I'm A Patsy - Gotta Problem With That?

Saturday, January 29, 2011

“Raising Hope” – February 8, Tuesday, 9 – 9:30pm, on FOX

“Raising Hope” is finally back again with new episodes and crazy as ever! This week the episode is entitled “Romeo and Romeo” and is about Jimmy finding a friend with a child like his. Jimmy has missed not having friends with little kids, probably because those people are in high school where Jimmy should be. But in his grocery store where he works, Sabrina points out a kid who has a little boy the same age as Jimmy’s, and they meet and exchange phone numbers. Somehow they manage a play date over the phone although Jimmy has trouble with the phone – it’s a rotary phone so he can’t punch 1 when he’s supposed to. And Maw Maw cuts in on the other phone and keeps talking, so it’s quite difficult. But they get it done and Jimmy and baby Hope go over to the new friend’s house.

They are African American with a beautiful home and really, really expensive wine! Jimmy and his friend are playing with the kids and Jimmy says it’s nice you let your folks live with you, and the mother says no, that they let him live with them! So Virginia, Jimmy’s mom, comes to the door with her cleaning group to clean the house. They are all very surprised, to say the least, but the mother asks them all to sit down and not do the cleaning that day. So they drink all the wine and go home. Jimmy has asked them all over for dinner, and no one wants to do it, but it’s all arranged so they have to. Virginia has saved all the wine bottles from their new friend’s home, so she empties her old bottles and pours the cheap wine into them.

They discover at dinner that they have a lot in common. Both couples had babies in high school: Virginia and Burt’s baby was a prom baby and the other couple’s was a homecoming baby. Burt said he probably should have spent more time in biology class. He did put a condom on a banana in class but it made the banana taste bad and obviously did him no good. They put MawMaw in the bedroom looking for salt water taffy they had stuck under the mattress. That kept her busy the entire time. Since they had so much in common, they made a date for a barbecue the next week. About that time, Jimmy and his new friend came flying into the house, fighting each other and falling all over the place. They were fighting over a girl naturally. The company finally left and the woman complimented Virginia on her choice of wine – she said it must have cost $2000! Apparently that’s what she pays for that wine.

So the parents felt good. Burt had a new friend and Virginia had someone who liked her fake wine. Jimmy had a new friend – he’d make up with him before the barbecue, I’m sure.

This was a funny episode . . . but they all are. So watch it!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

“Justice accused of failing to list wife’s income” – Sunday “Oregonian,” January 23, 2011


What? How could that be with all of our Supreme Court justices sworn to uphold the law. Is that really true? It be true! Good old Clarence Thomas pulled a fast one and reported spousal income as “none” for five years between 2004 and 2007. Wife Virginia, the blond by his side, was paid $686,589 by the Heritage Foundation which is an ultra conservative organization. Virginia is a longtime conservative activist which is no big surprise. She is also a little crazy! On October 9, 2010, at 7:31am on a Saturday, twenty years after Anita Hill spoke at the confirmation hearing for Clarence to the Supreme Court and told how he had sexually harassed her many times, his wife called Anita’s office and left a message asking her to publicly apologize for her mistake and straighten things out. What was that all about! Is she really crazy? You’d think she’d know there was no way in hell that that would ever happen.

Virginia keeps herself busy, doing things other than making stupid phone calls. She is active in Liberty Central which opposes what she characterizes as the leftist “tyranny” of the Obama administration and congressional democrats. There have been questions because of the unusual circumstances of a spouse of a sitting Supreme Court justice drawing a salary from a group financed by anonymous donors.

It seems that those two can get away with just about anything they want. I’m wondering why that is. There could be many reasons but it wouldn’t be socially and politically correct to mention them. I didn’t like Clarence when he was put on the court and never could figure out how he managed to weasel his way onto it. I dislike him even more now. Is that the only job in the country that is for life? What a shame. Possibly no one else would hire him at the time with all of his sexual harassment exploits finally out in the open. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens next.

Friday, January 21, 2011

GLEE! GLEE! GLEE!

Get ready for the big day! Super Bowl XLV will be airing on Fox on February 6, and immediately following will be a new GLEE starting at approximately 7:30 – 8:30 pm PT, depending upon just when the game ends. This is a brand new episode for the “New Directions” glee club. Mr. Schuester (Mathew Morrison) and Coach Beiste (Dot Marie Jones) come up with a plot to bring the warring glee club and football team members together. However, Sue Sylvester (never one to be left out of anything) comes up with a dangerous plan to bring home a trophy for her Cheerios, cheerleading group, at the Nationals contest. The New Directions glee kids do Michael Jackson’s hit “Thriller,” which should be a treat for all of us.

And that’s not all! On Tuesday, February 8, 8 – 9pm PT, GLEE returns to its regular time with another all-new episode, “Silly Love Songs.” The glee club sets up a kissing booth for Valentine’s Day at McKinley High. But it doesn’t work as it should, and there are broken hearts before it is all over.

These should be two great episodes so watch them!

I’ve been wondering . . . what is going to happen as these kids (they’re all in their twenties now) continue on. Will they ever graduate from high school? They’re all over each other now, so will they bed each other many times as the years fly by? I find this very interesting and a little salacious.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Golden Globe Awards - 2011

I watched the whole thing last night and was not terribly impressed. It was good, but didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat. I liked a lot of the awards and some I didn’t really care. I will never understand “The Social Network” and all the hype over it. However, I didn’t see it, so who am I to say? It apparently didn’t portray Mark Zuckerberg the way he actually is, but that didn’t seem to matter. Enough people liked it so it must have had some redeeming qualities. Or maybe the foreign press doesn’t really understand us. They are foreign, you know.

I have never been a fan of Ricky Gervais. He’s a funny guy, but I’ve always found him to be a little full of himself. I thought he crossed the line when he introduced Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, Robert Downey, Jr. and Bruce Willis. And the statement he made at the very end when he closed with “Thank God for making me an atheist.” What was that about? It was totally unnecessary.

I loved seeing all the dresses. I probably could do without all the awards and just see the women walking back and forth . . . and the men too. They weren’t too bad! But the one dress I loved was Emma Stone’s. I’ve never seen her before, but that dress was so simple and beautiful. It was done by Calvin Klein and boy, did he do a good job! Whatever happened to Helena Bonham Carter? She looked like someone had thrown a bunch of wild material at her in the hopes that it would stick. And it did! She was an absolute mess. And two different colored shoes?? She says her daughter picked them for her. I doubt that my daughters would do that to me. And if they did, I’d ground them for years.

The seating arrangements seemed a little off. The tables were so close together that people had to try and find their way through a sort of maize. I think they put the people they thought would win right up front, but those that were surprises were in the back. I’ve never seen it so mixed up.

I liked seeing Annette Bening win an award. I saw that movie and thought she was very good. Julianne Moore was up for that award too as they played a married couple. Julianne was also very good. But whenever I see Julianne now I remember how she was when she played Alec Baldwin’s girlfriend in “30 Rock.” She had a Boston accent, or rather she tried to use a Boston accent, and I thought it came across very badly. I can’t seem to get that out of my mind – I hope I can before I ever see her again as it really spoils her performance for me as that’s all I think about when I see her. Possibly there’s something wrong with me!

All in all, I think it was a pretty good evening. I watched “Brothers and Sisters” after the Globes. What a weird, silly little show! I can’t believe that family and all that goes on. I won’t be watching again!

I forgot to mention the one award that I was excited about. That was GLEE for best television series - comedy or musical. I love that show; it has made me cry nearly every time I've watched it. Maybe that doesn't sound good, but I can't help myself when I hear some of the songs and the way they present them. I'm not alone in feeling that way I've found out. I was also very pleased with Jane Lynch and Chris Colfer winning. They highly deserved the honors. I expect we'll hear more from them next year.

Friday, January 14, 2011

“House” – winter premiere on Fox

“House” starts with its winter premiere, “Larger than Life” on January 17, Monday, 8 – 9pm. The episode begins with a horrific scene in a subway station. A man rescues someone on the tracks and then is taken to the hospital where House’s group tries to find out what is bothering him besides being shaken up just a bit! This turns into a very interesting problem throughout the show, but there is another story, or rather, a couple other stories. Cuddy’s mother comes to visit. Murphy Brown is back!! Candice Bergen plays her mother and she’s a hard one to handle. House has to go to dinner at Cuddy’s with her mother, and there is a very funny scene during the dinner. Cuddy’s mother can be a bitch, but everything turns out well in the end.

There are many different problems with the doctors on the team, but they will all be worked out eventually. This show is always very complicated and exasperating, but it holds your interest. This is a good premiere. I’ll be watching again.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011


Christmas at the compound

This Christmas Cindy’s family came down from Tacoma to spend Christmas with me. There were Cindy, Mick, Pat (grandson), Nick (grandson) and April (Bull Mastiff). I hadn’t seen my grandsons in a long time, and they had changed so much. They were taller, slimmer and better looking! April was just as big and lumbering as she was the last time I saw her. It was so good to have family around me at Christmas.

I cooked dinner for us and that was interesting. I had a rib roast and I wanted it rare, but I had to cook other dishes also. Cindy helped and we managed to get everything on the table. I have a small table that seats four people. We had five people and a huge dog sitting at the table! April didn’t have a chair, but her head was at the table as you can see from the picture. Somehow everyone managed to eat a meal – even April. April is a real sweetheart. She adores Cindy and follows her everywhere – even the bathroom. While I was cooking dinner, April would be in the kitchen with Cindy and me, and she’d sniff my butt! Cindy would say, “April’s sniffing your butt,” and she’d shoo her away. But she always came back. It didn’t bother me. I think that’s a sign that someone likes you. For dessert, I think they were expecting pie, but there was no pie. I had made Christmas cookies that were covered with icing with floofies on top. But they found chocolate chip cookies in the freezer which I had for them also. Chocolate chip cookies are best eaten right out of the freezer when they are sort of chewy as they start to thaw. The guys went crazy over them. Cindy also loved them and managed to find a sack of them I had hidden way back in the freezer for my hair dresser, Steve, who likes them also. They cleaned out the sack and then they were all gone. So I had to make more of them for my hair appointment last Saturday.

That evening we watched “Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps” with Michael Douglas. Cindy and I didn’t think it was that good. I don’t understand all the money talk, probably because I don’t have any money. And watching a couple of hours about money being hidden, misspent, lost, earned or swindled really doesn’t interest me. And all those people with their hedge funds? I hope they all go down the toilet sometime soon – their hedge funds, that is.

Christmas night we slept all over the place. Pat ended up on the floor by me where I sleep on the couch. He had his alarm set for 5am at he was going fishing! So he got up and took off – no breakfast for him. I made breakfast for the rest of us and pretty soon I was all alone again. I just wish Teri and her family could have been here, but I think we’ll all be together next Christmas. I had a wonderful time and hope my family did too.

In the top picture is Cindy, April and Pat at dinner. In the bottom picture is Nick and Cindy showing off the white, fluffy sweater Teri sent her.

Friday, January 07, 2011

“The Chicago Code” – new Fox show

This will be premiering on February 7, Monday at 9 – 10PM on Fox. The executive producer, Shawn Ryan, was from Chicago and this was his dream to be able to shoot a film entirely in Chicago. They were fortunate enough to get the okay from Chicago to do that. They shoot exteriors 6 days out of the 8-day shoot which enables them to show a lot of the territory in and around the city. Shawn was executive producer of “Terriers,” “Lie to Me” and “The Shield” which were all my favorites.

This is a show about police officers who delve into politics, corruption, family, greed and all those things that make a show interesting. Everyone knows Chicago was always corrupt and probably still is. So these cops are fighting a tough battle. The new police superintendent, Jennifer Beals, was put in that position by Alderman Gibbons (Delroy Lindo) who is a real scumbag. He put her in that position to act as his puppet, but she’ll have none of that. She gets together with her old partner (Jason Clarke) and secretly starts their own task force to fight corruption when Gibbons turns her down for help. Gibbons runs the city and is more powerful than the mayor so they have to watch their step.

This premiere episode shows a surprising amount about each character so you’ll know them a little better the next time it’s on. I like that they did that, and I found it exciting and very interesting. I like “cop” shows, and this one has promise. I kept waiting for the water to be dumped on Jennifer, but I guess that was from another time. I hope you’ll watch this show; I know I will.

Thursday, January 06, 2011


Product Placement

During the past few years, I’ve become quite aware of products shown in movies and television programs. This has probably gone on for some time, but I’m not a very observant person and don’t always take note of things. But lately there is so much being written about it, and I really noticed it in “American Idol” the few times I watched. There was coca cola sitting around everyplace. You see people eating certain cereals, juices, bread – you name it, it’s been featured someplace. We get so used to it we don’t pay any attention, but you wonder how much money is made from these placements and by whom.

I’ve written about the birds that come to my deck that I feed all the time. I love them and they seem to like my deck. It all started in the winter of 2008 when this one little sparrow would sit in the snow looking in at me. So I started feeding him and he came every day. He was always alone and I felt a kinship with him. I named him Larry – I name all my animals Larry. That started when Cindy had a big dog named Larry that was a wonderful dog that we all loved. I even have Larry the dog in my profile picture on Facebook. I keep my birdseed in a container that you can see through to the birdseed, but I feed them in a big pot that’s filled with dirt. The seed is on top of the dirt naturally. There’s a squirrel around here that comes up on my deck and eats the birdseed. I throw empty plastic milk bottles at him, but he still comes.The other day, I put a sack over my birdseed container because the squirrel kept crawling up on the chair and looking at the birdseed. I think he was trying to figure out a way in. So I put a Safeway sack over it as I save the sacks after I shop at Safeway. I then noticed one of my little birds that I feed, sitting on top of the sack and just looking around at the world. Now many of the birds use the sack as a sort of viewpoint where they can sit and see all over. I managed to get a picture of one of the birds which I used for this blog. And then it struck me! Why couldn’t I use that Safeway picture as an advertisement for Safeway and do blogs about it. Of course, Safeway would have to pay me for my services. I would have to change the sack frequently as the birds seem to like to poop on it – I think they like to poop every place. I’m going to have to give this some thought. I’ll bet Safeway has never been approached by someone like me with such a good marketing idea. I could write blogs about going grocery shopping and what sales Safeway had that day. I’d have to have the picture put on a white sweat shirt so it would be noticeable. I don’t know what I’d charge for my services so I’d probably have to get an agent. I must stop now as I’m getting excited! I’ll have to settle down and think seriously about all of this.

After thinking about it last night, I heard about Ted Williams who was homeless and jobless and stood on a corner in Ohio someplace with a sign asking for money. Someone who knew about radio announcing stopped one day and took a video of him making announcements. His voice was beautiful, and this guy put the video on the internet where it got a gazillion hits. He now has many job offers and has been on every television show imaginable. So maybe that’s the way to go although I can’t see myself doing that. But it’s something to fall back on.