Category: Trivia
Updated Links
I’ve updated my blog and artist links sections with a bunch of really cool sites. I’m sure that you’ll find at least a couple that you’ll bookmark for return visits. [Hopefully not at the expense of visits here.]
Happy 83rd Jim Ivey
Yesterday, my wife and I joined Jim Ivey and several of his friends to celebrate Jim’s 83rd birthday. Long time readers know that Jim Ivey is one of my oldest [as in been a friend the longest], oldest [as in age] and dearest friends. I first met Jim in the mid 1970’s when he was running The Cartoon Museum in Orlando, Florida. At the same time Jim was working as a syndicated cartoonist [The Thoughts of Man], a political cartoonist [The Orlando Sentinel], a publisher [CartooNews], teacher [UCF cartooning class] and even a comic book convention organizer [OrlandoCon]. At the time, I was into collecting comic books and later original art. Jim’s shop was like heaven.
Going to The Cartoon Museum became a weekly trip [almost always accompanied by my best friend, John Beatty]. When I moved to Orlando to attend UCF, my trips to Jim’s became even more frequent. We’d spend the day shooting the breeze and playing cards [blackjack, gin, hearts] and would occasionally stop for lunch or Jim to make a sale. Jim hated it when business got in the way of fun!
You never knew who would come through the store. Sometimes it was other buddies like Bill Black [pictured in the photo above with Jim and I], Mike Kott, Rafael Kayanan, or Robert Smith. Sometimes it was established artists like Mike Zeck, Bob McLeod, Bruce Stark or so many others.
As the years have gone by and we’ve all gone in different directions, I’m happy to say that most of us are still in touch fairly regularly. Many of us correspond via e-mail, but Jim doesn’t mess with computers. So it’s snail mail correspondence for us. I love getting my letters from Jim. Just like when we’d go to his shop and you’d never know what would be waiting; it’s the same experience opening an envelope from Jim.
But, I digress… back to the party.
Jim was happy to see the number of folks who made it to his party. Jim opened the festivities with a speech in which he talked about everything from the state of political cartoons today to the origins of Aborigines in Australia. We ordered our meals and while we were waiting Jim opened the gifts that had been brought to celebrate his 83rd. He received cigars, lottery tickets, and money — three of his favorite items — and more! The meals arrived and as we ate we shared stories… and more stories… and even more stories. Three and a half hours passed in what seemed less than an hour. There was enough laughter and fellowship packed into the short time, that it made me really wish that we could go back to the days of The Cartoon Museum with Jim running the show.
Oh well, if nothing else, we have Jim’s 84th to look forward to.
20 of the Toughest [2008]
The List Universe posts their Top 20 Classic Tough Guys. Okay, I’ll play using just the guys on their list, here is how I’d rate them:
- Lee Marvin
- Charles Bronson
- Clint Eastwood
- Sean Connery
- John Wayne
- Kirk Douglas
- Robert Mitchum
- Charlton Heston
- Burt Lancaster
- Robert Ryan
- James Coburn
- Anthony Quinn
- Yul Brynner
- Humphrey Bogart
- Steve McQueen
- John Garfield
- Richard Widmark
- Dana Andrews
- James Cagney
- Edward G. Robinson
Do You Deserve Your High School Diploma? [2008]
You paid attention during 97% of high school!
85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don’t get scores that high! Good show, old chap!
Yeah, baby. And with a PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION!
What American Accent do You Have? [2008]
| What American accent do you have?
Your Result: The Midland
“You have a Midland accent” is just another way of saying “you don’t have an accent.” You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio. |
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| The Inland North | |
| The South | |
| The Northeast | |
| Philadelphia | |
| The West | |
| Boston | |
| North Central | |
| What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz |
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So I have a voice good for tv or radio and a look good for radio. Hmmmm….
Lost War Lord of Mars
This one is for Rafael Kayanan and Chris Mills. [with thanks to Bill Crider.] – Craig
One Step Closer!
Congrats to my brother, John Beatty and Bella who are one step closer!
Doomsday: Drive-In Appropriate
Man, I miss those days.
Marx Best of the West
Boy, did the tv commercial below bring back some great memories. When I was a kid growing up in the 60’s, I loved my action figures. My favorites were General Custer, Johnny West and Chief Cherokee all from Marx’s Best of the West Series. Hard to believe how many hours I spent playing with them… and my guess is kids today would enjoy them if we could pry them away from their video games.
Can You Name This Song?
I have to be honest. It wasn’t until about halfway through that I figured out what he was singing. Maybe you can do better.
The Magic of the Holidays
No, I’m not trying to be politically correct with the title of this post. It’s just that I do love the magic of holidays… all holidays. Okay, maybe not Arbor Day, but all of the rest of the biggies. Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Halloween… you get the idea.
Holidays are magical. Think about it — name ANY major holiday and right away you get a sense of time and place and a feeling of what the holiday means. Holidays have the power to bring families together, to end feuds, stop wars [if only for a short period of time], and even get you the day off from work.
When I think about holidays, I think about family. Of course we get together for the major ones… Christmas, Thanksgiving… New Years Eve. There’s always laughter and shared memories [and usually a few new memories created]. When my sons were younger we’d have their cousins over for fireworks on the fourth of July and New Years Eve. They’ve all outgrown that now. Funny, but I haven’t.
When my sons were much younger you didn’t have to look very hard to see the magic in their eyes when they’d see Santa around town leading up to the big night. Sometimes they’d say it was the real Santa and other times they’d know it was just one of his helpers. They knew because of the “magic” they felt in the presence of the true St. Nick.
I still feel that magic when I’m with my family. I hope that you feel it too as you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Festivus or Tuesday.
Organization Ideas, Anyone?
Seems America is on the de-clutter bandwagon. Everyone is trying to clean and organize. Who wants a cluttered work space or a messy house? Not me. So I’ve been watching Clean House. I read how Jeff Parker took care of his CD clutter. I saw how Big John Beatty took a cue from Hydro74 to clean and organize his office. And now I’ve got the bug and I’ve got it bad. Ain’t no easy cure. I know I’m going to have to get down and dirty… and purge, re-think and re-organize.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to follow Parker’s lead and get rid of the CD jewel cases and go with binders. I’m even considering doing something like this for storage of my dvd collection. But then I thought, I’ll bet some of the ZONErs have unique dvd storage ideas. If you do, please send them my way. [And don’t worry about cluttering up my in-box.]
Heart of the Movie Quotes
I was in the mood for a list today and decided that the American Film Institutes’s Top 100 Movie Quotes might be interesting to play with. So I looked at the list and decided to see if I could narrow it down to 25 quotes that contained the essence of their movie.This list may not have the most famous [“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!” – Gone with the Wind], the funniest [“I’ll have what she’s having.” – When Harry Met Sally] or the dumbest [“Nobody puts baby in a corner.” – Dirty Dancing], but it does have 25 quotes which get to the heart of their movies. So here there are in no particular order…
- “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939.
- “The stuff that dreams are made of,” “The Maltese Falcon,” 1941.
- “Bond. James Bond,” “Dr. No,” 1962.
- “There’s no place like home,” “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939.
- “You can’t handle the truth!”, “A Few Good Men,” 1992.
- “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get,” “Forrest Gump,” 1994.
- “I see dead people,” “The Sixth Sense,” 1999.
- “It’s alive! It’s alive!”, “Frankenstein,” 1931.
- “Houston, we have a problem,” “Apollo 13,” 1995.
- “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”, “Dirty Harry,” 1971.
- “A boy’s best friend is his mother,” “Psycho,” 1960.
- “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer,” “The Godfather Part II,” 1974.
- “Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!”, “Sons of the Desert,” 1933.
- “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?”, “The Graduate,” 1967.
- “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”, “Dr. Strangelove,” 1964
- “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape,” “Planet of the Apes,” 1968.
- “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine,” “Casablanca,” 1942.
- “They’re here!”, “Poltergeist,” 1982.
- “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown,” “Chinatown,” 1974.
- “Soylent Green is people!”, “Soylent Green,” 1973.
- “Yo, Adrian!”, “Rocky,” 1976.
- “Oh, no, it wasn’t the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast,” “King Kong,” 1933.
- “My precious,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” 2002.
- “I feel the need — the need for speed!”, “Top Gun,” 1986.
- “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”, “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939.
