Status Update_ It's Been a Fairly Rotten Day

We were hoping to post a more interesting entry, but well even though at times, it looked like today might be an okay day, things just sort of fell apart. But, the highlight of the day was perhaps seeing an old Huckleberry Hound cartoon from 1961 on Boomerang where the blue dog with a Southern accent was in drag! He was trying to be Little Red Riding Hood in a cartoon that followed the plot of the age-old fairly tale which is supposedly about a girl coming to terms with her sexuality. But, we'll leave that up to English majors at Yale.

As for apples, the United States of America is the world's second leading producer of apples behind China. American apples account for 7.5 percent of the world market, according to Wikipedia.

While Michigan and Washington are known for apple production, there is quite an abundance of apples in my home state of Virginia, and my state of residency, which is North Carolina.

In Virginia, many apples can be found in the Shenandoah Valley, particularly around Winchester, which is the hometown of the late country-singing icon Patsy Cline. Each April, Winchester hosts the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, which according to its web site brings in 250,000 visitors to the area each year. I remember one year when I attended, the crooner Pat Boone was one of the guests of honor, but I didn't get around to asking him why he was a right-wing nut (forgive the political humor).

In North Carolina, the town of Hendersonville, near Asheville in western North Carolina, is known for its apple farms.

The other leading producers of apples are Iran, Turkey and Russia.

Turkey is my late father's country, and I knew that the country produced many apples, but I did not realize Turkey was fourth in the world in apple production.

Many Turkish apples are produced around Amasya, which is in the central Black Sea region of Turkey, relatively close to the port city of Samsun.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day. In the worst case scenario, I can always play with the family cat.

Dead or Alive (Entry 9 of 12)_ Soupy Sales

Since we are quite behind in my plans for this blog (well, we aren't exactly The Huffington Post quite yet), I thought I would do some catching up and focus on the Dead or Alive series, which in all honesty is less enjoyable than I thought it would be.

Nevertheless, we continue on with our latest subject '60s children's tv show host Soupy Sales.

Our last subject Pat Boone is indeed alive and well, and we gather that he is still a far right wing nut.

Here is some info on Mr. Sales:

-Has been hit with over 25,000 in his show business career- perhaps, he should have been a substitute high school teacher!

-Howard Stern is an admirer of his, and Sales has appeared on Stern's ever controversial radio show.

-Sales met his wife dancer Trudy Carson while performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

-Sales was voted the most popular guy in his high school class

-Had a surprise novelty hit song "Do the Mouse"

-Guest-starred on the original version of "The Love Boat" (who didn't?!)

-First actor to voice the Donkey Kong video game character

DAGNAMMIT!!!! I'M SICK!!!!

Well, apparently this will be the first blog entry in quite some time to have no picture with it, but that's the least of my problems. I have been under the weather since late Thursday night. I actually slept for 17 hours on Friday (between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.). It has been a very frustrating week ever since I got back from Washington, DC, on Monday night. It literally feels like nothing is going right whatsoever.

I was supposed to see my alma mater Radford University play High Point University in High Point, NC, tonight. I hope they win without my presence there. The Radford U Highlanders are currently undefeated in Big South Conference play. Clarence Thomas, the most ultra-conservative member of the U.S. Supreme Court gave the commencement at HPU a few years ago, which makes me even prouder to have graduated from RU!

We were going to have an image with this entry, but that didn't work out either. I'll save it for the Silly Picture to Fill Space bit on Tuesday.

Among the entries I hope to have in the coming weeks are ones devoted to ACC basketball, women's college gymnastics, the latest in the Know Your Senators and Congressional Reps series and the latest in the Dead or Alive series in which we ask if someone like Abe Vigoda or Monty Hall is in fact alive or dead. I suppose I can reveal that the subject of our last entry Pat Boone is indeed alive and well. Since I am not a right-wing nut, I'm not sure we should have made him the subject of a blog entry but I must profess that the Youtube video of him singing a Christmas carol alongside a Fred Flintstone and Dyno-Mutt mascot is a classic!

Well, that's all for now as I have some cough syrup I need to take.

If you want to check out some other blogs this weekend (I shall be back on Monday, I hope!) you can go to my friends' blogs:

http://www.knightshift.blogspot.com

http://www.moviezzz.blogspot.com

I guess I will have to watch that "Are You Being Served?" marathon on PBS tonight:(

PS- Alas, High Point won the basketball game over Radford U.

Merry Christmas from Michael Moore!

The most famous man to come out of Flint, Mich., formally wished all his followers on Twitter a Merry Christmas. To be fair, so did John McCain's daughter. Here was the message Moore tweeted last night (actually X-mas Eve):

"Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas Eve. Let's hope 2010 is a more peaceful and just year."

Moore's latest doc "Capitalism: A Love Story" is now on dvd. It's not Moore's best film, but it was a fairly good effort. I find Moore a bit idealist as I am a supporter of the war in Afghanistan and he is not. Though I do agree with him MUCH more than the likes of Glenn Beck.

"An American Carol," a very bad right-wing slapstick comedy featuring Kelsey Grammer and Jon Voight in showing on Showtime throughout December. I must say I love the Turkish actor who played an Afghani terrorist in that movie, but he should be waterboarded for taking the part (I am a Turkish-American).

Coincidentally, Pat Boone the subject of an entry on this blog on Dec. 23 was featured in Moore's first film "Roger and Me."

Moore also said that he liked the new epic mess "Avatar." I did not, and neither did my good friend Moviezzz (http://www.moviezzz.blogspot.com) though as I said on Facebook last night I somehow hate James Cameron's most famous film "Titanic" even more!

Dead or Alive (8 of 12)- Pat Boone

Today, we focus on country/gospel singer Pat Boone whom I saw in person about ten years ago at the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Va. Like Tony Bennett and Andy Williams, Boone is one of those singers who comes to mind this time of year and if you go to Boone's web site (http://www.patboone.com), you can hear a rendition of "Christmas in LA."

But, we are asking the question is Boone alive or dead?

He was born on June 1, 1934, and he reached the height of his fame as a young man in the 1950s. He would sell more record than just about any artist of his time with notable exceptions like Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

Boone was also an actor and because of his religious/conservative view of the world, he would refuse a part with Marilyn Monroe?! He would also become very active in Ronald Reagan's run for governor. And, of course, he supported Ronnie when ran for president and made this country a mess (excuse the political bias).

Politics remains a passion for Boone as he went on Fox News to support the War in Iraq, where his record sales are probably still fairly minimal.

Conservative commentator P.J. O'Rourke, who know contributes to "The Weekly Standard" said Boone's music was one of the things he began to embrace when he went from becoming a liberal to a conservative (hmmm....I may have settled for Lawrence Welk, but since I voted for Obama, I guess I can still listen to The Clash).

Personally, I prefer "The Weekly Standard"'s rival publication "The New Republic" for those of us on the center-left. Jonathan Chait's piece on Republican nihilism (do-nothingism) is a classic!

Boone also sang along '70s cartoon character Dynomutt in a Christmas Carol for a tv special circa 1978. A hysterical Youtube video of that was available as of last Christmas. 'Ralph,' a friend of mine, who is also 39, and I discussed the possible sexual orientation of Dynomutt's sidekick The Blue Falcon. I think in retrospect he may have been gay. Ralph begs to differ.

But, Boone did surprise the record industry with a compilation of heavy metal covers, including a version of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train"! Amazingly, Osbourne and Boone were also once neighbors which must have made for one very interesting block party.