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:

Who Doesn't Dream of Turkey Roll?

"We need a way to get little girls more interested in eating turkey roll!"

"How about if we put a picture of a fake Barbie on the package and call it Princess Dreams Turkey Roll!?"

"That's good Matthews! You have a gift, my friend! Don't hide that in a bushel basket."

Happy Thanksgiving!

This DVD is Going to Rock! (get it?)

OMG! Seriously, like this is the greatest news of a DVD release since the invention of the DVD player. The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show was the first of 10 spin-offs to the original Flintstones prime time series. Debuting on Saturday mornings on CBS in 1971 and then reruning for most of the 70's and 80's in various forms of syndication, this series picks up with the Flintstones and Rubbles a few years after the original series. In it, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are teenagers who love to cruise around Bedrock with their friends Penny, Wiggy, and Moonrock and get into all sorts of adventures. The grownups (Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty) were usually featured in a secondary side story.

Ok, I used to watch this show alot. Like, really alot! Even though I haven't seen this show in years, I'm sure on March 18th when this DVD comes out and I sit down to watch all 16 episodes, I'll remember each and every one! I LOVED this show as a kid! Honestly, I wish we could skip Christmas and go right to March 18, 2008 so I can get my hands on this awesome DVD set!

Fred Flintstone Lays an Egg

Last summer I did a post about coin-operated Egg Machines. You remember the machine: you put a quarter in, a chicken spins and clucks and then gives you a plastic egg filled with a plastic surprise!? There's many variations on this novelty machine but of course my favorite was the Flintstones version where you get Fred yelling "Yabba-Dabba-Doo" instead of a chicken doing her thing! Well, seeing as how WWoB is the internet's leading authority on the Chicken Laying an Egg Machine, a nice reader from Ohio sent me this photo of the totally awesome Fred Flintstone Laying and Egg Machine (or Lucky Eggs) which she found in a grocery store up there. Oh, how I yearn to see Fred spin and hear the scratchy recording of Yabba-Dabba-Doo!

It's rare to find anything Flintstones related where all the character's colors are correct. Here, in the picture at the top of the machine Fred's tie is the wrong color and Barney's tunic is also the wrong color. On the front glass of the machine Dino's face is not correctly colored either. Also, Dino proclaims via a word balloon that the eggs are from him! I didn't know male dinosaurs laid eggs. I also didn't know that monkeys could operate traffic lights so I guess anything is possible!

Good Ol' Charlie Brown Specials

Here's two old school TV Guide ads for "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." The special first aired in 1973 and was a yearly tradition until the 90's. The special disappeared for a long time only to resurface not too long ago when ABC took over the Peanuts collection from CBS. Before 2001 the Peanuts specials had aired on CBS for 35 years! This classic program will be rebroadcast yet again tomorrow night at 8:00pm on ABC. (That's Channel 2 in Baltimore and Channel 27 for Southern PA.) Following "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" will be a repeat of "He's a Bully, Charlie Brown" at 8:30pm. We mentioned this show last year on WWoB when it made it's debut.

It turned out to be a really good show and in my opinion the best Peanuts TV outing since 1986's "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown." Although Charles Schulz did not get to write the script for "Bully" he was working on the idea for the show before he passed away in 2000. The script is based on comic strips published in April of 1995.

So pop yourself some of that microwave popcorn and grab a diet Vault and settle back for a solid hour of entertainment!

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Classic Characters to Color

Hanna-Barbera characters have always been rather simplistic in their design, which lends them to the world of coloring books very well. Lets' face it, coloring books suck when the pictures are too detailed to really get a crayon in there and do your work. So, it was cool to find this coloring book (for my kids) a few years ago just sitting at a Wal-Mart of all places. It's filled with lots of easy to color pictures of some of Hanna-Barbera's biggest stars from the `60's & `70's. It's not often you go into a department store nowadays a find something with Yogi Bear or Huckleberry Hound on the front cover. Or for that matter...Snagglepuss even!

Here's a few pages of some of the Golden Oldies featured in the book.

If anyone wants to color one of these and send it back in, we'll run it!

Everything Tastes Better When It's Shaped Like A Mouse's Head

I screamed with delight when I saw these new Mickey Mouse Pizzas in my grocers freezer. I was even more excited when I saw that the pizzas didn't just have Mickey Mouse on the box, the actual pizza is shaped like the Big Cheese himself! How cool is that!? It tastes pretty much like any other cheap frozen pizza, it's just ten times more fun! My kids loved `em! The ears are the perfect size for little ones hands! They come in three varieties: Cheese, Peperoni, and a Pepperoni & Sausage combination.

Good Eats!

My Salute to Zayre

There used to be a time, not too long ago, when there were other department stores besides Target and Wal-Mart. It's true! Honest! One of my favorite department stores that my mom would take us to was Zayre. There was a Zayre in Laurel, MD about 30 minutes from our house. It was always an occasion to go to Zayre because they were my favorite store for three reasons:

1. Their Snack Bar In the back of the store, near the layaway counter was a little coffee counter where they served the best hamburgers I had ever had. They were the cheap brand of frozen hamburger patties, but they were cooked on the grill oh-so-right and I couldn't get enough of them. My mom would give me two dollars and that would get me a burger and a medium fruit punch and I savored every last bite!

2. They Sold Atari 2600 Cartridges Long After Everyone Else Stopped The rest of the retail world had moved on to Nintendo, but Zayre had a big selection of 2600 games all the way up to the end of the `80's. They also had a weird selection of games like Eggomania and Word Zapper. Plus their prices were insane. Before Zayre went out of business, I got a Hide and Go Seek game for twenty-five cents! You can't beat that! Twenty-five cents is also were I caved in and bought E.T. some seven or eight years after it came out. Horrible Game!

3. Everything Was Orange Orange is my favorite color, but it's also a tacky color for interior decorating. I read that the company changed their color to Red early on in the game, but the Laurel store was bright orange until the day they closed their doors for the last time. The walls were orange, the carts were orange. Eating in the Snack Bar was like eating in a big orange box! There was orange everywhere. Even at a young age I knew it was all tacky!

While a successful company, Zayre also opened up the TJ Maxx chain of discount stores. In 1984, they founded BJ's Wholesale Club. The Zayre chain of stores was sold to Ames, who eventually converted all the Zayre stores to Ames before going out of business themselves in 2002. The Zayre in Laurel, last time I was there was an Old Country Buffet (and yes, I did eat there!)

And now a word from our sponsor...

It's Bee Movie, Hon!

Bee Movie Fever has invaded our home. Since we bought a Bee Movie book last weekend we've had to read it to the kids about a buzz-illion times. So far we've managed to get away with only one trip to McDonald's for Bee Movie Happy Meals. Running around the house stinging mommy and daddy seems to be a new favorite game. Yesterday, Elias and I made it to the movie theatre to see BEE MOVIE. (Mommy and Tanner elected for a nap instead.) The movie is a good PG-rated comedy. It's fine for the whole family even though the script is geared more towards adults. There were several spots where all the grown-ups were laughing pretty hard, and there are other slapstick parts for the kids. Elias especially enjoyed the scene where Barry (the main bee) surfed on a nail file in a toilet bowl. Barry is, of course, played by Jerry Seinfeld. If you've watched 5 minutes of NBC programing in the last two weeks you already knew that! Fans of Jerry's stand-up or sitcom shouldn't be disappointed as Mr. Seinfeld wrote the screenplay and it is stamped with his brand of humor. Bee Movie is certainly one of the better animated films to come out this year. We had a good time, and we recommend it.

And now....without changing the subject...here's my shamelessly cute recent addition to the world of YouTube:

Bizarro - 7/23/07

Trick-or-Treat 2007

Well, Halloween 2007 is over! We survived two nights of trick-or-treating, a 2 1/2 hour parade, a three different Halloween parties! I'm beat! Tanner has discovered the wonders of Candy Corn, while Elias has officially become of Gum chewer.

Tanner developed his own style of trick-or-treating. Instead of greeting people with "trick-or-treat", he would use his own "I want some candy, please!" He also replaced "thank you" with "I want more!" Since he's two years old, and looks adorable in his pumpkin costume he got away with it and he really did have significantly more candy than Elias at the end of the night.

Last night we went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood that I grew up in. When I was little, there were seriously hundreds of kids out going from door to door. Last night, we saw a few lone trick-or-treaters pass us by. My mom only had seven knocks on her door! Kind of sad, ain't it! Where's the spirit!

Now we get a two week break before I bust out the Christmas CD's and videos and begin Christmas 2007! Ho Ho Ho!

Also: Happy Birthday to my lone star brother! Happy Birthday Charlie!