A Bit About Me

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Along with my daily duties as founder and head writer of HumorMeOnline.com, in 2003, I took the Grand Prize in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (also known as the "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" competition). I've also been a contributor to "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and the web's "The Late Show with David Letterman". I also occupy my time writing three blogs, "Blogged Down at the Moment", "Brit Word of the Day" and "Production Numbers"...and my off-time is spent contemplating in an "on again/off again" fashion...my feable attempts at writing any one of a dozen books. I would love to write professionally one day...and by that I mean "actually get a paycheck".
Showing posts with label Marilyn Monroe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marilyn Monroe. Show all posts

06 December 2014

Hollywood Re-do-over and Over and Over...



I'm going to get back in the swing of things and start updating this again.  I think not writing makes me more depressed.  With that said, I belong to a "Classic Film Page" on Facebook, and about a month ago we started playing "a game".  This game was pretty much the same as many of the contests at my humour website, HumorMeOnline - specifically the "Tweak of the Week" contest, where I invented a LOT of contests featuring films.

While I don't have the passwords (long story - go ahead and ask) to update my contests any more, a couple people decided to monopolize the thread on the old film page and "tweaked" a film title and the plot as well -- and then sat back and waited for people to laugh and laugh.  Well, that last part didn't happen too much, but I saved a lot of my movies for purposes such as "Updating My Blog One Day" and that time, anyone who is reading this now,  is now.  I hope you smile at least a little with one or two of these.  Also, it helps if you know OLD films.


"The Wizard of Ozzie" -- Ozzie Osbourne sets off on a journey with a couple roadies to find his brain...but, along the way...the Wicked Witch of the Rest...of Black Sabbath -- tries to foil his plans by making him fall asleep on a field of opium poppies. When he wakes up, Ozzie totally forgets what he was doing (easy to do without a brain) and now is too "paranoid" to continue...muttering incoherently to himself and calling out, "Sharon! Can you ******* believe it.? Poppies!"

Okay, I think you get the gist of it...I will continue...on and on and on...kinda like when I talk.  ;)


The King and A.I. -- Yul Brynner plays the King of Siam who hires a robotic boy to teach his children English. As time passes he begins to care for this child and would like to adopt him as his own. And, as a sign of good faith, decides he, too, will learn the ways of the boy's land...in fact...changing the whole culture of Siam and renaming it (yes, wait for it)..."Westworld".
Mr. Blandings Un-Builds His Dream House -- Cary Grant and Nathan Lane team up for uproarious farce about a couple of guys who have to take apart a glorious house, piece by piece, in rural Connecticut just to rid the place of a pig. Armed with an arsenal of weaponry all along the way they continually try to pummel the poor porcine to death to no avail -- until their sassy maid steps in, hands them each a baseball bat and remarks, "If you ain't going 'wham', you ain't killing ham!


S*it Happened One Night -- Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert are at it again in this sequel to "It Happened One Night" - but, due to them both being on an alcohol bender, neither knows what happened -- all they DO know is that something happened because they both wake up in jail. Going before the judge, the still somewhat drunk and quite profane Gable (probably influenced by Carole Lombard who was known to curse like a sailor) retorts, "Well, judge...s*it happens! In fact s*it happened one night!" Everyone laughs and the judge, who is clearly on the payroll of Ellie's rich father, let's them all go.

Don't forget to stay tuned for the sequel to the sequel, hitting theatres this summer: "S*it Happened One Night Again?"



This might be my personal favourite:



"Snow White and the Se7en Dwarves" -- You thought sloth, greed, gluttony, lust, pride, wrath, and envy where bad? A young and innocent girl comes to learn the ways of seven little men when she enters "The Cottage". Set among a pleasant forest back
drop dwell a group so depraved mere words cannot describe. Led by someone they call "Doc" -- they all whistle a happy tune while scenes too shocking and too disturbing unfold. We WILL NOT be held responsible for what happens after you sit down. Dare you set foot inside your own local theatre this coming Thanksgiving Day? The screams you hear just might be your own.
This film is rated PG Se7enteen.


Or maybe this one is:



"A Bard's Day Night" -- The "Fab Four" are off on another escapade, but this time, the English they're speaking is Shakespeare! Yes, you heard it right, all you mods and rockers -- instead of John asking, "Please mister, can we have our ball back?" and George saying "I wouldn't be seen dead in them. They're dead grotty." they'll be saying such gems as, "What round orb through yonder window breaks? Please, O kind and most noble sir, can we perchance have it back?" and "I'd gladly suffer the sting of a bare bodkin to mine own eyes and pluck them hither to lie with my worm'ed corpse ere I'd touch the skin of that fabric to mine own nakedness!"


So get on board with "The Beatles" as they prove yet again...all the world's their stage and they are merely players...of their new hit album due out in record stores, January 5th!


"Quits a Wonderful Life" -- George Bailey's bank is missing $8000.00 and he figures life would indeed be easier for his family if he just ended it all after the town bully/curmudgeon reminds him that he's "worth more dead than alive." An angel steps in to intervene and ends up tagging along relentlessly all day and nite, constantly droning on and on and on and on. George then realizes the only way to get him to shut up already is to go back to the bridge and actually finish off what he originally planned.



Or maybe I like this one -- I know it's one of my top three:


"My Bare Lady" -- Professor Henry Higgins takes a draggle-tailed guttersnipe under his wing to teach her the proper way to speak the English language. Unfortunately, Colonel Pickering never showed up from India and, without his help, Higgins never seems to have any money to clothe her. Let's just say there was a bit more "bloomin' arse" at Ascot than anyone ever expected.



"Beer Window" -- Jimmy Stewart spends his days and nites stuck in a cast, stuck in his apartment, and stuck drinking copious amounts of alcohol the entire day. To occupy his time he's taken to staring at the every movements of his neighbours across the way with a pair of binoculars. When he happens to witness a murder committed by a beautiful girl, who turns out to be a middle-aged somewhat unattractive man, his girlfriend and physical therapist confiscate his high-power "beer goggles" and toss him out the window.


Not bad for a film I've never seen or really heard of...Google is a wonderful thing...



"Come Back, Little Bieber" -- Burt Lancaster and Shirley Booth star in this poignant story about an alcoholic doctor and his disinterested wife, who spends her days just listening to crappy songs on the radio for escapism. After they take in an attrac
tive female lodger, things get moving fast...but then one day, without her knowledge, Doc gets rid of the radio but tells her it's in the shop getting fixed. She then spends the rest of her life having hope that one day her "Little Bieber" will indeed return to her.


"The Man in the Green Mask" -- What do you get when you put Jim Carrey in dual roles in Alexandre Dumas' classic tale? Well, we're not quite sure...but it's SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSMOKIN'! ! Yes, Jim plays twin brothers separated at birth in this in this tale about intrigue, morality, vengeance, and well, just plain hi-jinks thrown in for laughs. When King Louis XIV finds out about his twin, he has him imprisoned and condemned to wear a green mask over his head so no one can ever gaze upon his face again. But things don't go as the King plans, as the mask he puts on his brother is none other than that of Loki, Norse God of Mischief. Hilarity ensues when the Three Muskateers enter in upon the scene and switch the characters around. A swashbuckling...over in your seat with laughter...film!


"The Sound of Muzak" -- Maria gets "trapped" in the elevator with the kids and is forced to hear her own songs as sung by Austrian "singer" Arnold Worsethanever.


"Paws" -- Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw star in this fast-paced, seat-of-your pants film which will have you terrified you ever went near the water. A giant white cat needs to be bathed and people are getting terrified to go near the water with her in it. Hear the blood-curdling screams as the water fills with red as the claws extend from...those paws! Shaw steps in and takes the challenge head-on, rigging a giant raft on which to hold her steady as they try to aim and shoot water from a hose at her...but the tiny inflatable is no match as she unsheathes them once again -- prompting Brody to state..."You're gonna need a bigger float."



"Goodzilla" -- Tokyo's favourite monster is back...but this time, instead of smashing the city up...he's helping to rebuild it! When a massive 7.8 earthquake hits, Goodzilla comes out of the sea...to see what he can do to help! Yes, he's letting kids ride on his back to take them to school and helping stranded people off their apartment rooftops so they don't end up late to work...in fact he's so good, even the mouths synch up with the words this time! So, for a devastating...ly good time...be sure to watch this film! We're sure Goodzilla would say, "Domo arigato, everyone!"

Yes...I loved playing this...could you tell?


"My Plan Godfrey" -- Society socialite, Carole Lombard, has a plan to wed a likeable forgotten man, played by William Powell in this madcap and zany screwball comedy. Powell, we find out later, was from a super rich family himself and ends up helping to restore the riches from her father whose stock tumbled in the market. Lombard's bitter, spoiled sister, Cornelia (played by Gail Patrick) learns a lesson in humility and trust. In the end Carole ends up with her man, as originally planned.
Yes, this was the exact same story as the real movie -- but then again...that was her plan, right? The titles could have been used interchangeably if you ask me.


"Bell Book and Candelabra" -- Liberace (kinda) stars in this tale about a man who is annoyed at the fact his hated friend is marrying the guy next door...so he casts a spell over him. After tinkling on the ivories a bit and saying a few incantations the man is suddenly under his spell...or is he? Michael Douglas reprises his role as Liberace and Matt Damon plays the love interest...just like in "Behind the Candelabra" only this one is a bit different. No, seriously, it is. No fooling. Honestly. We promise.


"You Can't Take it with Pooh" -- Christopher Robin's gang of friends are being kicked out the "Hundred Acre Wood" because the big real estate people want to put huge stores and fancy apartment buildings up in it. Winnie and pals are delightfully zany in this film as rabbit blows stuff up in his rabbit hutch...and Tigger dances up a mad frenzy in the living room with Piglet -- all the while Christopher (now a grown man) is trying to impress his quite rich fiance's parents who show up on the wrong day. They even send poor Eeyore to the store to buy some canned salmon because there's nothing in the house to eat...Grandfather Pooh sees to that -- he's always got a rumbly in his tummy. By the time Eeyore moseys on back after walking one hundred acres and back again...the damage is already quite done. Will true love conquer all? Will the "Hundred Acre Wood" still remain...or will it end up only being "Owl's Little Acre" in the end?


"Last Mango in Paris" -- Marlon Brando is a very hungry American ex-pat living in Paris -- desperately walking the streets day and nite looking for a mango to eat. When he finally does find one...it's old and very, very fuzzy.


I rather liked this one, too -- altho I might go to Hell for it:



"The Zen Commandments" -- Charlton Heston IS Buddha in this Cecil B. DeMille production. Watch as he leads dynasty after dynasty to enlightenment while trying to be stopped by Yul Brynner at an airport. "He is the one...who is one with everything!" Yul finally declares as he is brought down helplessly to his knees. A film of not really Biblical proportions really...coming to a theatre this Christmas. Um...can we say that? Christmas...really? Buddhists don't celebrate...uh...well...be sure to see it soon!



"Thinner at Eight" -- A stellar cast shines in this glorious comedy all about a wonderful dinner party at affluent Milicent Jordan's house (played by Billie Burke). The trouble is...people are cancelling, they have an extra man coming, and, of all things that could go wrong -- the aspic just got dropped! Jean Harlow is wonderful as the bawdy glamourpuss from the wrong side of track trying to crack into high society with her low-brow workaholic husband, played by Wallace Beery. Marie Dressler is a riot knowing her looks are failing and so is her pocketbook if she doesn't unload some of her dear friend's (played by Lionel Barrymore) worthless stock she possesses. When everything comes to a head...right before dinner...and since that aspic was dropped - everyone gets to go home empty-stomached...but also a little bit lighter in their loafers. (Hey, "gay" used to mean a whole other thing in the 30s, too...so you know...they WERE actually lighter in their loafers - as no one got fed.)


"2001: A Space Oddity" -- David Bowie stars as "Major Tom" in this super stylized version of Kubrick's classic...but with a twist -- it's part musical. HAL's not the only one singing "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true..." this time around. And for those of you who are wondering...no need to worry -- David doesn't get nearly as naked as he did in "The Man Who Fell to Earth".


"Rosemary's Bringing Up Baby" -- Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are newlyweds in this sequel to the original...and she's about to give birth! They, of course, move in next door to some wacky neighbours who seem to be over more often than George likes. (You know how animals are always sensitive to these things.) As Cary finishes up his (now defunct - because they never existed) brontosaurus, Kate's about to give birth...to something that even Major Applegate can't flex his vocal chords enough to reproduce that sound. Hilarity abounds and will have you spinning...almost as often as that darned baby of their's head does!


"Rebel Without a Pause" -- James Dean stars in this motion picture about a teen who is filled with angst against society, his family, and his newly found out about past. He's so enraged that he gets on a rant and goes on and on and on and on; a never-ending diatribe, which...no one around him manages to ever get a word in edgeways.

(Yes, it's kinda like me once I get started. You should hear me on the phone...I NEVER shut up. )



Granted, some of these are not that great...


"Dr. No Thank You" -- Sean Connery stars in this James Bond spy thriller about an overly polite megalomaniac (played by Joseph Wiseman) who just can't breech the rules of etiquette. "I'm sorry...where are my manners? Please sit down and help yourself to this sumptuous meal my chef prepared just for you before I kill you...ever so sorry about that, old chap. Tut tut tut...that's the wrong fork, sir. Yes...no no - the one to your extreme left...remember, always work your way from the outside inwards as each course is brought 'round."


And some are just really not even remotely good...


"Vertiligo" -- James Stewart stars as a retired police detective in this film about obsession, who also happens to have a skin condition which causes him to lose pigmentation. He meets and falls in love with the stunning Kim Novak...but, there's only one problem -- she's not as blonde as he'd like her...so he forces her to de-pigmentize her own lovely brown locks in order to suit his obsessive desires.


"Mommy" -- Ann-Margret does more acting this time around than Roger Daltrey in the "prequel" to the hit musical, "Tommy". Find out the reason behind why there are bubbles, chocolate, and baked beans coming out of the television -- and why she's writhing in them like a drunken nympho. Find out why they cast Jack Nicholson in a film where he had to sing when clearly he can't. And, find out why creepy Uncle Ernie likes to fiddle about so much. (Just, whatever you do, don't Google this yourself -- or you'll end up like Pete Townshend did a few years back.)


Some require a bit more thought than others...



"Ben Hurdles" -- Charlton Heston stars in this all-star epic film set in ancient Rome. He plays a Jewish King sent into slavery by his former Christian friend who betrays him and sells him into slavery. As he seeks to get revenge there is a climactic "Chariots of Fire" moment where he runs as fast as he can, sprinting over hurdles, to beat all the other racers and win the gold medal in the ancient Olympics.

And some require less thought to be good...


"Planet of the Grapes" -- Charlton Heston stars as an astronaut who ends up crashing his rocket ship into the lush vineyards of San Simian. Everywhere he looks there are drunk people wandering around making monkeys of themselves and no one makes the least bit of sense to him. Kim Hunter co-stars as Zima.


Proof positive that not everything I think of at 4:00 a.m. is witty beyond belief -- as I always think it is when I think of it...at 4:00 a.m. -- but, at least I have enough wits about me at the time to realize it...


"Bedsnobs and Broomsticks" -- A witch in WWII Britain comes to the aid of her country all the while caring after two children who still have to remain prim and proper and have high tea and pip-pip cheerio, old chap! Yes, this film is jam packed (the finest money can buy in wartime Britain, you know) with hob-snobbery and snoot-hootieness. Even the animated fish have more class in their schools than they do in the U.S. (Sorry - it's late.)


"Dromio and Juliet" -- A couple of Shakespearean twins (played by Roger Daltrey), separated at birth, woo Juliet at the same time...all unbeknowst to her. One woos from the east and one woos from the west...only no one knows which is best. Juliet is so confused that, by the end of the play, she kills herself - but, in a most farcical kind of way.

Almost done, I promise...


"The Seven Year Snitch" -- Tom Ewell is a married man thinking about having an affair with a gorgeous blonde who lives above him after his wife and son go out of town for the summer. Marilyn Monroe plays the blonde who, oddly and ironically, has no name. Good thing she has no name as she's debating whether to tell his wife about it all...and since she's nameless...the disgruntled Ewell can never track her back down to retaliate.


"Forrest Chump" -- Tom Hanks plays a man who has always been picked on and taken advantage of his entire life. But he's in the Army now...and things really haven't much changed...but, he makes a really good friend, gets a girlfriend, and meets a bunch of famous people -- and ends up being rich in the end. And that, boys and girls, is definitely not chump change.


This is where I officially "Jumped the Shark"...


"House on Daunted Hill" -- Haunts, taunts, and especially daunts...this film has them all! Vincent Price plays a millionaire who offers people a bunch of money to stay in a spooky mansion overnite. The one who manages to do it will get the dough...but a lot of eerie things happen and it's much more daunting a task than they all initially considered.


"Peyton Manning Place" -- The soap opera secrets and scandals revolve around the town quarterback and his brother, Eli, who plays for a whole other team...if you catch my drift.


Altho I do like this one...which, fortunately for everone (at least for now) is my last...



"Slow Up" -- A 60s British photographer gets caught up in intrigue in the mod London scene when he snaps a posh bird in a toast and lark and gets his knickers in a twist over a tuggy muggy over some bangers and mash with his fiver in a twill.

Yes...yo
u'll not have a clue what is happening in this film...so bring along your Cockney Rhyming Slang to American dictionary and hit that pause button about 5,000 times, otherwise this thing just doesn't make a bit of "eighteen pence".



Anyway, there ya go -- I think some of these were quite fun.  At least I had fun coming up with them.  Ahhhh...it made me wax nostalgic...for old films and for an old comedy website I used to (and still do, technically) run.





       

05 July 2010

...and now for something completely different...

There was some "stuff" going on at the Montgomery Advertiser's blog site which got quite a few people misquoted and misinterpreted and such...so that's why I wrote this blog. Just ignore the first part and skip to the "question" part. I'd love to see what everyone out there answers to these two questions as well. :)


I thought it would be fun to head away from the "blogger" inspired blogs saying who did what and who didn't do what and who said something they didn't at all mean that way...to find out more about our fellow bloggers here on the paper.

Of course, no one has to read this or comment/participate...but I think it would be fun if we knew something about each of you other than the bios that are up there and the comments that you make.

So...I thought a couple questions might shed some insight about what makes each of us tick...and might make us realize we have something in common other than blogging.



What are some of your favourite movies and why? (Like which ones you could watch over and over and over again and not grow tired of doing so.)

...and...

What are some of the sites you look at routinely? (Dare I say it...just copy/paste the url of each one...and tell us why you like it.)


I'll go first. :)

Some Like It Hot: Hands down THE best comedy ever in my opinion. I can watch that thing 20 million times (and I probably have) and I STILL see or hear something I missed. It also never fails to make me laugh at all the places it's supposed to make you laugh. I absolutely love this film.

My Fair Lady: Okay, Audrey Hepburn's voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon...but no one could have been as "loverly" an Eliza than her. Love her...love Rex Harrison...love Colonel Pickering...love the entire score - and I DON'T LIKE MUSICALS! That's how much I LOVE this film.

The Shawshank Redemption: It took me about 10 years after this film was made to watch it. Why? I don't know why. If I had to write a film and be known by it - and only one film...it would have been this one. Great...superb writing.

V for Vendetta: See above...only it was about four years before I watched it. Plus the V character ended up doing what I refer to as a "reverse Charlie Chaplin". While wearing a mask and only using his voice - he conveyed more expression than I've ever seen. Chaplin did it the other way around...and was also a genius.

The Fifth Element: Best sci-fi movie ever. I love this film. I love Bruce...I love Gary Oldman...I love the ride. It's a fun movie. Not one boring part.

Idiocracy: Another movie that took me years to see even tho my friend kept telling me how great it was. But he liked that Garfield movie - so I never listened...until he told me it was by the same people who did Beavis and Butthead...then I watched it. It's FABULOUS. I don't think a day has gone by where I don't quote something from this movie. It's also so incredibly...um...prescient. Too much so.

Dinner at Eight: I love old films...if you've not seen this one or The Philadelphia Story or My Man Godfrey...rent them. They don't make them like this anymore...sigh.

Anything with Cary Grant in it.


Okay...URLs I go to:

My comedy website:
http://www.HumorMeOnline.com - it's funny. Some of the best people in the world - yes world play my site. They are so incredibly witty - let's see YOU top them. :)

http://www.IMDb.com - The Internet Movie Database. I love this site - I am a trivia buff and movie trivia is something I have always gravitated towards. Hands down the best - I can get lost in there clicking and clicking and clicking.

http://www.Epicurious.com - The best cooking/recipe site out there. None even remotely come close...I don't know why others even try. And I love to cook - so this is the place for me.

I didn't want to post anything bloggy - but my friend, Chris...honestly is the best blogger in the universe. If I could write like him...well, judge for yourselves:
http://www.knuckleheadhumor.com/

There are others out there - but those are the ones I pretty much go to on a daily basis.


How about everyone else?

24 January 2010

History - It Is What You Make It: Blogger Idol - Round 4


Damn you, Philip Marder!

Mr. Marder was my eighth grade History teacher...and while I am cursing him right now...he is no way to blame. Let me elucidate...

I loved Mr. Marder. He was this dark-haired guy who always wore a burgundy suit on Friday, and sported mutton-chop sideburns...sideburns invented (or at least made famous) by Ambrose Burnside (don't believe me, look it up)...and thanks to Mr. Marder I remember silly historical trivial tidbits like those. (I'll be doing a lot of "thanking" later on, by the way.)

He'd come up with all sorts of gimmicks which we thought were just plain stupid to get us to remember facts and figures. We'd roll our eyes at such "beauties" as this one...

"Where are we going?"
"Bearing straight."
"Get it 'Bering Strait'?"

Silly perhaps, but I still remember those idiotic mnemonic devices after all these years. And I still remember he had a friend who worked in the Archives and History Department in Washington, DC, who would smuggle out all kinds of films to him in 1974 that any school system nowadays would get sued over watching. They were...in a word...fascinating. Shocking, in your face realism...but it was history and you couldn't deny it...there it was...in black and white archival format...and I sat there mesmerized.

With a flick of the lights and a flip of a film projector switch, he did something no other teacher before him...or after...could manage to do...until The History Channel came along: he made history interesting.

In fact, thanks to him I owe a debt of gratitude...I love documentaries. I eat them up. Give me anything on Egypt, mummies (peat bog or regular), Kennedy conspiracy theories, Tunguska, UFOs, icebergs melting, global warming, the history of distilling (hey, I'm still fond of all things distilled), the Romanovs, Newton, Einstein, Euclid, and Copernicus. The list literally goes on and on.

I am like a deer in headlights. I love them. And for a long time I went without.

Then came things like NOVA and Carl Sagan's Cosmos Series. Oh, how I loved Carl when I was young. Then there was nothing...there was a void...and then came A&E's "Biography"...and I was again hooked. Discovery Channel had pyramids and The History Channel had bi-planes and Hitler. Well, those last two I could do without -- but the first couple years, that's all The History Channel had to offer. Then it graduated to Civil War...which wasn't very civil, by the way...but it somehow it piqued my interest again.

History, I found, could indeed be interesting again.

Mr. Marder you have now met your match!

For years, between episodes of Seinfeld and Frasier, I was enraptured. I could always tune into A&E for a show like "Cold Case Files" (years before CSI, there was Cold Case Files) - and I could watch...until the wee hours of the night...all sorts of things. Jack the Ripper theories abounded. So did Tutankhamen ones. Who killed Kennedy? Who killed Rasputin? Who killed Marilyn?

The field was wide open...and so were my eyes.

Then, just when it started to get really good...

...it ended.

A&E's "Biography" ran out of people it seemed. They started doing biographies about...people I didn't care about. They went from the guy who invented Ford's assembly line...to the guy who invented the straws they put on juice drink packages. What the??

Then it was the Discovery Channel. My channel about diseases and medical things and scientific paraphernalia...was tanking. Slowly I was discovering it was turning into the reality show channel.

"Engineering an Empire"...went more to engineering a gang...when "Gangland" started up...and I still haven't a clue what "The Dog Whisperer" does...nor do I care. And I have no idea how many "Dirty Jobs" they can do...I think they exhausted their supply and are now down to "the guy who picks the straws up off the floor on the juice box assembly line".

"Ice Road Truckers"? Let me guess. Truckers who drive on ice? How many different variations on this theme can we get? Okay...there's a lot of ice...there's a big truck. Episode One: Battery doesn't start. Episode Two: Truck slides off road. Episode Three: Truck falls through ice. Episode Four: Um...truck slides off road AND his battery doesn't start...ad infinitum...ad nauseum.

"Monster Quest"? About as entertaining as when I saw it all before...IN 1979! "Nothing new ever happens here...move along people."

But I had hope. "Mythbusters" still survived...until it went from being the "Jamie and Adam" show to the "Three Other People No One Cares About" show. All I can remember is that one year they went from interesting topics like "Can you really get your tongue stuck on a pole like in "A Christmas Story"? and "Can you get your butt stuck on a toilet at 30,000 feet?" to totally far-fetched, cockamamie ideas like "Can you actually eat just one Lays potato chip?" and "Can thunking a watermelon predict doneness?" Oh yeah...myth busted! I'm sooooo glad I watched Cary Grant and Tory this time around. (Yes, I know it's "Kari, Grant and Tory" - I just always think of Cary Grant when they say that and how livid he would be if he saw one of these episodes.) I'd like to see more episodes where logical myth things are blown up, and less other stupid stuff...oh, wait, I've got something really stupid for them to blow up: Kari, Grant and Tory! Now that's a show I'd watch for sure.

And I don't know if any of you have noticed...but The History Channel now makes up their own history. It's true. That show "Life After People" isn't even ABOUT history. It's just a play-by-play "as we see it" pre-historical fabrication we're hoping no one will be around in 2013 to dispute. Yes...they are obsessed with the 21 December 2012 Mayan Calendar and everyone's eventual death on that day; and you thought Conan had high ratings...tune in on 20 December 2012 for this "final" episode.

You know - it's bad enough I read Nostradamus' quatrains when I was 14 (thank you, Al Stewart)...and (thanks to a library book on paranormal activity) worried unduly about my premature demise by Spontaneous Human Combustion...but to have to be reminded that I'm going to turn into some Pompeiian-ish cinder right before Christmas two years from now...every single day??? That's a bit much...so thank you, Mayan Calendar Apocalyptical shows...I can't wait until the next 24-hour marathon you've got planned. I'll be there with my remote in one hand and a noose in the other.

Sigh...whatever happened to the good old days where the most you'd have to worry about from watching some documentary is some crop circle in your yard and a sore butt from an alien probing the night before?

So, thank you, interesting history and science documentary channels for morphing your line-ups into some asinine reality show pabulum, and, in essence, giving us "Human Death Race 2012".

And thank you, Mr. Marder for getting me interested in all of this in the first place. While most of these channels stink right now...at least they're not extinct; and there's always hope that "History" (and A&E, and Discovery) will repeat itself.


Seriously, I promised when I first started blogging that I would dedicate one to Mr. Philip Marder. This is it. I don't know if he's still around...but he was the 7th/8th grade History teacher at Laurel Hill School in Browns Mills, New Jersey. If you know him...or ARE him...I'd love to thank you personally. You've instilled a love of history in me that I am forever indebted to you for.



If you liked this blog...please vote for it at Knucklehead's Blog site (link in the image above). Please read all the other contenders as well. If you still like mine, great! Thank you for your vote and your time to read it. I hope my blog was, at the very least, entertaining for everyone. Thank you!

05 July 2009

The "I'll (concede) of Capri" (Part II)

The other day I was on Maxwell Air Force Base and decided I'd go on over to the thrift store there. Oh, don't let it fool you - they have a LOT of brand new stuff there; things with tags even. I highly doubt anyone...at least not most people...would save the tags, wear the clothes for a year or two and then invest in one of those "plastic hang-tag doohickey" devices to pop the tags back on - in order to sell it for a whopping $5.00 instead of $3.00 at the thrift shop.

Well, I'm walking around and I find a couple pairs of pants and then I spy "them" - just hanging there with their tags intact. "Ralph Lauren" blue and white cotton...Capri pants!

But they aren't really Capri pants in the sense of the ones Marilyn Monroe had to change out of in "The Seven Year Itch" because, as Marilyn as "The Girl" says, "You just can't drink champagne in Matador pants." (I originally wrote "Capri" pants...but someone's comment, at another site I post this, got me thinking and I believe she says "Matador"...altho, technically the ones she wore in the film typically were known as "Capris" or "clamdiggers")...





(Actually a pair of Marilyn's own Capri pants at an auction site.)


...but wider, stumpier versions...





(Not mine...but supposedly an actual pair of Ralph Lauren Capri pants, which look totally different from mine, on another auction site.)


As you can tell - these are much less sexy versions...but...the kind that every woman around my age are sporting here in Montgomery, Alabama. And, if you remember my "Part I" blog about them (that blog here)...everyone that is...except me.

I walk away from them...but I am lured back by the $85 price tag still hanging on - angled to face me as if to say "c'mon, I USED to be $85 and now I'm $6.00 - you just gotta...even IF you never wear me".

So, I succumbed and tried them on.

I must interject...a little bit of backstory here...

I belong to an online forum which is predominantly made up of women - and I asked them "WHY? Why would ANY woman wear these God-awful things?" To my astonishment, they were wearing them as well - and LOVED them. Again, I must not have gotten that memo - but it surely was making the rounds...and dammit...I wasn't going to be THE only woman over 40 who didn't own a pair.

I bought them.

I have since worn them several times and, contrary to my self-conscious pre-conceived notions, no one looks at me like I'm an outcast...and not one person stopped in their tracks to point and laugh. To be fair about it, though, no one has come up to me and shown me any secret handshakes or anything. But I have been given multitudes of compliments about them -- so I gather the clandestine aromatherapy candle buying meetings and "Pampered Chef" party invites can't be too far off.