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Tuesday, August 05, 2014

August 5, 1962

So, how many of you out there are ready to take in another edition of the Tuesday Timeline?  I'm sure that most of you are waiting in anticipation.

(Or, at least, I'd like to hope that you are anyway.)

And the only hint that I will provide is that today's date had a profound impact on Hollywood as one legend's light blew out like a candle in the wind.

You've probably got the gears grinding in your head right now and probably have the answer.  I'll leave you to think about it some more while I go ahead with today's events and celebrity birthdays for August 5.

1100 - Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey

1583 - The first English colony in North America (the area near St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada) is established by Sir Humphrey Gilbert

1620 - The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America

1735 - New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York

1861 - The United States Army abolishes flogging

1882 - Standard Oil of New Jersey is established

1884 - The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor

1914 - The very first electric traffic light is installed in Cleveland, Ohio

1926 - Harry Houdini performs an illusion on stage which sees him escaping from a sealed tank filled with water - total time spend submerged was ninety-one minutes!

1930 - Neil Armstrong (d. 2012) - the first astronaut to walk on the moon - is born in Wapakoneta, Ohio

1957 - American Bandstand debuts on ABC

1962 - Nelson Mandela enters prison and spends the next twenty-eight years of his life behind bars

1963 - A nuclear test ban treaty is signed by the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union

1964 - Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch (d. 2012) is born in Brooklyn, New York

1981 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan fires over 11,000 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work

1992 - Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro dies suddenly at just 38 years old

2000 - Sir Alec Guinness dies of liver cancer, aged 86 years

2002 - Soap star Josh Ryan Evans dies at the age of 20

2003 - Twelve are killed and another 150 injured after a car bomb detonates outside of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia

2010 - Thirty-three Chilean miners are trapped 2,300 feet below the ground after the Copiapo mining accident occurs

And, I'd also like to wish the following famous faces a happy birthday;  John Saxon, Loni Anderson, Erika Slezak, Rick Derringer, John Jarratt, Samantha Sang, Louis Walsh, Maureen McCormick, Faith Prince, Clayton Rohner, Pete Burns, Pat Smear, Tawny Kitaen, Jonathan Silverman, Terri Clark, Funkmaster Flex, James Gunn, Antony Cotton, Ami Foster, Jesse Williams, Xenia Tchoumitcheva, and Olivia Holt.

And this leads us to the discussion about today's date.



Today's date just happens to fall on the same day that Nelson Mandela was placed in prison.  August 5, 1962.

Now, I could have just talked about the events that saw Mandela imprisoned for twenty-eight years...but I already did a blog on that entry some time ago.

Instead, I'll be talking about another event.  This event took place in the United States of America - Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, to be exact.  And it was on this date that one of Hollywood's most sultry and provocative actresses breathed her last breath.

It seems hard to believe that had she lived, this actress would be eighty-eight years old today.  But alas, she stayed forever young at just thirty-six years of age.



This is the story about the death of Marilyn Monroe, who passed away fifty-two years ago today.

Marilyn Monroe, of course, was a movie starlet who starred in films that are widely regarded as classics today, including "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", "How To Marry a Millionaire", and "Some Like It Hot".  And she was a huge inspiration for early Madonna as she was the direct inspiration behind her 1985 video for "Material Girl".



But Marilyn's death in 1962 remains a sort of unsolved mystery of sorts. 

It was twenty-five minutes after four in the early morning hours of August 5, 1962 that LAPD sergeant Jack Clemmon received the call from Dr. Ralph Greenson that would send shock waves throughout Hollywood.  The call that confirmed the death of Marilyn Monroe.  And the cause of death was linked to a combination of barbiturates that were still in her system at the time of autopsy.  As Marilyn Monroe had complained about having insomnia, and was having some negative health effects a couple of years prior to her death, the medication that was present in the room where she died did make sense. 


But here's the interesting thing about Marilyn's death.  Although she did die of a drug overdose, the actual autopsy report stated that she died of a "probable suicide".  Not definite.  Just probable.  And with that word came dozens of theories about Marilyn Monroe's demise.  Did she really commit suicide?  Or was something more sinister the cause of her death?

If you looked at the last few months of Marilyn's life, one might think that she would have had no reason to kill herself.  In recent weeks, she had been in talks to commit to several film projects.  She was continuing to negotiate a contract for the film, "Something's Gotta Give".  She was set to star in the film version of the Broadway musical "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn".  A conflict that she had with 20th Century Fox had been resolved and she was set to have a two-film deal with the movie company which would have seen her making a cool one million dollars.  And on top of all that, an Italian deal which would see Marilyn making four movies as well as handing over co-star, director, and script approval for ten million dollars.

With all those opportunities surrounding her, do you think that it would make sense for Marilyn Monroe to throw it all away by overdosing on drugs?  The only way that this would be the case is if it were an accidental overdose.  Which would mean that it probably wasn't suicide at all...at least, not an intentional one, anyway.

And that's not counting the conspiracy theories surrounding Marilyn's death, with some people believing that Marilyn Monroe was murdered.  Some people have the belief that the CIA or the Mafia went to great lengths to kill Monroe, feeling that she had something on them and that they would go to great lengths to see that her secrets never got out.  Others seem to think that Monroe was killed because of her connection to the Kennedy clan.  After all, Marilyn Monroe had gotten pretty close with President John F. Kennedy, reportedly even calling the White House several times a day to speak with the president.  It's even alleged that Monroe and Kennedy had a love affair while Kennedy was in office, though I can't say for sure if this was the case, as I was not alive during that time.  But still, Monroe's link to the Kennedy family was called out by some people as the reason that she died.



I bet when Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles, California on June 1, 1926, she never would have imagined that her life and death would have been so much in the public eye, even decades after her passing.  By all accounts, little Norma Jeane's life had started off being incredibly tough right from birth.  She spent the majority of her formative years in foster homes due to her mother's mental instability, and although several families were interested in adopting Norma Jeane, her mother refused to sign the adoption papers giving up her full rights to her.  She lived with her mother's best friend Grace for a little bit, but that arrangement ended quickly after Grace's husband tried to molest Norma Jeane. 

It really was a story that some would have felt would only exist in the movies.  A little girl who only wanted to find love and acceptance only to face pain and heartbreak everywhere she went.  Only it wasn't a movie.  It was Norma Jeane's real life.  It took a marriage to her first love, James Dougherty, for Norma Jeane to finally find some stability in her life.  But the marriage didn't last.  They were divorced by 1946.  In fact, none of her three marriages lasted.  Her second marriage to Joe DiMaggio didn't even last a whole year, and her third marriage to Arthur Miller was the longest of the three, with the couple staying together for five years before divorcing in 1961.  But when you consider just how much instability she had in her early life, I suppose you can understand the instability that she sustained in her romantic life.

But I suppose one could say that her career (at least the early part of her career before the drug use started and she began to earn the reputation of being incredibly difficult to work with came into play) was the one thing that gave her stability.  And certainly, Marilyn Monroe's body of work speaks for itself.

But I suppose you're wondering how she ended up transforming herself from Norma Jeane Mortenson into Marilyn Monroe.  Well, as we close the book on another Tuesday Timeline, I'll share that story with you.

In June 1945, Norma Jeane was working in the Radioplane Munitions Factory when David Conover of the U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Motion Picture Unit was sent to the factory to shoot photos of young women helping out with the war effort.  He happened to come across Norma Jeane, and snapped this photo below.



Though the photo never actually appeared in the magazine that he was sending the photos he snapped to, he did think that Norma Jeane seemed to have model-like qualities, and encouraged her to sign up for a modeling agency, which she did.  It is here that the first change took place - bleaching her naturally dark hair to her signature platinum blonde.

Shortly after taking some photos with the agency, she got the attention of 20th Century Fox executive Ben Lyon who arranged for Norma Jeane to perform a screen test.

She passed the screen test with flying colours, and she was immediately signed to a contract.  However, Lyon didn't like the name Norma Jeane Dougherty, claiming that the name didn't have enough star power.  Lyon suggested the name of Carole Lind (a combination of Carole Lombard and Jenny Lind), but that name didn't seem to be appropriate for her.  Norma Jeane's idol was Jean Harlow, and she knew that Jean Harlow used her mother's maiden name for her own stage name, so Norma Jeane decided to do the same, using her mother's maiden name of "Monroe".

So then came the battle to choose an appropriate first name.  Initially, they were going to try the name Norma Jeane Monroe.  Then just Norma Monroe.  Then just Jeane Monroe.  Finally, the suggestion of Marilyn was offered up, and initially Norma Jeane didn't like the name.  To her, it was a contraction of the name Mary Lynn - a name she didn't like.  But Lyon insisted on Marilyn.  Norma Jeane reminded him of Marilyn Miller - a Broadway star of the 1920s.  And he felt that the alliteration of the name Marilyn Monroe would be sexy, sultry, and lucky.  It took a little time, but Norma Jeane decided that she liked the name.

And that was how Norma Jeane became Marilyn Monroe.

And, to end this blog off, let's have a listen to the 1973 hit single that Elton John wrote about her.


Monday, August 04, 2014

Fifteen Funny Fast Food Signs

Okay, guys!  Today is a civic holiday here in my home province of Ontario, Canada, and for the first time in what seems like forever, I actually have a holiday off!  So, as a result of this, I'm going to be making this blog entry a little bit on the brief side.

But given that today is
FUNNY MONDAY, and that Funny Monday posts are usually 75% photos, I figure that today would be a good day to have a lazy day.

So, the topic of discussion today is...Fast Food Signs.

I'm sure that if you go anywhere near a designated Fast Food Alleyway (where it seems that every second structure is a fast food place), you'll notice that every single place has one of those signs which have the removable magnetic letters that people go out and change to advertise specials like a Whopper, Big Mac, Baconator, or 20-piece bucket of chicken.  In most cases, the signs are written very well and get the point across.

Sometimes, a person might run out of letters and substitute 1's for I's, 3's for E's and 5's for S's.  It's annoying for us to read, but at least the person who did the signs thought a little outside of the box and still got the word out.

But then there are fast food signs which are just plain BIZARRE.  And some that are funny - both intentionally and unintentionally.

So, I scoured the web looking for fifteen of the funniest fast food signs that I could spot.  And, I want to credit Flickr, Buzzfeed, Rant Lifestyle, and Slightly Warped for the photos used in this piece.

Now, here's a question for you.  Which fast food place do you figure would have the most screw-ups?  Burger King?  McDonald's?  Taco Bell?  Pizza Hut?

Would you believe that the winning restaurant (at least in the ones that I found anyway) was Wendy's?  Of the fifteen examples that I found online, one-third of them were from Wendy's!  So, we'll start off with the Wendy's signs, and proceed to the other fast food places one by one.  Did your favourite make the list?



Okay, so I don't really know if this was a legitimate goof, or if it was done as a practical joke by someone who is obviously disgruntled with their job.  But way to perpetuate the stereotype about fast food workers, Wendy's...way to go.



It's nice to see that this particular Wendy's has fish.  It's also very disturbing to see that you actually don't need to know grammar to be able to sell said fish at this particular Wendy's.  But hey, when they pipe in all their money into commercials where the red-haired girl sings about her unhealthy obsession with pretzel bun burgers, I suppose grammar does take a back seat.



Good idea on paper...bad execution.



Now, this one has a back story behind it.  In 2002, the founder of Wendy's Restaurants, Dave Thomas, passed away.  And, I can definitely see why some restaurants would want to use their signage to pay their respects.  But tacking on that "Now Hiring" sign at the bottom - well, that just adds a touch of elegance to the whole thing, doesn't it?



Who needs Soylent Green when a Bacon Mushroom Melt is so much tastier?  Oh yeah...Wendy's is hiring!  Better make sure you add in "tastes delicious" in your application!



I'll admit...I did try pulling this off when I was a kid.  It wasn't long before I learned that in order to get a Blizzard, I would have to be quiet in the car.  And even then, that was no guarantee.  But I do give credit to Dairy Queen for trying something creative in their marketing gimmicks.



This is one of those cases in which the name of the business has an unfortunate side effect on the products sold within.



I'm curious to know what kind of toppings come with that Burger King dish.



I should hope so!!!



Okay, so I'm just assuming that when they talk about Spongebob, they're really talking about those toys that you get inside of a Kids Meal.  And, I'm sure that when they talk about hiring managers, they're really looking for a new manager to run the place.  Otherwise, this entire photo would have to be taken underwater, and the name of the restaurant would have to be changed to the Krusty Krab.  Still though...it would be cool to be hired by a cartoon character.



Okay, I'm supposed to pay for my dollar and nickel combo with WHAT?!?



Oh, dear.  I'm guessing that this is one of those unfortunate situations in which the name of the town combined with the logo of a fast food place turns into something naughty.  Either that, or this is one of the largest personal ads ever created.



This is another brilliant sign that was inspired by a real-life event.  Remember a couple of years ago when Chick-fil-A caused controversy with their comments about gay and lesbian people?  I even wrote a blog about it HERE.  Well, unlike Chick-fil-A, KFC decided that they would issue their own statement.  A statement that would allow everybody to feel welcome.  I think the Colonel would have been proud.



Happy Valentine's Day, honey!  I want you to put on your finest evening dress and wear that perfume that makes you smell so nice.  I managed to get us into one of the finest restaurants in town.  I certainly hope you like to be treated like a princess, because we're going to dine inside of a castle!



Well.  At least the person doing this sign is honest.

Sunday, August 03, 2014

Jessie's Girl



Can you believe that earlier this week, MTV celebrated its thirty-third anniversary?  I know!  I can hardly believe it myself - mainly because MTV has changed so much since the 1980s...and sadly, not for the better.

But back on August 1, 1981, MTV made household names out of Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson, and Martha Quinn.  And the very first video that was played on the music channel was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles.  And during the first fifteen years of the channel's life, MTV certainly was the premiere choice for all things music.  There were special concert performances and "MTV Unplugged" acoustic show tapings.  There was the MTV Video Music Awards.  There were special games shows based on pop culture such as "Remote Control", and cartoon series like "Beavis and Butt-Head" and "Daria". 

And of course, the music videos were the best part of the whole MTV experience.  From rock and roll to dance-pop, MTV's early years had all sorts of music videos played in segments hosted by the MTV VJ crew.  The VJ's also exclusively interviewed artists who wanted to promote new albums or concert tours, and they even allowed some artists to become guest VJ's.  Music videos could be requested as well by viewers who called in to "Total Request Live" at the beginning of the late 1990s.

That's why I'm really sad to see that MTV has seemingly drained all of the M out of MTV, and is now reduced to being a 24-hour-long reality channel.  As if I really care if Paris Hilton finds a new best friend, or if a group of frat boys can stay quiet in a library to win money, or where the "Real World" cast is going to stay, or what the heck a Snooki is.

I suppose that it was inevitable though.  Reality television became a pop culture phenomenon at the beginning of the twenty-first century, so naturally MTV had to jump on that bandwagon.  And YouTube, Vevo, and Vimeo have been posting free music videos for years now, so I can understand why more people would choose to watch them there instead of on television.

Still, as someone who grew up on the Canadian version of MTV (which may as well be re-christened as "The Degrassi Channel"), it's depressing knowing that a huge part of my childhood is now a television wasteland.  Why couldn't things go back to the way they were?  I say bring back Martha Quinn and Mark Goodman to co-host a retrospective MTV type show!

But, until that happens (if that happens at all), I thought that I would take today's Sunday Jukebox entry all the way back to August 1981.  This was the #1 song the week that MTV first went on the air. 



ARTIST:  Rick Springfield
SONG:  Jessie's Girl
ALBUM:  Working Class Dog
DATE RELEASED:  February 14, 1981
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 2 weeks



Ah, yes.  Rick Springfield, the Australian born rock singer who made millions of women swoon when he starred on the soap opera "General Hospital" from 1981 until 1983 (he has since come back for several guest appearances; the last one in 2013).  Though Rick had been in the music industry since 1972, it wasn't until August 1981 before he reached the zenith of his career with his first (and only) #1 hit on the Billboard Charts. 

How ironic that this song about unrequited love would happen to be released on Valentine's Day of all days!

Now, I bet you're wondering something about this song.  I bet you're wondering who Jessie is.  I bet you're wondering who Jessie's girl is.  I bet you're wondering if Rick had a friend named Jessie and the friendship soured because Rick secretly had feelings for Jessie's girl, even though Jessie's girl is only in love with Jessie.

Wow...that kind of sounds like a synopsis for "General Hospital", doesn't it?

Well, I have some information that might let a little air out of that scandalous balloon.  Truth is, there is no Jessie.  However, there was a Gary. 

See, back when Rick was still somewhat of an unknown in the music business, he was busy doing other things - such as attending a class on how to make stained glass creations.  It was in this class that he befriended a man named Gary as well as Gary's girlfriend.  And Rick decided that these would be the subjects of the song that he would eventually record in the last days of 1980. 

So, why wasn't the song called "Gary's Girl" instead?  Well, for one, Gary's Girl doesn't seem to have that same ring to it as Jessie's Girl.  I doubt that Gary's Girl would have made the same impact on the charts, let's put it that way.

The name Jessie actually came from a girl who just happened to be walking by Rick Springfield one day.  She was wearing a baseball jersey with the name "Jessie" stitched across the back, and Rick decided that Jessie's Girl would be the name of the song instead.

As for the name of Jessie's Girl?  Well, it remains a mystery, although the video makes it appear that the name of the girl is Patty (look at the graffiti on the walls).  In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Rick admits that there's a reason why Jessie's (Gary's) girl didn't have a name.  He couldn't remember it!  Because he was never really formally introduced to her, he could only really worship her from afar.

TRIVIA:  Oprah Winfrey actually launched an investigation to find the girl at the heart of Jessie's Girl, and made it pretty far.  But the investigation hit a snag when she discovered that the teacher of the stained glass class had died two years earlier, and all of his class records were destroyed.  So, as of 2014, Jessie's Girl still remains a mystery. 

The music video certainly did a great job showing Rick's angst over falling in love with the one woman that he can't have.  He sees how happy she is with her current squeeze (who happens to be Rick's friend), and he is so upset that he takes his guitar and smashes it through the mirror of a medicine chest. 

You know, come to think of it, I seem to recall a lot of early 1980s music videos featuring people destroying objects with other objects.  I suppose that was considered a fad back in the day.



Anyway, the song won Rick a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Performance in 1982, and although it was his only #1 single, it was far from the end of his music career, as he had a slew of singles between 1981 and 1988.



I also suppose that if the story about Rick developing feelings for Jessie's (Gary) girl is the real deal, he happily seems to have moved on from those feelings.  In 1984 (right around the same time that the single was released in the United Kingdom), he married his wife, Barbara Porter and fathered two children with her.  Interestingly enough, Barbara was working as the receptionist of the recording studio where Rick was recording his "Working Class Dog" album.  Therefore, it's quite a nice tale of love and courtship with Rick meeting the woman of his dreams at work while he was recording a single about getting over a love that was never his to begin with.

It's funny how life works out, isn't it?

Saturday, August 02, 2014

A Simple Wish


It's time for another edition of the Saturday Night At The Movies, and as promised, I will be continuing a special ten-part series based on a discovery that I made at my workplace one day.



Last week, I told you about how I bought a 10-pack of movies for the price of five dollars.  All of these movies are family films that were released during the eighties and nineties, and while some of these films weren't exactly considered Oscar winning masterpieces (well, okay...none of these films are Oscar winning masterpieces), I still enjoyed them enough to give them another whirl.

This is week #2 of 10, and this movie feature will wrap up on Saturday, September 27, 2014.  And last week, we took a look at "The Wizard", a film which starred a 13-year-old Fred Savage, and featured the first appearance of the video game "Super Mario Brothers 3". 

For this week's edition of the blog, we're going to take a look at a film that was released seventeen years ago, and features a very different kind of fairy godmother.

I'm sure that most of us have seen the movie "Cinderella".  While this is not the movie that I will be looking at this time around, there is an element in common between the other film that I want to discuss. 



Halfway through Cinderella, Cinderella happens to have a fairy godmother intervene and give her a temporary makeover so that she can meet the prince of her dreams.  You see, with a flick of the wrist and a "bibbidy bobbidy boo", Cinderella's fairy godmother made it her mission to grant whatever wish she desired - albeit for a limited time only.

And since Cinderella became the belle of the ball all those years ago, fairy godmothers have made appearances throughout media from "Witch's Night Out" to "The Fairly OddParents".  Even "Shrek 2" had a Fairy Godmother - but of course, that fairy godmother did more harm than good.

But what happens when you have a male fairy godmother who seemingly doesn't have any control over his powers and ends up transforming simple wishes into dreams that people never had in the first place?  What if your simple wish was granted by this fairy godmother, and it ended up turning into the exact opposite thing that you wished for?



Well, in the 1997 film "A Simple Wish", that's exactly what happens, as a little girl makes a wish for her father, and it unfortunately ends up in the hands of one of the most inept wish granters to ever exist.

Despite the film's star power - actors Martin Short, Kathleen Turner, Robert Pastorelli, Ruby Dee, Amanda Plummer, Francis Capra, and Mara Wilson all had roles in the film - the film only managed a 27% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was savaged by critics.  It also only made eight million at the box office - which was a twenty million dollar LOSS.  Ouch.

But despite the fact that this movie was a box office bomb - there's a part of me that actually didn't mind the film.  Sure, it wasn't the best film that I've ever seen...but at the same time, it is far from being the worst.  After all...I did walk out of the theatre halfway through "Freddy Got Fingered".

Sigh...Tom Green...what the hell were you thinking?



Okay, so here's the situation of the film.  Murray (Short) is the only man in a room filled with hopeful fairy godmothers, all vowing to pass their final exams to become a full-fledged godmother with all the perks.  And, to say that Murray is a guy who prefers to do things the easy way is probably one of the biggest understatements of the film world.  He tries cheating on the exam multiple times but fails at every attempt, and ends up becoming one of the last students to finish.  Despite the fact that he is woefully unprepared, he barely passes the exam.



A few months later, in New York City, an aspiring actor named Oliver Greening (Pastorelli) is feeling dejected after being turned down for the opportunity to star in a Broadway performance of "A Tale of Two Cities".  And, Oliver's daughter Annabel (Wilson) is busy trying to convince her brother Charlie (Capra) that fairies do exist, as Charlie has lost a tooth and is expecting a visit from the Tooth Fairy.  As the family all settles down for the night, Murray clumsily enters the Greening home and overhears Annabel make the wish for her father to get the role in the play.  But because Murray is on a tight deadline with another commitment, he is forced to leave prematurely, with the promise that he will grant her wish at another time.

That very night, Hortense (Dee), the head of all the fairy godmothers in North America holds an annual meeting of all the fairies in the vicinity - a meeting that the clumsy Murray misses because he is late.  Of course, this means that Murray is one of the only fairies to keep his wand, as all of the other fairies had to turn theirs in at the beginning of the meeting.



But this turns out to be a blessing in disguise for Murray, as a former fairy godmother turned evil witch named Claudia (Turner) interrupts the meeting, casts a spell on Hortense that effectively nullifies her powers, and with help from her accomplice Boots (Plummer) steals all of the wands of the other fairies at the meeting, intent on becoming the most powerful wizard in all the world.

There's just one problem.  Claudia didn't take all the wands.  Murray's is still unaccounted for.

And as it so happens, Annabel finds Murray's wand and fully intends on finding a way of returning it.  Unfortunately, Charlie ends up finding the wand too and snaps it in two.  Annabel tries to fix the wand, but after almost getting in trouble in class, she crosses paths with Murray.  And after a series of adventures in which Murray's broken wand accidentally sends both Annabel and Murray to the state of Nebraska, Charlie and Annabel try to enlist Murray's help to make their father's dream come true.  Unfortunately, Murray accidentally transforms Oliver into a statue. 

Now it becomes a race against time.  Can Charlie and Annabel save Oliver from becoming a statue permanently?  Will Oliver's wish come true?  And can they stop Claudia from using her evil powers?

I'm sure you probably know how this will end up, but I won't reveal it here.

But I do have some trivia for you all.

1 - This was the final film for director Michael Ritchie.  He passed away in 2001.

2 - This was also one of Mara Wilson's final movies.  She would make a couple of more movies into the year 2000, but after that, she retired from acting.  Though she does have her own blog (which you can read HERE).

3 - Robert Pastorelli sadly passed away seven years after this film was made - in March 2004.

4 - Teri Garr has a small role in the film as Rena.

5 - The movie was released on July 11, 1997.


(Okay, so the movie was sorely lacking in trivia.)

So, two movies down, eight to go.  And in the next entry on the list, we're going to see how it took a serious accident for one man to become more involved in his children's lives...

Friday, August 01, 2014

Odd Flavour Combos That Surprisingly Work



All right.  Who will admit to watching "Sharknado 2: The Second One" a couple of nights ago?

I'll admit it.  I'll raise my hand in shame.  I watched the film.  I really have no idea why, as I found the original "Sharknado" movie to be so bad it was quite amusing.  I suppose that you could say the same for the sequel.  The sequel - which starred Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Vivica A. Fox, Kari Wuhrer, and Mark "Sugar Ray" McGrath drew an impressive 3.9 million viewers on SyFy.  Not sure how well it was rated in Canada, as it aired on Space TV, but given the buzz that it received on Facebook and Twitter, I figured that it must have also done well here.

Sure, the film had a stupid concept.  Tornadoes that happen to be filled with sharks of all sizes come speeding towards the heart of New York City with the mission of destroying the entire city, and Fin (Ziering), the man who saved Los Angeles one year earlier from a deadly sharknado must do the same with New York.

And the movie is filled with a whole bunch of impossible situations.  For one, I have my doubts that any of us will see a sharknado any time soon (unless global warming really gets out of balance).  I'm also going to go on a whim and say that if a sharknado did materialize out of thin air that the majority of people would not be lollygagging on the city streets window shopping hoping that they won't get crushed by flaming sharks raining down on them.

But yet, the sequel to "Sharknado" is getting great reviews, despite the fact that many others thought that it would never work.  I mean, there is no way I can even picture sharks and tornadoes coming together to create a modern day pop culture phenomenon, but for some crazy reason, it worked out brilliantly.

Now, here's the question.  What exactly does Sharknado have to do with today's food topic?

Well, aside from the fact that I suppose that the people of New York City could have eaten barbecued shark at the end of the movie, there's not much that Sharknado would have in common with a
FOODIE FRIDAY theme.

But what about taking two or more foods that you would never think would blend together to create a surprisingly delicious flavour combination?  That's the topic of the day.

Certainly since the history of culinary arts began, people have been experimenting with ingredients to come up with food magic.  Some of the experiments turn out to be flavour disasters, but some of them have become the next taste sensation.  I mean, there was once a time in which people never expected sour cream and onions to go together, and yet those two things have been instrumental in one of the more popular potato chip flavours out there.

In this entry, I'll be posting a couple of well known dishes that combine ingredients that many don't see as being that great together, but are surprisingly delicious.  As well, I'll be talking about some of the flavour combos that I discovered when I was a kid (and adult).  Some of them may appear to be disgusting, but I can attest - they taste better than you might think - well, given that you like the ingredients, that is.

Let's begin with a combination that is truly Canadian.



See this dish up above?  It's a combination of french fries, gravy, and cheese curd.  Some may call it a heart attack on a plate, and well...I would agree that it's not the healthiest food choice out there.

But for us Canadians, the poutine is one of those things that sounds awful, but tastes incredibly good.  I don't know what it is about the poutine that makes it so irresistible, but to me, it is real comfort food.  Some people look at comfort food as something like fried chicken, or macaroni and cheese, or marshmallow fluff even.  Not me. 

(Coincidentally, you can oven bake the fries and substitute shredded mozzarella cheese in place of curd.  It's the same effect and the taste is no different.)

Now, here's another flavour combination that might make a lot of you gag in disgust.  But keep in mind that I was a young child when I was coming up with this mixture and I had no concept of food plating whatsoever.

Oh, hell...I'm 33, and I still don't know how to plate food.  Masterchef I am not.



When I was younger, I hated mashed potatoes.  I don't know what it was about them, but I always found them to be the most bland of all the side dishes that my mom ever made.  I could handle almost any other vegetables.  Green beans were okay.  Peas were okay.  Corn on the cob was always welcome.  But mashed potatoes were such that no amount of butter could mask the blandness. 



Now, on the other hand, I was (and still am) a fan of the condiment known as mustard.  I'm not sure what it was about that yellow stuff, but the taste of mustard was delicious.  I put that stuff on everything...

...including mashed potatoes.

Yeah, I know it sounds nasty to the general public, but mustard and mashed potatoes was absolutely delicious to me.  When I was a kid, it was really the only way that I could eat mashed potatoes.  And, well...I'll confess.  When I know that nobody else is looking, I'll still dip my mashed potatoes in a glob of French's mustard.

(Don't worry though.  If I am out to dinner with all of you, I won't ever do that.  I just won't order mashed potatoes.)

Okay.  What other food combo do I like that could be considered weird?



Oh, I know.  I used to dip chocolate chip cookies in a tub of Cool Whip.  But, that's not really weird.  Cool Whip and Chips Ahoy is a delicious combo.  If anything, I used to get in trouble doing that because I would always leave crumbs behind.



Ah, but dipping chocolate chip cookies in Coca-Cola?  That's a wilder flavour combo.  Surprisingly, it tasted not too bad - even though I only did it once in a blue moon.  There's nothing worse than a soggy cookie, whether you dip it in tea, coffee, water, or even Coca-Cola.

How about some of you?  What are some of your favourite but strange food combos?

Do you dip your pretzels in ketchup?

Do you put Cheetos in your ice cream?
Do you eat soy sauce on your hot dog?
Do you spread peanut butter on pickles?

Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Apprentice

I'm going to be frank.  I make a lousy businessman.

I know that capitalism seems to be the way of the world these days.  I know that big business and corporations - like it or not - are here to stay, and I also completely understand that our economy is directly linked to capitalism.

However, I'll be the first one to admit that I have a hard time understanding big business.  Although I do work retail, I don't really consider myself to be that great of a salesperson.  In order to be successful in business, you have to have certain qualifications.  You have to be confident.  You have to know your product.  You have to believe in your product.  And, you also have to have a certain level of charm, charisma, and personality.

Do I have any of those things?  Honestly, that's debatable.

But as of right now, I have my doubts that I could work in the world of big business.  I don't even like wearing ties.  I honestly don't even know if I know how to even tie a tie!  Oh, why couldn't I have been an adult during the time period in which we all dressed up like Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice?

However, dress code aside, I think that there might be hope for me after all.  I am a fairly creative person, and I can brainstorm several ideas in quick succession.  I'd also like to think that I'm keen enough to know what is working, and what isn't working.

So, when it comes to a particular reality show that has aired on a semi-regular rotation since January 2004, I honestly don't know how I would fare.  Maybe I'd go far.  Maybe I'd win.  Maybe I'd be the first one fired. 

Or maybe I would be so intimidated by Donald Trump that I would run out of Trump Tower in absolute terror and get run over by one of the millions of yellow taxi cabs scattered all over New York City.



Whatever the case, we're going to be talking about "The Apprentice", which airs on NBC. 



These days, the show has been retooled into a celebrity format, in which a group of celebrities (mostly B-list actors, athletes, former child stars, or reality show cast-offs) play the game to raise money for their respective charities.  For instance, the upcoming season of "The Celebrity Apprentice" will feature Geraldo Rivera, Ian Ziering, Lorenzo Lamas, Gilbert Gottfried, Leeza Gibbons, Keshia Knight-Pulliam, and Kate Gosselin, among others. 

That's fine and dandy, but I preferred the show a lot better when Donald Trump hired non-celebrity people to work within his organization.  I liked it better when we saw sixteen successful Americans working towards a goal.  I liked it when George Ross and Carolyn Kepcher were judges. 

All in all, I think that while "Celebrity Apprentice" has breathed new life into the show, I miss the old-fashioned version.



Of the thirteen seasons of "The Apprentice" that have aired, seven have been civilian editions.  The first six seasons, as well as season 10 have featured anywhere from 16-18 candidates competing for a chance to earn a position within Donald Trump's massive business.  It's no secret that Trump is definitely one of the biggest forces in American business today, and like him or not, he does know the business world inside and out. 

The show - which was created by "Survivor" creator Mark Burnett - divides the candidates into two "corporations".  In most cases, the teams are divided up by gender (with one exception being season three, which had a team of high school graduates competing against a team of college graduates).  The teams are expected to come up with a name for their corporation.

TRIVIA:  Past team names included Versacorp, Apex, Net Worth, Capital Edge, Gold Rush, and Kinetic.

In each week, teams would be assigned the same task, and the tasks were all business oriented, and were often sponsored by a pre-existing corporation.  Believe it or not, the very first task that the candidates had to embark on was selling lemonade on the streets of New York City - the same way that a lot of kids get started in the world of business.

Other tasks included coming up with a promotional campaign for Burger King's newest sandwich, filming a commercial for a beauty product, selling products on QVC, creating a new line of action figures for Mattel, designing a line of swimsuits, or even selling carriage rides through Central Park.

Each task also involved the team selecting a "Project Manager" to lead the task and get everything organized.

Winners were determined by how much money the teams made, how clear the message was that was presented in ads, how good the quality was on the items made, and through focus groups and their opinions.  If a team won, they were spared from the boardroom, and in later seasons, the project manager was exempt from getting fired in the following task.  If a team lost, the Project Manager would pick two or three people to join them, in which Donald and crew would decide which one would be fired.

At the end of the show, the final two candidates would embark on a super task, with former contestants coming back to assist in the task. 



And the winners of the show went to work for Donald Trump for a one-year-contract.  In some cases, the contracts were extended.  In the case of first season winner Bill Rancic, he stayed on with the company for quite some time, even subbing in as a judge for George Ross on a few occasions.

Now, over the years, seven people have been hired.  Rancic, Kelly Perdew, Kendra Todd, Randal Pinkett, Sean Yazbeck, Stefani Schaeffer, and Brandy Kuentzel.  But so many more have been fired from the show.

In fact, for the rest of this blog, I thought that I would take a look at some of the most memorable contestants to be fired from "The Apprentice", as well as some of the stupid mistakes that they made to get them the axe.  Believe me, you'll feel better about your own job blunders!



OMAROSA (Season 1)

Would you believe that Omarosa is the only Apprentice candidate to appear on the show a total of three times (she was on season 1, as well as two celebrity editions).  And, would you believe that on all three occasions she was fired, she was fired on a task where she was selling artwork?  You'd have thought that she would have learned the first time.



But all joking aside, Omarosa could very well be considered the very first Apprentice villain to appear on the show.  She was a nightmare to work with.  She accused one contestant of being racist towards her for using the phrase "like the pot calling the kettle black".  She told the team that she had a concussion from a piece of falling drywall hitting her in the head one minute, and the next she was playing basketball with a group of kids.  She clashed with almost every single female on the show.  And when she was assigned to assist Kwame Jackson in his final task to plan a concert for Jessica Simpson, she was such a disaster that many viewers (including myself) believed that she was purposely sabotaging Kwame's chance to win the show.  Personally, I do think that Bill would have won regardless, but Kwame deserved to have a better chance.  Hell, Kwame should have fired Omarosa on the spot!



BRADFORD (Season 2)

Bradford was in a fairly good position at the beginning of the second episode of the second season.  He was asked to go to the women's team to lead them on the first task, and because their team won, he was
exempt from getting fired.  That means that no matter how badly the team did, he could not be fired.

As it happened, the team lost the second task, which was coming up with a new ice cream flavour and selling it on the streets of New York.  And Bradford was extremely confident.  He was so confident that he told Trump that he didn't need his stinking exemption because he had performed well enough on the task that he didn't feel that he was going to be fired.

Silly Bradford.  Trump canned him on the spot for being so foolish.



VERNA (Season 3) and MICHELLE (Season 6)

You want to know what Trump dislikes more than people who give up exemptions?  People who decide to quit the game.  In the cases of Verna and Michelle, they walked away from the game without knowing if they could have made it.  Verna mentally checked out of the game during the show's second task, and by the beginning of task #3, she told the team that she had enough and walked out.  In Michelle's case, she resigned after she lead the team to a colossal failure, and decided that the position she was competing for wasn't worth it.

While I don't believe that quitting is such the sin that Donald Trump makes out to be (sometimes quitting one opportunity can lead to better ones coming along), I can't say I disagree with Donald not having sympathy for them.  After all, they took a spot that thousands of people applied for, and walked away from it.



TANA (Season 3)

This one pains me, because as the third season of the Apprentice drew to a close, Tana was easily considered the favourite.  She was the last member of the Street Smarts team going against Kendra, the last member of the Book Smarts team.  Although Kendra did have more wins as Project Manager than Tana did, Tana took on the responsibility much earlier than Kendra.  And Tana had always been a star on any of the teams she was on.

On the final task, Kendra had to put on a promotion and video game tournament sponsored by Sony PlayStation and Best Buy, while Tana had to put together a presentation for the Olympic committee demonstrating why New York City should host the 2012 Olympics (the show aired in 2005).  And the teammates who came to help Kendra and Tana out were six of the most volatile, uncooperative, uncontrollable contestants to appear on that season.

To compare and contrast:

Kendra's team worked well together with very few disagreements.  They all came together to make the event a success.  Kendra made her teammates feel that they were valued and respected, and in turn, Kendra's team wanted to succeed so that Kendra would get noticed.  The event went off near perfectly, and Kendra developed a new found appreciation for all of them.

Tana immediately asked if she could switch team members with Kendra, and vented to one of the judges about them, calling them the Three Stooges.  She never gave the team any direction, and even made them feel like they were an annoyance.  The end result?  No American flag for the flag presentation, no schedules for any of the people involved, and a brochure that was a complete embarrassment filled with spelling errors and things that should never have been included in a brochure.

Can you see why Trump picked Kendra over Tana?



JOSH, JENNIFER, MARK, JAMES (Season 4)

Now, in most cases, Trump will only fire one person during each boardroom setting.  In a few rare opportunities, he'll get rid of two at once.  In this case, Trump pulled the ultimate Grand Slam and fired FOUR people at once.

All the teams had to do was generate an event to boost sales at Dick's Sporting Goods.  They could choose whatever sport they wanted to feature, and the main goal of the task was to
increase sales at the store.  Notice how I bolded increase sales in that last sentence?

Well, team Capital Edge did just that.  They created a mini golf course inside the store for children while their parents were looking around the store.  Every single team member focused on sales, and as a result, the sales increased by 74%.  A very decent number!



As for team Excel...well, they did anything but.  Sure, their event using a batting cage was a good idea to keep people entertained...but the team spent so much time on the batting cage that they neglected the fact that the task was measuring how much they were SELLING!  In the end, the team had a net LOSS of 34%!  Ouch.  And as a result, the four team members who didn't get a single sale were all given the pink slip.  It remains the most spectacular firing in the history of "The Apprentice".

So, do you have any more people to add to this list that I might have forgotten?  I'd love to hear from you!