Why Tuesday? Because nothing can make Monday better. Wednesday is... I won't say it, ok. Thursday - 1 more day. And by Friday, who cares, it's over. Tuesday needs something, something funny. And if you think you're too grown up for toons, leave.
Why classic toons? Because modern toons suck. You cannot beat Warner Bros. toons. They were first and they were best. Sure, a few since then have been good. Maybe I'll even mix a few in sometime. But forget the internet and pollution and video games - kids today need more classic cartoons. Parenting classes should advise weekly doses of Bugs, Elmer, Foghorn, Taz, Pepe, Wile E. and Roadrunner, Sylvester, Marvin, Tweety, Speedy, Daffy and Porky. They need to hear stuttering and frustration. They need to see silliness and surviving a fall off a cliff. And if that's not enough for you, well, they support healthy eating - Bugs only ate carrots.
Adults need this too. Because if you're over 25, you also had 3 hours of this every Saturday morning, and this generation loves its nostalgia. Because we pay our own bills, and that's no fun. Because we're on the verge of paying for gas in blood. And does anyone else think the writers lost something during the strike?
So. A Tale of Two Kitties. 1942. Abbott and Costello as cartoon cats Babbitt and Catsello. (For you Tweety fans, this was his first ever appearance).
Back in the 80s, I rewound the vhs so many times the tape snapped. 20 years later, I still just end myself when I watch this clip. Although, I no longer go around the house yelling, "Hey Babbbitttt!" (oh, my poor mother).
Farmer's Market Season
Finally - a decent cucumber. A real tomato. Soon, coming to a neighborhood near you, a farmer's market, those glorious places to get non-pesticide-covered, non-genetically-modified, local, fresh, affordable, and above all, wonderful-tasting produce. If that doesn't do it for you, you can also get things like free-range meat, garlic, soap, jam, cheese, and ice cream. You're also supporting local farmers and vendors. Remember - bring your own non-plastic bags, and wash it all when you get home (yes, mom).
Rhode Island Monthly's new issue has a guide to each farmer's market in the state. For example:
Rhode Island Monthly's new issue has a guide to each farmer's market in the state. For example:
Broad Street Farmers’ Market807 Broad Street, Providence
Sat. 9 a.m.–1 p.m., July 5–Oct. 25
Organized by the Southside Community Land Trust, this farmers’ market features produce grown by three immigrant farmers, two of whom are from Laos and the other from Portugal. Low-income members of this neighborhood, who would not otherwise have access to fresh produce, and discerning chefs alike head here to stock up on the basics as well as ethnic specialty crops including cilantro, bok choy, long beans and squash blossoms.
RI's young voters protest budget cuts
Providence Daily Dose has a petition alert from Our Future RI. The young voters of RI, ages 18 to 30," oppose irresponsible cuts to the budget," and they're trying to collect 1,000 signatures before passing it on to officials.
Go. Sign. Then tell two friends.
Go. Sign. Then tell two friends.
Jason Pisano - Marathon Man
ProJo's profile of Jason Pisano will inspire you.He has never allowed cerebral palsy to keep him from going the distance.
Nor has the disorder stopped him from doing anything else he put his mind to: learning to type with his toe, going to college, carrying the 1996 Olympic torch on its trip through Rhode Island, working as a freelance journalist.
Pisano was born with profound cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that makes it nearly impossible to control the movement of his arms and legs, or to speak clearly. The damage occurred when the umbilical cord, wrapped around his neck, cut off oxygen to his brain.
While the average person may find a 5K race or even a jog around the block challenging, Pisano has finished 41 marathons. Pisano is a world-class athlete, participating in the highest level of competition for disabled athletes. He has won numerous awards and accolades, including two gold medals from the Cerebral Palsy-International Sports and Recreation World Championships.
Pisano said he is driven to compete in marathons because “I can.”
On a recent trip to Gold’s Gym in Warwick, Pisano works out in preparation for today’s race. Avi Tzadok, Pisano’s aide and friend for 10 years, pushes Pisano’s wheelchair across the shiny floor, weaving through a maze of exercise machines, bench presses and treadmills.
They stop at a corner near a weight machine. Tzadok scoops his friend up into his arms and hoists him onto the apparatus, strapping him in. To keep Pisano’s arms from flailing, Tzadok pulls them behind his back and secures his wrists.
The chiseled muscles in his arms and around his pectorals show Pisano’s dedication to bodybuilding. Pisano works specifically on his abdominals, his arms and his legs to prepare for the grueling Boston race.
Pisano grunts as he lifts about 45 pounds to start, using mainly his feet and his abdominals to elevate a padded bar that lifts the weights. Eventually, Tzadok adds more weights, about 30 pounds per round, until Pisano is lifting 120 pounds. Next Pisano reclines on the weight machine and Tzadok, using his body weight, leans on Pisano’s upper thighs. Pisano raises his upper body toward Tzadok, doing abdominal crunches –– about 250. Bicep curls come next.
That last part may shame most of us about our physical shape (I mean, my God Man!) but more than that it should remind us all that maybe we tell ourselves "I can't" about too much too often. Try living like Pisano - maybe you can run a marathon, maybe you can read all of War and Peace, save the whales, build your own computer, learn Japanese, or anything that you've always told yourself, I can't. If Pisano can accomplish so much, think of what you can do.
P.S. Pisano finished the Boston Marathon in 10 hours, 46 minutes.
Visit Jason's blog.
Our Tax Dollars Feed the Rich
More specifically, when film folks come here to scout locations or be wooed by officials, we pay the tab for their business dinners. We live in a state where children go hungry, without health insurance or proper education while execs with expense accounts and actors who make millions per movie dine on our dime.
The rest of the article will make you lose whatever dinner you had tonight.Over this last troubled financial year for the state, that spending has included $4,882 in state payments to JPMorgan Chase for purchase card charges by the two-person Film & TV Office. One month last fall, [RI's & TV Office director] Feinberg’s food and drink bills exceeded $900. The state controller’s office has been unable to locate all of the billings and receipts for his 2007-08 charges. But those that have surfaced include a $245.55 lunch for five that Feinberg hosted at Newport’s Castle Hill Inn and Resort on April 7, 2007, that began with shrimp and littlenecks and included pork tenderloins, chicken and a $39 bottle of Tohu Pinot Noir.
Big Brother and My Inner Child
Is it just me, or does the amazing weather we had this week make you want to go out and play? If not, you're no fun. But if you're like me, you went out and did just that.
Long story short, school was out, Cass Park was 5 minutes away, there were two kids' bikes in my car, and two insane co-workers were up for it. So, we spent our lunch hour pedalling around the park. Yes, the cop was watching us. Yes, the parents were curious. No, we did not care - we were having too much fun.
Speaking of cops watching us, has anyone else spotted Big Brother's eye in a tree at Cass Park, aimed directly at the pond? If you stand on the sidewalk of Cass Ave in front of the pond, find the giant bird's nest on a branch and look to the left - the camera is painted to blend into the tree, but it's there. Make sure you wave next time.
Homelessness Rising Among Women
Today the Journal has a report about the increasing number of homeless women in Rhode Island. These are your every-woman: raised well, home-owners, women who thought it could never happen to them. Now they find themselves at Crossroads.
Donna Dexter and Joan Deam met several weeks back at the Crossroads Rhode Island social service agency, specifically in the room once reserved for teenage counseling and which now holds bunk beds for 10 homeless women.
Dexter is 49, drives a Chrysler and has a son at Columbia Law School. Until one day in January when her furnace blew up and spewed soot everywhere, she had been living in a raised-ranch house in Wakefield valued at $389,000.
Deam is 32 and grew up in an upper-middle-class family, one of three children of a retired Navy SEAL. Her brother is an Army Ranger. Her sister works for the post office. They would all be “disappointed” if they learned she was homeless, she says.
Girl Kills Girl Over Boy
A teenage girl in Warwick stabbed her friend to death over a guy. So, one is dead, the other will spend years in prison, and the guy... probably has a new girl already.
Was he worth it, honey?
Was he worth it, honey?
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