Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Each November I tell myself, “Self, you should really watch more than just the “Thanksgiving Orphans” episode of Cheers this year. Then I debate whether to just watch the rest of season five, which I own on DVD,[1] or dive into the entire series on a streaming service. And, every year, I end up just watching that single episode around Thanksgiving. Last spring I came across the article I’ve linked to below. I read it and hung onto it, just in case one year I finally started watching old Cheers episodes. Well, my friends, this is that year! Last week…
Is There Anybody Out There? Anybody At All?
Well this checks a few boxes for me. General 80s nostalgia 80s pop culture and political sub-categories Nuclear obliteration And Kansas City/Kansas references Yep, The Day After was a pretty big deal. And, perhaps, as relevant today as it has been for nearly 30 years. The Day After traumatized a generation with the horrors of nuclear war My favorite family story about The Day After was of some college friends of my parents who lived in Lawrence when the movie was being filmed. They showed up for the open casting calls but weren’t selected. They found out where they were…
Looking Back
I wrote this yesterday, but forgot to post it before heading out for an afternoon of kickball. I believe M is coming home with an assignment tonight to ask S and I what our memories of September 11, 2001 are. Her social studies teacher wrote her memories of that day on her whiteboard and shared a pic of it on Twitter, along with the warning our kids would be asking questions tonight. So, in between my normal Monday errands and tracking the remnants of Irma – hoping my in-laws’ home in Jacksonville will be dry and damage-free when they return…
Good Old Days
I came across this piece on Twitter and really enjoyed it. Gone The Way Of The Zambezi Zinger The Zambezi Zinger was awesome. It didn’t have huge drops, didn’t loop, didn’t go insanely fast. But all those turns and the consistent speed through the ride were tons of fun. I kind of forgot that you didn’t even strap into the cars. You just sat 2–3 deep and that kept you from flying out. There used to be a terrible video from the old Zinger on YouTube. I couldn’t find it, but did find a new, high quality one from the…
A 30 Year Tradition
I realized a few weeks back that this year is the 30th anniversary of my all-time favorite TV episode, Cheer’s “Thanksgiving Orphans,” which first aired on November 27, 1986. I taped the show that night and held onto that tape for years. Somewhere along the way the tape either gave out or I lost it. I recorded it again sometime in the late 90s or early 00s, and it became an integral part of my Thanksgiving celebration. The year we found ourselves without a VCR, I sprung for the Cheers season five DVD collection. Every year in November I say…
Long Overdue
Hall & Oates somehow just received their Hollywood Walk of Fame star last week. Which makes total sense. You know, an act that was in its prime 30 years ago just getting their recognition now. Honestly, it’s staggering if you scroll through the list of entertainers who previously received stars and compare some of their careers to H&O’s. Maybe there was some conflict back in the act’s prime that prevented them from accepting a star; Hall can be notoriously prickly at times. Despite the rather odd timing, I was pleased that they finally got their star, even if it is…
Jerry And The Gang
We didn’t travel much when I was a kid. Summer vacations for me were just trips to my grandparents’ homes in central Kansas for anywhere from two to six weeks. So I was pretty much always home Labor Day weekend, with three days to kill before school started on the day after the holiday. Since my mom was generally working two jobs, she’d go in both on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and on Labor Day itself. So I was stuck at home, with four channels of TV to entertain myself. But actually three channels, since Labor Day weekend…
Farewell to VHS
So after this month, no more VCRs will be produced. Wait, they were still making VCRs? I guess there are probably some folks out there with shelves full of movies – purchased or taped from TV, professional and personal – who were never interested in buying them all again in a digital format, or didn’t want to invest the time and effort to convert them to digital. I know I still have some tapes stored in a cabinet in our basement. Some of those tapes hold great sentimental value, even if I haven’t watched them in 20 years or more. There…
Memorable Events
Summer continues to fly by. We’re just three-and-a-half weeks from school beginning. Today is our annual trip an hour north to watch the girls’ cousin show his pigs at his county fair. Taking the city kids to the county fair is always fun! Last week we watched Apollo 13. The act of watching it was nearly as epic as the flight of Apollo 13. One of the girls learned about the flight at school way back in the winter. When I told them there was a movie about it, they all wanted to watch it. I checked our library’s website,…
Summer ’78
I’m loving a lot of things right now, pop culturally. I took a long bike ride this morning and mentally wrote at least 10,000 words about the new Ryan Adams album. We’ll see if I can make something coherent out of those thoughts to share here. I just finished an amazing, if flawed, book that took me nearly a month to get through. I also finally started watching Veep, which is fantastic. And then there’s this little gem. It’s charming enough on its own. But if you were a child of the late 70s, I think it resonates a little…