A year ago today, the entire Chicagoland area of which I own a home in experienced its third largest blizzard in history, one of the hardest hitting areas in a week full of bad winter weather from across the nation, and I ended up writing 1,200 words about it the next day, first-hand pictures included. Push the clock forward to Groundhog Day 2012, and we're suddenly now in the middle of the nation's tamest winters in years, with Chicago experiencing only one major snowstorm since December, and that came not too long ago.And to think that it was supposed to be one of the nastiest winters this area of the country has ever experienced. Funny how Mother Nature works that way.
But enough about the weather. Let's get down to business. The following were on my mind between Monday, January 30th and Thursday, February 2nd:
- I found it pretty interesting to see these Republican presidential candidates who didn't believe in evolution gradually lose to much more superior opponents with campaign strategies that allowed them to survive in their environment better.
- Congratulations to David Letterman on thirty years of being a late night talk show host (and one of the best late night talk show host all-time, too, even if his show is starting to get more and more stale as the years go by). If I had a nickel for every time that you've entertained me over the years, I'm sure that it would be just as much as the famous people that you pissed off.
- People of Florida, you had a chance on Tuesday to elect somebody (Gingrich) who could've built a highly expensive Moon Colony by 2020 that nobody wanted nor needed, and you blew it. I hope you're happy!
- This has been quite the week for incredible dunks. First there was Lebron James's dunk on top of John Lucas Sunday against Chicago, and now there's the forceful Tuesday night posterization Blake Griffin had over Kendrick Perkins. The overall scoring may have diminished this season as a result of last year's lockout, but at least the ridiculous slams remain alive and thriving.
- People paid quite a bit of money in Indianapolis on Tuesday to sit and watch the Super Bowl XLVI media day occur. If that isn't a sign of how dominant the NFL is at getting money from fans, then I don't know what is.
- And so it begins...(http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/facebook-creates-millionaire-club-few-billionaires-too-171921191.html)
- So thanks to Prince Fielder signing with the Detroit Tigers, it means that this team will now have a 3-4-5 batting order of Cabrera, Fielder, and Peralta, and AL Cy Young/AL MVP winner Justin Verlander pitching for them, and every five days on the same field. As a White Sox, you have no idea how much this worries me about my team's chances this year.
More random thoughts to come this Monday. Because the day before is the Super Bowl, I'm pretty sure that the majority of it (if not all of it) will revolve around just that game and the NBC telecast as a whole. Now, as a special treat, I've decided to take the rest of the post for revealing the newest installment of "End of the Month" for 2012. Back when the New Year began, one of my resolutions was to start post this feature on the final day of each month and not five or ten days later like I've done for the majority of my time writing this blog. Yet only one month has past, and I've already broken this resolution. Crap. Oh well, at least the second day of the next month isn't too bad. As always, here are my picks for the best and/or most memorable people, stories and moments that have come from the previous month:
END OF THE MONTH
Death of the Month: Joe PaternoA great 84 years, a less than stellar end to his 85th that will be among the first paragraphs when discussing his life. Somehow, though, I have a feeling that those 84 years will outweigh that last more often (I mean, just look at Michael Jackson as an example).
Birth of the Month: Blue Ivy Carter (daughter of Jay-Z and Beyonce)
She's only four weeks old, and yet she's already done more than most people do in a lifetime by being part of a Billboard chart hit. I'm already afraid of what she might be able to do by age 20.
Internet Meme of the Month: Shit People Say
The trend started in December of last year when a couple of Canadian comics posted their debut video "Shit Girls Say" to YouTube, which saw a man pointing out all the various cliched things that girls (specifically young women) would say to themselves or to other people. The video became an instant hit, with millions agreeing with the two that, yes, these are things that they hear certain females states out loud, and an instant viral sensation was born. More Shit Girls Say videos were posted to YouTube, and that spawned a series of copies among other people trying to point out the various things that they've heard a certain group of people say, from black women to hipsters to girls with gay friends to even people of various cities like Chicago, New York, and Austin (although I bet each of those last three are the least accurate). How long will this trend last, no one knows for sure. But for as long as these continue to generate massive hits, and for as long as people continue to make peculiar observations about specific human groups, I'd say that it's hear to stay.
Anyways, here's my favorite thus far. And by "favorite," I mean "the one that's actually interesting."
Stories of the Month:
- The Biggest Take-down: US Authorities Shut Down Megaupload Over Copyright Infringement
Making this the worst possible time ever to catch up on missed episodes of "Justified."
- The Brett Cummins Honorary "Weatherman Story of the Month": John Bolaris' Real-Life "The Hangover"
Holy crap...somebody actually read the articles on Playboy!
-The Most Disruptive: Ringing Cellphone Disrupts New York Philharmonic Performance
Laugh now, but in the world of symphony, breaking up a performance is the equivalent of hitting the percussion section with baseball bats.
-The Slightly Less Dangerous: Homicide Not a Top Cause of Death in the U.S. For 1st Time in 45 Years
And yet, crime procedurals continue to run rampant on TV. When will the madness end?
-The Most Liberating: Judd Appatow Yells "F*** You!" To Jerry Lewis For Saying Women Aren't Funny After "Bridesmaids" Wins Critics Choice Award
In Lewis' defense, any person, man or woman, can make defecating in a sink from diarrhea funny.
- The Least Shocking: Snoop Dogg Arrested For Weed
What's next? Pat Sajak saying that he was drunk while hosting "Wheel of Fortune"? Oh, wait. All right, change that. How about: What's next? "Fear Factor" Doing Some Gross Challenge? Son of a bitch!
- The Most Celibate: Tim Gunn Hasn't Had Sex For Almost 30 Years
If this had anything to do with his personality on "Project Runway," then I approve!
- The Flippiest: The Costa Concordia Shipwreck
For some reason, this reminds me of some movie that was released not too long ago (and in the late '90s perhaps?), yet I can't remember which? "The Perfect Storm?" No...ah, I'm sure I'll think of it somehow.
- The Best Proclamation: Mark Wahlberg's 9/11 Comments
If he really wanted to prevent a disaster, then he shouldn't have starred in the Tim Burton "Planet of the Apes" remake- The Best Example of Learning Some Background Knowledge: British People Demand Refund After Finding Out That "The Artist" Is a Silent Film
British people: they're just like us!
- The Biggest Backlash: Paula Deen Has Lack of Public Support After Announcing that She Has Type 2 Diabetes
Well, Paula, this is what happens when you tell people to make fried cake batter while when you yourselves were probably not eligible to eat it.
- The Saddest, Politics Edition: Sen. Mark Kirk's Stroke
Hope he gets well.
- He Turned to the Dark Side: Man in Darth Vader Mask Arrested
George Lucas hoped that this made you more interested in watching the "Star Wars" 3D remakes.
- The Worst Use of Whip-Its: Demi Moore Hospitalized
- The Worst Diplomatic Issue: The Iran Scientists Killings
Well, who's ready with war in Iran?
- The Most Awesome: Congress Indefinitely Suspends SOPA/PIPA Bills
This is what happens when you piss off Wikipedia.
Gimmick of the Month: Stephen Colbert's "Run for President" in South Carolina With Super PAC
As if I didn't love this man enough...
Singer of the Month: Lana Del Rey
Despite the constant bashing of many music critics and her now infamous performance on "Saturday Night Live," Del Rey still managed to have her debut album "Born To Die" hit #1 in the charts of 14 different countries. Guess the old saying is true: any publicity is still good publicity, even if most of the publicity has been negative.
Name of the Month: Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop
Looks like somebody's parents were big fans of scat jazz.
Videos of the Month:
- The Best Question: "Does Mitt Romney have a big penis?"
Well...does he?
-The Best Answer: "Man Guesses Donkey Punch on Jeopardy"
I'm sure the Sean Connery character on "Saturday Night Live" would be proud of this answer.
-That's Great And All, But The Presidential Race Isn't a Singing Contest: "Obama Sings Al Green"
Because if it were, Obama would beat Romney and his "America the Beautiful" rendition in a landslide.
- The Most Nostalgic/The Coolest Song: " Human Jukebox '90s Megamix"
I've watched this video dozens of times since last week, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
- The Best Heavy Metal: "'My first Harcore Song' by 8 yr old Juliet"
Who knew life as a little white girl was so complicated.
- The Most Unnecessarily Creepy:"Rugrats: Live Action Movie"
The sad thing about this video is that when movie studios inevitably do make a live-action reboot of "Rugrats" (Don't believe me? Ask children of the '80s if they ever thought that their memories would ever be exploited for future profit), it will be much worse than this trailer.
- The Most Awesome: "Pizza Boomerang"
This commercial was terrible. I want to eat their pizza twice.
Discovery* of the Month: January 12th, 1992 As The Date in Ice Cube's "Good Day"...Or Not.
Turns out the date that The mj15 Blog's now tainted Person of the Week Dominic Strain figured out might actually be four years too early. Either way, the fact that people have actually tried to solve this mystery in the past few days just goes to show you that the Internet is putting its resources into good uses.
Person of the Month: Mitt Romney
He overcame a rough patch at the middle of the month to regain momentum big time in the Republican presidential race. Although with Cardiac Kid Gingrich vowing to fight to the death ("46 States To Go!"), it should be interesting to see if this momentum will remain permanent at last.
-Runner-ups: Newt Gingrich, Members of Anonymous, Lana Del Rey, Barack Obama, Eli Manning, Tom Brady.
Until then, enjoy the end of your workweek!
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15
If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you just have any suggestions or tips for my next blog entry, e-mail me at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.
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