What a read!

Need a good laugh?  Find yourself a copy of Jay Leno’s “Leading With My Chin” and sit back for a hilarious ride!

I’ve always admired Jay and his work; however, I admire him even more after reading this book.  “Leading With My Chin” was written in the 90’s and I’ve had the book since about the time it came out.  I’m just ashamed to say I never read it.  Until now.

Jay takes the reader from his humble beginnings in stand-up comedy (and the adventures he had along the way), to his rise to fame as host of The Tonight Show.  We also are exposed to the fascinating characters he met along the way (most notably Freddie Prinze and Andy Kaufman). 

A bonus for me is all the Massachusetts references, my favorite being the minor connection Jay had with legendary Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fielder.  Who would’ve known Fielder had such a love for fires?  I wonder if he was a closet pyro?  But Jay’s take on how he knew Fielder is hysterical!

“Leading With My Chin” is a long book but it’s a quick, laugh-till-you-cry read which will leave you wishing for more at the end.

Final Four

So much basketball, so little time…

Mich St., Villanova, UCONN, UNC.  Worse yet for me, UCONN VERSUS UNC! Do I side with UCONN for my New England connections or do I side with UNC, the only team to go to the Final Four 18 times, because I’m a fan of the team, Dean Smith and many past players?

Tough choice….

You know your company is in trouble when

the White House is telling you to step down. 

And that’s just what happened to GM CEO Wagoner today.  Amazing!  GM may FINALLY be moving in the right direction…

Research shows and studies indicate…

just two of the phrases that keep me from reading magazines such as Prevention and Reader’s Digest.  Maybe if they put more energy into writing decent articles for their magazines, they wouldn’t have to fill up the pages with nonsense crap about how a “recent study” revealed this or how “30 years of research” indicates that. 

I read magazines for entertainment and to be informed; if I want to read about science experiments, I’ll peruse a medical journal.

Chuckle for the day

An old, blind cowboy wanders into an all-girl biker bar by mistake. He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a beer.   After sitting there for a while, he yells to the waiter, ‘Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke?’

  

The bar immediately falls absolutely silent. In a very deep, husky voice,the woman next to him says, ‘Before you tell that joke, Cowboy, I think it is only fair, given that you are blind, that you should know five things:

 

 

  *1. The bartender is a blonde girl with a baseball bat.

 

  *2. The bouncer is a blonde girl.  

 

  *3. I’m a 6-foot tall, 175-pound blonde woman with a black belt in
karate. 

 

  *4. The woman sitting next to me is blonde and a professional
weightlifter. 

 

  *5. The lady to your right is blonde and a professional wrestler.

 

 

  Now. Do you still wanna tell that joke?

 

  The blind cowboy thinks for a second, shakes his head, and mutters,
  ‘No…not if I’m gonna have to explain it five times.’

How to keep your sanity in this economy

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a
hair dryer at passing cars.  See if they slow down.

2.   Page yourself over the intercom.   Don’t disguise your voice!

 3.   Every time someone asks you to do something,   ask If they want
fries with that.

4.   Put decaf In the coffee make for 3 weeks.
  Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to
expresso.

5. Skip down the hall rather than walk and see how many looks you get.

 6. Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat with a serious face. 

7. Specify that your drive-through order is ‘to go’.

 8.   Sing along at the opera.

 9.   Five days in advance, tell your friends you can’t attend their
party because you have a headache .

10.   When the money comes out of the ATM, scream ‘I won!   I won!’

 11. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot,
yelling ‘Run for your lives!  They’re loose!’

 12.   Tell your children over dinner,
 ’Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.’

Writing web site review

Over the past several years I’ve joined and unjoined numerous writing web sites.  I was thinking about the sites I’ve unjoined and why I unjoined them.  I only wish I had been able to read a review of these sites before I committed to joining them, posting some of my writing on them and critiquing the writing of others.

So to be helpful, I thought I’d review a few of these sites here just to give a “heads up” to others about them. 

It may not be that the site was completely useless; and I will do reviews of sites I feel are worth their while.

Here is my first one:

Today’s Woman Writing Community

www.todays-woman.net

RATING:  C-

I spent six months as a member of this free site.  Although I enjoyed the message forum board, mainly just to read what others had to say, I noticed that not much changed as far as topics went.

If you are looking for strong critiques of your writing, this is not the place for you.  I was fine with the rules of reading two pieces of writing from others before submitting my own.  However, although I felt I gave helpful reviews of my peers’ writing, I didn’t feel I received the same in return.  Of the six stories and two poems I submitted, I only had two of my stories critiqued; those critiques consisted of “great story” and “I loved it”–not much else; however, I had many people reading them.  If they could read them, why couldn’t they critique them?  My two poems never were looked at.

After six months I realized that this was more a place  for people to post topics on a message board (most of which were not helpful to me). 

If you are serious about your writing and want some helpful, useful feedback, don’t waste your time with this writing site.

What good is a phone book…

if it’s sopping wet?

That’s what happened to my phone book when it was “delivered” to me today.  I came home from work to find my book had been conveniently left outside in the rain, on the ground, right next to my mailbox. 

Did they think the flimsy plastic bag it was in would prevent it from getting wet?  Think again. 

After tossing the book in the recycle bin (it was already falling apart), I called the phone company to complain.  They said they would gladly mail me a new one next week.  Hopefully they’ll put it IN the mailbox instead of on the ground this time!

Wild about “Wild Boy”

I hate to use this blog as a place to post my reviews of books, movies or music I’ve enjoyed or hated, but I felt after I finished this one particular read, it deserved some attention here.  Maybe this will be the start of an on-going thing.  Who knows?

The book I’m referring to is “Wild Boy” by Andy Taylor.  For those of you who are thinking “the sherrif from Mayberry wrote a book?  ‘Wild Boy’?  Was that about Barney?”, the answer is no.  This Andy Taylor is/was the guitarist for the phenonemal 80’s pop group Duran Duran.  If you are reading this and are/were a DD fan, I need not explain any further.  You may have already read the book yourself.  If you were not a DD fan, read on.

At one time in my life (say around 14, 15, 16) I was the ultimate Duran Duran junkie.  I slept, ate and breathed Duran Duran.  I will not go into the crazy details here.  They will make your head spin.  When I think about some of my crazy antics (none of which had to actually do with the band, mind you), I shake my head.  But reading this book really took me down memory lane.  And it also opened my eyes to what I would never have guessed (or dared to have thought) about the five guys I so admired.

First of all, I was highly impressed with Andy’s writing.  He comes off being very well schooled and quite intelligent.  Trust me.  I’ve read books by other rock stars (written by the rock star themself) and it was not as well written as this book.  Very well done.

Andy’s story takes us from Duran Duran’s beginnings, their ups and downs, highs (literally) and lows, illnesses (his own and his wife’s) to the end when Andy said “enough–let me off this crazy roller coaster”.  In reading all the tales, I find it hard to believe John Taylor is still alive today.  Out of all the members, I never thought he would’ve been the worst as far as drug problems went.  I always thought it would’ve been Simon.  Just goes to show you how much of a “real” fan I was, huh? haha.

I know Andy’s story is just his side of it.  It’s from his view.  I’m sure if the other four members wrote their own tales, some of what Andy wrote about would come out differently.  For instance, maybe Nick would be pointing the finger at Andy for bringing up problems with the lyrics instead of Andy pointing the finger at Nick for doing that.  Andy referred to Nick as the “Lyric Police” for his nitpicking Simon’s lyrics.  I’ll admit some of Simon’s lyrics are quite odd.  I’m still trying to figure out what a “lizard mixture” is and what the hell is “The Reflex” anyway?

The conclusion of the book at least clarified in my mind what I had originally thought back in 2005 when they were touring again:  they needed the cash.  I was right about that one.  Yet Andy and Roger were only going to be seeing a portion of the profits due to the fact that they had not worked with the band during the 90’s.  So I guess by this time Duran Duran really were not Duran Duran any longer.  They were just five individuals who needed some money and the only way they could get it was to go on tour again.

If they’re all still alive twenty years from now and need the cash, maybe they’ll tour for their 40th anniversary.  They’ll all be pushing 70.  Hey, if the Stones can do it, why not Duran Duran?

Still, this was a very entertaining read.  As a Duran Duran fan, I also followed them during their solo ventures and this book led me to drag out Andy’s solo album.  I forgot how much I used to love listening to “Thunder”.  It’s too bad he didn’t really reflect much on his solo career in the book.  I thought it was pretty good music.

I’m sure we won’t be hearing Andy any time soon on a new Duran Duran CD (unless they can talk him into that 40th anniversary tour); but I hope he does do his own thing musically and continues to do what he loves most.

As if the police didn’t have enough to do already…

they have to respond to the crazy nut who dialed 911 because she couldn’t get her McNuggets. 

Was this lady on dope or something?  They told her they didn’t have any McNuggets and told her to choose something else from the  menu and she kept bitching because they wouldn’t give her money back, probably because she drove away and called 911!

Then to save face, MickyD’s turns around and apologizes to the lady and tells her she will get reimbursed and that her next visit to MickyD’s will be on them.  That’s just customer service.  SHE should be apologizing to them and I hope she gets fined by the police for misuse of the 911 emergency system!