The History Channel

I love the History Channel, and I know most of you do too, which is why I decided to post about it. I figured a few of you would read it. Anyways, whenever there's nothing on TV, the History Channel is always there to fill in the gaps. In between watching 2 hours of Scrubs on WGN and watching 2 more hours of Scrubs on Comedy Central? The History Channel is there to reassure you. "Hey," the History Channel says, "you don't need to get up at all today." Hell, you barely need to change the channel cause their commercials are pretty short relative to almost every other channel. That's another thing I love about the History Channel. Not only do you sit on your ass all day and learn something from their shows, you even learn something from their commercials! Half of them are for other programs on the History Channel anyway. Recently their big advertising has gone to their special about Saddam Hussein's nerve gas attack in 1988. Last night when I was watching the History Channel (about how they make a bunch of different kinds of alcohol, I'll tell you about that later) I learned that back in '88 Saddam unleashed a bunch of nerve gas on his own people without warning. Call me ignorant for not knowing about it before hand, but hey, now I know basically all I need to know. And from a commercial. Amazing.

So, about what I was watching last night. There was 3 straight hours of Modern Marvels on booze, and it was fascinating. I didn't know booze could be so interesting without mentioning anything about the alcohol. I mean, they gave specs and stuff on what the regulatory limits are on proof and how they adhere to them and where the alcohol is derived from, but not a word about getting drunk off the stuff. The closest they came was explaining how soldiers called it "courage in a bottle" because they drank it before battle. So I was watching the 3 hours, and learning about whiskey and how it's distilled, how to make good moonshine, where the term "proof" came from, how to make drinks correctly, why absinthe is illegal even though it shouldn't be, how different beer producers make their beer, and a bunch of awesome stuff like that. It was awesome. So, where did the term "proof" come from? Old alcohol distilleries used to grade their product using gunpowder. They would pour some of their alcohol on the gunpowder and then try and light it. If the wet gunpowder could still ignite, then the alcohol was "proved". Add that to your book of party facts.

The only thing I don't like about the History Channel though is the cost of the DVDs. At the end of every show they put up the unmarked VHS case with the big H on it and say "You can purchase a DVD of the program you just saw at www.historychannel.com for $24.95." And the whole time I'm thinking "man, I'd love to buy this show, but not for $25!" Imagine how much money they make on that though. A 50-minute TV show on a $0.13 DVD. Nice work boys. One of the commercials said they were selling the shows on iTunes (see, always learning), but when I went to check today, they didn't have the booze shows. They had about 15 other Modern Marvels, but none that I really wanted to buy (I decided to buy The Royal Tenenbaums instead). Hopefully they'll add them later.

In other news, the Ducks are now 13-0, which is their best start since 1937, a year the Ducks went 14-0. If they beat USC, they'll tie the school record and then run into UCLA, the #1 team in the nation, to try and break it. Also, it's 2007 now, so Happy New Year.