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Monday, December 07, 2015

The Elf On The Shelf



Hello, everybody, and welcome to Day #7 in the POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR!  Hard to believe we've made it through the first week, huh?



There's still a lot of holiday left to get through...but before I do that, I want to take time to wish all of my Jewish friends a very Happy Hanukkah!  I know your holiday began yesterday, and I hope that your eight days of celebration are filled with love, joy, and peace.  Mazel tov to you all, and I hope all of you get what you want this season!

Now, onto today's blog entry.  It's certainly considered to be a more modern Christmas tradition, and I suppose in some cases, you probably could use it for other holidays as well.  Would you believe that this tradition is only about a decade old, but has exploded in popularity quite recently?  I think it was right around 2012 that it really became popular, and by 2013, it was very much as big of a holiday tradition as candy canes on Christmas trees and hot chocolate with marshmallows.

I am, of course, talking about the latest craze invading households all over the world - Elf On The Shelf!

But just what is the elf on the shelf?  Well, it's this little guy!



Isn't he cute?

Well, okay.  Some of you might think he's just a little bit annoying, and I'm sure that some people may get a little bit tired of him getting into mischief all over your homes and apartments.  But since the picture book of the same name was released in 2005 along with the elf toy that accompanies the book, families have joined in the tradition of making the elf do all sorts of crazy things to keep an eye out on the children who live in the home - you know, just to see if they're being good or bad!

And believe me when I say that the elf on the shelf can do almost anything.  The limits of creativity are endless when it comes to what you can do with your elf. 

And for today's blog post, I thought I'd show you ten creative ways that people have used their elves to make Christmas magic happen.  And, would you believe that I myself have my own elf on the shelf?  Mind you, he may not be as cute as the one featured in the book, but I'm very proud of him!

Before I get started with this though, I do want to credit the following websites for the images that I have used for this blog post.

iheartnaptime.net
Huffington Post
itsoverflowing.com
Pinterest
overthebigmoon.com
mommysavers.com
familysponge.com

Okay, so shall we get started?



1.  You know, even an elf on the shelf has to get a great night's sleep...but given how soft and comfortable that Kleenex box bed is, I imagine our elf has hit the snooze button at least a half a dozen times.



2.  97, 98, 99, 100!  Whew!  What a workout!  I think next week, I'll try the 454 gram weights!



3.  Spider-Man, Spider-Man, can't hop in a paper sack, my friend.  I will leave you in my dust, I'm the elf on the shelf, and you'll go bust, look out!  I'll beat you Spider-Man!!!



4.  Our elf on the shelf was inspired to build all of these snowmen after watching how delightful Olaf was in "Frozen".  If he starts singing "Let It Go", we'll know to intervene.



5.  Something tells me that our elf is fishing in all the wrong places.  Though, I will say this.  That "lake" has the most crystal blue water that I have ever seen!



6.  Who knew that a party balloon and a pair of briefs would make the perfect elf dirigible!  Just stay away from ceiling fans, and you should be perfectly fine!



7.  Even elves get bored hanging around a shelf.  Sometimes they like to team up together and practice for the Elf On The Shelf Cirque Du Soleil!



8.  Sorry, Crackle.  You've been replaced.  We were looking for someone a little more...cuter.



9.  So, if this is a re-enactment of the nursery rhyme "Rub-A-Dub-Dub", which one is Elfy supposed to be?  The butcher, the baker, or the candlestick maker?

Oh, wait.  His companions are from the gingerbread tribe.  I think we know what the answer is.



10.  Looks like our elf is exhausted.

So, those are just ten ways in which the elf on the shelf can make your Christmas holiday even more magical. 

Now, as I promised, I told you that I have my own elf on the shelf.  And, believe it or not, my elf predates the original elf on the shelf by eighteen years!



Okay, so maybe my elf looks like he may be a descendant of Grumpy from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves", but I made this guy around Christmas 1987 in my first grade class, and he's managed to survive all this time.  It's one of the few things from elementary school that I managed to keep, but he's still hanging around.

And believe it or not, he still has some candy inside of him.  Originally, they were filled with butterscotch candies, but for some reason I never bothered to eat one, and that candy has remained...for twenty-eight years now.

I wonder if it still tastes good?  I'm almost afraid to put an almost 30-year-old piece of candy anywhere near my mouth...

Sunday, December 06, 2015

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Hi, everyone!  I hope you've enjoyed the first five days of A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR so far.  I forgot how much fun these were to write!



And, coming up on Day #6, we've got a musical treat for you...it's actually a classic Christmas carol that I don't mind listening to once in a while.  In fact, it's a song that I would love to play over and over again if it meant that I get something for Christmas this year...something that you can't wrap.



No...it's not that.  I never wanted a hippopotamus for Christmas.

But it is something that I think completes the Christmas season.  I'll talk more about that in a second.

You know, since today happens to be Sunday, and I haven't done a Sunday Jukebox entry in ages, I thought that I would do a music feature for today.  And, you know, it seems as though almost every single artist in the world has put out a holiday album.  You have your classic Christmas albums by Frank Sinatra and Dolly Parton, to more contemporary albums released by Pentatonix, Michael Buble, and even Justin Bieber. 



The latest pop singer to release a holiday album is Kylie Minogue, whose album "Kylie Christmas" was released on November 13, 2015.  It seems hard to believe, but in her twenty-eight year career as a singer, this is the first holiday album she's ever released.  The album reached the Top 10 in album sales in her native Australia, and peaked within the Top 20 in the UK.  I don't know what the sales have been like here in Canada, but I do know we sell the album as it's featured in my store. 

I've listened to the album, and it's not a bad effort.  She does a couple of duets with talk show host James Corden and her sister, Dannii.  But I want to focus your attention on one song in particular.  Track #9, to be precise.

For it is this song that I will be talking about in this blog entry.



Ah, yes...the classic song "Let It Snow".  Depending on who you ask, they either love the song because they love snow, or they want to throw the CD of the song in a fireplace because they can't stand snow.

Myself?  I love snow - but only in December.  Once January 1 rolls around, it can completely disappear.  I've said it before and I'll say it again...I don't think Christmas can be complete without a little bit of snow.  Last year around this time, we had a Christmas morning thunderstorm which completely sucked.  The only bright side to it was that we never lost power.  Some people in my town did for several hours.

And looking out my office window and seeing all of the green grass still present and abnormally warm temperatures for December...I don't know.  It kind of takes all the fun out of Christmas.  I need to have my Christmas snow!

I say, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Of course, Kylie Minogue didn't write the song.  She's just one of many artists who have put their own spin on a holiday classic.  Truth be told, the song was first written a little over two decades before Kylie was even born!

It was composed by Sammy Cahn and Julie Styne in the summer of 1945 in Hollywood, California - a place in the world that typically doesn't see much snow.  In fact, at the time that the two wrote the song's lyrics, there was a major heatwave going on in California.  Temperatures had been above normal for several days that summer, and both Cahn and Styne used the weather as their inspiration for the song.

Only instead of writing a song about how much they hated the sun and the heat, they wrote about just how frightful winter weather can be.  Believe me, if you are like me and you live up in the Northern part of the world, you know how hard winter can be.  Just ask anyone who survived the major blizzard of 1977.  Or anyone who lived through Ice Storm 1998.  Or anyone who made it through Snowpocalypse 2011 unharmed.  I can tell you that I lived through two of these, and I survived!

So when there is a blizzard raging outside, and the snow drifts prevent you from going anywhere, wouldn't it be nice to just stay indoors by the fire and just relax and enjoy being safe and warm.  When you're in a safe and cozy place - hopefully with people you love - they it doesn't matter if it snows outside or not.

(Well...at least not until the next day when you have to shovel or snowblow it all away...something that I'll have to get used to doing as a homeowner, I'm sure.)

TRIVIA:  The actual title of the song is "Let It Snow!  Let It Snow!  Let It Snow!".  I think most radio stations and record companies just feel that mentioning it once was enough.

So, aside from Kylie, who else recorded versions of this song?



Well, the first artist to record "Let It Snow" was Vaughan Monroe, whose version first hit airwaves in time for the 1945 Christmas season.  It became a huge hit, peaking at #1 in 1946.



Of all the versions that were recorded, most would cite Dean Martin's as one of the best and most classic of them all.  I would have to agree with that.  He released his version of "Let It Snow" on his 1959 album "A Winter Romance".



Jessica Simpson released her own version of the song from her 2004 album "ReJoyce: The Christmas Album".  I only include this version because I seem to hear it the most on many Canadian pop music stations.  I'm specifically pointing towards you Ottawa's Majic 100!



Carly Simon also recorded a version of "Let It Snow" in 2005...but she played around with the lyrics a bit by singing the song through the perspective of the host, rather than the guest.  It ended up being a gamble, but it paid off with a peak position of #6 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Charts.

So, as you can see, many artists have sang about how they'd just rather let it snow.  And, since 1945, it has been a song that not only is appropriate for the Christmas season, but for the whole season known as winter.  Technically, you could play this song straight through March and not have it be weird at all.

Here's hoping that before Christmas comes and goes, my area gets at least a little bit of snow.  To me, you can't have Christmas without it.

Well, for someone who grew up and lives in Canada, you can't.  

Saturday, December 05, 2015

Good Quality Christmas Fundraising Items

Hello, everybody!



I'd like to formally invite you to partake in Day #5 of A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR.  I think it's going to be a lot of fun today, and I hope that you've brought your wallets because I plan on selling you a lot of stuff for the holiday season!

Just kidding!

I really don't have anything to sell you.  This blog is a non-profit one.  Has been for the last four and a half years, and I suspect that it will probably remain the same for the next four and a half years or however long this blog lasts.

Though I will admit that this blog is all about selling things.

I don't know how many of you out there were in public school - I'm probably guessing most of you reading this blog probably were at some point in your life.  And, I'll be the first one to admit that public school for me was a mixed bag of emotions.  Some days I really did want to be there and had a wonderful time.  Others I was so frustrated and angry that I swore that I would become a third grade dropout.

But I have to say that the one time of the year that I really liked being in school was during the Christmas season.  In our school district, the earliest we ever got out of school was December 19th or somewhere close to that date.  Prior to that date, we would spend the whole month of December doing Christmas crafts, singing Christmas carols in the gymnasium, watching holiday movies, and bringing in holiday treats for our classroom parties.

All of these activities were very nice distractions from multiplication tables, conjugating French verbs, and doing spelling dictations.  But in order to keep these activities going, the schools would need to have the funds to pay for the supplies needed for the activities.

That's where the selling comes into play.

Every October - just before Halloween - we would receive a stack of papers as well as a catalogue filled with holiday merchandise that we could sell to our relatives and friends.  And, from what I understood, every time we sold an item from the catalogue, a percentage of the sales would go towards the school.  Obviously, the more money that was raised for the school, the more supplies the school could buy.

Of course, what made it easier - at least back in my day anyway - was that the products that we had to sell were quite nice.

These days, when schools host their fundraising drives, they sell things like Little Caesars Pizza Making Kits or they sell canisters of fudge.  I only know this because I bought some of these things from people who I work with whose children were selling them for their own schools.  And while I have nothing against selling frozen pizza or fudge for Christmas fundraising drives, I have to admit that I miss the creativity that went behind fundraising drives.

I think the first year I started doing Christmas fundraising was 1988.  It should have been 1987, but my evil wench of a teacher prevented me from taking part for reasons that only she knew.  I'm guessing that could be one of the reasons why she left our school the year after she taught me...or at least I'd like to THINK that, anyway.

But back in 1988, I remember being blown away at the selection of merchandise that was available for purchase through our school.  Chocolates, candies, peanut brittle, gift wrap, ornaments, decorations...it was like finding the entire seasonal department from Target or Walmart in a huge catalogue.

And the prices were quite affordable too.

Oh yeah...did I mention that back in 1988, I had oodles of contacts that I sold stuff to? 

Let's put it like this.  In 1988, both of my grandmothers were still alive.  And both of them purchased items from me.  My mother wasn't too keen on supporting the school that I used to get teased in, but she still bought stuff from me because she loved me.  Both of my sisters were old enough to buy things from me at that time, and I am sure that both of them ordered items that they thought would look awesome in our living room.

Oh, and did I mention that my two aunts had connections through their workplaces?  They took my order forms to work with them and several of their co-workers bought things from me too!

I don't remember what I sold that first year I did fundraising...but it was easily over three hundred dollars.

In fact, I was the second highest seller of fundraising for my school for three consecutive years running!  1990, 1991, and 1992!

And guess what?  Some of the items that I sold my family all those years ago are still around!  In fact, I have them on display in my own living room and on my Christmas tree!  Let me show you some of them!



See this goose in a wreath ornament?  There's four of them hanging on my tree altogether.  Both my sisters bought one, and Mom bought two.  The date on the ornaments says 1988, so that's how I know that they were from the first year that I did school fundraising.  Hard to believe that those ornaments are nearly thirty years old and they still look like they are brand new!  I guess products had better standards of quality back then.

Oh, and these statues were also just as cute.  Just to clarify, I'm talking about the statues with the red candles in them.  I think I sold those back in 1989 or 1990.  There were six of them altogether.  There was a mouse, a cat, a dog, a penguin, a bear, and a reindeer. 



And, somehow, we ended up with one of each!  I do think this was planned though.  My one sister bought the penguin and reindeer.  The other one bought the cat and the dog.  Mom bought the remaining two.



By the way...those candles?  Those were the original candles that came with the statues some twenty-six years ago.  Not one of them were ever lit.  I suppose we could have lit them if we wanted to, but somehow we thought it looked better if we kept them the way they were.  I'm finding it a miracle that they have survived twenty-five Christmases (at least) without getting broken! 

But again...that was the quality of the goods that we sold back then.

All in all...those statues and ornaments remind me of when life was a lot simpler...and as long as I have those Christmas trinkets, I'll always remember those good times.

Friday, December 04, 2015

New Archies Reviewed - Episode 10B: Change Of Minds



It's Day #4 of A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR, and while I wanted to make this entry a Christmas themed one...I can't.  You see, I'm smack dab in the middle of the New Archies Reviewed series of posts, and I didn't want to take a three week hiatus from that.  So, I'm continuing the series through the calendar.



Though, I'll try to make a couple of Christmas references in this piece so it's not a complete loss.  Like, for instance, check out this comic book cover.  This was the first issue of The New Archies Digest from the winter of 1988.  I figure that will make the Christmas quota for today.

So, last week, Archie did everything possible to do good with a rope.  Let's see what this week brings.



Episode 10B:  Change of Minds.  Why do I get the feeling that this is one of those personality transplant episodes?

Oh, one more note.  For some reason, the speakers on my computer decided to stop working and the source of my video doesn't seem to want to play on my iPad...so I'm working with a video that has no sound effects.  I think I remember enough of the dialogue to formulate the story, but there will be some parts that I'm not clear on.

Such as...when did Eugene get a pet dog and a budgie?  I mean, we've gone through nearly ten episodes without even mentioning this fact.  I mean, we've been to Eugene's house at least three different times during this series, and it never came up?  I wonder why?



Oh, wait.  Eugene wants to perform an experiment using the dog as a guinea pig.  Wait, WHAT?  You're seriously telling me that Eugene tests his projects on animals?  Oh, you can bet that members of PETA will probably be picketing his front step the moment they found this out.

Now, the frustrating thing about watching the video without sound is that I am drawing a blank as to what Eugene's invention is supposed to do.  I'm guessing that it's supposed to be a translator so that he can understand what his dog is saying.  But for all I know, it could be a machine that makes his dog talk.


But I'm guessing that nowhere in the instruction manual does it call for a budgie to fly into the machine at the same time that the dog does.  When the budgie enters the machine, he accidentally pushes a lever that causes something to happen.  Bolts of electricity surround both animals, and at one point, it looks like an electrical current is linked between both dog and budgie.  

Yep...Eugene's in trouble with PETA for sure.

And Eugene hears a knock on the door (or a doorbell, I don't know), and runs upstairs to face the music from the angry animal rights activists that he will likely face.



But when Eugene leaves, something strange happens.  Both the dog and the budgie start to spin right round baby right round like a record baby right round round round until they somehow end up acting not like themselves.  For one, the dog can actually fly and whistle.  For another, the budgie can bark and eat bones.



Hmmm...if I didn't know any better, I'd say that machine swapped both of their personalities.  Gee...I hope no HUMAN ends up in that machine.



Oh, by the way, it's not PETA at the door to arrest Eugene.  It's Archie, Moose, and Jughead. 



And Jughead just happens to be eating a four scoop ice cream cone which makes me as the viewer a little disgusted and Eugene as the spectator to open his mouth extremely wide.  I don't know why Eugene should be so shocked.  This is the same boy who ate a banana without peeling it and enough hamburgers to bankrupt both Reggie and Veronica.



But we don't have time to find out much more about what Archie, Jughead, and Moose want because all of a sudden, a bird acting like a dog and a dog acting like a bird come charging up the stairs, with the dog actually gobbling up Jughead's ice cream cone!  You know, I have to say that the scene would probably be funnier had I had sound, but you know, you take what you can get, I guess.

The four boys rush downstairs to Eugene's lab to try and catch the animals to find out why they are acting so strangely.  But when Moose ends up tripping over his own feet, he crashes into Eugene and both Moose and Eugene fly into Eugene's machine.



Moose's foot accidentally pulls the lever, and with a flash of light, Moose and Eugene quickly discover that the machine doesn't just work on budgies and dogs.



With a little tornado action, Moose becomes Eugene, and Eugene becomes Moose.  And Archie and Jughead become totally confused.



But, if you needed any clarification that Moose and Eugene have switched bodies, look no further than the 87-pound Eugene being suddenly able to lift the very device that did this to them in the first place, and hear Moose suddenly saying words without a D-uh and with more than three syllables.

You know, just for now, let's change their names so we know who is who.  For Moose trapped in Eugene's body, let's call him "Moogene".  And for Eugene trapped in Moose's body, we'll go with "Eugoose" (pronounced like you-juice).



Anyway, it looks like Moogene and Eugoose will be that way forever, as Eugoose totally throws the machine on the ground, blowing it up.  Gee, that was smart.

And it turns out that this switching of the minds couldn't have come at a worse time!  Not only is Moose supposed to be playing a football game against some team known as the Vikings, but Eugene is supposed to appear on a quiz show with Archie and Amani!  What are they going to do?



Well, at school the next day, it seems as though people are noticing that something isn't quite right about Eugene and Moose.  After all, Moose is answering every question correctly and giving MS. Grundy a nice shiny apple while Eugene is...



...balancing a fish bowl on top of his head.  How random.  Of course, we know Eugene is really Eugoose...but it makes me wonder if Moose really would distract the class like that.

Oh wait...he killed a student in MS. Grundy's class four episodes ago.  Nothing would surprise me.

So, after class is over, it's time for the football practice, and right off the bat I have to nitpick on something.  I get that this is supposed to be a junior high school, but since when is red an official school colour?  I've read the comic books for years.  I know the school colours for Riverdale are blue and gold.  The only football team in the Archieverse that wears red is Central High.  And Riverdale HATES Central almost as much as the kids from Bayside High hated Valley.  I know I'm nitpicking here, but having the Riverdale football team wearing red just seems so...wrong.



You want to know what else is wrong?  Coach Kleats obviously playing favourites.  He practically shoves Eugene to the bench while fawning over his star player Moose.  I don't know...a good coach would support and work with his whole team...but I guess since the more reasonable Coach Clayton isn't a part of this show, we have to deal with Coach Kleats' old-fashioned attitude.



Of course, if Moose and Eugene were the same people as they were 24 hours earlier, nothing would be said.  But we're talking about Moogene and Eugoose here!  And let's just say that the new "Moose" isn't improved.  At all.



But when Eugoose takes to the field and kicks a field goal that seems to land on Jupiter (it's only a cartoon, it's only a cartoon...), Kleats is now sorry he every treated Eugene so badly and starts to treat him with more respect.  Ah, Coach Kleats.  Always so transparent.  I hope Santa Claus drops a lump of coal as big as his house on his head.

(See what I did there?  Made a Christmas reference?)



Back at Eugene's house, the budgie and the dog are still acting incredibly crazy.  The budgie comes across a cat and scares the cat half to death with its barking.  Wait, Eugene has a cat too?  Why are we now just seeing this menagerie of domesticated creatures?  Maybe those rumours of Eugene testing on animals really are true!!!



But just as the dog and the budgie decide that they want to kill each other, they spin around like Kylie Minogue did back in 2000 and change back to their old selves.  So, we know that the effects of Eugene's mind switching machine are temporary.  I wonder if this could impact the plot in any way.



Well, it's time for the quiz show portion of the game, and it looks like it's similar to Whiz Kids or Reach For The Top, where two schools compete against each other for the trophy.  Mr. Weatherbee and MS. Grundy are standing in front of a wheel that looks like the one used in the old Match Game 74 series.  Ooooh, I wonder if the team that Riverdale is playing against is made up of Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson, and Brett Somers?



And, hold everything.  Notice how the banner on the Riverdale side says ELEMENTARY?  Oh, so we're supposed to now believe that this is an elementary school?  Although that does explain why they have a sandbox and recess...but it doesn't explain why there aren't any kindergarten kids wandering the halls.

You know what, I don't care.  It's Riverdale JUNIOR HIGH.  That's the only way to explain why they have a football team and quiz shows.



And speaking of quiz shows, Riverdale is doing badly.  Though it doesn't help that Eugoose keeps pushing the answer button before MS. Grundy can even read out a question.  And after a tongue lashing by Archie and Amani, Eugoose decides that the quiz show is boring, and wants to spin the wheel.  Hate to break it to you, but this is not The Price is Right.  You don't win $10,000 by landing on the dollar wedge.

But if you're suddenly able to spin the wheel with such force that it rolls off the stage, then you have a problem.



Luckily, there must be a little bit of the old Eugene still in there as he manages to land on the wheel and steers it away from the crowd so that it doesn't turn MS. Grundy into a pancake.  That's fine, but with only two players on the Riverdale team, will they have to forfeit?



Enter Moogene, who decides that he must fill in for Eugoose.  And after answering a ridiculously easy question that a kindergarten kid could answer, Riverdale wins the game and earns the trophy...



...which gets squashed by Eugoose and the wheel of death.  But it's a funny sight gag that follows when Moogene folds up the squashed trophy like an origami creation and sticks it in his pocket.

So, the quiz show was a complete near-disaster.  Let's see how the football game is unfolding.



RIVERDALE 0, VIKINGS 26.  Ouch.  Let me guess...Coach Kleats is still being a jerk again and relying on Moose.  Figures.



We see the teams about to launch another play - and the other team is in blue and gold?!?  COME ON!!! 



Sure enough, Moogene is doing terrible in the football game, actually trying to score a touchdown by running in the wrong direction!  Fortunately, he fumbles before he can score for the opposing team, but seriously...put Eugoose in the game!  We know he can do it!

Frustrated, Coach Kleats decides that Moose is useless, and throws Eugene into the game.  Only Eugene is really Eugoose...are you confused yet because I sure am!



At any rate, Eugoose's fancy footwork and no fear leads him to bring the score up to twenty.  It's the last play and all Riverdale needs is another touchdown to win.



And right at that moment, Eugene and Moose get so dizzy that their heads are spinning, and switch back to who they were before the machine scrambled their brains.  This normally would be a good thing, but now that Eugoose is just plain Eugene, the game is certain to be over.  Especially since Coach Kleats has now decided that Eugene would be his MVP after all. 

Yep, the game is doomed.



Or, is it?  Somehow, Kleats notices that Eugene has lost his touch on the field just a minute later and substitutes Moose in Eugene's place just before the time runs out in the game.  Moose just barely scores the touchdown needed to win the game! 



Now, after all that, you'd think that Eugene would just stop with the inventions and just focus on dating Amani, but no.  He's just decided to stop testing on animals.  Instead, Archie and Jughead inevitably activate another one of Eugene's inventions...



...and suddenly they become the newest celebrities to appear in the Chicken Tonight commercials.



Okay, so this episode wasn't as strong as the first half of Episode 10...but I did like quite a few parts to it.  It was nice to see supporting characters like Moose and Eugene get the lead roles for a change, and to be fair, the storyline did seem believable, even if it really wasn't meant to be.  Though, I think Eugene being a stronger character than Moose helped a bit.

So, what's on the docket for next week?  Archie and Jughead find themselves having a problem...a rather BIG problem that starts off SMALL.