TOP 10 TUESDAY: Cartoons

Cartoons today are nothing like that when I was a kid. Maybe I've outgrown the silliness or perhaps cartoons from 40+ years ago were just better.

I know that some of my favorites were Warner Bros. Looney Tunes characters who have since gone onto make appearances in television shows, films and advertisements.

The name Looney Tunes is a variation on Silly Symphonies, the name of Walt Disney's series of music-based cartoon shorts. From 1942 until 1969, Looney Tunes was the most popular short cartoon series in theaters, exceeding Disney and other competitors.

So here are my Top 10 Cartoon picks:

1. Bugs Bunny
2. Road Runner
3. Rocky & Bullwinkle
4. Jetsons
5. Pink Panther
6. Flintstones
7. Underdog
8. Tweety and Sylvester
9. Tom & Jerry
10. Yogi Bear

FEB 6, QE II Diamond Jubilee

I've always been fascinated with the English monarchy. So I would be remiss if I didn't mention that sixty years ago today, upon the death of her father, King George VI, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary became Queen Elizabeth II.

Commonly called the Queen of England, she is actually the constitutional monarch of 16 out of 54 sovereign states within the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Head of the Commonwealth. As the British monarch, she is also the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

She wasn't born to be Queen.

Her father was the second son of King George V. The firstborn was her uncle Edward. He ascended the throne as King Edward VIII upon the death of George V in 1936. However, less than a year later, Edward revealed his desire to marry the divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson.

For political and religious reasons, he could not marry Mrs Simpson and remain king. Edward abdicated in order to marry, and Elizabeth’s father, becoming George VI, ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor.

During 1951, King George VI's health declined and Elizabeth (who had married Prince Phillip in 1947) was frequently standing in for him at public events. In October of that year, she visited President Truman in Washington, D.C.; on the trip, her private secretary, Martin Charteris, carried a draft accession declaration for use if the King died while she was on tour.

In early 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand via Kenya. On February 6 1952, just after returning to their Kenyan home, word arrived of the death of Elizabeth's father. Philip broke the news to the new queen. She was just shy of 26 years old.

Martin Charteris asked her to choose a regnal name; she chose to remain Elizabeth, "of course". She was proclaimed queen throughout her realms, and the royal party hastily returned to the United Kingdom.


Queen Elizabeth’s reign of 60 years is the second-longest for a British monarch; only Queen Victoria has reigned longer at nearly 64 years.

Recent legislation in the commonwealth, which allows the firstborn child of Prince William, the future king, to ascend the throne, has brought the monarchy into more modern times.

A celebration of her Diamond Jubilee is planned for June 2012 when London weather will be more enjoyable.

Super Bowl Ad Preview

Yeah, right here on BNB you can watch several of the ads scheduled to appear during this year's Super Bowl game.

In no particular order, here they are, with a few BNB comments added just for the heck of it.

Audi: Vampire Party A play on the Twilight and other vampire shows, this ad is clever in the feature it promotes.
GE: Power and Beer Great cross promotion.
H&M: David Beckham Wearing only his underwear, David Beckham proves that sex sells.
Coca-Cola: The Catch  Who doesn't love the Coca Cola bears?
Dannon Oikos Yogurt: The Tease Seeing John Stamos get head butted is worth watching this one.
Acura: Transactions  If you're a fan of Seinfeld, this is funny.
Kia: Drive the Dream We all dream differently.
Honda: Ferris Bueller Reprise Matthew Broderick as we've seen him before.  Cute and Clever ad.
Chevy Volt: Aliens This is one of two "alien" ads for the Chevy Volt.
Downey: Stinky Another reworked ad... this time it was Mean Joe Green/Coca Cola reworked.  Fun!
Doritos: Hot Wild Girls If you fight with your "smart" phone, you'll get a kick out of this one.
Chevy: Happy Grad Oops!  Sorry son.








I'm sure tomorrow morning there will be, as usual, plenty of chatter about which ad was the best.

Enjoy the game!

Movie Critique: Iron Lady

Iron Lady is a look at the life of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power. Starring: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent and Richard E. Grant.

Before screening The Iron Lady, all I really knew about Margaret Thatcher was that she was England's first female Prime Minister, was one of the longest serving PMs, and was great friends with Ronald Reagan. She was elected PM around the same time as Reagan.

While Meryl Streep's flawless performance portraying Thatcher is Ocsar-worthy (her makeup as well as her gestures and expressions were spot on), the movie is lacking in some major area -- including a decent plot.

It starts with a haggard old woman purchasing a pint of milk at the local grocery.  It turns out to be Thatcher who has "escaped" her house and the watchful eye of her care-giver.

Honestly, the overall story was quite uninteresting at times. The flashback scenes coupled with her delusional visions makes you wonder where you're at in the timeline.  When I have THINK about the movie I'm watching, it loses popcorn buckets (points) in my book

I would have prefer more about her life getting into Parliament and becoming PM rather than the lame backstory after the fact. It was, however, interesting to see a more private side to this powerful woman.

It's not the best movie I've ever seen, but would recommend seeing it.

THREE POPCORN BUCKETS (0 to 5 Rating)

Screened on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 at Saginaw 12, Saginaw, MI

Camping Journal, Episode 1

There's nothing like some warm spring-like days to get my mind thinking about summer camping!  It's one of my favor weekend getaways from May to September.

Early February may be a little early for the 50 degree days we've been enjoying, but it's not too early to be planning some camp outs.

I'm a tent camper, so I like I generally don't pitch a tent before mid- to late-May nor after the end of September.  Even with my catalytic propane tent heater, it can still get pretty dang cold when you're in a tent.

But then, I've been sitting next to my campfire during the July 4th holiday, while wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, another jacket and gloves!

Earlier this week I was checking out campground websites, noting opening weekends and how much they've increased their camping fees.  I love journeying into Canada or Ohio for a weekend.

Think year I hope to check out some sites along Michigan's Ausable River, west of Oscoda.  It's totally primitive camping (no amenities!) and is not a physical campground with sites in one location.  Instead, it's a series of 102 individual campsites located along a 55-mile stretch of the Ausable River.

Some of the sites, located within Alcona and Iosco Counties, are on the river's edge while others are 300 feet above the river.  I'll be opting for something on the river's edge.

While I have a few months to prepare, it won't be long before I'll need to dust off the gear, account for everything and head out for a weekend.

I can hardly wait!

Groundhog Day!

Today is the annual celebration which centers on the weather predicting abilities of a rodent named Punxsutawney Phil... it's Groundhog Day!

Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania has been the official home of Groundhog Day since it was first celebrated on February 2, 1887.

According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring. Interestingly, the first day of spring is seven weeks away.

The Groundhog Day tradition is based on the Christian tradition of Candlemas Day, when candles were blessed and distributed representing how long and cold the winter would be.

Germans expanded on the traditional celebration by choosing an animal (the hedgehog) for predicting weather. Germans who settled in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, switching from hedgehogs to groundhogs -- which are abundant in the state.

Groundhogs (also known as woodchucks) go into hibernation in the late fall and their body temperatures drop significantly, their heartbeats slow to five beats per minute and they can burn up 30 percent of their body fat.

While legend/tradition states that the groundhog emerges to predict the weather, it's actually the male groundhog leaving their burrows seeking a mate!

Punxsutawney Phil was "born" when a newspaper editor belonging to a group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney declared that Phil was America's only true weather-forecasting groundhog.

I can only wonder what predictions Pigeon's famous Racoobuck could have made to put our little community in the national spotlight.

Movie Critiques

As I write my blog posts, I find myself slipping to newspaper publishing mode.  My mind migrates to "features" that can be written ahead and posted later. Pieces that can be at least semi-regular submissions.

Of course, committing to something even semi-regular adds to the stress of keeping things going here.

Yesterday I launched one of those features: Top 10 Tuesday. Coming up with 52 Top 10s could be a challenge, but I already have a few topics in mind. Writing comments about each of the 10 items may be a unachievable goal, so I hope you'll to forgive me if it's just a list of Top 10 whatever.

Another fun and easier to write feature goes hand-in-hand with my love of movies. I'm not so much for watching movies on TV via DVD or streaming off the Wii. I much prefer the "big screen experience."  You'll understand what I mean if you ever get to see a movie like The Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind at a movie theater.  The experience will be totally different than any movie viewing of your life.

However, for the sake of the blog, I'll critique movies I view outside a theater as well.

Every good movie review needs a rating system and Movie Critique is no different.

I'll be use a zero to five "popcorn bucket" rating for each movie.  Five popcorn buckets is the best rating possible.

Criteria for Movie Critique reviews will be simple: my personal opinion. There will be no behind the scenes rating for acting or music, cinematography or costuming.  Just my gut feeling and overview of the show.

After all, it's my blog.

So there you have it.  A couple new features of BNB and, more importantly, another completed blog posting! <smile>