Additional TV, Eclectic, Movies, Television

Harlan Ellison Defied Hollywood Brass

Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison in 1977.

Harlan Ellison was not afraid of the Hollywood establishment. The science fiction author and screenwriter did not suffer plagiarists lightly. He successfully sued ABC and James Cameron, among many others. Ellison died on June 28th at the age of 84.

In his lawsuit against ABC and Paramount Pictures, he alleged the TV series Future Cop was based on the short story Brillo, which was co-written with Ben Bova. The court awarded Ellison and Bova a settlement of $337,00.

He also successfully sued James Cameron, based on an Outer Limits episode he wrote. Soldier is about a warrior sent back in time with one mission – to kill an enemy. Sound familiar? Keep Reading!

Eclectic

Spontaneity is over-rated

I don’t think any of my friends or family members would ever accuse me of being spontaneous.

For instance, I already know what I’m doing next weekend (visiting my sister and my nieces) and the weekend after that (hibernating at home, albeit one hour less of it due to the start of daylight savings time). Not knowing what I’m doing three weekends from now is about as impulsive as it gets for me.

I plan out meals about a week in advance – case in point – I knew last weekend that we would be having beef stew tonight and spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner tomorrow night. Grilled jerk chicken and a home-made Caesar salad is on tap for Monday and grilled pork chops, jasmine rice and steamed broccoli with butter is on Tuesday’s menu. If I get to M &M Meats tomorrow (which, of course, I’m planning in advance) I’ll grab some burgers and we can have those on Wednesday night. Keep Reading!

Eclectic

Popular Among Mice

It seems like every couple of years, when I park my car at my sister’s house, a couple of creatures hop along for the ride home.

What you have to keep in mind is that my sister and her family live in the forest. Well, not literally, but her house is surrounded by 10 acres of land, so of course it’s home to some undesirables. Like mice. And I guess my car is popular among those undesirables.

Two years ago, there was a strange smell coming from my car shortly after I had visited my sister’s place, so when I took it for regular maintenance I mentioned the smell and the mechanics told me a mouse had been using the cabin air filter as a nest. Lovely. Keep Reading!

Eclectic

Can a Toronto Team Finally Win Something?

Everyone in Southern Ontario and even in the rest of Canada, is excited about the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays currently sit at the top of the American League East standings, having won the last 11 games in a row. Most of this is due to a recent trade for a shortstop named Troy Tulowitzki and the acquisition of a free agent pitcher named David Price.

With Mike Palmateer, Leafs goalie in the 1970s and my favourite player at the time.
With Mike Palmateer, Leafs goalie in the 1970s and my favourite player at the time.

Dougie has been a loyal Jays fan for years. For me, not so much. It’s not really the Jays fault though. I’d like to be excited about this team and I probably would be, if it weren’t for another Toronto team that used to break my heart every year, the Toronto Maple Leafs. I used to be a hockey nut, waiting outside Maple Leaf Gardens to meet the players before playoff games or practices and I was even lucky enough to go to the games once in a while. But year after year it was the same old, same old. When they made the playoffs they would get to the quarter finals and lose. I remember in 1978 they actually beat the New York Islanders to make the semi-finals but then lost to the powerhouse Montreal Canadiens. For the past 10 or 15 years, they have barely made the playoffs. Keep Reading!

Eclectic

Ghosts, Light Bulbs and Other Oddities

I’m not sure what kind of genes my parents passed on to my brother and sister and I, but we are all freaks in our own way.

Dougie has seen ghosts on several occasions. His first haunting was at our parent’s house in East York. The previous owner of the house had killed himself in the garage, running his car until he choked to death on the carbon monoxide. I remember washing the windows of the garage with my dad before we moved in.

One evening in the middle of the night, when Dougie was about nine years old, he heard a car running, looked outside his bedroom window and saw the lights of a car running inside the garage and my father’s car parked in the driveway behind it. Keep Reading!

Films

Terminator Genisys Does Not Disappoint

The Terminator is my favourite movie of all time so although I was excited to see Terminator Genisys, I wasn’t expecting much. So when Dougie and I went to see it yesterday, I couldn’t believe how giddy I got at times. The visual recreations of the T-101 and Kyle Reese’s arrivals in 1984 were absolutely spot on; the naked Terminator’s conversation with the punks and even Kyle Reese’s momentary stop in the department store to grab a jacket and the exact same pair of Nike running shoes he wore in the original film. They got everything right, including the dialogue – and I should know, I’ve seen The Terminator enough times that I’ve practically memorized every line. Keep Reading!

Entertainment, Hot Men

10 Scenes Terminator Genisys Must Recapture from The Terminator

The premise of Terminator Genisys, which opens in theaters on July 1, 2015, is that it takes place in an alternate timeline, as seen in the film’s trailers, so obviously many elements from the original Terminator film will be different, however, there are still aspects of the story that must stay consistent with the original.

10. The Terminator’s Arrival in 1984

Arnold
The T-101 arrives!

The original movie The Terminator starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as a time-travelling robot with a layer of human flesh, Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, and Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese. The plot begins as The Terminator, Cyberdyne Systems Model T-101 seemingly drops from the sky in a hail of lightning and begins acquiring weapons and information on all women named Sarah Connor living in the city of Los Angeles.

His mission: to terminate Sarah and by default, kill her unborn son John in the process.

9. Kyle Reese’s Arrival In 1984

Kyle Reese arrives in 1984.
Kyle Reese arrives.

Soldier Kyle Reese is also sent back in time, but with a much more heroic mission – to save Sarah Connor from the T-101. Keep Reading!

Entertainment

I Lost on Jeopardy, Baby

Dougie is serious about Jeopardy. He’s been watching it for years and since he’s moved in, I watch it with him every evening. When the clues come on the screen, we both try to yell out the answers before the contestants and before each other. The only time Dougie and I really argue is when we’re playing Jeopardy.

Logo__JeopardyDougie prefers history, geography and sports categories, whereas I prefer literature, movies and TV categories which, according to him, are categories that “dummies” prefer.

When I get something right, or get all of the correct answers in one category, his typical comment is usually: “Well obviously that category was for dummies.”

He will also question how I came up with a particular answer, as though I was brain dead or I’d just climbed out from under a rock.

We typically start arguing and get pissed off at each other when one of two things occur:

1. One of us is on a roll, getting most of the answers right throughout the episode, while the other looks on in disbelief, or;

2. Even worse, one of us gets a correct answer from one of the other person’s favourite categories.

In either case, Dougie typically enjoys pumping his fist in the air and yelling “Bam!” when he has the luck of the Jeopardy gods on his side. I tend to do a little sitting dance, whilst pumping my feet against the floor when I am lucky enough to have things go in my favour.

Last week, there was an evening in which Dougie answered the most questions correctly but I got the Final Jeopardy question right. His response was: “You still don’t win.” I foolishly accepted this and agreed we’d call it a draw.

The following evening, I answered the majority of questions correctly throughout the episode but he got the Final Jeopardy question right. His response that evening: “I have victory!”

This past Friday, I was not at home and therefore, could not play Jeopardy with Dougie. I received the following text from him: “You should consider yourself very lucky you weren’t home tonight. I would have whooped your ass in Jeopardy.” When I replied with: “sure, liar,”  he then told me: “It would have been an old fashioned hide tanning you would have received. The categories were perfect for me but of course it’s a night you weren’t home. I am very angry.”

Entertainment

Mother and Dragon Reunion

Last night’s Season 5, Episode 9 of Game of Thrones, The Dance of Dragons, kicked butt! I had been waiting to see the scene where Daenerys rides Drogon away from the fighting pits since I first read it in the George RR Martin book A Song of Ice and Fire, four years ago, and it didn’t disappoint. As she is surrounded by the Sons of The Harpy, Daenerys wills Drogon to her side. When she strokes his head and he opens his fiery jaws, Daenerys is not afraid. Drogo expels a long, warm hiss into her face (most cat owners have experienced this) and she smiles. And the look in Tyrion’s eyes as Daenerys escapes on the back of her most powerful dragon is priceless.

Image credit: HBO
Image credit: HBO

On the other hand, Stannis Baratheon, you suck! Sacrificing the life of your only daughter (and letting her be burned at the stake) for your own power and glory is a shameful. Of course, the religious fanatic Melisandre is a villain who is willing to sacrifice anyone for her Lord of Light but Stannis had been an almost likable anti-hero. But no longer. The death of his daughter Shireen has not happened in the books, at least, not yet. In fact, in the books, Shireen isn’t even with the army on this mission. I’m hoping Melisandre decides to sacrifice Stannis next.

I was, however, glad to see less of a focus on Jon Snow during last night’s episode. I know people enjoyed Jon Snow’s battle with the White Walkers in last week’s episode but I didn’t much care for it. Yes, the special effects were awesome, but I would much rather have seen more of Cersei’s torment in the dungeon at King’s Landing or Jaime and Bronn’s toils in Dorne. Kit Harrington is an amazing actor but the Jon Snow character is just not my cup of tea. I didn’t enjoy him in the books and I don’t particularly care for him in the TV series either.

Health

Waging a washroom war

There has been a silent battle going on in my washroom for the past two months. It’s been subtle and has so far not even been a point of contention or even discussion between Dougie and I. But almost every time Dougie has been in the bathroom, the same horrific event has taken place. The toilet paper is sitting under when I attempt to use it. When I had placed the roll on the spindle earlier in the day, the toilet paper had been sitting over it.

At first, I assumed he had mistakenly placed it in the under position because really, who in their right mind would prefer it this way?

I always have been and I always will be a toilet paper over kind of gal. Don’t get me wrong, I am stubborn about this issue and there are times when I’m at someone else’s house, my sister’s for example, where the toilet paper is rolling under on the dispenser and although I am sorely tempted to turn it around, I leave it the way it is, because it is her house – even though it is so very, very wrong.

But at my own house? That is a different story and I must prevail because let’s face it – hanging toilet paper over reduces the risk of transferring germs, makes it much easier to find the end and hell, it just looks better.

Still, it is a war that has yet to be waged between Dougie and I, but when it is fought, I am sure I will be declared the undisputed victor. I even have reinforcements to back me up. As illustrated below, the original patent for perforated toilet paper, created by New York business man Seth Wheeler (the inventor) was recently discovered and it clearly shows an over arrangement for hanging toilet paper.

overtp

So Dougie, prepare to be defeated!