Duets sometimes soar, othertimes they crash hard to the earth. Some just haunt you forever.
The latter is how the oddball Christmas combination of Bing Crosby and David Bowie still hits me. Recorded in September on 1977, Bing Crosby's 42nd and final Christmas special aired on November 30th, 1977.
Bringing Bowie on was was Bing's attempt to make his career more mainstream, more normal. Instead, the glam-rocker's duet with the legendary crooner Crosby resulted in one of the strangest moments of both of their careers.
Agreed. Have a listen for yourself and check out some of the other odd duets I've dug up.
I can't say I'm a big proponent of antibacterial hand sanitizer. I feel like you're killing the germs on your hands, but you just end up with dead germs on your hands, because you don't wash them off.
Then again, when it's all you have, I say go for it.
I especially say go for it when you're heading out to the mall for holiday shopping. There's a new report that lists the germiest places at the mall and here they are:
Restroom sinks
Food Court tables
Escalator handrails
ATM keypads
Toy stores
Makeup samples
Gadget shops
Fitting rooms
What's worse is that it's the clothes you're trying on is what makes fitting rooms filthy. They say people's dead skin and sweat that left behind after they try on clothes are perfect breeding grounds for bacteria growth. YUCK!
Apologies if you were eating food and reading this.
There was a statistic that stuck out in my head this morning.
According to a new report from the National Retail Federation, gift cards are the #1 request Christmas gift for the 5th year straight. They say 80% of people will be buying one.
The study also said 26% feel gift cards are an impersonal gift.
So...according to their numbers: 6% of the people who will be buying gift cards are purposely buying a gift that they feel is impersonal.
Does this make sense to anyone? Are people buying gifts to spite the recipient of the gift? Doesn't that negate the point of getting a gift?
Personally, I think any gift you give should be tailored to the recipient and any gift you receive should be met with a "thank you." That is unless its a gift that has something to do with the "Twilight" franchise. In that case, you should shun the giver relentlessly, because they obviously think very little of you.
Remember this scene from A Few Good Men. Of course you do:
I found this reworking of the speech with a little nod to deer hunters on the opening weekend of the hunt.
Replay the video and read this version along. The source is unknown:
People, we live in a world that has forests, and those forests have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Bambi, and you curse the deer hunters. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know.
That Bambi's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that tree stand, you need me on that tree stand! We use words like honor, code, loyalty.
We use these words as the backbone of a life spent shooting something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it.
I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a drive. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.
According to a new survey from Consumer Reports, we're going to spend about 19 hours shopping for Christmas this year.
WHAT!?!?!! 19 hours. I'm probably close to 10 hours, if you include researching things online.
Here's some of the other stats that came out of their report...
15% of consumers say they'll be spending more than last year.
More than half of shoppers had yet to start looking for gifts as of Nov. 7, though one in four Americans plan to hit the stores on Black Friday (Nov. 25).
56% percent of shoppers expect in-store deals to be as good as those offered online this year.
18% percent say they’ll rely on smart phone or tablet computer apps to get the inside scoop on deals.
Most shoppers still find out about holiday bargains the old-fashioned way: through newspaper ads, by television or radio commercials, and reading through promotional flyers.
Here's how much time we plan to spend on other holiday related activities:
8.5 hours traveling (vs. 7.4 hours last year)
13.7 hours partying with family and friends (vs. 15.2 hours).
3 hours waiting in line.
3 hours wrapping gifts.
We're also going out to do our shopping too:
Only 5% of Americans plan to purchase gifts exclusively online.
44% say they’ll do all of their shopping at actual stores.
19% of consumers say plan to shop online with their smart phones.
13% plan to use a tablet computer.
When it comes to choosing gifts, who do we trust?
85% of shoppers rely on advice from family and friends.
In my opinion, the 2003 Will Ferrell movie Elf is about as close as we've gotten to a modern Christmas classic. It's one of two holiday movies that I love to watch this time of year, including Bad Santa.
Here's part of the reason why Elf is modern movie magic:
I don't know about you, but if it's not a real tree, it's just not Christmas to me.
In my family, it seemed like going out to the Christmas Tree farm was a big gigantic family ordeal each year. Looking back it's also one of my fonder child hood memories. It makes me a little sad that more families aren't having that same experience.
According to a new survey says 60% of the country's households plan on decorating their homes for the holidays but only 22% have actually finished, while 51% said they have at least started the process.
Artificial trees are the preference for 65% while 31% opt for the real thing. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, holiday revelers purchased almost 33 million live Christmas trees at an average price of nearly $42.00 each.
The survey also found 60% of respondents plan to decorate their homes while 34% have no decoration aspirations what-so-ever. The survey suggests a gender gap in preparedness, with 55% of women who plan to decorate getting started compared to 48% of men.
Oh well, different strokes ( & pine needles) for different folks.
For the first time, in a long time, I did not make it to the movie theater over the weekend.
Don't worry, the apocalypse isn't next.
I was just busier than normal. All Friday (when i usually go catch a flick) we were wrapping up Thanksgiving On The Mayflower. By the way, thanks for helping us set a record with actual food donations this year of over 13,000 pounds!
It's great to know that we all helped make this holiday season a little brighter for some area families in need. Check out the Community Action Coalition and see what they do.
In any case here's the weekend breakdown chart from Box Office Mojo. i've already seen Tower Heist and Paranormal 3. The rest look weak.
Not to take the focus away from Veteran's Day, but tomorrow the world will turn it up to 11.
11/11/11
That's what behind a new effort to name the day in honor of Nigel Tufnel, the lead guitarist of Spinal Tap. (No, I will not acknowledge that they are a fictional band.)
To quote the legendary bit of dailogue from 1984's This Is Spinal Tap:
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and... Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten.
The support is growing. For one, there's "The Nigel Tufnel Day Appreciation Society and Quilting Bee in Favor of Declaring & Observing November 11, 2011 as Nigel Tufnel Day (in Recognition of Its Maximum Elevenness)" (website here).
And there's also a steadily-growing Facebook group called "Declare 11/11/11 Nigel Tufnel Day," with almost 15,000 members and counting (here).
There's also an "official" 11/11/11 t-shirt you can buy here.
I'm gonna share something personal with you here. It's a email exchange that I had with my girlfriend Vanessa on Monday.
A couple things to note. We had previously discussed that I would go to the grocery store and pick up some items, so I asked her to send me a list. You should also know that she has a very dry and snarky sense of humor and part of her job is customer service.
I reversed the order of the emails, so the conversation begins at the top:
From: Vanessa Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 To: Adam Elliott Subject: Grocery List
cucumbers
tomatoes
lettuce
avocado
half/half
yogurt
shampoo (take a picture of what they have available) From: Adam Elliott
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 To: Vanessa
Subject: RE: Grocery List
No hello? Thank you? How’s your day? Adam From: Vanessa
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 To: Adam Elliott
Subject: RE: Grocery List
Dear Adam,
I am truly sorry for the lack of greeting in my correspondence to you. I strive for stellar customer satisfaction and I am saddened I did not achieve that in this case.
Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Please know I will do better going forward as your business is important to me as is our continued amicable relationship. Again, I am so sorry for the lack of greeting in my correspondence.
Feel free to contact me with any additional comments or concerns. Your feedback is always welcome.
Have a wonderful day.
Warm Regards, Vanessa
From: Adam Elliott
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 To: Vanessa
Subject: RE: Grocery List
I'm feeling some sarcasm. Adam From: Vanessa
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 To: Adam Elliott
Subject: RE: Grocery List
Dear Adam,
Please know my words come from a place of the deepest sincerity and utter respect for you. Your opinion and satisfaction matter to me greatly. So please let me know how I can better serve you.
Alright, It's actually Christopher Knight's 54th. Think he ever get's tired of being called Peter Brady?
Today, I though we'd give Christopher nothing but respect with true facts about his life thanks to IMDB.
Also, there's a sweet hero worship video of him below too.
In 1996, was diagnosed with lifelong ADD (attention deficit disorder).
Had worked in marketing since 1987.
After his "The Brady Bunch" (1969) fame he made a success guesting in many TV shows during the late 70s such as "One Day at a Time" (1975), "The Six Million Dollar Man: The Bionic Boy (#4.7)" (1976), "Happy Days" (1974), and "CHiPs" (1977).
He was the "best man" at "The Brady Bunch" (1969) co-star Barry Williams' wedding.
Ranked #20 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid Stars"
Bears a resemblance to Seth MacFarlane, the creator of "Family Guy"
He's quite the computer geek. Christopher works at Eskape Labs, a successful computer-technology company which he co-founded in 1998
Knight appeared on a special episode of The Weakest Link television show that featured the cast of the Brady Bunch squaring off against each other. In the end, Knight won the show with the proceeds ($49,000) going to his selected charity, Zero Population Growth.
Some credit goes to the motley crew of assembled thieves in Tower Heist for keeping it lively, but this movie is far from an Oceans 11. It’s even a reach to call this a heist film. It’s certainly not a comedy, so maybe we just call it an implausible heist movie. Then again if it really was Donald Trump they were stealing things from, I might feel better about it all.
The movie uses Trump Tower in New York as its central character, except it’s just named the “Tower” in this one. The building’s day-to-day operations are run by perfectionist Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) until he and the other employees find out that investor and penthouse resident Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) has swindled them out of their pension money.
Josh, with several other building employees hatch a plan to steal Shaw’s secret stash of cash. The idea is the employees know the building so well, they can pull off the heist unnoticed. Tea Leoni plays a FBI agent after Shaw, who is also sympathetic to Josh’s cause.
The unlikely criminal crew includes Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, Gabourey Sidibe and Eddie Murphy. Murphy finally ditches the “family movie” monkey he’s been carrying on his back for over a decade. His character Slide is a street wise small time thief who holds a clinic on Robbery 101 for the crew. A pleasant change, but not enough to carry the comic element.
For those with problems in high places, I won’t reveal the broad plot of how the heist goes down, but let’s say my vertigo kicked in once or twice.
Here’s one thing that seemed off. The story is very topical involving a top income earner who scams the working class out of their money. I somewhat expected a nod to be given to the Occupy Wall Street movement. The movie involves the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade from 2011, but at least there could have been a news headline appearing somewhere about the little people rising up.
Details on the new James Bond movie came out today. (Wheeee! #23!)
A press release gave a brief plot outline, saying Bond's loyalty to M is tested "as her past comes back to haunt her. "As MI6 (British intelligence) comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost."
Here's five cool things about the movie:
#5: Judi Dench returns at M. She has proved in reversing the gender role of this character actually made them more intriguing.
#4: Sam Mendes is directing. He's got a unique style that he brought to two movies I really loved. American Beauty and Away We Go.
#3: Skyfall - Way cool title. I'm guessing there's a superweapon called sky fall that may threaten everyone.
#2: The release of Skyfall in 2012 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Bond brand.
#1: Javier Bardem is the bad guy. He was sooooooo much a scary bad guy in the Coen Brothers 'No Country For Old Men." If he says "friend-o" in this Bond movie, I may scream in happiness like a school girl.
Yes, I am a James Bond fanatic, so here's another important Bond list: Best movie James Bond actors:
#6 - George Lazenby - Mr. One and Done. While On Her Majesty's Secret Service had some cool skiing action sequences, you never really got the feel for Bond.
#5 - Daniel Craig - I really didn't like the choice of Craig over Clive Owen, but Craig is growing on me.
#4 - Sean Connery - I know. Purists will rake me over the coals for this low ranking. The fact is Connery as James Bond was not so much a ladies man as he was a sexist. I'm still a bit shocked watching Goldfinger and Dr. No these days.
#3 - Timothy Dalton - He's an underrated James Bond, but I thought The Living Daylights and License To Kill were thrilling.
#2 - Roger Moore - Oh yeah. The first James Bond I was introduced to. He was smooth and satirical. He also fought Jaws (Richard Kiel,) who I got to interview once.
#1 - Pierce Brosnan - He fit a tux better than the rest. Brosnan was charming, calm, cool and collective on top of being silky and smooth. Do I have a man crush on him? Maybe.
Ever hear the Bill Cosby routine about feeding chocolate cake to his kids for breakfast?
Here's the delicious birthday breakfast that Scott & Heather provided for me this morning. If my blood-sugar content wasn't nearing 95% this morning, I would demand Heather deliver on the birthday cookies too.
.png)
It's about that time. Do you have a favorite show you like to watch around the holidays?
Duets sometimes soar, othertimes they crash hard to the earth. Some just haunt you forever. 
I can't say I'm a big proponent of antibacterial hand sanitizer. I feel like you're killing the germs on your hands, but you just end up with dead germs on your hands, because you don't wash them off.
There was a statistic that stuck out in my head this morning.
According to a new survey from Consumer Reports, we're going to spend about 19 hours shopping for Christmas this year. 
For the first time, in a long time, I did not make it to the movie theater over the weekend.
Not to take the focus away from Veteran's Day, but tomorrow the world will turn it up to 11. 
I'm gonna share something personal with you here. It's a email exchange that I had with my girlfriend Vanessa on Monday.
Happy 54th Birthday Peter Brady.
