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A Cultural History of Art Bell

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Thumbnail for January 7, 1999: Dates from Hell - Open Lines

January 7, 1999: Dates from Hell - Open Lines

Jan 7, 1999
2h 46m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell opens the phone lines for an all-topics evening and designates a special line for callers to share their worst dating experiences. Listeners recount tales of forgotten concert tickets, disastrous blind dates, jealous roommates, and being thrown out on Christmas Eve in a Montana snowstorm. Art also discusses the Clinton impeachment trial, Y2K preparedness letters from Nevada Power, and a Yale astronomer warning that sun-like stars can produce catastrophic super flares.

Between the dating horror stories, callers weigh in on internet stock valuations, the New World Order, and a creative proposal to place a giant sun filter in orbit to control Earth's climate. Art shares news of El Nino's unexpected persistence, fire ant invasions in Southern California, and FEMA officials urging communities to prepare for potential Y2K disruptions. A caller from Canada reports that military reserves have been denied leave through March 2000 for possible riot control duties.

The broadcast moves freely between the lighthearted and the serious as callers debate why humans have not returned to the moon, whether the Ouija board is dangerous, and what it means when Canadian authorities prepare for civil unrest over Y2K while their citizens remain famously calm.

Key Moments

  1. Stranded the dates 65 miles from home: A caller recounts driving two guys 65 miles to a Ventura, California party. When the men demanded sex and were refused, they got drunk and hit on other women. The two women calmly waited, then locked the doors and drove off without them.

  2. Motel Hell first date, 20 years married: A California caller describes a man she'd known for 15 years finally asking her out - and taking her to the gory horror-comedy Motel Hell, where Farmer John buries victims up to their necks and sells the best-tasting bacon in town. The twist: they've been married almost 20 years.

  3. Center for Occult Awareness monitors Art: A caller identifying as the Center for Occult Awareness phones in to warn Art that they are monitoring his Y2K preparation advice and his giving out of secret numbers. They have downloaded his Millennium Master photo - black robe, MM crown - which Art posted to bait the press into hit pieces.