Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy 2011

Hope everyone's 2010 was as spectacular as mine.  I wish you all a festive evening and a Happy New Year!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Funny To Me

While watching television this afternoon while my wife and daughter nap, I suddenly found something chuckle-worthy and thought I would throw it up on here for anyone who might stumble along to this site.  I am viewing a History Channel program called "The Last Stand of the 300" about the famous battle of Thermopylae made famous a few years ago by the Gerard Butler-starring, Zach Snyder-directed film from the Frank Miller graphic novel.  What makes my situation so funny is my flip channel is old episodes of Tom and Jerry.
I go from an educational documentary on a famous battle where 300 Spartans faced off with Xerxes to an animated classic show about a violent stand-off between cat and mouse.  I found it funny.  I don't know about you.

Friday, December 17, 2010

A Vegas-Style Christmas

I won't exactly be spending Christmas in Las Vegas, but I will be spending the next four days there.  I, along with three of my friends, leave for Vegas today and I am getting really antsy about the trip.  Ever since last night I haven't been able to sleep and all I am thinking about is our plane leaving for Sin City.  It is going to be great.  Hopefully I will have some fun stories from our trip to share.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Top Five Christmas Movies

A person’s favorite Christmas movies is an unavoidable talking point at holiday parties every year.  Like the weather, local sports teams, “what is new with you,” people who hardly know one another at public social gatherings hit these hot topics because they have only so much they can talk about.  When the theme of the party is Christmas, your most liked holiday movies naturally get thrown into the rotation of compulsory questions.
Each year my answers were always the same, but this past summer I watched a Christmas classic that now is in my top five favorites.  After going to Grapevine’s Palace Arts Theatre to view Frank Capra’s 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life last night, I felt it necessary to throw up my favorite Christmas movies of all time.  One reason for the trip to Grapevine last night was because It’s a Wonderful Life is my most beloved of Christmas movies.  The superb acting, laugh-out-loud comedy, and heart-tugging drama make this a must watch, whether for Christmas or otherwise.  It is just a great film in general.  It is amazing that when initially released it was a financial failure.  However, thanks to numerous broadcasts at Christmas in the 1970s and 80s it has grown in popularity to become a staple of holiday viewing, right alongside A Christmas Story, which also makes the list.
Coming in second on my favorite holiday-themed films list is the Chevy Chase masterpiece National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  My favorite of the Lampoon Vacation movies is certainly the funniest of all Christmas movies, but Wonderful Life has it beat out as the emotional swings you go through in the James Stewart film is so much more poignant.
My next pick might be a controversial one for the elder generation as it is too new to be considered a classic, but it certainly will reach that status after another 15 years or so.  The film I speak of is Elf, the 2003 comedy starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Bob Newhart, and Ed Asner.  Although the film is chock-full of the slapstick antics of Ferrell, at its core is a sentimental story where family, no matter how nutty they may be, comes first.  Elf has given the general public new quotes to exclaim during the holiday season, such as screaming out “I know that guy!” when someone mentions Santa Claus or calling a person a cotton headed ninny muggings as a insult, and it also reminds us that Christmas spirit is magical and contagious.
The fourth best Christmas movie is what was mentioned before that sees a 24-hour marathon on Christmas Day.  It is 1983’s A Christmas Story.  The memorable moments are too many to count, but some highlights include a kid sticking his tongue to a frozen pole, the Chinese carolers, female leg lampshade, secret society decoder ring, the Queen Mother of Dirty Words, and, of course, the Red Ryder BB gun.  Plus, my brother has always looked like Ralphie, so I felt a personal connection to the movie.
We come to the newest member of my Top 5 Christmas Movies list.  After a single viewing this past summer, the original 1947-version of Miracle on 34th Street, starring Maureen O’Hara, Natalie Wood, and Edmund Gwenn, has catapulted itself into the top echelon of Christmas movies for me.  Like It’s a Wonderful Life, this movie isn’t just a great Christmas movie, but a fine film by itself that can be viewed at any time during the year without the need of the holiday as reason enough.  However, unlike It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street was a financial and critical success, winning three Academy Awards for supporting actor and writing and being nominated for Best Picture, but ultimately losing.  This season, I suggest picking one of these top five Christmas movies and sharing them with your family.  Start a tradition of watching a Christmas movie with your kids every year and choose a new film each season.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Super Bowl Loser Curse Is Real

With the Dallas Cowboys set to play a struggling and injury-laden Indianapolis Colts team this weekend, I was curious about the myth of a Super Bowl Hangover, also called a curse, for the losing team of the previous NFL season’s Championship Game. It is a no-brainer that the Colts have problems and are looking for any way possible to get back in the playoffs this year while currently having the same record as the 6-5 Jacksonville Jaguars. Yet, is there really a curse to blame for this. History seems to back that theory up.
As of the end of the 2009 season with 43 Super Bowl losers declared, there have been 14 teams to lose the Big Game and not make the playoffs the next year. However, of the 14 losing teams, nine of those have come in the past 16 years since the salary cap was introduced in 1994. Those teams include 1994 Buffalo Bills (who were coming off their fourth Super Bowl loss in a row), 1999 Atlanta Falcons, 2001 New York Jets, 2002 St. Louis Rams, 2003 Oakland Raiders, 2004 Carolina Panthers, 2005 Philadelphia Eagles, 2007 Chicago Bears, and 2008 New England Patriots. Only the 2008 Patriots team was able to post a winning record the next season at 11-5, and that was even after quarterback Tom Brady suffered a season-ending injury in the first quarter of the first game.
Among the seven teams to lose the Super Bowl one year and manage to make the playoffs the next, none of those teams made it past the divisional round of the post-season.
It seems that should you want to make a bet on whether the loser of the Super Bowl makes an appearance in the playoffs the following year you have a little better than 50-50 on that happening. Find a sucker to take the bet and give yourself some odds. It wouldn’t be hard to do. Say something like, “Come on! This team made the Super Bowl. As long as they bring back the core group then it should be easy for them to make the playoffs.” Take some odds and count the money as it rolls in at the end of the regular season when that team fails to clinch a spot in the tournament.