DEAD MAN TALKING (AND FISHING)

The show Deadliest Catch has opened it's new season with a very unique situation. One of the most popular captains of the crabbing boat features this season is dead.

In the sixth season of the show on the Discovery Channel, the now deceased Captain Phil Harris is prominently featured. He suffered a stroke while offloading crab from his boat during the taping of the new season airing now. Harris was taken to an Alaska hospital where he died about a month after the stroke.

Cameras were rolling during all of these events, but it has not been stated by Discovery Channel how or if any of this will be aired.

Phil was a fan favorite, a tattooed captain with the constant cigarette dangling from his lips as he spoke.

If Discovery does decide to air Harris' stroke, there is sure to be an outpouring of emotions from the dedicated fans of the show. Deadliest Catch follows crews of crab fisherman on their boats in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia during different crab seasons. The boats compete to see which one can bring in the most pounds of crab during the show season.

Harris fished right up to the end of his life. This is probably the only way he would have wanted to go out.

BITE ME

Want to see an entertaining television show? Tune into Billy the Exterminator on the A & E network. Billy works at VexCon, a family run (his family) exterminating business in Louisiana. Each episode he is on a quest to rid people of every kind of pest imaginable.

Being set in the state of Louisiana, makes going out to catch unwanted gators a regular occurrence. On most shows, Billy catches the unwanted creatures (or tries to) & then relocates them to a good spot in the wilderness. The only time I have actually seen him kill the pests has been when they are insects.

In almost every relocation, whatever the beast, has attacked Billy once it is released. He regularly get bloodied by bites & scratches.

The family aspect of the show provides almost as good amusement as the animals. Billy's mom & dad run the company, his wife works in the office, and his troubled brother works with him on calls. Their family may rival the Osbournes in dysfunction & gives the show a great dynamic.

So if your bored and want to see a heavy metal exterminator get bitten, stung, scratched, or fall through an attic roof, turn your TV to Billy the Exterminator.

HAUNTING THE AIRWAVES

Is it just me, or are ghosts taking over television?

I had seen commercials for a few different shows on ghosts & the paranormal, so I decided to see how many are actually being televised. In a one week time span, I found 9 shows about the topic.

They were on a range of channels: SyFy Channel, A & E, Travel Channel, and Discovery Channel. So it seems that not just one station is trying to cash in on the success, ghosts are everywhere.

I tried to watch an episode of each show: Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Hunters Academy (yes, this franchise has 3 different shows on the air), Paranormal State, Paranormal Cops, Ghost Adventures, Most Haunted, A Haunting, Creepiest Destinations, and Ghost Lab.

During this viewing time I found out a few things: Really hot girls like hunting ghosts & are always part of the teams doing so/Members of these teams hear noises that may be paranormal, tell the other team members to shut up so you can hear this noise, & then proceed to talk right over these sounds so the audience can't hear shit/There is almost always a logical explanation for the "paranormal activity" going on.

Sometimes the ghost hunting teams try to rid the places of the ghosts by performing rituals, other times the team tells people that the place is haunted & they have to put up with it (Hey, thanks for coming & telling me something I already knew). Another thing I wanted to know while watching these shows: How is it possible that some of the people whose jobs it is to find ghosts are continuously terrified of everything that goes on around them? Wouldn't this make going to work every day a bit stressful?

The one cool thing I got out of watching these shows (besides the girls) were the EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon). This is where voices that can't be heard by the ear, turn up on the audio recordings. I wasn't able to find out how this happens, but some of these "voices" & what they said were fascinating. And most important of all- whether ghosts do or don't exist, you can still make money hunting them.