Fitted Sheets Assistant

Link: Fit And Fold

Fit & Fold - Helps you fit, and fold, cumbersome fitted sheets

A set of Fit & Fold has 4 labelled buttons for attaching to each corner of a fitted sheet.  This alone helps you fit the fitted sheets over the mattress in the right position.  Even more useful is when you need to fold it up.  Snap the each pair of buttons together and it will give you the right shape for folding up the fitted sheet for storage, avoiding the unruly mess that one usually gets.  The buttons are removable and reusable, but will also stay on in a washing machine or dryer.  They come in 8 colours.

Happy Birthday to Joe

Today is the birthday of DrMom‘s son, Joe.  Leo forgot to mention it during the recording of the show, but he made it up in the intro.  Happy Birthday to Joe.

MAD DISCO

Unearthed from the depths of Dick’s Gadget Warehouse is another gem – a special edition of MAD Magazine, called MAD DISCO, that comes with a vinyl record of spoofs of disco hits such as “Barely Alive” and “Disco Suicide”, with lyrics by Dick and music by Norm Blagman.  The record also includes a disco version of the MAD classic hit “It’s A Gas”.  Disco was and remains Dick’s favourite genre, and the idea of MAD DISCO was conceived by Dick himself. You can buy a copy (or at least read about it) on Dick’s site, at MAD Collectables.

MAD DISCO - MAD Special Edition

The Pains of a Listener

Steve Miller, one of the foremost gadget fanatics among the listeners, thinks that it was great to have Alex Lindsay stand in for Leo, but it came at a price.  It is bad enough for Steve to buy the $20-$100 gadgets that Dick talks about (including most recently the Verbatim Insight in Episode 929), but the Gigapan Epic which Alex recommended and Steve felt compelled to buy cost a lot more!

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Automatic LED Light

Link: Quik-Brite

Quik Brites

Quik Brite is an LED light for a closet or drawer that will go on automatically as you open the door of the drawer, as seen on TV.  They come in a package of 8, plus 2 "SwivelSpots", which are also LED lights, with manual switches, on a rotating base which you can turn to control of the direction of the light.  Dick found a great bargain for these at Bed, Bath And Beyond.

Bright Feet
Talk of Quik Brites reminds Dick and Leo of Bright Feet, the night slippers with headlights that light up as soon as you put them on, from Episode 73.

Tea Time Movie
Dick and Leo reminisce about Johnny Carson, the Tea Time Movie, the character Art Fern and the Matinee Lady played by Carol Wayne.  Here is a clip.

Funk and Wagnall's Porch
Dick and Leo have referred to something having been "hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar in Funk and Wagnalls' porch" a number of times now.  It's one of the lines that Ed McMahon used to say about the envelopes of questions which Carnac the Magnificent, another character played by Johnny Carson, would know the answers to before the envelopes were opened.  Funk and Wagnalls is a book publisher.  Here is a video clip of Carnac.

A Gadget to Remember
Toby Robinson thought the Zircon Repeater Tape Meaure (Episode 795) was a good idea, and told his wife Elaine about it, who was not impressed, as you would still have to remember the Zircon itself.  Trust the wife to ruin the fun.  What a killjoy!

A Name to Remember, Or Not
Toby also says that his last name is pronounced robe-in-son.  Tough, say Dick and Leo.  If Dr Mark Sukoenig has become Dr Forrester to Dick and Leo, Toby is lucky they're even calling him Toby.  He will remain a rob-in-son.

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Christmas Day Special

Link: best holiday wishes from dick debartolo mad's maddest writer and the giz wiz

Your Wish List

No gadgets again on this Christmas Day from Dick and Leo, but Dick has asked the TWiT Army to email him about gadgets they would love to see under the Christmas tree this year.  Here are some of them: a Mac Mini with Parallels and Windows Vista, a Google Android phone on Verizon, a laptop – a MacBook Pro perhaps or an HP TouchSmart Notebook, a ThinkGeek Annoy-A-Tron, a camera with geotagging and a decent zoom, a blu ray player, a Segway, "My two front teeth" or some high speed RAM, a Powerball Gyroscope, a Tricaster (from Leo maybe?), a Flip Ultra for Jean Troiano (and a belated Happy Birthday to Mike Troiano on 19 December), and an autographed Richard DeBartolo Handle-bar Moustache that wiggles and barks like a Bijon Frise.

Blessed Interaction
Leo has everything he could ever wish for, and feels blessed that he is able to do the podcast with Dick, and Dick loves interacting with Leo on the Daily Giz Wiz, especially on Tuesdays.

Family Affairs
Dick and Leo aren't that keen on family meet-ups, and Dick for the first time on DGW reveals that he has a brother called Leo.  Who can blame him?

Pride And Glory
Pride And Glory has finally been released.  You can catch a glimpse of Dick's houseboat (now given away to a charity) in the film.  Watch out for a fibre optic Christmas tree.  For the full story, revisit Episodes 460 and 461.

And Finally, A Merry Christmas …
… from me and all my imaginary staff at insidedgw.vox.com to Dick and Leo (who have given us a show for all seasons), to the TWiT staff (Dane, Colleen, Tony and Frederique who have kept the TWiT machine running), to Ludwik Trammer (who keeps doing wonders), to Paul Minshall, George Wood, Dan Lueders, all the jingle contributors and Daniel Rodrigues Parreira (who have made the show so much fun to listen to by performing all the themes and jingles and making them accessible to us all), and to all the fellow DGW listeners (who are mad enough to listen to the show).

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Data Storage

Link: Kingston

Kingston Elite Pro 32GB SDHC Card

Kingston has now made a 32GB version of their Elite Pro SDHC card, the highest capacity so far of SD cards, and Dick has asked a sample to be sent Leo's way.  It's a Class 6 SD card, with a minimum data transfer rate of 6MB/s.  Leo can now use it on his Panasonic HDC SD5 Camcorder (Episode 407) and his new Panasonic Lumix LX3 (which he has bought for Jennifer and which Leo may talk about on another TTTT), or as the equilvalent of an external drive by in combination with his Kingston Data Traveler SD Card Reader (see an example in Episode 353), or on his new MacBook Pro with a Belkin ExpressCard Card Reader, both of which can read SDHC cards.

Belkin ExpressCard Card Reader

Happy Birthday on the Manhattan
Dick celebrated his birthday on 19 October on the Luxury Yacht Manhattan on the Classic Habor Line with his friends.

The Luxury Yacht Manhattan

MAD Auction
Steve Miller writes again, this time about the upcoming MAD auction at Heritage Comics Auction, the subject of an article on MSN.  It will be held tomorrow, and the artwork for the original covers (including Alfred E Neuman's first cover, by Norman Mingo in 1956) will be auctioned off.

Alfred E Neuman's 1st MAD Cover

Dick's Beloved MAD
Dick's favourite Mad issue was the one with a spoof of Poseidon Adventure on its cover, also Mad's best selling issue ever (see Episode 282).  The original artwork was auctioned off, and Dick did not bid, thinking it was beyond his means.  Annie Gaines bought it and it is now on loan to Dick for life.

Testamentary Wishes
Dick may not realise this, but he is fairly consistent with his "testamentary wishes".  See Episode 235 (Sea Urn) for Dick's previous hilarious expression of his testamentary wishes, and Episode 135.  He wants a death theme for himself.

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Alarm Clock

Link: ThinkGeek

Think Geek Flying Alarm Clock

Time flies?  At the pre-set time, a screaming siren will sound from the Flying Alarm Clock and the propeller flies off the base.  To stop the siren, you have to retrieve the propeller and slot it snugly back into the base before the siren will stop.  If even the Clocky (Episode 306) doesn't work for you, this one might.  Only for the recalcitrant non-getter-upper who lives miles away from his nearest neighbour.

Watch the Flying Alarm Clock video, but Warning: Turn the volume right down first before clicking on the video.

Writing for MAD
Dick had been writing for MAD Magazine since 1963, and he has appeared on every issue since his first published article.

Rude Awakening
Dick refers to an alarm clock called the Rude Awakening Alarm Clock, with messages such as:

Rude Awakening Alarm Clock

Voco Clock
For a gentler alarm clock, Leo suggests the Voco Clock and you can wake up to the voice of Stephen Fry who played Jeeves in Jeeves and Wooster.  Only if you don't mind his voice.

Voco Clock - A Gentle Alarm Clock

Happy Birthday …
… to Darone Ruskay from his wife Stephanie and Dick and Leo, on his 34th.

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