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History Detectives!
Jul. 15th, 2003 10:41 pmMy new favorite television show debuted tonight: PBS's History Detectives. Mysteries solved by historical researchers! I saw the trailers and made a point of watching it and was not disappointed. Okay, I was delighted. Archival paper pushers are Rockford and Columbo!
2 points off for use of some cheesy pseudo-old timey recreation film footage in one segment.
2 points awarded for using correct period music in the background when talking about different eras.
1 point each for scenes of researchers going through old: 1)microfilm 2)brittle yellowed archival newspapers 3)boxes of old handwritten notes in an institutional basement. A point each for: 4)Collecting two degrees of seperation oral history 5)Determining inaccuracies of said oral history and correcting them.
Bonus point for capturing on film the semi-orgasmic expression when a researcher found a "smoking gun" in an obsure old moldering doccument.
Okay, I'm a bit boggled to actually see a tv show that seems designed for a viewing demographic that includes me.
If this is so, in future episodes, I hope to give points for seeing the following: Clear shot of doccuments held together with pre-1920 design paperclip, interview with someone knowledgeable and still sharp over 90 years of age: 1 point each
Audio extracted from pre-1925 medium other than standard lateral groove 78; use of previously neglected data by researchers/oral historians of 40 or more years ago: 2 points each; if 40+ year old oral history was with someone knowledgeable and still sharp over 90 years of age at the time, 2.5 points
Protaganists chewing out heads of major library or university for loss of data when disgarding card-catalogue for computorized database or paper collection for microfiche: 3 points
BEsTeSt +ele\/is0N Ev3R!!1!
2 points off for use of some cheesy pseudo-old timey recreation film footage in one segment.
2 points awarded for using correct period music in the background when talking about different eras.
1 point each for scenes of researchers going through old: 1)microfilm 2)brittle yellowed archival newspapers 3)boxes of old handwritten notes in an institutional basement. A point each for: 4)Collecting two degrees of seperation oral history 5)Determining inaccuracies of said oral history and correcting them.
Bonus point for capturing on film the semi-orgasmic expression when a researcher found a "smoking gun" in an obsure old moldering doccument.
Okay, I'm a bit boggled to actually see a tv show that seems designed for a viewing demographic that includes me.
If this is so, in future episodes, I hope to give points for seeing the following: Clear shot of doccuments held together with pre-1920 design paperclip, interview with someone knowledgeable and still sharp over 90 years of age: 1 point each
Audio extracted from pre-1925 medium other than standard lateral groove 78; use of previously neglected data by researchers/oral historians of 40 or more years ago: 2 points each; if 40+ year old oral history was with someone knowledgeable and still sharp over 90 years of age at the time, 2.5 points
Protaganists chewing out heads of major library or university for loss of data when disgarding card-catalogue for computorized database or paper collection for microfiche: 3 points
BEsTeSt +ele\/is0N Ev3R!!1!
