Halper had a habit of telling different provenance stories about some of his more fabled acquisitions (that first Babe Ruth autograph, Shoeless Joe's jersey) at different times. This doesn't bolster his credibility.

bills itself as the “Most Trusted Name in DNA Testing” and has been contracted to perform DNA paternity tests for the Jerry Springer Show

This is the strangest sentence I think I have ever read.

You want some of Babe Ruth's hair? Just give me a shovel and two hours.

I happen to know a guy with some of Ruth's hair and he told me he'd trade it for a shovel.

Is there some way to just merge this with the Cashman thread and cover all body-part stories centrally?

Oboy. SdeB is talking to himself again. Someone break out the Thorazine.

Curious that Halper didn't tell Robert Creamer, who wrote the definitive Babe Ruth biography, about meeting the Babe in the 1940s.

You want Babe Ruth's hair? I can get you Babe Ruth's hair, believe me. There are ways, Linda. You don't wanna know about it, believe me. Hell, I can get you Babe Ruth's hair by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with smelly bear grease.

This is the strangest sentence I think I have ever read.

They do probably get a fair bit of practice.

Apropos of nothing, one of my friends is in charge of bleeping out all the obscenities and blurring out all the boobs and butt cracks on the Springer show, to make it safe for TV. He ought to get hazard pay, IMO.

The Springer show is still on the air? Next you'll be telling me Brett Tomko is still playing in the major leagues.

The Springer show is still on the air?

If you want to kill it, you'll have to drive a stake through its greasy, bleached heart.

The Truest of Yankees.

The Springer show is still on the air?

If you want to kill it, you'll have to drive a stake through its greasy, bleached heart.

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Yeah, but are they the official DNA testing company of the Maury Povich Show? Because maybe then I'd be impressed.

Yeah, seems like every time I accidentally linger on Povich for more than 10 seconds he's revealing some DNA results.

It's kind of amazing he's managed to have such a long career. How long ago was A Current Affair anyway?

Connie Chung has lots of clout.

Didn't Visa used to be called Clout, or are my childhood memories obscured by all the cigarette smoke?

Didn't Visa used to be called Clout, or are my childhood memories obscured by all the cigarette smoke?

No. Visa used to be called BankAmericard.

However, American Express used to refer to having a card as having "clout" in commercials and what not (e.g. a guy would point at his card and say, "I've got clout!").

As far as DNA testing using Linda Ruth Tosetti's hair to compare, wouldn't it be a problem that she may not be a blood relative? Her mother was Dorthy Helen Ruth Pirone. But Dorothy was adopted. From Wikipedia: "Helen Ruth Pirone (7 June 1921 in New York City, New York - 18 May 1989 in Durham, Connecticut) was adopted by Babe Ruth and his first wife, Helen. Decades later, she wrote a book, My Dad, the Babe, [1] claiming that she was Ruth's biological child by a girlfriend named Juanita Jennings.[2][3]" Babe Ruth and his wife never claimed Dorothy was a biological relative. The only claim that there is a blood relation is from Dorothy in her 1988 book published a year before her passing. I'm not saying Linda Ruth Tosetti is or is not a blood relative, but there is great uncertainty in light of this, and it seems worth mentioning.

Thanks chris h, those must be the commercials I remember. Geez we're old.

Thanks chris h, those must be the commercials I remember. Geez we're old.

I have a memory that, when it works, works almost perfectly. One of the side effects of this is that I remember all sorts of commercials, jingles, and whatnot. The other day we were having some kind of random conversation with my mom and she asked me if I remembered Libby's canned food, to which I (almost involuntarily) replied, "If it says Libby's Libby's Libby's on the label label label, you will like it like it like it on the table table table."

I'm not proud of this, you understand.

Evidently as a very young toddler, my mom would have me in the cart as she went grocery shopping and I would start naming various brands of foods I saw. Occasionally passers-by would stare, thinking I was reading, but I wasn't; I had simply memorized the commercials.

To this point in my life this has proven to be of no use whatsoever.

And yeah, we're old.