I
apologize for not writing in here for quite a while. Real life has once again gotten in the way. So, you know what? I'll expand this special food theme into October as well to make
up for it.
So,
what's the theme for today? It's all
about commercials. Specifically the
commercials for fast food places that have made an impact on us.
These are the commercial jingles that have somehow stayed in our brains for
twenty-five years, but yet we can't remember how to do basic arithmetic or what
we need to purchase at the supermarket.
I'll
tell you what inspired this post though.
Actually, I'll show you.
Yeah, yeah...I know. It's shocking to
see Jason Alexander of "Seinfeld" fame with hair. But what is even more shocking is that I
remember this commercial vividly.
A friend of mine posted this on his Facebook page last week. It's a commercial for the McDLT which first
came out in 1985. Now, the product
itself was designed to keep your lettuce and tomato crispy and fresh, while
your burger stayed nice and warm. It
was a brilliant concept, but with more and more companies steering away from
styrofoam packaging in the 1980s, the shelf life of the sandwich was
short. But it's absolutely amazing how
more than 30 years later, that commercial is still etched in my mind. Even more impressive was the fact that I was
only four years old when the McDLT commercial first aired!
Anyway,
it got me thinking...what other fast food ads made that much of an impact? Well, I've searched YouTube to come up with
some examples.
Now,
keep in mind, I've only put examples up over the last three and a half
decades. If you have any other ones to
share prior to say, 1982, I'd love to see them!
And since I started off with McDonald's, let's post another one from them that
I remember a lot.
Okay, so the Mac Tonight ads were designed to try and make McDonald's a little
more classier. Because I know that when
I think haute couture in the culinary industry, I think of Big Macs. Around 1987, McDonald's tried using a dapper
crescent moon doing his own take on Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife" by
singing about wanting a "Mac Tonight". For what it's worth, the commercials were quite well done, and I
think I still might have a Mac Tonight fridge magnet hiding in my garage
somewhere. But it didn't quite gel with
the general public.
I
was probably still taking six hour naps when this commercial first started
airing for Wendy's, but I think everyone tried to imitate Clara Peller's
"Where's The Beef" inquiry!
It was an ad designed to promote the fact that Wendy's used more beef
and had larger patties than the other fast food joints out there. I can attest that as far as fast food
burgers go, I definitely like Wendy's quite a bit. Sadly, the commercials only lasted three years as Clara Peller
passed away in 1987.
Moving away from hamburgers for now, some of the best commercials that I have
seen for fast food places come from pizza joints. And Little Caesar's commercials are probably some of the funniest
and most creative of their time. Who
could forget the conga line commercial with the surprise twist ending?
Or the various commercials featuring how stretchy their cheese pizza was?
Yeah, those cheeser cheeser commercials sure were memorable.
Another pizza company that had great commercials was Domino's. At least, back in the late 1980s, they
did. Having been a fan of the animation
art known as Claymation back in the day, watching the commercials that starred
the Noid was always a fun experience.
The Noid was kind of like the Trix rabbit in a way in that both wanted
to eat the product that was advertised, but neither mascot came out the
victor. At least the Noid ended up
getting made into a video game called "Yo, Noid!"
Seriously. I'm not kidding - and it was a tough game too...I couldn't make it past level 11.
Sometimes
the ads weren't for the food themselves, but for the toys that you could
purchase with the meals. Back in 1990,
Burger King ran a promotion where if you bought food from them, you could also
purchase one of five Simpsons stuffed toys for $3.49. Unfortunately, I only managed to get three of these toys. I missed out on Maggie and Bart. But I still have Homer, Marge, and Lisa
kicking around!
Okay,
so here's a commercial that actually predates me by a few years, but I have to
include it because of the fact that it has a slogan that became an instant
earworm. Long before McDonald's started
lovin' it, Burger King made it clear that you could "hold the pickles,
hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us". And as someone who could be quite picky
about what they wanted on a burger (as in, you put onions and mayo on my burger
and you will die a slow and painful death), this was a good thing. Years after this commercial aired, they
redid the commercial (with I believe the same actors who filmed the original).
A
more recent commercial from McDonald's, I have to admit that the fish singing
the "Filet-O-Fish" song was catchy as hell.
And I have to say that this Dairy Queen commercial for the
"Flamethrower" burger was absolutely laugh out loud the minute I
first viewed it sometime in the 2000s.
Finally, to end things off on a heartwarming
note, we have this commercial from McDonald's that used to air for a couple of
years during the winter months. It was
a commercial that I absolutely adored as a kid, and if anything it helped me
realize that Ronald McDonald was actually a very nice clown who just appeared
to look like something from Satan's kitchen.
Okay, so now I turn the floor over to you.
Which commercials from fast food places did you enjoy the most?
Before
I go ahead with today's Throwback Thursday posting, I want to
congratulate Josh for winning Big Brother 19.
It was definitely an unexpected, but incredible twist of fate that he
took home the half million. Good job for
being a dragon slayer, Josh.
Now,
as for today's subject...well, unfortunately this subject met an untimely
end...but made the most of her time on this earth given how "fast" it
went. More on that in a moment - but
for now, let's celebrate the last day of summer with a list of historical
events for September 21!
1776 - After being occupied by British forces,
parts of New York City are burned to the ground
1780 - Benedict Arnold gives the British the
plans to West Point during the American Revolutionary War
1912 - Animator Chuck Jones (d. 2002) is born in
Spokane, Washington
1921 - A storage silo explodes in Oppau, Germany
- the blast kills well over five hundred people
1931 - Actor Larry Hagman (d. 2012) is born in
Fort Worth, Texas
1933 - The first "Lucha libre" match is
held in Mexico
1934 - Honshu, Japan is devastated by a typhoon
which kills over three thousand people - also on this date singer Leonard Cohen
(d. 2016) is born in Westmount, Quebec
1937 - "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien
is first published
1938 - The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall
in Long Island, New York, killing between 700 and 800 people
1942 - Over 2,500 Jews are slaughtered by Nazis
in Dunaivtsi, Ukraine
1965 - The North American XB-70 Valkyrie makes its
maiden flight from Palmdale, California
1974 - Author and actress Jacqueline Susann dies
at the age of 56
1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously
approved to become the first female Justice of the American Supreme Court
1993 - "NYPD Blue" debuts on ABC
1996 - The Defense of Marriage Act passes the
United States Congress
1998 - "Will & Grace" debuts on NBC
2001 - Ten days after the 9/11 attacks, America:
A Tribute to Heroes is broadcast by thirty-five network and cable channels -
the television special raised over $200 million for families of loved ones who
died September 11, 2001
2007 - Actress Alice Ghostley dies at the age of
84
And
for celebrity birthdays, we have quite a few people turning one year
older. Happy birthday to Don Preston, Dick Simon, Dickey Lee, Bill Kurtis, Fannie Flagg, Jerry Bruckheimer, Richard Childress, Don Felder, Stephen King, Artis Gilmore, Bill Murray, Marta Kauffman, Ethan Coen, Dave Coulier, Corinne Drewery, David James Elliott, Nancy Travis, Rob Morrow, Cecil Fielder, Angus Macfadyen, Cheryl Hines, Faith Hill, David Jude Jolicoeur, Ricki Lake, Anne Burrell, Melissa Ferrick, Alfonso Ribeiro, Luke Wilson, Liam Gallagher, Paulo Costanzo, Autumn Reeser, Nicole Richie, Maggie Grace, Lindsey Stirling, and Emma Watkins!
Whew! I'm exhausted! Let's just go ahead and see where the
Throwback Thursday post takes us today.
September 21, 1998. Nineteen years ago today.
Now,
this happens to be the date that the show "Will & Grace" debuted
in, and certainly it would have been a great topic of discussion as it is coming
back to the small screen next week. But
then I remembered that something else happened on this date that was quite
sad...not necessarily because of the way that this famous athlete died, but how
she died.
In order to begin this story, I'll tell you a personal tale. No, I didn't know this person very well, but
I do remember how I heard the news that she had died.
I should preface this by telling all of you that I have an obsessed love for
all things related to game shows. When
I was home sick from school, all I wanted to watch were game shows. My favourite YouTube clips are video
compilations of stupid game show answers.
And I have made it no secret that one of the things on my bucket list is
to be a contestant on a game show. I
don't even care if I win or lose. I
just want to be a contestant for the experience.
I very vaguely remember the old "Hollywood Squares" game show. It was the one where you had to play
tic-tac-toe by answering whether a celebrity square was lying or telling the
truth about a certain statement read by the host. I was too young to remember the days when Paul Lynde was the
center square (he died when I was a year old), but do remember when Joan Rivers
was in the middle. I liked the show
back then. I was way too young to get
the jokes, but I liked seeing the famous people playing the game.
So when "Hollywood Squares" was revived in the fall of 1998, I was
really excited. Hosted by Tom Bergeron,
the center square featured Whoopi Goldberg (back in the days after she was a famous
Hollywood starlet, but before she turned into a shrieking harpy on "The
View"). And I admit that those
first couple of years of the show were halfway decent.
The
new show debuted on September 14, 1998, and was a success the first week. But on the week of episodes beginning
September 21, 1998, it was jarring to see Whoopi Goldberg appearing in a
separate clip before the show began. I
thought...that's odd. Is the show being
cancelled already?
Then she announced that one of the celebrity guests for the shows that would be
airing the week of September 21-25 had died.
That was REALLY shocking.
Especially when you consider that the person who died was not only a
famous athlete in her own right, but that she was only 38 years old.
The celebrity that died was Florence Griffith-Joyner. Or, Flo-Jo, as the media lovingly referred her as. She passed away on September 21, 1998 after
having an epileptic seizure in her sleep.
Her
death certainly cast a bit of a gloom on the week of shows that aired. Watching her be witty, charming, and warm to
all of the contestants and other celebrities she appeared on the show with, it
was hard to believe that she was gone.
She really was one of those larger than life personalities that you
often heard so much about.
Of course, Flo-Jo had far more talent than being a game show panelist. In fact, at one point, she was considered to
be the fastest woman in the entire world!
Now that is definitely a title to hold!
You see, Flo-Jo made her living as a track and field star. And that love for all things athletic began
at a very early age. Born in California
on December 21, 1959, Florence Griffith's interest in sports began when she was
in elementary school. She joined the
Sugar Ray Robinson Organization and ran track meets on weekends. This prepared her to join the track team in
high school and to enter track and field competitions. When she was just in her teens, she won the
Jesse Owens National Youth Games back to back in 1974 and 1975! By the time she had graduated from high
school in 1978, she had already set the school records for the sprinting and
long jump events.
She was so good in the sport that she was an
early contender to be a competitor in the 1980 Summer Olympics. Of course, we all know that thanks to a
boycott of the Summer Olympics by the United States and several other nations,
Flo-Jo's Olympic dreams had to be put on hold.
But she continued to train rigorously and earned a degree in psychology
in 1983.
By the time the 1984 Olympic Games had come to Los Angeles, Florence was ready
to take them on, earning herself a silver medal for the 200-meter sprint. But it wouldn't be until 1988 that Flo-Jo
would REALLY make a name for herself.
For starters, the nickname of Flo-Jo came about after her 1987 marriage to
triple-jump gold medallist Al Joyner. I
guess Flo-Jo sort of rolled off the tongue a bit better than Florence
Griffith-Joyner. For another, Flo-Jo
was getting attention for the elaborate track outfits she wore while
competing. With brightly coloured
one-legged track suits and impressive fingernail designs, she certainly stood
out in a fashion perspective.
But even more impressive, she stood out for her incredible natural talent. When she took part in the 1988 Summer
Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, Flo-Jo made history. She won four medals that year, a silver in the 4x400 meter event,
and three gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and the 4x100m events! In the case of the 100m and 200m events,
Flo-Jo performed so well that she broke the record for the fastest time ever
recorded by a female athlete in those events - a record that has stood ever
since! It amazes me that after she
competed in the 1988 Olympics, she retired from the sport while she was on top
because she really was a force to be reckoned with.
After her retirement, she decided to embark on a different career path. Certainly fashion was one industry she
dabbled in (after all, she did design her own track outfits). But she also did some acting on the side and
appeared on various talk shows and game shows - such as "Hollywood
Squares".
Sadly, when Florence Griffith-Joyner died in 1998, there was some talk that her
death was related to steroid use. It
had been a nasty rumour that had been flying around for years - dating back to
the 1988 Olympics where she had performed so well. Many athletes had suspected that her fast times were caused by
steroid and drug use, and many believed that she had cheated to get to where
she was. It was a claim that Flo-Jo had
always denied, and several tests concluded that she had no illegal drugs in her
system. The autopsy results showed that
she only had over-the-counter painkillers in her system the day she died.
It wasn't until after her death that her family revealed that she had a
cavernous hemangioma - a condition that made Flo-Jo susceptible to
seizures. She was treated for these
seizures at several points during the early 1990s. Whether it was this condition that prompted her to go into
retirement, it's hard to say. There
hasn't been any confirmation to this, but it would seem like a logical reason.
All in all...September 21, 1998 was a really shocking day in the world of
sports...and the track and field community lost a real legend.
So,
the finale for Big Brother 19 is coming up very soon -
tomorrow night. But do I care? Nope.
(Well, okay, I care enough to write a blog entry on it...but other than that, I don't care.)
Truth be told, this is one of the seasons of Big Brother where I really don't
give a toss about who takes home the half million dollars, as this whole season
has been spoiled by the threat of temptation, the stupidity of the players, and
the cult of Paul Abrahamian.
Yeah, that's right. I said cult. Because watching this whole season has been
a complete train wreck from beginning to end.
One might say that it was the most appalling season to date.
Or,
maybe I should say "A-Paul-ling".
This summer was all about the idea of temptation. No, the houseguests didn't get to play the popular game of the
same name from "The Price is Right" to win a brand new car (though
that would have been more entertaining).
No, they had the chance to accept temptations that would give them
rewards and consequences in hopes that it would cause them to get further ahead
in the game.
The only problem was that A) the temptations were incredibly lame and only
seemed to benefit one player over everyone else, and B) many of the later
temptations were never used because the other houseguests were too busy
drinking their cult leader's Kool-Aid to make a huge move.
As it stands, this is probably the weakest final three that Big Brother has
ever had. And keep in mind that we
survived the Big Brother 9 couples from hell and Big Brother 15's race
riots. Big Brother 19 isn't as terrible
as either of those seasons, but I guarantee you that I won't ever look fondly
on this season. From people throwing
away their games to give someone else a chance to win to disgusting things said
on the live feeds, this bunch of houseguests are certainly not going to be
remembered in a positive light - though I think in this case, it was one player
in particular who really spoiled things.
For everyone.
Now, at this time, I have no idea who is going to win Big Brother 19, and as I
said, I don't care. But I think I can
probably predict who will take the whole thing. So, for the cast profiles and why I don't really like the vast
majority of them, I'll post a screenshot of their cast credit and explain why
they were an asset or a disaster.
For
what it's worth, even though he spent a grand total of like 14 hours in the Big
Brother house, I consider Cameron to be an asset to this
season. The dude completely got screwed
over in the game. He was almost like a
sacrificial lamb of sorts. After all,
had the temptation not been taken, Cameron would have lasted at least a week
instead of one night. If there was ever
an argument for a season where they brought back the first one voted out from
each season, Cameron would be it. Tough
break.
There
are two arguments that you could make for the sole quitter of the season, Megan. One argument is that she took
a spot that someone else could have had and threw it away. I can understand Cameron being pissed off at
her because of it. On the other hand,
maybe Megan saw the writing on the wall before the damage began to be inflicted,
and she decided to cut out before she damaged herself any more than she had
to. The jury is out, but I can say
this...for abandoning this horrible season, I think Megan inevitably became one
of the more INTELLIGENT houseguests this season. Still, if I were Cameron, I'd probably be pissed.
Like
Cameron, Jillian didn't really make much of an impact in the
house (though unlike Cameron, she did make it in almost one whole week). Her undoing had to do with the den of
temptation (as well as one other person who I will be talking about a little
later). Jillian was more or less fodder
for the games of some of the other players, and I feel that she got a raw deal
as well. Besides, I think the hula
dance she did in the opening credits of the show made me kind of like her.
Dominique, the only thing I can say
is that you have a big mouth. The talk
show may have been a great idea on paper, but Oprah Winfrey you are not. In fact, I can't think of anyone else who
essentially blabbed their entire plan in the time frame of just a few
minutes. The other houseguests picked
up on it, and out the door you went! At
least in this case, I can say that you held the cards to your own fate.
Ah,
Ramses...like Cameron and Jillian, you also fell victim to
the gameplay of others as a result of the stupid temptation twist. Or maybe you just fell victim to the fact
that you actually tried to fight for your life in the Big Brother house by
actively going for the Power of Veto and pissing off the Cult of
Abrahamian. Either way, you were a
really nice guy who ended up getting stung way too early. I'm sorry, man. You know, this seems to be a recurring theme...the nice ones
always seem to go first.
All
right, I am grouping Jessica and Cody together for three reasons.
One, they were considered to be the showmance of the season (no matter
what "Maven" might suggest otherwise). Two, they were evicted one right after the other (though Cody won
a chance to get back in earlier in the season and is a juror), and three, they
were considered public enemy number one and two for the Cult of
Abrahamian. You see, back when Cody was
HoH, he tried to get Paul evicted.
Unfortunately, Paul was given a temptation to use, and Jillian was
eventually voted out - but as a result of the temptation and the PoV and other
twists, Cody ultimately ended up pissing half the house off and made enemies in
the process. Jessica ended up being
collateral damage.
Here's the thing. While Cody will not
be winning a congeniality award anytime soon and while Jessica might want to
keep her hands to herself (don't ask), I struggle to come up with a valid
reason as to why they were constantly bullied by the Cult of Abrahamian so
badly. The abuse that both of them took
was so vile and obnoxious that it really spoiled the whole show. It wasn't as bad as the
Aaryn/Candice/GinaMarie battles from Big Brother 15, but it was still mob
mentality bullying. I don't know if
their relationship will last past the Big Brother house, but as people...they
deserved much better than this. Heck, I
just might want Cody to win America's Favourite Juror so that the other
houseguests would react with shock and awe.
It'd serve them right.
When
the season first started, I had dismissed Elena as a genuine floater. She essentially did nothing but cling onto
Mark the whole time, and I can't even remember if she had won any competitions
at all. But as the game progressed and
she and Mark became the next targets of the Cult of Abrahamian, Elena grew more
likeable, and by the time we saw her in the jury house, she was actually a lot
more intelligent than I gave her credit for.
She realized that the Cult of Abrahamian played all of them for fools
before she was voted out and at least acknowledged that she was played. So, thanks to Elena for showing me a more
pleasant side to her.
(Side note: The whole jury house
segments are more enjoyable than the action inside the Big Brother house.)
Mark, you strike me as a genuinely nice guy. Unfortunately, nice guys RARELY win Big
Brother. Look at Evel Dick, Rachel
Reilly, Andy Herren, and Dr. Will Kirby for proof of that. I think you lasted longer than I thought you
would, and I think had you kept your cool and not tried to go after Josh so
many times, I think you would have made it even further - though I have heard
that you and Josh patched things up so good on you. And good luck in everything.
Nice guys like you deserve it.
Matt...what exactly did you do this season other
than Raven? Yep. Nothing.
Oh, wait. You ate some cereal. Yeah, you win the prize for most boring and
pointless houseguest ever. Next.
Jason, I want to like you, but we have to address
the elephant in the room. I don't care
if you were joking around or being completely serious. Rape jokes are not funny and you should be
ashamed of yourself for uttering them inside the Big Brother House on the live
feeds. And it's really unfortunate
because before that happened, I was really pulling for you. You had a likeable personality, you played
hard and won competitions, and I didn't even mind the Whistle-Nut
references. I think when you leave the
house, you owe Kevin an apology for the comments you made, and you also owe one
to your family. Again, rape is not
something to joke about.
Oh,
now we come to Raven. A
puppet master in her own mind. Which
admittedly is pretty screwed up. By
now, you've probably heard all of the comments about how Raven's family are con
artists who suck money from innocent people to fund trips and expensive
shopping sprees. I won't rehash that. But I find it hard to take someone seriously
when they apparently have more diseases than Anna Chlumsky claimed to have in
the movie "My Girl". I mean,
if she has gastroparesis, I feel for her because it is a painful condition -
but was the other 612 maladies really necessary? Honestly, Raven...just.
shut. up. I don't know what Matt sees in her.
Alex, I'm not 100% impressed with you
either. I get that Paul played both you
and Jason - and at least you two recognized the fact after you were voted out. But I don't understand why all of you
listened to Paul and claimed that KEVIN was your biggest threat. And frankly, some of the stuff you said
about Kevin and the other houseguests on the live feeds was not very nice and
painted you in a really horrible colour.
My hope is that you take a look at how you came across and learn that
you don't have to be so mean in order to get a point across. I don't think that you or Jason are bad
people...I just think that the stress of the house (and the Cult of Abrahamian)
got to you.
Kevin, let's talk about the action that you did
that MADE ME NOT LIKE YOU FOR A WHILE.
You took the $25,000 temptation that saw Cameron get evicted and Paul
back into the Big Brother House. We
could say that YOU were the cause of this season going down the tubes because
of that. But I honestly can't because
you turned out to be one of the most charismatic and lovable houseguests this
whole season. I was actually kind of
hoping that you would have made the final three so that there could actually be
SOMEONE to root for. But hey, at least
you have a shot at winning America's Favourite Juror. That prize could allow you to buy all the plastic wrap you want!
But still...you were the one who unwittingly brought Paul back, and for that I
admittedly have a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. I can't be completely nice here!
So, who do we have left in the house, and what place do I rank them in?
If there IS a Santa Claus out there, my hope is that he does NOT give Christmas the win. The reason being that
Christmas has literally rolled along week to week by doing absolutely
nothing. Okay, so granted, that's not
all her fault. She broke her foot
horsing around with Jason and it potentially could have killed her career - and
honestly I do feel bad for her in that regard.
But my sympathy well ran dry the moment she and Josh started drinking
the Abrahamian Kool-Aid and somehow managed to hobble her way to the final
three. The only HoH competitions she
won, she was essentially thrown by the other houseguests. And as much as she claimed she was making
big moves...she was actually nothing more than a ventriloquist elf puppet on
Paul's knee. It makes for not a good
candidate to win - and honestly with Christmas' cockiness, I don't even think
Corey from BB18 would have anything to do with this Christmas.
Now, if Josh made it to the final two, his best shot
would be to take Christmas with him to the finals because I know he would
easily beat her. And if I can say
anything positive about Josh, it's that he does have some brains and that he
did try to stay in the game by playing hard.
Unfortunately, his extreme loyalty to Paul, his constant crying, his
bullying of some of the other houseguests (Mark, Megan, Cody, Jessica) and the
stupid clown dance with pots and pans has not only soured me on Josh, but has
also soured me on non-stick surfaces, Hawaiian shirts, and circuses. Josh, you can be a good guy, but you can
also be a menace. You need to find that
happy balance and stick with it, you big meatball head!
I
actually cringe when I think about what I wrote about Paul last season. Let's see if I
can remember...
It pains me to say this, but this time around
the better man did NOT win. And for that, Paul, I am truly sorry. Your only crime was
the fact that you had a stupid jury who voted for the wrong person - well,
okay, Bridgette, Victor, Michelle, and James are exempt from this. I
can't say that I was 100% impressed with you. Some of the language you
used against some of the houseguests was not the greatest, and I truly never
want to hear the word "friendship" from you ever again. But
Paul...you played this game better than anyone else, and your adaptability
alone was enough to guarantee you a final two position. Don't be upset at
losing...be happy that you made it as far as you did. And feel free to
use that $50,000 you won and go on a nice vacation with Pablo! You both
have earned it.
Suffice to say, I NO LONGER FEEL THIS WAY.
Because much like Nicole was ruined for me last year, Paul is forever
tainted in my eyes this season.
Okay, so let's get it out of the way.
If Paul makes it to the Final Two, I believe he has won the whole
thing. And from a gameplay perspective,
I can say that he deserves it. He
played every single person in the house, promised deals to all of them, and
somehow managed to make it so that the houseguests would NEVER target him. Sure enough, he was the ONLY person to never
be on the block for elimination up to now.
He did what he could to stay ahead of the game and right now, I think
he's done it.
But did he play an HONOURABLE game? Oh,
sweet Jesus...where do I begin?
I cannot condone the fact that he went way to far in trying to get out his
targets. He not only bullied Jessica
and Cody until they were both gone, but he encouraged Josh, Matt, Raven, and
Christmas to join in the fun as well.
It was absolutely disgusting to see Paul encourage mob mentality
bullying. Not cool.
Also not cool was the fact that production seemingly did everything possible to
throw Paul a lifeline at every opportunity.
Giving him weeks of safety, giving him a temptation, etc. Way too many breaks to be a simple
coincidence. Some may argue that Paul
played the best game, but I think he had a little help along the way.
It was also sort of boring to watch Paul get over on all the houseguests all
the time. In fact, I could easily say
that with the exception of Cody and Jessica (who were the only ones to see
through Paul and try to get him out), everyone else fell for his lies hook,
line, and sinker. These houseguests
were made out to be the dumbest, whiniest, meanest people in the whole
world. Yet when they went to the jury
house one by one, they became extremely likeable and thoughtful.
Well, okay...Matt and Raven are screwed up people no matter what. But the point is that had Paul not been
brought back, this cast might have gelled a LOT differently and maybe the
season wouldn't have been so mean-spirited and dull.
I think that as good of a game that people believe that Paul played, I really
think it wasn't all that great. It was
as if Paul was a gigantic jaguar let loose in a house filled with rats. And the more that Paul got into their heads,
the more Kool-Aid they guzzled down.
But such was life in the Cult of Abrahamian...sucks, don't it?
I
have to admit that I have very few fond memories from when I was a high school
student. And you really don't need me
to explain why as I've been extremely open and candid about it. I'm at the point now where I have said what
I wanted to say about it and am now focused on wanting to find some positives
about that time period.
Such
as taking tests at school.
Okay,
I know what you're saying. You're
saying that I have completely lost the plot.
How can taking tests be considered a highlight of the school year?
Well for me, it all depended on who our teacher was. Certainly there were some teachers that I hated getting tests
by. In particular one history teacher
who had an obvious Napoleon complex who thrived on making life for his
non-favourite students pure hell. Hence
the reason I will not be mentioning his name anywhere on this blog.
But if you were lucky enough to have Ms. Renusz as a teacher, you could
guarantee that she'd have your back on test day - well, at least when it came
to giving you a burst of sugar anyway.
During any of our history or sociology classes whenever we had a test, she
would help all of us relax by giving us all candy to eat while we wrote our
exam. You can call it a placebo or you
can call it a miracle candy, but I always managed to do extremely well on any
test I had with her because of that.
Not so with Mr. Napoleon complex, in which I was lucky to score a 65%.
I
suppose in some sense, she was sort of teaching us a bit of a lesson in the
sociological manner by giving us candy in hopes that by doing so, we'd score
higher on tests. I don't know if it
quite worked out that way, but I suppose she was demonstrating Pavlov's theory
because whenever we had a test, we all thought we'd get candy!
Now this leads to today's topic. It's
all about the candy that Ms. Renusz used to give us the most often whenever it
was test day. It's a candy confection
that was founded nearly six decades ago and has given boys and girls a
guaranteed sugar high ever since.
Believe me, when I was a kid and I used to get these in my
trick-or-treat bag, they were among the first candies to disappear.
I'm talking about Starburst Fruit Chews.
And as far back as I can remember, I have always loved them. They pack so much flavour into them that
each bite makes you crave more. And
they are still relatively cheap to purchase too - a standard package of 12
costs about the same as a Snickers bar.
Now,
I'm sure that everyone has their own favourite flavour of Starburst. Myself, I do love all four of the flavours
in a standard pack of Starburst.
Though, I do admit that my favourite flavour is the cherry red
ones. I love anything cherry for the
most part, but there's something about a cherry Starburst that makes me
salivate just like Pavlov's dogs. They
are so amazing and I'm glad that they are a part of the original pack.
But they weren't always. In fact,
Starbursts weren't originally called Starbursts when they first debuted in
candy stores!
Back in 1960, when the first Starburst candies were manufactured, they were
actually known as Opal Fruits. The
candy was first sold in the UK and named by Peter Pfeffer (who won a contest to
name the candy for a prize of five British pounds!)
And
would you believe that cherry was NOT one of the original flavours? The other three (orange, strawberry, and
lemon) were present, but instead of the cherry flavour, Opal Fruits contained
lime instead.
(Okay, now I actually want to try a lime Starburst. As far as I know, that flavour was phased out by the time I was
born, as I cannot recall having a lime one.)
The candies were manufactured by the Mars company (responsible for creating
Mars, Milky Way, M&M's, and Snickers chocolate confections), and though it
took seven years for the fruit chews to arrive in North America, they were
finally sold in American shops in 1967 - originally under the brand name of
M&M Fruit Chewies. By 1970, the
name was permanently changed to Starburst.
Today,
the name Starburst is used all over the world, though the UK and Ireland was
using the Opal Fruits name until the late 1990s. Over the last fifty-seven years, Starburst has experimented with
brand new flavours of the popular fruit chew including Sour Flavours, Tropical
Flavours, Combo Flavours, and Baja Flavours.
Some of these include raspberry, coconut, mango, passion fruit, banana,
and apple, among others.
And don't think that Starburst stops at just
fruit chews. There are Starburst
jellybeans, Starburst freeze pops, and even Starburst gummies (which are a
weird texture but have exactly the same flavours as the original fruit chews).
Now, if you excuse me, I am going to have some red Starbursts now...but I still
would love to try a lime Starburst.
You
know, I have to remember next time I feature a month long feature on food to
not have it in September. I'm telling
you, there are no food related Throwback Thursday posts to be had! Sigh...I suppose I'll just have to choose a
topic at random and hope that it is interesting enough.
In the meantime, it's September 14th.
What happened throughout history on this planet? Let's have a look...
1180 - The Battle of Ishibashiyama takes place in
Japan
1814 - "The Defence of Fort McHenry" is
written by Francis Scott Key - which is later used as the lyrics for "The
Star-Spangled Banner"
1901 - American President William McKinley dies
from gunshot wounds sustained eight days earlier by assassin Leon Czolgosz
1919 - Actress/comedian Kay Medford (d. 1980) is
born in New York, New York
1917 - Russia is proclaimed a republic
1940 - The Ip Massacre takes place during World
War II
1949 - Lynyrd Skynyrd member Steve Gaines (d.
1977) is born in Seneca, Missouri
1954 - Musician Barry Cowsill (d. 2005) is born
in Newport, Rhode Island
1959 - Luna 2 - a Soviet probe - lands on the
surface of the Moon
1960 - OPEC is founded
1969 - September 14 is selected as the first
Draft Lottery date by the U.S. Selective Service
1983 - Singer Amy Winehouse (d. 2011) is born in
Southgate, London, England
1984 - Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to
fly a gas balloon across the Atlantic Ocean solo
1994 - Due to the Major League Baseball strike,
the 1994 baseball season is officially canceled
1998 - WorldCom and MCI Communications merge to
form the new company MCI WorldCom
2000 - Windows ME is released
2001 - Two vigils - one at the Washington
National Cathedral and one at Ottawa's Parliament Hill - are held in memory of
those who died during the September 11, 2001 attacks
2002 - Actress LaWanda Page dies at the age of 81
2006 - Actor/bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay dies at
the age of 80
2009 - Actor Patrick Swayze passes away at the
age of 57
2012 - Canadian actor Winston Rekert dies at the
age of 63
And
celebrities that are turning one year older today are the following; Zoe Caldwell, Walter Koenig, DeWitt Weaver, Joey Heatherton, Sam Neill, Ed King, Steve
Berlin, Edu Manzano, Beth Nielsen Chapman, John Berry, Morten Harket, Melissa Leo, Callum Keith Rennie, Faith Ford, Michelle Stafford, Ben Garant, Craig Montoya, Mark Webber, Jeff Loomis, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Andrew Lincoln, Nas,
Mike Ward, Ben Cohen, Carmen Kass, Danielle Peck, Adam Lamberg, Jessica Brown Findlay, Logan Henderson, and Jesse James.
Okay,
now that we have that out of the way, let's have a look at where we will be
going to on this Throwback Thursday post.
Hmmm...how about we go 35 years into the past to September
14, 1982?
Unfortunately,
my personal tales to tell of this date are rather limited. I was only a year old at the time. In all likelihood, I was probably playing
with my Fisher-Price mobile while Dad worked and Mom watched her soap operas on
television. Her favourite was "As
The World Turns".
And
I can only imagine that the show might have been pre-empted when the word broke
out about this person's sudden demise.
It really was quite a shock to the world, not just for who died, but how
she died.
The
tale takes place a day earlier, on September 13, 1982. It was a typical day for this mother and
daughter pair. The mother, still a
ravishing beauty at the age of 52, was the quintessential package of grace
(pardon the pun) and class. Her then
17-year-old daughter, Stephanie, was the beauty of her mother's eye - a woman
who would later go on to become a pop star in addition to her royal title.
It
had been years since Princess Grace of Monaco (also known as Grace Kelly) walked away from her Hollywood career to become the wife of Monaco's
Prince Rainier, but at that time, she was considering making a brief film
comeback. She had acted in a 33-minute
long independent film entitled "Rearranged" with her husband three
years earlier, and after it was screened in Monaco, ABC was interested in
airing the film - though it had to be at least an hour in length to make it
worth their while. It was rumoured that
Princess Grace was going to approve of the deal and film some more footage that
year.
Sadly,
it never came to be.
While she and her daughter Stephanie were driving down a steep road on the way
back to the palace in Monaco from their country home in Roc Agel, Grace lost
control of the 1971 Rover P6 3500 and the car plummeted down the side of the
mountain cliff (which was 120 feet tall).
Miraculously, Stephanie managed to survive the accident with some minor
injuries (a fracture on her vertebra and a mild concussion). Princess Grace was not nearly so
fortunate. She had injuries to her
thorax, a fractured femur, and a severe head injury that caused severe brain
damage. After doctors told Prince
Rainier that there was nothing that could be done, he made the difficult
decision to pull his wife off of life support.
Princess Grace of Monaco was pronounced dead on September 14, 1982 at
10:55pm. She left behind her husband,
Princess Stephanie, and two other children, Princess Caroline, and Prince
Albert.
Though
the brain damage was what ultimately killed her, it is speculated that the
reason why the car veered off the road was because she had suffered a stroke
behind the wheel of the car and lost control.
Stephanie, to her credit, did what she could to steer the car to safety,
but to no avail.
It
was really a tragic end to a beautiful star.
I
still remember the first time I watched Grace Kelly in a feature film. It was about eighteen years after she died,
and I was taking a film studies class in college. One of the films we watched was the movie "Rear Window"
directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film
starred James Stewart and Grace Kelly, and was about a man who was confined to
a wheelchair and watched in horror as he believed that a man who lived across
from him was a murderer.
I have to admit that it was one of my favourite films that we watched in that
class, and part of the reason was that my gaze was firmly fixed on Lisa, played
by Kelly. She was, quite honestly, one
of the most beautiful women that I had ever seen on film. Her radiance made the entire film glow, and
even though the film was meant to be a horror film, Grace Kelly was the type of
actress that could never look bad. She
had great fashion sense, she was definitely the belle of the ball, and she had
instant chemistry with almost everybody she worked with, in particular with
Stewart. On the day of Princess Grace's
funeral, September 18, 1982, Stewart read a eulogy for her, which included the
following...
"You know, I just love Grace Kelly.
Not because she was a princess, not because she was an actress, not
because she was my friend, but because she was just about the nicest lady I had
ever met. Grace brought into my life as
she brought into yours, a soft, warm light every time I saw her, and every time
I saw her was a holiday of its own. No
question, I'll miss her. We'll all miss
her. God bless you, Princess
Grace."
I
should also note that she didn't just shine in "Rear Window". She was also featured in two more Hitchcock
films - "Dial M for Murder" and "To Catch a Thief" (both
highly recommended). She was also
featured in the film "The Country Girl", for which she won the
Academy Award for Best Actress.
And while she didn't do any acting jobs during
her reign as Princess of Monaco (aside from the 1979 project she did with her
husband), she took on a life of philanthropy, founding AMADE Mondiale, The
Princess Grace Foundation, and hosted an annual Christmas party for local
orphans.
And, here's one more bit of eerie trivia - one of the mourners who attended
Princess Grace's funeral was a newly crowned princess herself - Diana, Princess
of Wales. You could say that Grace and
Diana were two princesses cut from the same cloth...even right up to their
deaths, as we all know that both died in car accidents.