Flash, Flash...Tick, Tock ...

The time really matters in TV shows, measured carefully by computers to cascade to an acceptable ending. What many do not know is that the most important 52nd minute.

A-Team (originally in the 80s, George Peppard and Liam Neeson somewhere in the early 2000s) was fun and thus predictable. So the show goes and, being young parents with ages 3-9, this was entertaining. It sometimes felt like we were the A-Team. Who was Hannibal was unclear.

YouTube, 8 min. long, not worth more 2 min. or so

The real question here is Why is the 52nd minute important?

Traveling through all the action and all seems lost, the 52nd minute arrives and Hannibal of the A-Team comes up with an ingenuous plan to solve the whole problem. One episode manages escape by padding the car with telephone books, allowing it to be shot to pieces. All are saved.

 Then Hannibal smirks, lights a cigar, and states the above. This happens in every single stinkin' episode.

I have three nephews who are now in upper 30s and who are very analytical watched this and other shows waiting for the precious 52nd minute. During a visit we had one time, they showed me how it worked.

And, by golly, they were right. There is no way to explain and display this, but check it out yourselves. Go to several shows, watch what happens (commercials?) at The Mystery of the 52nd Minute. Use a stop-watch if you desire.

If nothing else, this will give all something to do as we consign ourselves to homes, hoping to escape the turmoil of current times.

Thursday Trauma: Light one up...

Tobacco is a strain from the nightshade genus, a deadly plant

Our huge tobacco industry began with the Native Americans introducing the plant in the 1500s to be used in religious 
ceremonies and medicine.  

Soon plantation owners from England, most of them in terrible fiscal shape, scurried off to escape their spendthrift reputation.  They changed from reckless money spenders to being prominent wealthy businessmen, growing fields of tobacco.

Sir Walter Raleigh introduced the first Virginia Tobacco into England.  This painting shows him and his pipe. It was thought then that tobacco was medicinally sound.

One of the first successful planters was John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas, who made his fortune in exporting tobacco to England—40,000 pounds (18,000 kg). 

Virginia colony and The Carolinas saw tobacco as a "cash crop" which led to importing of the first black slaves in 1619 to work the fields.

The earliest image of a man smoking a pipe, from Tabaco by Anthony Chute.

It is almost impossible to calculate the boom in tobacco production from this increased man power.  Or to calculate the effects that tobacco has unleashed. It has been identified as powerfully addicting and a tragic carcinogenic.  

Over one billion (1,000,000,000) deaths have been attributed to tobacco use.

So, the next time one sees someone light up an expensive cigar and hop into an expensive Mercedes, one should think “There goes another one…” Tobacco harnessed another victim. 

This information was gathered from Wikipedia--worthwhile read.

The underlined italicized words are provided by Delores, a delightful blogger.