In today’s world we are faced daily with various celebrities flinging their influence in our faces.
Everywhere you turn, from TV to social media, some VIP is telling us what to buy, what to eat, what kind of medicine to take, what kind of insurance to buy, what to wear, and even telling us to vote, sometimes even who to vote for. Have we stopped thinking for ourselves?
I’m not going to mention any names, but if we want a reverse mortgage, we’ll get one. If we want to try a certain diet and the foods included with it, we’ll try it. If we want or need insurance for a car or home, we’ll get it, but only if that particular insurance is available in our area. If we want to get vaccinated, we will. If we want to register to vote or vote in general, we’ll do it. Same goes for if we don’t want any of the above. We don’t need someone to tell us what or what not to do.
And why should anyone care if said celebrities want to or not want to do any of those things themselves? Simply because you do or don’t? That’s their business, just as it is yours.
I always thought the point of social media sites was for people to randomly post about different topics, maybe carry on a conversation, maybe have a debate or outright argument with someone, maybe just post some stupid thought and not want any response at all. So, I roll my eyes whenever I see posts from people commenting on how many followers they have or from people on another’s behalf encouraging people to follow them. Because I didn’t realize social media was a popularity contest.
I also don’t understand why (or like) how people comment on the relationships of strangers, whether the strangers be regular joes or celebrities. Most of us realize relationships are two-way streets. Nobody on any platform has an inkling what anyone else’s relationship is like, even if you personally know the people involved.
It is wrong to surmise you know so-and-so created such-and-such based on the fact that they refused to marry someone or that someone refused to marry them. Maybe they had good reasons to not marry or end the relationship. Because do we really know there was a proposal? How do we know the breakup wasn’t amicable? How do we know it wasn’t the other side who ended it? We don’t know what level of bullshit was involved from either side. We don’t know what it’s like to live with either person. Nor should we give a fuck.
The Oscar noms were released the other day and the world still hasn’t calmed down from Greta and Margot getting dissed. And I guess I can understand why. And I can understand why Ryan and America were nominated. But it wasn’t for their acting. Because I felt all the acting in “Barbie” was meh. In my opinion I feel “Barbie”, although a very good film, was overrated. And that’s coming from someone who has seen it three times. Mind you, not by choice. And neither time in the theater.
Ryan was nominated for the “I’m Just Ken” dance number (because honestly, that’s the best thing Ken does in the entire movie). And America was nominated for the “speech”. Which is a very motivational speech, even coming from someone with such a raspy voice.
But since we’re complaining about who got left out of the nominations for “Barbie”, I’m going to complain that Kate got left out for her portrayal of Weird Barbie and Rhea got left out for her portrayal as Ruth. Without Ruth, there would be no “Barbie”. Because she created Barbie. And Weird Barbie is very pivotal to the movie because without her, Barbie would never have traveled to the real world and when Barbie returns to Barbieland and discovers Ken has taken over, Weird Barbie helps and encourages her to take it back. Without either of these characters, you have a much lesser “Barbie” with main missing points.
We all know every year great films, great directors, great actors/actresses get left out of the Oscars. It’s a given. Whether the cause be the voters or that there are only so many spots. What are you going to do? Boycott the Oscars, I guess.
I only saw three movies in the movie theater in 2023 and I feel at least two of them should have been nominated for some kind of Oscar: “A Man Called Otto” and “Air”. So maybe I should complain about that.
When it comes down to it, the Oscars are just another award show to honor movies we may have seen and many that we have never even heard of. Take it for what it is.
In honor of Coach Bill Belichick’s departure from The New England Patriots, here are some of my favorite memes and Bill quotes from the past many years:
And a lot of partying we did!
Deflategate special. Such fun times!
Bill made a lot of opposing teams mad with his kind of coaching. The why-didn’t-we-think-of-that moments.
Yes, if I recall, it didn’t really matter that Brady was suspended, right?
Bill with his excited face.
He’s even excited at Christmas
Although Bill was famous for coining the phrase (or was he?) “We’re on to….(place opposing city name here) and the motto “Do Your Job”, he was also known for never giving anything away in his press conferences. Bill’s speeches were often a mystery. And sometimes what he said was downright hilarious:
“I don’t Twitter, I don’t MyFace, I don’t Yearbook.” – that goes for a lot of us
“The only thing I can cheer for in Philadelphia is the national anthem.” – I agree. Not even the Liberty Bell is something to cheer for. But they have a great zoo.
“Don’t out-dumb yourself now.” – can probably be said about a lot of people in the NFL
“Knowing you have a good backup long snapper allows you to sleep good at night.” – it also helps knowing you have a top-notch QB
Looking forward, I’m excited/anxious/curious to see how Mayo does as a coach, where he takes the team, etc. He has some huge shoes to fill and I have every confidence he will “do his job”, as only Bill would tell him to.
All the best, Bill, in everything you do in the future.
So we have reached the final movie in my favorite Christmas movie countdown. Before I get to the skinny on the film, which a new survey lists as the most loved holiday movie, I wanted to give my backstory on how I even came to learn of this movie.
It was 1985 and I listened to the weekly Top 40 countdown with Casey Kasem like clockwork. I never missed a week, and I kept track of all the songs. One song on the countdown that week was Billy Joel’s “You’re Only Human (Second Wind)” and Casey discussed the background of the song. The song deals with teenage depression and suicide, it became a top-ten hit for Joel and he donated all royalties from the song to the National Committee for Youth Suicide Prevention. But in his mention of the background, Casey brought up Frank Capra’s Christmas film “It’s A Wonderful Life” and told how the song’s video pays homage to the 1946 Jimmy Stewart classic.
Until then, I had never heard of the movie. Being a Christmas freak even back then, I knew I had to see it.
I believe I ended up renting it from the video store because back then “It’s A Wonderful Life” was not played on TV as much as it is now. I was hooked from there. In 1996 I bought the 50th anniversary edition on VHS and I now own it on DVD in both black and white and color.
So what’s this five-time Academy Award nominated film about? The film stated by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made? The film selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress?
It’s all about the life of George Bailey (Stewart) from the time he’s a boy saving his brother Harry (Todd Karns) and working in Gower’s (H.B. Warner) drugstore to his father (Samuel S. Hinds) suddenly passing away, to taking over the family bank, the ol’ Bailey Building & Loan and giving up his dreams of traveling the world, to falling in love and marrying Mary Hatch (Donna Reed), to dealing with Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) and all the unruly customers during the run on the bank, to starting a family with Mary, to still wanting to get away but instead helping your community grow by helping people obtain home ownership, to dealing with Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore)
to having your war hero brother coming home on Christmas Eve, to having Uncle Billy “lose” $8,000 by inadvertently handing it to Potter, to having the authorities after you, to drinking at Martini’s, to getting punched in the lip, to running to the bridge to jump and then…being saved by Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers), Angel Second Class–because he hasn’t earned his wings yet.
Clarence wants those wings and come hell or high water, he’s going to make sure George grasps just how wonderful his life has been so he can earn them. Dammit.
George receives the best gift from Clarence: a chance to see his world without him in it. Bedford Falls is now Pottersville. The Building & Loan doesn’t exist. Martini’s is now Nick’s. Gower is a drunk. Harry died in the sledding accident. Zuzu’s petals are missing. The turning point for George is when he sees Mary has become nothing but a lonely librarian and he scares the shit out of her. That’s when he goes back to the bridge and begs to live again.
And it’s such a joyous moment when Bert the cop comes along and tells George everyone’s been looking for him. And George realizes it’s snowing. And his lip is bleeding. And Zuzu’s petals are in his pocket. And he’s running through Bedford Falls yelling “Merry Christmas!” at everyone and everything.
It chokes me up every. single. time.
The final scene is the best, the party of all parties at George’s house, celebrating Harry’s return, Mary and Uncle Billy have gone around town collecting money to help George, even the bank examiner rips up his papers. And in with the donations is a copy of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, which Clarence just so happens to have been reading when he saved George. Inside the book is an inscription that says it all:
Zuzu closes it out when a bell on the Christmas tree rings and she declares that “every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings” to which George smiles upwards and says “‘Atta boy, Clarence!”.
You just don’t get any better a Christmas movie than this one. It will forever be my favorite Christmas movie. As the plaque on my door declares: “It’s A Wonderful Life”.
michellemchatton.com 
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