Henk van de Goor's Bloggers@large

Last night a legacy of 17 years ended when Tonight Show host Jay Leno aired his last talk show. I have always been more of a Leno guy than a The Late Show with David Letterman, guy. I guess it is essentially a 'East coast' versus 'West coast' thing (or republican vs democrat). For a while both shows where on the Dutch TV, but then suddenly stopped. So I always tried to watch a couple of his shows whenever I was visiting my girlfriend in the US.

It will be interesting to see how Leno will keep up with his prime time show at 10pm (usually the time slot for big TV shows like 'Lost' and 'Heroes'). Also I am sceptic about Conan O'Brien filling Leno's shoes. I actually attended a show of O'Brien in 1996 in New York (couldn't get tickets for Letterman). That was kind of fun as we brought a pair of wooden shoes (clogs), and before the show started we called out to O'Brien and handed him over the clogs. When he looked at the clogs and came up with a real quick response: "Thanks for that. No wonder the Dutch always look so depressed" (as clogs look quite uncomfortable).

Anyway, I love Leno. And I'm sure that most men do, as he is a real 'petrolhead' slash 'car afficionado'. One of his crazy toys is a 'tank-car'. A huge hot rod looking car with a V12 tank engine in it (with turbo's!). And, to top things off; a superbike with a jet engine! Awesome!

Anyway, here are some memorable Leno videos. Go Leno! Go!



Ps: I'll be in Florida in August so I am sure to watch his new show at 10pm.

It's funny how people think very different about using Twitter. After all the new social networks like MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and Hyves (most popular in Holland), one might think the market for these kind of initiatives would be full. So when Twitter came out in 2006, I did not see the relevance of it. I mean: who wants the restriction of posting within 140 characters - including spaces? It is like SMS for the Web. Needless to say, I wasn't convinced that there was a need for 'micro-blogging' as it was soon dubbed.

Also: who is interested in all this personal stuff that people suddenly are sharing (see cartoon on the left)? But, as it turned out, a great deal of people do like this service. I think it appealed mostly to the mobile phone generation; kids that grew up with SMS and are used to express themselves using short messages.

Whatever the social appeal of Twitter is - I guess it makes people feel they are connected to each other in a disconnected society - a lot of people like to make fun of it. So I came across these top 25 cartoons and they made me chuckle a bit on this Sunday morning. So check them out ;-)

Sorry for posting yet another video, but I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing. I mean; kudos for president Obama; it seems he has gathered a group of competent people around him in the White House. But I guess Press Secretary Gibbs does not fall into this category. In fact, after seeing this clip I was wondering: "how the heck did he get that job?". The subject: yesterday a flight mission and photo op, that looked like Air Force One and fighter jets heading toward the New York City skyline, caused a panic in New York. Some buildings even got evacuated as several officials were afraid of an attack on the city.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg blasted the photo opportunity for being insensitive and showing "poor judgment." In a brief statement after the flight, the New York Police Department acknowledged it was aware the flight was happening, but claimed the Federal Aviation Administration told them not to talk about it.

Now, see how Press secretary Gibbs handles one simple question about this incident: "Do you think the White House owes New York an apology?"



Yes, you heard it right: his first defense: "ask the FAA or Airforce". When reporters tell him: "we did and everyone says contact the White House", he mumbles: "oh well, then I would contact the White House". WTF?! He is the White House. After that it just goes downhill - real quick. "I have seen some news reports, but uh, I don't know. I have no information on this". To add to his stupid appearance he even adds: "I was working on other things". Man, how dumb can you get?

In the mean time officials have apologized for the incident and poor judgement involved. Now some one needs to train Gibbs in dealing with the press. The man obviously can't even fight his way out of a wet paper bag!

See also this videoreport.

Yes, I know: an odd combination. Not sure what to make of it.

Some movies will always remain classics. I happen to own “Spaceballs the Movie” on DVD with a lot of extra’s on it.