Year End Clearance `07

It's that time of the year again to clean out all the stupid pictures that I've saved in my blog picture file but have never used. These are all just random things that I thought were going to go somewhere but eventually didn't live up to the high posting standards of WWoB!



Seriously, THE SINGING BEE is a fantastic piece of television programing. It's a game show when you have to finish the lyrics to songs. They have a band that starts playing a song and someone is singing and then the singer just stops and you have to keep going with it word for word. One little mistake and you're outta there. They do all kinds of songs too, from popular stuff from today to showtunes from the 30's. It's really alot of fun and it's just about the only network show that both my wife and I watch together!






Disney Xtreme Coolers were little juice box-like pouches filled with a 25% less sugar fruit drink. Of course they were aimed at kids and not surprisingly I used to buy them just because they had Mickey and the gang on the box. But, the yellow flavor (whatever it was called) was awesome and addictive. I'd drink two or three at a time! Then they came out with the stuff in a regular size container and I was in heaven, pouring myself a big ol' glass of the yellow drink. Then, before you knew it, Disney Xtreme Coolers were gone from shelves. Then I had to go back to drinking Donald Duck orange juice.





When we were younger, my brother used to seriously collect the little red sticks from these Cheese and Crackers packages. He had, like, 30 or 40 of them. I think we used to try and build things with them.

Seriously, where the heck is Heckle and Jeckle!? They were such a great cartoon, always paired with Mighty Mouse, and I haven't heard nothing from them or about them in years! I know there's a Mighty Mouse movie in the works and a DVD...but where's the Heckle and Jeckle!? That was some first class cartoon entertainment right there.

Last but not least we have this logo which can be found on buttons and whatnot from Hot Topic. Is this not the dumbest thing ever? Really...you don't like Nazis? You hate Nazis so much you had to get a button to tell everyone else about it. Newsflash: Nobody liked the Nazis, even Nazis didn't like the Nazis!

Thanks for reading in 2007....here's to 2008!

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Hope you all had a Happy Holiday! Let me just say, right here, what you're looking at is quite simply Christmas gift giving at it's finest! Christmas night my brother-in-law Mike presented me with this fine ALF Telephone. How freakin' cool is that!? My brother-in-law said that while he was over at a friend's house it came up in conversation that they had an ALF telephone packed away somewhere in their basement! Of course Michael thought of me right away and after an ALF-finding expedition in the basement he had me crossed off his holiday shopping list. And I am ever so grateful that this ALF collectible is now in my possession. And let me just tell you how excited my wife is to have this classic telephone in our house. Why, you should have seen the look on her face when I took it out of the box!

And then oddly enough, the day after Christmas we were at my mother's house and she had stumbled upon a merchandise order form from my days as an Alf Fan Club member. And low and behold, there's the ALF telephone selling for $70.00! (I'll scan the whole ALF Store Fan Club Newsletter at another time and share it with ya'll!)

It will be an out-of-this-world experience then next time I go to order a pizza and pick up my ALF telephone!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you have a joyous day! I myself am going to open up some presents and then pop in my VHS of Yogi's First Christmas and call it a day! Oh wait...that was me before I had kids! I'm sure I'll spend the day with a Phillips Head Screwdriver in one hand and my stockpile of batteries in the other putting together all this kids toys!

Disney Holiday Record Offer

Here's a nifty commercial I found for a Christmas record offer from Disney. Good ol' Disney had lots of success in the 70's & 80's selling music through mail order ads on television. Anybody who watched cartoons on a regular basis back then has at least one of these record commercials tucked away in their memory banks somewhere. This one is a little bit before my time...

The other record offered here is called (in it's entirety) An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol Presented by the Popular Repertory Company The Walt Disney Players and was released in 1974. The record was very popular and led to the 1982 animated featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol. The film version is very similar to the record, with the same lines of dialogue in several parts. The biggest difference between the audio recording and the filmed adaptation is the Ghost of Christmas Past is played by Merlin from The Sword in the Stone on the record and Jimminy Cricket in the movie. The record's Ghost of Christmas Future is the Witch from Snow White while in the cartoon it's played by Pegleg Pete.

I picked up a copy of the record (complete with the book) at a Flea Market last summer for $1.00! A Happy Day!

Take Another Look

If you have any last minute shopping to do this weekend, may we suggest our favorite store...?

Bizarro - 12/20/07

You Put The Ice Cubes In....

This commercial for the Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine is twenty-five years old, yet everytime that I put ice into a drink I sing this song in my head...




Still looking for a list minuet Christmas gift? This bad boy is still for sale.

Classic Christmas Commercial

Insert Your Own "Pink" Pun Here

Here's another great animation DVD that goes beyond the call of duty. It would have been easy for MGM to release the cozy 1978 television special A PINK CHRISTMAS on a DVD of it's own, much as they had done with the VHS release. But instead not only are we treated to the Pink One's Christmas outing, we also get 1981's PINK AT FIRST SIGHT (a romance themed half hour that aired near Valentine's Day) and the very obscure PINK-LYMPICS, which was produced in conjunction with the 1980 Winter Olympics. This last film is a real treat as it only aired once and never received home video treatment. It's so obscure that I myself only learned about it's existence last year.

But of course the centerpiece of this collection is A PINK CHRISTMAS, which besides for a choir of children singing, is a completely wordless half hour story adapted from O'Henry's "The Cop and the Anthem". (I was in a high school play of "The Cop and the Anthem" so I feel a little more connected to The Pink Panther. Isn't that lame!?) In this longer than usual adventure for the Pink Panther, Pink has trouble finding a meal on Christmas eve, so he decides to get himself arrested so that he can spend the night in jail with a hot meal. The film is a great little holiday special packed with heart and warm songs of the season.

Ziggy's Shinning Moment

We've talked about Ziggy here at WWoB before. What's the deal with him!? Is he supposed to be funny? Is it supposed to be religious!? He doesn't talk, or have a job, or really do anything at all. He does have more pets than that old lady down the street though! Anyhow, Ziggy has been appearing in newspaper comic strips since 1971 and has also appeared in various Halmark-esque endeavors like greeting cards and good ol' coffee mugs. In 1982 they took Ziggy to the small screen in what is probably the best effort brought about by the Ziggy people. ZIGGY'S GIFT is a delightful half-hour animated Christmas special that is filled with good holiday cheer. In addition to being cute and charming, ZIGGY'S GIFT also boasts some beautiful animation. Whereas most television cartoons are done in "limited animation", this Ziggy Christmas Special is fully animated. It was directed by acclaimed animator Richard Williams who also did the animation for WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT and the ol' 70's Raggedy Ann and Andy movie.

It was kind of hard to find on video but they released it to DVD a couple of Christmas ago, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a copy if you wanted to add this great little holiday flick to your collection. It won't answer any questions about what the heck Ziggy's deal is, but it will certainly put you in a holiday mood. And, unlike the newspaper, Ziggy wears pants on TV.

Thanks For the Free Parking!

In my travels, whenever I see something advertised as "world's largest" there's a good chance I'm setting aside part of my trip to pay a visit. Although I've never visited the famed "Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" I have seen the world's largest orange, world's largest six-pack of beer, and I've taken many rides to the top of the world's largest sombrero. While reading about San Jose, CA before my recent trip I discovered that their Discovery Park was home to the world's largest Monopoly board! Of course this shot to the top of my must see list. However, as you can see from this picture the world's largest Monopoly board was a little bit of a let down. Sure, it's bigger than a regular Monopoly game board but it really ain't all that big! Plus, it's just a board. There wasn't any World's Largest Monopoly thimble or World's Largest Monopoly 500 dollar bill...just a board. I'm told you can contact the city of San Jose and rent the playing pieces and giant Community Chest cards. I guess that would be kind of fun, but it would probably just be more fun to go to Atlantic City and find all the streets and properties listed in the game. Except Baltic Avenue...I'd probably stay away from Baltic!

Happy Birthday Tanner!

My littlest buddy Tanner turns two years old today! He's talking up a storm nowadays and has developed quite a love for Thomas The Tank Engine in the last couple of weeks. We had some family over Sunday to celebrate his big day! He got lots of Thomas stuff, as well as Mickey Mouse Clubhouse stuff (another favorite!) Today we're off to Lancaster, PA to the official Thomas store to do a little Christmas shopping behind his back and of course probably pick up a thing or two for him to take home today!

By the way, check out the awesome train cake that Grammy made!

Spiced Up My Life

I just got back from an amazing 42-hour visit to San Jose, California where I witnessed the pure awesomeness that is The Spice Girls Reunion Tour. Seriously, the show was one of the most exciting things I've ever seen. As you may have guessed from reading this site, I don't usually stop liking things. Once I'm a fan, I'm always a fan and that holds true for the Spice Girls. But, since they broke up many years ago they've kind of been a closed chapter in my book. Sure I've still listened to their CDs, and their movie Spice World remains one of my favorite movies of all time, but I never expected to hear anything new from them again yet alone see them live in concert again! So it was fantastic just to get to see them, and then to add to that the fact that they blew the roof off the dump with their high-energy, colorful, and cheerful show was the icing on the cake! I could go on and try and tell you all about the costume changes, big production numbers and other cool things they did, but pictures speak louder than words so let me share a few photos of The Spice Girls live in San Jose, CA.

Here's the Fab Five together again belting out one of their hits.

It wouldn't be a Spice Girls show without Geri slipping into her Union Jack mini-skirt!

Each of the girls did a little solo number. Here's Emma doing a cover of some song in a very visual set piece.

Geri brought her A-game to the stage with a big production number of "It's Raining Men"

Scary got some dude out of the audience and then strapped him up inside this ladder-thingy while he got a somewhat-graphic lap dance.

Here's Emma looking adorable in one of her 13 costumes.

They have a real jazzy song called "The Lady is a Vamp" so everybody got all dressed up real classy like!

They did another number with all these feathers and some pole dancing.

There's Emma singing at her pole.

They brought these "changing rooms" out for a few songs...

Did I mention it was an awesome show!?

There's Always Room For Ketchup

For those of you that may not know, my 4-year old son Elias LOVES him some ketchup! For him ketchup is must with fries, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, pizza and pancakes. Often if there is ketchup left on his plate anything left in sight is a candidate for a dip in the ol' red stuff. Witness this video (which I'm hoping will be an internet sensation) of Elias introducing ketchup to a fresh slice of raisin bread: