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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

May 27, 1975

I think that I have to say that this little experiment that I've tried with the Tuesday Timeline for this month has been a success.  It's been challenging to try and come up with one trivia fact for every year that a celebrity has been alive.  I'll have to try this again at another time.

And I think that for today, I'll choose a younger celebrity.  The last couple that I did were brutal!  Fun, but brutal!

Of course, before we go ahead with that, we have to take a look at some of the other celebrities who are turning one year older today, as well as taking a peek back through some of the notable events for May 27.

1849 - The Great Hall of Euston station in London is opened

1896 - The St. Louis/East St. Louis F4-strength tornado kills 255 people and nearly levels the entire community

1907 - An outbreak of the Bubonic plague occurs in San Francisco, California

1911 - Actor Vincent Price (d. 1993) is born in St. Louis, Missouri

1919 - The first transatlantic flight is completed after the Curtiss seaplane NC-4 arrives in Lisbon, Portugal from the United States

1927 - The Ford Motor Company stops production of the Ford Model T so that it can focus on a new design, the Ford Model A

1930 - The Chrysler Building in New York City opens to the public

1933 - Walt Disney releases "Three Little Pigs"

1937 - The Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic

1941 - 2,100 men are killed following the sinking of German battleship "Bismarck"

1968 - Major League Baseball awards the city of Montreal the very first team outside of the United States of America (The Montreal Expos)

1971 - TLC singer Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes (d. 2002) is born in Philadelphia

1975 - Thirty-three people die in the Dibbles Bridge Coach Crash - the highest ever recorded death toll in a road accident in the United Kingdom

1986 - The role-playing game "Dragon Quest" is released in Japan

1995 - Actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed after falling off of a horse during a riding competition

1998 - Michael Fortier is sentenced to a dozen years in prison and fined $200,000 for not warning the authorities about the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing

2000 - Hockey legend Maurice "Rocket" Richard dies at the age of 78

2006 - Actor Paul Gleason (The Breakfast Club) dies at the age of 67

2009 - Suicide bombings in Pakistan kills 35 people and injures hundreds more

2011 - Actor Jeff Conaway dies of pneumonia at the age of 60

And, celebrating a birthday today are Christopher Lee, Henry Kissinger, Lee Meriwether, Louis Gossett Jr., Cilla Black, Bruce Weitz, Raye Birk, Bruce Cockburn, Eric Bischoff, Richard Schiff, Cynthia McFadden, Siouxsie Sioux, Neil Finn, Peri Gilpin, Adam Carolla, Todd Bridges, Eddie McClintock, Jeremy Mayfield, Dondre Whitfield, Joseph Fiennes, Paul Bettany, Monika Schnarre, Jack McBrayer, Jason Narvy, Andre 3000, Darin Brooks, and Chris Colfer.

So, what date will we be going back in time to this week?  Well...



...May 27, 1975 sounds like a great date.  And, look.  I only have to come up with thirty-nine facts about today's birthday boy.  What a relief!  That's a little more than half of the facts I had to find last week when I covered Cher!

And, well, let's just say that when it comes to today's subject, this is a guy who knows and appreciates the value of a home-cooked healthy meal.  In fact, he's probably one of the leading figures in promoting healthy eating, and he has launched several missions to get people all around the world to rethink the way they serve dinner.  Granted, sometimes his efforts have lead to some minor controversy over the years, but despite all that, his tireless efforts have not gone unnoticed.



So, what else is there to know about British chef Jamie Oliver, who turns 39 years old today?  Well, here are thirty-nine different things!

1 - Jamie's middle name is Trevor.

2 - He was born in Clavering, Essex, England.

3 - He first began cooking as a young child by practicing at his parents' pub/restaurant.

4 - His first job was as a pastry chef at one of Antonio Carluccio's restaurants.



5 - His first television show was the BBC cooking show, "The Naked Chef", which ran from April 1999 until December 2001.

6 - He was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame in June 2013.

7 - Jamie Oliver was quoted as saying that he doesn't use supermarkets, saying that "supermarkets are like a factory", and that he prefers to buy his ingredients from specialist farmers and organic suppliers.  But this statement caused a little bit of controversy because...



8 - ...he was the official spokesman for British supermarket chain Sainsbury's from 2000-2011...



9 - ...and he's been a partner with Canadian supermarket chain Sobey's since 2013!

10 - He launched his own restaurant in June 2008, called "Jamie's Italian".  Five years later, that single restaurant has expanded into a chain of thirty-five.

11 - Has a line of non-stick cookware manufactured by Tefal.

12 - He was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2003.

13 - Founder of the Fifteen Foundation, a charity that inspires disadvantaged youths.

14 - Took part in a documentary series in 2005 called "Jamie's School Dinners", which saw him take over the entire nutritional program of a school aimed with the goal of making school lunches healthier.



15 - The television show was also brought to the United States during 2010-2011 under the title "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution".

16 - The American series provided some frustrating moments for Oliver, as he was challenged by the Los Angeles Unified School District because they did not want him filming inside any schools within the district.



17 - A video game - "What's Cooking With Jamie Oliver" - was released for the Nintendo DS on October 21, 2008.

18 - Has hosted and/or produced a total of twenty-eight different television programs which have aired in several different countries.

19 - Was one of the judges in Oprah Winfrey's "The Big Give".

20 - Guest starred in an episode of "Phineas and Ferb".

21 - Was heavily criticized by some animal rights groups for slaughtering a fully-conscious lamb on one of his television shows.

22 - Surprisingly enough though, PETA was not one of the groups.  In fact, the group saluted Oliver for highlighting the problems that slaughterhouse methods in place used.

23 - Has reportedly been critical of other chef's methods, including that of Marco Pierre White.

24 - Although Oliver is an advocate of cooking meals from scratch, an investigation showed that some of the sauces used at some of Jamie's restaurants were actually produced in an industrial park!  Whoops!

25 - Has been married to wife Juliet Norton since 2000.

26 - Is the father of four children - (Poppy Honey Rosie, 12, Daisy Boo Pamela, 11, Petal Blossom Rainbow, 5, and Buddy Bear, 3.)

27 - Jamie Oliver struggled with dyslexia his whole life.

28 - Because of his dyslexia, the decision to leave school at age 16 to study cooking was a fairly easy one for him to make.

29 - Because of his dyslexia, Jamie Oliver didn't read his very first full-length novel until 2013 - at the age of thirty-eight.

30 - That book he read?  The second book of the Hunger Games trilogy - "Catching Fire".

31 - Is five feet, ten inches tall.

32 - The current food editor for British GQ Magazine.

33 - His "Naked Chef" book was a #1 book on bestsellers lists for ten consecutive weeks.

34 - Plays drums in a band called "Scarlet Division".

35 - Has reportedly turned down several offers from magazines to pose nude.

36 - Runs his own production company, Fresh One Productions.

37 - Has written at least eighteen different books.

38 - Jamie's specialty is reportedly Italian cooking.

39 - Has made the list of The Sunday Times' Richest Britons under thirty earlier in his career.



And, that wraps up our look back on May 27, 1975.  Happy 39th, Jamie!

Monday, May 26, 2014

Bucket Lists + A Chuck-It List

Before I get into today's topic of discussion for this week's "MOTIVATION MONDAY", I'm going to tell you a bit of a story.

Actually, it's more of an admission.

Today's "MOTIVE4CHANGE" episode, which originally aired on Sunday, May 25, 2014, I, along with my buddies JONATHON, CARINE, and JOSHUA talked about quite a few subjects.  We talked about the subject of capital punishment, which admittedly is still just as controversial of a topic as it was some ten, twenty, even thirty years ago.  And, we even brought up the reality show "Survivor", and we all wondered if any of us would be able to outlive, outplay, and outlast each other if we were cast.

(Ultimately, the consensus was a resounding NO.)

But the main topic of the day was all about the idea of bucket lists.  And, in preparation for this topic, all four of us had created our own bucket lists to read out to the
MOTIVE4CHANGE audience specifically for this topic.



Well, okay, I should rephrase this.  Three of the four of us created the bucket lists for the show.  But truth be told, I had already drafted a bucket list two years ago.  I wrote about the movie "The Bucket List" in my blog back on August 16, 2012 - a film that starred Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two elderly men trying to cross off everything on their list that they wanted to do before they died.

It's a good movie, by the way.  I recommend it.

Okay, so since I already did a bucket list, I'll just post the link to the
August 16, 2012 entry on "The Bucket List".  Just click the date.

And, while you're at it, why don't you have a listen to the eighth episode of "
MOTIVE4CHANGE".  I think you'll enjoy it!  At least, I hope you will anyway.



EPISODE #8 - OUR BUCKET LISTS (5/25/2014)

So, now that you've all had a chance to listen to the show, I thought that in addition to the bucket list, I would do something else.  A little addition that myself and only myself would do (though if CARINE, JOSHUA, and JONATHON are reading this, I would strongly encourage them to do this as well, if they so choose.  If not, that's entirely their call, of course).

But I thought that since my bucket list is from 2012, I would do another kind of list updated for 2014.

It's a little something that I like to call the "
CHUCK-IT LIST".

Now, I know what you all are saying.  What in the hullabaloo is a "Chuck-It List"?  And, what in the heck does hullabaloo mean?

Well, the answer to question #2 is simple.  Hullabaloo means scuffle, or kerfuffle, or just plan commotion.  And, what I mean by a chuck-it list is simple.  A list of things that are weighing me down that I want to just get rid of forever.  Mind you, some of these items on my chuck-it list have been there for many years, and it may very well take even more time to get rid of them for good.  But, I have to try to cross them off.  Even if I only manage to get rid of one item from my "Chuck-It List", I have to call it a victory.

This list will be in no particular order.

MATTHEW W. TURCOTTE'S CHUCK-IT-LIST
Updated 5.26.2014

1 - Get rid of all the negative people in my life.  Nothing ever thrives when people are trying to put you down or make you feel worthless all the time.

2 - Get rid of any excess stress that I have - this will likely be impacted by how much success I have with Chuck-It List item #1.

3 - Get rid of any insecurities that I still have about myself.  Because as much as I've slayed some dragons, this role playing game called life isn't over yet.

4 - Get rid of the self-loathing trap that I keep falling into.  I am not my worst enemy, so I need to stop acting that way.

5 - Get rid of the extra pounds I gained since my surgery.  I want to be like the 2009 version of me only wiser, more mature, and able to wear the slim-fit fashions of 2014!

6 - Get rid of the idea that I am not capable of falling in love.  I am.  I just have to find a way to fall in love with myself first (after all, you can't love anyone else unless you love yourself) without turning into a real egomaniac.

And finally...

7 - Get rid of the paralyzing fear inside of me that prevents me from doing more out of life.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Shining Star

You know something?  Even though the third anniversary of the blog was yesterday, I still feel like celebrating all weekend long! 



I never thought that three years ago when I started "A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE", that I would still be writing this blog three years later.  I guess there was a part of me that wondered if I could continue to find relevant topics to sustain a blog for even twelve months.  Three years is fantastic!  And, of course, there's more to come, so stay tuned for more!

I think that there's one great thing about anniversaries, be it a wedding anniversary, the anniversary of the day that a business was established, or, if you will, the anniversary of a blog.  In the case of a wedding anniversary, it allows a husband and wife (or husband/husband or wife/wife) to reflect back on the days in which they fell in love, and pledged to be together forever.  And how they've managed to stay together for ten, twenty, even fifty years despite anything that was thrown their way.  Whenever I hear stories about a couple celebrating a huge milestone anniversary, I can't help but smile.  In a world in which a little more than half of all new marriages end in divorce, these people have found a way to continue being devoted to the ones they love.  That's something to celebrate.

Or, how about people who started up a restuarant from scratch and now have one of the most successful places to eat in the entire city some ten years later?  I love hearing stories in which people who start out with absolutely nothing but a dream, and using hard work and dedication to make those dreams come true.  That's something to celebrate.

And, you know something?  As self-serving as this paragraph will likely make me out to be, I'm really proud of the fact that in a quiet little nook in cyberspace, I've managed to keep a blog going for three years straight.  It might not be exactly the way that I wanted my dream of being a professional writer to go down, but I am certainly enjoying the ride and am looking forward to what the next year brings.  To me, that's something to celebrate.

In case you haven't figured it out already, today's Sunday Jukebox entry is all about celebrating and happiness and milestones, and warm fuzzies!

Of course, the one song that would be perfect for this discussion (Kool and the Gang's "Celebration") is one that I can't use, because the rule that I had decided on for 2014 (at least until we get to the Advent Calendar in December) is that every Sunday Jukebox entry has to be a #1 hit from the week that I type up this blog.  And, well..."Celebration" was a #1 hit in early 1981.

But, that's cool.  I'm sure that if I look hard enough I can find another song that would fit the theme of celebration and happiness,  Let's just open up the database on #1 songs of all time and see what I can dig up.

Hmmm..."Rolling In The Deep" by Adele?  Hardly appropriate.  Besides, it's been done...

"Hollaback Girl"?  I don't think that works...

"Mmmbop" by Hanson?  Hmmm...maybe I'd better stick to songs written in 100% English...

"Everything She Wants".  It'd be fine if I was doing a blog on women trapping their men into marriage via pregnancy.  Besides, I've done that one before.

A-HA!  I knew that the decade known as the 1970s was my friend in this topic.  For some reason, a lot of music from the 1970s was happy, carefree, feel good music!  Why, you could do the hustle with a dancing queen while getting bitten by the night fever bug!

Okay, I'll stop now.



So, put on your bell-bottomed pants, mood rings, and platform shoes as we take our time machine back in time to the year 1975, where pet rocks, "Good Times" and "Jaws" dominated the pop culture scene.

And today's band is one that is still performing today, some thirty-nine years after this song hit the top of the charts!



ARTIST:  Earth, Wind & Fire
SONG:  Shining Star
ALBUM:  That's the Way of the World
DATE RELEASED:  January 21, 1975
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 1 week

Ah, yes.  The vocal stylings of Earth, Wind & Fire.  They were one of the hottest acts to dominate the charts of the 1970s and early 1980s with hits such as "September", "Boogie Wonderland", "After The Love Has Gone", and "Let's Groove".



But "Shining Star" was a very special hit for the Chicago based band.  It was the band's very first #1 single, staying at the top of the charts from May 24-30, 1975.  The song itself was written by three of the many members of Earth, Wind, & Fire, Maurice White, Larry Dunn, and Philip Bailey.

And, believe me...I'm not kidding about the group having many members.  When the band was founded in 1969, the original members of the group were Maurice White, Wade Flemons, and Don Whitehead.  But over the next forty-five years, a total of FIFTY-SIX people could make the claim that at some point, they were a member of Earth, Wind & Fire.  That's absolutely incredible.

Of course, the most prolific members to this day are White, White's brother Verdine, and Bailey.

TRIVIA:  Would you like to know how the name Earth, Wind & Fire was chosen?  You can thank Maurice White for the inspiration!  Initially, when White, Flemons, and Whitehead were starting up the group, they went by a different name - "The Salty Peppers".  Yeah, can't imagine why they wanted to get rid of that name.  Anyway, Maurice White's birthday is December 19, making him a Sagittarius on the astrological chart.  The sign of Sagittarius is a fire sign, and the sign has seasonal qualities of earth and air.  Hence the name, Earth, Wind & Fire.  Pretty cool, huh?

(For what it's worth, my sign is Taurus, which is an earth sign.  Not that you really should care.  I just wanted to add to the trivia.)

Ahem...so, should we talk about "Shining Star"?  Yeah, I think that's a great idea.

Having been on the music scene for a few years prior to recording "Shining Star", Earth, Wind & Fire were already starting to develop a fan base, and word was getting out about just how talented of a band they were.  One man, movie producer Sig Shore was very impressed by the band.  So impressed was Sig that Sig signed the group to a soundtrack deal for his next silver screen project, which would include the song "Shining Star".

(Bet you can't say that last sentence seven times.)

So, sertainly...um...ahem.  Certainly, the band was up for the chance for more exposure.  After all, at this point in their careers, the band didn't really have that one defining hit, and they saw the opportunity of contributing music for a film soundtrack as a positive one. 

At least, that's what they thought at the time.



The movie was entitled "That's the Way of the World", and its star was Harvey Keitel, playing the role of a record producer named Coleman Buckmaster working his fingers to the bone to produce the debut album of an up and coming band known as..."The Group".  Wow, that name has about as much appeal as a bowl of cold oatmeal, doesn't it?

And, here's a shocker.  The group that played "The Group"?  Earth, Wind & Fire.  Bet you didn't see that one coming!  Maurice White even had a few speaking lines in the movie. 

The movie itself was released in the summer of 1975, and unfortunately for all parties involved, the film was a gigantic box office bomb.  The movie was savaged by critics, didn't even make a whole lot of profit (if any were made), and I honestly don't even know if you can even buy the movie on VHS, let alone DVD or Blu-Ray.

But here's where the message of "celebrating successes" comes into play.  You see, the members of Earth, Wind & Fire weren't new kids trying to adapt to a whole new school.  They had been in the music business long enough to know when something was too good to be true.  And immediately after seeing a sneak preview of the movie prior to its release, they all had the prediction that the movie was going to be a complete disaster - a prediction that as we all know by now came true.  So, they decided to take a little bit of a risk with their career, hoping that it would pay off.

The risk?  Release "Shining Star" as a single during the first month of 1975, and then release the rest of the soundtrack album a full three months ahead of the film's release date.  Their idea was to get people excited about the music that they created while simultaneously downplaying their roles in the movie "That's the Way of the World".  After all, the members of Earth, Wind & Fire weren't trying to become Hollywood "it" people.  They were only interested in spreading the joy of music to the world.



Interestingly enough, that gamble worked.  The movie did bomb, but the Earth, Wind & Fire album "That's the Way of the World" would later come to be known as the band's breakthrough album.  It was the album which helped catapult Earth, Wind & Fire from relative obscurity to the top of the pops. 

And, you know something?  "Shining Star" is a brilliant song to link to Earth, Wind & Fire.  They took a potentially career damaging decision such as appearing in a box office turkey and transformed it into absolute success.  And, success should be celebrated!

And just how successful a single was "Shining Star"?  Well, it became a gold single, selling over one million copies worldwide.  The song helped the group win a Grammy Award for Best R&B Blues Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.  And, the album the song appeared on was ranked #486 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the Top 500 Albums of All-Time.

Now that's definitely a shining star moment right there, folks!

Saturday, May 24, 2014

The Things I've Learned Over The Last Three Years and Eleven Hundred Posts

Once upon a time, in a living room with a sticky window and a computer that was on its last legs, a man who had just turned thirty came up with the idea for a blog.  It wouldn't be just any blog though.

The idea came to him while he was watching television.  The idea said...do a blog on pop culture.  Bring up memories of favourite childhood shows, and try to spark some discussion on them.  But at the same time, a little voice kept nagging at him.  It said, "You can do pop culture, but you should also talk about your own experiences as well because people might be interested in those as well".

So, that's exactly what the man did.  He started up a blog on pop culture while adding in personal stories along the way.

Of course, the blogging venture did not do so well at first.  In fact, this blog was almost stopped as soon as it began, due to the fact that the man didn't realize that his modem was on the verge of melting down.  But, thanks to the wonderful people at his Internet service provider who fixed his Internet connection on a weekend no less, the blog was back up and running, and continued to write and share his thoughts.

Sure, the blog changed many times over as months became years.  Comic discussions gave way to music discussions.  The Tuesday Timelines kept people reading.  And, the Wednesday topic changed more times than most people change their underwear, but he continued to try new things in order to keep the blog fresh and new.

Well, as fresh and new as a blog could be given that 90% of the content was about nostalgia.

But this blogging venture was also a form of healing for the person who created it.  It took a lot of courage for him to talk about some of the more miserable experiences he had gone through, but once he did it, he felt better about it, and could move on to a happier topic the next day.  He also found great strength in sharing his own personal stories to other people.  And, slowly, but surely, he found a way to open up to people more, especially within the last six months or so when he began using videos and chat shows to insert more of himself into each entry.

That blog, as you may have guessed, is "
A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE".  And, that blogger is...Kanye West.

No, it's not.  He's too busy getting married to a Kardashian today.  No, instead, it's me.  As if you haven't guessed already, right?



It seems hard to believe, but today is the third anniversary of "A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE"!  Coincidentally, this is post #1,100 of the blog as well!  



Yes, on May 24, 2011, this whole blogging adventure began.  At the time, I had just turned thirty years old, and I was recovering from a surgical procedure that had I let it go any longer, it most certainly would have killed me.  And, I'll tell you one thing.  That surgery caused me to have a lot of time on my hands to think about a lot of things.

I spent sixteen days in the hospital.  What else was there to do, right?

But in all seriousness, I was thinking about how things could have gone completely wrong, and I very well could have died three years ago had my timing been completely off.  At the time I had my surgery, my gall bladder was so infected that it tried to kill my liver...and well, without a liver, you can't live.  In many ways, I kind of cheated death that year, and there could have been so many instances in which it could have gone terribly wrong.

And you know, when I looked back on that time in my life, I thought about what I would have left behind if I did breathe my last breath that frigid February day in 2011.  I came to the conclusion that...well...I had nothing.  And, I'm not just saying this to be overly dramatic either.  I am being absolutely serious here.  As serious as a gallstone attack.  I literally had nothing that I could leave behind.  I honestly thought that I would be leaving this world as anonymously as I entered it. 

Turns out I was completely wrong with that assessment, but in that case, I was absolutely glad to be wrong.

So, I was thinking to myself while I was recovering from surgery...what would be a way that I could leave a piece of myself behind for people to visit whenever they wanted?  And, what if I did it in such a way that it appealed to both the young and the old?



Certainly pop culture was a topic that almost everyone in the world could relate to.  As someone who belonged to several discussion forums that were based on all things nostalgia, I always have had a love for all things pop culture, so choosing that as the basis of my blog was a no-brainer.  But, how would I do it so that people would be interested in reading it?  Well, I thought about it for a while and the solution hit me.  Do pop culture themed blogs that were linked to my real-life experiences, and use the blog as a bit of a growing experience for myself, as well as sharing some embarrassing anecdotes about things that I did in my childhood, some moments which really shaped me as a person, and other miscellaneous tidbits.  That way, I'd be leaving a little piece of me behind for the world to really get to know the person I really am.

Because, as I've mentioned several times here...I'm not exactly a genius when it comes to social networking - based on a variety of reasons.

I communicate best through written language.  And written language is what I want to leave behind on this earth.  And, well...if the dream of getting a book published isn't in the cards, at the very least, I have this blog that I can post instead.  And three years later, I'm not ready to give it up.  In fact, I have a feeling that 2014 is going to be a banner year for "
A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE".  We have a new look, new theme days...and I have a few more other surprises coming up over the next three hundred and sixty-five days!  Just keep it posted here.

So, now here's a question that I ask myself.  What exactly have I learned in the three years since I've begun this blog?

Well...



I LEARNED HOW TO IMPROVE MY WRITING STYLE

Maybe it's just me, but looking back at my older entries, I think that my writing style has definitely gotten better.  I know that I still have a little bit of improvement that I will work on as I continue this blog (such as not typing the word "actually" several times in each post), but that will come in time.  I'm certainly improving my confidence each day.  Which leads to the next thing...



I LEARNED NOT TO BE SO SHY

Seriously, if you asked me when I first did this blog if I would be doing video blogs, I would have laughed in your face.  In truth, the fact that I didn't want to show my face was largely due to my limited technology back then.  It wasn't until I bought my first iPad that I gained the power to film videos and post them in this blog.  But even if I had the most elaborate media set-up by 2011 standards hooked up to my computer, I still wouldn't have felt comfortable doing them because of my belief that my voice sounded nerdy and that the camera would make me gain three hundred pounds.  Needless to say, filming that first video was like peeling a Band-Aid off of a wound.  It was scary and it stung a bit, but I got used to it.  I'm certainly no Regis Philbin...but I'm working at it.  Right now, I'm Cable 10 Public Access Host.  And, at this point in my life, I'm perfectly all right with that.

For now.



I LEARNED THAT SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO SWITCH IT UP

And, I'm not talking about using pepper to spice up your eggs instead of salt, or switching to boxers from briefs here.  I'm talking about watching the blog closely to make decisions on what will work, and what won't, and making the necessary steps to make impromptu decisions.  The Tuesday Timeline is one of the biggest hits of the week, and that influenced my decision to keep it going for another year.  Simultaneously, I had to switch the concept of "WHO AM I WEDNESDAY" after just two weeks because it seemed as though it was not as well-received as I thought it would be.  And, hey, if there's anything that I will say about myself, it's that I'm not afraid to admit to my goofs. 



I LEARNED TO LISTEN TO MY READERS

Because I'll be honest here.  Some of the best blogs that I have written have come from my readers.  There was even a time in which I had an all-request theme day that lasted a few months before I retired it due to dwindling suggestions.  But I will state that if you have a topic that you want to suggest, please let me know!  I have an e-mail address which is matthewwturcotte518@gmail.com which you can also use to send me your recipes for the Foodie Friday postings!  Even better, if I use your topic in the blog, you will get full credit for suggesting it!



I LEARNED TO CHALLENGE MYSELF MORE

You've heard me say it before..."I love a challenge".  And, I do!  When I first began writing this blog, opening up about some of my personal traumas that I experienced in my childhood was a very difficult thing to do.  But now, I find it easier because talking about it makes me realize that these moments helped shape who I am today...which is someone that I'm getting better acquainted with each day.  And, going back to the requests that I do, sometimes people will send me requests for shows that I haven't seen, or movies that I've never watched, or anything to do with sports or science-fiction (two things that I never had any interest in at all), but I'll challenge myself and do blogs on the subjects so that I can honour the requests.  They took the time to send one to me...the least I can do is give them what they want!  And it's been great for me, because I learned a lot more along the way!

And, finally...

I LEARNED THAT THIS PROJECT IS FAR FROM OVER!

Here's to three years of pop culture fun, and three years of one of the biggest projects that I have ever worked on.  And, I couldn't be more grateful to all of you out there who keep clicking on this blog and keep supporting me in this venture.  I truly do love each and every single one of you, and I look forward to see what will happen within the next year!

The Saturday Night at the Movies post will return next week!

Friday, May 23, 2014

Breakfast Food...For Dinner?!?

All right food lovers!  It's time for another food related discussion in the new theme day I like to call "FOODIE FRIDAY"!  And, this is a theme day in which you can get involved!

For the past couple of weeks, I've been asking you to submit your recipes to this blog by either posting them here in the comments page, posting them on the Facebook fan page, or by sending in your recipes to my e-mail address which can be found at
matthewwturcotte518@gmail.com

Now, because I only started this new blog feature just a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't really expecting to get a whole lot of responses right away, so I had some recipes already lined up just in case.  However, one of my regular readers -
Cullen P. of Virginia - immediately sent me a recipe that his mother created that he makes every Christmas, and he thought that it would be a great idea if he submitted it to the blog so that other people could learn how to make them as well.

So, to begin this blog, I'll start by posting the message that Cullen sent me, along with the recipe he submitted.  And, then I'll try to talk about a food related topic linked to the recipe.

But, just fair warning...this blog entry will be a bit on the brief side.  I'm battling a migraine headache as I type this, and my pain meds that I took to stifle the pain haven't quite kicked in yet.  But, you know, sometimes a small blog entry can be a blessing...especially in comparison with the extra long Tuesday Timelines that I'm known for writing.

Okay, so here's Cullen's recipe.  Enjoy!

"Hi, Matt!  Here's a recipe my Mom taught me, and I've been making them every Christmas for my family or friends at work."

SAUSAGE BALLS

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. Jimmy Dean sausage
3 cups of Bisquik
8 oz. shredded mild cheese

NOTE:  If you don't have Bisquik or Jimmy Dean sausage, any brand name will also work.

First, put the thawed sausage, Bisquik, and cheese in a big bowl, and mush them all together with your hands until it's all in one big mix with no crumbs left.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Pinch off little pieces of mix about the size of a quarter, roll them into balls, and place on an non-greased cookie sheet.  Bake for about 10 minutes, then quickly scoop them off the sheet with a spatula or huge spoon and place them in a cloth or in a cloth bowl and let them cool.

Thanks again, Cullen, for the great idea!  You see, everyone...Cullen submitted his recipe, and now it's posted on this blog!  You can have your recipe placed in this space next Friday!  All you have to do is send it!

But you know something?  Cullen's recipe for sausage balls makes me realize one thing.  They can be served for both breakfast and dinner.  I mean, think about it.  Sausage and pancake mix are classic breakfast staples, but you can also have them for dinner as well.  I mean, on Shrove Tuesday, it's practically encouraged to dine on pancakes for dinner that night!

*Though I always cheated and ate waffles instead.  I like waffles much better than pancakes!*

The point is that some of my most favourite things to have for dinner are items that you normally have for breakfast.  And on the flipside, some dinner staples are much better when served at 8:00 in the morning.

Let's start with breakfast items for dinner.  I've already talked about Shrove Tuesday and how pancakes (or waffles) are usually consumed that evening.  And, to be honest with you, I would totally eat waffles any time of the day.  They're just that delicious!  I'll do Belgian waffles, homemade waffles, and I'll literally cut off the arm of anyone who tried to steal my Eggo.

Okay, not really.  Still...L'Eggo My Eggo!

But, there's other breakfast items that are great for dinner.  Another thing I like is French toast (only my family calls French toast 'toasty moakies'...yeah, don't ask.  It's apparently a Turcotte family custom.)

Seriously though, if you avoid putting cinnamon and sugar on the piece of French toast, and instead just dip each piece in ketchup, it can make a really good, filling meal.  Try it sometime!

And, of course, there were times in which I have poured myself a bowl of cereal for dinner, and that was just fine with me.  After all, there were some instances in my college years in which I had nothing but a giant box of Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes.  A bowl of cereal for dinner was all that I could make...and well, it was better than nothing!  Still...if only I had the money in my budget for Corn Pops or Honey Comb.  Those would have hit the spot.

On the flipside, would you like to know what my favourite thing to eat is for breakfast?  It's not a donut, a bagel with cream cheese, or even an omelet.

(Definitely not an omelet, as I can't stand eggs.)




No, my favourite breakfast food is leftover pizza.  Seriously, there's something about pizza that has been in the fridge overnight that makes it much more tasty!  I know that most people see cold pizza as nothing more than a hangover cure, but I see it as being the breakfast of champions.

Another unusual breakfast food that seems to fit more on a dinner table than a breakfast table is chilled fried chicken.  I may be the only one who believes this, but I find fried chicken actually tastes better when it is cold than when it comes right out of the oven...or deep fryer, or however you prepare your chicken.

However, there are some foods that I would not recommend eating cold for breakfast.  McDonald's french fries, for example...they gave me food poisoning when I was six because I let them cool down way too long.  I don't recommend it.

However, I am curious to know some of your favourite non-traditional breakfast/dinner items.  You can send your suggestions AND recipes to me and I'll post them!

Thursday, May 22, 2014

The Days of Alison Sweeney/Sami Brady's Lives

All right, so welcome to Tube Talk Thursday, the day of the week in which we look at a specific type of television program and have a discussion on it.  And, certainly there are dozens of genres of television programs that we can have lengthy discussions on.  And since I began the Tube Talk Thursday theme day, we've had discussions on sitcoms and cartoons.

So, how about we tackle the world of daytime dramas? 

Granted, this is going to be a bit of a challenge for me to do, as I don't really watch too many soap operas these days. 

Well, okay...I MAY watch the occasional episode of "The Young and the Restless", and I do follow along with the British drama "EastEnders", but that's all I will cop to.

And, I'll be completely honest.  Today's spotlight is going to be on a soap opera that I have never watched, and will be somewhat focusing on a character that I am not familiar with.  But when you are given a suggestion by a reader (thank you Michael!), well, you have to take it.  And, as I have said before multiple times on this blog, I love a challenge!

All right, so first things first, let's talk about the show.  And, picking today's soap opera was not difficult at all...after all, there are only four of them still on the air!



As of 2014, "Days of Our Lives" is the second-longest running American soap opera still on the air, premiering in 1965 - just two years after "General Hospital" debuted on ABC.

(Of course, "Coronation Street" is the oldest soap opera on the air internationally, having debuted in 1960.)

And this NBC soap opera has outlasted "Another World", "The Doctors", "Santa Barbara", "Sunset Beach", and "Passions".  Can you believe that this soap opera will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary on November 8, 2015?  And that as of May 21, 2014, it has aired a total of 12,343 episodes?  That is mighty impressive for a television program to run for that length of time.

And of course, who can forget "Days of Our Lives" iconic opening, which has only been slightly tweaked since it debuted in 1965?



Like sands through the hourglass...so are the days of our lives."  And, did you know that the narrator of the iconic line was Macdonald Carey, who played Tom Horton on the show from the beginning until his death in March 1994?  Although Carey has been deceased for twenty years, the show still uses his voice as a tribute to the late actor.

The series was created by husband-wife team Ted and Betty Corday, and currently the program is produced by their son Ken Corday, Greg Meng, and Lisa de Cazotte.  In the forty-eight and a half years that the show has been on the air, the long running serial has tackled a plethora of different plotlines which feature some soap opera standards as adultery, murder, espionage, drug and alcohol abuse, kidnapping, rape, and extortion.  But the show is also known for its storylines that are completely out of the box and defying reality as we all know it. 

After all, "Days of Our Lives" was the show in which people were abducted and taken to an island while the people back in Salem (the place where the soap is set) grieved their "deaths".  And it was also the show in which Deidre Hall's character of Marlena Evans was possessed by the devil.  



I'm not joking about that either.  It was one of 1995's most talked about soap plotlines.

But, we're not here to talk about Marlena.  Instead, we'll be talking about one of Marlena's daughters.  And, while we're at it, why don't we learn a little about the actress who plays her?

For this story to begin, we have to go back to...oh...how about January 1993?



On January 6, 1993, a then sixteen-year-old girl named Alison Sweeney was the newest person to be added to the cast of "Days of Our Lives".  I don't know exactly if she knew the role that she would be eventually playing when she went in for her screen test, but the role that she was given was one that had been previously played by seven other child actresses.  And, to further complicate things, Alison - who was born in 1976 - was supposed to be playing a character that was born onscreen in October 1984. 

Luckily, through the modern miracle of Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome, the character was aged seven years and she would go on to become one of the longest running cast members on the series, celebrating her twenty-first anniversary in January 2014.



In a way, this blog will be kind of a half and half blog.  It'll be half Alison Sweeney, and half Samantha "Sami" Brady - the character that Alison plays on "Days of Our Lives".

So, on the show, Sami Brady was the second daughter born to Marlena Evans and Roman Brady (Wayne Northrop/Josh Taylor).  She is the younger sister of Carrie (Christie Clark) and twin sister to Eric Brady (Jensen Ackles/Greg Vaughan), and to say that she is not exactly the girl next door would be like saying that Charles Manson would be the perfect entertainer for your child's seventh birthday party.

Teenage Sami Brady was a real wild child, if you know what I mean.  Let's see...in the 21 years that Alison Sweeney has played Sami, what has Sami done?  Well, she's...



- tries to steal her sister's boyfriend Austin Reed (Patrick Muldoon/Austin Peck) multiple times
- she angrily opposes her mother's new love interest, John Black (Drake Hogestyn)
- kidnaps her baby sister, Belle, and tries to sell her on the black market!
- shoots her rapist in the groin after he tries to rape her again; but only after the town refuses to believe her
- drugged Austin and tried to seduce him by telling him that she was Carrie
- got pregnant by Austin's brother Lucas Roberts (Bryan Dattilo) as a teenager, and tries to pass off the child as Austin's
- agrees an immigrant named Franco (Victor Alfieri) so that he can get a greencard to stay in the country, only for him to die on his wedding day
- framed by Lucas' mother, Kate (Lauren Koslow) for Franco's murder and is nearly executed in prison, but is saved at the last minute when the real killer (Lucas) confesses



- crashes through a plate glass window and nearly dies
- assumes the role of a man named Stan to drug John Black after being forced to by Tony DiMera (Thaao Penghlis) - I told you this show was strange!
- is caught in a love triangle with EJ DiMera (James Scott) and Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering)



- had her baby stolen by Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker), and believed for months that her own baby had died when Nicole was raising her all along
- becomes a grandmother at the ripe old age of...thirty-six

And, that's just the tip of the iceberg, folks.  I could seriously go on and on about some of the other misdeeds this bad girl of Salem has done, but if I did that, this blog would be twenty-eight pages, and you would likely fall asleep midway through.



Fortunately, the real life story of Alison Sweeney is not nearly as dramatic as that of the person that she's portrayed on "Days of Our Lives".  In the real world, Alison is married to David Sanov, and the couple have two children together, Benjamin and Megan.  Alison has also hosted the NBC reality show "The Biggest Loser" since 2007 after original host Caroline Rhea departed.

And, she also appeared in an episode of "Fear Factor" as a celebrity contestant...and well, she did not do so hot...



Oh well.  You can't blame her for trying.

But in all seriousness, I have to give Alison a lot of credit for the work that she has done in her career.  Many actresses don't get the opportunity to play a character for twenty-one weeks, let alone twenty-one years!  And, to be honest, I actually admire Alison Sweeney for standing strong against all of the criticism that she has had to face during her career - especially during her early years.

You see, when Alison was hired on "Days of Our Lives", she was coming onto the series at a time in which super thin models like Kate Moss were the biggest thing in fashion.  1993 seemed to be the year in which size zero was the only size to wear.

(And to think, I'm old enough to remember when a size 8 was considered svelte.)

The point is that Alison was not a size zero when she started on the show.  And, honestly who cares if she was or wasn't?  Looking at old photos of her, and old clips of her on YouTube, she was a healthy and attractive teenage girl who looked absolutely beautiful then and still looks beautiful now at age thirty-seven.  At her heaviest weight in the 1990s, she was a size twelve.  And again, to me, that was fine because again, watching her in old clips, she looked great. 

Unfortunately, the tabloids and entertainment shows that were on the air were particularly cruel to Alison, and frequently bashed her on her appearance, and savagely comparing her weight with the weight of her slimmer female co-stars.

Let's just say one thing.  I loathe tabloids like the National Enquirer, and I equally have much hatred for the judgmental fluff piece known as "Entertainment Tonight" for promoting a negative opinion on women who just happen to have a few extra curves on them.  The way that these publications treat cellulite as if it is as ugly as a cancerous tumour...I mean, it's just absolutely sick.  Who cares if celebrities have cellulite?  It's a part of life.  Everyone gets it.  Hell, I bet even I have some on my body somewhere!

The point is that these trash mags really caused a lot of anger and frustration for Sweeney, who documented the whole thing in her 2004 memoir.  I also imagine how hard it must have been for Sweeney to have to act out the scenes in which Sami Brady struggled with bulimia, given all of the pressure she was facing to lose weight.

Except that she didn't need to lose any weight.  At least, I didn't think so.  And if she did decide to lose weight, she should have done it for herself, not because Mike Walker from the National Enquirer or Mary Hart from Entertainment Tonight told her that she must do it.  And, looking at recent photos of herself (and her commitment to The Biggest Loser), I'd say that she did a fine job of maintaining a healthy weight her own way without caving into the pressure of looking a specific way...and now she can be considered an inspiration for finding balance in life.  At least, I see her as such anyway.





Now, as for the future of Sami Brady...it sort of remains uncertain.  In January 2014, on the set of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", Alison announced that towards the end of 2014, she would be departing "Days of Our Lives" after an astounding 22 years on air.  Nobody knows exactly how Sami will be written out of the show yet...but if her character sketch provides some clues...she'll likely go out with a bang!