Much Ado About Nada!

Back in the late 80's/early 90's, I joined the Bramalea Little Theatre Group and had a bit part as a Klansman in one play, another comic role in another completely unmemorable play and the role of Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing (imho, I was even better than Brian Blessed!)

A few of my pals came out to see me at one of the performances and I recall that in one of the duels, my opponent tripped me and I landed on my back on a staircase...I didn't break the proverbial leg, but almost snapped my spine! The show went on...

Prior to the show Ed presented me with this:














What do you expect from an English Major??

Edjumacation.

Part 2 of Ed week is a poem he'd written shortly after graduating from teacher's college. Not unsurprisingly he didn't last long as an educator, but these are words I try to live by:

Suffer the little children,
I'd love to see them crawl,
Bleeding from the nose and mouth
While moving down the hall.
To lovingly caress them once
With club across the head
And smash the noses and the teeth
Then see the colour red.
But my fondest wishes,
Alas will not come true,
We cannot touch the buggers
So the classroom's like a zoo.
They say violence on the kiddies,
Leaves mental scars so strong,
I'd rather scar their bodies though
With cuts 10 inches long.
Psychology is bunk I say,
Though you might think me crass.
The best way to have discipline
Is a swift kick up the ass.

E.L. Kowalski

Honestly, a gentler man you wouldn't meet. Catharsis is a wondrous thing!

This appalling handwriting is mine, taken from the original.

Casting Aspersions.

As I alluded to yesterday, I have successfully been disarmed. I've come to the conclusion that the doc is a sadistic butcher, but otherwise I'm glad to be unencumbered. Check out the nasty buzzsaw he used on my arm...I asked him to just remove the cast and not the arm. The nurse laughed but he didn't. Apart from the smell of burning plaster, the removal went smoothly (until he got to the wrist when I could feel the blade...not a good sign. Fortunately there was sufficient padding to prevent a gushing!)

After being miscast, my arm dangled limply and I was in worse pain than the initial accident! His instruction was to move it back and forth (therapy, I guess) and then he exclaimed, "終わり!" (owari=finished) Dumbfounded, I protested his dismissal and he just reiterated, "終わり! 終わり!" My completely useless limb and I had to end up walking out into the pouring rain (do you know how tough it is to open a brolly with one arm?) whereupon I had to walk to my regular doctor who at least washed my arm and put on a couple of bandages.

My arm has recovered somewhat though it'll be awhile before I can play the violin (that's funny, I could never play before...rimshot!)

The Royal Di-Flowering!

It was 28 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper had his way.
In 1981, a wee lass of 20 named Dianne Spencer became the blushing bride of Charles Philip Arthur George, the Prince of Wales on July 29th at St Paul's Cathedral in a fairy-tale wedding.

My bestest friend at the time was a fellow Curtain Caller named Ed Kowalski (Edge) and we were quaffing a pint at The Duke of York. It was late afternoon and the mood was jovial though the place hadn't yet begun to fill up. There were decorations throughout the place anticipating a big crowd to enjoy the soon-to-be-televised nuptials.

In addition to the several different British beers on draught, they had a special drink entitled "THE KING AND DI" with placards at each table inviting one to partake in the cocktail, "We have married:-cider, orange juice, brandy & triple sec in celebration of the Royal Wedding" for a mere $2.90!

Ed and I decided to elaborate on this delicious drink with our own concoction that we dubbed "THE VIRGIN AND THE PRINCE", "A Cruel Intrusion of: stout, bailey's welsh cream, pink champagne, delicately topped with a cherry. In honour of the Royal Di-Flowering", also for only a mere $2.90!

Pictured here is the rough draft of our creation (click to embiggen), the final version was transcribed on the flipside of the York's offering and we placed it on a nearby table and sat back awaiting the discovery of our mischief.





Another pint later and the place began to be engulfed with the after-5 crowd mostly the suits from the nearby offices. A young couple sat at our designated table and viewed the cocktail with interest. They called the waitress over and proceeded to order the specialty of the house. The waitress hummed and hawed for a moment and took the card over to the Bartendress who looked it over quizzically, "Hmmm, I don't think we have any Pink Champagne" she muttered. Ed and I were stifling our guffaws and realizing that the jig is up, made our way towards the exit. The staff were now aware that they'd been had and espied us sneaking out. They called us over, congratulated us on our deceit and bought us a round! The card was passed around the bar and in true British tradition, the gang started singing various pub songs and we'd started the ball rolling for a night of ribaldry!

After two or three more beers, we quietly made our departure without checking to see if we were comped on all the beers or just the first round...I imagine that our creation is still with them, but don't really know for we haven't gone back since, in case there's a huge tab waiting for us!

Sadly Ed has joined Lady Di for a heavenly shag when he succumbed to liver cancer over 15 years ago. In honour of their memory, I have decided to make it "Edge Week" and showcase several items that Ed had created over the years!

ps. In case you're wondering, my cast has successfully been removed and I'll give you details tomorrow!

Castigated!

Let's hope the damn thing comes off tomorrow! I'm tired of one-handed typing! So I won't do any more typing and just offer up several pics taken over the last 2 weeks. Please come up with your own witty captions!

The Snoop Scoop!

Since I subscribe to Pepsi online, I knew they were coming but I wasn't expecting them for another week or so! Yet since the latest beagle buffet has arrived, I picked up a case at the supermarket (88￥ a pop as opposed to 147￥ each) and got the entire set of 24 in one swell foop!








As you can see, they are all enwrapped individually and I'll hold off on opening them until I get a few doubles.











Check out the entire lot and put in your requests and I'll keep an eye out for them.












Here's one individual to whet your taste, Snoopy-tako!

Happy PI-kachu Appreciation Day!

I see that 7-11 and Coke have another Pikachu tie-in, this time with mini-pushcars driven by characters from the forthcoming movie! Here are two, one (ムクホークMukuhawk) in its protective plastic Pope-mobile covering, the other (モウカザルMoukazaru) without.






As you can see, there are another 8 to collect. I won't go out of my way to get them all, but they are kinda cool (and speedy!)






















Furthermore, when you walk into a 7-11, there are these sheets of paper upon which you can collect stamps of your favourites! I guess if you fill out a complete sheet, you can send it in at a chance at a prize.

What's that you say? 22/7 is not Pikachu Appreciation Day, but rather Pi Approximation Day!

Never mind!

Ad Astra Per Aspera!

40 years ago, Apollo 11 landed on the moon! I was a wee lad of 10 at the time and unlike Homer, I actually saw the historic event on tv. I probably saw it on CBC, not CBS with the late Walter Cronkite, but it was still memorable!



You can always Google the facts (hey conspiracy nutjobs...it wasn't a hoax) so I'm going to talk of another famous astronaut, one to whom Atomu paid a visit as the following examines. 向井千秋(Mukai Chiaki), a cardiovascular surgeon, is the first Japanese woman to fly in space, and the first Japanese citizen to fly up there twice. Here are the highlights of her story:





























































Hey cool, she has her own Children's Museum! I wonder where it is!












J-Pop star, 菅野 美穂 (Kanno Miho), portrayed Chiaki in a tv Drama called,"向井千秋～夢を宇宙に追いかけた人～ (A Woman's Biography: Mukai Chiaki--A Dream Chaser in the Space /2007)". I can't find a copy of that, but here are a whack or ads with her for Sofina makeup:



ps. The title of this post was taught to me by my old Latin teacher and it graces the bow of the Starship Enterprise, "Through adversity to the Stars"

Night Museum!

I have to wait a few more weeks to see ナイト ミュージアム 2 so in the interim I'm going to try and figure out this game that came with the Deluxe version of the ナイト ミュージアム DVD. I enjoyed A Night at the Museum immensely when I saw it in Canada ages ago and equally enjoyable is its DVD goodies-packed DVD!

I'll provide you with the board and play cards, It's up to you to figure out the rules for the game or make up your own...

The board was folded into 6 pieces, all you have to do is puzzle them together. (Hint: スタート is Start and ゴール is the Goal.)
































Provided as well are two dice that you'll need to cut out and fold into hexagons. Pretty straight forward origami.

I'm not quite sure what these Character cards are for but you'll need to paste the words to the back of poster pages and cut them up.






















Furthermore, there are 5 each of the major Museum Display Characters worth 5-20 points, each with a bit of biographical information. If you really want the info in Japanese, just ask. Otherwise, go Google it!























That's the game...Have fun!



Oh yeah, in addition to the above, I also got a Balsa-model of T-Rex. Damn Cool!