He was gayer than a spring primrose. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But it got old and the colored hair didn't help. Now The Next Food Network Star is down to four and let's discuss this cranky judge who maybe needs a man, you think?
All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet. ============ Bachelorette Jillian encounters a man with, ahem, problems that only a man can have.
It's all double entendre and euphemisms but the funniest part of all….she actually gives the fellow a rose that he can continue on.
All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet. ============ A rant on that Social Security luxury retreat. They learn how to dance on our taxpayer dime and this after Obama sicced his Acorn buddies on AIG for doing the same thing.
Plus the horror of Obamacare. How about that bit that will require all Medicare recipients to file a report every five years about how they'd prefer to die? ============ It's fiction but it will someday be very true as the writer of the diary asserts.
For now, it's up to Youtube to provide a scary but very believable illustration of how marriage will be defined in America's future. ============
Finally we are rid of the preacher of healthy food on the 2009 Next Food Network Star.
The challenge was to make kid's food appealing to adults and adult food appealing to kids. The results were interesting, to say the least.
All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
============ Jillian finally sends home the scum bucket.
We explore the review of this episode and delve into the mystery of the Fantasy Suite.
Do they really "do" it? Or do they just talk all night? Isn't it a bit slutty to be sleeping with all these contenders?
All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet. ============ In Thoughts this week we have Obama news.
For the Commander in Chief is traveling and we have fashion disasters. Only this time it's the Obama DAUGHTER dressed very inappropriately.
And is the President really gawking at that teenaged girl?
The final word on Michael Jackson and time, puleeze, to move on.
============ Two Movie Reviews.
One is of a 1994 movie that captured my fancy one lazy afternoon. It's called "The Paper" and I dream of journalists that might once again have such pride and integrity.
The other is "Ice Age/Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and here's a terrific animated movie, a great story that children will love.
It's no "UP" but adults will like it too.
============ Kaitlyn celebrates 4th of July-earns her first dollar.
The toaster-pocketbook was Drew Parker's fashion idea. She also came up with the living crucifixion of a town smoker as example of what happens to those who dare light up.
Here's a funny fictional(?) story of the discovery of the genius of Drew Parker and how she'll go far from the outrageousness and satire she brings to cherished political ideals.
It's "The Empress Wore Weird Clothes".
============ It's time for yon readers to put their money where their mouth is. We have genuine odds on the remaining contenders for 2009's The Next Food Network Star" along with my own sure bet recommendation.
Teddy the liar finally went home and we narrow down to a field of six in this summer foodie contest that has us all rooting for....who?
With pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet. ============ Heh. Surely the producers of The Philanthropist meant this show to be a comedy. Surely?
It's a liberal's dream show, as far removed from truth and reality as…well most liberal ideas.
We've got a tongue-in-cheek, pokey-fun review.
Also, America's Got Talent continues on and the acts being sent through just boggle the mind. 75 dancing little girls donned in little orphan annie wigs? The judges think they can win this thing?
HGTV's "Showdown" quickly review and dismissed.
All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet. ============ The Bachelorette Jillian's down to four finalists that might be her husband in the near future.
One of them is a snake but fear not, I've got the reason why this guy remains even though he readily admits, on camera, to his snakiness.
Also, he left and now he's back and again, my inside scoop on why Ed bailed out precisely during Home Town visit week.
All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet. ============ In THOUGHTS this week we follow a couple of local Delaware yet very national political players.
Mike Castle, Mr. Republican Cap and Trade, is our Bad Guy of the Week. Our President-to-Be sometime in our future, Beau Biden, gets in his first pot of hot water and we're following this young man as he prepares for the Oval Office.
A couple of Quips of the Week that'll leave you in stitches and we know that young women in bikinis sell stuff handily. But fireworks? ============
He was gayer than a spring primrose. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But it got old and the colored hair didn't help. Now The Next Food Network Star is down to four and let's discuss this cranky judge who maybe needs a man, you think?
All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
============
Bachelorette Jillian encounters a man with, ahem, problems that only a man can have.
It's all double entendre and euphemisms but the funniest part of all….she actually gives the fellow a rose that he can continue on.
All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
============
A rant on that Social Security luxury retreat. They learn how to dance on our taxpayer dime and this after Obama sicced his Acorn buddies on AIG for doing the same thing.
Plus the horror of Obamacare. How about that bit that will require all Medicare recipients to file a report every five years about how they'd prefer to die?
============
It's fiction but it will someday be very true as the writer of the diary asserts.
For now, it's up to Youtube to provide a scary but very believable illustration of how marriage will be defined in America's future.
============
Pic of the Day
Gubmint Health Care.
President Obama is determined, DETERMINED I tell you, to pass his health care plan and lots of folks are already seriously reading the thing.
This is the scariest of all the communist legislation this president has passed or tried to pass. So far, two very odd things have cropped up that are buried deep within the bowels of the bill.
First, there is a requirement that everybody on Medicare must, every five years, report to Social Security with their wishes on how they want to die.
I am NOT making this up.
Of course it’s phrased a bit more delicately than mine own paraphrase.
The requirement would have Medicare recipients signing a living will, expressing whether they are to be given food, or water, or neither. Or just what medicines should be administered to save their lives. Or not.
For now it sort of looks like Medicare recipients will have a choice but folks do we really want the government to be even remotely involved with this kind of thing?
It’s scary is what it is, and nothing less.
Second, don’t believe for a minute that you will be able to keep your own health insurance. The bill effectively eliminates all private health insurance. Well sure you can keep your own health insurance…UNTIL you give it up for some reason. After that you MUST go on to the gubmint health insurance. It’s right there in the verbiage of the bill, please don’t believe that Obama liar.
I give up yon ladies and gems. I simply cannot believe the things going on but over half this country voted for Obama and it’s not like the man didn’t tell us just who he was.
He is going to re-make America and we have a pack of howling Dems bucking him up and the pubbies are in the tanning booths keeping head hairs perfectly positioned and maintaining their friends across the aisle.
Shock…I am so shocked.
Cap & Trade was bad enough. But this health care bill is scary.
For while many Americans might not understand that Cap & Trade nonsense with it’s tax on energy, ALL Americans understand health care.
Finally, why does this thing have to be done before the August recess? Seems to me this country’s been haggling about health care reformation for many years, at least since Hillary Clinton’s era as First Lady when the country collectively put thumbs down on THAT plan.
Could it be, just throwing it out there, that Obama wants to ram this through before we get a chance to read the thing?
Fight it with all you’ve got.
Bad Guy of the Week-the Social Security Administration
In the interest of fair and balanced, I must, right here at the beginning, state plainly and clearly that on two different occasions in this past year I had to file for Social Security disability benefits. Well, once for me and once for my husband though technicall, HE did the filing.
In both cases we were treated kindly, fairly and with quick dispatch. I received my full benefits with no protest within four months of filing and husband received his in the same manner within two months of filing. Those at the Social Security administration who worked with us were kind, patient and very professional. If they said they were going to call they did call as promised. If they left a phone number that they may be reached, we could always get through.
Neither of us even had to leave the house to make our claim and the funds were deposited directly into our banking account.
Which is, I caution, as it should be for husband and I paid in our whole lives to social security at the rate of 6.2% a paycheck and add to this our employer match and we’ve got 12.4% of our paychecks being deposited to provide for us for this exact unexpected event. I had no idea at age 58 I would have a quadruple heart bypass that would prevent me from getting a job and who could ever have predicted husband, at age 57, would get a brain infection that would leave him prone to seizures, with paralyzed feet and the loss of part of his right hand?
Point being we should not have to fight, scream and beg for our own money that was rightfully paid for by husband, myself and my employers. By the estimate of the Social Security administration, husband and I and our respective employers paid in almost a half a million dollars over the years of our employment. With interest and growth that would have accumulated had that money been invested in the stock market, the government and taxpayers of America will never be taking a hit or subsidizing the modest monthly benefit now being paid to husband and myself.
So we now get it back. And while such as medical proof should be provided, we filed our claim timely and in order but again, as I condemn the recent activities of the Social Security administration below, I feel it fair and prudent to state my own experiences with this agency.
Which is not to say, finally, that I haven’t heard horror stories of folks suffering and in pain who were constantly turned down for benefits, who could never get to a human voice in that agency, who waited years for an answer, a fair settlement.
I suppose, however and I must softly suggest, that people try to obtain Social Security benefits to which they might NOT be entitled so who knows the circumstances of the horror stories? I only know first hand my own experiences and it was a positive one as I narrate.
HERE we find out that the Social Security Administration spent almost a million bucks having itself a fine shindig in the Biltmore estate.
All to give SS employees “relief” from the pressures of their jobs.
Another caveat here. Many, many businesses sponsor such corporate retreats and indeed, myself has gone to many such things through the years and with various employers. I’d accept that even government agencies such as Social Security should also be allowed such semi-working respites. These things have been proven to provide benefits to companies, in terms of the seminars generally given at these events, the comradery made and grown between employees, the opening of lines of communications between boss and subordinates…these things are beneficial to a company, yes they are.
BUT…ah, you knew there was a but.
President Obama, a lying deceitful hypocrite if ever there was one, publicly went around lambasting banks and other companies for attending these events while they were receiving government bailouts.
Go with me here…Social Security may not have been receiving a government bailout but, no, WAIT! That entire enterprise is financed by the government, ergo the taxpayers.
If it is wrong for private companies receiving government bailouts to attend these events, why then is it okay for the Social Security administration to arrange such things?
Below, a happening video of Social Security Administration employees learning to dance. Something you gotta know to do when you’re filling out disability claims. Heh.
Finally we are rid of the preacher of healthy food on the 2009 Next Food Network Star.
The challenge was to make kid's food appealing to adults and adult food appealing to kids. The results were interesting, to say the least.
All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.
============ Jillian finally sends home the scum bucket.
We explore the review of this episode and delve into the mystery of the Fantasy Suite.
Do they really "do" it? Or do they just talk all night? Isn't it a bit slutty to be sleeping with all these contenders?
All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet. ============ In Thoughts this week we have Obama news.
For the Commander in Chief is traveling and we have fashion disasters. Only this time it's the Obama DAUGHTER dressed very inappropriately.
And is the President really gawking at that teenaged girl?
The final word on Michael Jackson and time, puleeze, to move on.
============ Two Movie Reviews.
One is of a 1994 movie that captured my fancy one lazy afternoon. It's called "The Paper" and I dream of journalists that might once again have such pride and integrity.
The other is "Ice Age/Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and here's a terrific animated movie, a great story that children will love.
It's no "UP" but adults will like it too.
============ Kaitlyn celebrates 4th of July-earns her first dollar.
Guest Michelle and Mongolian BBQs.
Pic of the Day
GOOD GUY AND BAD GUY OF THE WEEK
Have You Had Enough Michael Jackson?
Dateline, 20/20, Nightline, all nightly news shows. It was non-stop Michael Jackson.
Hey look, I know he died. I even understand why the coverage was so extensive. He was an enigma, a controversial figure. He had talent.
He was a pervert don’t tell me not. A fellow gives an accuser of molestation over twenty million dollars, he’s not innocent. You may believe what you wish to believe. We do not have videotapes of the incident and are, as if often the case in life, forced to draw conclusions using our common sense. All those who think a fellow, even a very rich one, would fork out millions of dollars to avoid a lawsuit if he’s innocent, raise your hands.
Please email me your names and I have a great bridge offer for sale.
It’s not that Jackson wasn’t talented. He was. But plenty of folk were talented, including Farrah Fawcett and others who passed away recently and did not have one great big lying fest of a funeral that they may make more money even with this pervert’s death.
The picture below sums up the sad story of Michael Jackson. On the left is a handsome young man any female would love to know. On the right, the freak he willingly became. Something was desperately wrong with the fellow’s senses, indeed.
Goodbye to a tragic life which should have been so wonderful.
Not that one more Blogger, read by two or three people every day, has anything meaningful to add that hasn’t been said by the non-stop, and FREE, coverage of Jackson’s funeral.
We had fag-hag Brooks Shield boo-hooing on the stage. Damn we had the little kid…all WHITE kids and what’s up with that …stageing a boo-hoo, don’t tell me not. We had folks who never cared one whit about Michael up on the stage pontificating about how wonderful a guy he was when they hadn’t seen him in years.
Here’s my questionably unique contribution of a prediction to the future legacy of Michael Jackson. Look for the Jackson family, a bunch of no-talent zeros sponging off their famous relative as he deterioriated in front of them, to try and turn NEVERLAND into another Graceland. Well damn, the recipes right there, no? He was even married to Elvis’ daughter.
I think even as you read that the Jacksons are furiously negotiating with authorities to have Michael’s body buried at Neverland and meanwhile, since Jackson no longer even owns Neverland, they are probably promising funds to come from sales of records that will be promoted…hell, it’s plain as the nose that used to be on Michael Jackson’s face.
Soon as possible, we’ll have Michael’s white children out and about because Michael’s family doesn’t have his desire to keep those kids out of the spotlight. Hell’s Bell’s, if the little rugrats can make some money then let’s dress them in blue jeans, take off the veils and give them a record contract.
It’s how it’s going to happen now that the leeches that so abandoned the very troubled Michael Jackson have control of the estate.
To keep the intrigue alive, now we are to believe that Michael’s death was a homicide.
The Weekly Obama News and Smirks
Scuttlebutt is that President Obama’s popularity ratings are falling like a rocket returning home. I am not sure that I buy this at all.
For sure his ratings are falling down from the level that would make him a deity to the level of mere humans. Obama still is at about the approval level that Ronald Reagan was at this point in his presidency.
Still and so, the drop is falling fast and I’m quite sure the failure of the economy to revive quickly, what with Obama’s robbery of the U.S. Treasury to pay off his political contributors now complete and with ordinary Americans still losing their jobs in droves, is causing Obama to fall, perhaps with a thud.
I kind of doubt it though. The economy will recover. Unemployment levels will stop rising. Politicians act as if THEY can control what we buy and spend when only WE have such control.
When prices go down enough, we’ll start buying, never mind Obama or any of the Republicans for that matter. Show me a house that used to be asked at $400,000 now up for an asking price of $150,000 and I’ll show you folks lined up to buy it. Just a matter of how low they’ll go is all.
Last week President Obama went to Russia and Africa and as always, some news got made.
Fashion news does intrigue me and below, a pic of Malia and her “peace” symbol T-shirt AND Michelle with her $800 handbag.
Malia wearing that Tshirt is no accident. Her mother knows what she wears the minute she steps out the door and first, by me she’s dressed a bit too provocatively for an 11 year old, methinks. But my opinion is debateable and Michelle is the child’s mother.
First, back when I was a flower child of the 60’s, that peace symbol was all the rage. Thus it’s not an obscene thing or anything. Except as the rumor has it, the use of this symbol today is to secretly espouse the eventual elimination of all nuclear weapons on the planet.
A fine, fine endeavor should one choose to believe that Iran does not have, nor will ever acquire, nukes. Not to mention the many sons of camels across the fruited plains and the notion of Al Queda with a nuke isn’t too bizarre. I’ve read that one can assemble a simple nuke via instructions available on the Internet.
President Obama, God Love His Soul, wants America to give up her nukes and yeah, like that’s going to happen. Still I think it very telling that his daughter parades around wearing a shirt with such an obvious and very plain anti-nuke icon.
As for the infamous handbag, we heard at first Michelle’s handbag was a $6,000 black alligator affair and that was denied vehemently by the White House. Turns out, if the WH is to be believed and not the manufacturer, that the handbag is, in fact, valued at only $875 and is not the higher cost handbag.
Well damn, at only $875 a piece Michelle should have bought three of the things!
Another Obama legend making the rounds this week is that President Obama was caught ogling a 16 year old’s backside. Picture below.
I am going to lay lie to this misleading picture. I have seen the video at various places and Obama was, in fact, reaching to help someone down the steps and that picture, snapped at the most opportune moment, is quite misleading.
It’s not that I think that President Obama doesn’t like the ladies. But I think he’s just a bit too smart to behave in this fashion in public. I doubt, frankly, that Obama exhibits this behavior anywhere in public. That sort of stupid gawking is the stuff of Bill Clinton and trailer park types. Men with a bit of class have this arguably instinctive reaction to the passing of a shapely woman politically corrected out of them early on. I think it’s ill-mannered and if I’m ever with a guy who does this I throw him overboard toot de sweet.
President Obama is nothing if not a classy guy with exquisite tastes. The man puts mushrooms on his hamburger for God’s sake.
I don’t believe he knee-jerks so classlessly when a young woman walks by and if he ever did, I think he takes his position of President quite seriously.
President Obama would never behave as crassly as Bill Clinton. It’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Falls In Manhole While Walking and Texting
I get concerned with the Nannies in this country who want to tell us how to eat, what to drink, not to smoke, and definitely do not talk on the cell phone while driving a car.
While I might allow that talking on a cell phone while trying to maneuver a steering wheel might not be the smartest thing to do and it does, indeed, require TWO hands to properly control a steering wheel, it irks me that the nannies who would control us want to completely ban ANY cell phone use in a car, even on a hands-free device.
To which I respond, hey, if we can’t use our mouths to communicate via cell phone on a hands-free device, maybe we should eliminate talking of any kind in a moving vehicle cause isn’t that all we are doing when talking on the cell via the speaker phone?
So this young girl is walking down the street, texting on her cell, and an open and unprotected manhole is open and she falls right down into what she had to mometarily think was hell.
She said the manhole she fell in to was left open and unattended with no warning signs or orange cones. She said two workers with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection failed to secure the area as they prepared to flush the sewer.
A perfect example of why walking AND using a cell phone in any manner should be outlawed.
Ghosts in Hotel Scare Baseball Players
I was amused by this story of the ghosts in a hotel used by Minnesota Twins. Seems like they are scaring the ball players.
Allison Jornlin, who leads haunted history tours for the folklore research organization Milwaukee Ghosts, said guests have reported seeing a "portly, smiling gentleman" roaming the halls, riding the elevator and even walking his dog. The apparition is said to resemble Charles Pfister, who founded the hotel with his father, Guido.
-SPOOKY HOTEL
The Old Sperm In Swimming Pool Make Young Girl Pregnant
When I was a young girl we use to believe this stuff. I can’t believe this old saw is still around and lawyers somewhere are still filing lawsuits for such, ahem, unplanned and accidental pregnancies.
It was July 4, 2009. Kaitlyn was, at that time, a full five and a half years old. On that day, Kaitlyn got her first job; she earned her first buck.
It was my niece Connie, Kaitlyn’s second or third cousin I must suppose if one keeps track of such things, who gave Kaitlyn her job. We were going to walk to a local beach that we may watch the July 4 fireworks. Aunt Connie owns a Labrador Retriever. Since we would be by the ocean, Aunt Connie wanted to allow the dog that loves the water so much to play in the ocean. It was required that a special rope toy be carried along for the toss into the water that would have the retriever swimming behind to, well, retrieve.
“Here, Kaitlyn,” Aunt Connie said, handing Kaitlyn the rope toy. “You are in charge of carrying this toy to the beach. Don’t lose it. If you do a good job, you’ll earn a quarter.”
Mentally I pooh-poohed the notion that Kaitlyn would care much about a darn quarter because a)a quarter doesn’t buy much nowadays and b)Kaitlyn had, until then, access to money via parents, grandparents and all others and I figured she didn’t want the bother of actually trying to accumulate money on her own.
Kaitlyn held onto that rope toy with a passion the whole 75 mile walk to the beach. Okay my niece told me that it was just a jaunt to the beach but I was not fooled. I notice Kaitlyn holding onto that rope toy with a concentrated passion and I was a bit amused.
She held it in a special manner. She didn’t just let her arm hang at her side with the toy loosely held by equally loose fingers. Oh no. She held that toy up at her side and she held it clenched in her fingers that would not budge to drop the thing. It then occurred to me that Kaitlyn wanted to earn that quarter and by golly I was proud of her.
In fact Kaitlyn got the toy to the beach and the dog played with it as the humans frolicked on the beach and watched. After the dog play was done and the fireworks began, Kaitlyn once again had the dog toy clenched protectively in her hand.
With festivities over and fireworks done, Kaitlyn clutched that toy in the same manner on the walk home as she did on the way to the beach. For she had to deliver the toy home in good shape in order to collect that quarter.
We made our way off the beach amidst the crowds and at some point I had to take the dog toy from Kaitlyn to hold it. I forget why, I think she needed her hands to properly fasten her sandals, removed for walking through the sand. So I held the toy for her, not with the same passion but I made sure it did not get lost.
After Kaitlyn got her sandals fixed she panicked. I guess she forgot that I, Mom-Mom, was holding the dog toy for her and by this time we are off the beach and beginning the 75 mile jaunt back to Aunt Connie’s house.
“We have to go back!” Kaitlyn said excitedly, realizing that the dog toy was, indeed, no longer clutched in her fist. In order for us to go back it would have been a few blocks across the beach sands to return to where they’d been playing with the dog. The spot, I assume, that Kaitlyn figured she’d left the dog toy. Kaitlyn was willing, for that precious quarter, to go all the way back to get the dog toy. She was NOT willing to fail on this, her first real job.
God love her.
I quickly handed Kaitlyn the dog toy which I’d held for her. First, I would not have walked that long trek back to our beach spot in the deep sands, not with that 75 mile trudge in front of us to return to Aunt Connie’s house. I’d have bought the dog a new damn toy if it came to it. But Kaitlyn, well hey she’s a 5 year old. She worked so hard getting that toy to the beach and she wasn’t about to lose that quarter because she’d so carelessly left the dog toy on the beach. At least so she thought.
I realized how important that quarter was to Kaitlyn and I mentioned to Aunt Connie that Kaitlyn was really working hard for that quarter. I wanted Aunt Connie to know that Kaitlyn was taking that promise of a quarter really to heart and was working diligently holding that dog toy. In the fun and festivities of the holiday, I pondered that perhaps Aunt Connie didn’t realize that what she’d perhaps tossed off as a casual remark was being taken quite, quite seriously by this five year old.
“She wants that quarter, Connie. She wants to buy something with it,” as I explained to my niece.
“Toys,” Kaitlyn inserted here. She was working hard for that quarter so she could buy toys with it. Heh.
Kaitlyn finally got that dog toy safe and soundly back to Aunt Connie’s. Aunt Connie, to her credit, dropped everything going on at her busy house that day and took Kaitlyn back to the bedroom. There Aunt Connie got out the change jar and with a lot of hoopla, gave Kaitlyn not 1, but FOUR quarters!
Kaitlyn ran to me with much excitement and showed me her four quarters. I told her she needed a piggy bank to keep her money. I was happy that the child had some idea of the value of money and was willing to work and make her own. I thought it was time for a piggy bank.
“I already have something,” Kaitlyn said. Later, talking to her mother, I found out that Kaitlyn has a coffee can to store her money, which will work fine. It wasn’t a piggy bank but it was “something”. Kaitlyn knew what it was for and she intended to use it to bank her money. So she’s saving money and now, with the responsibility of transporting the dog toy, she was earning her own money.
I took the four quarters from Kaitlyn and promised her I would see to it that her mother got them to put in her piggy bank coffee can.
I wonder if this episode says anything at all about Kaitlyn’s work ethic. I am surprised with her passion to get money to buy…”toys”. Hey, it’s just fine. She wants toys and she’s willing to work to buy them.
Way I figure, the child’s off to a fine start.
Mongolian Barbecue
I was taking the new puppy for a first vet visit, to make sure all his toes are where they're supposed to be and other vetly things. Kona decided to be sick for several days, too, so I decided to take them both. I caught Kona and locked her in the bathroom, then I got out the two pet carriers, and set the larger one in the hallway. The other I set on the couch.
I took the larger carrier into the bathroom and cornered my unhappy cat. With her safely locked up, I turned my attention to the pup, who was gaily attacking my trouser leg. I picked him up and put him in the carrier on the couch.
Once I'd shut and latched the door, I picked up the thing. It was *way* too heavy. I set it down again and peered in. Two sets of eyes peered back.
Zeker had gone into the crate while I was occupied with Kona. Then I'd shoved the puppy in with him, just as if I were preparing my selections at the Mongolian Barbecue. And neither one of them protested. Isn't that odd?
Some dogs are named by the spouse, and some by the children, and some by the one who brought the little furball into the household. Ours was named by the groomer.
I struggled with names for almost a week. I tried to see beyond the puppy traits to the ones our new addition would have when he was grown. Gone would be the Fizgig look (see The Dark Crystal) of just fur and teeth. Gone would be the Bambi-on-the-ice awkwardness. Gone would be the sudden stop to piddle in the middle of playtime.
Would the Nazi walk go away, too? You'd think he was a *German* shepherd, instead of a Shetland Islands shepherd, with that walk. It's a stiff-legged, high-stepping strut as he approaches something he knows he's going to play with. (Like the cat.)
Would he lose his hesitant eagerness? His willingness to greet the lawn man the same way he greets Harry? His happy smile when you walk into the room, or his wolf-like prowl when on the lookout for an unwitting victim? (Again, usually the cat.)
I couldn't tell. And nothing else about his slowly emerging personality struck my fancy.
On Bounty's last groomer visit (though we didn't know it would be the last at the time), I took the puppy along.
I showed him off, and let them know they'd hopefully be grooming *two* dogs for a long time. Once the little guy gets to four months old, he can go. Then I left Bounty there for grooming, and the puppy and I went home.
When Bounty was done, I went back for him. One of the groomers said, "I told her [the other groomer] his name was Hunter. For "Bounty Hunter." It was a joke!"
From the back of the room came an indignant squeal. "It was a joke? A joke? I thought they'd really named him that!"
A commenter on IMDB pretty much captures the allure of this movie which so captured my fancy one Saturday afternoon that I thought I’d take the time to give it a review.
It's a cliché to say so, but there's never a dull moment in THE PAPER. The multi-faceted storyline sucks the viewer in and doesn't let go until after the exciting, root-on-the-good-guys finale.
I watch all sorts of movies via Comcast for a small monthly fortune. Some of them are older, ahem.
Which is not to say there aren’t good older movies from a decade ago, of course. Some would say they stopped making good movies after 1970 but these would be old farts.
It is odd when watching an “older” movie to see the characters dealing with life without cell phones. This was the case, indeed, with this movie. Glen Close, playing a female villain which seems to be her acting niche, had to find a telephone desperately towards the end of the movie. This ending would have a whole different plot ending had it been produced in the era of cell phones.
It’s also worth a giggle to see the gigantic size of earlier cell phones in movies produced at the dawn of the cell phone era.
At any rate, it wasn’t the glimpse of an earlier technology which so intrigued and captured my fancy with this movie.
Michael Keaton played the lead character magnificently. Good acting always makes for a better movie. A good plot too helps. “The Paper” had this as well.
What was old-fashioned in this movie was the concept of a journalist with principles. My mouth was agog for most of the movie as Keaton’s character struggled with his love of the job, a pregnant wife, a desperate chaos to keep a bad story from being printed in his paper, and a job offer to a more stately, albeit dull, newspaper in a better neighborhood.
Wow.
My mind boggled at the concept of a journalist who cared whether what went to print was true or not. In this year of our Lord 2009, journalists only care about printing the sentiment of whoever holds the reigns of power and will get them more quotes and scoops. Truth is seldom part of the equation, much less any sort of in-depth investigation of the matter like Keaton’s character did to get behind the talking points.
If looking for an old movie to put in the DVD, consider an evening watching some good acting, some nostalgia for more ethical times, some action, some love and lots of good drama. Watch “The Paper”.
Of course I saw this movie with Kaitlyn Mae, precious and precocious granddaughter because, well it’s that kind of movie.
I saw this movie in 3-D and after seeing “UP” I don’t think I could stand seeing a plain movie again. I have grown used to having objects coming out of the screen at me and seeing the characters in all the depth as if they were right in front of me, touchable and at my side.
The animated characters in this movie were done very well. One can’t help but associate their personalities with humans we all have in our surround.
There’s the sloth fellow who is like the self-righteous liberal who would have us all eating grass and living in diverse and impractical harmony.
There’s the weasel who lives his life to follow a mortal enemy. When that mortal enemy is gone he must go and save him that he doesn’t live in terrifying boredom for the rest of his breathing days.
There’s the loner bobcat who puts on a tough uncaring exterior when he only wants to be welcomed and loved, a part of things.
Ah, it’s all a bit sappy and frankly, there’s nothing too terribly original about this movie. Still it flows by for its length. The action is there when required, the sentiment comes along to soften the rough edges. The characters, as indicated, amuse, bemuse, anger, frustrate but we love them all in the end.
Five and a half year old Kaitlyn adored the movie. So will all children, even adolescents. Adults will enjoy the time as well.
Adult Food for Kids; Kid Food for Adults The Self-Righteous Health Food Guru Gets the Boot
It was Rachel Ray week on the 2009 Next Food Network Star competition. This part of the contest has the contenders for, well the next Food Network star, being put in a very real situation, cooking before a live audience and describing their culinary actions as they do so.
The show, which aired on 7/5/09, began with an interesting mini-challenge. The contenders were charged with taking some foods normally eschewed by children and preparing them in a fashion that would have children finding them yummy. To add to the reality of the challenge, real kids were the judges.
Melissa excelled with a dish of “smashed potatoes” in which Brussels sprouts were smashed and mixed in. Melissa said she always puts a piece of a raw vegetable featured in a dish she prepared on the side. Maybe the kid will like it, maybe not. As often as not the child will take a crunchy bite and pronounce it good.
Debbie made some sweet potato slices flavored with soy sauce and the child judges pronounced this yummy.
Later in the episode, the elimination challenge was a twist on the mini-challenge. The task was, after each contender being assigned a teammate, to create a dish using childish ingredients but adding a mature flair.
The teams consisted of Katie and Debbie-who had chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese to bring to culinary maturity.
Melissa and Michael had tomato soup and grilled cheese on their list.
Jeffrey and Jamika were the final team, they being assigned hot dogs and baked beans to spruce up for adult consumption.
Jeffrey and Jamika really were an awkward team. They didn’t exactly hate each other but the love was not flowing free and fast. They prepared something called spicy Spanish hot dogs with sweet baked beans, a dish the judges did not like at all.
Each team was also charged with preparing their dish in a 2 minute window on the Rachel Ray show. Jeffrey and Jamika did not gel at all.
Health guru Katie, who got sent home on this show, prepared soy Dijon chicken tenders with baked shrimp in macaroni and cheese. The judges thought the chicken was extremely dry and they complained about Debbie’s constant propensity to announce that she is Korean before adding any sort of “exotic” ingredient, as if this explains everything. Katie and Debbie did give a nice presentation.
Melissa and Michael created the hit food combo of the evening, turning simple tomato soup and grilled cheese into grilled cheese on skewers served with basil tomato soup. Michael, who looks like he’ll be leaving soon, not so good on presentation, although he cooks very well.
Melissa did, as she has the past two shows, very well.
I looked for this season to end up with Jeffrey and Melissa going to head to head. I think Melissa has the edge to win The Next Food Network Star.
What REALLY Goes On In That “Fantasy Suite”>?
When I was a young woman, sweet of face and firm of body, I dated various and sundry men, as is the custom. Ideally one fellow comes along, and he always did like a dependable bus, that would become a steady, a fiancé, a “significant other”, perhaps a husband. But until that time, tradition has it that we enjoy the company of different members of the opposite sex until we hone in on the one who seems most suitable to our personalities, needs, wants and desires.
At times it was a thorny matter, how to handle the matter of sexual activity in that it is not normal, particularly for the female, to engage in sex but with one male at a time. Granted those “times” might be only a few days in length and some might argue that it’s a form of “serial monogamy” if you will. But to date and bed Ted on Friday and the next night go out for a grand evening with Joe that would also end up with a bed ending, and just to elaborate on the scenario, perhaps we’ve made arrangements to have lunch with Ted again with an afternoon of lust to follow and hell, on Tuesday maybe we’ll be going out with Lester!
It isn’t how I lived my life and I daresay, except for rare exceptions, most women don’t indulge in this kind of multiple sex partner behavior either. Guys either I’d argue but I’m working on a hunch here, not being a guy or anything.
The human being is a monogamous animal and no matter how much the liberals try to convince us that we’re a wild and wooly species…not true. The vast majority of heterosexuals are monogamous although, again, there might be a form of serial monogamy in there via the dating process. But females, and most males, generally are having a sexual relationship with one other person of the opposite sex at a time. Most folks are faithful in their marriages too, so the surveys show.
The Bachelor/Bachelorette shows always cause a bit of a stir during these final episodes with the introduction of the so-called “Fantasy Suite”.
Now no one says that there’s sex going on in that Fantasy Suite but it is certainly inferred. Yet contenders who have been on the show deny that there’s sex in the Fantasy Suite, that it’s mostly a chance to spend an entire night with the beloved, to share some popcorn, watch a movie, talk about futures and dreams and drink champagne until sleep comes upon them.
I suspect the truth is somewhere in all that. Jason Mesnick, last season’s bachelor, denied any sex in the Fantasy Suite. Brad Womack, the worm from a prior season who couldn’t find a suitable mate from the 25 introduced to him such is his charm and glam, allegedy revealed that he did have sex with all 3 of the ladies he invited to join him in the Fantasy Suite. Not all on the same night, of course.
Sweet Jillian, beloved Canadian object of many handsome Bachelor suitors, only chose one contender to join her in the Fantasy Suite during the episode of The Bachelorette aired 7/6/09. That contender was Ed, the Microsoft employee who was so damn valuable to that company that he had to leave the series to return to the job. Only Ed showed back up but it was too late, Jillian missed the chance to go to Ed’s home town and meet his parents.
Ostensibly Jillian only invited Ed to spend the night with her in the Fantasy Suite so that they could “catch up” on things; get to know one another better for the time missed when Ed had to go save Microsoft.
Jillian very firmly denied Kypton, Reid and Wes a night in the Fantasy Suite and frankly it’s a good thing. I just can’t imagine having one guy one night, another guy the next night, yet another the next night and…well you know.
Even IF there were no sex going on it just looks bad.
Of course the Bachelor/Bachelorette series brings about this awkwardness in that the very concept of the show is a bit alien to our nature. Few of us are any sort of love object of a bevy of opposite sex members who all yearn to be with us, share a kiss with us, hope for a chance to spend eternity with us.
Or maybe y’all have or have had that sort of thing going on in your life. For me, oncit I broke up with a long term boyfriend to marry another guy and the long term boyfriend did cry for me and beg me to come back but that’s pretty much the sum of my multiple lover experience.
So when the thorny matter of sex, in the form of that Fantasy Suite, or the appearance thereof, comes up on this reality series, it’s always odd.
The double entrendres generally include references to making a connection, sharing souls, getting to know one another in a more intimate setting. Nobody ever mentions such as fornicating from midnight to morn.
Frankly I think Jillian is going to choose Ed as her soul mate and I think that verdict’s been in for a while. I expressed on another post that I thought that scripted thing with Ed leaving for a while was an excuse to keep Ed from the home town date. There was a reason, and I don’t know what it was, that Ed’s parents couldn’t be part of the home town date. Ed returned, Jillian allowed him to return, she chose only Ed to share the Fantasy Suite with her.
I think it’s going to be Ed.
As for Wes, the scripted villain of this season, Jillian finally sent this thrift-store-cowboy-shirt-wearing-cowboy packing.
It was about time. But he did add some drama didn’t he?
