Miss Teen USA South Carolina Becomes Discombobulated

It doesn’t seem like it has been four years, since Miss Teen USA struggled with an answer,  to the question of why one fifth of Americans can’t find United States on a map.

Over 48 million people have viewed this video of Lauren Caitlin Upton answering a question as part of the 2007 Miss Teen USA competition.

Even though her response is funny, I can’t help but feel sorry for her as she is clearly nervous, and is struggling to find the right words to give her answer.

If she had been judged solely by beauty, she probably would have won the pageant, but no they had to throw in questioning as part of the pageant.

Here is her response in text form from Wikipedia.com:

“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some . . . people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over HERE in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children”.[8][9]

She later appeared on Amazing Race in which she finished third.

Amos and Andy TV Show

Amos and Andy stars Tim Moore (top), Spencer Williams and Alvin Childress.

Amos and Andy was a television series with mostly black actors, that was removed by the CBS network, after protests from the NAACP. The organization said the show portrayed the blacks, in a way to make them appear foolish.

I have known some black people that enjoyed the show very much. The NAACP put the black actors out of work, so doubt the actors appreciated the NAACP becoming involved.

The NAACP did not take action, when the radio version of the show was attacked in a Pittsburgh newspaper in the early 1930′s.

Only 69 episodes of the show were filmed before CBS removed it from the airwaves in 1953, according to the Internet Movie Database.

This is the primary cast of the show as listed by Wikipedia.com:

Amos Jones – Alvin Childress
Andrew Hogg Brown (Andy) – Spencer Williams
George “Kingfish” Stevens – Tim Moore
Sapphire Stevens – Ernestine Wade
Ramona Smith (Sapphire’s Mama) – Amanda Randolph
Madame Queen – Lillian Randolph
Algonquin J. Calhoun – Johnny Lee
Lightnin’ – Nick Stewart (aka, Nick O’Demus)

Jester Harrison who portrayed Leroy during the run of Amos and Andy, later was seen many years later, in the Amen television series.

To me it was one of the funniest shows to run on network television. It is sad that few people today even know about the series, much less actuallyhave seen an entire episode.

In this clip from Amos and Andy the Kingfish signs his wife up for a job without her knowing. She is excited about the job though,  since it pays $8 a day.

The only episodes of the show being sold today, are bootleg copies but can be found online, from various sellers.

Lizard Lick Towing Boss Arrested in 2008 With 2013 Update on Bobby Brantley

Bobby Brantley, Amy Shirley and Ron Shirley have been appearing on Lizard Lick Towing on TruTV and have been in business since 1998.

This is the most read article in the history of Nostalgia and Now with 31,634 page views as of April 21, 2013. Some links were dead since the article was so old, so inserted a photo and video.

Ron Shirley owner of Lizard Lick Towing was arrested in 2008, for telling an employee to impersonate a sheriff’s investigator while repossessing cars.

The article names Shirley as the president of the company. He may be president, but doubt if any of the goons coming back to get their car address him as president.

This is the article telling of his arrest and the comments after the article are very interesting. Scroll down past the photos to see the comments. Some of them are very derogatory about Mr. Shirley.

http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/2740772/

Ron and Amy Shirley didn’t fall in love at first sight, as evidenced by this article at TruTV.com:

http://www.trutv.com/shows/lizard-lick-towing/a-love-story.html

April 21, 2013 Update

Apparently the episodes showing Bobby Brantley with a girlfriend on Lizard Lick Towing are non-reality television. He is currently married to his fourth wife Anita, but her photos seemed to have been removed from his Facebook page, either because they have broken up or the producers don’t want it known that he is married, since he is shown dating on the show.

Bobby Brantley shown with his future wife.

The following video shows the real Mrs. Bobby Brantley playing the piano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YlKBoJPjp8

 

Theresa Andersson: Birds Fly Away

Theresa Andersson singing Birds Fly Away in a video apparently filmed in New Orleans.

While checking You Tube for Louisiana musicians today, I ran across the videos of Theresa Andersson. You can tell she enjoys singing and being on stage.

She was born in 1972 in Gotland, Sweden. She left Sweden in 1990 to play the violin, in a band in New Orleans, with Swede  Anders Osborne.

After leaving the band nine years later, she began singing with New Orleans musicians. She performed with The Neville Brothers, Allan Toussaint, Betty Harris and The Meters.

Theresa Andersson performing at the 2007 Jazz Festival in this very short clip. She has an infectious smile and had the crowd in the palm of her hands.

Theresa being interviewed in Austin, Texas and she tells about meeting Allen Toussaint.

Her website has some clips of her music:

http://www.theresaandersson.com/