Morticia, Ann-Margaret and Me

Practical, reliable Taureans are great lovers of sensual pleasures, although you do tend to be rather stubborn, possessive and conservative. Firmly anchored in the material world, you have a fine grasp of what is needed in order to lead the good life. Of course, you are capable in emergencies, where you have an instinctive understanding of what to do, but under normal circumstances, no-one can force you into anything without due time for thought and consideration.

Who, me? Stubborn? Possessive? I guess so, 'cause today's my birthday. And, I'd have to agree with the following...

Taurus rules the throat, giving a powerful, often beautiful voice. The influence of Venus opens up a world of musical talent and appreciation, so Taureans are good singers and musicians, or at least, love music and can be a force on the business side of music.

Here are some others with whom I share my date of birth...April 28th
1758 - James Monroe, Westmoreland Va, (D-R) 5th pres (1817-25)












1878 - Lionel Barrymore, [Blythe], Phila, actor (Free Soul, Dr Kildare)1889 - Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, premier/dictator Portugal (1932-68)
1926 - Harper Lee, author (To Kill a Mockingbird)
1929 - Carolyn Jones, Amarillo Texas, actress (Morticia-Addams Family)













1937 - Saddam Hussein, [At-Takriti], former president of Iraq
1941 - Ann-Margret, Valsjobya Sweden, actress (Bye Bye Birdie, Tommy)













1946 - Ginette Reno, French Canadian singer, songwriter and actress
1949 - Indian Larry, American stuntsman (d. 2004)













1950 - Jay Leno, New Rochelle, comedian/talk show host (Tonight Show)
1952 - Mr. & Mrs. Dufus welcome first-born noname into the world. Earth momentarily slides off axis.









1960 - Ian Rankin, Scottish novelist
1974 - Penélope Cruz, Spanish actress
1981 - Jessica Alba, American actress











And here are some interesting events that happened this day...1789 - Fletcher Christian leads Mutiny on HMS Bounty & Capt William Bligh











1910 - 1st night air flight (Claude Grahame-White, England)
1914 - W H Carrier patents air conditioner
1923 - Wembley Stadium opens-Bolton Wanderers vs West Ham United (FA Cup)
1940 - Glenn Miller records "Pennsylvania 6-5000"



1966 - 38th Academy Awards - "Sound of Music," Julie Christie & L Marvin win
1967 - Expo 67 opens in Montreal



1985 - Billy Martin named NY Yankee manager for 4th time
1990 - Guns & Roses' Axl marries Erin Everly (annulled same year)



1994 - Lisa Marie Presley separates from Danny Keough


Huh! Lot going on on April 28th. Who knew!

Leaves

with apologies to Joyce Kilmer, author of "Trees"

Leaves

I think that I shall never see
The end of last fall’s frigging leaves

Leaves who tumbled once winter commenced
Against the sweet earth, hedge and fence

Leaves that look at me all day
Till I break my back raking them away

Leaves that in summer smirk
And say, “I’m not fallin’, jerk”

Upon autumn to branches cling
Who ultimately get raked in spring

Poems are made by fools, but a leaf

Forever’s gonna give me grief

Trouble Brewing?

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This Sucks!

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The Latest In Bank Security

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Calvin: "How Come..."

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Twittiquette

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Toe-tally Awesome

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Robbers of African-American Persuasion

For anyone who didn't see the episode of David Letterman's show where this story was told, read this: (And remember it's a true story...)

On a recent weekend in Atlantic City, a woman won a bucketful of quarters at a slot machine.
She took a break from the slots for dinner with her husband in the hotel dining room. But first she wanted to stash the quarters in her room. 'I'll be right back and we'll go to eat' she told her husband and carried the coin-laden bucket to the elevator.
As she was about to walk into the elevator she noticed two men already aboard. Both were black.. One of them was very tall and had an intimidating figure. The woman froze. Her first thought was: 'These two are going to rob me.'
Her next thought was: 'Don't be a bigot, they look like perfectly nice gentlemen.' But racial stereotypes are powerful, and fear immobilized her.
Avoiding eye contact, she turned around stiffly and faced the elevator doors as they closed.
A second passed, and then another second, and then another. Her fear increased! The elevator didn't move. Panic consumed her. 'My God' she thought, I'm trapped and about to be robbed!
Her heart plummeted. Perspiration poured from every pore.
Then one of the men said, 'Hit the floor.'
Instinct told her to do what they told her.
The bucket of quarters flew upwards as she threw out her arms and collapsed on the elevator floor. A shower of coins rained down on her.
'Take my money and spare me', she prayed.
More seconds passed. She heard one of the men say politely, 'Ma'am, if you'll just tell us what floor you're going to, we'll push the button.'
The one who said it had a little trouble getting the words out. He was trying mightily to hold in a belly laugh. The woman lifted her head and looked up at the two men. They reached down to help her up.
Confused, she struggled to her feet. 'When I told my friend here to hit the floor,' said the average sized one, I meant that he should hit the elevator button for our floor. I didn't mean for you to hit the floor, ma'am.' He spoke genially. He bit his lip. It was obvious he was having a hard time not laughing.
The woman thought: 'My Gosh, what a spectacle I've made of myself.'
She was too humiliated to speak. The three of them gathered up the strewn quarters and refilled her bucket.
When the elevator arrived at her floor they then insisted on walking her to her room. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, and they were afraid she might not make it down the corridor.
At her door they bid her a good evening.
As she slipped into her room she could hear them roaring with laughter as they walked back to the elevator.
The woman brushed herself off.. She pulled herself together and went downstairs for dinner with her husband.
The next morning flowers were delivered to her room; a dozen roses.
Attached to EACH rose was a crisp one hundred-dollar bill.
The card said: 'Thanks for the best laugh we've had in years.
It was signed: Eddie Murphy & Michael Jordan.

merci Leaman

Oops...

Life Imitates Art

"It's your turn to be appreciated. Donate to MARGS museum."

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Thank You!

Well, that was one hell of a week of self-indulgence! In case you missed it, here are the links to the retrospectives I shared this week, leading up to the 2nd anniversary (or as they say on the interwebs: blogoversary) of this blog, today...

Monday - Blogoversary Week
Tuesday - Blogoversary II - Bacon and Beer
Wednesday - Blogoversary III - Politics
Thursday - Blogoversary IV - Battle Of The Sexes
Friday - Blogoversary V - 60s

It was a lot of fun going back and re-discovering some of the gems I'd posted over the last 2 years in the areas of humour, including political humour, advertising and rock n roll music from the 60s - the three main areas nonamedufus concentrates on.

Also in the last several weeks, I changed the layout and colour scheme of my blog, "dropped" my Entre Card widget, and brought nonamedufus on-line on Facebook. I hope you like the changes.

So to my loyal visiters, voyeurs, blog roll peeps and commenters - "Thanks" for dropping by these last 2 years, and this past week. Your comments about the items I've posted over the last 24 months are greatly appreciated. I hope you keep coming back for more. I'm very grateful that you stopped in.

The Grateful Dead

Here are some of the comments I recieved last week with links to their blogs, where possible. These guys and girls are the creme de la creme of humour bloggers, so their comments are deeply appreciated. Click on their names and check out their blogs for a chuckle or two.

Thinkinfyou said...
Congrats to you!!

ettarose said...
Absolutely you should celebrate and share it with us. I have nothing funny to say as I wish you many more years of good health and great blogging. You go baby!

Mary @ Holy Mackerel [http://marymoores.blogspot.com/] said...

A big congrats to you for 2 years, but more importantly, for good health!!!! I didn't know you had gone through all that...

Tiggy said...
Happy Blogversitary!

Joanne Casey said...
Congrats and here's to the continual thriving of yourself and the blog!

Ms. Thirty Something said...
How sweet of you to share things and stuff with us. (sincerely) If you hadn't recovered, think of all we'd have missed out on! The Florida signs, rockin' Dylan, the awesome Neal pics, Renee's pucker...the list goes on and on!!! So, which do you prefer; cash, check or charge? Happy Blogversary!

unfinishedrambler said...
I'm so jealous I'm celebrating my one-year bloggiversary <-- note different spelling so mine is completely different from yours -- with donuts and coffee. But you've got bacon and beer. Somehow I think you'll have more visitors. ;)

Lady Sarcasm said...
Keep the beer, but toss me some bacon, yum!! That last vid was hilarious hehe. Congrats on the year! Cheers to another one :)

Me-Me King said...
I have always enjoyed political cartoonists, you've chosen some great examples.Happy Bloggin' Birthday!!!

These were the comments left on my blog this week. This comment was e-mailed to me:

anditsgone46
Hey Non - Sorry i tried to leave a comment on your post but i have too many damn humor blogs open and my computer is running./ walking slooooo.. anyway, happy blogiversay.....Lisa L AKA Now one of 2 Rodents on Humor Bloggers (ed. note: her blog is Everything But The Furr - Voices of The Stoopedly Imprisoned)

And, imagine my surprise when I dropped by the Forum at Humor Bloggers Dot Com Friday and discovered the following...

hindleyite
Post subject: Re: nonamedufus is 2 years old!
Happy Birthday to you(r blog)! I believe I did a small shout out on my blog last Sunday for your upcoming anniversary.http://retroyakking.today.com/2009/04/1%20...%20to-awards/

Here's what Hindleyite said: A final shout out for today goes to Nonamedufus, whose blog is currently nearing its second anniversary in the blogosphere. Exciting changes are afoot, as a redesign is already underway and retrospectives are expected to follow.
NND’s also the winner of one of Crotchety Old Man’s Zucchini awards, which instantly makes me envious of him… it’s harder to win that thing than an Academy Award. Get down to his blog, it’s good for a laugh.

Hindleyite also presented me with the Jacket Potato Award. I'll eat it, er, ah, display it with pride. Thanks, mate.

Jenn Thorson
Post subject: Re: nonamedufus is 2 years old!
Hey, happy bloggiversary to you! Two years is a mighty long time in blog years. Blog years are sort of like dog years in that way...But with a "bl" instead of a "d"--Jenn

quirkyloon
Post subject: Re: nonamedufus is 2 years old!
In my best, ahem, Marilyn Monroe accent:

Happy blog anniversary to yoooooouuuu.

Happy blog anniversary to youuuuuuuuu.(insert high-pitched squeak)

Happy blog anniversary (insert breathy pause)Mr. Nonamedufus

Happy blog anniversary to youuuuuuuuu.Boo boo dee boop!

Can You Hear Me Laughing?


Whiteshark
Post subject: Re: nonamedufus is 2 years old!
Wow, congratulations, Dufus! Two years...that's got to put you among the top 3% longest running active blogs

AmyOops
Post subject: Re: nonamedufus is 2 years old!
heres to another year of me stealing your stuff. Congrats

Can someone please pass the kleenex?

Wow guys, thanks. It's been quite a week and quite a 2 year run. Here's to the next year! And here's to looking at life through the lens of laughter. I know it's worked for me. Cheers...

Blogoversary V - The 60s

Last November I introduced a weekly feature to the blog called "60s Fridays" in which, heading into the weekend, I posted music videos from the peace and love decade. It's funny to look back on the music, the lyrics and the fashion (particularly the hair!)from this era and laugh today at what we took so seriously back then. I've posted the odd birthday and obit in rock n roll but mostly I've focussed on what once were my favourite songs by my favourite groups from, as George Harrison says, "all those years ago". Adding to the mirth in watching these videos is that most are in black and white and many are "staged". Yep, it seems lip-synching is a time-honoured tradition, long before Milli Vanilli. Here are a few highlights...















Tomorrow: Happy Blogoversary

C'mon, You Can Do Better Than "Wow"

"Wow".

That's what I said when that news story appeared about the prostitute biting Sham Wow spokesman Vince's tongue and him pounding on her face until she let him go. He was lucky it was his tongue, otherwise Vince might've been saying a lot more than "wow"! But I digress...

What the heck makes Sham Wow so damn popular? And the ad, according to the Sham Wow website, is popular, too, ranking as the #1 informercial of all time! Wow! But try to convince Bill O'Reilly of the claims Vince makes...



Let's look at what Sham Wow claims:
It is made in Germany
Easily removes cola, wine and pet stains
Doesn't drip, doesn't make a mess
Washes, dries, and polishes any surface
Won't scratch any surface
Machine washable and bleachable
Lasts ten years

Big deal. What's so catchy about that. There's nothin' there that would convince me to buy a product called a "sham". And no wonder poor old Bill was upset. Thesaurus.com equates sham with: burlesque, cant, caricature, cheat, counterfeit, cover-up, deceit, deception, facade, fake, fakery, false front, farce, feint, flimflam*, forgery, fraud, hypocrisy, hypocriticalness, imitation, impostor, imposture, jive*, mock, mockery, pharisaism, phoniness, pretend, pretense, pretext, pseudo*, put-on, sell, smoke*, snow job*, spoof, travesty, whitewash ... "wow"!

Remember Bounty? It was "the quicker picker upper". Yeah, that sounds neater than the unimaginative "wow".



And what about Mr. Clean (M. Net for my francophone friends). He "cleans your whole house and everything that's in it".



Here's an old fave: Ajax. Ajax was "stronger than dirt".



And the marketers of Pine-Sol at least used a little imagination to demonstrate how their product worked better than others...



Geez, even Vince's nemesis Billy Mays of Oxiclean fame proclaimed "you don't need a cabinet full of cleaners" - sort of. Nevertheless, it beats "wow" hands down.

Now, Vince, you see how imaginative the makers of other products are? But don't beat yourself up over it...or anyone else for that matter!

Blogoversary IV - The Battle Of The Sexes

A lot of the stuff I've shared with readers over the past two years had to do with the differences between men and women. What is it with the portrayal of men vs, women on the internet? Believe me, if there really was a battle of the sexes, the women would win hands down every time. Here's just a few of the men/women items I've posted since April 2007...

Tomorrow: The Best of 60s Fridays

Gliddy Glub Gloopy

Over at Humor Bloggers Dot Com we like to play a little game. The Queen of this game is Quirkyloon. She's forever posting lyrics - often obscure - leaving the rest of us to guess what song they come from. Well, this morning I think I stumped her when I posted:

Gliddy glub gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla
Nooby abba naba
Early morning singing song

Well one of my colleagues thought I was having a heart attack and someone should call 911. And poor Quirky thought I was sendig her a Zombie lullaby.

Both wrong! It's from Good Morning Starshine from the soundtrack of Hair, a peace and love musical that opened off-Broadway in 1967 and made it to film in 1979 with John Savage, Treat Williams and Beverly D'Angelo.

So Quirky, darlin', this is for you...

Blogoversary III - Politics

It's been an interesting time to be a blogger over the last couple of years and follow politics both north and south of the border. So much has happened. And there was so much for editorial cartoonists and internet wiseacres to work with. Two of my favourite editorial cartoonists are Cam of the Ottawa Citizen and Aislin of the Montreal Gazette and both are represented here. There's just far too many pictures and cartoons to include them all, but I did manage to come up with a fairly decent overview of 3 key events.

In the States, the administration of George Bush and his motley crew came to an end...

And America went through primaries, conventions, presidential debates and an election - a process that seemed to last almost forever... In the end, change came to America but so had a recession...

In Canada, we didn't have nearly the same level of drama (or money) as American politics. But we had an election too that saw the same plodding, doddering minority government returned to office and the drama - and at the same time humour - north of the border came from watching the leadership woes of the Opposition Liberal party. An early issue in the Canadian election was whether the Prime Minister preferred fruits or vegetables!

After all was said and done - which was a lot - the whole damn thing had taken it's toll...

Blogoversary II - Bacon and Beer

What 2 things set a guy's heart a-flutter? Love and marriage? A horse and carriage? Betty Jo and her sister Flo? A big screen TV and sports channels free? Nope none of the above, although Betty Jo and her sister Flo watching sports with me might be interesting. But I digress. Nothing gets those juices flowin' and those brain cells explodin' more than bacon and beer. I think it must be a guy thing, or something utterly pavlovian, but I know my tongue simply starts droolin' when I see bacon or beer. And over the last two years I've done plenty of droolin' as the following highlights will attest.




Next: A look back at political humour

Dylan Rocks

Here's the video for the first released cut off of Bob Dylan's next album to be released April 28 - Beyond Here Lies Nothin'. At 67, the man's still got it!

...And Loving It

My God we missed Don Adams' birthday! Were he alive, Adams would have been 83. Who's Don Adams? Why Adams was Agent 86, Maxwell Smart.

From the warped and whacky minds of Buck Henry and Mel Brooks, Get Smart cashed in on the "spy" craze of the mid-60s and spoofed such staples of the day as James, Bond and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. It ran for 5 years - 4 on CBS and the 5th on NBC. I know one 13 year old in 1965 who sat glued to the TV when this came on because not only was the show so funny but it's co-star, Barbara Feldon, was very easy on the eyes.

And I recall it was all the rage to mimic Smart at school. The show was known for such catch-phrases as "Sorry about that Chief" when Max screwed up; "Would you believe..." because Max was prone to slight exageration: and, when told he'd be facing certain danger - which was often - Max would reply "And loving it!" Me and my buddies slayed each other with these comebacks. They were kind of like the precursor of "That's what she said..."

If you want to revisit the series, all 138 episodes are available in a 25 disc box set. I know; I've got it. I know; I need a life!

Here's the opening credits from the show...



And here's an overview of one of the long-running gags the show was known for - the Cone of Silence

Adams died in 2005, but if he had made it to April 13, 2009 he would be celebrating his 83rd birthday...and loving it!

Blogoversary Week

Happy Blogoversary...to me! Two years ago this week, this blog was born. It started out as "Just Cruisin'" and yours truly was known as the Greying One. The blog helped me through 7 months of chemo-therapy and a stem cell transplant, documenting my journey but also sharing humourous items from e-mails and the internet that struck my fancy. It wasn't quite as good as the drugs, but it was theraputic nonetheless. Once I'd 'just cruised' into recovery the blog morphed into nonamedufus and it focussed less on health and more on humour, advertising and music. And what started as an information source for family and friends - perhaps a dozen or so people - has turned into a blog frequented by 150 or so folks daily.

So as we head towards the true anniversary of April 25, later this week, I thought I'd highlight some of my favourite posts from the last two years. So sit back and enjoy!

Here's the first ad I ran on April 25, 2007...



Given the state of my health back then, this sign made obvious sense to me...And here's one of the first music videos I shared...by a geriatric set known as The Zimmers:

The oldest and greatest rock band in the world - Meet The Zimmers - and their amazing cover of The Who's "My Generation". Lead singer Alf is 90 - it's quite something when he sings "I hope I die before I get old". And he's not the oldest - there are 99 and 100-year-olds in the band!The Zimmers will feature in a BBC TV documentary being aired in May 2007. Documentary-maker Tim Samuels has been all over Britain recruiting isolated and lonely old people - those who can't leave their flats or who are stuck in rubbish care homes.The finale of the show is this group of lonely old people coming together to stick it back to the society that's cast them aside - by forming a rock troupe and trying to storm into the pop charts.Some massive names from the pop world have thrown their weight behind The Zimmers... The song is produced by Mike Hedges (U2, Dido, Cure), the video shot by Geoff Wonfor (Band Aid, Beatles Anthology), and it was recorded in the legendary Beatles studio 2 at Abbey Road.

The embedding's been disabled so you have to follow the link. But click through; it's an absolute hoot... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY

In July 07 I found the site http://despair.com/indem.html and shared the following posters...More to come!

Stop Me If You've Heard This One

What our leaders discuss...

A priest, a minister and a rabbi walk into a bar...

The Montreal Who?

Two examples of "the more things change the more they remain the same".

Don't Worry Baby

This week's group from the 60s is an American outfit that were severely displaced by the British invasion of the early 60s. Best known as the proponents of "surfing music" the Beach Boys formed in 1961 and their story reads like a soap opera: a domineering father for a manager; drug and mental illness problems; the deaths of Carl and Dennis Wilson; the infighting and lawsuits. It's fascinating stuff...but above it all music fans know it was the harmonies and lush arrangements that made the Beach Boys stand out. Here's an interesting "performance" from 1964's American Bandstand with Dick Clark...

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Welcome to the re-formatted nonamedufus blog. Next week we celebrate our 2nd anniversary in the blogosphere and the layout change is the first step in a new direction. Stick around. In the coming days we'll take a look back on the last two years and maybe there'll be a change or two to come.

What's Luck Got To Do With It?

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Hot Dog Zen

Don't Go They're

You Have To Be Crazy To Get Married These Days

What They Meant By "He Died With His Boots On"

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Brewer's Gold

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Baker Street

Happy Birthday to Gerry Rafferty. He's 62 today. Rafferty's best known for this song from the 1978 album "City to City": Baker Street...

Now Your Breadmeat Shines With Deliciousness

The other day I posted a pic of this questionably nutritious bacon substitute. The video's even better...especially the sub-titles.

Found at small bits and pieces

You Had Me At Yellow

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Can You Say That On Television?

April

Hands Off!

Well Wisher

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Heineken - Extra Cold

Keep On Rockin' In The Free World

A sold-out crowd at the K-Rock Centre in Kingston was lucky enough to keep on rockin' in the free world last night for close to two hours with Neil Young and thanks to the kind largesse of my brother I was very happy to be among them as a guest in the Motosport Plus corporate box.

I'd seen Young in Ottawa back in December, but the Kingston show felt more intimate in the smaller venue. Smaller venues are where Young is taking this tour. His next stops include London, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie, Saskatoon, Kelowna and Lethbridge. Below are some shots I snapped, last night's set list and a review of the concert in today's local paper...

Setlist:

1. When You Dance I Can Really Love

2. Johnny Magic

3. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

4. Spirit Road

5. Pocahontas

6. Cortez The Killer

7. Cinnamon Girl

8. Mother Earth

9. Hit The Road

10. The Needle And The Damage Done

11. Light A Candle

12. Lost In Space

13. Heart Of Gold

14. Old Man

15. Like A Hurricane

16. Get Behind The Wheel

17. Just Singing A Song

Encore:

18. All Along The Watchtower

19. Rockin' In The Free World

Review: Kingston Whig Standard

by Greg Burliuk

Crowd roars at Young show

On the title song of his new CD Fork in The Road,Neil Young jokes about having a pot belly and how his record sales have tanked, the implication being that he's a has-been.Try telling that to the 6,500 fans who jammed the K-Rock centre last night to greet the legendary Canadian rocker with a massive wave of affection.It's true that Young hasn't had a hit of significance since 1989'sRockin in the Free World, but he has been staggeringly prolific. Between 1966 and 1997, there was only one year when he didn't release an album and in a couple of years he released two.The first five songs of the 90- odd minute show in that sense were a reflection of Young's career. They ranged from 1969's Everybody Knows This is Nowhere to 2007's Spirit Road. Among them only Everybody Knows was a commercial hit, but the biggest cheers were reserved for the 1979 song Pocahontas,a concert staple. This was a crowd that loved the staples. They roared when Young broke into a wild guitar solo on Cortez the Killer,his 1975 classic with an intro so long you'd think it was an instrumental. They recognize within three chords, the opening of another 1969 hit Cinnamon Girl,although they are so distinctive they aren't hard to spot. More impressive was many of them singing along to his 1972 standard The Needle and the Damage Done.The latter was part of an acoustic portion of the show, which included his only number one hit Heart of Gold;and Old Man(both from 1972's Harvest album). After he finished the latter, Young pointed to the roof (or maybe the stars) in a reference to his late father Scott Young, who lived in Kingston until his death a few years ago.There was a smattering from Young's brand new CD Fork in the Road,which is largely dedicated to promoting energy-efficient cars. The highlight of the five songs played from that work was the hopeful Light A Candle. The new ones fit seamlessly into the old ones because there is a timeless quality to this man's songs. The mellow ones are classic folk and the rockers don't rely on frills as much as gritty power chords.Young wasn't particularly chatty, but neither was he unfriendly, focussing on singing and playing mostly with his eyes closed. (Why then were there large cue cards continually being replaced at his feet?) The man can still rock however, as his guitar-playing was as much a highlight as were the songs themselves.Particularly impressive was his axe work on one of the show's closing songs, the anthemic Like a Hurricane from 1975.

Alrighty Then

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Uh, Oh

You Are Going to Hell

Going to hell is fine with you. You're not sure if you even believe in hell. And if there is a hell, it's probably a pretty fun place! You rather be stuck with the troublemakers. Life is short, so why wouldn't you live it up? Being good is incredibly boring. You're not going to miss out on anything in life... even if you have to lie, steal, or cheat to get it.

Are You Going to Heaven or Hell?

When Your Dog Walks You

I'd sure hate to poop and scoop after Big Boy here.

Where The Term "Crackberry" Comes From

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Quandry

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Really Cool Drum Solo

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Adopt A Dog - You Won't Come Home To This

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Easter Will Never Be The Same

Happy Easter!

When one breeds an angora rabbit with an Easter Bunny is that a cross hair?

Good Idea: Finding Easter eggs on Easter.

Bad Idea: Finding Easter eggs on Xmas.

Altzheimer's Advantage #2 :

You can hide your own Easter eggs.

Q. What do Easter Bunny helpers get for making a basket?

A. Two points, just like anyone else.

Q. What's invisible and smells like carrots?

A. The Ether Bunny

What Is Easter?
Three stupid guys just died and are at the pearly gates of heaven. St. Peter tells them that they can enter the gates if they can answer one simple question.

St. Peter asks the first man, "WHAT IS EASTER?" The man replies, "Oh, that's easy, it's the holiday in November when everybody gets together, eats turkey, and is thankful..."
"WRONG," replies St. Peter, and proceeds to ask the second man the same question, "WHAT IS EASTER?"

The second man replies, "No, Easter is the holiday in December when we put up a nice tree, exchange presents, and celebrate the birth of Jesus."
St. Peter looks at the second man, shakes his head in disgust, looks at the third man and asks, "WHAT IS EASTER?"

The third man smiles and looks St. Pete in the eye."I know what Easter is. Easter is the Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover. Jesus and his disciples were eating at the last supper and He was later deceived and turned over to the Romans by one of his disciples. The Romans took Him to be crucified and was stabbed in the side, made Him wear a crown of thorns, and He was hung on a cross. He was buried in a nearby cave which was sealed off by a large boulder. Every year the boulder is moved aside so that Jesus can come out, and if He sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter."

Afghan Women Put Best Foot Forward

GM Off Course

Diplomatic Alliances Can Be So Important

Not PC

A Weighty Problem

Bacon in A Bottle

I love bacon but this just doesn't look right.

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Rhythm Kings

This week's 60s group isn't a group from the 60s at all, but a group of musicians from the 60s who formed and gained popularity in the late 90s. And given this is Easter weekend (no sacrilege intended) how appropriate we talk about the resurrection of a rock n roller.

Bill Wyman quit the biggest band in the universe in 1992 - the Rolling Stones - only to rise from the dead, as it were, in 1997 with his own group, "Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings". The membership of the group is forever shifting, with folks like Peter Frampton, Georgie Fame and Gary Brooker passing through. Amazing, that at 72 he continues to rock out. His website is amazing. So's this video...

I'm a Street Talkin' Fool

Another week, another award. Jamie, a very funny blogger in her own right, otherwise known as The Hussy Housewife runs a weekly contest where we often hang out at Humor Bloggers Dot Com, called The Slang Word Of The Week. She comes up with the word, and participating HBDCrs come up with it's use in a sentence. Here's last week's word...

The winning comment?

"That blind Handyman's a tool, as he picked up his hammer and saw."

Yep, and for that lame line I won the SWOW...

Thanks Hussy. As I said in my acceptance speech at the lavish ceremony where I received my prestigious award, "You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but that old dog can sure recycle old jokes!"

In Your Eye Karzai

Wither Go TV Journalism?

Wither Go Print Journalism?

Pun Intended

Bummed Out: Literally and Figuratively

A Roundabout Way of Saying Happy Birthday

It's Steve Howe's birthday today. Lead guitarist for British prog-rock group band Yes, Howe helped define their distinctive sound. His guitar is instrumental (no pun intended) in making Roundabout from the group's 1973 release "Fragile" the hit it was... (btw, I think they must have sold one helleva bunch of shampoo to rock groups in the early 70s!)

"Special"

Ouch!

Fix Your Past

Signs Of The Times

Hockey Sports Bar:

Neighborhood Watch, indeed:

Auf Wiedersehn, Entre Card

EntreCard, darling EntreCard
Thank you for all your drops so hard
Picture this, I dare not miss,
A single beat, dropping’s neat,
Quite a feat, but now I Tweet.

EntreCard, darling EntreCard
Thank you for your promises of lard
I can’t see, your approach to fees
New ads intertwined, for all time
Theirs and mine, that’s not fine.

EntreCard, darling EntreCard
Thank you for funny cards I disdain
I recalled, nonamedufus enthralled,
How you (under duress?) made a mess
I confess, that’s not all

EntreCard, darling, EntreCard
Thank you for nothing you retard
Though we go, on our separate ways
Still the memory stays
For always my heart says EntreCard

EntreCard, Auf Wiedersehn, EntreCard

Dear "dropper": As you can probaly tell from the above, I'm getting out of the EntreCard business. I'm not placing or accepting any more ads and when my ads in the system run out around mid-April that'll be it. I apologize to serious droppers out there but I find the whole activity just too time-consuming. I hope this results in my having more time to not just visit your blogs but to read them and comment, too. So to all my faithful droppers:

"Danke Schoen"

How The Meaning Of Easter Has Changed Over the Years

Well the weather's warming up and Easter is almost upon us. You know, when you think about it, the meaning of Easter has changed significantly over the years. Easter, and the days leading up to it, not unlike Christmas, started out as a religious observance.
Some folks still hold fervently to the religious aspects associated with Easter.

But at some point the focus shifted from someone who rose from the dead to a rabbit carrying eggs. Yeah, the Easter Bunny grew in popularity matched only by Santa Claus. Now imagine how Jesus Christ must feel when the occasion of his birth is eclipsed by a fat bearded guy in a red suit and the occasion of his death is better known for some giant rabbit leaving confections to rot kids' teeth.


Other emerging traditions associated with Easter include painting eggs...


And the ever-popular easter egg hunt...
Boy oh boy, the meaning of easter has sure changed down through the ages...

But it's nice to see some people are returning to the religious aspects associated with Easter.

For Your Consideration

Awards. There's the well known and the not so well known. In the former category we have the Oscars, the Emmys and the Grammies and their Canadian counterparts the Genies, the Geminis and the Junos, respectively. Just lately Nickelback took home wins in several Juno music categories. Yes I know, the state of affairs in Canadian music makes you want to go out and shoot yourself. I'll keep my nickel, thank you very much so I won't have to ask for it back. But I digress.

Awards. In many cases nominees for major awards make their case for winning an award. This was hilariously demonstrated by Christopher Guest and his ensemble cast in his latest film, For Your Consideration...

Then there are the lesser known awards, awards for which if any campaign is launched it might be to make a case for not winning, such as the Darwin Award...

And one of my favourites, the Not My Job Award...

There's the You're A Horse's Ass Award... and I'm sure we can all think of candidates for this one.

Or for this one...

But there's an even lesser known award out there of which I'm sure many of you weren't aware. It's called the Zucchini Award. And guess what? I won it! Gaze upon the glory it represents. Pretty cool, eh? What did I win it for? Did I invent a cure for cancer? (I wish.) Did I soliloquize smoothly in a cinematic bit part? Did I get it for spelling soliloquize correctly? No, no, no, none of that. This was far more important. I won a caption contest!!! Crotchety Old Man Yells At Cars bestowed this edible honour upon me for captioning this picture...

And the caption? Well I really put my thinking cap on for this one. Are you ready?

Next on Access Hollywood: Sad, sad, very sad. As the stars gather for the Howdy Doody reunion we learn the years have not been kind to Clarabell.

I dare not imagine what the hell this picture really portrays. For now we'll go with Clarabell, who by the way for all you trivia twits out there was first played by Bob Keeshan. Bob went on to become Captain Kangaroo!

You can read Crochety's caption post here. While you're at it wish him a happy fifth anniversay in the blogosphere.

And who knows, if I win any more awards my head might start to swell. Then it could be a case of today the zucchini, tomorrow the biggest pain in the ass award.

The Voice

This week's 60s group takes us back to 1964 and focusses more on an individual rather than a band. The Animals was fronted by Eric Burdon and made quite an impression on North America as part of the British invasion. A piece of musical trivia: bassist Chas Chandler left the group two years later to manage Jimi Hendrix. House of the Rising Sun was a huge hit and continues to be a blues and rock classic, largely due to the voice behind the song...


By 1970, Eric Burdon had moved on to front War and the superb blues/rock vocalist released Spill the Wine...




At 67, Burdon continues to perform, his fabulous voice continues to be his trademark. His latest album, Soul Of A Man, was released in 2006

It Really Was "Life On Mars"

Damn, I hate investing all that time in a TV show only for it to be cancelled. The greatest show on TV (in my humble opinon) came to a screeching halt last night after only one season. A knock-off of a British series, ABC's Life On Mars was nevertheless an excellent show with an exceptional cast. The premise involved a cop hit by a car in 2008 who wakes up in 1973. So he felt like he was living on Mars. Indeed he met himself, as a kid, and both his parents. Last night in the season/series finale we learned he really was living on Mars - he , and the cast of characters, were astronauts waking up from a deep space sleep and about to touch down on the red planet. That's right, it was all a dream!

The show was a mix of police drama meets science-fiction. It was quirky enough to draw me in week after week. It had a great soundtrack - from the 70s, natch - and the main character's awareness of the future led to some comical plot developments.

And now it's gone. And without it, I truly know what it is to live a Life on Mars...

For old time's sake here's a great cover version of David Bowie's Life on Mars by a great group - the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain...

My Secret Identity

Look up in the sky. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Dufus otherwise known as the Pure Caped Philanthropist!

Yes that's right, a meek anonymous blogger by day but a modern-day super-hero Robin Hood, if you will, by night taking from the rich and redistributing to the poor (which these days is most of us).

In these tough economic times, PCP's stimulus package consists of a bag of groceries from the food section of that upscale big-box trail blazer Wal-Mart : 4 boxes of macaroni and cheese Kraft Dinner, a pound and-a-half of bologna, a king size bag of Lays potato chips (I dare ya to eat just one) and a 2-4 of sports energy drinks to wash it all down. Nom-nom-nom.

Hey, don't thank me - I'm just happy you know that Dufus delivers!

Have a great April Fool's. And if you want to create your own super hero, just go to The Hero Factory

Roadside Attractions

Seeing "South of the Border" billboards along 1-95 throughout South Carolina last week (see 2 previous posts) not only amused me but got me to thinking about what Canada might have to offer along the side of our major thoroughfares.

I was certainly aware of The Big Apple near Cobourg, Ontario because I drive by it on the 401 every time I travel to and from Toronto.

And I was well aware of The Big Nickel in Sudbury, Ontario because I was born in the city where INCO conducted massive mining operations.

But Canada has many other weird and wonderful roadside attractions. I don't know why they call them that because if anything, they're far from attractive! Nevertheless, allow me to share with you some of the weirder ones...

For example, Clinton, British Colmbia offers the Cowboy in a Bathtub Monument. Who knew!

And, in Altona, Manitoba there's the world's largest easel. Picture perfect!

Need a giant pick-me-up? Davidson, Saskatchewan has the world's largest coffee pot and cup! Tim Horton's has nothing on this. I wonder where the giant donut is?And if you fancy yourself a hockey fan, be sure and visit Duncan, BC and see the largest hockey stick and puck. That'd be some slap shot...

Shediac, New Brunswick famous for lobster, of course has a giant lobster. Don't think it's edible.

And in Thunder Bay, Ontario there's a giant curling stone. Get yer rocks off!

And there's an out of this world monument in Vulcan, Alberta - a huge USS Enterprise from Star Trek. Which is quite appropriate. After seeing many of these monuments all I can think of to say is, "Beam them up Scotty"!

For a comprehensive map of Canadian roadside attractions (as if we really need such a thing), click here and enjoy!