January 2011

Beefy or beef? And so what?

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In the matter of the beef, that the lawyer suing Taco Bell has with Taco Bell over the beef, rather the beef content of Taco Bell's beefy product, I come down on the side of Taco Bell.

When one goes into a fast food place for a beefy sandwich does one expect to receive the whole cow?

Also when one looks at the product, one can see what one is getting, beef with a lot of ingredients,

Wait a second -- Taco Bell is fighting back. Taco Bell says, in an ad, published in national newspapers today, Friday, that its " tacos are made with 88% USDA inspected beef — not 35%, as alleged." And Taco Bell says it may counter sue the accuser.

Charlie Has The Blues

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Charlie Sheen Back In Rehab

Charlie Sheen got sick, was rushed to the hospital, the buzz on him sounded grave, hinted that he was near death, turned out he had a hernia.

Charlie Sheen left hospital, (Cedars-Sinai Hospital), checked into rehab. After he had a 36-hour bender with porn stars? He was brought to the hospital after he had a party at his Hollywood home, where The Daily News reports, sources told them, he was freebasing drugs and drinking vodka, and watching adult movies with porn stars.

High Movie Ticket Prices Have Gotten Higher

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As one who believes that 3-D is a con by the movie industry, including the theater owners, to rob an extra four dollars from a person's pocket, I am not surprised by the headline in today's LA Times -- "Movie ticket prices reach new milestone."

The average ticket price at theaters in the U.S. and Canada in 2010 was $7.89, up 5% from $7.50 in 2009, so says the National Assn. of Theatre Owners. That $7.89 figure is -- Let's say? a joke? It is the average price including children prices, matinee prices, senior discount prices, prices in small little towns. The price an ordinary adult is asked to pay is nearly twice that figure in cities like Washington, New York and L.A.

One Of Those Funny Faces Who Is No More

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Charlie Callas, R.I.P.

Charlie Callas is dead. He died yesterday, Thursday, January 27, in a Nevada hospice, from natural causes. He was 86 years old.

He was a comedian, a funny man. He was brilliant. His orbit in the Associated Press, states that he was a sidekick. He made some movies. He opened the act for big Hollywood and musical recording stars.

I saw him on the Tonight Show, when Johnny Carson was king. He made funny faces, told funny stories and jokes. He is being remembered as a rubber-faced comedian who toured with Frank Sinatra and Tom Jones, and was popular on television and on the nightclub circuit, and in the movies for more than four decades.

Tracy Morgan's Poor Judgment and Poor Eye Sight

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Funny Man Tracy Morgan's Take On Sarah Palin

TNT, the network that unwittingly broadcasted Tracy Morgan's ungentlemanly remark about Sarah Palin, has issued an apology.

 

 

 

From Entertainment Weekly -- TNT has released a statement, apologizing for Tracy Morgan’s crude remark about Sarah Palin on last night’s Inside the NBA pregame show:"'It’s unfortunate Mr. Morgan showed a lack of judgment on our air with his inappropriate comments. We apologize for any embarrassment or offense it may have caused."

Gladys Horton, R.I.P.

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The music from ones early years and youth is often the music which is the strongest in ones memory. The memories of ones youth are often connected to the music one heard or listened to and liked. I liked Rock'Roll. The early rhythm, the beat.

Wednesday , the 26 of January, in Sherman Oaks, Calif., Detroit native, Motown legend, Gladys Horton, the co-founder and lead singer of the Marvelettes died. She was sixty six.. The cause of death were complications from a stroke in 2010,

The Perils of Walking and Texting

 

Many states have passed legislation making it illegal for drivers to text and drive. However, despite the inherent danger that walking and texting provides, no states have passed legislation prohibiting the dangerous walk/text combo. Watch the video below to see what happens when innocent texters make the embarrassing and possibly dangerous mistake of walking and texting at the same time.

Just Call Me a Gleek

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After a lot of peer gushing (though not so much peer pressure) and, okay, the lure of so many Golden Globe Awards, I decided to watch the TV show Glee last night. I had declined from watching it for so long because of my disdain for television programs in general (particularly comedies, as I’ve never found TV comedies to be funny in the past—especially when my parents watched crap like Friends or Everybody Loves Raymond) and for its popularity.

Art from Lint?

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Item from the Associated Press -- "A northern Michigan lady has put her own spin on Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper by making a replica out of laundry lint. Laura Bell of Roscommon collected lint from her dryer and fashioned it into a 14-foot-long, 4-foot tall reproduction of the Italian Renaissance painter's masterpiece."

Well, I've heard that from the trash can come art. Now it's from lint? The lint caught in the laundry dryer? Well, from anywhere can come something very interesting, if one has the talent.

The Hockey Crowd and the Little Girl

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There is a video on the net of this hockey crowd that helps a young girl with the National Anthem, after her microphone turns off in the middle of her performance.

The little girl, eight year old Elizabeth Hughes, was singing the anthem beautifully, until the problem with the microphone. The crowd reacted beautifully, giving her an assist. See the video.

My take on this? A hockey crowd? America, this shows maybe three important things about hockey fans.

Number One: All hockey fans aren't like that crowd in the days of ancient Rome, who went to the games in the Coliseum to see fights, blood and mayhem, and didn't care about anything but seeing fights, blood and mayhem.

Why Take a One-Way Trip to Mars?

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NASA announced last year that it plans to send people to the planet Mars in the near future, but because Mars is so far away, a trip to Mars would be so expensive, so that the best way to send people to Mars would be on a one way trip. Well, a few days ago ABC's Ned Potter did a feature on settling the Red Planet. See the video.

My take on a one way trip to Mars?  Question 1: Would I go?  Question 2: Do I think anyone should volunteer?

The strongest man in the world?

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The NBC Today show reported on a man who broke two world records. The man, who the NBC report says is nicknamed Dallas, is from Morocco. Check out the Today show video. The man pulls three buses and one SUV with his hair, and then has 350 concrete blocks broken over his head. The stunts? Accomplishments are hard to believe.

I do try to rationalize things. Maybe a bit too much. I saw this video and my first response was to gasp, "fake!"

I thought: That just has to be a fake.

Rest in Peace, Peter Postlethwaite

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While looking up the schedule for this year’s new films (as I tend to do every January), I was sad to learn that Peter Postlethwaite, an actor I’ve admired over the years, passed away just last week on January 2, 2011. Apparently he’d been battling testicular cancer since 1990 and died of the disease after over twenty years of fighting.

Fans will remember the English actor from his long line of starring and supporting roles throughout the last three-plus decades. Most recently, those who saw the popular blockbuster movie Inception will recall him in his role as Maurice Fischer. He had two other roles in large movies in 2010, including playing Spyros in Clash of the Titans (perhaps the best played role in the film) and Fergie Colm in the creepy thriller, The Town.