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Friday, May 03, 2013

Kate & Allie


May 2013 is off to a brilliant start around these parts. I am actually sitting here in my living room with the A/C on, as the past couple of days have been absolutely beautiful out. With temperatures well into the eighties (or twenties, if you happen to go by the Celsius gauge), and sunshine all around, I say bring on the heat!

Seriously, this winter was the longest one yet (and for some of you, it still hasn't ended). I'm happy to look forward to those hazy summer months.

And, since we just kicked off a new month, I thought that I would do something special for May.

Truth be told, there are quite a few special days in May this month, depending on the region you happen to live in. If you live in Mexico for instance, your independence day is coming on May 5 (also known as Cinco de Mayo).

In Canada, we have Victoria Day, which celebrates the anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria. The holiday always falls on the third Monday in May, so this year, it's on the twentieth.

One week later, the United States of America celebrates Memorial Day, on May 27 this year. And, on May 18, the United States also celebrates Armed Forces Day.

Hmmm...May 18 is Armed Forces Day. I shall have to keep that in mind.

Of course, there's one more very special day that happens to fall on the second Sunday in May. This year, the date to save is May 12.

I'm talking about Mother's Day, of course. And for the record, I have a very appropriate subject for that particular entry on deck.

But why should I stop at just ONE entry dedicated to mothers all over the world?

That's why I made the decision to talk about famous fictional mothers during every Friday in May. After all, there have been hundreds of sitcom mothers, all of them raising their children the best way they know how to different results.

I wanted this blog to celebrate the accomplishments of these fictional mothers, mainly because I wanted to showcase that no matter what your background or financial status, or living situation is, women can be fantastic mothers to their kids, and raise them just right...even through the rebellious periods and temper tantrums that kids tend to have right through their eighteenth birthdays.

To kick off the series of special mom themed Fridays, I thought that we would take a look at a show that did extremely well during its six season run on CBS. It was a show that changed the definition of family dynamic, opened the doors for a lot of women, and unlike most sitcoms of the day, portrayed two single mothers as intelligent and self-sufficient women who didn't necessarily need a man to get by in life (although by the end of the series, one of the women did find love).




The two women were Kate McArdle and Allie Lowell, played by Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin.




And, the show that both of them starred in was the 1984-1989 sitcom, “Kate & Allie”, the subject of today's blog and the first feature in our special month of fictional supermoms.




Kate & Allie” debuted on CBS on March 19, 1984 as a mid-season replacement, and when it was first put on the schedule, only a half dozen episodes were produced. But CBS executives must have saw something special in the series, and the audience really seemed to enjoy it as well. It's debut episode was #4 in the Nielsen ratings on that particular time slot, which for a brand new show was fantastic.

It seemed as though creator Sherry Coben had struck gold, as a full season order was immediately commissioned for the following 1984/1985 season. The show would run for an additional five years, ending its run on May 22, 1989.




As far as traditional families go, the family that Kate and Allie portrayed was definitely not that. Both women were newly divorced, with children of their own, and both Kate and Allie had been friends since grade school. Since both of their families were living in New York City at the time (and since New York City is considered to be one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in, even back in 1984 standards), they decide to live together in a brownstone located in the heart of Greenwich Village.




To add to the fun were the children of Kate and Allie, who caused both of their mothers stress, and turned their hair more and more gray with each passing year. But, to both the credit of Kate and Allie, they loved their children more than anything and they would do everything to ensure that they had a bright future.

Kate's daughter was Emma McArdle (Ari Meyers), a typical teenage girl who loved music, boys, and talking on the phone. But she was also very intelligent, and went to Yale University (Meyers left the series during season five and her character was written out).

In an ironic twist, Emma's best friend was Jennie Lowell (Allison Smith), Allie's daughter who dressed a little more plainer than Emma, and was a little bit quieter than Emma, but ended up having some rather interesting storylines. Rounding out the cast was Allie's son, Chip (Frederick Koehler), the youngest member of the McArdle-Lowell family, who was well-mannered, but had a bit of a bratty streak once in a while.




One of the things that the show did very well was portraying women as the main breadwinners of the household. From the very beginning of the series, Kate had a successful job working at a travel agency, where her main objective was to get everyone she worked with to treat her seriously. While Kate was bringing home the bacon, Allie initially stayed at home to cook the bacon, as well as the other domestic duties that were a part of every day life. It was a role that Allie was accustomed to, as she was more or less a housewife/stay-at-home mother during her entire marriage. But as the series progressed, Allie began to understand that there was a whole new world out there waiting for her, and that she didn't have to settle for being the domestic goddess of New York City. Her independence and self-confidence grew over the years, and by the beginning of the fifth season, Allie was ready to go out into the workforce. Her dream came true during the show's fifth season, as she and Kate started their own catering business.

Even Kate and Allie's daughters seemed to learn something from their mothers during the course of the serial. For Emma, she tried running for class president, has to deal with the unwanted affection from a boy in her class, and having to deal with her mother's disapproval of another boy she starts dating. And, for Jennie, she has to deal with peer pressure, the pressure to have sex with her boyfriend, and enduring sexual harassment from her boss at a croissant shop. Even Chip had some interesting storylines over the series, which featured Chip having to fight against a bully and trying to adjust to life with a part-time father.

The show was unique in that each episode opening was different. Sure, the intro started off with the same shot of New York's skyline with the same opening music. But each episode began with a cold open, devoid of a laugh track which showed Kate and Allie having a conversation about living in New York during the 1980s. Since the show was one of the few sitcoms to film entirely in Manhattan, it made perfect sense to have on-location shots.

In fact, one episode screened in 1987 was filmed entirely outside, and dealt with Allie trying to find her way home after leaving behind most of her personal belongings inside a taxi cab. The episode focused on the homeless of New York, and was actually an episode produced with the cooperation with the Coalition for the Homeless.

The show was also rewarded with several Emmy Award nominations, with Jane Curtin herself winning two for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, and the show ranked within the Top 20 shows during most of its run.

And, so we close the book now on Kate and Allie...two women who really embraced and celebrated life in the 1980s as the independent, strong, carefree women that most wanted to be during that time period.

Thursday, May 02, 2013

Finding Gratitude in a Thankless Job


Sometimes, a Thursday Diary entry will just pop up out of nowhere. In this case, a temporary transplant to a different department inspired this post. Don't worry though...it's going to be “mostly” positive.

May 2, 2013

Can I just say that my shift at work yesterday was one of those shifts that left me absolutely confused? I felt as though I was on an episode of Doctor Who, or an extra in that lame movie “Hot Tub Time Machine”, and had warped back in time exactly eight years ago, to May 2005.

Now, May 2005 was one of those months in which my life was not exactly where I wanted it to be. I was just about to turn 24 years old, I was probably at what was my heaviest weight ever, and I had been at my current workplace for a grand total of seven months.

In short, I was a retail newbie.

Now, here's the deal. I never actually worked inside the store when I started my job at my current place of employment. For the first year or so, I was sort of the player behind the scenes, so to speak.

The perks were that I got to spend a lot of time in the great outdoors (sort of similar to the job that I currently hold), and that I got to stay in my own little world most of the time. Truth be told, it was sort of nice to be away from all the hubbub of the business of the store every now and then.

But there were a ton of cons in addition to the pros.



I'm talking about the thirteen months that I worked as a store standards associate. Thirteen months that began with a Christmas season, and ended with a Christmas season. And, let me tell you, it was by far one of the worst positions that I have ever worked!

I began that job in December 2004, two weeks before Christmas. And, I won't sugarcoat it, it probably would not have been my first choice at a job.

Now, some of you are wondering “what exactly does a store standards associate do?”

Well, if you are asking that question, allow me to enlighten you.

A store standards associate...


  • Goes out into the parking lot to bring in all of the shopping carts that have been either left behind in shopping cart corrals, or scattered all over the lot...regardless of whether it is sunny, rainy, windy, snowy, hot, cold, or lukewarm. I'm pretty sure that the workplace draws the line at collecting carts in a hurricane, though. That would be unsafe.



  • Inspects the washrooms on a semi-regular basis each day to make sure that they are at their height of cleanliness. Easily the WORST part of the job.



  • Responds with a mop and bucket whenever they hear a page for a clean-up. But, just to get this out of the way, a clean-up means that you have spilled an entire case of juice, or spilled a bottle of motor oil at the cash register, or heaven forbid, cleaning up vomit or worse. A clean-up does NOT include a splash of Tim Horton's coffee that could easily be cleaned up with a single piece of paper towel.



  • Having to help customers load heavy, awkward, and expensive purchases into their cars, trucks, vans, or trailers. These include but are not limited to curio cabinets, futons, flat screen television sets, gazebos, patio sets, mattresses, pool tables, treadmills, trampolines, barbecues, etc...

So, as you can see, store standards is not one of those jobs where you can take the time to sit back and smell the roses. You worked, and you worked damn hard.

Or, at least that was the idea.

You see, part of the main frustration with the store standards position was not so much the work that was associated with it. Sure, the work was tiring and monotonous, but the way I looked at it, it was a job, and I had the belief that if I gave it my all, people would eventually take notice. And, the work itself was nothing that I couldn't handle.

Some of my co-workers on the other hand...well...let's put it this way. Their general apathy towards the whole job made me want to lie down in the middle of the parking lot, set the cart pusher to radio control, and arrange it so that it would run over me.

(Well, okay, it never got THAT bad. That was merely a gross exaggeration on my part.)



Just to get this out of the way (and just to prove to you that my disdain for store standards was somewhat justifiable), I will tell you that there was one incident in which I had stayed out for nearly four hours on a day where the mercury was right around 35 Celsius, and I was almost passing out from dehydration (which admittedly was my own fault for not drinking enough water prior to my shift beginning). And, when I came in, the store standards guy who was supposed to be working with me (who had called in sick the last few days) not only was found shopping inside the store, but had the audacity to send someone else to ask me if I would take his extra shifts for him!!!

CONFESSION: I'll be the first one to admit that had I not been feeling so poorly at the time, I likely would have done something to him that would have gotten me fired. Thankfully, it turned out to be a one time thing, as I completely ignored him after that incident.

And, can I just say that sometimes, those carry-outs that I had to partake in were more frustrating then they really should have been, depending on the circumstances behind them?

Sure, most of them were easy-peasy, and they slid right into the vehicles with little to no difficulty whatsoever. But, let me ask you this. Have you ever tried to squeeze a barbecue inside the back of a Pontiac Sunfire? It can't be done unless you remove it from the box! And, that's frustrating.

Or, have you ever tried to load up a package that is 50 x 45, and the space that you have to work with is significantly less than that? It can't be done unless there is a rope handy to tie it to the roof, or use the rope to tie down the trunk.

Or, have you ever tried to cram an entire patio set inside a Mitsubishi? It can't be done. Ever. Even if you take it out of the box, disassemble all of the pieces that make up the table, chairs, and umbrella, and stuff the bits and pieces inside the car. You can't do it. Take it from someone who knows.

Let's put it this way. When I got the chance to move into the food department in January 2006, I literally jumped at the chance to move on from that job. And, I thought that once I had left that position, there would be no way that I would ever go back...

...well, that is until yesterday when staffing issues forced me to fill in for a day.

But, you know, a job is a job, no matter what it is. It may not have been my ideal work position, but I got it done without “much” complaining.

Hey, we're only human, right?

If anything though, going back to the department I started in (and didn't have the most positive memories of, honestly speaking) was a wake-up call of sorts. It kind of reminded me how far I have come over the last few years, and how much I have grown since then. I'm not the same person I was eight years ago. At the same time, going back to how it used to be has taught me that I should never forget where I came from. I suppose for some people, they would have pitched a fit over having to go back to the one place they hated the most...and, honestly, five years ago I would have likely been one of them.

To be completely honest, I think everyone in the world should, at some point in their lives have to go back to the one job that they hated the most, and work at least one shift in that job, just so people can have more appreciation for the work that they do now.  I know that after working store standards for a day, I value my current position in the store a lot more than I used to...

...well, my current position for about two weeks, anyway.  

I'm not going to lie to you, I wasn't the most thrilled person last night...but it would have made me look even worse had I refused. And, sometimes it takes that perspective to realize that maybe gathering shopping carts every once in a while isn't as bad as it is made out to be.

Though, let's make it clear, I don't want to do it again. :D

Again, we're only human, right?

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Miracle Bubbles


I don't know about most of you out there, but May has always been one of my favourite months of the year. There's just something about the month of May that makes me smile.

For starters, the anniversary date of this blog is in May. I began this blog on May 24, 2011, and I never expected to still be writing in this blog nearly two years later. I must say that I'm quite proud of that achievement myself!

May also happens to be the month of this blogger's birth as well, and as I inch ever so closer to the number 32, I'll likely have some retrospective thoughts to pen inside this blog.

May also marks the beginning of warmer weather, blooming flowers, and budding trees. On one hand, it will be fantastic to wear shorts and polo shirts again after the winter that never seemed to end. But, on the other hand, with my severe allergy to tree pollen, I will be popping allergy pills the same way most people would pop candy out of their Pez dispensers.

But, hey, you take the good, you take the bad, you take them all, and then you have...

...oh...sorry. Really bad retro-80s flashback there.

I have a feeling that May 2013 will be one of my best months yet. I've already made a couple of big commitments for my future, I'm doing some things that I have never done before, and I'm coming up with ideas to mark the second anniversary of this blog. I haven't come up with much. Maybe I need your help to mark the two year anniversary of this blog in a big way. I'll get back to you with that.

For now, let's talk about today's blog topic...a real spring/summer activity that I loved to do as a kid, and one that cost only pennies a use!

(Or, in 2013 prices, three dollars a bottle.)

Or, if you really wanted to save money, you could get the same effect by using a bottle of dish soap mixed with a little bit of water.



Today, we're going to be talking about bubbles. Miracle Bubbles, as we call them in Canada.  I suppose that they could be known as that in the United States as well, but I'm not one hundred per cent sure, and I don't want to report inaccuracies in this blog.

Seriously, how many people have had fun blowing bubbles in a field or a park? There's just something whimsical over seeing bubbles blowing in the wind, and landing on the grass, taking just a few minutes to pop. All of a sudden, my childhood memories come flooding back to me!

Truth be told, Miracle Bubbles were a huge part of my childhood. Every Easter Sunday, along with my basket of Cadbury Mini Eggs and Reese Peanut Butter Eggs, I would almost always get a bottle of Miracle Bubbles to play with...

...outside.

I was forbidden to blow bubbles inside of the house. Let's just say that there was one incident in which I was blowing bubbles at the top of the stairs of my house and was being a little bit careless in the process. Let's just say that I knocked over the entire bottle of Miracle Bubbles, and the soapy, slippery solution poured down the whole staircase, turning our stairs into a bumpy Slip and Slide.

In other words, I was the only person in my family who could make stairs more dangerous.



After that incident, I was always banished to our backyard to blow bubbles. Not that I minded though. Watching the bubbles blowing around in the wind was a great sight to behold. I know that this is going to sound very strange, but I had a rather vivid imagination as a child, and I would often imagine myself being trapped inside one of those bubbles. Looking back on it, I think it was a nice memory to have...just picturing myself flying through the world in my own personal bubble, seeing things that other people could not, enjoying the scenery as well as the unpredictability of not knowing where the bubble would take me next. I guess there's just something sort of magical about that memory. In many ways, I sort of still have that dream of flying through the sky in a bubble, forgetting all of my cares and worries and just letting the bubble take me where it was meant to.

Okay, I just went off on a tangent here. But then again, if you've read this blog before, you probably know that this is a recurring theme.

Now, I have a question for all of you. How did you blow your bubbles?

The truth is that there are a bunch of ways in which you could blow bubbles, and all of them worked in varying degrees.



Obviously the most common way to blow bubbles is with a plastic wand, similar to the one seen above. And, wands are probably the most versatile instrument to use when it comes to the art of blowing the perfect bubble. You could blow into it slowly or quickly to get varying sizes of bubbles. Blowing on the wand quickly would cause you to blow a series of tiny bubbles through the air, and blowing on it slowly would allow you to blow one gigantic bubble. It could be an interesting game, to try and blow the largest bubble possible without it bursting.

But of course, wands weren't the only thing one could use to blow bubbles. If you poured enough of the Miracle Bubble solution in a bowl, or mixed up your own, you could dip a coat hanger inside the solution and make bubbles that way. I've even seen people making bubbles with various household objects. Really, any piece of equipment made of either plastic or metal with at least one hole in the middle of it would work just fine.



I've even seen bubble guns being manufactured and sold in stores. I never owned one, but you could use the gun to blow an endless supply of bubbles. Come to think of it, bubble guns didn't exist back when I was a kid, and I am almost sorry that I was born too early to get my hands on one. I would almost be tempted to buy a bubble gun for myself...if I didn't mind people giving me peculiar looks at the checkout counters.

(Ah well...there's always self-checkouts. Nobody would have to know.)

At any rate, that's my brief blog entry on Miracle Bubbles. Now, I want to hear from you.

What are some of your bubble making memories? I'd love to hear them!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

April 30, 1969


Welcome to the last day of April 2013, and welcome to the last Tuesday Timeline of the month!

If you're living in Canada, and still have not yet filed your tax return for this month...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!? It's due today!

But, if you've already done your taxes and/or are not Canadian, you can kick off your shoes and sit back with a nice cup of tea, or a glass of Hawaiian Punch, if you will, and enjoy another look back through time.

Actually, I have a confession for all of you. I did have this very topic planned for the Sunday Jukebox for Sunday, April 28, but when George Jones passed away recently, I decided to do a spotlight on him instead. But when I did my research for the original topic, it happened to be linked to today's date, so I thought...why not use it for the Tuesday Timeline entry!

I tell you, life has a funny way of working out, doesn't it?

So, you're probably figuring out that this week's Tuesday Timeline is music themed. But that's all that I'm going to say for now. We still have to get through other happenings that are going on today!

Celebrating a birthday on the final day of April are Cloris Leachman, Willie Nelson, Burt Young, Bobby Vee, Leslie Grantham, Perry King, Merrill Osmond, Jane Campion, Paul Gross, Stephen Harper, Isiah Thomas, Michael Waltrip, Barrington Levy, Adrian Pasdar, Jeff Timmons, Johnny Galecki, Kunal Nayyar, and Kirsten Dunst.

And on the last day of April, here are some of the events that took place throughout history.

1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration

1789 – George Washington takes the oath of office in New York City to become the first elected President of the United States of America

1803 – The United States buys the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, in an event known as “The Louisiana Purchase”

1812 – Louisiana becomes the 18th state of the United States of America, nine years after the Louisiana Purchase

1900 – Casey Jones is killed in a train accident in Vaughn, Mississippi

1927 – The first footprints left behind at Grauman's Chinese Theater are made by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks

1938 - “Porky's Hare Hunt” debuts in movie theaters, which includes an early prototype of Bugs Bunny

1945 – Adolf Hitler and his wife commit suicide to avoid capture by the Red Army

1957 – Elvis Presley records the single, “Jailhouse Rock”

1963 – The Bristol Bus Boycott was held in Bristol, United Kingdom to protest racial discrimination

1975 – Saigon falls as the Vietnam War comes to an end after nearly two decades

1983 – The “father of modern Chicago blues”, Muddy Waters, passes away at the age of 70

1993 – Tennis star Monica Seles is stabbed by an obsessed fan during a quarterfinal match of the Citizen Cup

2004 – Michael Jackson is arraigned on charges of child molestation, pleading not guilty to ten counts

So, what day in history are we going back to this year?



April 30, 1969.

1969 was a rather turbulent year in history. Obviously I wasn't around then (I was born a dozen years later), but from what I have heard from people who have lived through that year, it was a year of great protest. With the Vietnam War in full swing, millions of people all over the world were bombarded with images of pain and suffering, and having to say goodbye to loved ones far too soon. Many people questioned why the United States had gotten involved in fighting in the Vietnam War, and they demanded that their voices be heard.



Hence the “Make Love, Not War” movement.

During 1969, there were lots of protests in major cities, speaking out against the Vietnam War. There were sit-ins, marches, and perhaps one of the most vibrant, well-publicized events occurred in August of 1969, when the Woodstock music festival was held.

Actually, come to think of it, music was a huge part of the protest movement back in 1969. And today's featured song was one of those songs that did exactly that.

On April 30, 1969, this song was certified gold, and what made it stand out was that it was a medley of two songs that could be found in a musical that was released two years earlier.



Have you ever heard of a musical known as “Hair”? It debuted in the fall of 1967, and was a rock musical penned by James Rado and Gerome Ragni. Gail MacDermot provided the music.

The story of “Hair” surrounds a young man by the name of Claude and his hippie friends. Claude has fallen in love with the hippie philosophy of making love and not war, and all he wants to do is continue to live his bohemian lifestyle in New York City, while turning his back on the “squares” who want them to serve in the military or get jobs to become better people.

And for Claude, he is found in a rather sticky situation. He has to choose between resisting the Vietnam War draft, as his hippie friends have done, or pleasing his parents and conservative America by donning the soldier duds and going off to war.

I should note that “Hair” was dripping with controversy, given the nudity, profanity, and irreverence of the American flag. At the same time, I have seen the movie adaptation of “Hair”, and found it to be absolutely fantastic.

Heck, you know what? Had I lived during the 1960s, I likely would have become one of those hippies...well, in spirit anyway. I don't think I would look very good in tie-dyed garments.

Anyway, the musical “Hair” is the source for the gold selling single, receiving that certification exactly 44 years ago today.




ARTIST: The 5th Dimension
SONG: Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In
ALBUM: The Age of Aquarius
DATE RELEASED: March 8, 1969
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 6 weeks

TRIVIA: This was the very first medley to top the Billboard charts.

The song not only did very well on the pop charts, but in other venues as well. It won two Grammy Awards in 1970 for “Record of the Year”, and “Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group”. That's mighty impressive, given that it was only one of two songs by the group to peak at the top spot (the other song was “Wedding Bell Blues”, which was also released in 1969).



The 5th Dimension was made up of Florence LaRue, Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr., LaMonte McLemore, and Ron Townson, and the lyrics for the song were – at best description – a little bit whimsical, even trippy. They were based on the astrological belief that the world would enter an era known as the “Age of Aquarius”, which would bathe the world in light, love, and humanity. We'd know when we were in the “Age of Aquarius” when the planet Jupiter aligns with Mars. And, it was initially believed that the transition would take place at the end of the 20th century or the beginning of the 21st century.

It appears as though they were off by a few years, as I remember the period between 1999 and 2002 being filled with school shootings, terrorist attacks, and economic turmoil. But, hey, I suppose not all predictions could be accurate.

(In case you're wondering, astrologists have pinpointed that this alignment could happen anytime between 2062 and 2680. So, I'm either going to be really, really old when we enter the “Age of Aquarius”, or I'm going to be compost. Either way, I won't be able to truly appreciate it.)

At any rate, the song was a huge hit in 1969, and was one of the key songs that served as the official soundtrack of the anti-war movement.

A song that was certified gold on April 30, 1969.

Monday, April 29, 2013

A Bug's Life


Before I go on with today's blog entry, I wanted to update you all on one of the recent changes in my life. That change of course, is shifting from the dairy department to the garden centre area of the store.

As I type this, it will have been one whole week since I moved over there, and I think I have a general grasp over what my duties are, and what is expected of me.

I'm not going to lie to you. Garden Centre is a lot more physically demanding than working in the dairy department. Lifting several pounds of dirt is much harder than stocking a shelf filled with milk. And, I'll be honest with you. When it comes to throwing a tarp over all of the hanging flower baskets, herbs and spices, and other plants that could be killed off on a really cold night, half the battle is figuring out how to get the tarp unfolded! And, then to cover every flower in the outside area, it takes about an hour to get everything finished. It can be a tough job.

And, you know something? I'm liking it a lot!

Because with all of the hard work that comes from working in the garden centre comes a lot of perks and rewards.

Reward #1: When the weather is really lovely and the sun is shining down, it's absolutely perfect. And, even if it rains, we get provided rainwear to protect us from the elements. And, even if it goes up to ninety degrees outside, we are allowed to drink as much water as we want. If one is prepared for the weather, the job is great.

Reward #2: Being able to work alongside such natural beauty. One of the jobs I did a couple of days ago was hanging the floral baskets and trying to condense flower racks so that I didn't have many to bring inside, and I was amazed at how something so small could have such bright and vivid colours. Even the scents of the flowers were nice and sweet (and this is coming from someone who has allergies to pollen). Keep in mind that when I started in the garden centre, I had absolutely no knowledge of gardening and flowers and trees. I'm not quite an expert yet. Far from it. But for now, thanks to the care instructions that come included with most plants, I'm sort of learning as I go along. I don't know if the right terminology is “faking it until you make it”, though. More like, taking limited information and expanding it in your own words.

Yeah, I like that better.

And, Reward #3: 99.9% of the customers I have dealt with over the past week have been in fantastic moods! And, when the people around me are in a great mood, it inspires me to be in a great mood! You can usually pick me out in the garden centre as I'm the guy wearing the black baseball cap, throwing 50 bags of dirt in a pick-up truck with a smile on my face and a farmer's tan.

Of course, the sun could be making me delirious. But, in a good way!

But there are some hazards involving the garden centre area that I must deal with too. I wouldn't dare risk lifting a six-piece patio set or a 300 pound barbecue into the back of a truck by myself. I always have to smear sunscreen on my arms, cheeks, nose, and back of my neck at least three times a day, because if I don't I'd look like a broiled lobster in a matter of hours.

And, then there's the bugs.

I'll be perfectly frank. I wasn't always a bug lover. In particular with bugs that bit or stung. Large spiders, wasps, and hornets are not my friends. I have never liked yellowjackets since I accidentally stepped on one and it stung me in between the toes. Even praying mantises and dragonflies can freak me out if I'm not expecting them to be there.

That being said, I'm not one who would go around killing these insects either. After all, they are a huge part of the ecosystem of our planet. I might not like them very much, but they all have their place in the world.

Besides, we don't know exactly what kind of a life bugs have. All we can do is speculate just exactly what they do in a given day.

(Because let's face it...a lot of insects usually don't live past 24 hours.)



And, that's exactly what this blog is all about. We're going to take a closer look with the magnifying glass and microscope at the Pixar film, “A Bug's Life”.



One thing that I will say about this film is that it had a lot of star power attached to it. Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brad Garrett, Hayden Panettiere, David Hyde Pierce, Richard Kind, John Ratzenberger, Bonnie Hunt, Denis Leary, and the late Madeline Kahn, Phyllis Diller, Jonathan Harris, and Joe Ranft all had prominent voice roles in the movie, which was released in November 1998 to great reviews and a box office take home total of $363 million.

And, the film's plot is a rather interesting one because it shows insects like grasshoppers, ants, ladybugs, and fleas living their lives in almost the same way that humans would.

The central protagonist is a little ant by the name of Flik (Foley). He lives in a colony of ants, but he's not one to follow along with the crowd. Flik would rather march to the beat of his own drum, taking solace in his inventions. The colony is run by Princess Atta (Dreyfus) and her mother, the Queen (Diller), and the other ants in the colony show a lot of indifference towards Flik because he is so different.

I guess one could consider Flik the so-called “uncool” student in his class of peers. Maybe that's why I can sympathize with him.

In fact, if you want to take the high school analogy even further, you could say that the group of grasshoppers that terrorize the ants in “A Bug's Life” could be compared to that group of juvenile delinquents your mother warned you to stay away from...the group of kids who always got what they wanted no matter how much fear and pain they inflicted onto the general public.



Anyway, the army of grasshoppers were lead by the evil Hopper (Spacey), and the ants were forced to provide the grasshoppers with an offering of food every year. Unfortunately, one of Flik's inventions destroys the entire food supply for the grasshoppers, which angers Hopper. Hopper demands that the ants provide double the order to make up for the food that Flik accidentally ruined. The other ants are absolutely furious at Flik, and when the grasshoppers give the ants an extension on their deadline, the other ants convince Flik that if he really wanted to help, he would go out and assemble an army of “warrior bugs” to fight off the grasshoppers.

Desperate to get the approval of the ants, and gullible enough to believe their lies, Flik sets out to find some allies, while the rest of the ants scramble to put together the massive order for the grasshoppers.



What ends up happening is that Flik stumbles upon a group of insect circus performers, fired by their ringmaster, P.T. Flea (Ratzenberger). The circus troupe is made up of...



Slim (Pierce) – a stick insect clown
Heimlich (Ranft) – a caterpillar clown
Francis (Leary) – a ladybug clown
Major Manny (Harris) – a praying mantis magician
Gypsy (Kahn) – a gypsy moth
Rosie (Hunt) – a black widow spider
Tuck and Roll (Mike McShane) – two flea acrobats
Dim (Garrett) – a rhinoceros beetle

Now, here's the thing. Both Flik and the circus performers meet each other in a case of double mistaken identity. The circus performers believe that Flik is a talent agent who will help them bounce back from rock bottom...and Flik is mistakenly believing that these bugs are the warrior bugs that he has been sent to bring back to Ant Island to fight against Hopper and his goons.



Along the way, the group saves little Princess Dot (Panettiere) from a bird attack, and gain entry into the colony as a result of this act of bravery. In the meantime, Flik comes up with a possible invention idea to scare Hopper away from the colony once and for all.

But what happens when the lies are exposed? What happens when the ants fail to provide the adequate food sources needed to satisfy Hopper and his goons? And, will Flik ever get the respect he wants from a colony of ants who have dismissed him as being a screw-up?

Well, don't look at me! I don't reveal film endings! But I can offer up some more trivia for you. Have a look.

1 – This film was one of Madeline Khan's last film projects. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer the same year that she was recording her voice for “A Bug's Life” and passed away in December 1999 at the age of 57.

2 – When Flik takes a trip to “the big city” where he meets up with the circus troupe, take a look at the names written on the boxes. Those names are some of the children of the film's writers.

3 – Another interesting point to note about one of the boxes. On the side of a cookie box, the nutrition fact sign shows that each cookie contains 92 GRAMS of protein!

4 – Dave Foley may have won the role of Flik...but he actually tried out for the role of Slim initially.

5 – Ashley Tisdale of “High School Musical” fame tried out for the role of Dot.

6 – Hayden Panettiere was just eight years old when she won the role of Dot, and she was already working a second job at the time. She did double duty between “A Bug's Life” and playing Lizzie Spaulding on “Guiding Light”.



7 – “A Bug's Life” was unique in that it had five different cover designs when it was first released on home video in 1999. The five cover stars were Flik, Heimlich, Francis, Dot, and Hopper.

8 – The film is a retelling of Aesop's fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper”.

9 – The film was the first wholly digital transfer of a feature film to a digital playback medium.

10 – A similar named film, “Antz” was released right around this time, and it caused a bit of a public war of words between Pixar and Dreamworks as a result, and left behind feelings of hostility between Steve Jobs and Jeffrey Katzenberg. By the end of it all, although both films did well at the box office, “A Bug's Life” sold more tickets than “Antz”.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

George Jones (1931-2013)


I think that I've mentioned this before, but I was never really a big fan of country music. In fact, I think I am the only one in my entire family who doesn't go out of their way to listen to it. My parents always had it turned on in their car radio, and my grandparents listened to nothing but country music, but I much preferred rock, pop, and Top 40.

(Well, Top 40 prior to the 2000s, anyway.)

I know that back in September 2012, I attempted to do some features on country music artists. I devoted the whole month of Sunday Jukebox entries to the sweethearts of country music. If I remember correctly, I did spotlights on The Dixie Chicks, Dolly Parton, Martina McBride, Taylor Swift, and Reba McEntire.

Well, today, I've decided to do my blog entry on someone who many might consider to have been the grandfather of country music. He was a real legend in his own right, releasing fourteen number one hits on the country chart, received several awards, and released a whopping sixty albums during his near sixty year career.




Sadly, on April 26, 2013, the country music genre lost its biggest presence, as George Jones entered into rest at the age of 81.

This blog entry is going to be a challenge for me to write because obviously I don't listen to much country music. So, having to write an entry on someone who was such a huge figure in a genre I rarely listened to is tough. But, what can I say? I love a challenge, and it wouldn't be much of a pop culture themed blog if I didn't report on current events, now would it?

I've debated on how to present this blog for a day and a half now, and I think the best way to do this is to give a brief bio, followed by some notable events that he was involved in. Believe me, there is definitely no shortage.




George Glenn Jones was born in Saratoga, Texas on September 12, 1931. He was one of seven children, born to George Washington Jones and Clara Patterson Jones. At the age of seven, he heard country music for the first time and fell in love with it. He received the gift of a guitar two years later, and began making extra money busking on street corners with a guitar and a song for anyone who wanted to hear him.

By the time he was sixteen, George relocated to Jasper, Texas, where in addition to singing and playing for a local radio station, he had a chance encounter with Hank Williams in 1949, where Jones claimed that Williams had given him some sage advice.

Stop singing like Roy Acuff, and start singing as yourself!”

(Well, all right, perhaps I shouldn't have quoted that as it isn't what Williams actually told Jones...but I'd hazard a guess that it was presented in a similar fashion.)

By 19, he had gotten married briefly to a woman named Dorothy Bonvillion and fathered a child with her before divorcing her before the child's birth. A year later, he enlisted in the United States Marines during the early beginnings of the Korean War, having been stationed in California during his three year stint.

And in 1954, George Jones began pursuing a career in country music, having signed a record deal with Starday Records. He released his first hit in 1954, the very same year he married his second wife, Shirley Corley. One year later, he enjoyed his very first charting single on the country music charts with “Why Baby Why”. That single peaked at #4, but it certainly wasn't the only hit he had...nor would it be the last we would hear from him.

In fact, over the course of his 81 years on this planet, there have been a lot of stories, a lot of rumours, and I have decided to take the opportunity to clarify some of these stories. If anything, he has lived a rather interesting life.

In fact, why don't I do this next part like a true/false quiz? I'll do a statement, and reveal whether it is true or false. Are you ready? Here we go!

01 - George Jones was once married to another country music superstar.




ANSWER: True. Tammy Wynette was Jones' third wife. The couple tied the knot in 1969, and divorced in 1975. Funnily enough, Wynette released “Stand By Your Man” in 1968, a year before marrying Jones.

02 – George Jones was married a grand total of three times.




ANSWER: False. George actually had four wives. The fourth Mrs. George Jones is Nancy Sepulvado. The couple celebrated their thirtieth wedding anniversary just one month ago, in March 2013.

03 – George Jones was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1998.

ANSWER: False. Although George DID get the honour, it wasn't until a decade later, in 2008.

04 – One of the last awards that George Jones won was a Lifetime Achievement Award.

ANSWER: True. George Jones was honoured with the award at the 2012 Grammy Awards ceremony, presented to him by his long-time friend Merle Haggard.

05 – George Jones had at least two nicknames when he was in his prime.

ANSWER: True. He was affectionately known as “The Possum” due to his facial features kind of resembling a possum. He was also given the nickname of “No-Show Jones”, and unfortunately, that nickname was given to him under less than flattering circumstances. He was dubbed that following his failure to show up for concert gigs due to being under the influence of drugs and alcohol. And, this kind of leads to the next statement...

06 – George Jones was once so determined to get alcohol one day that he decided to drive to the liquor store on a ride-on lawn mower.




ANSWER: Believe it or not, this was one hundred per cent true! This would be around the time that George was married to his second wife. By that time, his addiction to alcohol had been firmly established, and his wife hid all the keys to every car to prevent him from driving to the liquor store. Of course, she neglected to hide the key to the lawn mower, and a determined George took the lawn mower to the liquor store EIGHT MILES AWAY!

07 – George Jones was in the middle of his farewell tour when he passed away.

ANSWER: Sadly, this was also true. In fact, I do believe that he was scheduled to perform in Watertown, New York (which isn't too far away from where I live) later this summer. The tour was announced in the summer of 2012, and would have lasted until November 2013, in which Jones would retire to spend time with his family.

But as we all know, that sadly didn't pan out. On the eighteenth of April, Jones was hospitalized in Nashville, Tennessee with abnormal blood pressure and a high fever. Eight days later, he was dead of acute hypoxia, with the world not realizing that his farewell tour would be his last ever.

So, to close this tribute to George Jones off...one of his biggest hits.



ARTIST: George Jones
SONG: She Thinks I Still Care
ALBUM: The New Favorites From George Jones
DATE RELEASED: Spring 1962
PEAK POSITION ON THE COUNTRY/WESTERN CHARTS: #1