HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2012 !

Hi folks... dear regular readers and drop-ins.  It's been a slow last couple of months for me posting here simply because I've been distracted -- and not always by the right things.  Even though I used to make fun of Twitter (see earlier postings), a friend talked me into setting up an account with the Byte-sized-Bites.  See here:  www.twitter.com/barrysmight

Tweets are good since it takes little investment in time... and brain cells, perhaps.

Happy New Year to all.  May we reduce the rate of global conflict; feed more people; reduce crime (and deal with its root causes); post more general silliness online....

***

"... the prejudices people feel about each other disappear when they get to know each other."

BEST OF BARRY - "COSELL'S BANANAS" - ORIGINAL POSTING: NOVEMBER 5, 2007

While the kids are out playing with their new toboggan, I thought I would post a "Best of Barry" piece.  What can I say about Bananas and Howard Cosell that I haven't said before? This has proven to be one of my more popular postings (lots of hits)...
http://barrysmight.blogspot.com/2007/11/cosells-bananas.html

SHATNER GOES BACK TO BROADWAY

William Shatner is taking his one-man show to Broadway.  Shatner's World: We Just Live in It will be a limited run, and because of that, I'm sure, tickets will be hot.  By the way, this is not the great starship captain's first appearance on Broadway.  Before he became the big cheese of NCC-1701, Shatner was lead character "Robert Lomax" in The World of Suzie Wong, which ran from 1958 to 1959.  As a matter of fact, his costar was France Nuyen, who would appear ten years later in Star Trek's "Elaan of Troyius".

BARRY SMIGHT NOW ON TWITTER

I never thought that would happen.  Friend yesterday encouraged me to join.  He did a good job of selling.  Maybe he should work for Twitter.

Say hello...
http://twitter.com/#!/barrysmight

BEST OF BARRY - "BIBLE BRITNEY READING" - ORIGINAL POSTING: MARCH 17, 2009

I understand that singer/popster/someone Britney Spears turned 30, back on December 2nd.

Well... can't let this go without some sort of celebration.  Here's a bit I wrote a couple of years ago about the famous lady...
http://barrysmight.blogspot.com/2009/03/bible-britney-reading.html

... Something about Britney and the Holy Bible.

ICE HOCKEY PUCK - REAL ONES

In regards to my posting immediately below (CANADIAN TIRE STORE FLYER), I decided to put up the goods on the Ice Hockey Puck...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey_puck

In the above article there is a bit on "Underwater Hockey", and the model of puck that sport utilizes.  I amused myself with the memory of a team I played for one year, where I was the goalie (goal-keeper).  As I watched my "forwards" skate about, I thought they were playing so slowly they might as well have been playing underwater.

Then the opposing team got a "three man breakaway"; on me, of course.  (They screwed it up!  And because of that I easily stopped the puck.  Ah, yes... I have lots of great memories playing ice hockey.)

CANADIAN TIRE STORE FLYER

Came home today, checked my mailbox for mail, and pulled out the junk-mail -- some jerk tore off the "No Junk Mail, Please" sticker I had stuck on the box. (I've been too lazy to replace the label.  Hey, it takes a lot of effort to pull out a marker pen, a piece of paper...)

Included within the pile of paper junk was a flyer for Canadian Tire (a big retail chain here in Canada, with an emphasis on automotive stuff, and hardware; but they sell just about everything, it seems).  While I sat down and enjoyed my 'come-down coffee' I leafed through the mini-magazine, enjoying the ads for things I cannot afford -- even though a lot of items appear to me to be very reasonably priced.  One such advert caught my attention: "Replica hockey pucks."  Oh, as opposed to "non-replica hockey pucks"?  Look, it's a hockey puck or it's not a hockey puck.  After that blip, I notice the puck ad is in a little, bottom-of-the-page section titled, "Complete Your Game With The Right Accessories".  What?  A hockey puck is hardly an "accessory".  I've played ice hockey, I know.  A "toque" is an accessory!  A puck is not!

That ice hockey "accessory" hit me in the face once.  I needed stitches.  Then I became a man.


(What Woody Allen film has the line, "I need a Valium the size of a hockey puck!"?  It's a very funny line, delivered by the man himself.)

TWO LITTLE BOYS HAD TWO LITTLE TOYS

Songs from our childhood snap us back whenever we hear the tunes as an adult, or even think about them.

Something, I do not know what, got me thinking of the 1969 hit song "Two Little Boys".  I decided to do something about it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Little_Boys

... I had not realized the song was that old.  Two Little Boys was written in 1902 by Americans Theodore Morse (music) and Edward Madden (lyrics), and originally achieved popularity with Scottish entertainer Harry Lauder.  The version I know was covered by Rolf Harris, and it became a No. 1 hit in the U.K.

This I did not know, simply because I had forgotten a particular lyric:  The song tells the story of two boys who grow up to fight in the American Civil War.

Next it was a matter of finding out the exact lyrics.  And here they are...

Two little boys had two little toys 
Each had a wooden horse 
Gaily they played each summer day 
Warriors both of course.


One little chap had a mishap 
Broke off his horse's head 
Wept for his toy and cried out the joy 
As his young playmate said.


Do you think I would leave you crying 
When there's room on my horse for two 
Climb up Jack and we'll soon be riding 
I can go just as fast with two.


When we grow up we'll be soldiers 
And our horses will not be toys 
and I wonder we'll remember 
When we were two little boys.


Long years has passed, war came so fast 
one fought the blue the other gray 
Cannons roared loud and in the mad crowd 
wounded and dying there.


Out comes a shot, a horse dashes out 
Out from the ranks so blue 
and it gallops away to where Joe lay 
then came the voice he knew.


Did you think I could leave you dying 
When there's room on my horse for two 
Climb up Joe, we'll soon be flying 
I can go just as fast with two.


Do you say, Joe, I'm a-tremble 
well perhaps is the battle noise 
but I think it's that I remember 
When we were two little boys.

TOM HANKS TO PRODUCE A MAJOR MATT MASON FILM?

When I was a kid, I had two "Major Matt Mason" articulated dolls... actually, the other one was Sgt. Storm, I think (as he had a red spacesuit... Matt's was white).

News came out a while ago -- and I forgot to post when I saw it -- that actor Tom Hanks has been planning to make a big-screen version of the famous spaceman.  (Well, famous when I was a kid.  Don't know what it would mean at the box-office.)

A look at Major Matt Mason...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Matt_Mason

DAVID FINCHER AT TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA

I found out a few weeks ago that David Fincher is planning a new version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  Great!... I thought; until I found out that he will be lensing it in 3-D.  No.  Please, no.  My fear is it will not be exhibited at all in 2-D.  That is the bigger issue.

Back in 1997, there were two competing made-for-tv Leagues projects shown within months of each other.  They were both pretty weak.  Ben Cross played Nemo in one of them.  The other telefilm's Nemo was in the form of Michael Caine.  I actually preferred the former production, overall.

Note:  Got a kick out of a bit in article I read; went like this...
"(3-D) will bring Jules Verne's classic novel to life."

... What?  I think the fact that it's a great story should be able to, we hope, handle the "to life" all on its own.  (The average 'entertainment writer' is pathetic. Yep, "3-D" will give Verne's story much needed zip.)


Overview of Jules Verne's novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea