The Garlic: 02/21/2010

Saturday, February 27, 2010

This Date ... On The Garlic

27 February 2009... On The Garlic

M'm! M'm! Good!

Look! ... Up In The Sky! .. It's A Bird! ... It's A Plane! ...It's A $400K Comic Book!

27 February 2008... On The Garlic

The Day After ... Around The Debate-Go-Round

27 February 2007... On The Garlic

Breaking News! Cheney Bound By Terror Policy, Told To Not Come Home!; After Bomb Attempt, White House Tells Cheney To "Stay Away"; Belief "They Will Follow The Vice President Home"; Cheney To Get New Secret Bunker "Somewhere In Iraq"

27 February 2006... On The Garlic

The New Strategy For Winning Olympic Medals; Bush Says Would Be Mistake To Pull Out Olympic Team

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons Dubai Ports World Asked For 45-Day Delay In Taking Over U.S. Ports

Friday, February 26, 2010

This Date ... On The Garlic

26 February 2009... On The Garlic

Too Perfect! ... Jindal Jabberwocky II

Slow Go For Bookwriting Joe

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Rush Limbaugh Can Get Woman Not To Hate Him

This Weeks' Poll - Don't Forget To Vote ... Help Obama Spend Some Money!

28 February 2008... On The Garlic

Yes, Extra Pillows Will Be Needed ...

Top Ten Cloves: If Monica Goodling's Wedding Plays Out Like Her Last Job

The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll February 17 - February 25, 2008 ...With so much confusing talk about them, most people think Superdelegates are ...

26 February 2007... On The Garlic

Minced Garlic - Special Comment by Keith Olbermann: Condi goes too far

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard At The Oscars Last Evening

26 February 2006... On The Garlic

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves

Thursday, February 25, 2010

This Date ... On The Garlic

25 February 2009... On The Garlic

Bobby, Get Your Gun ...

Jindal Jabberwocky

25 February 2008... On The Garlic

"...And Your Mother Wears Combat Boots!"

25 February 2007... On The Garlic

Cue Fox Promo "If You Don't Laugh, That Must Mean You're Aiding The Terrorists" ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll

25 February 2005... On The Garlic

Cardinals Stymied, Looking For A New Signal

Suede Magazine Shutting Down

MTV Launches In Africa

Top Ten Cloves: How Martha Stewart Plans To Be Nicer When Released From Prison

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

This Date ... On The Garlic

24 February 2009... On The Garlic

New Garlic Poll ... If the GOP Governors don't want the Stimulus Money, Obama should ...

Garlic Poll Results ... "But I Thought We Were Getting A Company Car!"

Fat Tuesday! ... Oh, But On The Third Day!

24 February 2008... On The Garlic

Well, It's A Destiny of Sitting at The Presidential Kids Table

There's Sucker's Born Every Minute ...

He's Back! - Nader To The Rescue - Again!

http://puregarlic.blogspot.com/2008/02/ralph-nader-on-garlic_24.html

Editor's Note: Furnace, Snow, and Burnt Out

24 February 2006... On The Garlic

New White House Bombshell As President Confirms It's "My Government"

Top Ten Cloves: Problems With Being A Woman Figure Skater In The Winter Olympics

24 February 2005... On The Garlic

Garlic Extra! - More White House Payola; Thomas the Tank Engine Stumped for Amtrak

O Solo Mio; Venice To Build Subway To Boost Tourism

Bravo Going To The Dogs For More Poker

Top Ten Cloves: How So. Californians Are Coping With The Rain

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Today, we have another tribute to our late Aunt, Celia Malmberg.

For our local, weekly newspaper - The Cambridge Chronicle - we penned "The Yarn Store Lady", offering a remembrance to the Aunt we were caretaker to, highlighting her buoyant spirit, as opposed to submitting a boilerplate obituary.

Generously, 'The Chronicle' (the oldest, continuously published weekly newspaper in the country) accepted it.

Check out;

Guest commentary: Remembering the Central Square 'Yarn Store Lady’

Barry Crimmins: A Tribute Before a Eulogy

Our Eulogy

This Date ... On The Garlic

23 February 2009... On The Garlic

The Oscars ... "Perfectly awful!"

Leaving Bush Behind

Retro Garlic: Bill Frist's Intern

Corrupt Judge Follow-Up ... Wait, There's More!

23 February 2006... On The Garlic

Special Sing-Along: Never Can Say Dubai

Top Ten Cloves: Things About Bob Dole Becoming Lobbyist for Dubai Ports World Company

23 February 2005... On The Garlic

Winn-Dixie Files For Bankruptcy; Blames Canine

Supreme Court Takes Oregon Death Case

IOC To Reject NYC; Cites Gates, Loss To Red Sox

Amendment Rider Spares C-SPAN From Indecency Fines

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard at the Red Sox Spring Training

Monday, February 22, 2010

Quote of the Day!

There has been a fair amount of things to riff on, regarding the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Leading off, by having the luger killed, wasn't the most auspicious start of the games.l

All the X-Game-type sports (too bad Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland aren't around - "Hey Gang, let's make up a Winter Olympic Game!).

And, of course,. Canada's zeal to "dominate the world" via scooping up all the medals, leading Dahlia Lithwick to write a most engaging "Might It Possibly Be OK If We Kick Some Ass?"

Another highlight was NBC, and their "Red Mittens Day", or Mary Carillo's "Where-In-The-World-Is-Canada" schtick, going through Royal Mountie training;

Hooray! Mary Carillo! She's back! With a package about the MOUNTIES. Yes yes yes yes yes. YES. Mary explains that to become a mountie is SERIOUS BUSINESS. Mary goes to the "West Point" of the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police for those of you not down with abbreviations) in Regina, Saskatchewan. Heh. She said "Ree-gina." Do you think the citizens of that town ever try to convince everyone to pronounce it differently? It's cold there. Mary is going to find out what it takes to go from cadet to constable. Mary can't march! Mary giggles when the drill sargeant yells at her! This is a fact: The Mounties were formed to deal with the drunks in the Northwest territories in the 19th century. Mary drives a car! Mary runs around with heavy things! Mary learns to handcuff someone! Mary shoots guns! And then they let her wear a Dudley Do-Right costume, which doesn't seem right. MOUNTIES & CARILLO! FTW! You might have had Ice Dancing, Hankinson, but I got the awesomeness. I WIN.

The NYT's Alessandra Stanley called out the jingoism, and more;

At a time when American athletes are amassing record numbers of medals, and NBC is drawing an impressive number of viewers, sports fans couldn’t ask for more fulsome, pro-American coverage — they could ask for a little less. NBC anchors, including those paid by the news division, glom onto the glamour and reflected glory of winsome champions, as per Matt Lauer’s no-boundaries embrace of the skier Lindsey Vonn on “Today” after she won the downhill race. He draped a chocolate gold medal around her neck, gave her flowers (“just because we adore you”) and hugged her tight (“we are so proud of you”) — as if he and Meredith Vieira had spent the last 15 years rising at dawn to drive her to training.

And, we loved Heather Havrilesky's take, on the Men's Figuring Skating;

Lysacek takes to the ice wearing the evil alien villain garb from "Superman." But they're saying that General Zod isn't in the right frame of mind, based on what they saw during his warm-up. And it's true, he does stumble slightly after one jump, but otherwise he nails them, and ends with a double fist pump. (Doesn't General Zod do a double fist pump when he almost reigns victorious in "Superman II"?)

But the "Money" shots, came last evening, with NBC's over-the-top homage to "The Miracle On Ice", the victory of the USA Hockey team, over the Russians, thirty-years ago.

As my brother questioned, if there's anything, anywhere about the "Miracle On Ice", you will surely find Mike Eruzione there, front-and-center, on-camera, prompting my brother to ask "Is this is career, now?"

All this, to, unnecessarily, hype the hockey match last evening of the USA vs.Canada, in the one Winter Olympic game this year, that the Canadians felt entitlement.

Too bad this article came out today, and not before the broadcast;

How Miraculous Was the Miracle?

Not as much as you think.

And, too bad, the Canadian team lost to the youngsters of the USA, sending the entire country to hit themselves over the head with Labatt bottles, before going into a national funk.

But the Quote of the Day, goes to the always entertaining Charles Pierce, of 'The Boston Globe', jotting down some notes, on the Olympic hockey play.

Just so you know, it wasn't just my brother and I, Pierce also was annoyed by the NBC-Miracle-On-Icepalooza;

And I hate to sound like less of an American than I am, but I'm a little Miracle-On-Ice'd out at this point, especially with Al Michaels, who seems to believe that he landed on Omaha Beach or something 30 years ago.

Amen.

Maybe their thinking, since the USA won hockey Gold in 1960 (the first miracle), than the big upset in 1980, their putting their fingers on the scale that, since this is 2010, a year ending in "Zero", NBC can trump up their own manufactured miracle despite, no clear favorite, just about anyone in the field (Canada, USA, The Russians, Sweden and Finland) can win the thing.

The next Winter Olympics ending in "Zero" will be 2030, and, should the lads of the USA take it, you can rest assured, Al Michaels, and Mike Eurizone, will be there, in 2030, hyping "The Miracle", once again.

Must See 140-Character TV

Sorry, Garlic Fans, for the lack-of-posting this weekend, as we were, a bit, under-the-weather.

We had this in our crosshairs, despite the disbelieving shaking of our heads.

In the long history of Hollywood (both movies, and television), an overwhelming amount of their product has been based on "material from another source", verses original content.

Theatre, books, magazine articles, foreign movies and television shows (see 'The Office', or, say, "Three Men and A Baby")

You know, something else made money, so we can exploit it, and squeeze something out of it, too.

And, now, we have a new frontier, the New Millennium, the Digital Age;

Twitter user 'Shit My Dad Says' gets CBS deal

Twitter sensation Shit My Dad Says is headed to television.

CBS has picked up a comedy project based on the Twitter account, which has enlisted more than 700,000 followers since launching in August and has made its creator, Justin Halpern, an Internet star.

"Will & Grace" creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are on board to executive produce and supervise the writing for the multicamera family comedy, which Halpern will co-pen with Patrick Schumacker. Halpern and Schumacker will also co-exec produce the Warner Bros. TV-produced project, which has received a script commitment.

That's right, Twitter will now be foraged, for all sorts of programs, reality shows, and the like, especially if can offer cheap production values, and, of course, the standard exploiting, and humiliation of its' cast.

And, there was this little caveat;

The comedy's title will change if it gets on the air.

The kid should have held out for HBO, or Showtime, to keep the full ambiance in it.

But wait, there's more!

Captain Kirk, William Shatner, has signed on to play the shit-spouting dad.

Halperin's shitmydadsays Twitter account is hysterical, so it's going to be very interesting to see how they build the narrative around it, though, being on the mainstream CBS network, you can see that it will, in all likelihood, fall into the standard sit-com format, with Dad's language cleaned up, naturally.

With Shatner aboard, it could be funny-funny, or it could be dreadful, Mr. Tambourine Man-funny.

Well have to wait to see what Dad says about it.