Ask Roscoe: National Dog Day

Jan over at the Prytz Family says today is National Dog Day. Who am I to argue, and shouldn't every day be?
Let's Ask Roscoe what National Dog Day means to him.

"Frisbee? Where's the new Frisbee the one that lights up I saw it in the back seat of your car you know the back seat where I sit. How about them Sox. You wanna play Frisbee? I love you. "

The Village of Homewood, our FIB friends to the south, celebrated the Dog Days of Summer on August 16, the Sonic Drive-Ins in Texas celebrated last Saturday, and Orange County, CA has decided to give the hot dogs a break and celebrate on October 25.
We have something called Dogtoberfest here, and I hope to finally make it this year. I know Roscoe would love it. Karen. It gives dogs and beer a whole new meaning.
To help celebrate the day let's take a look at some of the noble pups in our lives.

Two of a kind (Roscoe and Bug as puppies)

Doing the Em Dance (YoJimbo's girls Emily and Abigail)

Miss Vickers would have been a great center fielder (Vixen)

Clara loves to be photographed (Jackie's Clara)

How European (Cash dining with friends on the square)

A rare (still) moment (Tammi's Chico and Rosita)

Before they were a power couple (Roscow and Miss Vickers)

Another one of our fallen comrades (Sam)

Who called this sweet baby "Cujo?" (Danie's Zander)

To all the mouth breathing, drool dripping, bug eating, butt sniffing dogs in our lives, here's hoping today and all the rest are even half of what you deserve.


Photo Credits: Em and Ab photo from Jimmy, Clara photo by Jackie, Chico and Rosita photo courtesy of Tammie, Sam photo from the Sam Collection

Fun Monday: Best Forgotten Facts

From Long Ago

I went to Catholic school, so unless Sherman and Peabody used the Wayback Machine to meet James Garfield, I wouldn't have gotten the lowdown on our twentieth president the way that Mindy over at Mama Drama did.

I was the youngest and therefore regarded as something which crawled out of my older sibling's butt.

I was the recipient of many useless pieces of misinformation; here are a few I'd like to forget.

˚I learned that if you swallow watermelon seeds, watermelon will sprout in your stomach.
˚You can always trust Shirley Valenza and Mary Torterisie to buy your candy over recess.
˚If you touch so much as a blade of grass on the Indian Mounds, tribal chiefs will rise from their graves and take revenge. They especially hate little blonde girls.
˚If you don't stand perfectly still while the Trigg's bassett hound is wilding about the neighborhood, it will bite you in the ass (that one is true).
˚Rebel, the wilding hound, had rabies, so said my sister who should know (I never questioned why she should know), and I was getting 8,000 shots in my stomach unless I died first, in which case they would still give all the shots to my corpse.

Biting little girls, simply outrageous, is it not Zander?
Indubitably, Roscoe, indubitably.

Rocky flickr photo courtesy of JBoone

Little Boxes

And speaking of Irish Fest (doesn't this banjo player from Monto look like Hugh Laurie?) I bought a bunch of candy at one of the shops there. And I should have been leery (O'Leary) when I heard the words "Irish candy" bandied about. Especially when the Irish Baker turned out to be a baked potato joint. Other than that, I saw mostly sweaters and beer.

But this, dear vendors, and my sister who knows her music but not her candy, is not Irish candy.

Normally I'd show you luscious bars with long, greedy bites taken out of them, but the Mars bar was one of the first to go. I have wrappers, plenty of wrappers.
Jim will tell you it's like our Milky Way and I'll add a 3 Musketeers and a Milkshake candy bar to that. Good stuff, I like my Mars bar served at room temperature.

Do we see any Celtic candy here? *What is that green bar? I think all of this is best kept an ocean away because I can't stop eating it. That Kit Kat Chunky in the red wrapper at the bottom of the frame, THAT is one helluva candy bar.
Wikipedia says it's a "single finger" bar known as a Big Kat over here, but I never had one until today. Is it possible I don't eat enough candy? Tell that to my blood sugar.
The Kit Kat Chunky improves upon the balance of chocolate and wafer with the wafers piled one on top of another. The chocolate actually spills over the edges.
Jim talked about the Peanut Butter version last February.

Never had these kind of Allsorts, but aren't all Allsorts pretty much the same? A variety of pasty, liquorice flavored candies in pink and white and yellow, with maybe some bead coated jelly monstrosity thrown in.

I'm glad the nephews are too grown up to steal my candy. Well I'll be Favred—just leave me a pack of Cadbury Buttons. (Can you guess what Chris is reading?)
*The green candy bar is a mint Nestlé Aero, thanks C.

Fun Monday: Roots

Irish Fest, Festa, and a bit of Yankee bashing got me thinking: Do we feel like Irishmen or Italians, Cheeseheads or plain ol' Amerikins?

I was talking to a Brit friend about Irish grandmothers, and when I asked her about being Irish in England, she was insulted and said that she was English (even though she's half Irish).
A lesson learned about how the melting pot melts.

My reaction to anti-American sentiment surprises me because I've felt disenfranchised since I was two (and my mass of curly hair became a sand and ant magnet).

Are we defined by nationality or region, looks, profession or lack thereof?
What defines you: Your job, your family, your desires, your roots—what?

If that's too much for a Fun Monday would you ever deny being Irish? To me it's unthinkable (although I was, if you recall, raised Italian).

Movie Candy: Nerds Rope

Their chewy crunch and sweet sour blend make Nerds Rope an excellent movie candy choice. I liked Vince's idea of taking photos of real life nerds at the movies with Nerds Rope sticking out of their shirt pockets like slide rulers—that idea went the way of sticking Dots on Batman's nipples.

My Grandma Olson (Dempsey) got this same look on her face when I put pancake syrup on pork sausage.
The first time I had a Nerds Rope was at Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. I was as impressed with the movie's 3-D effects as I was with the stretchy sweet-and-tart of the candied rope. This was sans Pineapple Express mind you. (My last experience with this technology was Jaws 3-D.)

Vince favored the Nerds Rope Very Berry from the first photo over the Original shown in the second. But a Nerds Rope is a Nerds Rope and to say there's much of a difference between flavors is like trying to decide between a hot caramel or a hot fudge sundae. Why not get a turtle sundae with extra nuts and cherries? That sounds pretty good to me so let's move on to the Nerds Worthy portion of the show.

Nerds Rope Worthy:
Pineapple Express
Not quite Dazed and Confused, this wacky Rogan/Apatow weed romp reminded me of a Double Stuf Oreo. No, not that kind of double stuffed Oreo.
The first bite is all crisp deep chocolate with the promise of a thick white cream center...hold on...okay I'm back~burp~and Pineapple Express has that munchtastic black and white Bill Hader opening sequence to unscrew.The first James Franco (Freaks and Geeks /Spider-Man) apartment scene is just as priceless. Then there's a sweet, creamy middle, with well constructed (if not too much) action, and a kind of Harold and Kumar Dineresque bottom cookie to finish it off. Visual humor or no, Seth Rogan needs to get some new underwear.
Tropic Thunder
More male bonding, more Bill Hader, more fun, Tropic Thunder stars Ben Stiller (who directed), Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Tom Cruise, Nick Nolte, and Mathew McConaughey, sporting an unflattering shade of pink lipstick. There are many cameos, some impressive new faces and one funny-ass-English-dude.
Tropic Thunder is funnier than Pineapple Express because it's a better action-adventure comedy, a tricky combination which stymied the likes of Get Smart. There must have been divine comic intervention at work considering the film stars Stiller, McConaughey, and Jack Black. Maybe Richard Pryor had drinks with Robert Altman and they worked a minor miracle from on high or, uh, wherever they are.

Rest in peace, Bernie Mac, thanks for the laughs.

What Are We Eating?

Karen
A Cadbury Dairy Milk bar. Always with the chocolate.
Last seen eating: Ice chips

Bug
David's Sunflower Seeds and Dubble Bubble bubble gum
Last seen eating: A giant funnel cake followed by a Culver's turtle sundae

Billy, Jackie, Phil2
Gilliam Old Fashioned Black Licorice Drops (and a Strawberry Twizzler)
(Jackie) last seen eating: a Strawberry Twizzler

Vince
Strawberry Twizzlers, Nerds Rope
Last seen eating: The rest of Bug's funnel cake followed by a blue moon Concrete Shake with cherries (blech)

Me and Roscoe
Nerds Rope, Giant Chewy Nerds, and a big fluffy toy
I last ate: Red Vines Red & Black Mixed Bites
Roscoe was last seen eating: Toy stuffing and last heard (over the phone) eating a fly he caught, released, caught again, and then ate

Ask Roscoe: Is Brett A Jet All The Way?

So many headlines, so many possibilities.
The Business World: Favre Jets Jersey Blitz Crashes Team's Web Store
The Fantasy World: Brett the Jet: Four degrees of Favre
The Fantasy World of the New York Post: Favre Joining Up With Gang Green
A few more...
Leaving On A Jets Plane
Gone, Baby, Gone (or There's No Crying In Football)
Good Riddance You Traitorous Jerk Pig
The obvious When You're A Jet
The burning question When You're A Brett Are You A Brett All The Way?
Let's Ask Roscoe.

Found on set at his Nerds Rope photo shoot, Roscoe said,
"In out, let's get crackin'."
Great daddio, I mean Roscoe.
Here's hoping the Sharks will steer clear, Brett.
Da da da da da...da da da da da da.

Here comes the Brett
Yeah! He ain't gonna beat
Any last buggin' team
On the whole buggin' street!
On the whole!
Ever!
Mother!
Lovin'!
Street!
Yeah!
You suck.
Still a Steeler's fan.
P.S. For Jimbo (PSFJ)
The Corn Is As High As A Labrador's Eye

Meme Mia!

Six Long Overdue Things About Yourself
A meme I promised Patti

What does cannoli have to do with it (have to do with it)? I took photos at Festa Italiana with this meme on my mind and my mind on my meme.

1. I believe you could plan weddings and write novels by looking at a cannoli on a plate. If you're Italian.
That baby right there is dreaming of cannoli.

"Ehh, AngeLAH! I'd like to dip my cannoli in your chocolate heh, heh, heh."
"Go #@!* yourself."

2. I was born Italian, Irish, and possibly Norwegian.
I was raised Italian.
That's wine drinking, too many sweats eating, plate cleaning, sun soaked, broken English speaking, Roman Catholic Church going, wine cellar next to the laundry room sneaking into, Italian. Think of The Jungle Book if Mowgli grew up in The Bush.

3. I wouldn't be writing this now if the sun were out.

4. I panic whenever I see a nun and my right hand makes this involuntary motion like I'm throwing away a cigarette under a bathroom stall.

5. The Irish side call themselves Dempsey, grandma's maiden name, rather than Olson, grandpa's last name.
Grandma Olson (Dempsey) colored her hair red till the day she died.
This isn't her. However this Palermo's Pizza church lady was cool and...

6. I see dead people.
I do, especially at Festa and especially my Aunt Dora who reminds me of Estelle Castanza.
What about this photo except that guy's white-boy-butt isn't funny? Note my dead aunt using the wheelchair for her purse. And that chic in the corner—hilarious. I love Festa.