Fun facts from Television
Jul. 22nd, 2004 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sharplittleteethWas so tired last night after work I just vegged out in front of the ABC. Which actually turned out to be quite interesting.
Caught half an episode of The Real Heroes of Telemark, about British-trained Norwegian infiltrators blowing up a Nazi heavy water plant during World War II. Learnt that reindeer stomach is an important part of the diet of poor Northern Europeans - the half-digested vetetable matter provides carbohydrates and vitamins not found in just the meat. Apparently you freeze the stomachs in the snow, then cut cut slices off into a stew.
The show also reminded me that I'd forgotten what heavy water was. Wikipedia to the rescue: it's water, but with a neutron as well as a proton in the hydrogen atom's nucleus. Useful for controlling nuclear reactions.
The next show had more eating of stomachs: Worlds Apart, in which a suburban New Jersey family spend 9 days living with goatherds in the Kenyan desert. By day three, the kids were homesick, crying, and throwing tantrums. By day nine, they were cying again because they didn't want to leave. Which was all very sentimental, but I found the dignified sorrow of the tribespeople far more touching the American's brattish squalling.
And afterwards was a repeat screening of Andrew Denton's interview with Bill Clinton. It was a compelling interview. Denton has a rare gift of subtlty and empathy as an interviewer.
But I just can't stop thinking of him as the joker behind all those covers of "Stairway to Heaven".
Caught half an episode of The Real Heroes of Telemark, about British-trained Norwegian infiltrators blowing up a Nazi heavy water plant during World War II. Learnt that reindeer stomach is an important part of the diet of poor Northern Europeans - the half-digested vetetable matter provides carbohydrates and vitamins not found in just the meat. Apparently you freeze the stomachs in the snow, then cut cut slices off into a stew.
The show also reminded me that I'd forgotten what heavy water was. Wikipedia to the rescue: it's water, but with a neutron as well as a proton in the hydrogen atom's nucleus. Useful for controlling nuclear reactions.
The next show had more eating of stomachs: Worlds Apart, in which a suburban New Jersey family spend 9 days living with goatherds in the Kenyan desert. By day three, the kids were homesick, crying, and throwing tantrums. By day nine, they were cying again because they didn't want to leave. Which was all very sentimental, but I found the dignified sorrow of the tribespeople far more touching the American's brattish squalling.
And afterwards was a repeat screening of Andrew Denton's interview with Bill Clinton. It was a compelling interview. Denton has a rare gift of subtlty and empathy as an interviewer.
But I just can't stop thinking of him as the joker behind all those covers of "Stairway to Heaven".
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no subject
Date: 2004-07-21 08:48 pm (UTC)It was just as good.
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Date: 2004-07-21 09:48 pm (UTC)Honestly.
I've had worse. Much worse.