The "Saturday Scavenger Hunt" word for this week was chosen by AlienCG. I went to get a couple of photos for the word.
This is the end of the dock at Harbor West in Greilickville, Michigan. All of the boat slips along the dock are empty, but there is a tall sailing yacht at the end, wintering in the harbor.
Barlow Street in Traverse City dead ends at West Grand Traverse Bay. But I suppose at this point, one might be able to drive in a very small and light car out onto the ice past the dead end sign. But I would not do it, or recommend it. To the right is a postcard from 80 or so years ago of the end of Memorial Highway in Tampa, Florida. I think those are Model T's or Model A's, but I do not know my vintage Fords very well. There are also nice flower plantings along the boulevard. It looks warmer. Any of you rather go to Florida than to the frozen bay seen above?
I also think of a book when I hear the word "End". The book is "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. It is one of the best regarded science fiction books of the last 20 centuries or so. There are now several sequels. They have talked of making a movie out of it for quite some time, but it has not happened yet.
"End" also makes me think of the song "Season's End" by Marillion. It is a beautiful song with mysterious lyrics that must be about finality. The first verse might be about global warming, but the album came out before the current global warming concern. I think that the part about "left our footprints in the earth" might have to do with mining or massive earthworks. "Punched a hole right through the sky" makes me think of the Saturn V rocket launches, but it could be about atomic bomb mushroom clouds.Click here to hear "Season's End" on Youtube.
The start of the lyrics appear below:
Getting close to seasons end I heard somebody say That it might never snow again In England Snow flakes in a new-born fist Sledging on a hill Are these things we'll never see In England
We'll tell our children's children why We grew so tall and reached so high We left our footprints in the earth And punched a hole right through the sky...
I'm not Catholic, but Lent is a season that lends us ideas for blog posts.
For a lot of Catholics, Lent is the season of the Friday fish fry. So I'm going to have fish-related postcards on Fridays during Lent. In future entries, look for such things as scientific fish cards, Quileute Indians, and restaurants that serve fish.
"Christie Baranski Friday" will be back for a few entries after Lent is over. The first one, on the right is from the 1970s. Someone actually published a postcard of Jimmy Carter cleaning fish. I know Jimmy Carter is an avid outdoorsman, into fishing and hunting. It was when he was fishing in 1979 that Carter was famously attacked by a killer rabbit. Jimmy Carter has written many books, mostly nonfiction, and also one novel.
I once read a Jimmy Carter book called "Outdoor Journal" because I thought it looked interesting sitting in the library. It is about his experiences hunting and fishing. I've never hunted, have only fished a very little, and have never read books about hunting and fishing or other books by former president Jimmy Carter. It was well written and had some good anecdotes, but my lack of interest in hunting and fishing caught up with me and I did not finish reading it.
To the right is one of those giant fish cards from a hundred years ago. Evart is in the lower peninsula of Michigan. I've been there a couple of times, but only because I missed a turn trying to go north on M-115 in the complicated freeway interchange area north of Clare. According to the official Michigan tourist website, there is a lot of fishing in Evart. I guess that is something to do if you venture into the great white north of Northern Michigan and make a wrong turn.
This post is from 2 years ago, and I am repeating it for my newer readers. I know it is mostly a Catholic thing, but sometimes other Christians observe it in ways. Perhaps even non-Christians do also, but I have not heard of that and it would be hard to understand. I'm leaving the same mix of serious and silly options. Lent is upon us. What are you giving up during the course of it?
(_) Meat (_) Fish (_) Blogging (_) Chocolate (_) Nothing (_) Martin Scorcese movies (_) Gourmet Kosher hot dogs (_) Christine Baranski (_) Extramarital sex (as per that Josh Hartnett movie) (_) Marital sex* (_) Scooters, Vacation, and Fall (_) I'm Christian but don't care (_) I'm not Christian, so I don't care (_) My icon is Christian Bale, and I don't care (_) What's Lent? (_) I eat/do more things during Lent than otherwise. (_) Anything else, discuss as well ---- As per feedback in the comments so far, make the following revisions:
- Replace "Christian with "Catholic" in the above entries, except with regard to Christian Bale, because there is no actor named Catholic Bale. In case you are going to make a mistake and replace "Christine" with "Catholic", there is also no actress named Catholic Baranski either.
- Add the following additional entries for consideration: (_) Eating cookie dough that is actually cooked. (_) Martial sex (_) Killer Rants (_) Sex with Self
And to make things really difficult, add this too:
(_) Shopping at places that sell fancy soaps / lotions / body wash.
* Loss of marital sex due to coincidental circumstances such as temporary lack of spouse does count, so this can be an easy one depending on circumstances.
From the "Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want To Get Off" department:
I read in the news tonight that the United States House of Representatives has voted to ban keeping apes as pets as part of a ban on keeping primates as pets.
As those of us familiar with "Planet of the Apes" know, eventually a space-borne disease will kill off all of the dogs and cats on earth. This results in people replacing them with apes as pets. Eventually, these apes become slaves, and eventually these apes overthrow the human race and rule the planet. That brings us, of course, Dr. Zaius (left), General Thade (right) and a whole host of sinister simians to condemn the human race to a life of servitude, toil, loincloths and experiments.... a life that resembles "Survivor" but without the prizes or promise of rescue.
I thank the House for its swift action to prevent this future. I look forward to them also taking action to prevent "Waterworld". I've not made up my mind yet on "prevent Logan's Run" legislation. The idea of the Capitol Building becoming home to Peter Ustinov and legions of cats sounds interesting.
Below, Congress is in session in the "Logan's Run" future. The Old Man makes a "point of order" speech while Senator Felix Gato looks on.
Get out the egg and milk a little early so they are close to room temperature for making the pancake mix. Melt the butter.
Sift the flour twice.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg, and melted butter.; mix until smooth.
Heat a light-oiled griddle or frying pan over medium-high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.
This fed 4, and were some of the best pancakes I had ever eaten. They were gobbled up quickly: no chance for pictures.
Today is "National Pancake Day". To celebrate, IHOP is offering a free short-stack of pancakes this morning. Click here for details. The link takes you to a simple matter-of-fact Snopes page. I linked to the official IHOP page in my previous post about IHOP and "National Pancake Day".
Another Blogger/Blogspot blog, "The Mayor of Concord", has also blogged about the event. Click here to read the post.
We have no IHOP near us. We don't eat out much, either. So we are likely going to have pancakes as part of supper tonight. Yes, a pancake dinner. I'm not sure what recipe we will use, but there are many good ones on the Web, such as this one at Epicurean.com.
I've mentioned before an old favorite pancake place in Traverse City, Michigan. They used to have an advertising jingle on the radio a lot. I can remember probably half or a third of it. Below are the lyrics that I remember as the end of the jingle:
..."Any old time, just for you.
Service right, great prices too...
Flap Jack Shack
Flap Jack Shack...
So come on, try our Flap Jack Shack.
Once you try us, you'll be back!
Flap Jack Shack
Flap Jack Shack"
So, want to try Flap Jack Shack? Why not buy it too? The place is for sale. Click here for the real estate ad. I don't expect it will be open for much longer. The photo above to the right is from the real estate ad.
Below is an actual photo of the Happy Chef in Winona, Minnesota, from 1973. The previous postcard-picture I posted of the Happy Chef statue was from another restaurant somewhere.
I was watching a DVD last night and one of the "sneak peaks" was for a movie called "Impostor"from 2000. It is based on a Philip K. Dick story and stars Gary Sinise, but somehow I'd never heard of it before. I don't know a lot about the plot, other than that it contains replicants, as "Blade Runner" did.
I've seen and enjoyed other Philip K. Dick-based movies, starting with "Blade Runner", and also "Total Recall" (remember Arnold's eyes when he is out in the Martian air?) and "Minority Report". The one I did not want to see is "Scanner Darkly". The digital rotoscoped animation in that one is like in those Charles Schwab investment ads, and I find it repugnant/annoying to look at . I've also enjoyed Gary Sinise movies.
So this one came out 9 years ago and completely escaped my notice, and I've never noticed it for sale anywhere or on cable TV (unlike the others), and I've never heard anyone mention it.
Has anyone seen this one? Is it any good? Comments about other Philip K. Dick-based films (past and future, if any) are also welcome. Or maybe someone remembers some other movie they might have been interested in that managed to sneak into release unnoticed.
Tuesday is Free Pancake Day at IHOP (International House of Pancakes). Click here for more information.
"Join IHOP to celebrate National Pancake Day on Tuesday, February 24, 2009. From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., we’ll give you one free short stack (three) of our famous buttermilk pancakes.* All we ask is that you consider making a donation to support local children’s hospitals through Children’s Miracle Network, or other local charities. "
Like with the free Denny's deal recently, I'll have to read about others' experience with this. I have no IHOPs near me either. I will probably repeat a reminder Tuesday morning, as I am planning another pancake post soon anyway. In the mean time, read the new post below. Maybe you can find a church dinner today with pancakes.
Church is snowed out today. How many of you have ever had that happen? I'm missing a potluck too.
The photo to the right is by Eric Hylde, and is found at Seaway Blog. If you are going to be driving a church on snowy roads today, please be careful.
Below you will find some items from some lists that have floated around the Web for years. These are supposedly actual errors that have been printed in church bulletins, newsletters, and announcements. Click here for an example of one of the more general lists.These are just potluck, food, and fasting related. One is related to parasites. There are others I recall from Jay Leno that aren't on the list. He once read from church bulletins about chicken dinners where someone accidentally typed "children" instead of "chicken": i.e. "Children must be eaten in the fellowship hall". But these are not part of the list that is floating around. I've also included a link to a church joke book for sale at Amazon.com.
Announcement in the church bulletin for a National PRAYER & FASTING Conference: "The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer conference includes meals."
Tuesday at 4:00 pm there will be an ice cream social. All ladies giving milk will please come early.
This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Lewis to come forward and lay an egg on the altar.
The Ladies Society will be selling their new cookbook at the church supper this Wednesday night. The proceeds will help purchase a stomach pump for our community hospital.
Next Friday we will be serving hot gods for lunch.
Bilingual Chicken Dinner this Sunday at Noon
Our annual church picnic will be held Saturday afternoon. If it rains, it will be held in the morning
A cookbook is being compiled by the ladies of the church. Please submit your favorite recipe, also a short antidote for it.
Our young people are preparing the pizza dinner. It will be held in the perish hall.
Next Sunday is the family hayride and bonfire at the Fowlers. Bring your own hot dogs and guns. Friends are welcome! Everyone come for a fun time.
Today's Sermon: HOW MUCH CAN A MAN DRINK? with hymns from a full choir.
Ushers will eat latecomers.
A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
Attend and you will hear an excellent speaker and heave a healthy lunch.
The church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and gracious hostility.
Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 P.M.-prayer and medication to follow.
Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.
Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa will be speaking tonight at Calvary Memorial Church in Racine. Come tonight and hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.
The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday morning.
Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
The Lutheran Men's group will meet at 6 PM. Steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread and dessert will be served for a nominal feel.
Today's Saturday Scavenger Hunt word is "Ice". This one is pretty easy for those of us in the cold country, Ice Planet Hoth, Great White North, Frozen Hell, or whatever you want to call it. For those if you in warmer climes, it should be easy too: pictures of ice in a nice cold glass of coke, or even celebrity encounters with Vanilla Ice, Ice Cube, and Ice T.
I will start this one off on a more serious note. The next two pictures are of Crystal Lake in Benzie County, Michigan, lying near Lake Michigan between Frankfort and Beulah. A week ago, two experienced outdoorsmen died crossing the ice of Crystal Lake when their snowmobile crashed through, tossing them into 30 feet of deadly frigid water. Click here for the story. The two men were from Benzonia, and their names were Ronald Wilkins and Ellwood Holmquist. I hear unfortunate accounts like this every winter. Several years ago, a friend of mine was snowmobiling in northern Canada. Solo. When he crossed a frozen lake, his snowmobile crashed through. He was able to build a fire and warm himself up long enough to be rescued. This friend is also a very experienced outdoorsman type, and I think he auditioned for "Survivor" at one time.
Below are two photos I took at Crystal Lake yesterday. There were ice-shanties and snowmobiles dotting the ice.
How many of you have ever ventured out on ice? I've done it just a few times, on Michigan's Red Ceder River and Long Lake. A few miles south of Crystal Lake you will find the new Wesco gas station. This replaced a much smaller one which was turn down this summer. They now have a bakery.... ... and an ice vendor. Ice is just $3.99 a bag. Such a bargain. Just don't slip and fall on the ice that is already on the ground as you walk to the ice machine to make your purchase, and don't slip on the ice driving home to your cold house.
When the lakes of Northwestern Michigan are frozen enough, there are ice sailboat races. Click here to see one of Gerry's posts about recent ice boat recreation on Torch Lake at the "Torch Lake Views" blog.
I also have some recent photos of ice boats racing on Grand Traverse Bay. Below are a pair of 100 year old postcards from my collection showing ice boats on the bay. No, I have never been on an ice boat.
Lastly, if you are curious, click here for a link to a trailer for a classic ice-related science fiction movie.
If you have any ice posts of your own, please let me know below and also let Laura B know at her "My Boring Life" blog. Any ice comments are welcome too (fishing on ice, driving on ice, drinking ice cold drinks, swordfights with icicles, anything).
I recently found this notepad from about 1970. It an official memo pad from the Winona Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors in Winona, Minnesota. The Ambassadors currently "act as public relations representatives of the Chamber and the community. Ambassadors participate in many events including, Ground breaking ceremonies, Open house events, Dedication ceremonies, and new business openings. "
(By the way, I now have a regular reader from the La Crosse area, just downriver a ways from Winona. Please feel free to chime in with some comments, La Crosse area reader)
I can't say I've ever seen any other stationery quite like this.
Update April 27, 2007. GM confirmed that it is shedding the Pontiac division this morning. Click here to read the Associated Press article.
I heard on the news yesterday that GM (General Motors) will soon consist of just Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick. Missing from this list is Pontiac. This article at the New York Times has a nice recollection of the marque, and more details of GM's plans to curtail it.
My first car was 1980 Pontiac Phoenix. I was raised in a GM family, and we tended to have nothing but GM cars, with the occasional Ford. I don't have a nice photo of my actual car, but it looked like this white Phoenix in this Wikipedia illustration, but maroon instead. Pontiacs of this era had big cow-catcher-like grilles.
It was a hatchback, and had a decent amount of room inside. It was one of the X-Cars that GM produced from 1980 to 1985. The most popular one of these was the Chevy Citation, and the Phoenix was quite similar. Three of the four "X-Cars" had ominous names: The Olds was called the Omega, which means "the end". The Chevy was called the Citation, which happens to have also been the model name of the infamous Edsel make. The Phoenix of course is named after a bird that dies in a conflagration. The Pontiac division has been some what moribund lately. When they went to make the new Knightrider show, they could not have a Pontiac Trans-Am reprise its role as KITT, since Pontiac does not make a Trans-Am or even a similar sportscar anymore. They ended up using a Ford Mustang instead.
The Pontiac division is quite old, dating back 116 years to the incorporation of the Pontiac Buggy Company in 1893. From 1907 to 1906 the cars were called Oaklands, and from 1926 on they called the cars Pontiacs. The Pontiac name ultimately comes from the Odawa Indian leader named Pontiac, who led a famous rebellion (see one of my older posts about him). For a while, Pontiacs had names like Super Chief and had Indian-head hood ornaments. In the 1960s, this GM division was headed and rejuvenated by John Z. Delorean. He turned it into a youth-oriented sports car division and spearheaded the success of such models as the beloved GTO. The Indian names and decorations gave way to names almost entirely inspired by races, race-cars and fire. and the logo became the current flame-arrowhead. My Phoenix was one of several American cars I had that needed several major repairs per year. I now own an American-built car from a foreign company, and have had only one major thing done on it in 3 years. The last Pontiac I drove was a rental car called a Vibe a few years ago, and it wasn't bad. Does anyone remember anything to say about their first car? Did anyone have a Pontiac? Any old-timers with GTO's even?
The previous post, which contained an actual pulp horror-magazine cover illustration from the 1930s with a monster menacing someone in the library, reminded me of another piece of library-related pulp-era horror.
The June 1936 issue of "Astounding" had the following painting by Harold V. Brown on the cover.
It is an illustration for the H.P. Lovecraft science fiction/horror story "The Shadow Out of Time". It was one of Lovecraft's last major stories. The actual story, which has gone into the public domain, can be read here. From the picture, one can imagine a timid human being having ventured into an alien library, and he wants to ask a question of one of the three giant alien librariians who are sorting books. What would be a good question to ask alien librarians? Perhaps he could ask if the library stocks the Kanamit culinary classic To Serve Man. If the answer is "yes", he'd best get out of the library as fast as he can. A copy of the actual magazine recently sold on eBay for $400. For many years, copy of this cover painting that someone had painted adorned the walls of Argos Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but it is gone now.
I got this idea for a fake magazine cover from a recent post on Michelle Gartner's "One of a Kind Wisconsin" blog.
The artwork part is from cover art from an actual pulp magazine called "Strange Tales" from the early 1930s. The actual cover is found in the above linked post.
It looks to me like a man in the library is being confronted by the skeleton of the Michelin Man. Based on that, one could imagine a horror magazine filled with cautionary tire-related tales.
So, remember, make sure to inflate your tires properly. You'll save fuel. And you don't want a blowout and have the ghost of Michelin haunt you in the library.
Today I found a clipping from the Friday, June 27, 1987 edition of The State News, the newspaper of Michigan State University. I wonder if I'd really looked at this article since I cut it out and put it away in 1987. It is an article about a visit by Sarah Sutton, who played Nyssa in "Doctor Who", bringing the "Doctor Who Celebration" to East Lansing. This included a "mobile theatre" that was 48 feet long and had Daleks, K-9, and other things in it. The "Celebration" ended up touring 185 cities.
Nyssa was Doctor Who's youngest companion out of several that have been in the series. At the time of the article, she'd been in 44 episodes over the space of two years. She was a Companion to both the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison). Doctor Who around the time of the "Celebration" was played by Sylvester McCoy, the "Sixth Doctor".
I was in East Lansing that summer, but found out about the Doctor Who visit after the fact in this article, so I missed it,
The nice long article accompanying the photo was written by Ricardo Cooney. I Googled his name and find that 22 years after he was writing for the State News, he is writing about Michigan State University sports for Spartanmag.com. The photographer, Cynthia L. Schrauben, was recently editing Great Lakes Family Magazine.
The first one is of the early morning sun behind the clouds, and behind a ventilation spire at the asylum.
The Flap Jack Shack on US 31 South across from Meijer is a good place to get pancakes.
These are the current gas prices at Meijer. This is one of the cheaper places to get gasoline usually. Meijer is like a Walmart Supercenter, except it is only located in several states (and it is not nationwide). Many/most people call it "Meijers", which if you are in a hurry or have a Southern accent, comes out sounding like "Mars". At one time, it had a longer name: "Meijer Thrifty Acres", which wags changed to "Misers Shifty Takers" and "Mizers Sh*tty Fakers". A few years ago, this was said to be the largest Meijer store in the chain. I do not know if that is still true.
I saw this along with other signs for sale in the window of "Mr Bill's T-Shirt Shop" downtown. Have you had your coffee yet?
The south side of Front Street, looking west from Cali's Cottons and across from the State Theatre for a couple of blocks. There's only one guy on the snow-covered sidewalks
There was some sort of winter festival yesterday, so there are ice scuptures scattered around downtown. They look pretty fresh, so they must have been carved very recently, perhaps yesterday.
The one below appears to be leaves (or feathers?) and is located in front of Stewart-Zacks:
This sailboat is in front of a gift shop called "The Nest":
And the jazzman is found in front of "Front Street Commons", a shopping area once known as "The Arcade":
We went to Mulligan's Bar and Grill (2300 West Crown Drive, Traverse City, Michigan) tonight. It is in the middle of no where on a golf course. We were surprised that it turned out to be full. We'd never been there before.
We were told that the wait would be an hour for non-smoking, and decided to brave the smoking section, which would only take a few minutes. It turned out to be not bad at all, and it was not like Boone's Long Lake Inn where the whole restaurant smells of cigarette smoke. But I do run into this in a lot of places. Why don't the restaurants have much bigger non-smoking sections? Those of you in places with smoking bans don't have to worry about that.
Image to the right from the Mulligan web site photo gallery.
The place is decorated in a "lodge" style, and reminded me of Schelde's Freshwater Lodge. That was the inside. The outside resembled the nearby subdivision houses, and it sort of blended in.
The prices were quite reasonable, and there were free refills on the coke. Their "sandwedges"and other lunch-menu items are available for supper, too. The French Dip was $6.95, "freshly shaved beef piled high onto toasted Ciabatta bread served au ju". They also feature stuffed burgers. I'd never had one before. They have names like "Pebble Beach", "Knee Knocker", "Caddyshack" (makes me think of Rodney Dangerfield"), and the "Grand Wailea". I had the "Grand Wailia", which was stuffed with bleu cheese and bacon. That was only $7.50, served with chips, cole slaw, and pickle spear.
The service was great, but the wait was a real long time due to a party of 15. They explained it and were apologetic. But we like it, and will go back. Word of mouth has to be pretty good on this place. Most golf courses have a 19th hole. But not many have the restaurant/pub/etc open and packed during the middle of the several months when the golf course itself is closed.
Did anyone go out to eat Saturday night? Or ever have a stuffed burger, or found a great golf-course restaurant?
I keep finding things, such as a couple of shares of stock from the California Gold Blossom Mining Company. These were issued to an ancestor of mine. I wonder where it was? This company is actually one of the few things that does not show up on Google. I doubt I've got a fortune in gold waiting for me somewhere.
This postcard is of Dunnottar Castle in Scotland. It was postmarked in July of 1911 and mailed to Saskatchewan.
The back reads:
"Dear M?? Cameron. We have had a lovely time here and all so much the better of it. One day a friend and I cycled to this castle and I climbed to the very top point of the ruin - just where the X is - and you can imagine what a lovely view we had from it as it is built on a very high rock and is also a high building as well. Kindest Regards"
The official website for Dunnottar Castle can be found here:
"The importance of the site to the Picts stems from their religion, believed to be akin to Druidism, and which worshiped masculinity, femininity and nature spirits. The site of the Castle and the surrounding area has a strong feminine nature and symbology, which at Dunnottar takes the form of the "green lady". The spirit of the green lady has been seen in the brewery at the Castle. She is said to be looking for her "lost children" who are the Picts who converted from her religion to Christianity around the 5th Century AD. "
I've never been on the ground in Scotland, but I have flown over it a few times from a very high altitude, peering intently out of the airplane window to see if I could recognize anything like coastlines and lochs. Since I was little, I always wanted to see Urquhart Castle. And yes, I've known how to spell that one for decades. I also know of Edinburgh Castle, but to me it does not look that interesting from the outside. I suppose it is real nice inside.
The image to the right is a face detail from a gold 15-inch tall bust of Abe Lincoln on exhibit in the Dmarks Gallery of Fine Art and Sculpture. Probably any politician or leader and many an American can look at this, and wonder, "how do I measure up?"
Abe Lincoln is quite the icon of American history and popular culture. The Republicans revere him as an icon along with Ronald Reagan. President Barack Obama reveres him also (both Obama and Lincoln were Illinois state senators). And there are lots of odd facts and lore about him. Did you know that there are a lot of similarities between the assassinations of Abe Lincoln and John F. Kennedy? For example, Booth shot Lincoln in a theatre and fled to a warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and fled to a theatre.
His image has appeared in many things. He was a character in a great episode of the old "Star Trek" series, and his statue figures into the suprise ending of the "Planet of the Apes" remake. I've seen the robot Lincoln at Disneyworld, and seem to recall a robot Lincoln in "Futurama". One of the theatres used for the Traverse City Film Festival has a statue of Lincoln near the stage, and I went to a Lincoln Elementary School for a brief time. I remember getting really cool wax Lincoln heads made as I watched, by a machine at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I don't know of the Chicago museum still has the machine, but you can click here for a Youtube video of one being made at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Note: The image of the penny to the right is not intended for counterfeit purposes. Please do not print on your ink jet printer, cut it out, and attempt to use for cash. So, what to do today? Remember Lincoln. When you find a penny on the ground, pick it up. Who knows, you may have good luck. And let me know your Lincoln comments and impressions.
I just saw the ending of the most recent episode of "Lost". I'd say it was the best episode in a while.
It even had a couple of "Land of the Lost" moments: Like this episode of "Lost", "Land of the Lost" also had a scene where a rope down a mysterious well changed to a rope that just led into solid ground. And the part with someone telling John how to set things right in a control station reminded me of the "Land of the Lost" with Skylons telling people how to work the crystals in a pylon. This episode moved fast, and there were some characters I'd not seen enough of lately.
And "Battlestar Galactica"? I'd been wondering if the show was spinning its wheels. If you take away last Friday's episode and the one before it, not much has changed/progressed except for a couple of characters being gone.
And this last episode had lots of scenes of poor ol' Tyrol crawling through a jeffries tube two sizes too small. Poor guy.
Forbes yesterday came out with their annual list of Top 10 Most Miserable (Worst) Cities in the United States.
1. Stockton, California. I've never been anywhere near it, and without looking at a map, I don't even know where it is. To me, it was always "the other Stockton", compared to Stockton, Minnesota.
2. Memphis, Tennessee. I've been there several times, and it didn't seem that bad to me. The worst thing I saw was billboards for the crooked attorney Johnny Cochran. If you like pyramids, there's a huge one in Memphis near the river. If you like Elvis, you'll have fun there too. But I had no interest in seeing the Elvis sites, and have never seen one in Memphis. I also remember having a great dinner at Isaac Hayes' restaurant in downtown Memphis.
3. Chicago, Illinois. Chicago has always seemed cool to me. I just can't imagine it as miserable. But I do hear it has problems, such as the time several years ago when the mayor decided he did not like the city's airport, so he destroyed it illegally in the middle of the night. That made some pilots miserable.
4. Cleveland, Ohio. I should be going there soon, for the first time other than passing by the fringes of it on the turnpike. To me, I don't think of misery. But I do think of Drew Carey and firesurfing on the Cuyahoga River.
5. Modesto, California. I'd hardly ever heard of this place before. I wonder if they will be modest about their dubious honor.
6. Flint, Michigan. This has edged out Detroit. Probably because it is like Detroit, but with none of the world-class attractions. Many people only know it as Michael Moore's urban punching-bag from his movie "Roger and Me". I've been around the edge of Flint scores of times, but have only gone into it once.
7. Detroit, Michigan. Like Flint but with a few attractions. Once a magic industrial city, it has descended into a grungy realm of decay, government corruption, and despair. Even Motown Records finally left. Their only (?) upscale food market is closing, as is the Border's Bookstore. Gotham City on Earth. But where's the Batman? But Detroit can be interesting to see sometimes. The postcard to the right is of Campus Martius in downtown Detroit, fromabout a hundred years ago. It is an unusual card in that it is about two inches wide.
8. Buffalo, New York. I know Buffalo for its architecture (H. H. Richardson and Frank Lloyd Wright). I went through at night, but was unable to see anything. Some has been torn down, and some remains.
9. Miami, Florida. I've never been there. I have an impression of pastel-colored buildings. And vice. Cue the Jan Hammer Miami Vice theme song.
10. St.Louis, Missouri. I've enjoyed going there to go up the St. Louis Arch, but that is actually all I have seen there.
What do you think of these cities? Are they really that bad? Can you think of miserable cities that belonged on the top 10 list instead/
Someone wants to use one of my photos in a TV show, and they want to know the cost. I have no idea what to charge. I figured I'd put this question out here, in case anyone has asked to reproduce anyone's photos/artwork/etc like this.... a usual and fair price.
I recently saw a movie on DVD that is probably the most ridiculous movie I've seen in a long time. It's an old Jackie Chan movie that has the title Mai nei dak gun due, and is found under the name "Fantasy Mission Force" (the one I saw) and others. More information can be found here on the IMDB page. It is from before Jackie Chan was a big star, and as is the case with such movies, it suffers from the problem of "not having more Jackie Chan"
The plot? Something about a group of strange characters drawn together to find or protect some stolen money. Most of the movie involves the characters wandering in and out of the most improbable places, which they destroy and escape in succession. This part of it reminded me of Mario-like videogames where you go into some sort of theme room, defeat the boss, and go. Or old TV shows like "Fantastic Journey" where the heroes wander from episode to episode to a different civilization every time. And this film shares with "Fantastic Journey" the idea of coming across an Amazon enclave.
The setting? Some weird version of the Old West. I've not seen an odder West since reading Stephen King's "Dark Tower" novels. This place has saloons, gamblers, swordfighters, people armed with bazookas, jeeps, and people from very different ethnic groups found in the theme enclaves. Except, that even if someone is a Native American, Scots, or Nazi, they are all Chinese. According to the Wikipedia page on the movie, the settings include Luxembourg and Canada. Needless to say, there is no ocean crossing in the movie.
The characters? Jackie Chan is not in it enough. But he plays a prize fighter who has his money stolen by a corrupt cop and wants it back. The corrupt cop is another character who traipses through the movie. character. He dresses like a Chinese Elvis. Brigitte Lin, a major Chinese actress, appears in red boots as "Lily" ("The Nice People are always the first to die. Do I look like a nice person?" There are two Scottish soldiers in kilts. Of course they are played by Chinese men.
One review summarizes the film saying "That right there should clue you in on what sort of movie this is. Plot? Jimmy Wang Yu is a super soldier who assembles a team of misfits and renegades for a suicide mission. Yeah, familiar plot. Their mission is to rescue the leaders of the Allied Powers during World War II, all of whom have been captured by Nazis. One of the leaders is Abraham Lincoln. They are being held in Luxemborg, Canada. Jimmy Wang Yu has to go because Rambo, Snake Plisskin, and Baldy (Karl Maka’s character from the Aces Go Places films) were all busy."
The first of the weird enclaves they find is inhabited by Native American-type Amazon women who fly through the air, walk on water, strangle people with very long scarves, and try to cook them. I guess there is a male fantasy about being the only man among Amazons, and sure enough there is a guy who is apparently the leader. He says to the band of heroes as they arrive: "Of ten men nine are dirty! You have dirty language, and dirty minds. I am an artist. I worship beauty. I will destroy everything that is imperfect in my eyes, bit by bit and slowly."
The cannibal Amazon place must have had TNT stuffed in every basement, because at one point someone sets off the explosives and the entire compound blows up. One video game level conquered, time to move on to the next....
Next, they decide to bed down in a haunted fortress. It's populated with green-faced ghost , hopping vampires, gamblers and seductresses who turn into skeletons.
After they escape here, it is off to the Nazi compound. Yes, Nazis in China. The Nazis are all Chinese, which makes me wonder how much they are sticking to their Aryan race ideology. Or are they in Canada or Luxembourg? Only Abraham Lincoln knows. There's a scene that seems like it is 15 minutes long that is nothing but a Nazi armada of scores of early early 1970s American muscle cars slowly rolling in, each with a man on the roof weilding a red flare. There's a definite "Road Warrior" thing going on here.
At one point, Jackie Chan, who is well known for avoiding gunplay in his movies, gets behind a machine gun, fires what appears to be 40 rounds or so, and quickly kills off just about all of the Nazis. In the process of the battle with the Nazis, all of the strange characters are killed off by gunfire and swordplay. Except for Jackie, who is unharmed, and his girlfriend, who is dazed and wounded.
Toward the end of this, like with the Amazon compound, someone sets off explosives and it appears that inevitable basement under every building stuffed with TNT blows the whole Nazi compound up.
At the end, he hops into a Jeep with the girl, and is confronted by men claiming to be generals. With the most vehemence imaginable, Jackie snaps at them before driving off:
"I don't know any Generals. To me you look like CLOWNS!"
The end.
I kept shaking my head as I watched through this. Only after seeing it did I think back on how enjoyable it was, in a "Bad movie" way. I usually don't enjoy bad movies, though.
This movie also has a sequel of sorts, called "Fire Dragon" alle It is actually mostly a re-editing of "Fantasy Mission Force", with some new scenes wrapped around yet another plot involving Chinese Nazis and cannibal man-hungry Amazons. The ghost place shows up only in flashbacks. This one has even less Jackie Chan in it, which they try to make up for by a lot of camera shots of Jackie Chan postes on the wall of a gym. I'd say that is even worse than what they did in the plot of "Bowfinger": if you can't find the actor, just point the camera at pictures of the actor. Or think of the music video for Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk", in which John McVie is missing so they carry cardboard cutout of him around. The movie also a lot more scenes with the leopard-skin Native American Amazon compound. There's a sort of revenge plot involving a woman with a giant 1980s music video afro-perm trying to kill the Nazis who killed her father. But this one is just plain bad, not fun. It's one thing for a bad movie to be "good". It's another to expect an nonsensical chop-up of the same bad movie to also be "good". As Waldorf of the Muppet Show once said, I will say of "Fire Dragon": "I've seen detergents that leave a better film than this"
Both of these silly movies, along with 3 others, are found in the "Jackie Chan Collection" tin-box of DVDs, seen in the Amazon link to the right.
What are my reader's favorite (or least favorite) bad movies? Or Jackie Chan films?
Here are a few midwinter photos I took a couple of days ago on Old Mission Peninsula in Grand Traverse County in Michigan
This vinyard south of Nelson Road on Old Mission Peninsula has a building with no sign by it. It might be, or might formerly have been, "Seven Hills Vines and Wines". There are many orchards and vinyards on the peninsula. I don't know much about viticulture (and the total amount of wine I have ever consumed would not fill a glass), but these grapevines look to me light they might be young, compared to other old-and-gnarled vines I've seen.
I've really only ever been to one vinyard before. It is the one called Boskydel, and I think it was the first vinyard in the area. We now have many. When I went to Boskydel on Leelanau Peninsula, I was a kid, and of course did not do any wine tasting. But it was interesting to see how the wine was made; interesting in the way that factory tours can be.
The workers at Boskydel had a song they sang to describe what it was like to work at Boskydel. It was to the tune of "Tah, Rah, Rah, Boom-de-ay":
We work at Boskydel,
the closest thing to hell.
We're never treated well,
at slave camp Boskydel.
Below, a forlorn-looking hill south of Nelson Road.
Below, sunset over Nelson Road looking west toward West Grand Traverse Bay, with a few winter-dormant fruit trees in the foreground. I was driving by with my back to the sunset and did not think to turn around, but I passed a van parked on the road, facing west. The driver had an easel propped up on the steering wheel, painting the sunset. I turned around to see what he was painting, and decided to also park and get a photo.
A week ago I took advantage of the pre-Superbowl snack sales and got a couple of bags of El Matador Tortilla Chips. I'd not had these before, actually.
They turned out to be the best bought-at-store tortilla chips I'd ever had. My only complaint is that they are a little too salty. They are of the "harder" kind like you find at restaurants.
These are Michigan-made (not Mexico-made), coming from the
El Matador Tortilla Factory
45 Franklin Street SW
Grand Rapids, MI 45907
(616) 241-1121
Oddly enough, I could not find a web page listing on the bag, or even on Google. I can't recall the last time I've run across a business that was on the Internet.
They are described as having "Authentic Flavor. The authentic El Matador nacho chip flavor comes form Nixtamal, which makes the difference. Nixtamal, the Aztec name, is derived from the finest quality of corn, cooked in the authentic basic method used by the Maya and Aztec civilizations thousands of years B.C. El Matador then grinds Nixtamal into Masa in modern grinders which are equipped with volcanic stones similar to the Metates used by generations of cooks in Mexican homes. The Masa is then extruded and cut into nacho chips and baked in our modern Tortilliera. "
Are these available in your area? The El Matador Tortilla Factory also makes other related products. And what are your favorite grocery-store tortilla chips, if you like these? I tend to like tortilla chips more than potato chips, Fritos, Sun Chips, or similar snacks.
To the right is another postcard I found recently of the Stevens Hotel, now the Hilton in downtown Chicago. I did a previous post about a another postcard from the hotel, as did Writerquake.
The back says:
"Television is fine. Really having a swell time. Am putting on more weight tho. Never had it so good.
- Ollie
p.s. Traffic is bad here"
Sounds to me like this guy is one of the first couch potatoes. The postcard is postmarked 1953. 1953 was a good year to start to become a TV addict, perhaps. 1953 was the heyday of "I Love Lucy". "Dragnet" and "The Tonight Show" started, and TV Guide began publication. Overseas, in 1953 the first Japanese TV station went on the air and the first Quatermass episode aired in the UK.
Looks like Ollie was having a swell time putting on weight and watching TV back in 1953. This was long before the invention of the "Watch TV and Eat Popcorn Diet", so I guess he could not help it. And for some of us it seems strange to imagine TV before "Star Trek", but in 1953 Mr. Spock was not yet to appear for more than a decade later.
A robber in Colorado used a Bat'leth. For those of you who do not know what a Bat'leth is, it is type of Klingon sword that looks like part of a flame logo someone might put on a skateboard. I guess the economic hard times have hit Klingons too, so we have to now look out for the occasional out-of-work Worf or homeless Kahless.
The story: "The first robbery was reported at about 2:00 AM after a man described as wearing a black mask, black jacket, and blue jeans entered the store brandishing the traditional Klingon crescent-shaped blade. After demanding money, the crook left with an undisclosed amount of cash and fled on foot, police said.
About a half hour later, police received another call from a 7-Eleven about 3 miles away, reporting an attempted robbery by a man matching the same description. This time, the clerk refused to pay, and the robber took flight - apparently with no regard for Klingon honor."
I suppose that in my area, this sort of incident is a possibility. There used to be a band of Klingons somewhere in Benzie County, and the local pawn shop deals in Bat'leths.
If they catch this guy and he goes to court, he should at least wear a full Klingon uniform for his court appearance. And you never know, the jurors might follow suit with Starfleet uniforms.
The last odd bank-robbing story I recall is one from several years ago in
Canada in which which the robber was described as looking and sounding like a real-world version of Homer Simpson. Based on this, they apprehended him. Perhaps there's enough material there for a future episode of "CSI: Springfield".
Barlow Street in Traverse City dead ends at West Grand Traverse Bay. But I suppose at this point, one might be able to drive in a very small and light car out onto the ice past the dead end sign. But I would not do it, or recommend it.
To the right is a postcard from 80 or so years ago of the end of Memorial Highway in Tampa, Florida. I think those are Model T's or Model A's, but I do not know my vintage Fords very well. There are also nice flower plantings along the boulevard. It looks warmer. Any of you rather go to Florida than to the frozen bay seen above?
A few miles south of Crystal Lake you will find the new Wesco gas station. This replaced a much smaller one which was turn down this summer. They now have a bakery....
