434. “Without Warning” (10/30/1994)

(spoiler alert, the guy on the cover is only in the movie for like, a minute, tops)

Boy, did i watch a dumb movie yesterday.

I was in the mood to watch something end of the world-y since I’m sad all the time. I was looking for the movie Testament, but couldn’t find a free copy. I saw a recommendation on YouTube for movie Without Warning. I remember it on like, a list of end of the world movies, but I thought it was a nuclear movie.

No.

Just a lot of busy dumb events. It plays off as breaking news in real time, but a made for TV movie. Like you’re watching people play end of the world pretend CBS news time:

They were basically doing a War of the Worlds for 1994.

I made screen caps on my iPad while I watched. as visual notes.

The movie starts out looking like any other Sunday night CBS made for TV movie from the mid 1990s. Then the “local news” cuts in with this lady. I’m going to tell you right now, she is only one of two convincing news reporters in this entire movie, and she only gets 5 seconds of screen time.

OH. did I mention that some of the news reporters in this movie are real deal reporters. Yes, real reporters for a fake news movie.

Like him, Sander Vanocur. He’s real. It bugs me immensely that this movie aired on CBS, and used many of the same-ish graphics CBS news used at the time. Let me try to pull something up as an example at the time.

I found the CBS Evening News from about a week before this movie aired. Hey, Connie.

Here is another example:

Movie.

Real deal CBS Evening News. Hi Scott.

I guess I should explain what’s going on. Three asteroids hit the earth at the same time, one in Wyoming, one in France, and one in China. The one that hit remote China looks like a cat’s butt. w2go, graphics department.

John DeLancie who just finished playing Q on Star Trek the Next Generation is in this movie playing a reporter in Wyoming … for some reason. Come on, John, you’re way more talented than this movie. In the YouTube comments for another copy of this movie everybody was like, “I knew it was Q all along.”

So the news reporter in the newscopter (who is a real journalist) finds this little girl near the crater in Wyoming. The little girl speaks in content aware scale.

The commercials are in this copy! Here are some decaf coffee teabgs. mmm

All cleaning products in 1994 had to be potpourri scented. You know, dried flowers.

These would pop up before the movie resumed after each commercial break.

Malcom’s mom/the mean lady judge on the Simpsons, Jane Kaczmarek is the science correspondent for this faux network. She puts in the only good acting job in this entire film. She outperforms the real journalists. I like to image she watched a lot of news to study.

The first footage of the asteroid hitting was taken while these kids were getting ready to go trick or treating. They’re ok.

This bug-eyed creature was a guy that worked at NASA that the government flew to Johnson Space Center in a jet shortly after the asteroids hit. Why?

…because he’s some sort of experts in aliens, he was in an organization, that searched for extraterrestrial intelligence. Something with aliens.

(mm. The reporter in Houston at Johnson reminds me so much of Cliff from the final seasons of Matlock. If you know you know. )

When I saw that, I was like, give me a break. I almost closed YouTube and forgot about even writing this entry. I thought this was a plausible disaster movie, not an unbelievable alien movie.

Boston Chicken has a new vegetable pot pie with a mashed potato crust. It didn’t look good.

There was a political ad for someone named Frank Mascara.

They drug BILL into this movie. They didn’t make up a fictional president. They said that he was at some conference in Paris. I’m not really cool with them dragging real presidents into their budget made for TV film.

Jane mentioned this meteorite that several people filmed back in October 9 1992. I thought they were making it up, but it really happened. Hit a lady’s car.

I thought this weather and channel ID was part of the movie! Nope, that’s just the local affiliate.

Kimberly is the little girl the newscopter found. I had to laugh at this sign. Why do you love her.

Maybe the aliens are bringing us this sweet Oldsmobile Aurora that was in a commercial break.

Ohhh! The episode of Dave’s World when his son was hit by a car on halloween. I need to watch that episode.

Bug eyes is going against nasa protocol and telling us that more asteroids are coming, and the aliens are bringing them?

Do ‘yall remember that music video with Sting and the silver cowboy aliens. That’s how I imagine those aliens looked like.

There is a plot point that gets swept under the rug. The people in this little town just vanish.

MCI Pam Beesley

…did Continental pay for this? I think they diiid. Jane and Sander bring up how this Continental Lite was one of the last flights to take off because the aliens are interrupting radar.

I didn’t make a screen capture, but at this point, Air Force jets are coming to the North Pole to shoot down those other asteroids that are heading for more populous areas. Right as the jet pilots launch the missiles, the aliens kill em–the pilots saved the day though.

So, the correspondents are watching these missiles blow up the asteroids and they’re obviously trying not to freak out, try not to cry, try not cry while saying goodbye to family members. The guy in the lower left corner sniffles while saying that his 28th birthday is tomorrow. It’s soo cheezy, when the missiles destroy the asteroids all three of the reporters tell him happy birthday.

They need one last report from “Cliff” at Johnson Space Center. uh, Cliff?

It’s either a video game or the aliens are shooting off more asteroids. There’s radio signals all over stating that major metropolitans are gone. How do they know the towns are obliterated though. Maybe they just lost signal.

Most of these movies leave me scared afterward . Not this one. Maybe because we all had our own near end of the world experience this past year with the virus.

Of course, someone fell for it:

On Sunday night, minutes after the vidpic ended, KCBS newswoman Penny Griego stated on the 11 p.m. news, “Dozens of calls came into the Channel 2 newsroom.” 1

A CBS movie about an asteroid striking Earth triggered hundreds of phone calls nationwide Sunday night from confused viewers concerned the depicted events might be true.

[…]

WCCO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis, apologized during its evening news to viewers fooled by the movie, which immediately preceded the newscast.″CBS broadcast disclaimers at every commercial break, but in spite of that we got almost a hundred calls from people alarmed, upset, some in tears,″ said anchorwoman Amy Marsalis. ″We called CBS network. They said they had very few calls from alarmed viewers across the nation, but for those of you who called here, we’re sorry for any bad moments.″ 2

Some 30 viewers phoned Channel 7 during and after the CBS Sunday night movie Without Warning, either to find out if, indeed, the earth had been struck by fragments of a gigantic asteroid or to complain about the network’s audacity.

Although it didn’t match the panic caused in 1938 by Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, some viewers were genuinely upset, according to WHIO-TV station manager Don Kemper.

“One person said, "It scared my mother to death’,” Kemper said. “And (others complained about) the fact that it was irresponsible. But I think people were upset they didn’t know the difference between fiction and reality.”

CBS superimposed a disclaimer saying “None of what you are seeing is actually happening” about every 15 minutes, but the calls still came.

Channel 7 finally added its own message, “This is a dramatization,” midway through the 9-11 p.m. movie.

“We were getting calls, so we just added that just to try to help any viewers who were confused by it,” Kemper said. “We put it on around 9:30, and then we put it on solid for the last hour. CBS had notified us there may be some calls, and I had notified the newsroom. 3

I even found a news report from October 31, 1994 out of South Bend, Illinois!

Review of movie over at We Are Cult

The movie is summarized on some sort of Halloween fandom wiki?

1. Loynd, Ray. “Without Warning.” Variety (blog), November 1, 1994. https://variety.com/1994/tv/reviews/without-warning-1200439570/.

2. AP NEWS. “Disaster Movie ‘Without Warning’ Realistic Enough to Confuse Some Viewers,” October 31, 1994. https://apnews.com/article/8adf3a6d5aa43fd75d6aaa8c0239eb06.

3. "CHANNEL HOPPING VIEWERS UPSET OVER CBS MOVIE ‘WITHOUT WARNING’: [CITY EDITION].” Dayton Daily News, Nov 01, 1994.

434. Child Proof Lighters (June 10, 1993)

Oh right, the other day I was cleaning out my bookmarks in Chrome and I ran across an article (archive) from 1987 I saved for some reason about lawsuits mounting against Bic because of suspected defects in their disposable lighters. Lighters exploded, burning people, and in some cases killing people. Further down in the article, I found this:

In addition to claims that its lighters leak, Bic is also under attack by those who say its lighter should be made “child-resistant.”

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 200 people a year die from lighter-related injuries, and 125 of them are children. At the request of Diane Denton, a burn unit nurse from Louisville, Ky., the commission is considering whether to require that all disposable butane lighters be made child-resistant.

“We have enough data to be concerned, but it will be a while before we decide what should be done.” said James Hoebel, who heads the commission’s inquiry. Ed Lewiecki, who heads an industry group on lighter safety standards, said his group had approved new voluntary standards providing for more tightly controlled flame heights and increased warnings. But, he said, “Making lighters child-resistant is not so simple.”

Bic’s statement said: “Today, to our knowledge, there is no way to manufacture a lighter that works easily for adults and yet foils the advances of children without also destroying the usefulness of the product.”

Buuuut, By 1992, Bic was selling a child proof lighter, after five years of research, and millions of dollars spent 2 …

… but it was a poor seller:

Linda Kwong, a spokeswoman for Bic, said that the company’s child-resistant model retailed for about 10 to 15 cents more than Bic’s regular disposable. It has not sold well, she said. 1

The operating instructions were on the back of that white rectangle card inside the packaging. Linda, again:

Bic goes a step further, hiding its operating instructions inside a safety warning label.

Kwong said the company was being “extra-cautious” because it thought children might be able to read the operating diagram.

“I’m a mom and the engineers who designed this are parents and we know these little ones are smart. We wanted to do everything we can,” she said. 3

The lighter’s description makes it sound like it was difficult to use:

Before a Child-Guard lighter can be ignited, a safety latch must be moved to the side, then up into a special opening. The latch automatically returns to the lock position after each use. 2

Welp, two years later it became mandatory that all lighters become child proof:

Federal regulators, saying that more than 150 lives are lost each year in fires started by children playing with lighters, ordered manufacturers today to make virtually all butane lighters child-resistant.The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted 3 to 0 to require that the lighters be too difficult for most children under 5 to operate. The new standard applies to all disposable butane lighters, inexpensive refillable lighters and novelty lighters that resemble toys or depict cartoon characters. It extends to lighters manufactured abroad as well as domestic lighters.The commission estimates that the new requirement, which will take effect in the summer of 1994, will save at least 100 lives a year. 1

This is a bunch of Bic lighters pre-child proofing mandates:

Note the wheel. This is a current made Bic lighter:

That little smooth wheel is there to prevent weak little kids hands from flicking the wheel. Now I know there are ways to take them off, but I’m not showing that to you guys because I’m responsible.

These are the lighters getting safety tested (commercial). Look at ‘em go:

I wondered how they tested the lighters so kids couldn’t operate them easily. I found it:

To evaluate their effectiveness, lighters are tested with 3- and 4-year-old children.

Children are given lighters that contain no fuel and produce a sound instead of a flame and asked to try to make them work. If unsuccessful after five minutes, they are given a demonstration and asked to try again. If, after five more minutes, 85 percent of the children are unable to operate the lighter, it meets the CPSC standard.

During and after testing, children are told that the only reason they are being allowed to touch the lighter is because it is not real. They are told never to try another one. 3

Oh, and those fancy pants lighters like Calibri were not included in the new mandate. Apparently kids didn’t start fires too often with them. 3

But yet butterflies can.

1. Press, The Associated. “LIGHTERS REQUIRED TO BE CHILD-PROOF.” The New York Times, June 10, 1993, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/10/us/lighters-required-to-be-child-proof.html. (archive)

2. “Bic to Launch a Child-Safe Butane Lighter.” Los Angeles Times, August 26, 1991. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-26-fi-1015-story.html. (archive)

3. Call, JODI DUCKETT, The Morning. “LIGHTERS MUST BE CHILD RESISTANT UNDER NEW PRODUCT-SAFETY RULE.” mcall.com. June 20, 1994. https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1994-06-20-2971551-story.html.

431. Martin Lawrence’s SNL Monologue (2-19-1994)

Wait, how did I get to this subject? Oh, right I was reading one of the final articles on the SNL a Day Blog. In the farewell post, Martin Lawrence’s notorious SNL monologue was listed as one of the items that the author overrated upon his original viewing. For the record, he originally gave the monologue 1 ½ stars. I was trying to remember what Martin had said that was so controversial…something about him lecturing women about their dirty private parts?

No, it’s far worse.

(Because the SNL stage during the “Saturday Night Dead” period in the show’s history is the perfect place to voice your opinion on feminine hygiene.)

The best copy I found of the episode is on archive.org. The episode starts out with Rob Schneider playing Jeff Gillooly!

Martin enters the studio with a phrase I say to myself all the time:

He starts out with a lame bit about Lorena and John Bobbitt. He uses the strangest term I’ve ever heard for male genitalia: pilly-packers. I know he’s trying to get around the censors, and he said at the beginning that they’re on him a lot these days, but pilly-packers?

He makes up a story about a brother finding the penis, and putting it on a snow-cone to preserve it:

And he thought, and he said “what would a white man do, what would a white man do?” You know, and the first thing came to the brother’s head was get it on ice, you know. So he saw an ice cream truck, you know, threw the pilly-packer on some sno-cones, you know. It scares me so bad I don’t go to bed without a Nutty Buddy by my side, y’all.

I had forgotten how it was really found, so I looked it up, and turns out the cops did put it on ice … and put it in a big bite hot dog box. really?

Let me prepare you for what happens next, when this episode later aired in repeats this pops up after the Bobbitt bit:

But if you were watching on the East Coast, the night it aired, this is what you got:

(source)

Something else concerns me and it hurts, see I’m, I’m single, I’m a single man, I don’t have nobody, I’m looking for somebody and- but I’m meeting a lot of women out there, and you got some beautiful women, but you got some out there that, uh, I gotta say somethin’. Um… some of you are not washing your ass properly.* (laughter & applause) OK? Don’t- don’t get me wrong, not all, some of you, you know what I’m sayin’, uh… I’m sorry, ‘Cause uh, listen, now, I don’t know what it is a woman got to do to keep up the hygiene on the body I know, uh, I’m watching douche commercials on television, and I’m wonderin’ if some of you are reading the instructions. I don’t think so. Y’know, ’cause I’m getting with some of the ladies, smelling odors, going “Wait a minute. (gestures with index finger) Girl, smell this! This you! Smell yourself, girl.

Smell yourself! I tell a woman in a minute, douche! douche! Some women don’t like when you tell them that, when you straightforward with them. “Douche!” They, (imitating woman) “Forget you! You cannot douche all the time, you’re gonna wash all the natural juices out the body.”

I say, well, I don’t give a damn what you do, put a Tic-Tac in your ass. Put a Cert in your ass. Oh, oh, y’know, this look like a good damn place for a Stick-up up in your ass.

I’m sorry, y’all. You got to wash properly. You know, and then, you know, ’cause I’m a man, I like to kiss on women, you know, I like to kiss all over their bodies, you know. But if you’re not clean in your proper areas I can’t… you know… kiss all over the places I wanna kiss. You know, some women’ll let you go down, you know what I’m sayin’, knowin’ they got a yeast infection. (Some audience disgust) I’m sorry. Sorry. Come up with dough all on your damn lip… Got a bagel and a croissant on your lip. “Anybody got any butter?” I like jelly on mine.

—

I love that the transcriber put “some audience disgust”. When Martin said, “Yeast infection”, this one lady definitely yelled out, “EW!”

Welp, the calls started coming in on the East Coast. 117 complaints 1. Speaking of which, who calls who when they want to complain? The local channel? the FCC? Martin did the hygiene routine in dress rehearsal, telling the audience that he knew he couldn’t do it live. 3 Well, he did it anyway.

On the West Coast, parts were silenced out 3. Here is a post from 1994 to the alt.snl.tv newsgroup:

In the aftermath, Martin’s appearance on the Tonight Show later on that week was canceled, much to the objection of host Jay Leno. 2

1. AP NEWS. “NBC Official Apologizes to Affiliates for ‘Saturday Night Live’ Gaffes.” Accessed April 18, 2021. https://apnews.com/article/ae84c412a4639129423fa1e5e8a3d4e1.

2. “Martin Lawrence: Dr. Dirt or Mr. Clean? : Barred by NBC, He’s Generally Blue on Stage but Not on TV.” Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1994. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-03-08-ca-31550-story.html, https://archive.is/Z5Wks#selection-1991.9-2004.0

3. Mink, Eric. “NBC Says `SNL’ Host Broke Promises on Monologue.” Tulsa World. Accessed April 18, 2021. https://tulsaworld.com/archive/nbc-says-snl-host-broke-promises-on-monologue/article_486f1b9c-6d60-5a44-933e-4b96d3f218f3.html.

418. The Daily Press “Venom Line”

Back in the early to mid 90s, my hometown newspaper, Daily Press (out of Newport News, Virginia) had this Friday magazine in the newspaper titled Inroads. Inside there were ads and articles about entertainment in the Peninsula area of Hampton Roads. All the places in the ads are long gone, died along with the 90s. Among the ads for strip clubs and the Nsect Club, there was the Venom Line where people would leave voicemails complaining about this, that and the other.

With the exception of the racist and homophobic messages, (duh), its almost refreshing to read about these complaints from 25+ years ago while we deal with Covid, etc.

I mean, complaints about Barney and Beavis & Butthead? Refreshing.

*ackutually*, my college, Mary Baldwin University DID do that back in 1995, with the addition of the VWIL (Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership) program. No boys allowed. When I was at Mary Baldwin (ten years ago), about once a week the VWIL students would got VMI for more classes.

At first, I thought this person meant that back of the Pearl Jam Ten shirt. So I googled, and I think they’re referring to this shirt.

By the time I was in high school, about 8 years after this was printed, I thought it was strange whenever people I knew announced they were going to Christopher Newport University. Why go away to college ten minutes from your house?

Pinto problems.

aw, back when people hated Conan. *cries* This was from April, May of 1993, right when it was announced he was taking over David Letterman’s spot. I guess that one person died in 2015.

I unfortunately do not have this hairy underarm ad this guy is referring to.

Gaucho Queen? Did she wear those pants? Is she tacky? Clogs were briefly in during this phase in the 90s.

Oh! This was back when one of the local malls, Patrick Henry in Newport News, imposed a “no kids unless they’re with their parents” rule. I need to look more into this one. I was in 5th grade at the time, and I thought “oh my god, that mall must be a rough and tumble place if the kids are banned!”. I was a stupid kid.

This was also back when kids with cars could leave school and get lunch. Yeah, that don’t happen in the town I’m from anymore. My high school stopped it around 93 or 94 when a boy was stabbed by another boy who had came from a rival high school during his lunch break. The poor kid died.

Line Dancing was so popular in ‘93, ‘94 that apparently Patrick Henry Mall had it on Wednesday Nights?!

I wish I knew what commercial they were talking about?? I found one where a blonde twit tattooed the price of a $1.49 chicken bbq sandwich on his arm, but no 99¢ twit.

That one is 100% true. z104 was my radio station back then.

I get that Pasquale joke, I used to read Rose is Rose.

379. 1994 in Aviation (United States)

In 1994, 328 Americans died in 34 commercial airplane crashes (large and small airliners and planes). 1

For comparison, (from my research) 1 person died on a commercial plane in the United States in 2018.

USAir had two plane crashes in three months. This was flight 1016, which crashed due to a microburst, and 37 out of the 52 passengers died.

I took 4 ½ years to determine that this September 8th USAir crash was caused by a rudder malfunction, killing all 132 passengers on board. (news coverage).

Investigators and recovery workers had to wear biohazard suits at the wreck due to the spread of body parts at the crash site. 2 They also were ordered to get hepatitis shots. 3

A single airline lost 169 passengers in one Summer. The airline had five crashes in five years 4

American Eagle also had two plane crashes within months of each other. One was flight 4184 in October which I mentioned years ago when I mentioned the Gillian Anderson why planes crash FOX special. Flight 4184 crashed because the wings on the plane iced up.

The other was in December when a tiny American Eagle turboprop plane crashed, killing 15 people. Before flying for American Eagle, the pilot resigned under pressure from another airline.

–

1. “How Safe is this Flight?” Newsweek, April 24, 1995, 20. http://archive.is/WP01R

2. Cushman, John H, “CRASH OF FLIGHT 427: THE INVESTIGATION; Transportation Officials Defend USAir’s Record,” New York Times, September 10, 1994. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/10/us/crash-flight-427-investigation-transportation-officials-defend-usair-s-record.html

3. Kifner, John, “CRASH OF FLIGHT 427: THE CRASH SITE; ‘A Horrifying Scene of Destruction’ Leaves Emergency Crews Shaken,” New York Times, September 10, 1994. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/10/us/crash-flight-427-crash-site-horrifying-scene-destruction-leaves-emergency-crews.html

4. “THE MYSTERY OF USAIR 427,” Newsweek, September 18, 1994. http://archive.is/V8IaW

338. Olympics Notebook — Reporters Lining Up For Harding’s Mail Call (February 25, 1994)

Seattle Times News Services

LILLEHAMMER, Norway – In what was described as a “stupid, foolish mistake,” perhaps as many as 100 American journalists peeked into figure skater Tonya Harding’s private electronic mailbox at the Olympics.

However, the U.S. Olympic Committee is satisfied that at least three of them never read any of the messages, said Mike Moran, USOC director of public information.

“It was a spur-of-the-moment thing after we got back from having pizza at 2 a.m.,” said Michelle Kaufman of the Detroit Free Press, one of the few who openly acknowledged looking into Harding’s mailbox. “Someone said they heard this was Tonya’s code and we wondered if it would work.”

The electronic information system is available to all members of the so-called “Olympic family” – athletes, coaches, journalists, officials. It contains routinely updated reports on sports, weather, transportation, press conferences and general news, as well as a method of sending and receiving messages.

Access to a mailbox is restricted by a code number and password. Some reporters apparently have seen Harding’s code number on an enlarged image of her credential.

“But we never opened any messages,” Kaufman said. “There were none sent under her name. We made a joke – something about her not being smart enough to figure out how to get to her mail – and closed the file and walked away. It couldn’t have lasted for more than a minute.”

Ann Killion of the San Jose Mercury News and Jere Longman of the New York Times also were in the group.

“I’m not saying it was right,” Kaufman said. “Looking back on it, I would not do it again. But we weren’t the only ones who had this number and who tried it to see if if would work. I could give you the names of 10 to 15 others who also opened Tonya’s mailbox, but now are mostly trying to cover their tracks. A lot of people had those numbers – reporters, editors, photographers and officials.”

Notes

– When figure skater Nancy Kerrigan joined David Letterman’s mom, Dorothy, for an interview, the most probing questions concerned cocoa. “Do you like cocoa?” asked Dorothy. “Would you like a cup?” The skater replied: “No thanks.” After Kerrigan described a triple lutz, Dorothy hit her with the follow-up question: “Are you sure you wouldn’t like some cocoa?” Again, the skater declined.

“Olympics Notebook – Reporters Lining Up For Harding’s Mail Call,” Seattle Times, February 25, 1994. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940225&slug=1897136

336. “New Year’s Eve is Big Movie Night” (12/31/1994 Lakeland Ledger)

(source)

I know this lonely girl will be watching some media on New Year’s Eve.

335. “Hair for the Holidays” (Milwaukee Sentinel, December 9, 1994)

(source)

When I saw this headline, all I could think about was:

Season two Homer would have liked some hair for the holidays.

Wasn’t there like, a parody of one of those Hair Club for Men commercials where a guy who got hair again said something like, “and now the chicks are back!” Or was that a real hair club for men commercial?!

330. “A User’s Guide to Slip Dresses” (Allure, May 1994)

i wanted a slip dress so bad when I was 11, 12 years old. The most close I ever got was some sewn together white t-shirt + green floral slip dress WalMart was selling in the Summer of 1995 right as the trend was dying.

Yeah, it was similar to the one the lady in the cigarette ad from the same magazine is wearing.

Yes, Catherine, the doll look was big at this time, and into the Spring of 1995. With the thigh high stockings and the shiny Mary Jane shoes. I wanted those thigh highs too, back then, but you know, I was 12, and fat.

Lace (white!) bike shorts you guys. Lace.bike.shorts.

This is how I associate the black slip dress, with a white top of some sort underneath it.

So many white socks. Like the bagged sock aisle at walmart in present day.

Pair your black slip dress with:

I just realized, I accidentally put that yellow arrow there. Ignore that.

black eyeliner. Molton Brown doesn’t make makeup anymore.

White shoes.

~~I could’ve sworn I posted an article earlier this year about white shoes coming back in style in 1995, but now I can’t find it. I can’t get the archive to pull up right now.~~ Here it is.