41-08-01 Good Ol' Ned Burlihy

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN, BILL IDELSON AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

• Fletcher: "That's the truth.  Ned Burlihy spent a whole year learning to like molasses.  See, at his boarding-house the landlady used considerable molasses.  Put molasses on the table every meal. Well, Ned didn't like molasses.  He decided, by George, he'd learn to like it. So he quit his job an' spent a whole year at it.  He finally learned to like molasses, and married a woman seventeen years old. He built a fire an' melted down a bicycle and' offered four dollars cash to anybody that could…"
• Sade arrives home, and Rush tells her Vic's packing for a last-minute business trip to plants all over the Midwest – might last a whole month.
• Rush: "Gov's excited as a horse."
• Fletcher, in the background, rattles off the names of cities Vic is likely to visit.  Sade rushes to help Vic.
• Fletcher: "His landlady put molasses on the table every meal an' Ned didn't like it, and' by George he decided to learn to like it.  So he quit his job an' devoted his entire time to sittin' around in his bedroom with a molasses cruet an' a table-spoon workin' away tryin' his best to enjoy the stuff."
• Vic asks Rush to take notes of things he needs to get done before he leaves in the morning.  Sade tries to calm Vic down as his excitement is near a boil.  Uncle Fletcher gets it in his head Vic will visit Denver.  Fletcher: "Fine.  You'll enjoy your stay there. I knew of a fella in Denver, Colorado went under the name of Spickle. Dead now. Had five pianos to fall on him all at one an' the same time.  I understand his relatives…"
• Vic mentions the Luminous Bituminous chapter of the lodge in Pittston/East Weekly (in Pennsylvania) and wonders if he will be able to meet with them.
• Uncle Fletcher tells Vic if he hits Ishalonga, Alabama he has to drop into Ed Fopper's office and say hello.  "He'll buy ya a big chicken dinner.  At one time Ed owed me over forty dollars..." 
• Mr. Ruebush phones to postpone the start of the trip to the day after tomorrow.  Vic and Sade figure Vic'll be a wreck by then.
• Fletcher to Vic: "I was just tellin' Sadie here about Ned Burlihy there in Union Grove, Illinois.  He taught himself to like molasses.  Took him a whole half-wit year.  But he made the grade.  Ned Burlihy finally learned to like molasses." - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

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The name 'Ned Burlihy' is a play on the name Edward Joseph "Ed" Herlihy, who was the show's announcer during this time period:

He was the announcer for many radio shows from the 1930s, to the 1950s, among them: America's Town Meeting, The Big Show, The Falcon, Mr. District Attorney, and Just Plain Bill. Herlihy became the host of the The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour on radio in 1948, remaining its announcer when the show went to television. He continued his success in the new medium: his early television credits included Sid Caesar's hit Your Show of Shows and soap operas As the World Turns and All My Children. He was also the host of Recollections At 30, which was a special NBC Radio series created for the network's 30th birthday. - Wikipedia