Remember When: The Red Green Show

I can remember watching the Red Green show on CBC as teenager here in the Metro Detroit area. Anyone living in Canada or Michigan definitely got the "yooper" style comedy. (A "Yooper" is the term we Michiganders affectionately give to people who live in the Upper Penninsula of our state.)

The clip pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the show.

7th Grade Geek Love

Back in the day BASIC programming was all the rage, with "the day" being circa 1990. It's been a long time since I've played with BASIC, but I got to thinking about it today through a very obscure thought process.

While talking about music today to the very lovely woman I'm seeing, I mentioned making her a "mix tape" and how that would be "so 7th grade".

But what was I doing in 7th grade when I liked somebody? While others were making mix tapes, or passing notes around that said "Do you like me? Yes/No - Circle One", I was printing off little professions of love on perforated printer paper like this one I just wrote for the before-mentioned lady in my life:

10 DESTINEY = BEAUTIFUL
20 DESTINEY = SWEET
25 DESTINEY = FUN
30 WHILE DESTINEY = HAPPY
40 MIKE = HAPPY + LUCKY
50 WEND

For the ever curious minds out there, all it will do if you copy and paste it into qBASIC is lock up your computer... but it is a "working" program.

The beautiful thing about "love notes" in BASIC is you can show your geeky side and still be understood. Isn't that wonderful?

Photo by kumar303

Regional Commercial Classics: What do you remember?

Growing up in metro Detroit there are three main local commercials I will never forget.

First and foremost, there was "Mel Farr... Superstar!" Mel Farr Ford featured commercials where he would be in his trademark tan suit and flying over the city of Detroit bringing all of us the best deals in town. Anyone who spent any time in Michigan in the pre-cable days will clearly remember this commercial. (See one here.) Even the dealership website features Mel Farr flying around and following your mouse cursor.

Keeping to the car dealership theme, there was always this commercial from Alan Ford in Bloomfield Hills, MI of a hillbilly playing a guitar with his dog by his side singing, "Here Dog, come on Dog, me and Dog want you to go to Telegraph Road... right now.... and get a good deal!"

But what takes the cake was this Detroit Zoo commercial, played for years on local television.
"Five minutes please. Just five minutes!"


What local commercials do you remember from where you have lived?

Enjoying late night hockey

I love watching hockey at night. I run a fantasy hockey league and there is nothing better than closing out the evening with your guy scoring the game winning goal!

Watching the Dallas-Chicago game and they just assigned a second assist to Mike Modano when he never touched the puck. That phantom assist tied Modano for the all-time points lead for U.S. born players, which put the crowd in a frenzy. Now do you go back and suck the wind out of the fans' sails by saying "whoops, sorry, false alarm folks"?

Interesting side note about Mike Modano: he used to play pond hockey with my sister and her friends back around 1980-81. Small world, huh?

"What would Uncle John say?"

My brother Randy and I flew in to Georgia on Friday night, and with that I owe a thank you for the 11 mini-bottles of whiskey and 6 beers that AirTran provided us in first class on the flight.

If you ever fly AirTran, they offer you the ability to upgrade to first class at the time you check in, and it usually varies between $40-$85, depending on how far you're flying. If you like leg room and drinking, it is well worth it.

We're in town visiting with our sister Sandy and her family, and to partake in her annual Halloween party this past Saturday. But the trip took on a more somber purpose: we found out Saturday morning that our Uncle John passed away.

Uncle John was my dad's brother and my favorite uncle. He was probably one of the best men I ever knew, and I don't make that statement lightly. I have two nephews and three nieces myself, and whenever I'd interact with them I told myself I wanted to be just like my Uncle John to them. That's the kind of profound impact this man had on my life.

This news took all of my family by complete surprise. Uncle John was living healthy, seemed healthy when we saw him this summer, and to find out he was suddenly gone one night in his sleep completely boggles my mind and frightens my heart.

So as we digested the news and contemplated plans for going to Florida, we remembered that we had a Halloween party planned that night. How do you party after hearing news like this? So my sister Sandy put the question out there: "What would Uncle John say?"

Without any hesitation we all had the same answer: "Have that party!"

And we did. I went out and got my costume: a "Big and Tasty" pickle barrel with a convenient hole cut out of the front for "pickles" to be dispensed. (Pictures will eventually make their way to this blog.) Then we had an awesome time with a great group of people. It was wonderful to see friends from when I used to live in Georgia.

During the party I stopped for a moment and thought that somewhere my Uncle John is sitting with my Grandpa looking down on me and saying, "look at Bob's boy. That has to be the most ridiculous looking costume I've ever seen." I can't argue with that assessment.

I will miss you terribly, Uncle John. Thank you for showing me how a truly awesome Uncle should be. I could not have asked for a better gift.