Are you ready to rawwk?!

We have co-winners of the Silver Squirrel Award, with my Route 66 pal Lulu knowing that the show was "Police Squad!" and the actor was Leslie Nielson. Tim knew the other part of the question, that the movies based on the show were the Naked Gun movies. Milwaukee Dan #2 also knew the show and actor, but weighed in after Lulu and Tim. Nicely done, folks, and I love it that so many of you share my enjoyment of pop culture trivia.

Can you believe "Police Squad!" ran for only six episodes? I really need to get that DVD collection, because it's still funny stuff. As Dan pointed out, the opening theme song is awesome. For those of us who remember the cop shows from the 60's and 70's (A Quinn Martin production!), "Police Squad!" was a hoot. Look up some clips on YouTube if you get a chance. I still find the movies funny, too, although it's odd to see O.J. Simpson playing in a rather sympathetic film role. He certainly does take a beating, though. Hmm, I don't think we have those movies, either. Must rectify that situation.

As for my "-pedia" entry yesterday, Darren, I totally forgot about Dickipedia, the Wiki of people who are dicks. A friend of mine sent that to me a while back, and it would have been a fine addition, as is it another genuinely funny one, well-written, and clever. (Thanks for the reminder, Darren!) I liked the entry on Michele Bachmann:

In addition to being a dick, Bachmann's track record has proven she is also a full-fledged nutjob. The type of person that makes you turn to your friend the moment she gets up to use the bathroom and mouth "She's craaaaaaazy," complete with hand motions and bug-eyes.

While Bachmann has always been a local dick, she didn't come onto the national dick scene until the 2008 election when she accused Barack Obama and many members of Congress of being "anti-American."

Like her pal Palin, Bachmann is deceptively attractive. While Palin is attractive in a "if she just put down that gun, took off those glasses, and started forming complete sentences" sort of way, Bachmann has the whole girl next door thing working for her. But only if you grew up next to an insane asylum.

So Saturday night was my sister Diana's Beatles Rock Band party. We figured we'd go and hang out a while, be spectators rather than players, not make a late night of it...screw that! Maybe it was the shot of Blavod black vodka courage I did before we started playing (Who knew there was such a thing as black vodka? Where does my sister find this stuff?), but I joined in singing backup pretty quickly, and I think Ken sat down on the very first song to play the drums. I eventually sang lead on some songs, and although I think I'm really a crummy singer, I did better than I expected, and even did okay on some of the harmonies! I tried drums once and really sucked, so that will take some practice. Man, I had no idea how much fun that would be. We didn't leave until after 2 AM, because we were all having so much fun. Oh, and I only took one picture, of Ken at the drums, because I was having too much fun playing. My brother-in-law took more, so I'll see if he'll send them to me.

Of course, this got Ken and I talking about getting a Wii. We had talked about it when we played it at our friends Kim and Steve's place, but decided not to spend the money. We were kind of thinking that way this time, too, but Ken came up with the brilliant idea of using American Express rewards points to get it, and has already ordered a Wii, a guitar, a sports pack, and the software for classic rock songs. I'll use the points that I have on my card to get some gift cards to use at the grocery store, then we'll order the rock band bundle (drums, guitar, and mike) and the original software from Amazon tonight. A little creative financing there, but it should let us order this stuff without spending anything except the points we earn through the credit cards. How cool is that?

I've never been much of a gamer, but Rock Band changes everything. I think I'll even take a cue from my pal Greg and tie a scarf on the mike stand, a la Steven Tyler. To paraphrase Stevie Ray Vaughn, if Nutwood's rockin', don't bother knockin'...come on in!

Facebook = Fun and Flattery

Yet another reason to love Facebook....

I had quite a surprise this week when a friend of a Facebook friend (Darren), who I friended through a blogger friend (Milwaukee Dan #2), made a comment on Darren's update following my comment. Are you still with me? Okay, let's try this: Darren posted a status update, I made a comment, and then one of his friends commented. That comment was that he thought he was falling in love with Beth R. (that would be me). Great googly-moogly! Just like the Spanish Inquisition, I wasn't expecting that! Okay, so Darren left a comment to that saying that I definitely qualified as a Hot Brilliant Chick. Haha! That was cool, too, and have I mentioned how much I enjoy flattery? I thought Darren was just making a joke, but he sent me a message, and come to find out, he really does have a Hot Brilliant Chicks folder in his Facebook photos. Long story short, I am now one of four of Darren's Hot Brilliant Chicks, joining an astronomer, an art historian, and a biochemist. Thanks for making my day, Darren, and thanks to the friend who initiated the whole thing. I am pleased and humbled by this award, and look forward to traveling to Winnipeg to accept my $1.4 million prize. Ha! Also, it turns out that Darren knows of the bar that my ex and our friends used to frequent in Winnipeg, a place called the Zoo, and his Alice Cooper tribute band once played there. AND he knows of the band we used to see there all the time, the Chocolate Bunnies From Hell. ♪♫♪♫ It's a small world after all... ♪♫♪♫

I went to Goodwill yesterday to try to find some funky clothes (for reasons I'll explain after this). I didn't find the funky clothes, but I did find a basket with a couple hundred 45 rpm records in it! Ohhh, I was a happy girl! Three records for a quarter, and I got nine, spending a whopping 80 cents. I'm such a spendthrift, I know. [hanging head] I didn't get them to play them, I got them for decorating the soffit in the basement. That is sort of our "rec room," and I think it would look cool to put up a few 45s. I got some songs that I remember well, like The Cars' "Just What I Needed" and the Stones' "Miss You," and others were real blasts from the past like Status Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men," and "Simon Says" from the 1910 Fruitgum Company (remember them?) on the Buddha Records label. It was so much fun looking through them and finding a few really cool ones! There were even some that I remembered having when I was a kid. I'll put these up on the soffit and then see if I want to get anymore, but I was so excited to look through those.

Hey, I just remembered that I might have a stack of 45s downstairs in my boxes of albums. Whoops. I can't believe I didn't think of that until just now. I might have enough to be able to wallpaper one of the basement walls with them, now that I think about it. I need to pull out those boxes, anyway, because one of our recent purchases is a turntable that plugs into the USB port on the computer. I'll be able to save some of my rarer albums to the computer! That will be a good winter project.

The reason I thought I'd try to find some funky clothes is because tonight we're going to my sister and her husband's house for a Beatles Rock Band party. I know I've mentioned at some point that my sister is still a Beatlemaniac (she even got to see them play at the Indiana State Fair in 1964), and when she heard that there was going to be a Beatles version of Rock Band, she went out immediately and bought a Wii, then ordered the instruments (including Paul's bass guitar) and pre-ordered the game. She's encouraging everyone to wear appropriate clothing, so that's why I made a trip to Goodwill. That was a bust...you just don't see the funky clothing there like you used to. (When I was in college, I bought a pair of yellow moon boots that I wore for years. I saw enough Christmas sweater vests yesterday to burn my retinas and leave me scarred for life, so the selection of funk just ain’t what it used to be.) I had a backup, so I'll be wearing an hombre-dyed pink tunic with hiphugger jeans. Kind of funny that what we used to call hiphuggers are now pretty much the usual style when it comes to jeans. I love 'em, and think they're much more comfortable than regular high-waisted "mom" jeans. But then I hate wearing pants, anyway, so don't trust my opinion.

I plan on taking my camera and Flip Wilson, and figure that I may be able to make a few bucks on some blackmail photos and videos. Of course, I may have to contend with a few directed towards me, too. This could be interesting.