have a nice day

What is it about this guy? I first remember seeing the Happy Face (his close friends call him Smiley) all over the place back in the very early seventies. His big grin was everywhere, on t-shirts, purses, lunchboxes - you name it. I don't think this guy will ever grow old or go away. There was a time in the mid seventies through the early nineties that he seemed to have semi-retired. It seems the Internet called him back to work sometime in the 1990's. When he came back, he didn't seem to have aged a bit. Smiley is once again all over the place. My younger sister Cindy has always been a big fan. I remember her having jewelry, clothing - anything with that big yellow smiling face on it back in the early days. She's still loves the guy.

One Step Beyond

I picked up a DVD set of One Step Beyond (1959-1961) from the $5.00 bin at WalMart a few months ago. It's a television series that preceded the more famous Twilight Zone.

There are a lot of similarities between the two shows. One Step Beyond supposedly based it's stories on true paranormal events. I get the feeling that most were based on urban legends. They are well written and packaged much like the Twilight Zone - or should I say Twilight Zone was packaged much like One Step Beyond. There is a difference twixt the two - Rod Serling created his show to make social commentary using fiction as his medium. Serling shows are more memorable with good reason.

When I bought the One Step Beyond collection, I was familiar only with it in name only. It was not a show that I remember seeing in reruns. I was only an infant when it originally aired. I guess there are about 40 episodes in this DVD set. They are low resolution, but I been enjoying them nevertheless.

Gina and I have been watching a few together when we can. We've seen all the Twilight Zones and One Step Beyond is new to us.

frozen fish sticks

I was one of a family of eight. I had a dad and a mom - one brother and four sisters. That's a lot of mouths to feed. I remember frozen TV dinners. My favorite of all the frozen foods of that time were fish sticks. It was a simple dinner that usually consisted of fish sticks, early green peas, and a slice of buttered white bread. There was always a bottle of ketchup on the table when fish sticks were served.

Sometime mom would prep fried oysters for dad. At first dad had the oysters all to himself. Then after time, some of the kids started to acquiring more of a taste for oysters over fish sticks. There came a time when dad didn't have all those oysters to himself. He didn't need them - there were after all already six little mouths to feed.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - CNR

Boomerville...this relates...trust me.

familiar?

This picture should make most baby-boomers feel kind of old.