I Was Just Thinking....

What is it about a cat fight?

From an early age, our mothers taught us to act "lady like". Well, most of our mothers, but it was sort of an unwritten rule that a girl should act a certain way. They told us to act demure, speak softly and if we had a point to make, to speak succinctly and assuredly, so as to get our point across. Be eloquent and make people listen to our logic, and above all always keep our emotions in check. At least in public, for one would never want to be considered one of "those girls".

With the dawn of the new Millenium, social media and reality TV, those social mores, taught by years of mothers before us, have basically gone to the dogs...or the cats, because in this day and age, it's the "cat fight" that gets the attention. By today's standards it's the squeakiest wheel that gets grea$ed, and "those girls" are fast becoming reality starlets with publicists and posse's to prove it.I'm not saying this is the way to go, either. What I am saying is that it's a fact that a cat fight translates into TV ratings and magazine covers, and why?

Take for example the Real Housewives franchise. Bravo built an entire TV network on cat fighting, bad behaving, supposed "housewives" who look to have it all and then some. But that wasn't good enough or interesting enough, and the Bravo exec's quickly realized that it was the most controversial housewives, the ones who made those cringe worthy moments happen, that the viewers really wanted to see. They wanted to talk about their bad behavior on social media sites and in blogs and fan the flames for more bad behavior.

Probably the most notorious example of a  Real Housewives cat fight moment was when controversial New Jersey housewife Theresa Guidice famously flipped a table. It was the flip heard around the world.
This clip is NSF and contains expletives.

Theresa then  went on to become even more famous with her "Fabulous" empire of cookbooks and products, and she continues to cash in on her notoriety today. Look at NeNe Leakes from Real Housewive Atlanta. She's parlayed her bad girl, no nonsense, "oh no she didn't" image into a full on Hollywood acting career.

But before the bad behavior on Housewives, there was the man who built his image and fortune on cat fights.  In 1991, a then almost unknown Jerry Springer launched "The Jerry Springer Show". I'm sure the intention of the show's original premise was good info, interviews and discussion, but it's producers soon realized that the shows about tawdry, controversial subjects were leading them to much higher ratings and bigger revenues. 22 years later, the show is simply nothing more than a cat fight boxing ring, complete with bells going off and hair weaves and wigs flying.

With topics like. "You Stole My Man and Then Had His Baby!" and "Bad Girls Oiled Up", it's just a matter of minutes before the fist-a-cuffs come out. Security is present, but they are more like the referee's in the ring, "keeping it clean". Springer even admitted in 2000 to Reuters in an interview, "I would never watch my show. I'm not interested in it. It's not aimed at me. This is just a silly show." Yet he cashes those silly checks.

Is the phenomenon of good girls gone bad enough to keep this detrimental behavior alive in the public eye? The answer remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure. I am part of the problem, not the solution. As long as I continue to watch these train wrecks happen, they will continue to produce them for my/our viewing. And I'm not quite sure how I feel about that.

Rock For All Ages

Wow.
Right, they didn't reinvent the wheel here, but I sure had a good time. So shoot me.

Rock of Ages was a two hour long rock and roll anthem to my youth. I loved it because I didn't have to think about it too hard. I just had to sit back and be entertained. Beside the fact that I could name all the  bands and sing along to virtually every jukebox song that was played out in musical form on the screen, the cast of Hollywood heavies made it an even more enjoyable rock and roll adventure. Oh I know, Rock of Ages was panned by the critics and it opened to minimal box office success, but I would venture to guess that this one will grow some legs and spark new life on DVD.

For me, it was two things; the music, oh the beautiful music, and the cast. Let's start with my favorites:

• Paul Giamatti. The guy is an anomaly by Hollywood standards, but he has truly perfected the "slime ball, scum bag" role to an art form. He's so despicable and disgusting (that heinous ponytail,  ewww) that I hate to love him and love him I do. My visceral response to his work only leads me to believe the truth and the truth is that Giamatti is genius.
• Alec Baldwin. Hello? Is there any comedic role this guy can't turn into gold? As an over the hill rocker who stayed too long at the party, Bourbon Room owner Dennis Dupree, Baldwin and his loyal side man Lonnie (Russell Brand) gave one of the movie's comedic high points with REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight this Feeling". 
• Russell Brand? He just played himself, with a spot on makeover of a hair band groupie, which is why it was no stretch. His warm and fuzzy Lonny is the emotional anchor that binds this story together and serves as the comic relief. 
• Then there's Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx, a resurrected Axl Rose type of rock God. Cruise nailed it and for me, the guy plays this role so dark and so sexy that I was left almost searching the iTunes store for Arsenal/Stacee Jaxx songs. It's such a departure for this Hollywood Marquee player, that I once again am amazed by Cruise and his brilliance when he throws something different at me. See: Tropic Thunder

The rest of the cast rounds it out quite nicely. While I enjoyed the performances of Julianne Hough and a somewhat unknown Diego Boneta, and Malin Ackerman and Catherine Zeta Jones, this one belonged to the big boys. 

And the music. 

The climactic finale, with the rock and roll anthem of today, Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" was predictable but nonetheless enjoyable. It somehow managed to sound fresh and uplifting, but for me it was Cruise who made it new. 

Again, I'm just a sucker for a Rock and Roll story for all ages. So shoot me. 

Green To Red Christmas Experiment

So I have three poinsettia plants left over from last Christmas. Their hearty red leaves have, at this point, all turned green and they are thriving. I have them in a sunny window and they have grown to become quite beautiful.

But they are green, and they are poinsettias. Shouldn't they be red?

Now that fall has arrived on our doorsteps and the mums are in pots outside, I have been looking at the poinsettias and wondering if their leaves will turn back to a beautiful, deep red in time for St. Nick in December. So I googled this question to see what to do.

Lots of stuff came up, and what I found was that I just may have caught these beauties in time to make it work. The overall solution was this:

In order to get, or force a poinsettia plant to turn red you must eliminate it's light. The flower formation, key to turning the leaves from green to red, is triggered by periods of darkness. During the day the plant needs bright light to absorb energy for color production, but at night they must not receive any bright light for a minimum of 12 hours.

So what do I do? And is it even worth all the trouble? I could just buy new red ones and be done with it, right? Or I could keep them green and just keep them where they are, thriving and see what happens. The curious soul inside me thinks I should experiment with at least two of the three..

I then found this:
"You have to shorten the day light it receives. In high school I worked at a green house and we raised 50,000 plus poinsettias a year. Starting around September place it in the closet around 3 pm and take it out around 7am. This will force the leaves to turn red. Its a lot of work, trust me I know after all the years i worked in the green house I have never bought a poinsettia since."

What would you do bloggers?

Friday Funny

Two lawyers were walking down Rodeo Drive, and saw a beautiful model walking towards them. "What a babe," one said, "I'd sure like to screw her!" 

"Really?" the other responded, "Out of what?"

http://www.101funjokes.com/funny_dirty_jokes_3.htm

A Bunch Of Crap I Could Have Written Full Posts About But Didn't

• I fell asleep during the debates last night. What the hell is wrong with me? Shouldn't have had that second glass of wine;). Heard it was a sleeper anyway. Romney made Obama look like a little girly man and that was early on, from what I saw. What's your take on last night's debate? Did it change your vote?

• The Red Sox (I can't believe I'm going here) are done for the season. Stick the long awaited fork in them, FINALLY. You haven't heard much about them this season at The Daily Dandy, and there's good reason for that. They truly sucked. I don't think I have watched a full game since late July. The calls for Sox manager Bobby Valentine's head have been heard loud and clear, especially today. If I were him, I'd be looking for a quick way outta town. (if he hasn't left already)

• For all you dog lovers out there, check out this story: "Susie" a cute, white, female poodle mix, was hit by a car in Taunton, MA and immediately became wedged in the front grill of the car. The driver, unaware that he had struck a dog, continued driving for another 11 miles. He even crossed state lines into Rhode Island with Susie still stuck in the front grill. When the driver became aware that the dog was stuck, he drove to the nearest police station and the dog was immediately removed. Unbelievably, the dog sustained a concussion and  only minor injuries. Susie was recently reunited with her owner. I gotta ask, how do you not know that you've struck a dog with your car?

• I love this best of all....This is Carter, who uses a wheelchair. His dad made him this for Halloween:

Gaga Worth The Weight

I gotta say bravo to this Lady.

Lady Gaga has admitted to gaining 25 lbs this summer by indulging in her dad's home cooking at his newly opened NYC eatery. Good for her. Leave it to Gaga to put a positive spin on the pressures of weight gain. I'm not really a Gaga fan, but one can hardly miss her. Her larger than life persona took over the music industry and she was everywhere, but I've got to hand it to her on this one. She knows she's gained weight and she doesn't care what you or I think.

Admitting to problems with bulimia and anorexia since the age of 15, Gaga released this statement after coming under fire from the media and her record label.





She has a eloquent way of humanizing the issue and putting it into perspective, doesn't she?

And they say that looking good is the best revenge?
Check out Gaga yesterday in Milan.

25 lbs heavier and still sexy. I say, you go girl! Ain't nothing wrong with being Born that Way.

Dog Gone Brilliant!

So I've got this new dry cleaning service that picks up the dry cleaning one day and delivers it to my door a few days later and I'm very happy with their service, so far. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about my dogs.

I leave a purple bag on a hook, filled with the dry cleaning, twice a week for pick up and lately I notice that my dogs will go berserk, barking furiously when the big purple van pulls into the driveway. The barking is not unusual. My dogs bark at everything that passes by; runners on the street, people on bikes, UPS and Fed Ex trucks, but not like they do when the purple van shows up. I can always tell when the Zoots guy is here because they go crazy; like they are up scratching and clawing at the window crazy.

Today I needed to ask my dry cleaning driver a question, so when I heard the dogs causing a rukus, I knew he had arrived. I carefully stepped outside and shut the door behind me, but it just barely drowned out the mayhem that the dogs were creating on the other side. I proceeded to talk to my pleasant driver and take care of business. When we were done, I apolgized to the driver for the dogs and I said, "I'm so sorry. I'm not quite sure what it is about you or your van, but my dogs seem to have a problem with you."

The driver smiled and said, "Oh I'm sorry. Well, would you please give the dog these?" In his hand he held two Milk Bone dog treats. " I always leave them on the front porch stoop, by the bag and I don't want to forget today." he said.

It was like a light went on in my head. I sort of chuckled and asked him to wait a second and I walked over to the door and let the clamoring, barking dogs outside. The same two dogs that were ferouciously clawing to get out  immediately turned into calm, sweet,  tails wagging dogs who went over to the driver and gave him a hearty welcome. I immediately understood. They were friends, and their Pavlovian response to the purple van was not at all what I had thought it was. My dogs wanted their twice weekly treat from their new friend the dry cleaning guy.

I was happy to know that my dogs aren't at all ferocious. In fact, it just solidified the "man's best friend" thing in my mind. Because before today I'm not sure that the driver understood that when he visited my home to pick up/dropoff , he was being anxiously awaited by his two new best friends.