FERRERMAN- AGAIN?

 Last night was "The Running Man" night here at the Home for Unwed Ferrermen, where I am chief cook and bottle washer. I have seen the original (1987) with former California governor, Arnold Swartzenegger, a few times over the years, and liked it. He's a horrible actor, but the story was good and the cast was bolstered with the lovely Maria Conchita Alonso (AY CARUMBA!) and Richard Dawson was perfect as the game show host, Damon Killian. Other guest stars like, Jim Brown, Mick Fleetwood, Dweezil Zappa(!) and Jessee Ventura, a former Minnesota governor make up the cast. It is set in a 2017 dystopian America that has become totally owned and operated by corporations ( IF  you can fathom that ever happening) where people live pretty much like one would expect republicans would expect a perfect society to be. There are the corporate super rich, the well-off middle-class consumers and the poor standing around burning 55-gallon drums, trying to stay warm in ragged clothing. Yea...

 Kinda piggybacking on my recent "The Deciders" piece here, of several posts ago. I still look at the show, because it's there, and I find it oddly relevant to normal, non-naked dating. You see, people are being honest on this show about what they  want in a love interest. That's good. Honesty is good to a fault. It doesn't make you right, except in the context of you being you. Where people go wrong is when they try to speak for their own gender, race, political party or etc. and etc. That is disingenuous and only occasionally on the mark.   Back in the 90's/00's there was a pretty popular men's magazine called "Maxim". There was also a sister publication- "Stuff". Neither were nudie mags like Playboy or Penthouse (which were pretty much on their way out thanks to the growing internet) but instead were pics of beautiful, scantily clad models and stuff about cars and girls that were of interest to somewhat sophisticated young, strai...

Did you ever watch "Gomer Pyle USMC"? How about "Forrest Gump" with Forrest and his buddy, Bubba? You had to look at these shows and think they were just too over-the-top to be true. How could those three-room temperature IQ men ever make it in the military?! And the other "Private Pyle", Vincent D'Onofrio's character in "Full Metal Jacket. That sure didn't end well. Clearly, he did not belong in a combat-centric outfit like the Marines! Ridiculous that anyone would conceive this was plausible! Well, former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara did. He was the creator of "Project 100,000". You probably never heard of that. I hadn't until yesterday. He was Secretary from 1961 to 1968. The Vietnam war had never gone well for the US. It was all body counts and victories that went nowhere for the Americans who had fought and sacrificed during the very righteous war in Europe and the Pacific that had such an obvious storyline to i...

Yes, I know  we are not supposed to take the comments section seriously. They are the domain of bots and trolls, home to vitriol and poor spelling, whether it be Facebook, Twitter or Walmart on-line. I have gotten two emails from Walmart applauding me for a review I wrote about an item that I received that "Did not work", noting that my review had received hundreds of views, and encouraging me to make more! I write pretty well and could have gone to town on that review, probably burying Walmart in the process, but it wasn't worth it. These days bots are processing complaints, and bots not being from around here... sarcasm and creative writing are obviously lost on them.  It is similar with bots and allegedly human maga trolls, particularly on the WGN Chicago site and what's left of newspapers in my Northern Illinois vicinity that I find on my Facebook feed. There is always talk of "NO KINGS" rallies to be held, and maga- the world's most practical, no-no...

 Back in the 80's, I was friendly with a coworker, a cook named, "Sami". He was a happy, friendly guy which is fairly unusual amongst line cooks and chefs. All that heat back there really does something to their social skills. But not Sami. He was from Romania. His English was good. His thinning, black hair, pleasant demeanor and his eastern European accent reminded me of the comedian, Yakoff Smirnoff who was fairly popular at the time. Sami was a pretty good cook too. If I had to work Sunday mornings, the best part of that was the excellent scrambled eggs they served, which were free to me. I asked Sami how he and the guys created such delicious eggs. Did they add milk, water- anything special to make them so delightfully soft? Nope. Add nothing, he told me. Really? Yes. Just cook them, low heat. No problem. I can manage a soft scramble at home, but I've never been able to make them as good as him.  One night I was out for drinks with Sami and his Mexican wife, Danie...

Having gotten caught up on other bingeworthy shows, I decided to see what the hullaballoo was all about with HBO's, "Euphoria". I'm never on time with any hit show and this series, first airing in 2019, is no exception. I thought it was more current than that. It is  sorta, as it's official third season begins this coming April. Doing the math, it began six years ago, and it seems to me that it should be in season six by now with ordinary television accounting. All I can figure is that it is an expensive show to produce and, since it's so gloriously cinematic in its presentation, it takes time and money to do each episode.  My family grew up on TV. Back when we used to all get together before mom passed, and we broke up into camps; pro-Laurie (the oldest) and anti-me (middle child/oldest son) my siblings used to talk about hit TV shows all the damn time. I was usually lost in these conversations. Even if I had cable, I was using it for sports more than any com...

 I have never for a moment believed that the National Rifle Association (NRA) seriously viewed themselves as anything but a business, out to make as much money as possible. They could argue that the design of the Second Amendment was to arm American citizens against a tyrannical government- and they did- but it was all marketing to sell guns, ammo and gun related accessories. Like many advertising campaigns do, as it grows it tends to go in different directions as it succeeds in the marketplace. From its humble beginnings as a post-Civil War organization whose aim was to teach northern boys to be the marksmen that southern boys were at the time, to a non-profit, multibillion dollar 'gun rights' organization that owns most of congress. Quite the uniquely American success story.  For the last several decades the NRA has been focusing on the notion that if a tyrannical government took hold in the United States, their members would be the citizen militias that stood against tyrann...