NaBloPoMo 2010 Day 28 -- RIP Leslie Nielsen

Growing up in the '70s, there are certain comedy classics that are a part of my DNA. That is, quotes from a handful of iconic comedies are indelibly fixed in my head. One of those quotes is "... and don't call me Shirley" whenever I hear someone say something like "Surely, that isn't how it happened" or "Surely, you can't be serious," I can't help but think:

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

That quote is one of many legendary lines uttered by Leslie Nielsen in the movie Airplane! -- one of those classic comedies from my childhood.

Nielsen died today.

And it's not that I admired the man or thought he stood for some cause that I support. It's just that his comedic roles made me laugh, and they remind me of my childhood. As I age, more and more people that "I grew up with" have taken their last breaths. It makes me pause.

The thing about Nielsen that I've always found humorous is the straight, deadpan way he delivered his hilarious lines. I like Stephen Colbert (his politics aside) for the same reason. Colbert owes a debt to Nielsen. Zach Galifianakis does too.

Many know Nielsen for his role as Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun series of movies. But that character was first in a short-lived TV series in the early '80s called Police Squad!

Here's a clip from one of those episodes. RIP Mr. Nielsen.

NaBloPoMo 2010 Day 24 -- Thanksgiving Preparations

I'm working on my oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies tonight. The first batch is in the oven as I start this post. So far so good. Here's what they look like in the bowl:

Here's what they look like cooling on the cookie rack. (Yes, I have a cookie rack for cooling my cookies. Shut up.)

Based on the required precautionary taste test, I think this batch will be well-accepted tomorrow at my parents' house.

Jen is a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies, but she hasn't asked me, until tonight, to set aside a portion of the cookie mix to add some raisins to. Done. We'll see how they turn out.

I enjoy Thanksgiving a lot. The football games. The food and drink. The time shared with family and friends. I'll probably have a list of things for which I am thankful tomorrow.

It would be funny (or odd) if Thanksgiving came with a tradition like this one: Slapsgiving!

And Slapsgiving II - The Revenge

Happy Thanksgiving!!

NaBloPoMo 2010 Day 21 -- UF's Rudy ... sort of

Yesterday was the last regular season home game for the Florida Gators. So it was senior day. All of the fourth- and fifth-year seniors were honored before the game started with a short ceremony as they ran out of the tunnel. This happened at a number of schools this weekend and more will happen next weekend as well. It's another one of those things that makes college football better than NFL football.

Many of you have seen the movie Rudy -- the story of the walk-on and undersized defensive tackle who sold his soul to dress for one football game at Notre Dame. The movie exaggerates the story, but he did actually get in the game and did record of sack. It's a great scene -- even if you hate anything Notre Dame.

During yesterday's win over Appalachian State, a four-year walk-on defensive tackle -- not particularly undersized -- but not the most gifted athletically -- lived his own scene from Rudy. Gary Beemer is a senior at UF. He's been a glorified tackling dummy for four years on the football team. But he gives 100% and has become a favorite of UF coach Urban Meyer. That must be the case or what happened yesterday would never have happened.

With UF winning by a healthy margin, Meyer approached Beemer on the sidelines and asked if he'd be interested in running the ball in a goal-line situation if UF was able to get the ball down that close. Stunned, Beemer told the coach that he was ready and willing.

Then late in the fourth quarter, the Gators did actually get the ball close -- inside the 10 yard line. And Beemer was told to run out to the huddle for the first down play. Here's what happened:

If that doesn't give you chills, you may be reading this from six feet under.

You can hear the fans cheering for Beemer as he runs out, and they yell louder when he actually gets the ball on first down. You can see his teammates -- many of them starters -- screaming for him and waving towels. That's a kid who's left an impression on his team.

But when he doesn't score on first down, Meyer doesn't abandon him. He calls the play for him a second time. He gets stopped short of the end zone again. But he gets a third shot, and he buries himself into the line and emerges on the other side of the end line clutching the ball all the way back to the sidelines.

But he's not just clutching a football. He's holding tightly to four years of blood, sweat and tears. And pain. And laughs. And shared meals. And a memory that will never leave the front of his mind. Oh, that more of us had opportunities to make moments we would hold so dearly.

NaBloPoMo 2010 Day 14 -- Video Sunday

Today has been a long, but restful day. We went to a meeting this afternoon that made me pause. I have a few thoughts rolling around in my noggin, but they're not fully formulated, so I won't bore you with them just yet. Everything has its time.

Today, I am going to pass along a few videos of interest to me. The first one reminds me of an old girlfriend. I married her, but this video reminds me of one of our dates while still in college. We went with a few other couples to a haunted house. Jen is not a fan of haunted houses or being scared or even being tickled. Recently, the talk show host, Ellen Degeneres, asked one of her writers to visit a haunted house for her Halloween episode. The woman hates being scared, but when sent into a haunted house, it's comedy gold!

We love the show "Friday Night Lights." The show originally was on NBC, but the last 2 seasons have originally aired on DirecTV. The current season is the last one of the series. This is the latest promotional video for the show. We love the drumline in this tune.

The drumline of that video reminds me of a drumline I saw this past summer in Glasgow. These guys were awesome!!

NaBloPoMo 2009 Day 23 -- Final Home Game

This is the end of an era. Saturday, the Florida Gators host their in-state rival, the Florida State Seminoles. In any given season, this game is huge for both schools. Like Auburn-Alabama or Georgia-Georgia Tech or Oregon-Oregon State or USC-UCLA. It's rivalry weekend all across the nation.

But in Gainesville, this week is the last home game for Tim Tebow. The Heisman-winning quarterback that many Gator fans like to call Superman will run out of the tunnel at The Swamp one last time. All season, Tebow has run out last in an effort to soak in his final season in a Florida uniform. It is senior day this weekend, but the crowd will be there to watch the guy who will go down as the greatest Gator of all time and perhaps, the greatest football player in college football history -- at least the greatest to this point.

The reality that this is the last home game for Tebow hit his coach today at Urban Meyer's Monday press conference. Below are the highlights of the press conference, but at about the 2:10 mark, he comments about the impact that Tebow has had -- not only on the football team, but also on him as a person. Coaches build strong ties with their players in all sports, but rarely does a player have an impact on a coach off the field. In Tebow's case, his consistent, unselfish, God-centered lifestyle impacted Meyer so much that he took his family on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Those things don't happen every day.

We can debate Tebow's abilities as a quarterback and whether he can succeed at the next level, but you can't debate the young man's ability to inspire his teammates, coaches, fans, friends, and even complete strangers.

NaBloPoMo 2009 Day 19 -- Irish Eyes Are Crying

The World Cup is in South Africa next summer (well, it'll be summer in the northern hemisphere anyway). On Wednesday, the last major group of teams qualified for the tournament. One match that has received a considerable amount of attention is the match between France and Ireland. It was actually the second match between the nations. They played two games, and the first one was in Ireland. The French won that match on Saturday 1-0. In Wednesday's match in Paris, the Irish captain, Robbie Keane, put his squad up 1-0. In the world of international football (i.e., soccer), that meant that the teams were tied 1-1 on aggregate with both teams having an away goal. At the end of the full 90 minutes, the teams went to overtime.

Overtime in these matches is two 15-minute halves, and they are not sudden death. Just before the end of the first half of overtime, France scored a goal to tie the match 1-1 (and go up 2-1 on aggregate). But as you can see in the clip below, Thierry Henry, the France captain yesterday, handled the ball -- twice -- before he passed it to William Gallas to head in from about 2 feet away. Anyone who's ever played soccer knows that only the goalkeeper can touch the ball with his hands.

Everyone on the Irish team saw the handball. The Irish coach saw the handball. Henry admitted after the match that he handled the ball. But somehow, the referee and the linesman missed the whole thing. From the replay, it does look like the ref was shielded by the Irish defender covering Henry, but the linesman looks to have a clear view of Henry from the other side of the field. I'm not an advocate of the conspiracy theories running around, but it is very odd.

There are many in Ireland and around the world calling for a replay of the match to make it fair, but even if you take away Gallas's goal, the score was 1-1, and there was another half of overtime to go. France could've scored in the second half. A tied result at the end of overtime would've led to penalty kicks to decide the winner. I'll take France at home in any such shoot-out. It's an unfortunate end to the match, but it's not the first time a handball has played a huge part of an important international match -- Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal comes to mind from the 1986 World Cup. Perhaps the Irish fans shouldn't have enjoyed that Argentina victory over England so much. (Soccer karma perhaps?)

NaBloPoMo 2009 Day 11 -- Veteran's Day Tribute

Yesterday was the 234th Anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps. Fittingly, today is Veteran's Day. I cannot put into words my appreciation for the sacrifices made by all the soldiers who have served and are serving to defend the freedoms that we enjoy.

As I have indicated on this blog before, I love the Band of Brothers mini-series that HBO produced a number of years ago. Not only does it do a great job of telling the story of Easy Company and its journey through D-Day and the end of World War II, but it spends time talking with surviving members of Easy Company. The clip below is the last 7 minutes of the mini-series and talks about what happened to some of the soldiers in Easy Company, including some final comments from the men themselves. They say it best about what it was like to serve. All I can say is "Thank You."

The people that produced Band of Brothers (Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, etc.) will be bringing another mini-series to HBO in March 2010 called The Pacific. I look forward to learning more about that part of the war that often gets lost in the shuffle -- if that's possible -- when compared to the drama of the D-Day invasion. Here is a preview of that forthcoming production. NOTE: some violence in this.

NaBloPoMo 2009 Day 6 -- Who says soccer's not a contact sport?

Many of you have probably seen the video clip of the Mountain West Conference women's semi-finals soccer match between New Mexico and BYU. A New Mexico defender takes physical play to a completely new level. You want your central defenders to be tough and to play a physical brand of soccer. And I can sympathize with the New Mexico player as this back and forth starts. She is marking a BYU forward who gives her an elbow in the chest. This obviously does not sit well with the defender. Her mistake is that she rares back and punches the forward in the top of her back. The situation clearly calls for a forearm in the lower back -- a strike that says "I won't be pushed around by you BYU forward." Message delivered. But no, rather than standing up to the opponent and moving on, the punch to the back is just the appetizer of a 10-course meal of violence. No white table cloths at this affair either. This is like a torch-lit Viking buffet of slabs of meat -- killed and skinned table-side -- and casks of ale. Not exactly fine dining.

For those of you who haven't seen the video of Thursday's match yet or those who can't see it enough times, here it is again:

I was asked today if I ever had my hair pulled like that in a match. I had hair that long in the late-80s, but I never pulled it back in a pony tail. The mullet was sufficient. But no one ever pulled the mullet. (Why would they? At 5'8" no one ever mistook me for Samson.) Plenty of elbows in the sides and back throughout my play in high school and college. I can identify with the emotion that this New Mexico player obviously felt the other day. Not justifying anything she did, but the game gets heated if you care at all about your performance and your team's performance. Emotions can get the best of you from time to time. One particular instance comes to mind when I was a sophomore in college. We were playing our homecoming match. I was playing in the midfield on the wing. An opposing midfielder knocked me down as we were fighting for a ball by the sideline. Then, he stood over me and/or said something unkind. As fast as my shoulder blades hit the ground, I popped back up. In one motion, I stood up and shoved him in the chest knocking him on his back and stood over him. My Old Testament approach got me a yellow card. (The stereotype that the Irish have short fuses is probably based on thousands of similar incidents in towns on both sides of the Atlantic. At least mine didn't take place in a bar in Dublin or South Boston!)

R.I.P. Paul Benedict

Before he was Bentley on The Jeffersons, Paul Benedict was the Mad Painter on Sesame Street.

This is one of my favorite Mad Painter shorts that I remember growing up as a kid.



R.I.P. Paul Benedict

Time for a little humor

I thought with the seriousness of yesterday's post, we could use a little levity. I saw this guy the other day on YouTube. Funny stuff. His name is Jeff Caldwell.

Day of Days

64 years ago today thousands of U.S. soldiers descended on Normandy and the surrounding beaches in the name of freedom. We should always remember those soldiers -- today especially.

Here is a glimpse of what those first moments were like for a group from Easy Company in the 101st Airborne Division. These guys trained in Toccoa, Georgia before leaving for England.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

As promised, here are the song stylings of K-Man! This will make your heart smile.

Catching up with K-Man

Keegan is growing like a weed. He no longer resembles the baby he once was. His legs seem to get longer and leaner every day. We walked up to the Jonquil Festival today with Kee in the stroller, and his legs were practically hanging off the front. Thursday night Kee's school had an art show, and we were treated to Kee's interpretation of a pig and a pumpkin. Clearly, he is not wedded to the realism of Winslow Homer. But his enthusiasm comes through nonetheless.

K-man's athletic interests continue. He bounces from the basketball hoop to the tee-ball set and back again. Jen's parents were in town this week and picked up a small soccer ball for him too, so we'll be able to work on some kicking too.

Keegan has also treated us with a tune. His song of choice? Row, Row, Row Your Boat. It's priceless. (We'll have to get video of that to share.)

We do have video of Keegan at the keyboard. He enjoys when Jen plays ragtime pieces, but he also gets on the keys and works on his finger technique all the time. See for yourself.

Handling telemarketers

Telemarketers are annoying. Thank the Lord for caller ID. But what is the best way to handle them? Many of you may recall the bit that Seinfeld has about telemarketers. It showed up in one of the earlier episodes of his show. Here's the clip.



But yesterday, we found a good second option. It requires a 2-year-old whose language skills are good but not great and who hasn't mastered volume control -- even within the same word. And a parent in the background spoon-feeding words the kid knows. Here's how our call went yesterday.

Jen noticed the "out of area" notice on the caller ID -- dead giveaway for the telemarketer. So she handed the phone to Keegan after pressing the "talk" button.

Jen: Say hello.

K-man: Hello HEY!!

[Brief silence]

Jen: Say marshmallow.

K-Man: Marce-YALLOW!

[another beat]

K-Man: Bye-BYE!

It's been a while since we laughed that hard! Can't wait to spring him on some more unsuspecting souls. If they want to try and out-flank the Do Not Call registry, we'll be ready for them.

Introductions

If you've ever had the responsibility of introducing someone at an event or a speaking engagement, you know that it is not the easiest thing to do. Now, I wouldn't want the responsibility for this introduction, but I wouldn't mind being in the audience when it happens.

Step Brothers

I know that Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have been in about 8 movies together, but it worked for Lewis and Martin, right? (Although with these 2, it's more like Lewis and Lewis.) On the heels of Ferrell's round-the-clock promotion of Semi-Pro, we already have a preview of his next movie co-starring -- who else? -- John C. Reilly. The two have become Step Brothers.

For a 2-and-a-half-minute comedic break: Step Brothers

Holiday Party Advice

I know that the Christmas Party season is about over, but there's one full weekend left -- and then there's New Year's Eve -- so this is still good advice. And humorous to boot. (There is one adult word in there, so ear muffs may be appropriate given the particular audience around your computer.)

Play Doh Advert

Back in July, I posted about two ads for the Sony Bravia television that are genius productions. The folks at Sony have done it again with their latest installment. For a high resolution version go here and click on the link to watch the Play Doh Ad. Below is one of several copies that are available on YouTube. They used 2.5 tons of play doh to make the ad.

How to write a song

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a roadmap to good song writing? This video may help you in your quest. That is, if your quest is to write a song for a 98 Degrees cover band.

The video is a student production that was entered in the Highbridge Film Festival earlier this year in Wilmore. And it is hilarious! I ate lunch today with the lead "singer" in the video. Funny guy. He is also one of the class sponsors for Marie-Claire's freshmen class at AC. (NOTE: the song is by a band that is no longer performing and has a number of other "not-so-clean" tunes, so I am not including their web address for you. The guys in the video are not in that band. Just clarifying.)

Cadbury's Gorilla Ad

Some friends sent me this ad recently. They wanted me to share it with you.



The timing is curious as well because Jen and I were having a discussion in the last couple of weeks about how any guy I know who listens to this song does that same exact thing at that moment in the song no matter where they are. Well, I know I do.