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Saturday, August 11, 2012

Shining Time Station


I was recently given a suggestion in regards to my blog for the future by at least a couple of regular readers. They wanted me to insert more of myself into each entry. They wanted me to share some more personal stories about myself while blending them in successfully with my pop culture topic selections.

So, I decided to take them up on that suggestion.



When I was growing up, I was always surrounded by trains of all shapes and sizes. Part of the reason why this was the case was because of the fact that my father worked for a major Canadian railway between 1971 and 2002. I've had train safety drilled into my brain since birth. I knew about train whistles, train signals, conductors, passenger cars, and when the appropriate time was to cross the train tracks.

However, having a father who worked on the railroad did have its advantages. During the time in which he was in service, one of the perks was free train travel anywhere in Canada through VIA Rail. I can't remember all of the train trips that I took when I was a child. Most of the time, I only went on the train when my dad had to go to Toronto for job-related duties, but the ride was just so fun. Back in those days, the servers provided us with snacks and light meals, which to me was neat because who ever thought you could eat on a train, right? Oh, and a train trip wasn't complete without getting one of those cardboard VIA passenger train toys that you had to build yourself. I think I ended up with ten over the course of my childhood alone!



Even running around Toronto's Union Station as a young boy are fond memories that I will never forget. Union Station circa 1989 was quite the happening place. You could go right into the heart of Toronto if you left the station, but most of the time, I was content running around. I loved the souvenir shops, the restaurants, the comic book stand where I loaded up my arms with all the comics I could carry for the long train trip back home. I loved those days, and miss them fondly.

Of course, back in 1989, I had a bit of an ulterior motive in running around Union Station. Often I would take off and my parents would literally have to run around after me to keep up. The reason why I was so hard to keep an eye on at Union Station was simple. I was looking for someone.

I was looking for a conductor. More specifically, a conductor that spoke in a British accent and was no bigger than a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure.

You see, right around that time, a television show premiered on our local PBS affiliate, and I loved it because it had to do with trains and train travel. And, as it so happened, one of the main characters of the show was a tiny train conductor with the unique name of “Mr. Conductor”. Of course, the main reason I loved him so much was because he used to play “Thomas the Tank Engine” episodes.



Yes, you heard right. Today's topic is a show within a show!

But “Thomas the Tank Engine” was just one of the many components that made “Shining Time Station” one of my favourite shows growing up. And, as it so happens, “Shining Time Station” is the subject for today!



Shining Time Station” debuted on January 29, 1989, and ran until 1993, with television specials filmed in 1990 and 1995. Created by Britt Allcroft and Rick Siggelkow, the show depicted life at a sleepy train station located along the Indian Valley Railroad, as well as the lives of its staff.



The one thing that kids had to get used to were frequent cast changes between seasons. Only two cast members managed to stick around for the show's entire run. Didi Conn (who most of you remember as Frenchie from Grease) played the station manager, Stacy Jones, a kind-hearted woman who loved her job, but sometimes lacked assertiveness.



And Brian O'Connor played Horace Schemer, the manager of the station's old-fashioned arcade, a man who cares more about nickels than the people who insert them into the jukebox. He usually comes up with plans to try and get as much money as possible, but his plans usually are foiled, often comedically.

The rest of the cast were switched over between the 1989 and 1991 seasons, and the breakdown went down like this.

In the 1989 season, “Shining Time Station” was run by railroad engineer/mechanic Harry Cupper (Leonard Jackson), but by the 1991 season, Harry was transferred to another station, and was replaced by Billy Twofeathers (Tom Jackson).



In addition to the adult characters, five children would visit the station quite often. There were Harry's two granddaughters Tanya (Nicole Leach) and Kara (Erica Luttrell), Stacy's two nephews, Matt (Jason Woliner) and Dan (Ari Magder), and Becky (Danielle Marcot). Tanya and Matt were mostly seen during season one, with Dan, Kara, and Becky joining the cast in season two...but all five would occasionally share a few scenes with each other.



Then there's the tale of the two Mr. Conductors. The first Mr. Conductor was played by former Beatle Ringo Starr. This made perfect sense, as Ringo Starr was the original narrator for the “Thomas the Tank Engine” series when it debuted in the UK in September 1984. But when Ringo Starr left the series after the 1990 Christmas special, a replacement had to be found.



And would you believe that the man that replaced Starr in the role was comedian George Carlin? Fortunately, he never uttered one of his “seven words” during his entire appearance on the series.

One of the recurring gags of “Shining Time Station” was that for the most part, only the child characters could see Mr. Conductor. I don't quite remember if Stacy Jones saw him or not, but I would like to say that she could. Schemer, on the other hand, knew nothing about Mr. Conductor, and his magic tricks would often leave Schemer believing that the station was haunted.

Now, if you're thinking that Mr. Conductor was the station's best kept secret, think again. If one were to really look closer at the jukebox inside of Schemer's arcade, you may find that inside of it resides the “Jukebox Band”!



Don't worry...there weren't really any little people trapped inside a jukebox. The band members were created by Craig and Olga Marin of Flexitoons Puppets and Marionettes. The band was comprised of Tito Swing, Didi, Grace the Bass, and identical twin cowboys Rex and Tex. Oh, look, here's a couple of their songs down below.



You know something though? I remember the excitement and fun that all of the children who visited Shining Time Station had...and whenever I think of watching those old episodes, I remember those days when I was a kid, trying to find my own Mr. Conductor in the middle of Union Station in hopes that I could have him tell me interesting stories.

Never did find the little bugger though. Bummer.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Amazing Race, How Sweet That Show


Have you ever dreamed of going on a trip around the world? I know that I have.



I'll be completely honest with you. I haven't done much world travel in my life. I've never left North America. Heck, the furthest I've ever ventured outside of my current area of residence is Montreal, Quebec.

This is something that I would like to change. I want to go out and experience the wonderful places that the world has. I'd love to be able to visit all of the various places that I have only ever read about. In fact, my friend who came up to visit me this past week has extended an open invitation at any time to hang out with her in New York City, and I'm definitely planning on making that a reality within the next year or two.

I'm not exactly sure what inspired my desire to go all around the world, but I think it was triggered right around the time that a particular reality television series debuted on CBS. It's a show that literally has hundreds of filming locations each season, and that is still going strong after eleven years on the air.

The show also inspired one of my all time favourite quotes that I have ever heard on a television show. One of the teams that competed on the show best described the series as “a love letter to the planet”, and you know something? I agree with that statement.



The show that I'm discussing today is “The Amazing Race”, the reality program that has seen hundreds of teams racing around the world for the chance at one million dollars since September 5, 2001.



But don't think that the one million dollar prize is the only incentive for the teams to compete in the show. I mean, yes, a million dollars is always a nice chunk of change for a couple of people to share...but I bet that if you ask anyone who ever competed on the race itself, they'll tell you that the opportunity to go all around the world was worth even more to them than the money itself.

The Amazing Race” was created by Elise Doganieri and Bertram van Munster, who ended up creating the show as a result of a bet! Bertram van Munster issued a challenge to Doganieri to create a television show outline in five minutes or less while both attended a trade convention. Doganieri suggested a show where people raced around the world, and the two of them immediately pitched the idea to CBS, who were interested in putting the show on the air. The show went into development in 2001, and New Zealand born television personality Phil Keoghan was asked to host the show. Since 2001, several other continents have launched their own versions of “The Amazing Race”, including Asia and Australia.



TRIVIA: Phil Keoghan originally applied to be the host of another CBS reality television series, “Survivor”, and actually made the short list. Ultimately, Jeff Probst was given that job, but CBS executives were so impressed by Keoghan that they offered him the hosting gig of “The Amazing Race”.

The Amazing Race” casts between ten and twelve teams of two (or in the case of the eighth American season, ten teams of four) to compete in the race. The starting line for each race always takes place in a metropolitan American city (New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are common), and Phil always says the following to the teams before the beginning of each race.

The world is waiting for you...travel safe...GO!”

And from there, the teams were let loose on the world, with each one trying to stay one step above the other teams.



The way the show works is that each episode has the teams going to a different country in the world, allowing each team to experience the cultures and traditions of the nation by completing various tasks hidden in clue boxes around local landmarks.



Most often than not, these tasks are named after various traffic signs that can be seen on city streets all over the world. The most common ones are roadblocks and detours. In roadblocks, one member of each team must complete a particular task before being given the next clue, and on a race with twelve legs, each member of the team can only complete a maximum of six roadblocks a piece. Detours, on the other hand, allow teams a choice between two tasks, each of which have their pros and cons. Teams must decide which task is best suited for them, as both members have to take part in the task. Both teams have to finish the tasks as quickly as possible, for at the end of each leg is a pit stop. In most cases, the last team to cross the pit stop at the end of each leg is eliminated from the race, and sent to a mystery location where they are sequestered from the rest of the race. Some legs are non-elimination legs, and teams won't be eliminated for coming in last, but will usually have some form of penalty (usually an additional task to complete).

In addition to detours and roadblocks are other challenges which only appear in a few legs on the race. These include “Fast Forwards”, which allow teams to skip all tasks on the leg that they are currently competing in, “U-Turns”, which allow teams to force a trailing team to complete BOTH detour options., and
Intersections”, where two teams have to work together to complete one task.

And, what exactly do some of these tasks involve?

Well, this...



...and this...



...and, we can't forget this.



What I find most fascinating about “The Amazing Race” is the fact that the tasks are very much nation oriented. Sure, there are gross food tasks, and tasks that may seem incredibly impossible, but if you look at some of the tasks that have been featured on previous seasons of “The Amazing Race”, the tasks have included building huts, water pumps, and other essential things needed to improve life quality in underdeveloped nations (which the show visits at least two of these nations per season). Imagine the high someone gets when they donate their time to helping their local community become a better place and multiply that by one hundred. That's “The Amazing Race” in a nutshell.

Of course, I don't think I can end this blog entry off without paying homage to some of the most memorable teams that have ever competed in “The Amazing Race”, because they are truly the ones who make the show. Some of the teams were very good, and some of them were very bad. But, really, you can't have a show without teams, so let's have a look at some of the more memorable ones.

TEAMS MADE UP OF FORMER REALITY STARS



I'm of mixed opinion when it comes to teams who have competed in other reality shows. Some of them are captivating to watch (Rob and Amber Mariano from “Survivor”, Jeff Schroeder and Jordan Lloyd from “Big Brother”), some didn't last too long (Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca from “Survivor”), and some had no business competing in the show at all (Brendon Villegas and Rachel Reilly from “Big Brother”). While I don't mind having people like this on “The Amazing Race”, I definitely prefer watching the teams of regular people over reality stars still trying to squeeze out the last drops of their 15 minutes of fame.

THE “UNDERDOG” TEAMS YOU CAN'T HELP BUT ROOT FOR



Say what you want about the fifth season team “Charla and Mirna”. I'll admit that Mirna wasn't exactly my favourite person on the race, mostly because of her condescending attitude towards other teams. Her cousin Charla was a delight though. Charla was the show's first little person who competed in the race, and she was a force to be reckoned with.



There was also another team that competed in the fifteenth season of “The Amazing Race” named Zev and Justin who really impressed me. You see, Zev was diagnosed as having a condition known as Asperger's syndrome, which causes people to have it to have difficulty communicating with people on a social level. Some people might see the idea of running a race with a partner having Asperger's as a major handicap, but Justin never did. The two worked very well together, and in some cases, Zev's Asperger's syndrome worked to his advantage on certain tasks. It's a shame that Zev losing his passport on one leg of the race caused the team to be eliminated, but they redeemed themselves by competing in a future All-Stars season, making the final four.

By the way, Charla and Mirna were also included in an All-Stars season.

TRIVIA: The eleventh and eighteenth seasons of “The Amazing Race” were All-Star seasons.

Other teams that were memorable included Peter and Sarah from season 10 (Sarah had a leg amputated), and Luke and Margie from season 14 (Luke was deaf).

TEAMS THAT DROVE YOU INSANE

Well, I'll readily admit that Rachel and Brendon from last season were one of those teams. With moments like this one, it's easy to see why.

But there were so many other teams that could easily fit this description as well. You know those teams that just annoy you for whatever reason? Let's take a look at some of them below in a little Top 5 list.



5 – TARA AND WIL (SEASON 2)

Tara and Wil were a separated couple who went on the race to see if they could get back together. In my opinion, they should have stayed separated. They did nothing but argue with each other constantly. I think I lost how many times Tara screamed “YOU IDIOT!” at Wil during the whole season. So how fitting was it to see them in first place just a couple of miles away from the finish line only for Chris and Alex to pass them by because they were too busy arguing with each other. It was priceless. And, that's not the only team that ended up having a terrible moment because of arguing...



4 – KYNT AND VYXSIN (SEASON 12 & 18)

I really hated to put them on this list, because when they were on season twelve, I loved them. Their distinct black and pink look definitely stood out against the other racers, and I thought that they such unique personalities. Flash forward six seasons, and I couldn't recognize the team that I once loved. With Vyxsin breaking down in tears every five minutes, and Kynt screaming at her every five minutes because of her breaking down, I couldn't wait to see them eliminated. It was that painful to watch.



3 – MIKA AND CANAAN (SEASON 15)

Have you ever been at a water park and seen all of the various water slides that are scattered all over the entire park? They're supposed to be fun, right? Not for Mika. When the teams had to complete a task in Dubai where all they had to do was slide down a waterslide, Mika was too afraid to do it. I suppose the fact that the slide went through a pool that was filled with sharks may have had something to do with it, but the sharks were in a place where they couldn't eat the racers. Regardless, I don't know what was more disturbing, Mika crying because of her intense fear, or Canaan trying to throw her down the slide. As a result of this, Flight Time and Big Easy from the Harlem Globetrotters managed to slide past them, ending up with the elimination of Mika and Canaan. Too bad.



2 – FLO AND ZACH (SEASON 3)

The only winners of the race that I did an actual facepalm over. I didn't find Zach to be all that annoying, but let's just say that he had difficulty going with the Flo. Flo essentially cried and complained her way to the finish line the entire time. I had to use my mute button to get through the finale. Aside from the fact that they managed to get ahead of brothers Ken & Gerard (one of my all-time favourite teams), Flo nearly QUIT the race because Zach decided that it would be easier for him to complete a roadblock by converting his pants to shorts, which Flo did not take well AT ALL. I still can't believe they won.

1 – JONATHAN AND VICTORIA (SEASON 6)

Well, let's get the obvious out of the way here. Jonathan was an abusive monster and Victoria was his doormat. That was the impression that I got of the two right from the beginning of the sixth season. Jonathan would yell at Victoria if they made a wrong turn, screwed up a detour, if it rained, if a cat crossed their path, if a grain of salt was present on the table, etc. And Victoria would just sit there and take it. But their greatest shameful moment? Watch it below.



I will say this though...I felt horrible for Victoria, and I was kind of hoping that Phil Keoghan would have told Jonathan off right then and there. I do believe that I read somewhere that the couple has since split up. For the sake of the world, I hope this is true.

Now to conclude this look at “The Amazing Race”, I wanted to share with you some of my favourite moments over the 20 seasons of the race. It could include my favourite teams, funny scenes, or just feel-good moments.

WINNERS ALL AROUND



Twenty teams have managed to win “The Amazing Race”, and some of them displayed good sportmanship and likeability from the very beginning. I wish to single out Season 1's Rob and Brennan, Season 2's Chris and Alex, Season 7's Uchenna and Joyce, Season 9's BJ and Tyler, Season 13's Nick and Starr, Season 14's Victor and Tammy, Season 17's, Nat and Kat, and Season 20's Rachel and Dave for being great winners. There were some fights, and some tears, but they ran a great race.

FIRSTS



There were many teams of firsts. We talked about Season 10's Sarah being the first amputee, Season 5's Charla being the first little person, and Luke being the first deaf contestant. But did you know that Season 4's Reichen and Chip were the show's first gay married couple (though since then, the two have split up).

The oldest person ever to compete in “The Amazing Race” was Mel White, who was 70 on the 18th Season. The youngest person ever to compete was then nine-year old Carissa Gaghan, who raced with her family on the 8th season “Family Edition” of “The Amazing Race”.

UNEXPECTED MOMENTS

Sometimes you see moments that you have to do a double take on. And these moments usually lead to great moments as the season progresses. On season seven, Uchenna and Joyce were faced with having to shave their heads in order to progress to the next clue. For Uchenna, it was not hard for him to decide as he was bald anyway. Joyce had a full head of hair, and really debated on what to do. She made the difficult choice to shave it all off for the sake of the race.



That decision was a good one, as it helped them win the race.

Another unexpected moment was the watermelon catapulting challenge from Season 17, and home shopping hosts Brook and Claire were one of the last teams to complete the challenge. Well, Claire's aim with the catapult was a little bit off, and this lead to one of the most talked about moments on the whole race.



Can you say, OUCH!

Fortunately, Claire was surprisingly uninjured, and the team managed to place second overall. Plus, their bubbly personalities and never give up attitude cemented them as one of my all-time favourite teams. And, speaking of which, I'll end this note off with my list of my Top 15 Amazing Race teams of all time.

15 – VICTOR AND TAMMY (Season 14)
14 – B.J. AND TYLER (Season 9)
13 – NICK AND STARR (Season 13)
12 – KELLY AND JON (Season 4)
11 – KEN AND GERARD (Season 3)
10 – UCHENNA AND JOYCE (Season 7, 11)
09 – DUSTIN AND KANDICE (Season 10, 11)
08 – JET AND CORD (Season 16, 18)
07 – NAT AND KAT (Season 17)
06 – JON AND AL (Season 4)
05 – BROOK AND CLAIRE (Season 17)
04 – JOHN VITO AND JILL (Season 3, 11)
03 – DANNY AND OSWALD (Season 2, 11)



02 – BOPPER AND MARK (Season 20)



01 – KRIS AND JON (Season 6)


Thursday, August 09, 2012

What I Did On My Summer Vacation


This is probably going to be a Thursday Confession unlike any other because this is one that is coming completely from my heart.

It's also going to be extremely short and sweet (there's a first, right?)

THURSDAY CONFESSION #32: Although you might not know this, the last four blog entries that were posted on the blog were post-dated.

That's right, everyone. I wrote the entries dated August 5 through August 8 last week. The reason being that I am currently on vacation this week from my day job, and for the first few days of that vacation, my friend Sharyn from Long Island, New York came up to visit me for a few days.

And let me tell you, that time that we spent together taught me so much about myself, and opened up so many doors that I previously closed that I feel compelled to share my experiences with each one of you reading this blog right now.



I suppose this is what you would call the “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” post. Did any of you ever have to do a composition for the first week of classes at school on what you did for the summer vacation? I know I've had to do that assignment twice in my whole school career, and twice, I've made stuff up to hide the fact that I really spent the summer doing anything substantial.

The summer of 2012 changed all that for me.

I'm afraid that at this time, I do not have any photo proof available to show you exactly what I did on my week off from work, but once they are available, I will show some of them off in future blog postings. 



DAY 1: Saturday, August 4 – My friend arrives in Canada from Long Island, checks into her hotel (which is really a group of tiny cabins lined up along the St. Lawrence River), and we meet up for the first time. But, here's the cool part about everything. We have actually “known” each other since the summer of 2001. We “met” on a discussion group forum that was part of a pop culture themed website, and instantly became friends. Over the last eleven years, we always talked about meeting up in person, and this year, those talks became reality. Of course, we didn't really do much sightseeing that first day. We just wanted to talk, talk, talk! Well, that, plus eating a whole selection of goodies from an American supermarket chain known as Trader Joe's. Kind of made me wish that Trader Joe's was available in Canada. They make some awesome dark chocolate peanut butter cups!




DAY 2: Sunday, August 5 – The time that I spent with my Long Island friend was cut short, due to the fact that I was attending a 14th birthday party for my nephew. However, it's amazing just how much activity that one can cram in a single day! The day was mostly spent in Kingston, Ontario. One of our first stops? Costco, if you can believe it! Anyone that has ever been inside a Costco knows that it can be a very cool, but very surreal experience, as the products that are for sale every day are sold in bulk quantities for impressive prices. I'll admit that I was very much drawn into the energy and the vibe of the place, and I was instantly in a good mood the whole time I was there.

To top it all off, my friend and I were shocked when we happened to get to the checkout line, and saw that the cashier that rang our order through had the same exact name as a mutual friend of ours that passed away just this past December! It absolutely blew us away!



After Costco, my friend was really interested in going to a store that was located in Kingston's Downtown core. Have you ever heard of a place known as “Ten Thousand Villages”? If you haven't, do scope it out, because you have to see the merchandise that is offered. The reason why the store is called “Ten Thousand Villages” is because all the stuff there is all hand-crafted and imported from nations all over the world. Some of the stuff inside the store is exquisitely carved. I admit that I was ALMOST tempted to buy a wooden Tic-Tac-Toe game that was sold there, but she ended up finding a few deals. On top of that, we stopped off at a bookstore where an author was holding signings for a new book that had just come out, and my friend not only bought her book, but initiated a conversation with her for ten minutes, with me only joining in later on! It was absolutely amazing to meet an author who HAD made it, and it gave me hope that I could make it big with my writing one day.



DAY 3: Monday, August 6 – In Ontario, the first Monday of the month of August is a civic holiday, and we decided that the best way to spend the holiday was to go on a boat cruise from Rockport. We researched all the options available, and the cruises that were available were one hour, two hour, and three hour cruises. We opted for the two hour, as one would have been too short, and three reminded us too much of “Gilligan's Island”.

The boat cruise was fun, and the weather was absolutely perfect, though I had to point out photo opportunities whenever they arose. My friend and I were so engaged in chatting that she ended up missing a couple of wonderful photo opportunities.



In all seriousness though, if you are ever in the Rockport, Ontario area and you want a real experience of the Thousand Islands, you should definitely take a boat cruise. You won't regret it.

After the boat cruise, we made a visit to Rockport's General Store/gift shop, and there's a lot of Canadian themed souvenirs that one could take home with them/ Everything from maple syrup jars to clothing items. Seriously, I recommend it. So does my friend from Long Island!

DAY 4 – Tuesday, August 7 – This was a fantastic day. It was the day that my friend and I fled the country!



It's true! We headed up to the North Country to visit the small town of Canton, New York (beautiful place, by the way) to visit a couple of Sharyn's friends. Jon and Kathy were probably two of the most gracious people that I have ever met, and the four of us had a fantastic time. We sampled food from their organic vegetable garden, we had a tour of their house (which is truly unlike any other house that I have ever seen in my whole life with rock face walls on the INSIDE of the home), and Kathy even taught us the craft known as felting using hand-dyed sheep wool. I wish I had a picture to show all of you, but take my word for it, it looked fantastic.

Here's one more piece of trivia. Did you know that Jif peanut butter is only available in the United States? I ended up buying a jar for my sister, who insists that Jif is the best peanut butter ever made.

After we got back home, I coerced my friend to try her first taste of Canadian pizza and the Canadian delicacy known as the poutine.



The poutine, of course, being french fries, gravy, and cheese curd.

To my surprise, she enjoyed the poutine very much. I had fully expected to have to finish it myself!



DAY 5 – Wednesday, August 8 – This was our last full day together, and we really wanted to make it memorable. We toured the downtown area of my hometown, and took pictures of the older buildings of the area while I was doing my best to try and describe the history behind them. We ended up taking a lot of great shots, and I think that I ended up seeing my hometown in a completely different light. And, to top off the whole experience, my mother made us some homemade ribs. Since my friend was departing the very day that our annual rib festival was kicking off, she now didn't have to feel guilty for missing it!

So, as I post this entry, my friend from Long Island is on her way back home, and here I sit, reflecting on what the last five days meant to me. I certainly hope that she is doing the same as well as she reflects back on her last few moments in my hometown when she ended up finding a lemur figurine in the display case of a collectables store and squealed in delight over finding it.

I realized from spending time with her that I am deserving of having wonderful friendships.

I realized that there can be newfound beauty in something a simple as a city street, a serene pond, or a beautiful garden.

Most importantly, I learned that I need to open myself up a LOT more than I have been. Let me explain this for a second.

This has really been the first time that I have ever really done something adventurous on a vacation. In a way, I really stepped out of my comfort zone to take this vacation. I went places that I never thought that I would go. I even left the country!

And all the while, my friend, who is a lot more bubbly and open than I am was chatting to salespeople, customers, budding authors, the captain of the boat cruise, and just about every random stranger that passed by. It was really incredible to see her open up to so many people.

And it hit me like a ton of bricks. She had the personality that I always dreamed of having. In my whole life thus far, I lived life extremely guarded, and didn't let people in for fear that I would be hurt.

But now I see first hand that the way I was living life was completely wrong. And I think that she knew that, and wanted to help me understand myself better. I believe that the term that she used during our correspondence before my vacation began was “open-heart surgery”.

Well, I've been under the “knife”, so to speak, and I have seen the light. I think having her come up to visit was one of the best things that I have ever experienced. And, I now see life through clearer eyes. I still have some ways to go, but I am going in the right direction. I know I am.

And, that's what I ended up doing on my summer vacation. Hope all of you enjoyed the read!

To close off this blog entry, I thought that I would insert a quote that she often said to me during the whole vacation.  She believes that things always happen for a reason, and that when things go incredibly smooth, we should do this...and this happens to be the quotation that I plan on living by for decades to come.

TRUST THE PERFECTION.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Fad Toys


When I was growing up, I think I ended up playing with a wide variety of different toys. And what was interesting about it was the fact that most of the toys that I played with were popular at least a decade before I was born!

And it got me thinking about toys that were insanely popular in certain time periods. I suppose one could say that they were “fads” of the time.

And, that's what I have decided to make this blog about. Fad toys.

Certainly, I was around for several of these fad toys, and I even played with some of them at the time they were at their peak of popularity.



Right off the bat, I can think of three fad toys that all the kids played with during the wonderful decade known as the 1990s. In 1990, I remember every kid having something called a “Skip-It”. It was first sold in stores in the late 1980s, and by my third grade year, everyone had one...including yours truly. It was just a plastic thing that you hooked around your ankle, and swung around in a circle as you skipped over it. There was even a counter attached onto the Skip-It that allowed you to count just how many times you could skip...but I was so terrible at it that I barely made it past ten skips. I think I ended up selling the blasted Skip-It at a garage sale just a couple of years later.

Another fad that I remember from the 1990s was a little game that a few of us used to play in the school playground circa 1993, 1994-ish.



Have you ever heard of a game known as Pogs? Pogs were little cardboard discs that had a variety of different designs all over them. Some were based on cartoon characters and television shows, some just had generic designs that were holographic, or were in 3-D, and some were even offered as toys in Happy Meals at fast food places.

MINI CONFESSION: Not only did I play with Pogs when I was twelve, but I still have all the ones that I managed to collect during the time when they were most popular!



The way that the game was played was very simple. Each player would stack up their Pogs into a giant tower. After that was completed, each player would take out something called a “Slammer”, which was a piece that was similar in shape to a Pog, but a much heavier weight. Usually, slammers were made out of thick plastic, metal, or rubber.

Each player would take their “Slammer” piece and hurl it towards the stack of Pogs. Doing this would cause the stack to flip over and collapse. If any of the Pogs landed face down, the player could claim those Pogs as their own. The others were restacked for the next player. The game ended when all the Pogs were claimed.



Now, if one were playing a friendly game, it was a nice distraction, and people just kept the Pogs that they brought to the game. But some games played for keeps, and I remember many kids in my school losing their entire collection of Pogs to some of the others who were the Pog champions of the playground. I suppose that was the main reason why my school (and many others in North America) banned Pogs. I suppose in some ways, it did seem like we were running a gambling operation right next to the monkey bars.

(For the record, I never played for keeps, and I only ever traded Pogs with other kids.)



Fortunately, I was a bit too old when the next fad of the 1990s came out. Do any of you ever remember having such a thing as a virtual pet? I believe that around my high school, they were known as Tamagotchis. First created in Japan in 1996, the electronic toys were all the rage in North America just two years later. Tamagotchis allowed people to raise an electronic pet right from the moment that the pet was “born” (when the device was switched on). But owners of a Tamagotchi soon found that taking care of a virtual pet was almost as tough as taking care of a real pet. Over the course of the life of your Tamagotchi, certain icons would pop up that detailed what your pet needed. You'd have to feed your pet, give your pet medicine, clean up after your pet, play with your pet, and even have to scold your pet for mischief it happens to cause.



Of course, not all Tamagotchi pets lasted forever. Neglect and poor care could cause the death clock to tick prematurely for your virtual pet, but in almost all cases, the pet simply died of old age. Fear not though, your game won't quit working. You could simply restart the game again with a brand new virtual pet.

That said, I never owned a Tamagotchi. I found it too time-consuming to deal with.

But fad toys aren't just limited to the 1990s. In the 1990s, people played with virtual pets, but back in 1975, a different virtual pet of sorts hit the marketplace.



I imagine quite a few people owned something called a “Pet Rock”. Pet rocks were the brainchild of California businessman Gary Dahl, who had joked that a pet rock was the perfect pet because they didn't need to be walked, fed, or cleaned up after. It was a rock. What could rocks do other than sit there and be admired?



What was amazing about the pet rock was how much of an impact it really had in the world of pop culture. In 1975 alone, Dahl ended up selling 1,500,000 pet rocks, alone, and for six months, everyone wanted a pet rock. By 1976, the fad had died a quick death, but Dahl still ended up becoming a millionaire with the sales accumulated from the pet rock. Imagine taking a rock and turning it into enough money to buy several rocks...of the shinier, glass-cutting kind. Now, that's business smarts right there!



In the 1950s, the toy that every girl, boy, and chipmunk apparently had to have was the hula hoop (Yes, in that Chipmunks Christmas song, Alvin had to have a hula hoop). Although the toy was not technically invented in the 1950s (apparently its origins come from 5th century Greece), it became extremely popular during that decade. The Wham-O toy company released a plastic version of the hula hoop in the late 1950s, and by the summer of 1958, it became a fad in the United States through promotions, radio giveaways, and hula hooping contests. By the time the 1960s arrived, over 100 million hula hoops had been sold, and at the peak of their popularity, toy companies were producing fifty thousand hula hoops a DAY!



Hula hoops are still being made today, though their sales and popularity aren't quite as high as they were back in the late 1950s. But the hula hoop was officially inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1999, forever immortalizing it as one of the most loved fad toys ever.

That's a look at some of the fad toys of the last few decades. Now, I have a question for all of you.

BONUS QUESTION: What were some of your favourite fad toys?

I'll leave you now with this video of another fad toy...the Rubik's Cube of the 1980s...and watch in awe as this person solves the puzzle in under six seconds!



Did you miss that? Here it is again in slow motion...I am officially in awe!



See you soon, fellow Pop Culture Addicts!!!

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

August 7, 2005


Welcome to Tuesday, August 7, 2012!  It’s time for another look back through time with the always popular Tuesday Timeline feature.

I’m not going to waste any time here.  Let’s just get right to it.  Would you like to know some of the major events in world history that took place on August 7?  Well, have a look!

1420 – Construction of the dome of Santa Maria del Flore begins in Florence, Italy

1714 – The Battle of Gangut; becomes the first important victory of the Russian Navy

1782 – George Washington orders the creation of a military award known as the “Badge of Military Merit” to honour soldiers who have been wounded in battle...today, the award is known at the “Purple Heart”

1789 – The United States War Department is established

1794 – George Washington invokes Militia Law of 1792 to suppress Western Pennsylvania’s “Whiskey Rebellion”

1890 – Anna Mansdotter becomes the final woman to be executed in Sweden for the 1889 Yngsjo murder

1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey and three of her friends became the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip, taking 59 days to travel from New York City to San Francisco

1927 – The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York

1930 – The last confirmed lynching of black people in the Northern United States take place in Marion, Indiana

1933 – Iraqi government slaughters over 3,000 Asyrians in the village of Sumail

1938 – The building of Mauthausen concentration camp begins

1944 – IBM dedicates the invention of the Harvard Mark I, the first program-controlled calculator

1955 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (which later became Sony) begins selling the first transistor radios in Japan

1959 – The Lincoln Memorial design starts appearing on the American penny

1964 – Prometheus, the world’s oldest tree, is cut down

1965 – Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters meets up with the Hell’s Angels at Kesey’s estate, linking the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang with the hippie movement

1970 – California judge Harold Haley is taken hostage in his own courtroom and killed in an effort to free George Jackson from police custody

1974 – Philippe Petit performs a high wire act in New York City between the twin towers of the World Trade Center

1978 – Jimmy Carter issues a state of emergency at Love Canal following the negligent disposal of toxic waste there

1981 – The Washington Star ceases operation after 128 years

1985 – Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri, and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to become the first Japanese astronauts

2007 – Barry Bonds hits his 756th home run, breaking the record held by Hank Aaron

We also have a few celebrity birthdays to list here.  Celebrating an August 7th birthday are Stan Freberg, Don Larsen, Tobin Bell, B.J. Thomas, Lana Cantrell, David Rasche, Alan Page, Wayne Knight, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), David Duchovny, Jacquie O’Sullivan (Bananarama), Bruno Pelletier, Harold Perrineau Jr, Marcus Roberts, Michael Weishan, Jason Grimsley, Sydney Penny, Rachel York, Charlize Theron,  Samantha Ronson, Eric Johnson, Tina O’Brien, Sidney Crosby, and Helen Flanagan.

For today’s look back through time, we’re going to take a look at what ended up being the final day of life for one man.


August 7, 2005.

That was the day that ABC News lost one of their own, and the day in which millions mourned the loss of a true professional in the world of journalism.


Today we’re going to look at the life of Canadian-born journalist Peter Jennings, who spent decades reporting the news at various television and radio stations (including a stint in my own hometown!).

Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 29, 1938.  He and his sister Sarah were born to Elizabeth and Charles Jennings.  Peter was always surrounded by radio at an early age.  After all, his father did work for CBC Radio as a broadcaster when Peter was born.

Would you believe that Peter Jennings’ first radio gig was in 1947 at the age of nine?  How’s that for starting early in life?  The name of the show he hosted was “Peter’s People”, and it ran on CBC Radio every Saturday morning.  The 30-minute program debuted while his father was out of the country on business, and when Charles came back to Canada and found out what happened, he was furious.  Charles Jennings did not like the concept of nepotism, and was outraged that the network allowed Peter to host his own show.

Two years later, when Jennings was eleven, he began attending school in Port Hope, Ontario, where he excelled in school sports.  When his father was transferred to the Ottawa headquarters in the 1950s, he began attending high school in Ottawa.  But Peter didn’t exactly like high school very much.  By his own admission, he was a lazy student who only cared about comic books and girls.  He ended up dropping out of high school in the tenth grade.  At some point, Peter attended Carleton University, but dropped out.

Despite dropping out of school, Peter dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps, and had the goal of becoming a famous broadcaster.  It took a bit of time for him to get there though.  At first, he started off as a bank teller at the Royal Bank of Canada.  He hoped to get transferred to the bank’s Havana branch, but instead he ended up working at the branch in Prescott, Ontario (current population 4,284).  Shortly after, he began working at the nearby Brockville, Ontario branch (current population 21,870), where in between shifts at the bank, acted in various musicals put on by the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society such as “Damn Yankees” and “South Pacific”.


While Jennings was in Brockville, he started working at the town’s local radio station, CFJR.  He was only 21 years old.  CFJR hired him to be a part of their news team, and over the next year, Jennings covered several stories, including one of a local train wreck which were picked up by the CBC.  In 1961, Jennings left CFJR to work at CJOH-TV in Ottawa, where he worked as an interviewer and co-producer for the show “Vue”, and shortly after that began hosting a show called “Club Thirteen”, a show similar to American Bandstand.


In 1964, CTV hired Jennings as the co-anchor of its national late-night newscast.  During his time with CTV, Peter Jennings was thrown into several high-profile news stories.  He was the first Canadian journalist to arrive in Dallas after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  He also attended the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, where he would meet a man by the name of Elmer Lower, who at the time was president of ABC News.  Elmer offered Jennings a job with ABC to become a correspondent, but initially, Jennings turned down the offer.  After three months had passed, he changed his mind, and moved to New York City to take on the job.



At the time that Jennings took on the job, ABC was in third place behind NBC and CBS as far as news coverage went, and ABC decided to try and add a more youthful presence to the network in hopes of attracting younger viewers (more than likely the coveted 18-49 demographic).  On February 1, 1965, Peter Jennings took over the anchor desk at ABC News, and began hosting “Peter Jennings with the News”.  At the time, the program only ran for 15-minutes, but Jennings ended up making history.  Being only 26 years old at the time, he became the youngest person ever to anchor a news program in the United States, a record that has yet to be broken as of August 2012.

That’s not to say that everything transitioned smoothly at first.  Peter Jennings may have been the youngest of the anchors, but at the time, he was also very much inexperienced when compared to the likes of Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, and Chet Huntley.  The viewing audience found it hard to relate to Jennings, and some even made fun of his Canadian accent!  However, Jennings admitted that he was out of his league at that time, and three years after anchoring the news, he left the position to become a foreign correspondent for ABC.


This decision was beneficial in helping Peter Jennings build up his name and his reputation.  In 1968, he established ABC’s Middle East bureau in Lebanon, the first American news bureau in the Arab world.  Four years later, he covered his first major news story, the “Black September” massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.  He hid with his camera crew near the building where the Israeli athletes were being held hostage, and ended up providing ABC with clear video of the hostage-takers.  The piece was well-received, although Jennings was criticized over referring to the hostage-takers as “guerillas” and “commandos”.

The following year, Jennings covered the Yom Kippur War, and in 1974, he served as chief correspondent and co-producer of a biographical piece of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.  The piece established Jennings as Sadat’s favourite journalist, and Jennings won the first of two Peabody Awards for his coverage.

Over the next few years, Jennings would become a Washington correspondent, anchor a short-lived morning show, served as a foreign anchor for “World News Tonight”, and became a father to two children, Elizabeth and Christopher, born to him and his third wife, Kati Marton.


In 1983, Washington World News Anchor Frank Reynolds fell ill with multiple myeloma, and was forced to leave the anchor desk that April.  Peter Jennings was asked to take over the Washington anchor desk expecting Reynolds to return...but sadly, Reynolds passed away in July 1983.  Three months later, Peter Jennings became the permanent sole anchor of World News Tonight, after the show relocated to New York.  Over the next few years, Jennings proved to the world that he had learned a lot since his first stint as an anchorman back in 1965, and the ratings for ABC News certainly reflected this.  With his extended coverage of the 1986 Challenger explosion, his prompt response to the October 1989 Lorna Prieta earthquake, and being the first of the big three news networks to report the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, by the beginning of the 1990s, World News Tonight was ranked #1, beating CBS for the first time.


Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Jennings continued to become a huge presence at ABC News.  He garnered a lot of attention for his marathon reporting stints, often staying on the air for 12 hours or more.  Some of these stories included the Gulf War in 1991, the millennium celebrations of 2000, and the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.  And Jennings received praise from viewers in 1995 when he made the decision to backburner the coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial to report on the unrest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  But on the flipside, Jennings also received criticism for what some called a “liberal bias”, as well as his contribution to a news documentary regarding the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.  Some people were so angered at what they called a “revisionist look” at the history of the decision to drop the bomb that they mailed bus fare to Jennings, telling him to go back to Canada.

But, Jennings persevered and rose above the controversy, becoming an American citizen in 2003, and continued anchoring World News Tonight.

By December 2004, however, something would happen that marked the beginning of the end.  He was sidelined with a respiratory infection that month, and as a result, he was unable to fly out to cover the December 26, 2004 tsunami that struck several Asian countries.  Three months later, viewers noticed that Jennings’ voice was beginning to sound different.  It wouldn’t be until April 5, 2005 that the viewers understood why.


Peter Jennings was diagnosed with lung cancer.  He had told viewers that he would do his best to come back to the anchor chair, but this would end up being his final appearance.  Charles Gibson and Elizabeth Vargas would serve as temporary anchors of World News Tonight as Jennings underwent treatment.

Sadly, on August 7, 2005, just after 11:30pm, Peter Jennings succumbed to cancer at his home, at the age of 67.  Just minutes after his death, Charles Gibson interrupted programming to announce the sad news.  Over the next few days, many in the news industry remembered their friend and colleague.  His ABC colleagues Diane Sawyer, Charles Gibson, Ted Koppel, and Barbara Walters all shared their memories of Jennings as did Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw, who competed with Jennings as the anchors of CBS and NBC’s news broadcasts respectively.  Canadian anchors Kevin Newman, Lloyd Robertson, and Peter Mansbridge offered up their condolences, as did George W. Bush and Paul Martin.

Although Peter Jennings may be gone, his legacy continues to live on, and his career was celebrated.  He ended up winning sixteen Emmy Awards, and two Peabody awards for his work with ABC News.  He was named Best Anchor by the Washington Journalism Review in 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1992.  He was awarded the Paul White Award in 1995 in honour of his work in journalism, and in 2004 was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting.

On July 30, 2005, just eight days before he passed away, Jennings received word that he would be inducted into the Order of Canada, an honour that his daughter Elizabeth accepted in his honour.  New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that a block of West 66th Street would be renamed Peter Jennings Way.  And in January 2011, Jennings was posthumously inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Television Hall of Fame.

Not bad for a high school dropout, huh?  But Peter Jennings proved to be much more than that.  He was a journalist and a professional to the end, and he will forever be known as one of ABC’s finest anchors.


And that was our look back on August 7, 2005.