PoliBlog ™: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts

In honor of the Holiday Season, today’s Friday Fun Meme is “Favorite Christmas Carols”

5. Greensleeves/What Child is This?

4. Carol of the Bells (version: on Mannheim Steamroller’s A Fresh Aire Christmas audio clip here (#10)).

3. O Come, O Come, Immanuel (favorite version: “Veni Veni” on Mannheim Steamroller’s A Fresh Aire Christmas–audio clip here (#3)).

2. Silent Night

1. O Holy Night (far and away my favorite)

Honorable mentions: Joy to the World, The Christmas Song (version: either the Velvet Fog himself or Johnny Mathis), Los Peces in el Rio (clip here), Feliz Navidad–and tons others, as I love Christmas music.

Merry Christmas to you all.

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This week’s Friday Fun Meme: Favorite Christmas Specials.

This week, in order from 5 to 1:

5. The Year Without a Santa Claus (Heat Miser and Cold Miser make this one, no doubt)
4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
3. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
2. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (an utter classic)
1. A Charlie Brown Christmas (can it get any better than that?)

Had I gone generic “holiday” the Peanuts Thanksgiving and Halloween specials would be #s 3 and 4.

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Yes, I have been lousy in keeping up with the Friday Fun Meme. However, an e-mail from John Hay of Pros and Cons suggests a make-up mean: favorite cartoons.

The goal here is to list favorite specific cartoon episodes.

FFM: Favorite Toons

1. Bugs, Daffy and Elmer: Rabbit Season/Duck Season!
2. Operation: Rabbit (Bugs and Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius).
3. Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
4. One Froggy Evening (Michigan J. Frog).
5. Elmer Fudd/Bugs “Kill the Wabbit”

I excluded series in general (sticking to specific episodes) and holiday specials (I think I will save that for another meme).

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Ok, I have a few FFM ideas in the works, but nthing that really grabs my attention, so I will just continue I meme I found over at Accidental Verbosity.

The Preferred Food Meme

Which do you prefer:

01. CHEESE or CHOCOLATE?
02. BLUEBERRIES or STRAWBERRIES?
03. COFFEE or TEA? (What, are you kidding me?).
04. CORN MUFFIN or ENGLISH MUFFIN?
05. PANCAKES or FRENCH TOAST? (And shouldn’t that be Freedom Toast?)
06. YOGURT or CREAM CHEESE?
07. RICE or PASTA?
08. CAKE or PIE? (Mmmm, pie/
09. GROUND BEEF or GROUND TURKEY? (Ground turkey is a commie plot)
10. HOT DOGS or HAMBURGERS?
11. JELLY or MARMALADE?
12. AMERICAN CHEESE or SWISS CHEESE? (If that makes me less of a patriot, so be it).
13. DIET SODA or NO SODA? (A sign of–five or so years ago it would have been “no soda”).
14. LEMONADE or ICED TEA?
15. CHERRIES or GRAPES?
16. CHOCOLATE QUIK or STRAWBERRY QUIK?
17. WAFFLES or PANCAKES?
18. WHITE BREAD or WHOLE-GRAIN/WHEAT BREAD?
19. PEAS or CARROTS?
20. PUDDING or FRUIT-FLAVORED GELATIN?
21. COLD CEREAL or HOT CEREAL?
22. KETCHUP or MUSTARD?
23. MUSTARD or MAYONNAISE?
24. MAYONNAISE or KETCHUP? (depends on context–on my burger, mayo, on my fired, ketchup)
25. BLACK OLIVES or GREEN OLIVES?
26. ONION or GARLIC? (What? I can’t have both?)
27. PLAIN BARBECUE or BARBECUE WITH SAUCE? (I’m sorry, but in Texas, barbeque means sauce–anything else s grillin’)
28. SCRAMBLED EGGS or FRIED EGGS?
29. EGGS or EGG REPLACEMENTS? (Yeah, right)
30. MEAT or VEGETABLES?
31. CHINESE TAKE-OUT or PIZZA?
32. SUSHI or DELI SANDWICH?
33. WHITE CLAM CHOWDER or RED CLAM CHOWDER?
34. KEY LIME PIE or LEMON MERANGUE PIE?
35. PIE & ICE CREAM or CAKE & ICE CREAM?
36. WHIPPED CREAM or CAKE FROSTING?
37. HONEY or MAPLE SYRUP? (depends on context)

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This week’s FFM challenge: name at least five lines (yes, I went a bit nuts) from TV/Movies that you always find amusing–maybe not laugh-out-loud funny, but that always amuse you.

FFM: Favorite Lines

(For extra-special fun, the sources of the lines are hidden below the fold).

No particular order:

1. “It’s made out of people!”

2. “He’s pinin’–for the fjord.”

3. “I do not think it means what you think it means.”

4. “I was aiming for his head”

5. “Thinking is so important”

6. “To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.”

7. “That’s just sad, Larry.”/”Larry, that’s just sad.”

8. “We are the Knights who say ‘ni!’”/”We are no longer…”/”A shrubbery!”

9. “Those aren’t pillows!”

10. “Hi, I’m Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl”. (came to mind because of #7).

(more…)

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Back by popular demand (ok, two people), the FFM returns from hiatus.

Friday Fun Meme: The Average American

According to the book The Average American , a majority of Americans do the following. How do you stake up to the list?

~~Eats peanut butter at least once a week~~ (up and until recently this was true. Lately, however, not so much)
Prefers smooth peanut butter over chunky (most definitely)
Can name all Three Stooges (heck, I can add Shemp and Curly Joe–and I don’t even like the Stooges…)
Lives within a 20-minute drive of a Wal-Mart (Two, actually)
Eats at McDonald’s at least once a year (I have kids, so duh!)
~~Takes a shower for approximately 10.4 minutes a day~~ (not that long-I figure closer to 5)
Never sings in the shower (who needs that?)
Lives in a house, not an apartment or condominium. (House)
Has a home valued between $100,000 and $300,000 (yup)
Has fired a gun (yup, but it’s been a while)
~~Is between 5 feet and 6 feet tall~~ (6′2″+)
~~Weighs 135 to 205 pounds~~ (eek–more like 210)
Is between the ages of 18 and 53 (37)
Believes gambling is an acceptable entertainment option (sure)
~~Grew up within 50 miles of current home~~ (Not even)

Via Deb at AV and originally from Absinthe and Cookies.

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(This week’s FFM comes via Paul Brewer)

FFM: Banned Books

Which of the The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 have you read?

Here’s my list, almost all of which I read in High School.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

We own these

Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine (my son is reading some of these)
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (my wife owns a copy from her teaching days, I think)
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

I read excerpts in a literature class once

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

We saw the movie, does that count?

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

And can someone explain to me why this is on the list?

Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford

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Let’s go pop culture this week, shall we?

I am using an old “Today’s List” as the basis of this week’s FFM:

The Worst Movies I Have Ever Seen

1. Howard the Duck. This one was so bad it that is the only movie I walked out on after paying for it. It was a George Lucas production, so I figured it would be good. Of course, that was back when I didn’t realize that Lucas wasn’t all he was cracked up to be.

It may be the worst movie I have ever seen.

2. Johnny Dangerously Rented this one when my wife and I were dating. So bad my Dad went to find something else to do and we turned it off soon thereafter. It was crude, odd and not funny.

3. Adventures in Babysitting. I remember we stayed and watched the whole thing. I remember it made little sense. Above all I never understood why the little girl was so enamored of the Marvel Comics version of Thor.

4. Mars Attacks. President Jack Nicholson’s line “Can’t we all just get along” was funny, but that was in the commerical. The rest of the movie flippin’ reeks.

5. Red Dawn. The absolute worst Cold War movie ever made. The take over of the US by the USSR/Cubans was silly–and the idea that a bunch of High School kids could fight back was utterly unbelievable. For some reason the only thing I directly remember is the Cuban General saying “Vaya con Dios” to someone. I don’t remember who–just that it was supposed to be really dramatic.

6. Tarzan. The Bo Derek one–man, that was one BORING movie.

(Dis)honorable mentions:

Worst Trek flick: Star Trek V–surely the worst Trek film ever made, although it beats watching a re-run of And the Children Shall Lead. Four words: “It’s me! It’s Sybok!” (’nuf said).

Worst Star Wars film: that’s a toughie, but I will go with The Phantom Menace–surely the worst of that set, although the other two prequels were pretty bad.

Worst Indiana Jones romp: The Temple of Doom–it just did not live up to the other two by a long shot.

Worst Bond movie: Is it even close? On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. George Lazenby replaces Sean Connery? You have got to be kidding me.

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Here’s a straightforward FFM: Favorite Words (that you actually use)

Ten Favorite Words (That I Actually use on a Regular Basis)

1. ubiquitous (simply a cool word)

2. writ large (ok two words, but used together)

3. indeed (I was into “indeed” long before I knew what a Glenn Reynolds was–I think it is a Spock influence, in fact)

4. vis-a-vis

5. exigencies

6. cognizant

7. synergy (I’ve noticed I have been using this one a lot lately)

8. penultimate

9. albeit

10. Spiffy

Honorable mentions (words I like, but don’t necessarily use all the time):

-vituperative

-loquacious

-gregarious

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Today’s Friday Fun Meme Challenge is based on a post I saw over at the Public Brewery a while back, wherein Paul suggested that Mark Twain probably would’ve been a great blogger.

So, here’s the challenge: name five people (or more) from the past whom you think would’ve been great bloggers. Bonus points if your list is thematic.

My list is Revolutionary Era Bloggers:

1. Benjamin Franklin. Clearly Poor Richard would’ve had a blog.

2. Alexander Hamilton. Not only was he a prolific writer, he was passionate and probably would’ve been the person on my list most likely to revel in the instantaneous nature of blogging–perhaps to his detriment at times.

3. Thomas Paine. Forget pamphlets, let’s go blogging!

4. John Adams/Abigail Adams. Certainly they both were prolific writers. They would have preferred the “personal journal” style of blogging, one would think.

5. Samuel Adams. Surely blogging would have been a fantastic forum for this Son of Liberty to decry the injustices foisted on the Colonies by the British.

6. Madison: I imagine his would be a more scholarly type of blog.

I will also say that there ain’t no way George Washington would’ve had a blog–too stoic/guarded for such public writing. Further, I can’t see Jefferson with a blog, as he seems to have preferred more deliberate writing–plus I don’t think his sensibilities would have allowed him to take the negative public feedback that can come with blogging.

So, whatcha got? Philosophers? Authors? Other politicians? Comedians?

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