“Twin Towns” Casting Call: Pack up the family

Well, when you’re down on your luck, and you ain’t got a buck,in London you’re a goner.Even London Bridge has fallen down,and moved to Arizona,now I know why. Midland has four “sister” cities, one each in China, Mexico, Guyana, and the United Kingdom. I’m not sure about the significance of having (or being) a sister city,… Continue reading “Twin Towns” Casting Call: Pack up the family

ABC’s “Combat Hospital” raises moral issues

ABC is airing promos for a new summer fictional drama entitled Combat Hospital. This is a Canadian-conceived show set in 2006 in a military hospital at the Kandahar Airbase in Afghanistan, and purports to depict “the frantic lives of the hospital’s resident doctors and nurses from Canada, America, the UK and other allied countries.” Wartime… Continue reading ABC’s “Combat Hospital” raises moral issues

Trading the Real for the Fake

I daresay that Georges Seurat’s painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is only recognizable to most people in the most vague, I-think-I’ve-seen-a-poster-of-that-somewhere-before sort of way, and most of us would surely not be able to describe it sight unseen. I suppose there’s nothing inherently wrong with this; the painting is more than… Continue reading Trading the Real for the Fake

Handicapping DWTS, Season 12

Last year, I made the mistake of predicting the outcome of Dancing With The Stars before watching any of the competitors. That was a disaster of epic, Charlie-Sheen-as-a-babysitter proportions. However, after the first viewing, my revised handicapping was pretty darned good, if I do say so myself (and I must, because no one else will).… Continue reading Handicapping DWTS, Season 12

Remembering LaLanne and “Trimnastics”

The web is abuzz today about the passing of Jack LaLanne at age 96. The guy was the human equivalent of the Energizer bunny, and he’s probably doing jumping jacks in his specially-modified jumpsuit (slits for angel wings, right?) as I type this. In memory of the world’s first “fitness guru,” here’s a YouTube video… Continue reading Remembering LaLanne and “Trimnastics”

Another stroll down memory lane: Bewley’s Chuck Wagon Gang

Below is another scan from Debbie’s mom’s collection of ’30s and ’40s memorabilia. The Chuck Wagon Gang is still going strong (I wonder what the original group would have thought about the idea of a website?), billing itself as “the oldest recording mixed gospel group still performing with ties to the original founding.” The scan… Continue reading Another stroll down memory lane: Bewley’s Chuck Wagon Gang