Category Archives: fridayfive

Sorry, I’ve been sick

Very sick, as a matter of fact. I don’t think I’ve had an infection this bad in several years, and it’s left me bed-bound for the most part. Back then my computer was actually up against my bed, so I could keep bouncing around online as much as I wanted then, but now it’s kind of an effort to stay sitting here for any period of time. I just hope I get over this bug in time to enjoy the start of winter vacation. Still,…

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He doesn’t even look a day over 75

It’s Tom Waits’ 58th birthday today. Happy birthday, Tom, and on that note, let’s go lickety-splitly to the friday5.org Friday Five. 1. What playground game do you remember most fondly?None of them, really. The playground where I went to public school, and more specifically the kids in that playground, are the reason why I have a chip out of one of my front teeth (and a good part of the reason why I started going to private school). 2. What playground game did you just…

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Jonathan Swift was born on this day in 1667

The reach of his magnum opus, Gulliver’s Travels, on our culture cannot easily be overstated. Although those of us who have memories before 1994 will probably recall the image of the Lilliputians tying Gulliver down as the most iconic image of the book, its biggest influence in modern times comes from the name Swift invented for the deformed creatures Gulliver encounters near the end of his journey: Yahoos. Yes, Swift is responsible for creating what eventually became the name of one of the Internet’s most…

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On this day in 1888 …

Adolph Marx was born, later legally Arthur Marx because he disliked the name Adolph. However, it was under his stage name of Harpo Marx he would become best known, as the always silent, usually lecherous, harp virtuoso of the Marx Brothers. While Chico’s piano-playing captivated me as a child because of the tricks he did with his fingers while he played, Harpo’s musical moments always touched me the deepest because they so totally broke from the ne’er-do-well characters he played throughout the rest of the…

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David Leisure turns 57 today

Although later generations may only know of Leisure from reruns of Empty Nest, those of us who lived through all the eighties will never forget Leisure’s brilliant turn as Joe Isuzu, the Isuzu television spokesperson whose lies about the company’s cars were so over the top ("It gets twenty million miles per gallon" and the like), and delivered with such a deadpan charm, that Leisure may be one of the best commercial actors of my lifetime; certainly Joe Isuzu presaged Jon Lovitz’ more popular "Liar"…

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