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Have I mentioned we love Tivo? Certainly for being able to easily stop stuff
we're watching and to record stuff we want, but also because Tivo loves us
and gives us interesting gifts.

For some reason, Tivo chose an episode of What's my Line, a REALLY old
gameshow, for us at one point. Julian suggested we watch it, and now we have it on
auto-record.

It's a really simple show. The panel asks yes or no questions to determine
the occupation of a guest contestant. The shows we're watching now were made in
the early 60's. But it's SO interesting!!!! And all three of us, including
16 year old Julian, sit and watch every one.

Some stuff we've learned (partially from the show itself, and partially
because it's led us to lots of googling):
The panelists are very sophisticated and intelligent. Think NPR's Wait,
Wait, Don't Tell me. They dress in formal wear (GORGEOUS clothes!). The regulars
are Arlene Francis, a really warm, funny actress, Dorothy Kilgallen, a
journalist, and Bennet Cerf, who was the publisher who ran Random House. The host
is John Daly. They have a fourth panelist, who changes, and occasional other
guest panelists.

Dorothy Kilgallen was a very successful journalist who died under very
mysterious circumstances, possibly related to the deaths of Kennedy and Marilyn
Monroe.

At one point they had a contestant who was a black criminal court judge in
NYC in the 60's. I googled him, and it turned out that later he became one of
the first black cabinet members under Nixon, and ran HUD. He eventually left
that position under scandal.

There's tons more (including seeing some very famous celebrities when they
were extremely young...like Dick Van Dyke when he was starring in Bye, Bye
Birdie on Broadway), but it seems like such a cool way to learn all kinds of
stuff, and the three of us have just been eating this up.

Ah, Television and a net-wired laptop... who needs school?
Kathryn


Come to the Northeast Unschooling Conference, Memorial Day Weekend, May
26-28, 2006 in Peabody, Massachusetts! www.NortheastUnschoolingConference.com


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I watched that show lots as a kid. I had no idea WHY the people were famous
who were on the panel, but that's how it was with most celebrity panels--I
was too young to know what they had done before Hollywood Squares or whatever.


I remember a few things on there that were really "educational" for me--one
was a mountain climber, and they were asking really good questions of him about
the realities of high altitude stuff and climbing gear, and one of the false
line-up guys was really hesitant. All the others had quick answers, but that
didn't mean TRUE answers.

It was fun for me not only to hear the trivia and see that (in those days
more easily than now) someone could be pretty famous and still have an unknown
face and voice, but it was fun to see how people moved and acted and how their
eyes were when they were nervous, faking/acting, puzzled, etc.

The closest to a home game of this for us has been playing dictionary, where
people make up dictionary definitions, and they're all read by whoever's "it."
It's only a pale version, because the person who is "it" gets more points
if you don't pick the true definition (and she knows which one is the true one)
so she needs to try to read all the others convincingly.

But "What's My Line," where people made money if they could bluff the
panelists to choose them, was really a fascinationg set-up. Very cool that it's
still being shown some!

Sandra


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