Joe Denham

Responsible for a lot of laughter in my household over many years. I hope she’s having a great birthday and I wish her many more.

Not the best version of the Arthurian legend (that would be Boorman’s Excalibur), but it’s entertaining and very imaginative with some original, if not a bit dated, visual effects. For me, Miranda Richardson is the best thing about this.

R.I.P.

I know Bob Barker is beloved and rightfully so, but nobody has ever rocked the skinny microphone like Gene Rayburn.

Sooo. My minuscule account blew up with a random Cheers guy post last night. It’s been fun reading responses and seeing all the reactions. Thanks everyone for stopping by my little corner of X.

@DenhamsGhost His name is Yelnick McWawa.

I think about the Cheers guy now and then. Who is he? Why so smug? What was his life like? I know he could have never imagined his mug would eventually be seen by millions repeatedly on a contraption that beamed images and sounds through the air into people’s homes.

@ImBuswell He’s got his work cut out for him, ladies in those days dressed in layers. At the very least he’s gonna need both hands. On the plus side she looks like she wouldn’t care.

@DenhamsGhost I think about the guy under the table trying to get a peek

@LeeCodding You may be right. He does seem like he is aware he’s posing. Like he’s trying to impress (or amuse) a lady friend behind the camera man. Best info on the photo seems to be Leavenworth KS in the 1880s or Boston (related to a long-ago Red Sox victory) maybe turn of the century.

@DenhamsGhost I always thought he was feigning the smugness. Like the jokes on us. Do you even know where the pictures from? Pretty cool

@KoolHandKeith Mystery solved. Gonorrhea, the scourge of New England in the 30’s!

@DenhamsGhost His name is Charles Woodbin. He was born in Worcester Massachusetts in 1897. Graduated Dartmouth and became an accountant. Died of gonorrhea in 1932

@XWalletCompany2 I read that as well somewhere. Doesn’t quite look like him, even as a young man. It does look like a Churchillian pose however, especially with booze present.

@DenhamsGhost I always thought it was Winston Churchill

@KeithNewton Well we know for at least this moment in time, he seemed pretty content, whoever he was. And maybe that’s how he’d have liked to be remembered: having a good time, drink in hand, dressed to the nines, hat tipped to the side, the hint of a smile and satisfaction.

@DenhamsGhost The intro, and especially this guy, always made me sad. Real people with friends, lives, and personalities all dead.

The pooped pirate was my favorite in the attraction mainly because of Paul Frees funny and iconic voice work.

@archeohistories @histories_arch Sally Field and the Crypt Keeper

In Spring 2008, Zagreb, 🇭🇷 - Construction workers stand outside a narrow attic door that hasn't opened in decades.... They're here because of paperwork. A building renovation. Legal questions about ownership. The apartment behind that door was supposed to be abandoned. When they force it open, they step into the 1960s. The furniture is mid-century. A television set sits dormant. Dust blankets everything like snow. A teacup rests on a table, its contents long evaporated. And in the corner, the mummified body of Hedviga Golik. She'd been there the entire time. Hedviga was born in 1924 in Rijeka. She became a nurse, moved to Zagreb for work, and in 1961 settled into this cramped 18-square-meter attic space. It was physically separated from the other units. You reached it differently. She lived alone. Neighbors remembered her as distant. Kept to herself. Had a sister somewhere in the city, but they didn't speak. No regular visitors. No daily routines that involved other people. Around 1973, she died. Forensic teams found newspapers from that year in the apartment. The conditions in that attic—dry and well-ventilated—prevented normal decay. Her body naturally mummified. No smell escaped to alert anyone below. Before she vanished, she'd told neighbors she was leaving for a while. Maybe traveling. Maybe staying elsewhere. People accepted it. Time passed. Rumors floated around. Some said she joined a religious commune. Others thought she moved away. Nobody checked. In 1973, someone finally reported her missing. Authorities conducted a search across Yugoslavia. They never entered her apartment. They assumed it was empty. By the 1980s, a few neighbors whispered that she might be dead inside. But there were disputes. Legal complications. No one wanted responsibility. The door stayed closed. Thirty-five years. When police arrived in 2008, they couldn't explain how someone officially reported missing had remained undiscovered in her registered address. No family claimed her body. No funeral was held. Her story isn't about how she died. It's about how she disappeared without leaving. How a person can become invisible while surrounded by hundreds of lives continuing just beyond a thin wall. Hedviga Golik wasn't lost. She was overlooked. The apartment was so perfectly preserved that investigators described it as a time capsule. Everything from the 1960s remained exactly where Hedviga had left it. The lack of decomposition odor was due to specific environmental factors. The attic's ventilation and temperature created conditions similar to those in Egyptian tombs, allowing natural mummification to occur. Her case became a textbook example of urban isolation. In Japan, they call it kodokushi, or lonely death. Tokyo officials estimate thousands die alone each year, some undiscovered for months or years. In the UK, a 2008 study found that bodies of elderly people were going undiscovered for extended periods with increasing frequency. Modern urban anonymity has made these cases more common than most realize. When Hedviga was finally found, the Croatian media coverage sparked conversations about social responsibility and community awareness. Her building had gone through multiple ownership changes. Dozens of tenants had moved in and out. Maintenance workers had made repairs. Yet the locked attic door never prompted serious investigation. #archaeohistories

Old Friends

Watched it live in 86, despite the ending it’s a pretty entertaining special and a good overview of Capone’s Chicago. Features a couple of good primary source interviews with people who actually knew and interacted with Capone.

R.I.P.

@ryanhallyall No bathroom breaks, no food, maybe a sip of water now and then…we need you 100% focused on everywhere at every moment for 11+ hours. 😆 You do a great job @ryanhallyall have as much pizza as you need.

🚨 OFFICIAL STATEMENT 🚨 Effective immediately, Yall Enterprises, LLC will be implementing a strict “No Pizza During Radar-Indicated Tornado Warnings” policy. This decision comes after a thorough internal review of a recent 11-hour live broadcast, where a single, non-confirmed tornado warning with weak rotation briefly competed with a large pepperoni. Under the new guidelines: All food consumption must be cleared by the National Weather Service Snacks are limited to sub-severe thresholds Pizza is now classified as a Moderate Risk distraction We appreciate your understanding as we continue our mission to deliver life-saving weather coverage while occasionally remembering to eat. — Management

Happy 73rd birthday to the brilliant Rick Moranis. Rick as Michael McDonald on SCTV kills me every time.

A little short I made about Norm.