The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

The ban on smoking on North American flights started in 1988, when it was first applied to flights in the US that lasted two hours or less. Before then, you could light up once the plane crossed the 10,000-foot altitude. The “no smoking” light stayed permanently on.

Nowadays, the big question on flights within North America is when you can fire up your electronics — laptops, iPads, iPods, Nintendo DSs and what-have-you. That’s why I thought it was interesting when I saw the “turn off electronic devices” indicator on a recent flight; it must’ve been a newer jet.

There are still people who light up during flights, and they get fined for breaking FAA regulations. Not being able to hold out for a few hours is a sign that you need to quit, and despite what Lloyd Bridges’ character on Airplane! says, it’s never the wrong week to quit.

I saw this on the bumper of a truck near Channelside in Tampa. I asked the truck’s owner (he was right there) if I could snap a picture of it, and he said “As long as you weren’t one of the kids trying to remove it, that’s fine by me.”

I know I’m going to annoy a liberal friend or two with this post, but hey, the sticker gave me a chuckle.

Richard Dawson passed away on Saturday from cancer.

He played Newkirk, the RAF corporal and trickster of the merry band of German POWs known as Hogan’s Heroes. Here he is, in a classic scene where the boys concoct a fake radio broadcast with Newkirk doing an impression of Hitler:

He was also a regular on the game show Match Game (love the wah-wah guitar on that show’s theme song!), where he sat beside Betty White:

He made his mark on game shows as the heavy-on-kissing-the-guests host of Family Feud. Here’s one match from the all-star edition of Family Feud, in which the cast of The Waltons compete against the cast of The Dukes of Hazzard:

That run as one of the biggest game show hosts of the 1980s set him up to be the quintessential 80s “nothing personal, it’s just business” movie villain, Damon Killian, the host of the game show The Running Man. Only Dawson could deliver the only successful comeback to Arnie’s classic threat, “I’ll be back”: he paused for a moment and quietly said “Only in a rerun.”

Requiescat in pace, Mr. Dawson.

In his memory, I’m going to totally kill your productivity today with this — The Running Man, in its entirety. Enjoy, at least until YouTube has to take it down:

A few days ago, I wrote that Eduard Khil, better known to the internet as the “Trololo Guy” for a video of his 1976 lyric-free song performance that made a splash in 2010, was in critical condition after suffering a stroke. The reports are coming out that he died in a hospital in St. Petersburg.

Here’s the video that made him internet-famous:

Russia Today posted a tribute to Eduard Khil, which tells his life story.

Eduard Khil performing in 1965.

Requiescat in pace, Mr. Khil, and thanks for all the tro-lo-los.