Lorty Lorty Look Who’s Forty Times Two


 

On this date in 1925, my father was born.  Today he is 80.  I wonder if his parents had any idea of what a wonderful, solid man he would become.  Whatever dreams and hopes they had for him, I expect he’s outshone them all.
In 1947, when this picture was taken, my dad was just embarking on adult life.  He’d be married a year later and a father not too long after that. 
I didn’t meet him until 1965, when he was 40 (the age I am now), and only in the last 15 years have I come to "know" him and appreciate what a great influence he’s been on me.  My experiences with my father have been almost exclusively happy and pleasant.  He’s taught me innumberable things in innumberable ways, comforted me always and has always been a shining example of what a good father should be.
Growing up I was always amazed that my father knew how to fix pretty much anything that needed fixing in our home (except eggs over easy) and I am amazed that he still is able to keep his home in excellent working order. 
Whatever goodness and humanity I have, I learned it by seeing it continually practiced by my parents.  They both are my example of what kindness and goodness should be.
I wonder if my father considers his life thus far to a successful one.  All I know is that if I make it to 80 years of age and there is even one person in that future world who has the amount of respect and admiration for me that I presently have for my father, then I’ll consider my life to be a great success.  The greatest thing he’s taught me is to be the example of that which you’d like others to be.
It likely sounds foolish and a bit grandiose to say, but my dad is my hero.   I want to be just like him.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

The Finger Of Chicken Factor

For the past few months, I’ve been once-a-weeking for lunch at a take-out place, ordering their chicken fingers and fries.  I notice that there are two people who work there, however only one at a time.  The guy who works there gives me five chicken fingers and a heaping helping of crispy fries.  The girl who works there gives me not so many fries that are not so crispy and only four chicken fingers.
The discrepency in the amount of fries, I don’t worry about.
My dilemna is this:  do I mention to the girl that the guy gives me five chicken fingers?  If I do, then there is a possibility that his extravagence of an extra finger will be exposed and may be stopped.  Is there a store policy on the number of chicken fingers one gives out per customer?  If she’s short-changing me, then I’d definitely like that rectified.  My hunch is that the de rigueur is four fingers, though I have no solid proof of it.
I don’t know how many chicken fingers he gives to others.  I’ve never witnessed it.  I’ve thought about lurking around, waiting for a chicken fingers and fries order to come up, but it’s not ordered that often.  It’s not even on their regular menu.  I have concocted a story that this guy somehow appreciates me for some reason and as such is favouring me with an extra chicken finger and heaping fries.  I look for subtle clues like a wink or a nod or him saying "I’m giviing you an extra chicken finger, you know" but I can gather no hard evidence.
At first I thought that perhaps he gives me smaller chicken fingers and she gives bigger, but today’s five chicken fingers from him were huge. 
It sure would be nice to get that fifth chicken finger from that girl.  I think, though, that it’s best that I not tempt it.
One of the factors leading me to think it’s better to leave things as they are is this:  she only works about a fourth of the time he does at lunch.  So, I get his five chicken fingers about every three times to her single serving  of four chicken fingers.

What would you do?

Jew-ard

Does anyone know if the practice of pronouncing the first name "Gerard" as "Jew-ard" is a PEI-centric phenomenon, or does it occur in other places too?  Also, does anyone have an explanation as to why it occurs?

Fee, Fye, Ho Hum

Blockbuster has been annoyingly advertising their "No More Late Fees" policy ad naseum. 
Too bad it’s a lie.  Yes, they’ve changed their policy but they still charge a late fee.  Only now they call it a restocking fee.  Whatever.
You rent a movie or game.  After 8 days of not returning it, Blockbuster charges your credit card the full cost of purchase.  You now own the movie or game.  You still have a 30 day grace period to return the movie for a refund, but they do charge you a nominal (I think it’s $1.50) restocking fee.
Isn’t the restocking fee just another name for late fee?
I have no problem with the new policy, in fact I think it’s smart.  I just don’t the misleading terminology.

But I don’t care.  I don’t rent anymore from Blockbuster anyway.
Here in Charlottetown, it’s That’s Entertainment all the way!

Everyone Into The Oscar Pool

{Submissions to the contest are now closed.  To those who entered:  Good Luck!!!}
This is your final reminder.  If you want to enter The Annekenstein Monster Oscar Pool, click on this link:  The Annekenstein Monster Oscar Pool.  Fill in your picks and name and click on the submit button.
I will be accepting submissions until this Thursday.
If you’ve already sent in your submission, then ignore this.
For the record, from the 19 submissions, the Best Picture picks so far look like this:
The Aviator:  8
Ray: 5
Million Dollar Baby: 4
Sideways: 2
Finding Neverland: 0

Winner will likely (I’m not making any promises) win something, like a mixed cd or something.  Whatever.

10 Right-On, Random Songs

Time for a semi-irregular random sampling of the musical tastes of your host.
Here, then, are the next ten (good or bad, cool or embarassing) songs (and a comment on each) that go through my iTunes, set to shuffle:

1. Girl Wants (to say goodbye to) Rock and Roll Music – Go Home Productions:  One of about 100 mashups I have in my collection.  This combines the music of the Velvet Underground’s "Rock and Roll Music" with the vocals from Christina Aguilera’s "What A Girl Wants".  I have mixed feelings (no pun) on mashups, some work, some don’t, some are just meh.  This one takes a great song and an okay song and makes the okay song a different great song.  Seriously, it’s like Lou Reed’s guitar riffs were made for this song, three decades earlier.  I rate it 4 stars out of 5.
2. Fruits of My Labors – Lucinda Williams:  Homer Simpson talks of dogs with bees in their mouths.  Lucinda has some sweet aged honey in her throat on this song.  Slow and soft and sad and sexy.  As soon as you hear this song, you go "yeah, this was born to be a classic." Another rating of 4 out of 5.
3. Take These Chains From My Heart – Hank Williams: I love how Hank sings "care" like "kee-air"  You no longer kee-air for me.  This gets 5 stars.  Try and talk me out of it.  You kee-an’t.  Hank Williams has the voice of a grand-father, the soul of a prisoner.  Beautiful song.
4.  (What’s So Funny) ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding – Yo La Tengo:  I’m more familiar with the Elvis Costello version of the Nick Lowe song.  This Yo La Tengo version is a bit rough.  This is from a live recording.  Good energy in the music, but the lyrics just fall a bit flat, especially early, but come around by the end.  I waffled between 2 or 3 stars.  I went with 3.  Giving it 2 would have hurt its feelings.
5. Flower Duet (from the opera Lakme):  If you haven’t heard this beautiful song, you should really seek it out.  My wife (who has a voice like an angel) sang it with her friend one time at their church, and I was emotional and teary listening to them.  This version is not my wife’s version.  I give this 5 stars, though.
6. Charm – Wild Colonials:  One of the ways I find new music is by visiting various music blogs, sites that post wide assortments of songs to download and discover.  This is one of those songs.  I am hearing this for the first time right now.   A pretty good song with a good female lead vocal.  I’ll give it 4 stars and wait to pass final judgement on it whenever the next time I hear it will be.
7. Ask Me Why – The Beatles:  I have all The Beatles music in my rotation.  This is one of those songs from them that is kind of forgettable.  Pleasant when you hear it, but would be below middle of the pack if I was picking my favourite Beatles songs to take on a desert Island.  3 stars.
8. Terrible Angels – CocoRosie:  This song starts off with pig squeals and only gets better.  Two sisters singing together, one kinda operatic, the other kinda coquettish sex-kitten 4-in-the-morning raspy.  Uh huh.  4 stars.
9. Mental – Eels:  The lead singer of Eels has a voice you either will like or you won’t. I like.  Another 4 star song.  Easily 4 stars.
10. Welcome to Paradise – La GDT:  Imagine The Beach Boys but slowed down a bit, and a bit drunk.  I don’t know anything about this group, and I’m hearing this song for the first time.  Some of the harmonies sound a bit off, but it all works in a late-night should-we-go-home-or-stay-for-anoth – – hey some guys are singing!  shh, listen, cool, hey get me a beer wouldcha kind of way.

The Nation We Want To Be

Here is an excellent speech, by our Prime Minister, given to the House on Wednesday, on the issue of same-sex marriage.
Whomever wrote it deserves kudos.  Very smart and straightforward.
Read it, why don’tcha?

Songs:Illinois

There are a number of music blogs that I visit daily, searching for new and interesting music to sample.  One that has become my favourite lately is Songs:Illinois.  It specialises in country/folk/bluegrass/lofi/antifolk type stuff.  If you lean towards the lesser known singer/songwriter/honest song type of music, I think you’ll like the stuff this site posts.

Two Degrees of Separation from Nomi Malone


Annekenstein – American Tourists   Poor quality photo


In the first year of Annekenstein, we were priveleged to have Rick Roberts as a writer and actor.  In one of the scenes, I kissed him (as seen in photo above).  Even though I haven’t seen him since, and we only spent a summer together, I consider him a friend, and enjoy any successes he has in the entertainment industry.  He is also my main ‘in’ when I try to figure out my degrees of separation from famous people.

This weekend, I watched most of  the TV movie Student Seduction, starring Elizabeth Berkley of Showgirls Infamy.  Rick was in that movie as Elizabeth’s husband, and had a bedroom scene where he kisses her.

Rob kissing Rick kissing Elizabeth…

So, in a way, I kissed Elizabeth Berkley.  I feel so dirty.

The movie, by the way, wasn’t very good.  Bad script, but I thought  the acting was okay.  Rick, I biasedly feel, did a great job playing the supportive, caring husband.  Not much there to do, really, but  he did it well.

Scared By Stereo – Twice

Today, I had two separate moments when I got scared, both due to the effects of stereo.  The first was this morning, when I was driving my wife to work.  We were listening to music, when on the far right side of the car, came a spooky "oooooh" sound.  It startled me, and I thought my wife had seen something on the road and was "oooh"ing me to avoid it.  Turns out it was Emmylou Harris singing backup harmony on a Ryan Adams song.
The second time was at lunch.  I was walking back to work, with my headphones on, when deep in the back of the sound came a strange sound, which I interpreted as footsteps of someone behind me.  I knew there was nobody behind me, so the thought that all of a sudden someone was behind me was a bit unnerving for about half a second. 

Damn you Stereo and your two-channel spookings!