We grew up during a golden age in children's entertainment. We had Raffi, and Polka Dot Door, and The Friendly Giant. We had gentle adults who spoke kindly and sang sweet songs about elephants and spider webs.
We had Sharon, Lois & Bram.
These performers had careers that lasted through a generation (and sometimes two) and plenty of our own children enjoy them today. It is a circle of what I consider a gentler breed of children's television.
There are few things in life which are firmly black or white, but some do exist. Crocs and socks, for example. They'll always get a definite no, as will mayonnaise on anything but a ham sandwich. But I will willingly look the other way at these infractions so long as you hang your toilet paper the correct way:
The Dr. Phil show has been on television for 13 years. That's a whole lot of "How's that workin' for ya?" and "You can swing a dead donkey in a candy store but ain't nobody gonna make it rain jelly beans at a Tuesday wedding" talk coming at you through your television set. I'm sure in over a decade of being a television host Dr.
Music is pretty important - almost as important as food and sex. It's the bottom line in the triangle of what makes life worth living. Music is a primal force and I once read a study that humans who were deprived of Led Zeppelin and Steely Dan grew up to be certified assholes. Appreciation of rythym and beat is innate and its enjoyment excludes no one.
It's Super Bowl Weekend! This year is Super Bowl XLIX which I believe stands for "Super Bowl Extra Licks" in reference to the Buffalo dip bowl. Many North American households are preparing for the big game tomorrow, as Velveeta shareholders gather at private parties where they watch online as their processed cheese stock goes up to "just paid off the cottage" levels.
Yesterday came news of Target closing its 133 Canadian locations. Then, only a few hours later, SONY announced it would be yet another retailer clearing its shelves. While SONY stores may not have had the same mass appeal Target did, the news is no less important, as more Canadian workers will now head to the unemployment lines with weeks of a potentially soul crushing job-hunt ahead of them.
Yasmine Bleeth, formerly of Baywatch, now of Who? Wait, What Was She In Again?, was seen on a beach last week.
Can you believe the balls on this woman? A beach? Come on. Sure; you starred in a beach show, but, you're like, what? 46 years-old now? GET BACK IN THE HOUSE.
Welcome to the shit show Charlie Sheen calls “Wednesday!” In this week’s episode, Sheen takes on America’s favourite person to hate for no valid or important reason, Mrs. Kanye West, Kim Kardashian herself.
It’s the end of a big-haired, off-the shoulder sparkle dress, gold-gilded McMansion era. The New Jersey royalty dream has died folks, and it all ended at 3am on a cold January morning when Teresa Giudice, former "Real Housewives of New Jersey" cast member turned in her hot rollers in exchange for an orange jumpsuit from the Prison Garb 2015 Spring line.
It's hard to find entertainment your whole family can enjoy together, but on their own maturity level. It's harder still if you've got children both in the single digits and the teen years, not to mention the fact that you may be one of a pair of jaded 40-somethings who can't sit still for more than 10 minutes and whose viewing habits run as wide as the gap between The Ultimate Fighting Championship and The Food Network. Until they invent a show about a kitchen duel where someone breaks your arm while making fart jokes, this family is going to be tough to please.
This is my grandfather. He was a soldier in World War II - a proud member of the British Royal Air Force RAF 228 Squadron, where - when he was a very young man - he accepted the job of tail gunner. He had initially planned to be a pilot, but when they asked him to be a tail gunner he accepted. He was slight and could fit into tight spaces, but that wasn't the only reason they asked.
Around here ("here" being a tiny bungalow in the suburbs) Halloween is second only to Christmas on my kids' fun list. It's a sugar-fuelled, fantasy-play night out, and if there's one thing teenagers like more than the dark and bad-for-you-food, I can't name it right now because my brain is sore from high school math homework. My ten year-old loves Halloween too, but his affection is rooted firmly in the caloric: a pillowcase full of chemicals and sugar are the way to the heart of any 10-year-old boy, even if it leaves them humming like a 1970s portable radio.
My teenager daughter needs warm boots for the coming onslaught of winter. Last year she attempted to make it through the season with only a pair of Keds and positive thinking and hahaha she’s lucky her nickname wasn’t "Seven Toe Charlie" by the time spring thaw arrived. But as much as I want her to have proper winter gear, the truth is that new boots means shopping with a teenager. And shopping with a teenager for a necessary snow wear item is a whole new ballgame.
Movies are a great way to open dialogue with your teenager, all while having some fun sitting in the dark. Even if your kids aren't into a post-movie roundtable discussion wherein you deconstruct themes and survey a literary analysis of the film's overarching imagery, they still make a great springboard for talk. (Seriously; teenagers are like, no fun these days.)
The back-to-school ads have given way and the commercials for Swiss Chalet's Festive Special are waiting in the wings. Most kids have been back into the swing of things at school for a few weeks now, and in our region the school photographer is making the rounds. Every year on school picture day my children head off to school looking reasonably tidy, with me waving good-bye at the bus stop thinking, "Yep. This is our year. This will be the year they hit the mark."
One thing I loved to do when I was a teenager was sleep. Oh dear God, how I longed for the sweet warm bliss that was my waterbed. I'd put my home-mix cassette with 25 back-to-back plays of KISS's "Beth" on my ghetto-blaster and snooze under my Eaton's duvet sleep-set until at least noon every weekend.
Remember waterbeds?
Remember cassettes and KISS and "Beth" and ghetto-blasters and Eaton's? Remember sleep?
Writing a stand-out bio can be difficult for even the most seasoned writer because many people have a hard time talking about themselves, especially in a positive light. In order for your bio to be effective and professional it has to contain a few primary things: First, it must have impeccable grammar and spelling. It must also be short — but not too short — and it has to make the reader want to know more about you and what you do. You’ll also need to decide whether or not to write your bio in first or third person format.
