Help Me!

Alright, I've been thinking about something lately and I need to let it out. I'm dead serious.

Remember the video for Boyz II Men's "Motownphilly"? There were a number of guest appearances by other members of the so-called East Coast Family: Another Bad Creation, Bel Biv Devoe, and Sudden Impact.

But what or who the hell was Sudden Impact? I just remember them kind of posing then all pointing at the camera.

Here's a description: they are a bunch of dorky white guys. That's all I have.

While the Internet has turned out to be a fountain of useless facts, the history of this Sudden Impact group remains a mystery. I have no leads even after using my good friend Google.

Can you help? Any follow-ups will be posted here.

The Grimace Letter

Back in 2002, I sent McDonald's an email regarding an issue that had been troubling me for years. My inquiry was as follows:

When I was a child I remember Grimace being called the Evil Grimace,
and he used to steal milkshakes from unsuspecting children. At that time he had six arms.

Later on in life, and without any reasonable explanation, his arms were reduced to four and he was no longer "evil".

Today, he has two arms. What gives?

Thanks,
David A. Moreno

It took a few months, but I did get a reply:

Hello David:

Thank you for writing to McDonald's about Grimace.

Over the years the image of Grimace has changed because we want this character to represent McDonald's in a positive manner. Grimace personifies the child in everyone. He's a big, fuzzy, purple fellow, and is Ronald's right-hand man and closest friend.

Everyone in McDonaldland loves Grimace because of his innocent, loving nature. He's enthusiastic, eager and easily pleased. Grimace walks with a rolling gait, and can't be classified as any particular kind of animal.

Once again, David, thanks for thinking of Grimace. We look forward to serving you for many years to come.

Mark
McDonald's Customer Satisfaction Department
ref#:1082645

Maybe it's just me, but that didn't really answer my question.

And I soon realized the errors of my ways: Grimace never had six arms. Maybe it was just imbedded in my mind because of an old commercial in which Mayor McCheese raised his hand and yelled, "I second that motion!" Grimace then raised his hands one at a time and replied, "and third it, and fourth it, and fifth it, and and and sixth it!"

Ah, Grimace...

I'm Famous?

My brother is an engineer at KNX 1070 in Los Angeles. He mentioned my blog to a co-worker, newscaster Kent Shocknek, who has his own blog on the CBS2 website.

Wouldn't you know it - from there, he posts a link to mine which can be seen here.

I'm eating Chinese for lunch to celebrate my new-found fame.

UPDATE:
I opted for Jalepeño Poppers and a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger from Jack In The Box for lunch. Just wasn't feeling too Chinese today.

It Happened Again...

When's the last time you heard Julian Lennon's Valotte? Has it been a while?

My last time: today. That makes it three times in the last month.

It's not that I have horrible taste in music, no. Anyone who knows me will argue with you on that. While some of my collection may be questionable, that dreadful song remains absent from it.

I heard it today while shopping at Stater Bros. market, which I guess doesn't really surprise me when I think about it. C'mon, Stater Bros. was the last market on Earth that carried Big John's Beans n' Fixin's for God's sake! They no longer do, so I bought 6 cans of the stuff when it went clearance and still have 3 left. It's good stuff.

Each trip to the store I seem to get taunted by that damned Valotte song, and today was no exception. I was actually hopping mad when the song came on - literally. With each jump, I blurted out a word that formed the sentence: "Why...does...this..damn...song...al...ways...play...when...I'm...here?"

Okay, I admit that the song may have been cool back in the day. But then again, so were sleeveless concert shirts.

It drives me nuts.

You Can Stick It

Ann and I went to the Orange County Fair on Friday night. It's become a tradition with us in our over 11 years of marriage to take in the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of everything the fair has to offer.

But mostly, we go to eat. With such a variety of tasty foods everywhere you look, why would you go to do anything else?

One of our favorite places to eat is a Chinese food vendor called Pon's, home of the "Egg Roll on a Stick."



Egg roll on a stick? Can they do that?



Bah, I don't care. The food's good, even though the stick doesn't really give any additional suport to the egg roll.

But how do you explain, or eat, this?



As we walked around the place, I began to notice even more places taking advantage of the stick gimmick:



This looked pretty good, but we had already eaten:



I can't really say anything about Hot Dog on a Stick since they practically invented the whole stick idea:



Including Cheese on a Stick:



But perhaps the most disturbing, and nonsensical of all the stick foods, was the Cream Puff on a Stick:



Okay, I understand marketing and a gimmick is a gimmick. But seriously - what the hell are these people thinking?

Stick foods aside, the atmosphere is great - especially at night. The flashing lights from the rides, the sounds of people screaming, the carnies, it's fantastic. It's easy to see why Rod Serling used a carnival-type setting for an episode of The Twilight Zone. It's freakishly cool.

Another fun part of the fair is viewing the photo exhibition. I've been taking pictures since I was in high school and have taken lots of classes. I know about composition, subject matter, techniques, etc. I've also worked at many photo labs over the years. The same goes for Ann except that she learned everything from me, including working in photo labs.

Suffice it to say, we know a little. That's why it's fun to criticize the photos that the average eye will deem as "acceptable". The flaws can be easily pointed out and we do just that, even while someone is admiring.

"Ooh, honey, look at this one," someone might say.

"Pfft. It's out of focus, poorly composed, and just boring," is what we might say in return. Ah, the fun of it all.

Note: photographic prowess is not displayed on these images as they have been resized and are nothing more than simple shots of signs. I took them with my trust Sony DSC-P32 3.1 megapixel digital camera.

I did take some artsy-fartsy stuff, though:



Another part of the fair we like is the "Carnival of Products", or "Cavalcade of Crap" as we like to call it. Peddlers trying to sell you everything from hair extensions to "Powered by Deez Nuts" die-cut decals for your car (which I bought as a joke, I might add). We didn't buy anything in there, and the Deez Nuts sticker was purchased outside the crapfest.

We're going back in a few weeks to make up for what we missed last night. More fun--and food--to be had...

Speaking of food, I'm off to get a donut.