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Monday, July 07, 2014

Curved Yellow Fruits - and Other Grocery Blunders

Last week in the MOTIVATION MONDAY portion of the blog, I talked about something that had been bothering me for some time.  It wasn't something that I had planned on talking about in this space, but now that I have, I feel immensely better for it.  If anything, it was a cathartic experience because it allowed me to express my feelings for something that was once a part of my life, and it gave me the opportunity to have my final say in it all before I closed the book for good.  If anything, I encourage all of you out there to do the same thing that I just did.  Look back on your life to one moment that started off great, but had a terrible conclusion or resolution, take hold of the great times, and put the nail in the coffin of the bad.  It helped me out tremendously, and I am certain that it will help you out too.

So, because I talked about a more serious topic the last time, this time my motivation is to make you laugh.  And what better way to make you laugh than with a series of pictures that feature some of the funniest signs that you've ever seen?

Yes, I've scourged the depths of the Internet to bring you the best of the worst signs that I think anyone has ever laid eyes on.  And, would you like to know where the inspiration came from?

Well, to begin this story, we'll have to go back about a month ago to June 7, 2014.  As many of you know by now, when I am not writing this blog, I work full-time in the electronics department of a retail chain.  And one of my duties at my job is to go into the menu of the pricing gun that we use and print off any price increases or reductions.  And for the most part, these price changes are fairly straight forward, and I can easily find the item.  After being in the department for a year now, it's gotten a lot easier.

But sometimes you have price changes come out of the printer and they just make you shake your head in complete confusion.  See what I mean.  This was an actual price label that came out of the printer that day.



Okay, so not only is the item one that you're not supposed to use...but apparently you will get charged almost eighty bucks not to use it!  What a bargain, no?

Of course, this is just one example that I found in my day job.  There are so many more examples to share.  And if you're into funny signs, today is your lucky day because there are some signs that I think are even more hilarious than mine!  And, just before we go on, I'd like to give credit to the following websites where I found these signs from - digdang.com, teen.com, carbonated.tv, Huffington Post, Funny Signs, Dr. Heckle.net, Funny Junk, EgoTV Online, U.S. Data Corporation, Engrish is Funny, WTHSigns.com, pophangover,com, Shut up and Eat, and rounds.com.

So, let's begin with the first place that most people choose to shop inside first...the produce department.  Oh, look!  Here's a sale on...



...curved yellow fruit?  Okay, here's a little tip for the person who designed this sign.  Those curved yellow fruits are called BANANAS.  They're a fantastic source of potassium and they go great with ice cream and chocolate sauce.  Oh, well...maybe that's just a fluke.  Surely they can't make the same mistake twice.



Long yellow things?  They do realize that they have a name, right?  Can't someone give a little bit of respect to the banana?



Sigh.  Maybe we should move on to the citrus fruits.



Well...on the plus side, if we add lime juice, grapefruit juice, and tangerine juice, we'll have our own version of Five Alive fruit cocktail.

Okay, enough with the fruit.  One of the things that I'm sure that most people do in a grocery store is try to find the best deals possible.  They do this by ad matching, or by clipping coupons, or by checking to see if deals are worth buying, such as this special offer.



Wow...three things for the price of three!  I certainly hope that last three means three dollars, because otherwise I'd feel like I wasn't getting a deal at all!  Good thing this looks like a spoof of an ad.  Oh well...maybe if I go the next aisle over.



Um...you mean, I have to pay MORE?  Why don't I just give the store my first born.



And, don't even get me started on this supposed deal.  I'm guessing that one of the requirements of making sale signs isn't knowing basic mathematics.

Okay, clearly this isn't working.  Let's go around the whole supermarket and check and see what else just doesn't sound right.



Okay, that sign would be absolutely fantastic and one hundred per cent correct - if there was actually a Starday and a Cometday on the calendar.  Actually, that might not sound like such a bad idea.  Being born on a Starday would be so much better than being born on a Monday.  Nobody likes Mondays...well, except me since I usually have Monday as one of my days off...

Ahem, where were we?  Oh, yes...next sign.



This is interesting.  I never pictured those to actually aid with preserving beauty and health.  If anything, I would think that too much of those "beauty aids" would cause irreparable damage to both.  But on the other hand, they do provide you with beer goggles, which supposedly makes everything look better.



Do I even want to KNOW what this store was thinking?  Though, if anyone has actually used any of these "supplies" at a picnic, more power to you, I guess.



Happy Mother's Day, Mommy!  I hope you like your present!  I picked it out myself with my own bare hands.  By the way, I love being your only child.  I love it so much that you must NEVER have another child ever again.  NEVER...



You better believe it's not butt!



You know, it's bad enough that I have the shopping cart with the squeaky wheel, that the one thing I wanted to buy is all sold out at the store, and that my coffee went up three whole dollars in price.  Now the butter is laughing at me!  Stop it!  Stop it, I say!!!



OH MY GOD!  They're having a ZERO PER CENT OFF SALE!  We have to go right now!  Can you imagine how much I'd get off of a bottle of olive oil?  I'd get...oh...wait a second...



Funny...I thought that it was Colorado that gave the go ahead to purchase that in stores.  I guess Idaho wants to get in on the action.  And not that I would know from experience...but isn't that an awfully low price for a bag that huge?



Um...what?



Um, WHAT?!?

Sunday, July 06, 2014

Katy Perry - A California Girl with a "Teenage Dream"

I don't know what it is about summer, but I'm finding that some of the greatest songs that have ever hit the top of the Billboard charts have done so between the months of July and September. 

Something tells me that the next two months of the Sunday Jukebox feature are going to be a lot of fun to write about!  In fact, I've already selected this week's summer smash.  And the good news for some of you who like fairly recent music is that this song is only four years old!

(Though, when I was doing the research for this song, I was actually shocked that it really was released four years ago!  I didn't even think it had been that long.  My goodness.  We're all getting old, aren't we?)



Anyway, I'll reveal the artist right off the bat.  We're going to be doing our music spotlight on Katy Perry.  I'm sure most of you have heard of her by now.  The now 29-year-old woman from Santa Barbara, California (who was born with the name of Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson) burst onto the music scene in 2001 with an album of gospel songs recorded under her birth name.  To think that it would take seven years and a name change before she would experience the sweet taste of success with the highly infectious (and controversial) single "I Kissed a Girl".

And she liked it!

Of course, this was back in 2008.  The song I've selected for the Sunday Jukebox spotlight came out in 2010.  Now, what was happening in Katy Perry's life right around the year 2010?



Ah, yes.  That was the year that she released her third studio album, "Teenage Dream".  And I'm sure that you've probably guessed by now that today's song comes from this very successful album.

And just how successful was "Teenage Dream"?  Well, let's just say that the album was quite the little record-breaker.  Some records previously held by other artists were tied, while others were dethroned.  Here is just a list of achievements that "Teenage Dream" has to its name...

- The album had FIVE #1 singles on the Billboard Charts, tying the record with Michael Jackson who first held that record with his 1987 album "Bad".
- Katy Perry became the first female artist in the Billboard Charts history to have five singles hit #1 from the same album.
- When the album was re-released in 2012 (under the title of "Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection") with some new singles added to the mix, it became one of three albums to have eight singles to reach the Top 3 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 (The other two albums were George Michael's "Faith" and Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation 1814").
- Broke the record previously held by Beyonce when "Teenage Dream" became the first album to have NINE singles top the Billboard Hot Dance
- Broke the record held by Lady Gaga for having the most consecutive #1 singles on the Mainstream Top 40 (if you add her 2009 single "Waking Up in Vegas").
- Spent a total of 69 consecutive weeks on the Hot 100's Top 10.
- Became the only artist to spend a total of over 52 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, beating out the previous record held by "Ace of Base" since 1995.
- The combined number of singles from "Teenage Dream" spent a total of 225 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 100 - easily shattering the previous record held by Michael Jackson, whose singles from his 1982 album "Thriller" only spent a combined total of 130 weeks.



Love her or leave her, you have to agree that "Teenage Dream" did achieve a lot of accolades, and deservedly so.  In fact, you may as well include me in the "love" list, as I definitely like most everything that Katy Perry has done.  I may not listen to a lot of current music these days, but I'll admit that I do enjoy Katy Perry.  At least the majority of her songs are happy and upbeat, and actually contain lyrics that are made up of mostly real words unlike other songs from other artists (even if the spelling on some of the song titles isn't one hundred per cent accurate). 

So, I thought that it would be a great tribute to a great album by featuring the song that kicked off the Katy Perry love train.  And it's a song that was at the top of the charts exactly four years ago this week.



ARTIST:  Katy Perry f. Snoop Dogg
SONG:  California Gurls
ALBUM:  Teenage Dream
DATE RELEASED:  May 7, 2010
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 6 weeks



Ah, yes.  "California Gurls".  The song that celebrated the joys of Daisy Dukes, bikinis on top, and sun-kissed skin so hot you'll melt your popsicle!  This was the song that helped Katy Perry live out a teenage dream at the ripe old age of twenty-five years old!  And she had a little help from her pal Snoop Doggy Dogg Snoop Dogg Snoop Lion Snoop Whatever Animal He Decides To Be Today!  Together they made one of the most infectious summer hits of the twenty-first century so far, and for Katy Perry, it was a song that certainly allowed her to express her wild and vivid creativity.



Just look at the music video which is based off of the board game "Candy Land" - albeit a warped version of the game.  I don't know too many board games that feature gummi bears with an attitude, gingerbread men in tighty-whities, a naked Katy Perry sprawled atop a cloud made of cotton candy, and a bra that shoots out whipped cream as though it's going out of style.  But as a music video, it certainly was a colourful mix of imagery and art that blended well with the happy-go-lucky attitude that the song presented.

It certainly helped catapult the single all the way to #1 in the United States.  And, that's not the only place in the world where it became a #1 hit.  It also topped the charts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, Scotland, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela.

As for the story behind the lyrics?  Well, there's not that much of a deep explanation behind it.  Katy Perry herself was a California girl, and Snoop Doggy Dogg Snoop Dogg Snoop Lion Snoop Whatshisname also hailed from "The Golden State".  But how Snoop ended up becoming a part of one of Katy Perry's biggest hits was an interesting tale. 

Would you believe that the online encyclopedia known as "Wikipedia" helped get Snoop the job on the single?  Katy Perry knew that since she was doing a song entitled "California Gurls", she really wanted a rapper from the West Coast, and Snoop stood out as being the guy that she wanted to work with the most.

TRIVIA:  I suppose you're wondering why the song has a misspelling in the title.  Originally, it was supposed to be titled with the correct spelling of "California Girls", but after the death of Big Star member Alex Chilton (whose band released the single September Gurls), the decision was made to alter the name of the single in tribute to Chilton.

So, you all know how the rest of the story goes.  "California Gurls" became a major hit for Katy Perry three months before "Teenage Dream" the album was released in stores.  The title track of "Teenage Dream" followed suit.  Then came "Firework", "E.T.", "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.), "The One That Got Away", "Part of Me", and finally "Wide Awake".  Those mark a little over two whole years of music.  And with a movie under her belt as well as her 2013 album "Prism" still making its way on the charts (the latest single "Birthday" was released in April 2014), Katy Perry shows no sign of slowing down as she approaches her thirtieth birthday this fall.



I think that no matter what the future holds for Katy Perry, one thing you can say for sure is that this California girl made her teenage dream come true, and is now letting her colours burst whenever she can.

No, that wasn't awkward at all, was it?  

Saturday, July 05, 2014

The Jungle Book

For today's edition of "Saturday Night at the Movies", I thought that I would talk about a movie that I absolutely loved as a kid.  And, I purposely waited until the store that I work at had their annual summer blowout sale on DVD's and Blu-Ray movies.

Seriously, how the Walt Disney company can justify charging over thirty dollars for a movie that was released over four decades ago, I'll never understand.  Sure, they're excellent movies, but would I pay $30 for an older film?  Not in this lifetime!

Ahem...rant against Disney pricing and merchandising over.

Anyway, I'll tell you a little bit about how I ended up watching this movie for the first time.  I was eleven years old, and I was very much obsessed with Disney movies at that time.  Problem was that I could only afford to rent them, as VHS copies of the Disney movies at that time were over thirty bucks!

Seriously, Disney.  What was up with that?

Anyway, I had just finished watching a marathon of "The Little Mermaid", "Dumbo", "Peter Pan", and "The Rescuers Down Under" (which at the time was the newest movie to be released on VHS).  The next movie in the list was a film that was originally released in 1967.  It was a movie that took place in a jungle setting and featured a whole cast of animals who lived in the jungle.

One thing I didn't realize was that quite a few of these characters that appeared in this movie also appeared in one of my favourite cartoons at the time.

At that time, I was so into Disney movies that I would watch the cartoon block known as "The Disney Afternoon" every Saturday between the hours of 3:00pm until 6:00pm.  That was what we all watched before cable channels such as "The Disney Channel" and "Disney Jr." existed, and it was the only place where you could watch "Darkwing Duck", "Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers", and "Goof Troop".



And, "Tale Spin", might I add. 

You see, I didn't know this until I had started watching this movie, but "Tale Spin" was inspired by the jungle film.  I admit it was kind of weird seeing Baloo, Louie, and Shere Khan appearing in the movie, knowing that they also appeared in "Tale Spin".  Though, to be fair, in the movie, Baloo didn't fly a plane, Louie didn't run a bar, and Shere Khan didn't wear custom made Italian suits.  They just acted like the jungle creatures that they were.

And when a little boy named Mowgli was dropped into the fold, it caused a little bit of a kerfuffle, and was the catalyst behind the events of the movie that would come to be known as...



"The Jungle Book"!

Based on the classic tale of the same name by author Rudyard Kipling, "The Jungle Book" depicts the story of a young boy left abandoned in the jungle and raised by wolves, and the struggles that come from living a life entirely in the jungle - especially when you never know what dangers may lurk.



This film was the very last film that Walt Disney himself had produced.  He died in December 1966 - just ten months before the film's October 1967 debut.  And one of the things that Disney did was change the film's tone to make it different from Kipling's version.  Initially the film was supposed to be a lot darker than originally presented, but Walt Disney insisted that the film be family-friendly, which lead to the dismissal of a writer and music composer.

The end result was a film that was well-received, and it was a film that became a Disney classic...but I do have to wonder what the original version would have been like.  I guess some things we'll never really know.



So, the story of "The Jungle Book" goes like this.  Mowgli (voiced by Bruce Reitherman - the son of director Wolfgang Reitherman) is discovered in a basket in the middle of an Indian jungle by Bagheera, a black panther (Sebastian Cabot).  And, Bagheera, knowing full well that a human could never survive in the jungle alone, decides to leave him in the care of a young mother wolf who just gave birth to several babies.  And so for the first ten years of Mowgli's life, he is raised as a wolf and becomes extremely close to his wolf brothers and sisters.

And, I'm sure that Mowgli would have stayed in the jungle for the rest of his life if he had the choice.  Unfortunately, fate had a way of causing everything to be flipped around and turned upside-down.



Enter Shere Khan.  A Bengal Tiger with an attitude.  A tiger that would love to make Mowgli his next meal.  He was definitely a beast that you did not want to cross, and he was definitely the most feared jungle creature in India.  He had stayed away from the area for years, but when reports seep into the jungle that he is back and hungrier than ever before, the focus soon switches to making sure that Mowgli is evacuated from the jungle as quickly as possible. 



Luckily, Bagheera knows of a Man-Village that has people like Mowgli living there.  And Bagheera knows that the people of the village could protect Mowgli a lot better than the jungle creatures could if Shere Khan made a surprise appearance.  So, as a result of this, Bagheera decides to escort Mowgli to the village for his own safety.



Of course, the trip doesn't go smoothly.  Mowgli almost gets eaten by a giant python named Kaa (Sterling Holloway), joins the elephant patrol, and has a huge falling out with Bagheera which causes the two to be separated.  Mowgli crosses paths with the fun-loving, carefree Baloo (Phil Harris), and Baloo decides that he will prevent Mowgli from going to the Man-Village and will raise him himself.  Of course, a group of monkeys lead by King Louie (Louis Prima) abducts Mowgli because they feel that he can teach them how to make fire. 



Fire becomes a huge part of the climax of this story, might I add.  But, that won't come until the end of the film...which of course I won't spoil for you.  But is it any wonder why Mowgli would become a little bit confused over who he is, and who he wants to be?  Bagheera wants to protect him.  Baloo wants to adopt him.  King Louie wants him to teach him the mystery behind creating fire.  And Kaa and Shere Khan want to eat him!  And you thought having to clean your bedroom was rough!

So, since I won't reveal the ending of this movie, how would you like a list of trivia facts regarding this movie?

1 - This film was more or less the movie that decided the fate of the Walt Disney Animation Studios.  If the film was a success, the studios would stay open.  If it had failed, Disney would have had no choice but to cease production.  I think you all know what happened next.

2 - In the movie, Kaa is an enemy who wants to eat Mowgli.  In the book, he's much friendlier with Mowgli.



3 - Towards the end of the film, there are four vulture creatures that look a lot like The Beatles.  It was planned for John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison to voice the vultures.  But Lennon's refusal to commit to the project forced Disney to hire other actors.

4 - According to the daughter of Rudyard Kipling, the name Mowgli is supposed to be pronounced MAU-glee instead of MOW-glee, and reportedly never forgave Walt Disney for the mistake.

5 - Interestingly enough, Bruce Reitherman - the voice of Mowgli - now works as a wildlife documentarian!

6 - The hardest part about the animation process of "The Jungle Book" was animating the stripes on Shere Khan.  Hmmm...maybe that's why they always put Shere Khan in a suit on "TaleSpin".

7 - The majority of the main cast was male - with one exception.  The role of Winifred the Elephant was provided by Verna Felton.

8 - Shere Khan's facial features were modeled after the man who voiced him - George Sanders.

9 - Kaa's song, "Trust in Me" was originally meant to appear in 1964's "Mary Poppins" under a different title.

10 - David Alan Bailey was originally supposed to be the voice of Mowgli...but he had to be recast when Bailey's voice began to change during production.

11 - There was to be an additional rhinoceros character named Rocky.  Frank Fontaine even recorded lines for this character.  At the last minute, the rhinoceros character was scrapped.

12 - As mentioned above, Walt Disney had to let go of a screenwriter when his vision of "The Jungle Book" didn't match his own.  That writer was Bill Peet, and that decision put an end to a 25-year-long working relationship between Peet and Disney.



13 - Composer Terry Gilkyson was also let go from the project.  Only one of his songs, "Bare Necessities", was included in the film.  That song was nominated for an Academy Award.

14 - Because of busy schedules, Louis Prima and Phil Harris had to record "I Wanna Be Like You" separately.

Friday, July 04, 2014

Barbecue Weather!

I have an announcement to make concerning the FOODIE FRIDAY entries.  It's not completely going away...but I am going to be making a slight alteration in how they will be presented.



Before I do that though, I want to issue a shout-out to all of the American readers who happen to be glancing at this blog today.  Today happens to be the American Independence Day - affectionately known as the 4th of July.  Can you believe that the United States of America is turning 238 years old today?  What an age!

Happy Birthday, America!  Hope you're celebrating in style with lots of fireworks and patriotism, just as we Canadians did three days earlier.

Now for the bad news.

Well, all right.  It's not completely bad.  I think this could be a good thing.

The truth is that for the last couple of months, I've been asking people to send in recipes for every Friday and that I would post these recipes online for people to share.  It was my idea to try and make this blog more interactive and fun for all of you reading this.

But unfortunately, I didn't get that many recipe submissions.  I only ended up with two in total.  I've tried filling the void by posting recipes from other sources, but the problem with that was that it was much harder to find recipes that were relevant than I initially thought.

So, it's come to today's news.  I'm suspending the recipe portion of this
FOODIE FRIDAY blog for the time being.  If I do happen to get some recipe submissions after today, I'll flex them into a future Friday posting.  But as of right now, today will be the last recipe posted in this blog for the time being.

So what becomes of the
FOODIE FRIDAY post?  Well, not much will change, actually.  I'm still planning of devoting a blog post to food related topics.  I just won't have a recipe.  It'll strictly be a look back at a food treat from the past that I enjoyed (or despised, if the case may be).  I might also talk about restaurants from the past, or events that typically have a lot of food associated with them. 

So, don't look at this as the end of something.  Look at it as a new beginning.

After all, America is celebrating another birthday.  And, while I'm not American, I do know one way in which Americans love to ring in the 4th of July.  Naturally, one of the signs of the 4th of July is looking up at the sky and seeing elaborately done fireworks displays sprayed across the sky.  Though you could also say the same for Canada's July 1 celebrations, or France's July 14 celebrations, or Mexico's May 5 celebrations too.



(Man, that's a lot of fireworks!)

But fireworks aren't the only way.  There's also the delicious, appetizing, mouth-watering smells coming from a propane or gas powered barbecue!

Seriously, any time during the summer is prime time for going outside and barbecuing whatever tickles your fancy.  I myself wish that I could do more barbecuing on hot summer days...but unfortunately I live in an apartment building where the people in charge have more or less outlawed barbecues and outdoor grills.  One day though...

I think that's why whenever I am invited to a barbecue and I have the free time to attend one, I jump at the chance to go.  I am a sucker for barbecued food, and it doesn't really matter what is on the grill.  I'll eat almost anything.

(Well, except veggie burgers.  I understand some of you swear by them and love them.  You can have my share, okay?)



Other than that, I am not fussy.  When it comes to barbecues, all foods get equal love.  One of the reasons why I enjoy going to RibFest every summer is because I love barbecued ribs.  To me, a perfect rib has the absolute perfect sauce, and I'm going to have to say that when it comes to ribs, my mom makes the world's best barbecue sauce. 

(And no, you can not have the recipe for my mom's barbecue sauce for two reasons.  One, it's a family secret.  And two, my mom never did quite measure exactly how much of each ingredient goes into her sauce, so it's quite literally not the same exact sauce each time.  But I suppose I can reveal that brown sugar is one key ingredient.  Use that information as you see fit.)



The sauce for the ribs could also be used for chicken as well, as I've always found that chicken tastes much better when it's barbecued as opposed to fried.  I'd even eat barbecued chicken legs, and I'm not usually a fan of chicken legs.  I've always been more of a breast man...so to speak.



And I suppose that you could use the sauce on a freshly grilled steak if you want, but it's a little too sweet to be used on a seared to perfection T-Bone steak or a New York Strip.  I would probably go with something bolder like A-1 Steak Sauce.  To be perfectly honest though, I could take steak or leave it.  It's delicious, but I wouldn't want to eat it every day.  Maybe more like once a month or something like that.



Hot dogs are also much better barbecued than they are boiled in water.  Have any of you ever tried a boiled hot dog lately?  Ick.  Oh, and my perfect hot dog is also one that is very simplistic.  I only have mustard on them.  Simple is best in that case.



And you know, even barbecued vegetables can be quite tasty.  Have any of you ever had the delicious summer treat known as the shish kebab?  They are to die for.  They are a mixture of cubes of beef or chicken and pieces of vegetables speared through a wooden or metal stake that you can eat right off the stick.  Just be careful not to burn your tongue on the stick, or chew right through it.

(For the record, my perfect shish kebab would include green, red, and yellow bell peppers and mushrooms as vegetables.)



Of course, no barbecue is complete without the classic hamburger.  I think that as long as I can remember, hamburgers have been the quintessential barbecue favourite, and whenever I had a choice, I would always grab a hamburger over anything else.  A well done burger with a little bit of cheese, ketchup, mustard, and Polskie Ogorki pickles (my favourite pickle) is perfection on a bun.

And certainly burgers have been a part of barbecues all over the world.  In fact, there's one soap opera that used to air that my grandmother, mother, and sister used to watch back in the day.



Do you remember the show "Guiding Light"?  It ran for nearly three-quarters of a century on radio and television between 1937 and 2009.  And one of the storylines that they featured every year was the famous Bauer barbecue which was held every 4th of July.  At the Bauer barbecue, couples were reunited, affairs were exposed, and the fireworks in the sky weren't the only ones that could be seen in the fictional community of Springfield.

But one thing you probably wondered was...how did they make that famous Bauer burger?  The ones that the people on the show couldn't get enough of?

Well, I did a little digging, and I found the recipe on the "Soap Opera Network" website.  I figure that this would be a great recipe to post before I put the recipe feature on hold.  Note, you can probably do this recipe without the onions if you don't like them.  As someone who hates onions, I'd skip that step too.


1. Get 2 lbs of ground sirloin, then mix in some garlic, pepper, salt and 3 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce.

2. Make an even number of thin 
hamburger patties. (Be sure to make them very thin.)


3. Chop up some onion and put it on top of the first patty. Then put a slice of American or mozzarella cheese on top. Grill some 
mushrooms and put them on top of the cheese. Cover the whole thing with another patty. 


4. Using a fork press down the edges of the patties so they are sealed 


5. Barbecue the double patties over a low flame until done. It takes more time to cook due to the thickness of the patties. 

Thursday, July 03, 2014

Captain Planet and the Planeteers


I was just thinking the other day...it has been a really long time since I had a discussion on an animated program.  Since I changed the movie day to Saturdays, I've not had much of an opportunity to talk Saturday morning cartoons lately.

I think today is the day that I will change that.  After all, today is
Tube Talk Thursday where anything that airs on television goes.  And this includes cartoons.

But what cartoon do I want to talk about today?  I've done a lot of blogs on almost every cartoon that I could possibly think of.  Perhaps if I listen to some music that might inspire me to think of a possible topic.  Let's just set the iPod to shuffle mode.



Wow...um, okay, that was awkward.  I don't know what's more embarrassing, the fact that "Step By Step" from New Kids on the Block was the first song to appear on my iPod, or the fact that I'm actually admitting that I have a New Kids on the Block song on my iPod in the first place.

(Just for the record, it IS the one and only song by that group that I have on the iPod.  What can I say?  1990 had some really danceable tunes.)

But, as it so happens, this classic chart-topper by these five Boston guys serves as the inspiration for today's cartoon.  Because I could have sworn that this song was not the only place where I heard this melody. 

Don't believe me?  Well, I'm going to post the closing credits of this cartoon series as it originally aired.  Don't bother listening to the lyrics (seriously, looking back on the show's closing song, the lyrics are about as cheesy as five-year-old aged cheddar).  Just listen to the background music.



Is it just me, or is it THE SAME FREAKING SONG?!? 

I mean, sure, there's slight instrumental changes, and the speed is slightly different, but it's so similar you may as well call the two songs near perfect copies! 

I'm actually kind of amazed that the New Kids on the Block didn't launch a copyright infringement lawsuit against the theme composers.  According to several music databases, the single "Step by Step" was released in May 1990.  This series didn't debut until September 15, 1990.  Unless, of course, the show was developed for the 1990-1991 season, and the theme was composed at the same time as the New Kids on the Block song. 



Whatever the case, I'm sure you've guessed what the theme of the blog is today.  "Captain Planet and the Planeteers", which could very well have been one of the weirdest cartoons that I have ever seen in my whole life.



At the same time, this series debuted at just the right time.  The year was 1990, and 1990 for me seemed to be the year in which everybody in the world went crazy over protecting the environment.  After all, it was the 20th anniversary of Earth Day in 1990, and 1990 was the year in which our town's recycling program kicked off.  It was only natural that a cartoon designed to inform people about protecting our planet and teaching us ways in which we can preserve the Earth as well as our natural resources.

And, yes.  I admit that when I watched the show as a youngster, I didn't mind it.



So, what exactly is Captain Planet all about?  Well, obviously, Captain Planet is designed to be some sort of superhero (voiced by David Coburn).  He has green hair, a silver and red superhero costume, and he probably says his catchphrase "THE POWER IS YOURS" at least once per episode.

But exactly how is Captain Planet summoned?  And, why is Captain Planet summoned in the first place?

Well, it's because of these guys.



Recognize them?  They are what you would call the Eco-Villains...a group of people who are determined to destroy the planet by any means possible in a quest to line their greedy pockets with gold.  They cut down entire forests, pollute fresh water sources with oil spills, destroy natural habitats of animals, and other nasty things.  With names like Hoggish Greedily, Verminous Skumm, Dr. Blight, and Duke Nukem, certainly they didn't sound like people you'd love to have over to your house for tea and biscuits.

(Although, the cast of voice actors who did the voices for these dastardly villains seemed to come from a group of A-list actors!  Would you believe that at some point during the show's six year run, Ed Asner, Meg Ryan, Sting, Tim Curry, Martin Sheen, Gavin MacLeod, John Ratzenberger, and Jeff Goldblum worked on this program?  Who knew that a children's cartoon on the environment would attract such star quality?)

But there was some celebrity power on the side of good as well.  After all, the role of Gaia was played by two different actresses.  In the first three years of the show, Gaia was played by Whoopi Goldberg.  Margot Kidder played her for the last three seasons.



And, just who is Gaia?  Well, I suppose you could call her the secondary main character of the whole series.  At some point one hundred years before the series began, Gaia put herself in a state of endless slumber.  But as it turns out, her endless slumber was interrupted by Hoggish Greedily, who decided to drill for oil just above her little cocoon.

And upon her awakening, she quickly realizes that humans have become much more wasteful, much less aware of the damage that they are doing to the earth, and she decides that the power of Captain Planet must be summoned in order to save humanity from itself.

But Gaia can't summon Captain Planet herself.  She needs help to do so.  She has five special rings - each one containing a magical power that are element based.  And she gives them to five different teenagers all over the world to help fight the battle.

The five teenagers are known as the Planeteers, and they are starting from the top left corner...



GI from ASIA (Element:  WATER)
KWAME from AFRICA (Element:  EARTH)
LINKA from EASTERN EUROPE (Element:  WIND)
MA-TI from SOUTH AMERICA (Element:  HEART)
WHEELER from NORTH AMERICA (Element:  FIRE)

Okay, so maybe "HEART" isn't a real element...but if you don't have one, you can't care about anything, right?

(Oh, one thing.  When the show began in 1990, Linka was originally from the Soviet Union, which was still in existence.  When the Soviet Union ceased to exist after 1991, the story was retconned, and Linka became a resident of Eastern Europe.)

Anyway, it's only when the five rings are linked together that Captain Planet can show his green-mullet of power and take care of the Eco-Villains once and for all. 

Now, of course, each ring has magical powers, and the Planeteers can use these rings to control their respective element.  If there's a fire blocking the way, Gi could use her ring to quench the fire.  If the Planeteers needed to sail across an ocean to reach an Eco-Villain hideout, Linka could use a gust of wind to blow their raft over the waves quicker.

And, I suppose if you wanted to entertain the possibility, Ma-Ti could use his ring in the same way that the Care Bears could use their tummy symbols to make people sing Kumbaya around an open fire.  But, I don't remember seeing an episode like that.  Most episodes dealt with protecting the environment by having lessons on oil pollution, land pollution, composting, keeping things green, overpopulation, and the dangers of poaching.  But there were a couple of episodes that were deemed controversial.  Would you believe that the show did an episode which had people dabbling in drug use, and actually showed Linka's cousin dying because of it?  What a dark episode!  And another episode dealt with the Planeteers trying to help a young man overcome the hatred from a community after it was discovered that he had HIV. 

What serious topics for a children's show!

Though looking back on it, I'm glad they tackled those subjects.  As hard as it is for parents to talk about subjects like the ones above with their children, it's important that they do.  I do applaud shows like this one for bringing awareness to it, and more importantly teaching children the dangers of drugs, and not shunning someone who happens to have HIV. 

Though, a part of me still finds me disbelieving the fact that the show actually ran until 1996!  How in the world did that show last that long?

BONUS QUESTION:  Which power would you like to have?  Myself?  I'd go with water.  It'd keep me cool in the summer, and I could secretly drench anyone who gives me a hard time.  :)

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Blood, Sweat, and Tears (with much emphasis on the Sweat)



It is a scorcher of a day here in Ontario, Canada!  All this heat and humidity outside just makes you want to crank up the air conditioning and knock back some ice cold beer or cocktails.



(Or, in the case of myself who is more or less a teetotaler, chilled iced tea.)

I'm sure that most people in the world would list summer as one of their all time favourite seasons because of a variety of reasons.  When we were younger, summer meant two and a half months away from school.  It meant going to the beach.  It meant eating as much ice cream and popsicles as you desired.  And, it meant temperatures that were so warm that you could go outside in just a T-shirt and shorts if you so desired.

But I have to admit that summer is not a season that works for me.  In fact, whenever I take holidays from work, I very rarely take them during the summer months.  I'm more of a spring or fall kind of guy.  And, a lot of the reason why is because I'm not a fan of heat or humidity of any kind.

But it's not because of the fact that I can't take heat.  If anybody takes the proper precautions (wearing a hat, drinking lots of water, wearing light clothing, applying sunscreen), anyone can avoid sunburn, heat stroke, and other nasty ailments that can come from too much sun exposure.

I'll talk more about it in this diary entry.

July 2, 2014

Ah, summer.  When I was a kid, it was one of the greatest times in the whole year.  Not having to go to school for two and a half months?  As someone who hated the social politics of school, I welcomed that with open arms.  In fact, if I remember correctly, most of my summer afternoons were spent sitting on the back porch, drinking cold beverages, and reading comic books until the sun went down.  And if the weather was nice enough, I'd unhook the garden hose, turn it on full blast, and get completely soaked! 



And keep in mind that I grew up during a time period in which drinking water from a garden hose was considered to be a rite of passage and not a dangerous activity that could kill you.  I drank from the garden hose for nearly fourteen straight summers, and I'm still alive!

But of course, this was back when I was a kid.  Now that I'm an adult, there's really only one thing that prevents me from enjoying summer the way that most people do.

I'm extremely warm-blooded.

Now, in some cases, this can be a great thing.  In the winter, I never have to crank up the thermostat indoors because I'm always toasty warm.  But in the summer, this is a recipe for disaster because of one thing that I end up doing more than anyone else.



You've heard of the saying "blood, sweat, and tears"?  In my case, the word sweat should be bolded, italicized, underlined, and splashed with the brightest colour one could even imagine.

It'd look kind of like this, actually.

SWEAT!!!

That's also the main reason why I don't like summer.  I sweat.  I sweat a lot!

I sweat so much that on any given summer day, I have to change my shirt as much as twice - sometimes three times a day.  It's certainly making me spend more money at the laundromat between June and September, I'll tell you that much. 

And honestly I'm embarrassed by the fact that I do have a problem with perspiration.  I'm not talking about a few beads of sweat forming along my brow here...I'm talking about Niagara Falls type perspiration here!



As far back as I can remember, sweat has always been a nemesis of mine.  I was the kid who was forced to wear shirts underneath shirts because of sweat.  When I was in gym class, I was the kid who was so sweaty that I left behind puddles of it on the floor.  It was really embarrassing, and a really big part of why I did everything in my power to avoid gym class. 

I thought the reason why I perspired more than the average guy (seriously, all the other kids in my class barely broke a sweat - and yes, I was jealous of that fact) was due to my size.  I was always the heaviest kid in the class, and I had heard that the heavier you were, the more you broke out in a sweat.  But I still sweat even though I've lost weight since then.  


And, I mean, I suppose it's normal to sweat a lot in a gym class or anywhere where you do a lot of exercise.  But I break out in a sweat just going for a ten minute walk down the street.  By the time I get to my final destination, I look like I got caught in a rainstorm.

In case you haven't guessed, it's one of the things that I wish I could change about myself.  I wish I didn't sweat so much.  I wish I could have the freedom to go out and not have to worry about pit stains or having the back of my shirt stick to my back.  But I'm really not sure of how to fix it.

So, that's my confession for today.  I am a chronic sweater and I wish I could change it. 

Any suggestions for me?  (And, yes...I am being serious!)