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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Happy New Year, Charlie Brown




As the last few days of 2012 evaporate away into history, I thought that for today’s entry, I would choose a topic that fits with the theme of bringing out the old and welcoming in the new.

But I would like to ask you all a question.  Don’t worry...it’s linked to today’s subject.


Have you ever had a crush on somebody that you kept a secret for fear of being rejected?  Go on, be honest.  I know I plan on being that way.

And the truth is...yes.  I have had quite a few secret crushes.

Now, when I say crushes, I don’t mean celebrity crushes.  I mean crushes on people who you might have gone to school with, or crushes on people that you have worked with. 

I still remember my first crush as if it was yesterday.  I’ll just refer to them by their first name and last name initial, to preserve their anonymity, although it’s been 25 years, so I doubt they would even know who I am anyway.

Her name was Laura S, and we first met each other in, I believe, kindergarten?  Maybe grade one?  Anyway, she and I were very close during first grade.  She and I talked every day at recess and I think that I even invited her to my seventh birthday party at McDonald’s.  I really did like her, and looking back on it, she was probably the one person who kept me sane during first grade, especially since we both had the teacher from hell.  But by the time second grade began, Laura moved away to a different school district, and we were separated for good.  And meanwhile, here I was completely upset that I hadn’t told her that I liked her.  Of course, it wouldn’t have worked out anyway.  For one, we were both seven, which was the age in which boys and girls believed that we could get cooties from even touching each other, and for two, I don’t think that I was at an age that could tell the difference between friendship and real love.

Though, Laura certainly wasn’t my last crush.  I had several growing up.  In elementary school, I took a date to my grade eight graduation that I really did like and could have started up a romance with...but she moved away and I never saw her again.  Then in grade 9, I sat beside a girl in one of my classes who was a total knockout.  Unfortunately, she also had the same personality as Leona Helmsley, which was a complete turn-off.


(For those who may look confused, just Google the name “Leona Helmsley”.  You’ll soon figure it out.)

In college, I developed feelings for two different people.  In one case, the feelings only amounted to friendship, but in the other case, we just sort of drifted apart.  You know, it’s been a dozen years since we last saw each other, and I still regret the fact that things were left unresolved.  Though whenever I tried to look them up (out of curiosity, of course), I was unable to find her contact info.  Oh well...I always said that if people are meant to be in your life, they’ll find a way back somehow.  Maybe there’s hope yet.

Oh, and we won’t discuss all of the workplace crushes that I have had at my workplace of eight years.  Let’s just say that I have a really nasty habit of falling for people who are already involved in relationships with other people, and leave it at that.

The point is that sometimes crushes remain unsaid for fear of rejection, and sometimes when the opportunity does come to reveal your absolute love and devotion to the person you have only admired from afar, you chicken out.

Welcome to my romantic life, everybody. J

Now, keep in mind that I’m only 31, and there’s still loads of time for me to fall in love...and I would like to tell myself that I am secure enough to finally reveal my feelings to someone else when I feel something for them.  But, sometimes I feel like Charlie Brown, being completely frozen in place, struggling for words to impress the Little Red-Haired Girl that he has had a crush on for what seemed like five decades.


And, that happens to be one of the main plots in this special made by the Peanuts gang, which appropriately enough debuted on January 1, 1986.



That special is “Happy New Year, Charlie Brown”.

Now, this special features some interesting casting choices, as some of the young actors who played the roles of the Peanuts gang already had, or would be given roles in 1980s-era television series.  Chad Allen (who voiced Charlie Brown), was a regular in the NBC series “Our House”, and Jeremy Miller (who voiced Linus Van Pelt) was a regular on the series “Growing Pains” for seven years.

This special is also unique as it happens to be only one of two Peanuts specials to feature the Little Red-Haired Girl (a.k.a. the girl that Charlie Brown has had a crush on forever).

The television special kicked off on the day before the Christmas break was scheduled to take place.  And, naturally everyone at Charlie Brown’s school is eager to have a few days off of school.



However, like so many teachers that I have had over the years, Charlie Brown’s teacher assigns the class a project to do over the two-week vacation...read Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, and do a book report on it, due on the first day of school after the holiday break.

Ah, but don’t you worry.  This scenario is merely the B-plot of the special.  Of course, it is quite entertaining to see Charlie Brown attempt to take short cuts in order to complete his project, which include...

-         Trying to find the book on tape (which isn’t a bad idea)

-         Trying to find the book in the form of a comic (which IS a bad idea)

-         Trying to find the book in the form of a film strip (which wasn’t as bad an idea as the comic book)

-         Trying to find the book in the form of a video game (okay, seriously, Charlie Brown?  A video game of War and Peace?  I know your father’s a barber, but he’s not supposed to trim the sides of your BRAIN, dude.)

Though considering that this special was animated in 1985 B.G. (Before Google), you had to admire Charlie Brown’s resourcefulness.

And, it didn’t help matters much that Charlie Brown kept getting distracted by other commitments...mainly being invited to Peppermint Patty’s New Years Eve bash at her place.


Since all of the mutual friends of Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty are going to be in attendance of the party, Charlie Brown has it in his head to invite the object of his affection to the party so he can finally tell her how he feels about her.  But, as we all well know, things NEVER go well for Charlie Brown.  Not only does he have a mishap with the mail slot of the Little Red-Haired Girl’s door when delivering her invitation, but despite all of the grief he went through to get the invitation to her, she didn’t even send him an RSVP.

Good grief, Charlie Brown!!!

And, at the actual party itself, Charlie Brown ends up playing a rousing game of musical chairs with everyone else at the party.  Surprisingly enough, Charlie Brown does incredibly well, outlasting several of the party guests.  In the end, it all comes down to Charlie Brown vs. Peppermint Patty in the Ultimate Musical Chairs Deathmatch...and well...watch the end result.


Again, dare I say it...GOOD GRIEF, CHARLIE BROWN!!!

Poor Charlie Brown.  Nothing ever goes right for him.  It’s New Years Eve, he’s postponed doing his book report in order to go to a party in which he clearly isn’t enjoying himself, and on top of all that, the one girl he loves more than anything is a no show.  What else is there to do but sit out on Peppermint Patty’s porch and attempt to read the book that he has to do homework on?

Unfortunately, as the clock ticks closer to midnight, either Charlie Brown is suffering from sleep-deprivation, or “War and Peace” is incredibly boring to Charlie Brown, as he zonks out just moments before the ball drop in Times Square.

And to further rub salt in the wound, when Charlie Brown wakes up, he finds that he ended up missing more than just the beginning of a new year...he missed his one opportunity to impress the one person that he really wanted to notice him.  As a result, he was kicking himself over that missed opportunity, and wound up with a final grade of a D- on his book report as a result of procrastinating on the project.

Though it wasn’t a complete loss, as one of the Peanuts characters gives Charlie Brown a consolation kiss...though I’ll leave the identity of this character a secret.  I don’t want to give the whole thing away.

I guess if there’s one lesson that we can learn from Charlie Brown, it is this.  We can’t expect anything to happen if we don’t grab the bull from the horns and make our own luck happen.  And, I can relate to Charlie Brown a lot because we have both been in situations where we have been afraid to tell other people how we really feel, for fear of rejection.



Now, I am not one to make resolutions for the new year, but for 2013, I would like to try and get the courage within myself to express my feelings towards people I may have feelings for.  I’m sick of sitting on the sidelines and watching everyone else be happy when I could be just like them.


Now that I have it written out, I guess I have to follow through, right?

Friday, December 28, 2012

Farewell, Jack Klugman


For today's look back through the history of television, I would like to pay tribute to a television legend who passed away earlier this week.



On Christmas Eve, the world said goodbye to veteran actor, Jack Klugman. He happened to pass away on the same day that character actor, Charles Durning died.

(NOTE: I'm planning a tribute for Durning for my December 31 entry, so keep that date in mind.)

Klugman passed away at the age of 90 in Woodland Hills, California. He is survived by his second wife, Peggy Crosby, his two sons Adam and David (from his first marriage to Match Game panelist Brett Somers), and two grandchildren.

Klugman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 27, 1922, the son of a house painter and a hat maker, both of whom were Russian immigrants. In 1948, he graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now going by the name of Carnegie Mellon University), and served during World War II. After his service in the war wrapped up, he relocated to New York City to try his hand at acting.

TRIVIA: Klugman once roomed with the late Charles Bronson while he was living in New York trying to secure auditions and acting gigs.

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Klugman scored dozens of jobs within various stage productions. He starred in the Broadway productions of “The Golden Boy”, and “Gypsy: A Musical Fable”, took on a role in the soap opera “The Greatest Gift”, and starred in his first high-profile role as Juror #5 in the 1957 film “12 Angry Men”.



TRIVIA: Of the twelve actors who played the jurors in “12 Angry Men”, Klugman was the last surviving one.

As the 1960s began, Klugman began to take on various television roles. He tied the record for most individual appearances on “The Twilight Zone” with roles in four separate episodes (only Burgess Meredith had as many). He also made cameo appearances and guest starred in “Ben Casey”, “The F.B.I.”, “The Name of the Game”, and “Insight” before landing the first of two roles that would make his name a household one.



When the Broadway production of “The Odd Couple” was playing, Klugman ended up replacing the departing Walter Matthau, who had acted alongside Jack Lemmon (himself a replacement for Art Carney) in 1965. Klugman played the role of Oscar Madison, a slobbish sportswriter who couldn't have a more different personality from his roommate, the obsessively neat Felix Unger.



The play was hugely successful on Broadway, and in 1970, ABC decided to adapt the play into a television series. By 1970, both Matthau and Lemmon were involved in other projects to sign onto the series, so replacements had to be hired instead. Tony Randall was cast as Felix Unger (though Dean Martin and Art Carney were also briefly considered). As for Oscar, actors Mickey Rooney and Martin Balsam were up for consideration, and Randall had lobbied for Rooney to get the part. However, co-creator of the television series Garry Marshall had wanted to cast Jack Klugman for the role, and lobbied quite a bit to get people to listen to his recommendations.

Once casting was firmly in place, and the writers had come up with enough scripts for half a season, the series debuted on ABC on September 24, 1970.

The series run for “The Odd Couple” was not exactly a breeze. Did you know that the Nielsen ratings were so low during every season of “The Odd Couple” that each season, it was almost pulled off the schedule for good? The only saving grace was that when the show went on its summer hiatus, the reruns often scored higher ratings than it did any other time of the year, and those numbers kept the show on the air until July 4, 1975!



I should also note that despite the mediocre ratings and the threat of cancellation that plagued the show's five-year run, both lead roles ended up being nominated for Emmy Awards. Klugman ended up winning the Emmy Award in 1971 and 1973, with Randall taking home the trophy in 1975. Klugman also won a Golden Globe in 1974, and the show itself was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1971, 1972, and 1974.

I suppose one could say that “The Odd Couple” was sort of like the little prime time show that could!

Though “The Odd Couple” wrapped up its run on America's 199th birthday, Klugman didn't stay unemployed for very long. By the time Americans were ringing in the bicentennial, Klugman had signed on to star in another series, this time for NBC.



The series was “Quincy M.E.”, which started airing in October 1976. The series itself was inspired by the Marshall Houts book “Where Death Delights”, and the character that Klugman played (Dr. R. Quincy) was modelled after Los Angeles based medical examiner/coroner Thomas Noguchi, then known as the “Coroner of the Stars”.

Quincy M.E.” was a show that had a rather interesting beginning. Rather than debuting along with the rest of the fall premieres, it was originally broadcast as 90-minute telefilms, which were part of NBC's Sunday Mystery Movie rotation. “Quincy M.E.” was featured alongside other well-known mystery series including “Columbo”, “McMillan (& Wife)”, and “McCloud”. The “Quincy M.E.” telefilms were positively received by the public, and became so successful that the series was later spun-off into its own regular series midway through the 1976-1977 season.



Dr. Quincy could best be described as strong-willed, and not afraid to stand up to anyone who dared cross him (mostly this applied to his direct supervisor, Dr. Asten, and police lieutenant Frank Monahan). He is aided by his faithful lab assistant, Sam Fujiyama, and is friends with Danny Tovo, a marina restaurant near where his sailboat/residence is docked.

Now, “Quincy M.E.” was a show that was incredibly formulaic, as each episode of the program usually featured at least one, but sometimes all of the following criteria...

  • Someone ends up dead in each episode, seemingly from natural causes.
  • Quincy does an investigation and comes to the conclusion that the person died as a result of murder.
  • Quincy decides to launch an investigation into what caused the death of the person, much to his supervisor's dismay. Occasionally, he will refuse to sign off the cause of death in order to get the proof needed to confirm his hypotheses.
  • Quincy will get into an argument with someone higher up than him, which almost certainly puts up a temporary roadblock in the case.
  • Frequently causes Sam to cancel his social activities in order to perform a series of time-consuming tests that will solve the case.
  • Once the case is solved, the final scenes of the episode take place at Danny's restaurant.

Although the show structure quickly became quite predictable, the series earned a lot of praise for tackling hot-button topics such as anorexia, Tourette's syndrome, the proliferation of handguns (which has become a hot-button issue again in 2012), and problems caused by punk rock (which hasn't been a hot-button issue in quite some time).

Believe it or not, Klugman himself was brought forth to testify before the United States Congress in 1982 to talk about things he had learned about the subject of orphan drugs as a direct result of its use it an episode of the series!

Quincy M.E.” also has a little bit of trivia associated with it as well. For instance, did you know that the same actress ended up playing both of Quincy's wives? It's true. Actress Anita Gillette played the role of Quincy's deceased first wife, Helen, in a 1979 flashback episode, and by the end of the series in September 1983, she had signed on to play the role of Dr. Emily Hanover...Quincy's second wife!

The series ran for 148 episodes in total, but Klugman only appeared in 147 of those episodes. He took a hiatus during the episode “Has Anybody Here Seen Quincy” because he disapproved of the script (in which a body brought to the morgue was actually living). Although Klugman was not physically present in the episode, his voice was heard on two separate occasions during the program. He however was the only regular cast member to appear in the series finale, “The Cutting Edge”, which was planned as a spin-off series (which never happened).

And in 2008, Klugman sued NBC over allegations that the network had concealed profits made from the show that were owed to him.

All right, so the Quincy experience didn't exactly end well for Klugman...but it is also widely believed that “Quincy M.E.” set the standard for the wave of similar themed shows that exploded in the late 1990s, including “Crossing Jordan”, “CSI”, “NCIS”, and “Diagnosis Murder”.



Klugman tried once more to have a successful series after “Quincy M.E.” wrapped up, starring in the 1986 comedy series “You Again?”, which co-starred future “Full House” star John Stamos. However, the show suffered from low ratings, and its last episode aired on January 7, 1987. Two years later, Klugman faced a difficult health struggle when the throat cancer that he was first diagnosed with in 1974 reappeared. Klugman underwent immediate surgery to try and get rid of the cancer, which included having one of his vocal cords removed. As a result, Klugman was left with permanent damage to his voice, and was sidelined for four years after his surgery.

He made his comeback in 1993, starring alongside Tony Randall once more in the reunion movie “The Odd Couple: Together Again”. He also appeared in the Broadway revival of “Three Men on a Horse”. Beginning in 1997, Klugman revived his role as Dr. Quincy on “Diagnosis: Murder”, which starred Dick Van Dyke, Barry Van Dyke, Scott Baio, Charlie Schlatter, and Victoria Rowell, and also starred in the Broadway revival of “The Sunshine Boys”.

Klugman's last appearance would be in the 2010 horror film “Camera Obscura”.

So, there you have it. The life and times of Jack Klugman. A life well lived.

Rest in peace, Mr. Klugman...and say hello to Tony Randall for all of us, all right?



Jack Klugman
1922-2012

Thursday, December 27, 2012

I'm No Longer Amish!


This Thursday diary entry (the last of 2012, might I add) is all about technology, and my general avoidance of it up until now.

December 27, 2012

Well, as I sit here and type, we only have five days left until turn the page to a brand new calendar year. Some people weren't sure if we would live long enough to see the year 2013, but like it or not, it's coming!



And, as we enter 2013, I may very well be prepared for it...at least from a technological standpoint, that is.

I guess I should explain something before I continue. I always joke around with my friends that if there is such a thing as reincarnation, then in my past life, I must have been a prominent member of the Amish community.



You see, the Amish people have one distinct personality trait that sets them apart from the world of modern conveniences. They like to live the simple life without any electricity, modern appliances, or computers. Instead of driving to the store in a car, they take a horse and buggy. They don't buy butter at a supermarket...they churn it themselves. They don't even use candles to light their homes, choosing instead to light candles and other non-electric sources.

And they most certainly would be using iPods, Smart Phones, and Kindles to enjoy and entertain themselves.

Well, you know, up until recently, I didn't use those things either.



I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm certainly not trapped in the age of the Flintstones (though I admit that it would be kind of cool to have a dinosaur double up as a dishwasher). But I wouldn't exactly say that I was updated to 2012 either.



If anything, I have been stuck in 1990 for the last twenty-two years.

You don't believe me, do you? Okay, I'll shoot you some examples.

When I was a kid, I loved playing video games on a daily basis. I played them so much that I ended up getting a stiff neck because I would often kink my neck at different angles when I was playing the game. I believe I may have been one of the first patients ever diagnosed with “Nintendo Neck”.

Anyway, minor health issues aside, my video gaming skills were top notch circa the early 1990s. I graduated to an 8-bit Nintendo system from Intellivision circa the early 1990s (for more info on that story, just click HERE), and by 1993, I had the next generation console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.



Flash forward ten years to 2003, and I STILL had that Super Nintendo.

Now, keep in mind that by 2003, Nintendo had released two more consoles...the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo Gamecube. Neither one of which I owned. I was still very much happy with my Super Nintendo, because the games for the SNES just seemed like they were much more fun to play with than some of the newer games.



From that moment on, I still managed to lag behind. The Sony PlayStation (which was released in 1995/96) was my next game console after the Super Nintendo. I ended up being given one in early 2003...eight years after it was released. But, I didn't care. Back in 2003, there were still a few remote places that sold PlayStation games, and I managed to buy several (at discounted prices, no less) to keep me entertained for three more years. Then in 2006, I bought my PlayStation 2, which is the current console that I own. These days though, I prefer handheld games, and this time, I own a Nintendo 3DS, which is the most current of the handheld game consoles these days.

Isn't it funny how that worked? I started off behind the times, then was cutting edge, fell behind again for the better part of a decade, and now I am caught up again.

Mind you, a lot of the reason why I never really bothered to keep up with the newest video games was because there wasn't a whole lot of money to go around. Even if I did want an upgrade in system, there really wasn't a whole lot of point in asking for it for a birthday or Christmas present because the odds of me getting it were slim to nil. But even back then, I found joy in the simplest technology. I came to a decision long ago that I didn't need to have the best and the most expensive electronics to be a better person. As long as what I had brought me happiness, that was all that mattered.

And, here's a couple of confessions for all of you. Confession #1 is that when I did get a PlayStation/PlayStation 2, some of the first games I bought for them were re-releases of classic video games from the past that I either loved a lot, or never got a chance to play the first time around. Confession #2 is that after twenty years, my Super Nintendo still works perfectly!

And, that leads to my next point. Why would I bother with buying the latest things when the things that I already had worked perfectly fine?



When I first got into music, it was at a time in which records were being phased out in favour of cassette tapes. So, during my preteen years, my entire music collection was found entirely on hundreds of cassettes. By the time I entered high school, cassette tapes were quickly becoming obsolete, being replaced by compact discs, but at the time, CD Players were so expensive, and I didn't want to replace my entire music catalog with compact discs. I didn't have the money for that.



I was a late bloomer when it came down to switching from cassettes to CD's. I think I ended up getting my first CD Player when I was seventeen (this would be around 1998/99). And even though I did have a CD Player, I still kept all my cassettes!

Upon retrospect, I think that I ended up making a good decision.

Sure, there are some perks to compact discs. The sound quality is a lot better on CD's than on cassettes, and compact discs are a lot easier to store than cassette tapes. On the flipside though, CD's can have a tendency to get scratched, and unlike a cassette tape (which can sometimes be saved), it's nearly impossible to get a deep scratch off of the surface of a compact disc. I ended up throwing out more CD's in my lifetime than I ever had to do cassettes. Heck, I even had some really bad luck with CD Players, and I think I ended up having a half dozen of them over a ten year period. It wasn't because I was very rough with them either. They just seemed to break down all on their own.

I think that was what factored into my decision to inquire about getting an iPod. An iPod would not only save me a lot of space, but it would also eliminate any chance of having damaged CD's or chewed up cassette tapes.



This Christmas, I ended up getting my very first iPod as a gift, and although I didn't have any idea how to use it, I figured it out less than 36 hours after I got it. It's so easy to Google the instructions and go from there.

So, I suppose in many ways, that iPod has helped bring me forward into the 21st century.

(Even though most of my song selections are songs that were released between 1980 and 1995!)

What can I say? Old habits are hard to break!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Christmas Traditions With Hello Kitty


Hello, everybody! Welcome to December 26...also known as Boxing Day in some parts of the world.

In Canada, Boxing Day is widely considered to be one of the biggest shopping days of the whole year...some might even say that it ranks up there with the American Black Friday in terms of deals, savings, and claustrophobic crowds of people. Certainly not my idea of a fun experience.

While I won't be taking part in shopping during Boxing Day sales, I will be working them. So, because of my hectic schedule, this particular blog entry is going to be slightly shorter than normal. But, I'm sure that most of you will understand. It is the holidays, after all.

Besides, I don't really want to talk about Boxing Day. Instead, I want to talk about yesterday.

My Christmas celebrations were some of the best ones that I have ever experienced. I really had a lot of fun, and I certainly hope that all of you had just as much fun with your own holiday celebrations as well.

Part of the fun with regards to Christmas are the various holiday traditions and inside jokes that families share with each other at this time of year. And, as it so happens, I want to share a story with you in regards to one of these traditions, which links to the blog topic at hand.

The story begins when I was a toddler. Apparently when I was a little boy, there was a particular book that I really loved. Mind you, I don't really remember the book as I was way too young to even so much as picture what it even looked like, but according to my family, they would have to read the book to me on average...oh...fifty-three times a day! That's how much I loved that book.

Now, here's the thing. I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit what this book was because it wasn't exactly a book that was considered to be the most...shall we say, manly? Yet, it was a book that I really loved and probably would have continued to love had it not gotten lost during a move.

Would you like to know what the book was? I'll give you a hint. It starred this cute little feline below.




That's a creature by the name of “Hello Kitty”. And since I've brought it up, I may as well inform you that this is the topic of the Boxing Day blog entry!

Apparently, Hello Kitty will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2014. I actually had no idea that she was that old, to be completely honest. The first appearance of Hello Kitty was in 1974, created by a woman named Yuko Shimizu. The character was added into the line of characters created by the Japanese company, Sanrio (established in 1962), and she first made her appearance on a coin purse where she was seated between a goldfish bowl and a milk bottle.

It wouldn't be until 1976 that Hello Kitty would make her appearance in North America. And, although the Hello Kitty line was originally marketed towards young girls (which is precisely why I was a little bit embarrassed to admit that I owned a Hello Kitty book), now you can find Hello Kitty products for all ages and genders.




I think Hello Kitty is unique in the sense that it has actually increased in popularity with each passing year. It had a brief slump in sales in the late 1970s, but over the years, Hello Kitty could be found in a variety of places. There are Hello Kitty pencil cases, Hello Kitty notebooks, Hello Kitty pencils, Hello Kitty cosmetics, Hello Kitty clothing, and as of 2009, bank customers could even have an image of Hello Kitty imprinted on their charge cards!

It is reported that Hello Kitty generates a worldwide income of over five billion dollars each year! Not bad for a little white cat with a big pink bow on its head who is as tall as five apples and weighs as much as three apples!

Heh...apples as a measuring tool. Who would have thought?

I know this history of Hello Kitty seems a little bit brief, but the reason for that is because the history of Hello Kitty is not really the important part of the story.

As I explained before, my link with Hello Kitty dates back thirty years. When I was a year old, this was my favourite book.




The book was called “Hello Kitty Can Count”, and from what I can gather based on the one and only reference that I could find regarding the book, it was written in the style of “one, two, buckle my shoe”.

You know, now that I have just typed that out, I do vaguely remember hearing a story that had a lot of that “one, two, buckle my shoe” read to me constantly. So, maybe in some part of my brain, that story has stuck, even if it does sound a bit hazy.

But then one fateful day, my family moved from one house to another, and in the madness of it all, that “Hello Kitty Can Count” book disappeared. And, since the book seems to be out of print, my family never did find another copy of it.

So, here's where the fun family tradition comes into play.

For the last few years, my sister has consistently given me themed gifts for Christmas each year. She manages to give some really nice gifts to all of us each year, but she always manages to give me at least one gag gift each year.

Two years ago, for instance, she gave me a Hello Kitty pen that naturally wrote in hot pink ink. Because, one can never have enough pens that have cartoon characters on them.

And last year, I was given a bottle of Hello Kitty travel shampoo. And, before you ask, yes I did use it. And, no I don't feel that I am giving up my so-called “man card” by admitting it. When one runs out of shampoo, you do what you gotta do, right?

This year was no exception. Not only did I get Hello Kitty chocolates, but I also got this.




A Hello Kitty ceramic jellybean jar, complete with “Jelly Belly” jellybeans.

Now, granted, these gifts from my sister are given to me in jest, and aren't meant to be taken seriously at all. But, they also symbolize a very fond childhood memory that I had, and it's cool that my family also holds those memories in such high regard. We can joke about it, but it's moments like those that help bring all of us closer together. And, that to me is what holidays are all about.

Of course, my sister claims to not rest until she can find a way to get a copy of that book back in my possession...and even if she does find it, I imagine that the Hello Kitty gag gifts will keep coming.

And, I'm perfectly fine with that.

So, I'm keeping the jellybean jar in a place of honour. After all, I do love jellybeans.

Well, maybe not all the flavours. Any of you like licorice jellybeans?

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

December 25, 1954


Merry Christmas, everybody!

Today happens to be the final day of “The Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar”, and I am sorry to see it end. I had a lot of fun this past month, and I hope that all of you had fun reading it as well. I love doing these sorts of events in my blog, and I am actively looking forward to doing the same thing again next Christmas.

But, I have a little bit of a confession to make here. I actually wrote this in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve. The reason being that Christmas Day for me is jam-packed with events, family gatherings, and it's just going to be busy, busy, busy!

Today is Christmas Day, December 25...and what better day than to have a special Christmas themed Tuesday Timeline entry?

December 25 is traditionally known as being a happy day (unless you happen to be a character on EastEnders), but as you will see in this list of historical events for December 25, there are some instances of heartbreak and despair. Not much, thankfully, but some.

333 – Constantine the Great elevates his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar

800 – Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor in Rome

1000 – Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary

1066 – William the Conqueror is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey

1100 – Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity

1130 – Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first King of Sicily

1643 – Captain William Mynors of the East India Company discovers a new island, and names it Christmas Island, after the day in which he discovered it

1776 – George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at nightfall to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey

1815 – The Handel and Haydn Society gives its first performance

1826 – The Eggnog Riot concludes at the United States Military Academy (I don't make these up, people)

1868 – Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate Soldiers

1899 – Humphrey Bogart is born in New York, New York

1924 – Rod Serling, writer of “The Twilight Zone” is born in Syracuse, New York

1932 – 275 people are killed following a 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China

1941 – The Battle of Hong Kong concludes

1947 – The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect

1950 – The Stone of Scone is stolen from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students, not to be seen again until April 1951

1968 – Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans Earth Injection (TEI) maneuver

1974 – Cyclone Tracy destroys 80% of the city of Darwin, Australia when it made landfall

1977 – Silent film star Charlie Chaplin passes away in Switzerland at the age of 88

1989 – Former Communist Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife are condemned to death and executed following a summary trial

1990 – First successful trial of the World Wide Web

1991 – Resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev from presidential duties over the Soviet Union (which would break apart one day later)

1996 – The murder of 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant JonBenet Ramsey sets forth the beginning of the investigation into her death

2006 – American funk musician James Brown passes away in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 73

2008 – Singer/Actress Eartha Kitt passes away in Weston, Connecticut at the age of 81

2009 – A terrorist attack on Detroit Metro Airport Northwest Flight 253 is thwarted

2011 – Internet personality Ben Breedlove dies of cardiac arrest at just 18 years old

So, as you can see, we have a lot of people getting crowned, a few celebrity deaths, and a cyclone destroying an entire Australian town. Not exactly the best way to say Merry Christmas unfortunately. But the people involved who are survivors of that disaster became much stronger as a result of it, I'm sure.

We also have a lot of celebrity birthdays today. Obviously, the most famous of them all was Baby Jesus...but there are other famous faces that have a Christmas Day birthdate. They include Rene Girard, Ned Garver, Dick Miller, Al Jackson, Duane Armstrong, David Borden, Noel Picard, Gary Sandy, Jimmy Buffett, Larry Csonka, Gene Lamont, Twink Caplan, Barbara Mandrell, Sissy Spacek, Joe Louis Walker, Karl Rove, CCH Pounder, Steve Wariner, Alannah Myles, Cheryl Chase, Rickey Henderson, Dean Cameron, Darren Wharton, Helena Christensen, Jim Dowd, Dido, Justin Trudeau, Rob Mariano, Jessica and Lisa Origliasso (The Veronicas), and Jorgie Potter.

Today's blog subject also celebrates a birthday today. And, she happens to be born on...



December 25, 1954!

And, in keeping with the tradition of the day, why don't we listen to a holiday favourite performed by this artist?



ARTIST: Eurythmics
SONG: Winter Wonderland
ALBUM: A Very Special Christmas
DATE RELEASED: November 1987

The above song was part of the compilation “A Very Special Christmas”, which was released as a way to raise money towards the Special Olympics. And the track itself was recorded by the British synthpop group Eurythmics, which were formed by Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox.

But, this entry is not about Dave Stewart. His birthday was three months ago.



Yes, we're going to be talking about Annie Lennox, born on Christmas Day 58 years ago.

It seems really hard to believe that Annie Lennox is 58 years old today! To me, she doesn't even look remotely that old. Maybe it's the androgynous look that she has pulled off all these years that keeps her looking young, and good on her for it!

Born on December 25, 1954, Ann Lennox was born in Aberdeen, Scotland at Summerfield Maternity Hospital. The only child of a shipyard labourer and a cook, Lennox's early childhood was inside of a cramped two-room apartment in a tenement with shared laundry facilities. Despite these hardships, Lennox took piano lessons, and developed a love of music at a very young age. When she was growing up, she began to develop a love for singing, and often sang along to songs by The Beatles, amongst others.

Annie's teenage years were filled with a lot of angst, unhappiness, and loneliness – largely attributed to the overprotective nature of her father, and her struggle to find her own independence. However, Annie continued to develop her talents in music, and when she was nine years old, she came in second place in a talent contest singing “Mairi's Wedding”, and won at London's Royal Academy of Music in the 1970s, studying classical music for three years. In order to pay her way through school, she lived on a student grant and worked several part-time jobs. Still, she wasn't as enamored with life at the Royal Academy of Music as she could have been because she felt lonely, and was extremely shy.



Over time, she grew out of that shell, and by the time she joined her first band, “Dragon's Playground”, she was beginning to emerge as a real force in London's music scene. She left the band after less than a year to go and join “The Tourists” as their lead singer before crossing paths with Dave Stewart. During her time with the band, she and Stewart had gotten involved in a romantic relationship, but by 1980, the spark had fizzled, and they broke up. Despite this, they remained close friends, and the same year that their relationship ended was the year that they formed Eurythmics.

I don't suppose that you really need me to talk about how successful Eurythmics were in both the United Kingdom and the United States. They started off slow, as their 1981 debut, “In The Garden” failed to make much of an imprint on the charts. By 1983, they were topping the charts with songs such as the one below.



ARTIST: Eurythmics
SONG: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
ALBUM: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
DATE RELEASED: January 8, 1983
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 1 week

The above song is widely considered to be the signature song for Eurythmics, and it topped the charts in both Canada and the United States, peaked at #2 in Britain, Ireland, and New Zealand, and was a Top 10 hit in Australia, Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland. Part of the reason for the song's success was the music video which featured Annie Lennox in a man's suit with bright red closely cropped hair. The image she portrayed was so striking, you couldn't help but take notice. The fact that she had a killer voice to accompany her strong stage presence only served to improve her public persona, and she quickly became one of the most talked about female performers of the 1980s.



More hits from the group followed between 1983 and 1989, including “Here Comes The Rain Again”, “Would I Lie To You?”, “Who's That Girl?”, “Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves”, “It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)”, “Missionary Man”, and “I Need A Man”. Each song featured Lennox front and center in bold costumes and an even bolder stage persona. By the time the 1980s ended, the band had recorded eight albums in eight years, and released a grand total of twenty-eight singles.

However, as the 1980s turned into the 1990s, Eurythmics had been on tour constantly, and both Stewart and Lennox were becoming exhausted with the hectic pace. A rift had developed between Stewart and Lennox, and both felt that it was time to move on from each other. And so, in 1990, Eurythmics disbanded.

TRIVIA: Although Eurythmics didn't stay disbanded for long. Stewart and Lennox have reunited with each other on several occasions, the most recent being in 2005.

But if you thought that this was the end of Annie Lennox's time on the charts, you would be mistaken. After all, the dissolution of Eurythmics was the perfect opportunity for Annie to embark on a solo career.



In April 1992, that solo album, “Diva” was released, its first single being “Why”. That song reached the Top 10 in several countries, and helped her win the award for Best Female Video at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. In all honesty, the whole album was a huge success. It ended up selling over a million copies in the UK, and in the United States, the record was certified double platinum. The album ended up winning the BRIT Award for Best Album in 1993, and also earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Album that same year (but lost to Eric Clapton).

Needless to say, Ms. Lennox definitely showed that she had what it took as a solo artist.



Her 1995 follow-up album, “Medusa” also did very well on the charts, with Lennox scoring another smash single with “No More I Love You's”. Once again, “Medusa” was nominated for a Grammy Award, and once more, she ended up losing (this time to veteran singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell). But even though she didn't win the Grammy, her solo efforts did something else extraordinary for her. They helped open her up to a new fanbase, and kept her relevant well into the 2000s.

TRIVIA: Annie Lennox did end up winning four Grammy Awards total in her career, and in 2004, she even won an Academy Award for the song “Into The West”.

These days, Annie is still recording music and performing at concerts. She was one of the performers at the closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics, in which I hear was a phenomenal performance. And she also balances her music career with the many causes she supports, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, The SING Campaign, and Burma Campaign UK. And, in June 2011, Lennox earned the honour of becoming an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in response to the humanitarian work she had done over the years.

Not bad, eh?

And, that concludes our look back on December 25, 1954, as well as the first edition of “The Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar”.



Merry Christmas to everybody who celebrates it today...and for everybody else, I hope that you have a very joyous holiday season. May next year bring you much love, joy, peace, and happiness.



I think 2013 is going to be a very interesting year. And, please, stay tuned to this blog, as there are some surprises coming up!

To conclude this entry, I thought I would conclude this entry by posting one of my favourite Annie Lennox songs.



HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!