Saturday, December 31, 2011

My Christmas

I guess I should post about my Christmas before the New Year arrives. :)
Our tree.
I had a wonderful Christmas morning with my wife Ginny, son Kenny and his girlfriend Jordyn. After the kids sorted out all of the gifts, we tore into them. I got the usual stuff like clothes, socks, underwear, scrapbooking supplies, etc. But, my wife really outdid herself this year.

One day in December she snuck out to a vintage toy store called The Toys Time Forgot. She bought me a bunch of great geeky stuff. And the amazing thing is, I didn't have any of this stuff yet.

1977 Incredible Hulk plastic mug

Frankenstein hand puppet

Alex Ross Incredible Hulk head mini-bust

Creature from the Black Lagoon t-shirt (pay no attention to "the girl")
Kenny and Jordyn also went all out this year. They bought me a Pittsburgh Steelers mini helmet autographed by the great Franco Harris. Wow!!!
After that we went to the in-laws for great food and family. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that you have a wonderful New Year!

I would also like to thank Michael Jones from the blog My Two Yen Worth. He sent me a bunch of Japanese Godzilla trading cards that I gave to my brother for Christmas. Thanks Michael!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Cheetah The Chimp, R.I.P.

From The Associated Press --

A Florida animal sanctuary says Cheetah the chimpanzee sidekick in the Tarzan movies of the early 1930s has died at age 80.

The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor announced that Cheetah died Dec. 24 of kidney failure.

Sanctuary outreach director Debbie Cobb on Wednesday told The Tampa Tribune (http://bit.ly/rRuTeJ ) that Cheetah was outgoing, loved finger painting and liked to see people laugh. She says he seemed to be tuned into human feelings.

Based on the works of author Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Tarzan stories, which have spawned scores of books and films over the years, chronicle the adventures of a man who was raised by apes in Africa.

Cheetah was the comic relief in the Tarzan films, which starred American Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller. Cobb says Cheetah came to the sanctuary from Weissmuller's estate sometime around 1960.

Cobb says Cheetah wasn't a troublemaker. Still, sanctuary volunteer Ron Priest says that when the chimp didn't like what was going on, he would throw feces.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

A Rockin' Christmas Compilation

I finally finished putting together a mix for this Christmas. I know it's kind of late, but I hope some of you can enjoy this before Christmas. It features holiday songs sung by mostly classic rockers. Enjoy!

Track Listing

1. A Visit From St. Nicholas - Bob Dylan
2. Christmas All Over Again - Tom Petty
3. Christmas Christmas - Cheap Trick
4. Christmas Is My Time of Year - Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones & Peter Tork
5. Season's Greetings - Alice Cooper
6. Christmas Time Is Here - Stone Temple Pilots
7. Deck The Halls - Ted Nugent
8. Don't Believe In Christmas - Pearl Jam
9. Jingle Bell Rock - Bruce Springsteen
10. It Ain't Cool To Kill On Christmas - Johnny Cash
11. Mele Kalikimaka - Davy Jones
12. Merry Little Christmas - Billy Joel
13. O Come O Come Emanuel - Halford
14. Run Rudolph Run - Keith Richards
15. Season's Greetings - Ozzy Osbourne
16. Silver Bells - REM
17. Someday At Christmas - Pearl Jam
18. The Christmas Song - Angel
19. Toyland - REM

Click the link below to download --

A Rockin' Christmas

My Ormanents

Sorry I haven't been around much this holiday season. It's been really hectic around here and my computer sucks. But, things are looking up for the new year. It looks like I will be getting a new computer! So, hopefully I will feel like blogging more soon. In the meantime, here are some pics of my Christmas ornaments. I took these photos in 2007 and not all of these made it to the tree this year. We change them up each year so that the tree is not too "geeky". Merry Christmas!


The Incredible Hulk

Darth Vader

Kris Kringle and Topper from "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town"

Go Steelers!

We bought this ornament at Disney World. It has the faces of me, my wife and son etched into glass.

Yukon Cornelius from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"

Spotted Elephant from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
We bought this one in Hawaii

Mickey Mouse
The Christmas Pickle

Herman Munster

Friday, December 16, 2011

Early Christmas Gift

When my brother was visiting for Thanksgiving, he gave me my Christmas gift. The Incredible Hulk Smash-Up Action Game by Ideal from 1979. The box is open, but it's complete and the playing pieces are unpunched. How cool is that?

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Harry Morgan, R.I.P.

I loved M*A*S*H when I was growing up. Rest in peace Col. Potter.

From USA Today --

Harry Morgan, best known to television audiences as M*A*S*H's Col. Sherman Potter, was never what you'd call a star. Yet he was almost never out of work — which is as good a sign of his talent and our enduring affection as any.

Morgan, who died Wednesday at 96 in his L.A. home, had a career in TV and film that stretched from 1942 (To the Shores of Tripoli) to 1999 (the sitcom Love & Money). In all that time, there was never anything you'd really call a "Harry Morgan film" or a "Harry Morgan show" — though his breakthrough co-starring role in the popular early '60s December Bride spinoff Pete and Gladys came very close.

But it didn't matter. You knew what you would most often get from a Morgan TV appearance: a wry, honest, sometimes cranky everyman. And you were almost always happy to get it.

His early movie roles — there were more than 100 in all — were more varied, playing good guys and bad guys, and sidekicks to everyone from James Stewart to Henry Fonda (in 1943's The Ox-Bow Incident, one of Morgan's best film roles).

But the TV die was cast with Pete, the loving but put-upon husband often exasperated by his scatter-brained wife, Gladys — a character who was much-discussed by Pete but never seen in the original show, December Bride.

That was the Morgan we would come to know and love on the small screen, dryly funny and a bit sarcastic on the outside, but warm and mushy on the inside. You got more dry than warmth in his second big TV role, as Jack Webb's equally staccato partner in the late-'60s revival of Dragnet.

But the whole package shone again in not only his best-known, but probably also his best, TV role. Stepping into M*A*S*H in 1974 for the departed McLean Stevenson, Morgan as Potter created one of TV's most-loved authority figures, a man firmly in charge who held sway by being the smartest (and sometimes only) adult in the room. It would win him an Emmy and a permanent place in TV lore, and it no doubt helped save the show and extend its 11-season run.

Was Harry Morgan a big star? No. But sometimes our fondest memories are reserved for actors who burn a bit less brightly and a bit off from the center — and sometimes, those are the lights that last.

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Bring Archie Back to Chapel Hill Mall

Back in 2008 I made a post about Archie The Snowman. Archie was a 20 foot snowman that greeted children at Chapel Hill Mall every Christmas for 35 years. When new management took over the mall in 2004 they got rid of him. Sadly, it looks like Archie has been destroyed.

But, have no fear! A group on Facebook is trying to resurrect the giant snowman. Click the link below for more details --

Bring Archie Back to Chapel Hill Mall

Hopefully they can rebuild him and find him a new home. Here's some photos of Archie through the years (courtesy of the Facebook group) --

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a JibJab video starring me, my wife Ginny, our son Kenny, his girlfriend Jordyn and Will Smith!?!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Try not to eat too much.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Gobble! Gobble!

Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately. After The Countdown to Halloween and me working a bunch of overtime, I guess I'm just kinda blogged out. Hopefully things will pick up next month.

Since Thanksgiving is almost here, I thought I'd point you in the direction of my turkey day music compilation I put together a few years ago and updated last year.

Click here to download "Turkey Stuffing Mix".

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Marvel Universe 2011 Trading Cards


Marvel Universe 2011 from Rittenhouse Archives

90-card base set covering some of Marvel's most memorable and ground breaking cross-over events including: The Korvac Saga, Secret Wars I, Fall of the Mutants, Age of Apocalypse, Heroes Reborn, Civil War, World War Hulk, Secret Invasion, Shadowland, and Fear Itself.

Chase cards include: Ultimate Heroes, Artist Drafts, Marvel Originals, and base parallel.

I got a box of these today and I really like them. Each cross-over event is featured on nine cards so that when you put them in plastic pages they form a puzzle of the event and the story is detailed on the back of the cards. The only thing I don't like about them is the parallel cards. They are "clear" cards, which is neat, but they are unnumbered. The hand-drawn SketchaFEX Sketch Card I got in my box is Archangel by Renato Mapa Jr. and it is listed as extremely limited.

The Look You Want - When You Want It!

My brother emailed me this ad. From Hi and Lois #1 from 1969.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Bil Keane, R.I.P.


From Reuters --

"The Family Circus" creator Bil Keane, whose kid-friendly comic strip gave readers a funny version of his own life at home and became one of the most widely syndicated cartoon panels in the world, has died at age 89, his distributor said on Wednesday.

Keane died on Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, said Claudia Smith, a spokeswoman for syndication company King Features.

"The Family Circus" first appeared in 1960, and Keane modeled its two parents and four boisterous kids on himself, his wife and children. The comic still appears in 1,500 newspapers although Keane's son, Jeff, has helped with it.

"If 'The Family Circus' has any social value, it shows parents that their children are normal," the late Keane said in a statement provided by King Features.

"And if there is a philosophy behind the feature, it's this: A home filled with love and laughter is the happiest place in the world," he said.

"The Family Circus" is characterized by traditional family values and a round border that Keane used on his panels, to emphasize the closeness between the characters.

The strip features the characters Daddy, Mommy and their children Billy, Dolly, Jeffy and P.J.

King Features said the comic is among the most widely syndicated panels in the world and appears in about 1,500 newspapers.

The comic's humor typically comes from the children's guileless attitude, or their misunderstanding of what is occurring around them.

In one typical panel from the 1970s, the oldest boy holds out a hand in a snow storm and complains "I CAUGHT one of those snowflakes but I can't find it!"

Keane, a native of Philadelphia, taught himself to draw in high school. He first imitated the drawing styles of some of The New Yorker magazine cartoonists of the late 1930s, before developing his own approach.

He served in the U.S. Army during World War Two and met the woman who would become his wife, Thel Carne, while stationed in Australia.

Aside from appearing as a character in his strip, Thel also helped her husband as an editor and consultant.

After World War Two, Keane worked at the Philadelphia Bulletin as a staff artist, and moved his family to Arizona the year before launching his most famous comic strip.

Keane won the cartoonist of the year award in 1982 from the National Cartoonists Society.

He is survived by his children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His wife, Thel, died in 2008.

"We are fortunate that his son, Jeff, who has worked with him for years, will remain at the helm of the great feature and continue his father's tradition of putting a smile on readers' faces every day," Brendan Burford, comics editor for King Features Syndicate, said in a statement.

Monday, October 31, 2011

October 2011 Stats

Here are the stats for Wonderful Wonderblog for the month of October according to Blogger Stats --

Pageviews Last Month
56,931

Most Viewed Day
2011 Oct 19
Pageviews: 4,983



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Search Keywords

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Audience

United States 43,413
Canada 3,006
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Germany 1,137
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Happy Halloween!


I hope everyone has or had a Happy Halloween! I also hope some of you got at least a little enjoyment from my part in the Countdown to Halloween. I think I've done better in past years, I was kind of winging it this year. But, at least I managed to post something every day. I may or may not post something else later today. I'm not sure yet. Either way, I'll probably take a few days off from blogging.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Crap!

I went outside around 8:00 to put the trash can on the curb. And then I noticed that I have been vandalized. Someone busted up my tombstones and pulled my monsters out of the ground. Nothing is missing and they didn't touch the cemetery gateway. It was probably some punk kids. It looks like they may have run up to my decorations and kicked them. I'm not out a lot of money. I bought those tombstones at a garage sale for 25¢ each. It just makes me mad that some people have no respect for someone else's property.

Movie Monster Mazes - Part 7

And finally, the last installment of Movie Monster Mazes. In case you had any trouble doing these mazes, here are the solutions.