Monthly Archives: March 2009

Everybody’s Got A Laughing Place

When I was a young’n, back before my family had color TV, we had records or LPs. Among my favorite records back then were the Disneyland Records with songs from Disney movies. My mother says that she believes we belonged to a Disney club where they sent us albums every few weeks. Two of the ones I remember the most were from the movies The Boatniks and Song of the South.

The Boatniks

DisneyUncleRemusSongsAndsStories12InchLP

I don’t think I ever saw the movies to either one, but we had the soundtracks to them. As for the first one, I’ll just leave this trailer I found on Youtube for you:

…because I don’t think it warrants much more discussion than that, if even that.

As for Song of the South, however, I have learned since my childhood that the movie is quite a bit controversial because Joel Chandler Harris, the author of the Uncle Remus stories on which the movie is based, is considered a racist and Disney has not released the movie on DVD. However, an online movement is afoot to get Disney to rerelease it.

Now while I’ll leave the argument open as to whether or not the movie should be rereleased, I don’t know about you, but personally, I believe everybody needs a laughing place, especially lately with the world crashing down around us. Don’t we? So where’s yours?

More than a few of my favorite laughing places can be found at the following sites:

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

BlogStorm

Author’s note: Any racist comments will be deleted without…ahem…prejudice.

Thirsty Thursday: Tröegs Mad Elf

In Tuesday’s post, I joked about starting another alliterative-themed day, Thirsty Thursday, where I would review microbrews. So today, for one day only (because as I said Tuesday, I like girlie drinks normally), I am presenting Thirsty Thursday in the spirit of Review Spew.

Tröegs Mad Elf

This past winter, as I was watching the NFL playoffs at a local restaurant/bar because The Missus and I don’t have cable or satellite (we survive, though, on Netflix, thanks for asking), I decided one afternoon to try one of the said drinks pictured above.

I had heard it had a little more kick (11% alcohol by volume) than other beers and thought since I had walked to the restaurant/bar, I could handle whatever punch it packed, especially since I was going to be there for back-to-back playoff games.

So I order it and my first warning should have been that it came in a 21-ounce glass. However, I didn’t heed the warning and proceeded to quaff the beer as I would any other beer or Nyquil Cough Syrup, in other words, heartily, but with a little bit of trepidation because I usually make a face after drinking beer or Nyquil because of the bitterness (in case of the beer) and taste (in case of the Nyquil, even with cherry flavoring, it’s nasty).

I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have to make the face as the beer was as good as Tröegs’ website (click on photo above) advertised:

The combination of Cherries, Honey, and Chocolate Malts delivers gentle fruits and subtle spices.

Not only did it deliver that, but also a buzz that this lightweight drinker (I think the wife says “wuss” or “pansy” or “pantywaist”) couldn’t shake for the next few hours, forcing him not to have any more alcohol for the evening. It was like the alcohol was injected into my veins, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

As I stumbled up the sidewalk to home, I was still a little woozy like I feel after taking Nyquil at night and waking up the next morning, and the only two words (maybe three when I added the word “Batman!” for some reason) that could form in my consciousness were these:

Holy shit!

Unfortunately, you can only get this beer in November and December, but believe me who is Mr. Lightweight Wuss Pantywaist Pantywaist Beer Drinker, when I tell you that it is worth the wait, and you don’t need to insert this one anally to feel the full effects either (no, I kid you not, it’s the latest craze among college kids, according to The Missus, who is an EMT, and learned about it recently at an International Trauma Life Support class).

No, sir, just pour it down your gullet, or if you’re smarter than I am, sip this sweet libation hand crafted by the Tröegs Brothers, whose real names aren’t Tröegs (for the full story, see this page, which includes the real definition of Tröeg) to savor what they call quite appropriately on their site:

“a jolly and delicious beer for the holidays.”

My final analysis: a solid four-star rating and only deducted a star because I’m not a real beer connoisseur (I don’t even know if that word is the right word when you’re talking about beer, I think that only refers to wine — but I do know about the overuse of parentheses as you can tell that I used them in every single paragraph in this post, not counting quotes) and may be completely off-base here. Somehow I doubt it, though, because even in this 2004 Philadelphia Daily News column, it beat out the likes of similarly-named, punch-packing holiday ales: Victory Hop Wallop, Stone Double Bastard, Weyerbacher Insanity, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and Anchor Our Special Ale.

four stars

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blog-Storm

* Full disclosure: I was not paid by the Tröegs Brothers to write this review. Also I am not related to them and do not have stock in their company.

WTF (Mostly) Wordless Wednesday #14: Sit & Sleep

I was out walking today to the store to pick up my usual southwestern chicken salad at Weis when I saw this sign:

Sit & Sleep

Even though Weis is only about a mile from where we live, I thought as I was coming back that I was getting tired and wondered if I might go in and sit and sleep. That would be nice. I didn’t do it, but I thought it’s always good to know of the option.*

A couple of updates:

1. Moolah: Back in November, I wrote a post called “Moolah is back? For mwah? Naw” (click on photo below for link to post).

Moolah is back

Today I stopped by the store, The Farmer’s Daughters, where the original sign was and learned from co-owner Debbie Youmans (along with Danelle Fuller) that “moolah” is a special coupon the store has around Christmas time and the sign was to inform customers who were familiar with the program that it was back.

Here’s a photo of one of the moolahs:

Moolah 2

Personally, I just would have preferred if they had been handing out free money, even if it was in euros. I’m just saying. **

2. _____ Or Less: Last month, I used the photo below for a post (again click photo for original post) and today, as I was walking by, the sign still hadn’t changed. I guess all those things President Obama and Co. are doing really isn’t helping yet, is it? (Note to Merrill Guice of The Daily Egg for you and you only, this is not a rhetorical question, please feel free to leave your political analysis.)

Or Less 2

How do you know I didn’t use the same photo? Um. You don’t. Suspend your disbelief.

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

Blogerella

* Okay, actually, it’s a store that sells recliners, couches and mattresses, but it sure sounded good, didn’t it? For more information on the main store, which specializes in carpets, click the photo.

** But really if you’re in the area, stop by and visit The Farmer’s Daughters, where according to a brochure I picked up, you can find “antiques and old collectible items” along “with new home accessories, giving you lots of decorating ideas to make your home and hearth warm and inviting.” And naw, they didn’t give me moolah of any kind to say all this. Neither Chip’s nor The Farmer’s Daughters are paid advertisements (unfortunately).

Takeback Tuesday: All apologies

Oh, great, another alliterative themed day. I know that’s what you’re thinking.

I mean, this Unfinished Dude already has Sunday Shout-Out, Meandering Monday, WTF Wordless Wednesday, Flashback Friday and Superfluous Surfing Saturday (by the way, which he never uses) and now Takeback Tuesday. WTF indeed? What’s next? Thirsty Thursday where he reviews microbrews?

Well, don’t worry, my faithful followers and those of you new to this enterprise. No, not that Enterprise, this enterprise I call Unfinished Rambler.

First of all, I’m not a beer drinker, I drink girlie drinks. No, really. Ask The Wife, she drinks Guinness Stout, I drink blue drinks.

Second, it’s not often that I have to take something back (snicker, snicker) and apologize. But today that is just what I am going to be doing: taking back some of things I said or did (or what you might have thought I said or did anyway) and apologizing (or based on that last parethetical remark, pretending to apologize anyway).

So without further adieu, all apologies to the following individuals:

1. ettarose from Sanity On Edge: who thought from what I remember, because unfortunately neither you nor I can access all the hilarious and insightful comments posts prior to my “upgrade” to a new domain (working on it with JS-Kit), that I was making fun of gays when I wrote in a footnote to post about my days in musical theater in high school:

As for that “ahem” comment I made earlier in the post, strangely or is that queerly enough?, I’ve since learned that the friend who asked me to be in “The Music Man” and later went on to play Curly in “Oklahoma” was…ahem…well, he is letting his flag of many colors fly now, shall we say?

What I think is sad, though, is that he hasn’t returned to a class reunion since either; ostensibly because of how his ex-classmates, mostly a bunch of rednecks, might treat him. This post is for you, my friend, wherever you are.

In her comment, she said something to the effect that she thought it was sad that I cared what flag he flew. I believe she may have missed my point. The point was the second paragraph, and maybe I should have spelled it clearer than I did. To wit:

This post is a tribute to you, my friend, wherever you are and whatever your sexual orientation. I still would like to see you, no matter what flag you fly because you were a good friend in high school and I would like to “catch up” with you. If any of our ex-classmates have a problem with your sexual orientation, let them. I won’t and don’t.

Plus I have at least one homosexual friend (okay, she’s a friend of my wife’s) and I’ve even allowed Kids of Queers to advertise on my blog through Entrecard. So there, etta. ;-)

2. hate the book big time: who, speaking of gays, on a post on one of my other blogs in which I reviewed The Giver by Lois Lowry commented recently:

i hated this book so much it was so g@y and stupid now i have to do a book report on it this sux.

i’m sorry you hated the book so much and you thought it was so g@y that you had to use the @ sign to censor yourself and stupid and that you had to do a book report on it that probably also sucked and sux based on your impressive writing skills in evidence here.

3. Lisa, my sister, from Boondock Ramblings: whom I called on her cell phone during church and she wasn’t there to answer it and was subsequently embarrassed when she returned to the pew to find it sitting there as if someone had placed it there accusingly after rooting around in her purse to find it and turn it off because everybody in the whole church had turned around and was looking, as if to say, “Why don’t you shut off your cell phone in church, lady?” but the lady wasn’t there and as if that person who had left the phone there on the pew was saying, “How rude.”

Sorry, I called you on your cell phone, which you should have shut off in church, lady. How rude.

4. Merrill Guice from The Daily Egg: who took issue with the jumping off point for my St. Patrick Day’s post called Where’s My Freaking Pot of Gold? (complete with comments). I used AIG execs getting millions of dollars in bonuses to lead to a silly post about why the government is giving me a pot of gold.

The first part of the first of three well thought-out responses from Merrill, each one longer that the one before it, was this:

Ahh, listening to the liberal fascists on NPR again are you? Just remember that your brain is what it eats!

1. The reason we bailed out AIG, is so its counterparties wouldn’t fail, too. Most of them being European Banks. That’s why they are getting billions.

2. The reason AIG made bonuses to its financial products group is so they wouldn’t all run off and take hedge fund jobs and leave amateurs to sort out AIG’s derivative book.

I’m sorry that I used a jumping off point about which I obviously know nothing for a post that was meant completely as a lark. I’m sure this will lead Merrill to respond with a comment something to the effect that premises are especially important if trying to attempt a stab at political humor, which obviously said “stab” was a stab in the dark and completely off the mark.

Seriously, though, as I said in my last response to your last response:

I was mainly using the AIG situation as a jumping off point for a silly post, not an economics class, but I appreciate your intelligent replies about the AIG situation. Really.

I’m sure it was enlightening for readers of my blog as well, because I think really none of us know much about what’s going on. We get our information from soundbites from talking heads, don’t bother to take the time to really understand the situation and then joke about it.

For lighter fare from people not bothering to take the time to really understand any situation and joke about every situation, politically correct or not, please visit the following sites:

Humor-Blogs.com

Humor Bloggers

BlogStorm

P.S. Right before I hit “publish,” I realized I had typed quickly and put in “Where’s My Freaking Pot of God?” instead of “gold.” Imagine the apologies I would have had to be making then. I imagine the outcry: “Are you saying God can be put in a pot? Or are you equating marijuana with God?” Although that last point from what I’ve heard has merit, in that it can be pretty cosmic — um, from what I hear.