I Feel Better About Thorsday

Thursday.

Wednesday is your hump day.

Friday, gateway to the weekend.

Dumpy old Thursday, just marking time every week...BUT WAIT!

Thursday is named after the Norse god, Thor. Thunder in the skies comes from Thor riding his goat-drawn chariot through the heavens, like a GTO for a god.

Thor's hammer,when thrown at a target, returns magically to the owner. The hammer can throw lightning bolts, too. Thor's belt and iron gloves give him the strength to throw the hammer.

Thor likes to fight giants a lot. His wife and mistress are both giantesses. Go figure.

So why the goats? When Thor is hungry he can roast the goats for a meal. When he wants to continue his travels, Thor only needs to touch the remains of the goats and they will be instantly restored to full health to resume their duties, assuming that the bones have not been broken.

I didn't make this stuff up, either.

Thursdays look a lot more macho now, huh?

Favorite TV Characters, Women in Reruns

I started to compile my list and discovered that I would need 2 lists, one for my Fave Five from Reruns and one for Fave Five All the Others.

My Rerun group also has some "Honorable Mentions", 'cause there' just too many great female characters. Here goes, let me know who's in your five.

First, the Honorable Mentions: Thelma Lou (she had no last name), Daisy "Granny" Moses, Agent 99, Bailey and Jennifer from WKRP, all the Eight is Enough girls...this list goes on a long, long time, so let's go with the top 5.

5. Miss Jane Hathaway

Sometimes beauty is not skin deep. Miss Jane was efficient, timelessly fashionable, shamelessly turned-on by Jethro, a Biddle Bird Watcher and relentlessly committed to propriety. Her buzzword was a barely restrained "Chief!", voicing her objection to whatever caper Milburn Drysdale was trying to pull.

4. Ginger Grant...or MaryAnn Summers?

I couldn't choose. They inspired endless debates, still going on today in bars and rec rooms: Ginger or MaryAnn? I wanted to be a castaway. The Skipper was old and fat, Gilligan was a dunce, the Professor a nerd, and Thurston Howell III was always under Lovey's watchful eye. Were I a castaway, both would be mine!

So, Ginger...or MaryAnn?

Bet you didn't know MaryAnn's last name before...

3. Samantha Stephens

When I was a little kid, I was hopelessly enamored with the beautiful witch. I knew that she couldn't really wiggle her nose, either, she shifted her mouth around so it looked like her nose moved, but that was OK. I wanted to be Darrin, and I think the original Darrin was way better than the replacement Darrin. I figured that Sam could nose-twitch me a new car, a million dollars, a new baseball mitt...come on, I was a little kid. When Samantha's dark haired sister came to visit it was like a Ginger vs. MaryAnne match up. How could you lose?
2. Laura Petrie
I still think that every guy would love to have a wife who can launch into a dance number at the drop of a hat. Laura would do that "OHHH, ROB!" thing and Rob would comfort her "it's ok, Honey" and then she'd start dancing, that kind of samba/tango thing in the black pants and sweater, and everything would be OK, as long as that battle-ax Sally stayed away.

1. Lisa Douglas

The chores...da ta ta dum dum...The Stores!

Fresh air...da ta ta dum dum..Times Square!

You are my wife...

Good - byyyye, city life...
Lisa flounced around in a gorgeous negligees, made lots of hotscakes, conversed with a pig and was always meticulously coiffed and made up even though there were no salons or spas anywhere around. She charmed everyone while husband Oliver Wendell Douglass was always in a pickle of some sort.

This has been a Filmways presentation, dahling....

Favorite TV Characters

Almost every one of us spends a lot of time staring at TV. It's entertainment, information, a fifty yard line seat, background noise and more. There's thousands of performers that come thru our homes over thousands of hours. Some characters stand out from the crowd. Here's my top 5 male TV characters. Who's yours?

5. Fred Mertz
Fred was living large way while his TV peers were slaving away. No kids, no job, no problem...other than Ethel.

4. Dwight Schrute
The psychotic, intensely loyal and potentially lethal wingman on The Office. Every boss should have a Dwight.

3. Kramer
Cosmo Kramer sold his memoirs to Peterman, coached a Miss America contestant, adopted a highway and drove the dealer's demo car the furthest past empty ever. He launched a rickshaw company with Newman, fed the carriage horse a can of pork 'n beans, moved in with the Costanzas, and became the MoviePhone guy. There's more, too much more.

2. Barney Fife

Mayberry's #2 lawman has timeless moments. There's Barney singing "Juanita" to the diner waitress on the ancient courthouse phone, Barney's "here at The Rock we have 2 rules" speech to a prisoner, and every time he went up against Ernest T. Bass. Oh, yeah, can't forget the time he registered at a hotel as Barney Fife, M.D. Stands for Mayberry Deputy, Ange.

1. Homer SimpsonHomer has had incredible adventures during his 15 years as Everyman, way too many to recount. My all time favorite is when he purposely became legally obese in order to work from home, then got a bobbing stork toy to do his job for him. Homer's best quality: he's made millions and millions for the guy who draws him and the guy who is Homer's voice.

Send me your favorites. Tomorrow, my top 5 female TV characters.

Rock 'n Roll, Relevant Again

If you watched American Idol ,(in my home you have little alternative) as I occasionally did, you may recall seeing Graham Nash perform an acoustic duet with the cute little blond girl who looks like Nancy Travis. She lost (I don't remember -already- who won), but the rendition of "Teach Your Children" started a chain of events.

I decided that if Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were touring, I was going to see them. Again. Their website said they were launching a tour in June, starting on the west coast and heading across the country over eight or ten weeks.

The Chicago date said "Radio Show", no location or time. Just "Radio Show". No other information. I did more research and came up empty as far as the Chicago show.

No problem, they were headed for South Bend after Chicago, a manageable hour and a half drive.

Problem. South Bend was already sold out. Back to the schedule I went, finding a concert date at a casino in Iowa. No problem, just a little longer drive in the other direction.

Problem. The casino is on the west side of Iowa, the side that borders Nevada or the Phillipines or whatever. Check the schedule again.

Minneapolis. Pass, no comment.

Then, a ray of light. The Chicago show was to be a private concert at the Rosemont Theatre, sponsored by FM radio station WDRV 97.1, a 7th birthday party the station was throwing for itself. They hired Crosby, Stills & Nash (Young is doing something in Holland, the wooden shoe and windmills Holland, not the one in Michigan) and they were giving away all the tickets!

Knock me over with a feather, I won a pair of tickets.

The show was terrific. CSN has re-tempo'd a few songs, slowing them down to be a little more perform-able for guys who are 39 years removed from their first Chicago appearance. The revisions work just fine. There was a wedding bouquet of music: some things old, some things new, a few songs borrowed and a little bit of Steven Stills blues guitar.

CSN is still, 40+ years after they started, embracing politics in their music. More striking is that some of their music is relevant again. Not still relevant, but relevant again. When Nash started wailing about "Military Madness", there was a discernable emotional response from the audience. A few hollered in support, many seemed uncertain as to whether this was an acceptable reaction, at least one started hollering his objection to the message.

The pro-peace, anti-war, anti-administration message gained acceptance and support from the audience as it was played up for a stretch of a few songs plus some banter from the band. They moved on into another segment, but CSN had made their statement, just as they always have.

The show was wonderful. I'm a big CSN fan and I had my fill. I've now seen them at the Chicago Stadium, the United Center and this most recent, more intimate performance. The audience was decidedly middle aged, happier to sit and listen than to stand and interact.

The lingering sentiment, aside from the "I love their music" feeling, is that we are in a different day. Politics and music aren't interwoven very frequently, and nobody seems to get very excited about the things that used to make us very excited. Read about GenX, GenY and whatever follows and you read about people who are into getting everything for themselves and getting it right now. The Boomers, by comparison, sang and spoke and acted upon everything that mattered to the group. Seems that very little of that migrated to the successors.

Teach your children.

So What if Norbit Sucked

I watched Eddie Murphy's movie "Norbit" the other day. It's predictable and not too funny and started me thinking. My thought was that Eddie Murphy is the Jerry Lewis of another generation. Murphy frequently plays multiple roles in his movies, the movies aren't always all that funny and he's even reprised Jerry Lewis' roles -the Nutty Professor, I and II.

So off I went to research my hypotheses. The answer: right shape/wrong size.

Eddie Murphy is, um, really something special. Here's some of the facts:

33 feature film credits, plus projects booked two years into the future

• the first film was "48 Hours" in 1982
  
• he is the highest grossing filmstar IN HISTORY, grossing over $3,400,000,000. That would be $3.4 BILLION


• he is an award winning voice actor: Donkey in the "Shrek" films, Thurgood Stubbs in "PJ's" and the Dragon in "Mulan"


• he started with "Saturday Night Live" at age 19 in 1980


• he turned down a role in "Ghostbusters"
  
• he had a successful singing career (I don't remember it, either)


• he was nominated for an Oscar for "Dreamgirls"


• he has 4 sons, and 4 daughters by 4 women (Jerry's kids, no pun intended, all have the same mother)


• he's 47 years old


• he was influenced by Richard Pryor, Peter Sellers, Redd Foxx, Bill Cosby, Elvis and....JERRY LEWIS!
  
  So, there's a link between the two,, but Eddie Murphy is a unique success.
  *************
  This week, the racers take to the Pocono triangle. The investment selection for this weekend is Kyle Busch for the checkers, Jeff Burton for a top 5. Watch the anthem and the flyover, then nap thru the middle and watch the exciting (maybe) finish. This week has to be more entertaining than last Sunday's yawner.