Category: television

French military victories in the Arabian Gulf

You may recall that Google was, for a time, “fooled”, when typing in miserable failure, into linking to George W. Bush’s biography; now it links to the controversy over that Google bomb.

I have learned recently that the first site that loads on Google when you plug in the term French military victories is a faked Google page offering a “did you mean?” option. Searching for Arabian gulf gives you a site similar to the defused “cannot find weapons of mass destruction” fake IE error page. (Thanks, Amanda from Charleston.)
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Wonder Woman shows that fighting crime is not always easy.

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I went into a comic book store last week and actually bought two items: the Overstreet Price Guide (do people still call it the Overpriced Street Guide?), because my boss has started asking me about prices of old comics; and the magazine Alter Ego (July 2007), featuring a long interview with ’70s Marvel editor, and Alter Ego founder, Roy Thomas. His ascent to editor pretty much corresponded to the time I first started looking at comics again after a large gap when I had “outgrown” them; big-time nostalgia for me, I was surprised to discover.
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There’s a new reality show being developed and I know all about it.
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Numbers lie: I’m loving the Wall Street Journal blog, The Numbers Guy, which I write about here.
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My monthly plug about the Underground Railroad conference here.

Yeah, I’m repositioning my own pieces from my other blogs for this post. Hey, it’s Labor Day weekend; cut me some slack!
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Instead of watching Pedro Martinez’s pitching debut for his beloved Mets, what Fred Hembeck will be viewing (September 2). I’ll be alternating between the Mets and the U.S. Open (tennis), bumped from the local our CBS affiliate by what Fred is watching, but showing up on our CW affiliate.

ROG

ROG

Domestic Bliss QUESTIONS


Dear Ramblin’:
We’ve had this invasion of ants in our kitchen. How do we get rid of them without using chemicals?
Bugged

Dear Bugged:
Our family has had some success with leaving the peelings from the skins of cucumbers in front of the back entrance. It does leave little ant corpses, though, and you need to replace the peels daily, lest they dry up and become ineffective. Oh, and when you’re picking up those deceased insects, you should sing that segment from the William Tell Overture best known as the Lone Ranger Theme, “dead ant, dead ant, dead ant ant ant.”
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Dear Ramblin’:
Our toilet is clogged up. What should I use that isn’t some dangerous chemical.
Not Going Down the Hole

Dear NGDTH:
Amazingly effective: a half cup of baking soda. Slowly pour in the cheapest white vinegar you can find until it stops bubbling.
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Dear Ramblin’:
Remember than Seinfeld commercial for American Express in which Jerry walks into a grocery store? His plastic bag comes right open, even as some schmo struggles. I’m like the schmo. Any ideas?
Frustrated

Dear Frustrated:
Water on your fingertips. My store is continually – excessively – washing the produce that I’m going to wash at home anyway. Steal a couple drops. Or, if necessary, lick your fingertips. Also helpful for those plastic garbage bags.
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Dear Ramblin’:
I hard-boiled eggs, and sometimes the shell sticks to the egg, requiring excessive time, AND I lose a lot of the egg white as a result. Any suggestions?
Eggsasperated

Dear Eggsasperated:
While running cold water on the egg, crack both ends of the egg. Last time I tried this, it worked 10 out of 11 times – the 12th was one I tried to peel the old way.
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Dear Ramblin’:
Occasionally, I drop a can or bottle of soda. Naturally, I’m afraid that I’ll take a bath when I open the container. Any suggestions?
Not Looking For A Soda Bath

Dear NLFASB:
Don’t know about the bottles, other than opening really slowly. But for cans, I’ve found tapping the top of the container with my index a dozen times is often effective.
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Dear Ramblin’:
When I make lasagna, my noodles end up sticking together, making putting on those layers of pasta a real chore. Should I just go out and buy that “no cook” lasagna, or is there another way?
Stuck

Dear Stuck:
Long before I ever heard of that “no cook” product, I used regular uncooked lasagna noodles, increasing the quantity sauce by about 20% and making sure the noodles are covered by sauce on both sides. The lasagna noodles get cooked with the lasagna and tastes great.

Have some helpful household hints? Pleaser leave them in the comments section or e-mail them to: Ramblin’s Household Hints
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As an Albany blogger, I guess I ought to note my fair city’s latest claim to fame.

ROG

ROG

There IS Need to Fear

Underdog is here. I’ve seen the commercials for the movie of the live-action character, opening today, voiced by Jason Lee (Earl of My Name Is…) and it seems lame. A Chicago Tribune piece by Louis R. Carlozo seems to agree: “…redux has all the hallmarks of a film that lives up to its title, minus the ‘under’ part.”

Fortunately, the REAL Underdog is here. The cartoon version, voiced by Wally Cox, my favorite Hollywood Square, is also coming out today: three volumes of The Ultimate Underdog, six episodes each, $12.93 each from Classic Media. The product also features shorts of Tennessee Tuxedo, voiced by, would you believe, Don Adams, plus Commander McBragg and the annoying Go Go Gophers.

I was never a big fan of live action versions of cartoon characters. The Garfield movie seems a little creepy to me. But I didn’t really care that much about Garfield, anyway.

The Underdog cartoon, though, I was invested in. Beginning with its faux Superman opening – “It’s a bird.” “It’s a plane.” “It’s a frog.” “A FROG?” – let even this 11-year-old in on the tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek joke. But it was clever, not condescending, or dopey. “Not bird or plane or even frog. It’s just little ol’ me [CRASH ] Underdog.”

What does it say about me that I know the theme songs for all four of those cartoon segments?
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More Spider Pig on ‘Simpsons’ DVD and other pop culture stuff.

ROG

ROG

TV shorts

Boston Legal has dropped four cast members: Julie Bowen, Mark Valley, Constance Zimmer, and the woefully underused Rene Auberjonois have all been let go from the show, even as it adds John Larroquette. I don’t remember so many people leaving a show at once since the last season of Boston Legal’s predecessor, The Practice, when Dylan McDermott, Kelli Williams, Lisa Gay Hamilton and Lara Flynn Boyle got the boot, and James Spader was added.
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For those who are already thinking about it, the Fall 2007 schedule.
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Gordon’s right. Mr. Wizard IS a show both he and I watched as kids.
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We are assured that Lost won’t end like The Sopranos did. I’ve never seen an episode of The Sopranos, but I’m convinced that Tony is dead; the screen going to black was Tony’s demise.
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How Kellogg’s Limits on Kids Advertising Could Shake Up Industry
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The The AfterEllen.com Hot 100 List
ROG

ROG

My Back Is Killing Me

On Memorial Day, I was carrying Lydia’s not-so-little red wagon down the back step of the house. I stepped down on what should have been the penultimate step and ended up on my back, the wagon on top of me. I discovered that step was lower on the left side by about an inch and a quarter than it was on the right.

You might think 1.25 inches isn’t much, but when you can’t actually SEE the steps, it’s like a chasm. Falling down these stairs, at least in this case, is somewhat like sliding into second base. One starts vertically, and ends up horizontal. The difference is intentionality; I didn’t plan to land on my backside carrying the wagon. (Also, no one in Major League Baseball seems to slide feet first anymore.)

Immediately after the fall, I thought, “I need to sue the landlord.” Then I had that annoying realization: I AM the landlord. When you’ve lived in housing owned by others for the vast majority of your life, home ownership, even after eight years, is still a bit of a foreign concept.

The house I grew up in was owned by my maternal grandmother, which, as I think back on it, may have contributed to the tension between her and my father. My parents didn’t buy their own place until shortly after I went to college.

So, I’ve been a renter most of my life. This means I’ve moved a number of times, some number north of 20, maybe as many as 30; I forget. Given the fact that I didn’t move from the time I was six months old until I went to college, that meant about once a year in my adulthood prior to being a homeowner. Since I stayed some places longer than a year, other places were much shorter. 1977, e.g., I was in Charlotte, NYC and New Paltz. In 1978, I was at three different addresses in Schenectady, four if you count the four days I spent at one location.

But the rate of change has slowed, I spent 4.5 years in one apartment before I got married. One year in the house Carol bought before we met, and now seven years here.

The downside of moving so often are that it’s harder to peg time. “Oh, that happened when I was living on Madison Avenue; must have been ’82 or ’83.” the other downside is that the ability for stuff to clutter up certain rooms is so much easier. But I’ll deal.

Oh, and the back is still sore, as is my left knee, which I seem to have hyperextended. I say “seem” because I haven’t gone to the doctor, yet. I will if it isn’t better soon.
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And speaking of stuff, we have an overstuffed chair and a pull-out sofa bed that we’ve been trying to get rid of (i.e., give away if someone would just haul it off) for weeks. The chair’s going on the curb this week, the sofa next. The street entrepreneurs, I hope, will pick them up before they end up in the landfill. I’ve tired of having two stuffed chairs and two sofas in the living room.
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Things I like about June: music on PBS. Alison Krauss live and also a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald on Wednesday. Later in the month, the Gershwin Award to Paul Simon, with a whole bunch of folks singing Simon songs.
ROG

ROG
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