View User: Pelirojo

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April Fools' Day - Random Topics
Joe, I think the most likely reason for its origins has to do with the calendar switch in 1563, France in which the OLD New Year's got celebrated on the NEW April 1st. Anyway, the illiterate peasantry hadn't heard of the edict so they were STILL celebrating the OLD New Year with all kinds of merrymaking and carryings on. This prompted the city folks and aristocrats to become very derisive of them and laugh "Look at all those APRIL FOOLS!". Anyway, it seems even after the misunderstanding was cleared up, everyone liked the idea of a day of pranks and mischief so the day stuck and spread to other countries! Maybe this likely French-originated celebration is not the most edifying holiday but surely is less destructive than Britain's Guy Fawke's Day which involves burning a straw man in front of a crowd! -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on June 8, 2009, 2:17 pm

Judge Judy - TV Shows
Actually, I admit she's a guilty pleasure! You don't know how much I wish I could pull no punches with some of my colleagues at work using her catchphrases (e.g." DO I have 'stupid' written on my face?" "You're fulla baloney!" "I'm spea-KING!" "An' if it doesn't make sense, then it's a lie!",etc.)- often punctuated with her own set of referee hand-signals and desk banging! The only way the show's boning now is that it's gone to reruns yet still is billed in my local market as 'All New'. -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on June 5, 2009, 11:44 am

David Carradine - Celebrities
There's so many odd details coming to light about the circumstances surrounding his sudden death (that I will NOT put forth in this site that may be read by children) as well as at least one claim that goes contrary to what the Thai official cause was that I have to say that, at this point, it almost sounds like a plot to one of his movies! Regardless of how it may have happened, I think we should respect his grieving family and leave them in peace. They are going to have to deal with whatever happened the rest of their lives and besieging them while they're still in their initial shock serves no good purpose! -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on June 5, 2009, 11:36 am

New Leave It To Beaver, The - TV Shows
Having grown up on the classic original show, I decided to give its revival a chance. There were a few things that seemed a bit ajar- like Wally's wife Mary Ellen being pregnant with their second child for something like two years, then the baby being born before suddenly becoming four years old the next season (at least Andrew Keaton was carried a normal term by his mother)! Also, while I can't say it was a surprise that Eddie Haskell grew up to be a a bullying husband to his doormat wife, I didn't think that was very funny. Of course, it was supposed to be balanced out that he was a slightly better dad to his son who himself also happened to be Beaver's teen son's best friend but not quite as shady as his dad. Also, it seemed a bit amiss that the divorced Beaver was in no hurry to leave June's house- despite becoming rather successful going into the unspecified business with Lumpy. Yeah, I know it was good for his kids that June was around but couldn't they have had her live close by instead of in the same house? I'd say the BEST episode of the series had to do when June ran for a city counsel seat against Eddie and for the first (and only time) REALLY told him what she thought of him as a person instead of just giving him cool,unimpressed glares! Also, it was interesting that Wally's daughter seemed to get in as much mischief as her boy cousins (though NONE of them got into as much as the title character in his youth) but she proved to be a sterotypical preteen/teen mallrat. Mary Ellen and Wally didn't seem to have more to do than hover around their kids and glom on his past atheletic glory days in high school- despite them being well into middle age. And, there was little if any interaction with Beaver's ex with their sons nor did Beaver seem really interested in doing more than some occasional dating. Even though this lasted some four seasons, I don't think this will be cherished as much by the viewing public over the long haul as the original show! -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on June 4, 2009, 11:40 am

My Three Sons - TV Shows
I'm probably going to get dissed for saying this but I don't think Dodie was as horrible as some of the posters here (and in the former Website That Never Will Be Named) are saying. I'm far from a fan of hers and I think the character was rather extraneous to the show! The show was called 'My Three Sons'. Where's a young stepddaughter supposed to fit in with three sons, three grandsons, several daughters-in-law and Uncle Charley? I really wonder if they thought that somehow Dodie's character would suddenly get all the preteen girls to watch it who had previously ignored the show! The show had long since seen better days before she'd gotten there but I don't think she alone sunk it. It was more general stodginess,boredom and the show's own old age that did it. And, while she wasn't a conventionally pretty child, I don't think she was hideous by any means. The problem was that she really didn't add anything to the show. Even the character's mother seemed to fare better relating to her new slightly older husband, stepsons, stepdaughters-in-laws, stepgrandkids and Uncle Charley than she did with her own child. The only thing that is noteworthy about the addition of Dodie was that they cast as Dodie's friend Priscilla someone named Jodie Foster in her first recurring television role. Even so, Ms. Foster seemed to be mortified at having to act as though she was a dumb kid. Whatever else can be said about Ms. Foster, she was always too intelligent(Yale graduate!) to be believable as a dumb person- no matter what lines her characters had to say. Yeah, the same couldn't be said about Ms. Lyn but Dodie did remind me of some really dumb kids in my grade school class so I guess that was something. If having been on the show is something Ms. Lyn now treasures, what does it hurt anyone else? -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on June 2, 2009, 3:06 pm

Freddie - TV Shows
I vote Day One for the fact that it was supposed to be a chef/owner of a swanky restaurant dating/caring for his family of women/ having dumb stuff with his neighboring best friend- yet he hardly was ever around that restaurant. Anyone who knows restaurants knows that if either the chef or owner isn't available 24/7, the place will go down the tubes VERY fast! -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 30, 2009, 11:50 am

Rescuers, The - Movie Series
I have to agree,Robert ! I'm glad I saw both of them !Too bad that neither John Candy nor Eva Gabor are around to make any more( nor any more "SCTV" or "Green Acres")! I liked how they the animators got the voice actors actual facial and body gestures down pat so that one could easily imagine them REALLY doing what their animated, animal counterparts doing on screen! -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 30, 2009, 11:46 am

McDonalds - Random Topics
I guess McDonald's could then opt for pitching 'McGrounds' should toney coffee go bust, Robert! But do they REALLY think the public will consider them a worthy sustitute for the local neighborhood coffeehouse where everyone knows your name (yeah, I know, not original but it works)? -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 30, 2009, 11:43 am

Disney - Random Topics
I meant, Insanity_Prelude, for the last comment. Sorry. -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 28, 2009, 9:54 am

Disney - Random Topics
Insanity Parade, I may be showing my age but I feel the same way about "Old Yeller"! I think anyone who sees that and doesn't bawl at the end has no heart. Period. -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 28, 2009, 9:54 am

Ted Nugent - Music Groups
For me, it's not that I care if Ted Nugent hunts, it's the fact that he loudly disses all men who DON'T hunt that makes him bone with me. Hey, many of us live cities and we think we have better things to do with our time! If I were stuck in the woods with no food, sure I'd hunt whatever edible, non-endangered animal species were available but I don't see the point of going out of my way to do it when there's no need. Besides, if ALL men city dwellers and rural non-hunters raced out into the wilderness to hunt whatever there was, there'd be virtually nothing left for Ted and his friends so he should be grateful that there are those of us who don't hunt instead of dissing us! Why so insecure? -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 28, 2009, 9:42 am

Little Caesars - Random Topics
Actually, dirk, I think it would have been better had the beseiged Italian citizens delivered Little Caesars to the invading Mongols. Too bad it would be a few centuries before pizza would be invented. 'Gag a maggot'? Good one! -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 28, 2009, 9:32 am

Quiznos - Random Topics
Totally agree with you, Robert. Unfortunately, it's gotten so that it's very difficult to find any advertizements that DON'T treat viewers like morons! -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 26, 2009, 9:47 am

Zorro - Movie Series
While not without its own historical inaccuracies and flaws, 'Mask of Zorro'(1998) was fairly entertaining and introduced an entire new generation to the swordsman via Banderas. Unfortunately, it got followed up with 'Legend of Zorro'(2005). Discrpencies? Too many to list but to keep this from becoming too long I'll stick to the most major of them. Divorce amongst Spanish aristocrats in 1850 California ?! Not quicky but a very difficult and lengthy process. While informal separations and 'outside families' were looked upon with nudges and winks, a divorced person (especially a woman) would have been considered an outcast by society NOT the cream of it back then. Would the Hispanic and Native American Californians have cheered the idea of becoming a US state? Considering that only 4 years earlier, battles of the Mexican-American war had been fought there and most of them had at the time considered themselves to be Mexican citizens, it's doubtful they would have supported statehood in great numbers or furvor. Of course, it was somewhat out of their hands due to the larger numbers of '49ers who'd settled in the formerly sleepy mission town of San Franscisco .However; oddly enough the movie entirely ignores the existance of Gold Rush and its impact on California. One must say that Disney's been somewhat consistant in their historic lapses re 1850's California- as earlier movies totally ignored the existance of Hispanic and Native American Californians when depicting US American 49'ers settling there so maybe they think this balanced their earlier lapses out. Oh, and I'm not overlooking the Confederate soldiers in 1850 California. Not only was this ten years BEFORE the War Between the States but California was nowhere near any of the battlegrounds. And, Zorro himself became a henpecked cartoon in this movie. Ay caramba! -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 23, 2009, 4:55 pm

Pocahontas - Movie Series
I'll never forget being on a plane circling the Norfolk, Virginia airport and seeing a child in the seat in front of me playing with a Pocahontas doll singing that song and her parents all excited that they were going to go to nearby Jamestown to see 'where it all happened'! Since I didn't know any of them from Adam, I couldn't say anything but I was screaming inside how Disney was passing off this totally contrived and preposterous story as a historical biopic- and how so many parents of young children were doing NOTHING to counter the campaign. Just buying the plastic dolls. Anyone who's ever been to the Jamestown area knows that it's a flat,buggy swamp and NOT some mountainous Pacific Northwest-type coastline and the nearest prominent waterfall's hundreds of miles away in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Pocahontas was a child about eleven years old when the Jamestown settlers first encountered her NOT some leggy supermodel in a mini buckskin deal and John Smith was about 40 and middle aged not a romance novel coverboy! And when she came to London as an adult she wore rather conservative English fashions. I don't want to sound harsh but had she appeared on the streets of 1616 London in that mini buckskin deal, she'd have been loudly jeered, had all kinds of vile things thrown at her and very likely assaulted. No, I didn't bother to see the movies but I got enough of seeing this hooey just from coming attractions and ads for it to spot unbelievable discripancies and loathe that they had the gall to pitch it as having historic basis. They may as well have called her 'Little Red Feather' and had fictionalized settlers and locales. -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 23, 2009, 4:41 pm

Denny's - Random Topics
OK, back when I was a fan of Tim Allen's, I saw "The Santa Clause" and in that movie epitomized when Denny's boned. Right before he bumps the legit Santa off the roof, Tim's character is stuck with his young son on Christmas Eve and the divorced dad is so unprepared that the only way he can think to feed the kid is to take him to Denny's! No surprise that the kid looked like he wanted to cry and who could blame him? It would be very hard for many people to think of a worse eatery for Christmas Eve dinner than Denny's! What truly amazed me was that Denny's let Disney use its name and materials throughout the entire scene instead of forcing Disney to change it to something unrecognizable ! It was as if they themselves knew that there was good reason why no one who had any other option would want to eat there on Christmas Eve and they didn't mind themselves being portrayed as the LOWEST point of a dad and kid's sucky Christmas Eve! -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 18, 2009, 2:14 pm

3rd Rock from the Sun - TV Shows
Had to have one the best endings EVER for a sitcom! They all went home and wiped out the memories of EVERYTHING they did from all Earthlings' brains the previous five years after throwing an incredible party for their friends ! And how they got zapped into invisiblity from their convertable car with the studio audience loudly (and spontaneously) applauding, is something that has to be seen to be believed! -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 17, 2009, 12:26 pm

Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern - TV Shows
Well fed big, bald guy goes to some exotic locale and gets offered something most American viewers would never consider edible even if we were starving, will he eat it? Of course. Repeat theme. Every. Single. Episode. -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 17, 2009, 12:17 pm

National Treasure - Movie Series
I,too, really liked watching 'National Treasure' in that so many legit puzzles re the US Founding Fathers and the Masons got speculated about in a rather fascinating approach and it had an incredible pay off of having virtually every lost treasure of history being rediscovered at the end! Unfortunately, the sequel was incredibly BAD! First off, the motivations for the new goose chase were less noble than the first one- finding a lost temple first would somehow vindicate the rep of an ancestor that neither Ben nor any of the family he DID know had ever met. I mean, a true detective is supposed to seek evidence of the truth and be ready to accept it even if it proves hurtful to his or her ego. Many other things just didn't wash here but since I don't want to make this too long, I'll skip most of my objections and just say that the idea of the Aztecs building a gigantic waterworld underground temple in the Black Hills of South Dakota was incredibly bogus. Even if one refuses to accept the idea that the Aztecs didn't have wheeled transport, why would they BOTHER going so far away from their own empire to do this? -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 13, 2009, 7:18 am

Laverne & Shirley - TV Shows
I've often wondered if they thought the LA move would bring in NEW fans instead of just making it that much harder for their already weary fans to keep watching. And what was the point of keeping Shirley in the title if she wasn't on or even mentioned anymore? -- Submitted By: (Pelirojo) on May 12, 2009, 11:39 am