Category: Trivia

Ten years ago OJ Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman. The evidence against Simpson was overwhelming. Fortunately for Simpson, his legal team, especially Johnnie Cochran, was able to sway the jury to not only discount the evidence, but it many instances to ignore it completely.

The trial lasted a year and had more drama and startling turns than a soap opera. In the end Simpson was found innocent. This article from the associated press describes the fallout from the verdict:

Next Tuesday at 9pm, PBS will revisit the case in the special “Frontline: The O.J. Verdict.” Featuring extensive interviews with the defense, prosecution and journalists, the special will explore the verdict and the wide difference in reaction to it which fell along racial lines.

Oddly enough, this weekend, Simpson will make a rare public appearance signing autographs [for cash] at,of all places, a horror convention! Talk about bad taste.

The fact that this weekend marks the tenth anniversary of the “not guilty” verdict, and Simpson has chosen to be a special guest along with movie murderers, monsters and zombies shows a real lack of compassion and common sense on Simpson‘s part.

There is NO WAY that one could justify Simpson’s appearance at this show as a sports star. Nope, the draw here is certainly because of his link to the murders of Nicole and Ron. And if you doubt that, then why is Simpson’s friend, A.C. Cowlings [who is more famous for the slow speed Bronco chase than his professional sports career] making a joint appearance with Simpson on Sunday?

OJ SImpson was found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. Ten years later people are still arguing the validity of that decision. I doubt that there are many though who would argue that Simpson’s appearance at the horror convention is in good taste.

My buddy, John Beatty has started up a new blog where he posts his art and thoughts on just about everything. The thing is that in the last three days he’s changed the blog’s name three times! The blog was first called, appropriately enough, Read Me First. Then it became XXL Artist… and now it’s Big Beatty’s Blog O’Rama.

It was kind of funny as we discussed possible names for the blog. Beatty liked the name Art Whore, but [fortunately] that was taken. BBB [Big Beatty’s Blog] was considered. So was Diary of a Fat Man: The Road to Less [a GREAT name for a blog about weight loss, but Beatty’s new blog isn’t, so the title was rejected].

Beatty also rejected some of my suggestions such as: Beatty Watches Ethan… So You’re Bored Too? … A New Name Coming… Are You Looking At Me?… and settled on Big Beatty’s Blog O’Rama [a nod to his nickname and first web site].

My guess is that Big John has at least ONE more name change coming, so I saved the best suggestion for now. Since Beatty‘s blog is about nearly everything he could call it Beatty On Nearly Everything… BONE!

Uh… on second thought maybe that isn’t such a great name for his blog.

I’ll bet ZONERs can help come up with good names should the big guy decide a new one is needed!

I used to buy stuff fairly regularly off of e-Bay. Usually the items that I won were either hardback novels or items for my Stallone collection. In the last year or so, it’s been pretty rare for me to find ANY THING that I really want.

That changed last week when I saw a belt buckle that Sylvester Stallone had commissioned for folks who worked on his movie “Paradise Alley.” It was pretty cool in that it featured the title of the movie, the lead characters and the year the movie took place on the front. The back had the quote, “Never perfect people, only perfect moments” and was signed “Sly.” Yeah, the buckle would make a nice addition to the collection.

No one had bid on the buckle. I decided to watch the auction. Days went by with no bids. Winning the buckle for the opening bid of less than ten bucks was becoming a REAL possibility. The auction was set to close yesterday and I wasn’t going to be able to be home. Only one thing to do… call in Beatty. Big J and I agreed that a bid of $20 would probably win it.

Big John was set to place a bid for me right as the auction was closing. At 4:59:45 another bidder dropped in with a bid of $23.98. Beatty knew that I wanted the buckle and so at 4:59:57 he popped in a bid of $25.67.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

We had the high bid…for 20 seconds, then with just 7 seconds left in the auction the first bidder came back with a bid of $26.67 to win.

Oh well… I still may be able to find some hardbacks…

Well, what do you know? I’m a winner!

That’s right. I am a winner!

When I came home from work today, I found a package from the fine folks at Chud.com waiting for me. In it was Tilt – Season One.

Chud.com, in addition to having the latest movie news, interviews, and more also regularly runs contests for free dvds, posters, hats, and other coolness. And I was lucky enough to win, the Tilt dvd set. This is especially cool since, I like poker and only was able to see the first episode of Tilt [which I enjoyed].

At any rate, check out Chud.com. Who knows, you may end up with some swag too!

My buddy, John Beatty recently posted similar thoughts about his fight against weight gain and had even started a blog to track his efforts to lose weight. I posted here that I thought that was pretty bold, going public with his plan. John has since pulled the plug on his blog, but his battle to lose weight continues [and is going well].

It’s strange that Chris and I are in the same boat [although I’d venture a guess that my boat is even bigger] but that we got here by different paths. Chris says that he was skinny for the first half of his life. I was never skinny. As a little kid I was “husky” [man, I hated that word].

In high school I was in pretty good shape. I played football, lifted weights, and was a pretty good wrestler. And consequently I was in shape. I remember a couple of my coaches who were heavy. At the time I thought, “Man, why don’t they get in shape? I’ll never let myself get like that.”

Then I graduated high school and started college. I was no longer playing football or wrestling and had stopped jogging. The first year I gained a bunch of weight. At the end of the year, I started running again… and lifting weights. I got back into wrestling shape… and said “never again… never again will I get overweight.”

Yeah, right.

Once you’re married, have a job, have kids, heck, as you get older, the weight gain comes easier… as do the excuses to not eat right and exercise. Because really, that’s what it comes down to.

Eating right and exercise.

My goal is to get back into shape.

I’ll probably never make the 188lb class again, but my goal is small steps back to decent shape.

I don’t plan to talk about my progress [or lack of] much here. In fact I’m surprised that I’m even saying this much. I guess the fact that Beatty and Chris were willing to go public, made me at least “weigh in” on the subject.

At any rate, you’ll be able to tell from the pictures that I post from time to time how I’m doing. Maybe in a year or two, you’ll wonder, “Who is that normal sized guy that kinda looks like Zablo?”

Napoleon Bonaparte was at one time a self-proclaimed Emperor who had conquered nearly all of Europe.

Napoleon died an early death from stomach cancer when, despite his military genius, he was defeated and banished to a small island in the South Atlantic over 180 years ago.

Now it appears that Napoleon may not have died from cancer after all. A new toxicological report shows a “toxic form of arsenic, used for centuries as rat poison, was found in Napoleon‘s hair samples at 37 to 42 times above the normal level.” .

Although the house is quiet now, soon the sounds of Christmas morning will be everywhere.

Still in this period of calm, as I reflect on the many blessings that I have, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Wonderful Kwanzaa, or great whatever you celebrate. And if you don’t celebrate anything, have a good day anyway!

When I was a kid, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade was a big deal. Everyone would watch it… and I mean everyone.

Not just kids waiting for the turkey to be done, parents and grandparents would join their kids to watch as the marching bands, floats, convertbles with celebrities, and character balloons passed by.

And speaking of character balloons, did you know that the first were Felix the Cat, the Dragon, the Elephant, and the Toy Solider who appeared in the first Macy’s parade in 1927.

Here are a few other things that I’ll bet you didn’t know about the parade:

1] The first balloons used in the parade were filled with helium, and would have exploded had they reached too high an altitude!

2] The second year Macy’s came up with a helium and air mixture that is still used to this day.

3] Starting the second year and for the next three years, the balloons were released into the air at the end of the parade. Cash prizes were offered to those who found and returned the balloons.

Clarence Chamberlain, a pilot flying above New York City, caught the Pig Balloon in midair in an effort to be first to collect the prize money; and the following year, an aviator almost crashed into Broadway in an attempt to be the first to get a balloon. Due to stunts like these the practice of releasing the balloons at the end of the parade was stopped in 1933.

So here we are over 70 years later and the parade is still on, but does anybody watch anymore? Seems like even parade organizers are having trouble getting celebrities to come to the darn things. I guess we live in a world that is just too fast paced. We don’t have time for a good parade anymore.

And that’s too bad, because when I was a kid…