Knockoff Girl Scout Samoas?!

There is always some sort of solicitation going on outside of grocery stores here in Seattle. Girl Scout Cookie season is the part of the year that I look forward to giving my money to someone else other than Safeway on a grocery store run. According to the Girl Scout Cookie website, I have to wait another 114 days until I start seeing tables piled with colorful boxes.

I always look forward to blowing away any cash I have in pockets on Samoas, those delectable lug nut-shaped vanilla cookies encrusted in coconut shavings and covered in chocolate and caramel. They're also known as Caramel deLites, depending on the area. Two bakeries supply the Girl Scouts with their cookies, Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers. Depending on the bakery, the cookie name may be different. Comparing images, deLites seem to have more chocolate stripes than Samoas. Samoas come from Little Brownie, while Caramel deLites are a product of ABC. Regardless of the name, these treasures only come in purple colored packages of 15, as opposed to 30 or 40, like Thin Mints or Trefoils.






















I was walking down the cookie aisle of Safeway during and I stumbled upon a purple package of Safeway branded Fudge Caramel Coconut cookies. Generic branded food usually is distinctly different tasting for the worse, but for a fraction of the price of name brands. At $2.50/ box during the offseason of Girl Scout cookies, I decided to give them a try.

Right out of the box, the most noticeable difference is that these cookies are completely covered in chocolate from top to bottom, no Fudge Stripe-like lines revealing the caramel and coconut. The configuration is slightly different, with coconut and caramel both on top AND under the cookie portion instead of being just on top. Upon taking a bite, there seems to be less caramel. Often strings of caramel will stretch out of a Samoa on first bite. I wonder if the chocolate covering has something to due with this: more chocolate, less caramel. Regardless of the lack of caramel, as well as coconut, the cookie taste remarkably similar. As I'm writing this I don't have a Samoa to directly compare the taste, but I cannot tell any glaring differences in taste.












Has Safeway found a way of making a profit off of a nonprofit favorite? Have they partnered up with one of the bakeries or have they figured out the formula. Comparing the ingredients on the box (nutrition facts: Samoas, Caramel deLites), the ingrediants for Safeway's FCC cookies are most similar to the Caramel deLites. While comparing nutrition facts, FCC share similarities with Samoas at 150 calories/serving (2 cookies) to deLites' 140 calories/serving but fits in the middle when it comes to sodium. Samoas are only 55 mg of sodium/serving, FCC w/ 80 mg, and deLites last with 85 mg/serving.

I can't seem to buy these cookies off of Safeway's website, so hopefully these weren't cookies that couldn't sell and are now, or soon to be, discontinued . I'd hate to have to clean out my local store of a hidden treasure.

Both Little Brownie and ABC share recipes featuring their famous cookies. I'm going to have to try the Fried Samoas Shrimp, but if someone wants to grant me a birthday wish it would have to be making me the Samoas Dream Cake.


What's your favorite Girl Scout cookie?


You guys want some cookies?


The Man Show Boy sells Girl Scout Cookies

Baseball vs Football

Football season has started this weekend with the NCAA's first full week of games. The NFL begins next Sunday. The MLB is nearing towards the end of the season, with the teams duking it out for those wild card spots. Here's the late George Carlin's take on both sports:

George Carlin's Take on Football vs. Baseball

Um..It's Like...Did Anyone See the Movie 'TRON'? We're Getting a Sequel?

Disney released at test footage of their sequel of their groundbreaking 1982 film TRON at Comic-Con in 3D. This footage is actually over a year old, as it was screened but not released to the public. Now you can see it online in glorious HD. The film will be called TRON: Legacy.

TRON: Legacy test footage

Alice in Wonderland Trailer Teases US

I haven't posted in awhile, I've got much to catch up on. Anyways, we see our first peak at Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, fresh from Comic-Con:

Alice in Wonderland Teaser:

Remembering the King of Pop

Bidding farewell to Michael Jackson, I reflect upon my memories I have of the Hoosier pop star. I don't think I truly appreciate his music until much older, but what I remember most growing up was his videos. No one has, or probably will, gain the status that he did to produce music videos (or short films) with that much production value. His films/videos were collaborated by the likes of Martin Scorsese, John Landis, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Stephen King, Stan Winston, and Rick Baker.

There are so many that are memorable, I've decided to include a few of the lengthy and possibly less visible ones - Enjoy

Captain EO (1986) - High production film that became a 3D Disney attraction for a number of years

*If you have 3D (red/cyan) glasses lying around, here's the original 3D video*




Moonwalker(1988) - 93 min feature length film with its most notable song Smooth Criminal. (features film split in 11 parts, ignore last video)


Ghosts(1997) - Co-written by Stephen King and played before his film Thinner



Bad (1987) - Classic song, classic video


Thriller (1983) - Video speaks for itself


Still not enough MJ? This link contains 81 videos (music videos, some redundant)

When Tim Burton Gets His Hands on Wonderland

Some images of Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland were released today from USA Today. It's usual Burton we all know and love - whimsically creepy imagery. He's got the usual suspects featured in his film - Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, his wife Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar, and Christopher Lee as the Jabberwock. Mia Wasikowska is Alice, with Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. This film is slated to release (and conjure up nightmares in all of us) March 5, 2010.

25th Anniversary of Russian Fun

This year marks the 25th birthday of the iconic game Tetris. The puzzle game's addictive nature continues to proliferate to other forms of electronics and knock-off games after a quarter century. I have many memories of the original GameBoy and those falling monochromatic blocks set to that 8-bit Russian tune. Below I've got a short retrospective on Tetris' success after 25 years. If you want a deeper look into the making of Tetris, below is also an hour long BBC documentary on the gaming phenom.

Tetris: 25th Anniversary


Tetris: From Russia With Love(11 parts, all included in the playlist)

For the Love of Ball Card Collecting

Like many kids across America, I grew up with the obsessive hobby of collecting trading cards. It started out with Topp's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards (still had the rock solid sticks of gum back then), then Marvel Comics cards, and as I grew older I turned to basketball and football. I loved the anticipation of going to the ball card or comic book store to burn any allowance money I had on these plastic or foil wrapped treasures. The smell of printed comics, the feel of plastic coated cardboard, the obsessive drive to complete a set, and contemplating if I could afford any rare gems behind lighted glass counters are all fond memories to me. Even if you had the complete series of cards, the ones most sought after would be the 'chase' cards - holograms, transparent cards, jersey swatches, rookies, or autographed. This age-old pastime has evolved to some degree, as cards have become pricier and even more collectible. Here's a documentary short, called The Baseball Card Movie, that was shot in a ball card shop in Brooklyn that encapsulates the rush of trading card collecting.

The Baseball Card Movie

How Much Cash For a TipTrode? - Part 1

We've all seen those ridiculous cash for gold advertisements on television. You send away for an envelope, place 'unwanted' or 'unused' gold in envelope, send, and wait for your check. I decided to conduct an audiological experiment requiring two of the most notable cash for gold companies and a handful of used tiptrodes. I decided on using two companies because I could not gather anything conclusive on the internet as to which cash for gold company was more reputable.

The tiptrodes are foam insert eartips that are wrapped with a gold foil. These tiptrodes are used in auditory evoked potential testing, such as auditory brainstem response. To be more specific, I am using 4 used (but sanitized!) 13mm Tiptrodes.












The two cash for gold companies used were Cash4Gold and 1-800 Gold Kit. I signed up on each website and within days I received my gold kits in the mail.
















Here's what you've probably seen on TV from each of these companies:

Cash4Gold:


1-800 Gold Kit:


I placed 2 tiptrodes in each envelope and sent them away in the mail. I pulled no punches with them, as you can see the picture below I describe exactly what the envelope contains.












We'll see what turns up! Most from what I've heard about these companies is that they're big scams, they payout less than 30% of the actual value of the gold. Some people have been known to contest the amount offered and been awarded more. It's also been proven that someone who's gold spray painted objects have received some (very little) money for it.

Fun with an NU-6 Word List

For you audiology folk, anytime I am trying to obtain a word recognition score using Auditec of St. Louis' NU-6 words I must chuckle when a particular two words are asked to be repeated. They are right after each other on List 1A. It reminds me of a particular SNL commercial parody featured below. For you non-audiology folk, word recognition measures a person's ability to repeat a word at a suprathreshold level of loudness - if it's loud enough for you to hear, can you repeat it. Audiology folk will get a kick out of it and if you don't get it you'll get a kick out of Horatio Sanz.

Check it out!

Great Moments in Film: Enter The Dragon

Sadly, two icons of the martial arts genre passed away yesterday. David Carradine was found dead yesterday in his hotel in Thailand at the age of 72. He is most well known for starring in the hit 1970's show Kung Fu, which was supposedly originally created by Bruce Lee. Carradine was also recently the lead villain Bill in Kill Bill. Cantonese actor Shih Kien also passed away Wednesday from kidney failure at the age of 96. He will forever be known to the American audience as the clawed villain Han from the film Enter the Dragon.

The iconic fight been Bruce Lee and Han from Enter the Dragon:

This Summer's Silver Screened Hearing Aid Hero

I haven't seen it yet, but I can't wait to see this last weekend's #1 film at the box office, Pixar's Up. The film's main character is an elderly man named Carl Fredrickson, voiced by Ed Asner. Carl sports an ITE hearing aid in his right ear. The film actually contains hearing aid feedback, check out the clip below! Since millions have already gone out to see this flick, I wonder if folks will ask their audiologist to be fit with what Carl's got or will it detract those from getting fit for fear of being stereotyped as the animated senior citizen.

Pixar's Up, now with hearing aid feedback!

Sam Wo, a San Francisco Treat

During my weekend getaway to San Francisco, passed the Sam Wo Restaurant in Chinatown. I've never actually eaten here, but it evoked a memory I had of Conan O'Brien's visit to San Francisco on the Late Show. He created an ad for the narrow, 3-story restaurant in which you enter through the kitchen. I'm checking out that Sam Wo Mystery Room next time.

Conan - Sam Wo Ad:

Stan Bush's 'The Touch' Transformed

With Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen releasing in a month, a song has been redone for the upcoming soundtrack - the infamous song 'The Touch' by Stan Bush. Featured in the soundtrack for the original Transformers movie in 1986 (the one where Optimus dies), the song has become a cult classic and so much so that it was also sung by Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights. Let's hope Weird Al doesn't try to remake 'Dare to be Stupid.'

'09 'The Touch' or Sam's Theme:


'86 'The Touch':


Dirk Diggler's 'The Touch' from Boogie Nights:

Profound Hearing Loss, MTV-Style

I never watch MTV, but I found this episode of their series True Life about 2 young people with profound hearing loss - a high schooler who gets a cochlear implant and a college student trying out for the Baltimore Ravens cheerleading squad.

True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 1


True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 2


True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 3


True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 4


True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 5


True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 6

Sherlock Holmes, Action Hero

Here's the trailer for Guy Ritchie's take on the pipe smoking gumshoe. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law play Holmes and Watson. It's slated to come out this Christmas.

Sherlock Holmes Trailer

Beaucoup de Fromage est Très Bon!

This weekend was the Seattle Cheese Festival down at Pike Place Market. I hit downtown in the sun yesterday to check it out with Gary, Mike, and Diana. I don't know much about cheese, so it was definitely a primer for me - a tasty and free primer at that! We were exposed to cheeses of all consistencies, milks, and countries. After trying trying all sorts of varieties, I must say I'm still not into the goat and Europe imports some really savory cheeses.

I brought home some Terre des Volcans fourme d'ambert, a cow's milk blue cheese from Ambert in the French province of Auvergne. It's not too strong and is softer than most blue cheeses I've had. The cows were supposedly fed on a pasture over volcanic rock. The lady at the booth said that the cheese is aged in an old train tunnel - she had a picture to prove such a claim.

The milk is also thermalized, heated just below pasteurization longer to preserve enzymes and kill bacteria - so not pasteurized and not technically raw (although supposedly the FDA considers it raw).

If you see the 'Appellation d'Origine Protegee' under the name of the cheese, there is apparently a federal bureau in France that certifies certain geographic regions to their particular cheeses, wines, and butters. These are known as AOC (appellation d'origine controlee) products. Here's a list of AOC cheeses from Wikipedia.

Happy Birthday George!

Kinda almost the end of the day, but Mr. George Lucas turns 65 today. I just saw Star Trek today, and his special effects signature is written all over it like a kid with a crayon and a wall. Here's the classic short film George Lucas in Love, a humorous look at what may have inspired George at USC.

George Lucas in Love

It's Mother's Day, Someone Get Me This!

I think I'd need one for more than just celebrities, maybe something that would consolidate an hour's worth of verbiage into a few concise ideas or statements....I kid, kid! I love my mom! Justin Timberlake better stay away, that's just disgusting.....

Mom Translator

Backlash at the New Star Trek Film.

This is a news short about the backlash from Trekkies that the new Star Trek is 'watchable and fun.' This is hilarious! Oh, by the way, this is from The Onion.

Trekkies Bash Film as 'Watchable and Fun':

Swine Flu Scare of the 70's

Here are a few swine flu vaccine PSA's from the scare in 1976, because no matter how fast you are you can't stop the swine flu. You don't want your chihuahua infected, do you?

1976 Swine Flu PSA:

God vs. The Madden Curse

The cover athlete for the next Madden video game was revealed yesterday by EA Sports - Troy Polamalu AND Larry Fitzgerald. Setting aside the game mechanics and strictly the history of Madden cover athletes, Madden '10 is the first Madden game after the retirement of John Madden himself, the first cover with 2 cover athletes, the first cover featuring a wide receiver or a defensive back, the second cover featuring a defensive player (05' with Ray Lewis), the second cover featuring a player (Fitzgerald on NCAA 05) who has appeared on both NCAA Football and Madden (Shaun Alexander NCAA 01/Madden 07), and the cover with the most hair featured EVER.

Every year this whole Madden Curse discussion is brought up. If you're not familiar with it, since 1999 athletes instead of John have been featured on the cover and that season tends not to bode well for the athlete. ESPN just released a good Fact or Fiction article about the curse.

If you've seen either Polamalu or Fitzgerald on the field or in an interview, you've probably noticed their tenacity on the field is contrasted with their quiet and humble demeanor. It's rare these days to see such an attitude in the professional sports, especially an NFL defenseman or wide receiver. When asked yesterday about being a Madden cover boy, Fitzgerald commented that he and Troy are both 'firm believers in The Lord' and that 'The Lord controls your destiny.' It's great to see someone make an exclamation of faith in the face of superstition. You can check out that interview below:

ESPN-Fitzgerald's Not Afraid of the Madden Curse:

Spinal Tap: Unwigged and Unplugged?!

I'm really bummed out I just found out about this, because this tour just passed through Seattle on Monday. Unwigged and Unplugged features Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer performing acoustical sets as well as Q & A sessions. I didn't like A Mighty Wind a whole lot, but there's no denying this trio is quite funny and musically talented. No Marty DiBergi here, but it looks like a great tour.

A Preview of Unwigged and Unplugged:


View the Spinal Tap Reunion from 1992

Stonehenge!



Big Bottom

Preacher Transforms into a Fighter Jet

If you haven't seen this yet, Dr. Shine morphs into an F-14 Tomcat from Top Gun. I bet he's one righteous brother. Wonder if he's prayin' with the boys. You could say God's love takes his breath away.He's got the need, the need for Seed Faith International Church. I can come up with these all day.

Dr. Shine and Dee Dee: God's Top Gun of Deliverance

2 Loser Teams Take Different Directions on Their Image

The big news this weekend was the 1-10 Washington Nationals displaying a major uniform fail with the unveiling of the 'Natinals' jersey. Whoever made this goof-up may have just as well printed 'Expos'. Maybe in 30 years these can be throwback jerseys for a 'turn back the clock' game.


In other news today, last year's record breaking 0-16 Detroit Lions unveiled their new logo - a fiercer lion. They're trying to follow the trend of past teams in recent history such as the Cardinals, Falcons, Seahawks, and Bucs to try to improve their image and record. We'll see who the Motor City drafts this weekend, maybe they should look at one's ability to break dishes.

Michael Bay Feeds Us Some Transformers 2 Footage

Michael Bay posted online footage from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that was shown at ShoWest this year, a motion picture industry convention where production companies advertise their films to theater owners. We get to see some fighting in the woods, more dialog that's embarrassing to listen to, and more robots. The most notable is the first footage of Devastator as well as Jetfire.

UPDATE 4/20/09: Bay had the video pulled, but I'm sure you can find it somewhere. He said to wait till Wolverine and Star Trek for more footage

Here's the footage in all explosive glory:



Jetfire, also known as Skyfire, has had a huge image overhaul for this film. He's made the transformation from a white Macross-like being to a senior citizen with a cane and metallic beard that transforms to an SR-71 Blackbird.

Compare the two looks:

80's Jetfire:
















'09 Jetfire:



80's commercial for the Jetfire toy:


Jetfire from the cartoon:

Great Moments in Film: Glengarry Glen Ross

The 1992 film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play about desperate real estate agents fighting for their jobs features one of the most powerful motivational speeches on celluloid. The all-star performance garnered an Best Supporting Actor nomination for Al Pacino and a Venice Film Festival Best Actor for the late Jack Lemmon.

Alec Baldwin provides electric rhetoric during this scene in what I believe is his best performance: Warning! Strong & Explicit Language


For you fans of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,' here's a video of Artemis performing an excerpt of this speech for an audition. Hilarious!

Boom! Happy Trails John Madden!

After a Super Bowl ring, 20 years worth of video games, and 30 years of booth commentating, Pro Football Hall of Famer John Madden announced today that he's calling it quits and putting down the headset from the press box. Gone is the overuse of the telestrator, trailer/bus, fear of flying, turducken, onomatopoeia, and ramblings about non-football related material during boring games. Although Madden's comments were often questionable and obvious, you never questioned that he knew football. He was always entertaining to listen to, I'm definitely going to miss him. He'll be replaced by Cris Collinsworth, who's emerged as a presence in NFL media and replaced Madden's voice in the video game. Madden said today that he "was one that always believed you never say you're going to retire before you do, because once you say it, then you've already done it in your mind and you've already quit." I think it's ironic he's retiring after his 'idol' Brett Favre finally retired. He should have said this earlier, maybe the Jets would have prepared for the aftermath a little earlier. I think Frank Caliendo's going to have to find a new schtick as Madden is his main moneymaker. Here's to hoping for more tough actin' Tinactin commercials.

ESPN-Madden talks on his retirement:


Boom! Tough Actin' Tinactin:


Madden on Madden 09:



MadTV-Frank Caliendo as John Madden for Vagisil:

The Tax Day Cometh...

Happy Tax Day! You can smell the sarcasm emanating off of that statement. Hope you haven't waited till the 11th hour. I'm glad school financial aid submissions were due awhile ago so that it forces me to do my taxes early. Here's some April 15th goodness....

Taxman from The Beatles cartoon circa 1967:


Tax Day for Springfield. I'm sure it's still like this, but technology makes it a lot easier these days. Wish they had the part where Flanders does his taxes:

Everyone Poops: The Movie Trailer

With the buzz for Where the Wild Things Are coming to theaters later this year, a new book adaptation has arisen - Taro Gomi's 'Everyone Poops'. The timeless classic about one of the essential parts of life is now coming to a theater near you. How will they turn a such a short piece of literature into a feature film? In all seriousness if they ever made this movie, it would be the end of that production company.


I remember this book as a kid, but my parents taught me with Alona Frankel's 'Once Upon a Potty.' I remember the book even came with my very own thrown. Here's a video adaptation of the book:


Parents.com has listed its 14 Favorite Potty Training Books

Last but not least, if you haven't seen this potty training video from Japan, it's a classic:

What Might Have Been Where the Wild Things Are

The trailer for Spike Jonze's live adaptation of the children's book Where the Wild Things Are recently was released. I stumbled upon a bit of info about Disney's attempt at adapting this film into an animated feature in the 80's. At this time, Tron had recently been made and the use of computer graphics were being toyed around with to create a complete animated feature film. The characters were going to be 2D traditionally hand drawn with the backgrounds being rendered in 3D. John Lasseter directed this test shot below. I'm not sure if Disney was actually going to make this into a film, but I know Lasseter wanted this demo to be a means to an ends to create The Brave Little Toaster to look like this. Disney animators apparently didn't like it, Lasseter got fired, and The Brave Little Toaster ended up completely 2D. It's crazy that all this was part of the history that led Lasseter to create Pixar.

Here's the Disney test shot, the Max character looks like one of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan:


If you forgot the story, here's a reading w/ animations of the books pictures:


Here's the trailer for Jonze's film, not sure how a 20 page book turns into a feature film:

Would This Convince You to Eat Bananas?

What a bizarre Dole commercial from Japan:

Dreamt of Playing Spider-Man on Broadway? Seattle, Here's Your Chance!

So apparently someone's come up with crazy idea of turning the story of Spider-Man into a full blown Broadway musical. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will be directed by Julie Taymor (Frida, Across the Universe, The Lion King on Broadway) while U2's Bono and The Edge will be responsible for the music and lyrics. I know nothing about theater, but this sounds ridiculous to me and I'm sure it'll make a ridiculously huge load of money. Anyways the show just released its schedule for open casting calls for both primary and understudy roles for Peter Parker, Mary Jane, and a 'Lead Female Villain.' Seattle's on the list for April 20th from 10 AM-6PM at the Theatre Puget Sound.

Here's what they're looking for:

PETER PARKER – Male. 16-20’s. Must have a great rock tenor voice. Can be nerdy with understated sex appeal and a good sense of humor.

MARY JANE – Female. 16-20’s. Beautiful girl next door. Strong pop/rock singing voice required.

LEAD FEMALE VILLAIN – Female. 25‐35 years old. All ethnicities encouraged. Must have an amazing rock voice. Think Sinead O’Connor with a Middle Eastern /Bulgarian/Greek twist. Foreign and/or world music types are great. Foreign accents are great.

The show's to open in Broadway in February 2010.

They tried this at Universal Studios once....

Providing a year's worth of distraction....

Wow, it's been a year today since I started this blog. I can't really tell if anybody really reads this thing though, so I'm guessing it's still primarily a source for my amusement and distraction. I've finally put up the blog follower's section to the right if you want to follow my blog....anybody out there?

Glad this isn't anything important I'd have to run or I'd be in trouble:

AFI's #1 Movie.....Anchorman?

The American Film Institute is constantly creating top 10's and 100 lists full of great American films, primarily looking back at the 20th century. Someone created this great video of AFI's #1 movie as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

Mona Lisa Out of Burger Grease

This is an awesome viral campaign. Be sure to check out the link on the bottom of the screen.



Just like Homer's weight diet....

Let the Madness Begin....

The NCAA Tourney starts today, the biggest basketball event of the year. Below I've posted the '94 documentary Hoop Dreams, following 2 kids from inner city Chicago and their path to collegiate basketball in hopes of one day making it to the NBA. In my mind this is the best sports documentary I've seen. Although the film's almost 3 hours long, it's quite extensive.

Best Show on TV in United Nations Panel

Battlestar Galactica, one of the most socially and politically relevant shows on TV, took part in a United Nations panel in New York last night. If you haven't seen the show before, go get the DVD's and start now. This is not a run-of-the-mill sci-fi show, more like a military drama. The show deeply immerses itself in a very character driven plot that tackles human rights, terrorism, and spirituality. BSG ends its 4 season run this Friday, which is sad but great that it gets to end on its own terms.

Click here to watch the 2 hour webcast of the UN panel discussion - *REQUIRES REAL PLAYER* (I know, that really sucks)

UPDATE: Now can be seen on Sci Fi's website

It's not too late to get started, the BSG cast appeared on Letterman last year - here's their Top 10 list:

Leprechaun of Mobile, AL

Happy St. Patrick's Day, I present to you one of the greatest viral video classics of all time:

Japanese Spider-Man

The live-action TV show from 1978's been released online of our view pleasure. Very 1970's, very Japanese. Absolutely ridiculous. It's pretty much the Power Rangers with a Spidey costume.

Here's the first episode:

Origins of the Cashew Chicken

I found a post at The Fortune Cookie Chronicles Blog that the New York Times had an expose about the origins of 'Springfield'-style Cashew Chicken. It's a great piece, and still proves Jennifer 8 Lee's take on Chinese food as we know it is very American.

Read the piece here by the Times: Missouri Chinese: Two Cultures Claim This Chicken

And if you love Chinese food, don't mind a good read, and still haven't read The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, get a hold of it! Check out an old post I had about the book.

Don't want to read the book? Would you rather watch a lecture? Here's a clip of a talk Jennifer 8 Lee had on Chinese food history in America:


A tad repetitive, but a tad bit longer and more extensive, here's a talk Lee had at Google:

PS3 vs. Wii

I have neither, but this funny video pokes fun at the success of both systems (and subliminally Apple?). Glad I have a 360.

Great Moments in Film: Hard Boiled

News has recently come out that Hard Boiled (English Title), one of my favorite films and one of the best Hong Kong films of all time, has a sequel in the works. John Woo's production company will be behind the development, but American writers will be working on screenplay based on the video game Stranglehold. I'm afraid this film may end up like the inferior The Replacement Killers.

Anyways, here's one of the greatest action movie scenes of all time, from Hard Boiled. Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung shoot their way through a hospital full of hoodlums. The video shows a 2:45 action scene done in one shot. Not all those multiple shot angles that's so popular these days:

Who's Your Mamma Goes to Seahawks

Oregon State alum TJ Houshmandzadeh returns to the Pacific Northwest as he signs a 5 year deal with the Seattle Seahawks. We'll see if he becomes another WR who bites the dust with the injury bug. I hardly ever talk about the 'Hawks, but it's an excuse to show off the old commercial....championship.

Farewell and Good Day Paul Harvey

Legendary radio voice Paul Harvey died yesterday at the age of 90. I remember listening to "The Rest of the Story" on AM radio in grade school on my way home. He'll be sorely missed.



I'm going to miss this voice and The Rest of the Story:

A Love/Hate Relationship/Obsession

It seems Star Wars obsession has reached its point to where a film is coming out about the downfall of George Lucas since the prequel trilogy came out. Nerd rants galore about childhoods ruined and a proliferating money-making machine continue to litter the internet since 1999. The documentary, The People vs. George Lucas, is set to release this year and is currently looking for fan interviews on the status of Star Wars and Lucas the last decade. I've been disappointed about it all but seriously, get over it! Change out of that robe and collapse your plastic lightsaber, there's other things to do in life.

The Simpsons poked fun at The Phantom Menace with Randall Curtis' Cosmic Wars: The Gathering Shadow.

The People vs. George Lucas Trailer:

Peyton Loses His Better Half of 11 Years

I'm not talking about his betrothed. After failing to restructure his contract, Marvin Harrison was cut today by the Colts. Marvin was scheduled to make $9 million this upcoming season but with his drop in production, age, recent injuries, and salary cap both parties agreed to part ways after trying to work something out. Peyton was quoted today as saying "I always will be indebted to Marvin for what he has done for my career." The 13 year veteran has spent his entire career up to today as a Colt and is #2 in career receptions to Jerry Rice. He's been the constant star player for the last 13 years. Manning's been around for 11, James only 7, Faulk only 5. Best wishes to #88 wherever he lands. There's talk of him returning to his hometown of Philly and playing with his college QB McNabb. I hope Marvin returns to Indy to retire a Colt.



Here's a bit from the NFL Network about Manning to Harrison: