X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

11/24/2005: The 1989 Parade & HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

And here you thought I forgot about you. I totally did not — I just had zero time and hated every second of having zero time, but the review is done, at the zero hour. Get your Turkey Day Hooray on with the two page review of the 1989 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, starring ALF! The Joker! Spider-Man! Ronald McDonald! MELBA MOORE! Yayyyayy!

Fessing up, the review was originally intended to be much longer, but time wasn’t on my side, and it got to the point tonight of either having to trim the turkey fat or do my big blogpology post about how woe is me and how I wasn’t going to provide a parade review this year. I think you’d rather have the two pages. They’re a good two pages, full of fun and video clips, and did I mention ALF? I’ve included a few downloads of commercials that aired during the parade in the review, but here’s a few more…

Fruit of the Loom, starring giant fruit people.
A Back To The Future Part 2 ad, starring smaller Marty people.
The Typhoon Hovercraft toy, you so wish you had one.
The “Mickey Look,” a toy that looks like Mickey!
Lost ‘N Founds dolls, which were almost vaguely popular!

I don’t know how many of you are around this Thanksgiving, but if you’re here, have a good one, and if you live somewhere that isn’t celebrating anything today, whooooops. I’m thankful for many things this year, and that very much includes the lot of you who choose to make this site a stop, to read and to join in the discussions, to have and to hold, yadda. You’re all great, unless it’s the wine and coffee and need for sleep talking. I leave you with this:

It’s gonna be a good Thanksgiving.

Thank you so much for this, Matt! It will definitely make my day so much better. Thanks, and a happy Thanksgiving to you.

Unfortunately, that Joker song is better than anything off of Prince’s BATMAN album.

The lowest number I will ever be. Thanks matt, happy day to all especially Fred Travana.

I was just about to reread the previous Macy reviews to get into the Thanksgiving spirit when I saw that holyshitthere’sanewone. Thanks!

Hurrah! Hooray! Yippee! You didn’t let us down!! Though it has one mistake…..why does the button say "1987" when the parade is from 1989?

Right now, I’m freezing my buns off because my mother has the bathroom window open and it’s cooling the entire house. She has it open to offset the stink caused by the fact that she’s painting the cabinet doors in the bathroom at 11 at night.

She thought the bathroom remodeling job would be done by Thanksgiving, and she worries excessively about the house looking nice when people come over. She definately bit off more than she could chew this time. In the meantime, I’m freezing to death.

1) i’m lazy and didn’t want to look at em now
2) 20.?? MB?! That’s a hell of a lot of wmv.
3) my compy still hasn’t uploaded the Bugs Bunny Balloon exploding clip

I’m torn about Empty Nest. I remember hating it back in the day, and yet I also remember seeing an obsene number of episodes.

Also for some reason, in one issue of Nintendo Power as a kid they had an interview with David Leisure about what games he liked to play.

Yay and hooray, a Macy’s parade! Does this mean Chex Mix duties have replaced stuffed mushroom detail?
Thanks to you, Matt, for having such an awesome site where we can all go crazy and for keeping it going strong for so long with the diminishing freebie time and all. I love coming to this site and blog and I’d just be lost without. You all everybody have safe and happy Thanksgiving/regular old Thursdays.

going to read this tomorrow (this) morning when the real parade is on. cant wait!

im so jealous you have the parades on tape, thanks for the childhood memory flash back ;p

The joker is totally the hottest Batman villian. Jack Nicolson is way hotter than any of the original Batman actors. Especially that douche George Clooney. I try not to get into these conversations with my boyfriend, though. He has the Batman logo tattooed on his fucking arm. I still remember him showing it to me when we met that night at the club. God were we drunk.

It’s 6am and I haven’t gone to bed yet and have Thanksgiving dinner at 3pm. I can’t wait to pig out, I’ve been dieting my ass off lately. My mom’s making a ton of food. Turkey, stuffing, pineapple stuffing, candied sweet potatos, green bean casserole, lettuce with bacon dressing, corn, cranberry sauce, mashed potatos, rolls. Then dessert we have 2 pumpkin pies, cheese pie, 2 pumpkins rolls (I made those), and mashed potato candy. I know mashed potato candy sounds weird, it’s a PA Dutch thing. I assure you, you can’t taste the 1 spoonful of mashed potato over the 1lb of powdered sugar.

Man. I remember that Little Lost and Founds commercial. I posted the same one on my site about 2 weeks ago. Shit, I’m never going to get ahead. XE is always going to be 250x popular than my site.

"I’m going to hug you and we’re going to do arts and crafts." will be my new response to the question "What’s up?". Thanks Matt.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I celebrated it last month, but still. Hope your turkey is… turkeylicious.

Thanks for the review, Matt. As of this writing they’re still not sure if the balloons will fly this year, but even if they don’t, it was cool taking a look back at past years.

I wonder if future generations of kids will think as highly of the balloons as ours did… Somehow the ‘crouched down’ balloons they’ve been forced to make after the Cat in the Hat incident somehow just dont seem as impressive as the oldschool vertical Pink Panther type balloons.

I can honestly say I was never into the parades much, and we pretty much avoided them at all costs. Ya know, Mom hates them, and Dad would always find some old John Wayne movie or the Three Stooges Marathon to watch instead.

I just got home from work a little while ago, but if I’m still awake at 9, I think I’ll put it on, though

Please Read: If you’re reading this then my bold print was worth the hours of html coding. I have a dilemma that perhaps fellow X-Ers (or is it X-entertainites?) may be able to solve. Every year I carefully plan out exactly what I’m going to get for Christmas by asking exact people for exact things that I know they’re capable of not fucking up entirely. It works but I always forget to leave something for the gift exchange we have on one side of my family. The minimum is usually 25 and the max is 30. What I need are suggestions from you guys between now and when I wake up at 3 (that’s less than 8 hours on a day you guys won’t be here…) of what to ask for. Just think of me as a bit younger version of Matt and you’ll get an idea of my taste. But, No Star Wars, No Batman Begins, that’s taking care of.

Just to give you an idea of why this is a problem… every year we’ve done this my list consisted of the words "Give me 25-30 dollars." The family is getting tired of that gag and I’ve been dead serious everytime.

Oh man, I was in tears when I saw Dr. Doom shake his booty at the end of the video. That’s a great find, and you made my life that much more enjoyable by sharing that with us, Matt. Thank you.

You are simply the king, Matt. THough nothing beats Homestar Dolph Lundgren. Gya, I think that’s the funniest clip ever. I swear, if you listen, he sounds like Homestar Runner.

Great article! Don’t worry, your hard work of the seemingly throwaway jokes (jokerhere.wmv) did not go unnoticed.
The parade is on now and it is Broadway as far as the eye can see. Why? Not sure when I will ever make it to NY but I (probably along with most of the rest of the country) could care less about this kind of stuff.

Did you notice SPIDERMAN got some applause on his appearance and that he almost fell off when the float started moving :). Nice DC references Willard. I am sure MARVEL was livid!
"Garfield the Delicious" should be the X-E slogan for the day. Thanks ALF.
Good call on the trying to hip-up the LOONEY TUNES gang. So unneccessary.
Finally, that damn TYPHOON commerical made me want one and I GOT IT. I still have it. Only played with it 10 times in 16 years. The problem is that the battery pack only lasts for 10-15 minutes. Also, it kinda slides around TOO much on linoleum. One of my more melancholy Christmas presents. Wanted it, asked for it, go it, never played with. That is also the 1st and last Christmas that I snuck a peek at my gifts.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!
P.S. The PEANUTS float got E. Claire dancing.

Happy Thanksgiving from my Terrifying Claws to Yours! Matt, thanks for another awesome review. Good times buddy.

Just as I was reading about Garfield in 1987, the Garfield float came on my tv this year. Sadly, no Alf to talk about eating him. Now the Beach Boys are on their own float singing "Little Saint Nick". Something surreal about seeing 60 year old Beach "Boys" all bundled up with mittens and earmuffs looking like they are freezing to death.

Matt, I have to thank you on this Thanksgiving for working so hard on this site. I’ve been reading for about 4 years now, and while the updates aren’t nearly as frequent as they used to be, they are still special. I hope you know that they really do mean a lot to us. I go on this site a few times everyday, to see the updates and read the blog. And I thank all the friends on the blog here for entertaining me when Matt can’t make updates.

Good review Matt. And it odd that you mention the lightpole accident, and then this year it happens again. Happy Thanksgiving.

I’ve been SO busy with teaching (and possible strikes, and union junk) that I completely forgot it was Thanksgiving already in the USA. Have a good one, everybody! I wish our (Canadian) Thanksgiving was in November, also, instead of October. October has Halloween…what’s November got? It’s my b-day month, so I always felt a wee bit bad for November; only having Remembrance Day for holidays.

Thanks, Matt for making me feel "thanksgiving-y" even though mine was a month ago! I LOVE your parade reviews. Good stuff.

Great article! I’m watching this year’s parade now, but it’s not as good as the old ones. At least they got rid of the Ask Jeeves balloon. "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" is on tonight on ABC, so be sure to watch that. I’m also going to watch "A Garfield Thanksgiving" on DVD.

Oh man, I just looked at the home page and did a backflip. I kinda hate Thanksgiving, but… parade!

Awesome article! Was it me, or did this years parade completely lack good commercials or toy commercials???

Man, that Barbie float was heinous! It’s good to know that a couple of the Barbies I used to have came from that line–I always wondered.
I was so happy to see Alf in this one- you picked great clips this year. I actually considered watching this year’s parade, but I said to myself "I’ve got other things to look forward to–Matt won’t let me down." And you didn’t!
Thank you, Matt! Thanks fellow X-E’ers! Here’s to a happy Thanksgiving or whatever else this Thursday is going to be for you. I hope everyone has a very nice day.

Happy Thanksgiving! Great article as usual Matt! By the way, I had one of those Typhoon Hovercrafts back around ‘89. Loads of fun!

We love you too, Matt. Thanks for the great parade review! Unfortunately my Thanksgiving is starting to shape up like my last Christmas so not having a happy holiday so far…but don’t want to bum everyone out so I’ll save details for the what was your worst Thanksgiving poll…

Just thought I’d mention that "Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving" comes on ABC tonight.

I’m not sure if somebody mentioned it here already or not, because I didn’t feel like reading all the posts at the moment.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Time to head over to my parents house and get all festive. Are there any other specials on tonight other than Charlie Brown?

I was actually embarrassed while watching the Loony Tunes "rap." They should be ashamed.

Thank you for including the New Kids–Donnie Wahlberg looks like he feels like a total ass up there. At least he went on to redeem himself with bit movie parts.

"Stop the press, who is that?"
"Vicky Vale", "Vicky Vale"
"I like…"
BATMAN, BATMAN, BATMAN

Well, I don’t know if you’re were really seriously serious about knowing who Fred Travalena is, but here you go, anyway:

No wonder they had him doing so many voice impersonations. Wow. That’s quite a string of credits. I’ve been listening to this guy’s voice for my entire childhood and had no idea.

P.P.S. Somehow, I can envision the "Thank you, Easter Bunny" kids and the Poppin’ Fresh crescent roll family with the ornery grandpa running in (after they all finish their own little TV spots) to join the Loom Fruits in savoring their Thanksgiving feast. Don’t they all seem like they belong in the same house? Must have been the same ad agency.

A Macy’s Parade review? NOW it’s Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has a good one!

Wow, after the incident with the M&Ms float or whatever it was taking out a street light this morning, I wonder what the fate of the Macy’s parade will be. (Note for the people complaining about too many broadway acts: I’ve found in recent years that CBS does waaaay more coverage of the actual parade than NBC does. NBC usually focuses on the dancing and crap.)

And now for a little rant: My boyfriend’s mom called us at 10:00 last night and asked if we’d like to go over to their house after we had dinner here. Now, I pretty much hate this woman for reasons I won’t go into (but let’s just say she is fucking crazy). But I agreed to go with my boyfriend so I could spend time with him. Well today his brother called while we were IN THE MIDDLE OF DINNER, and asked if he wanted to go over earlier. His brother mentioned that it would be "just family" and I was somehow no longer invited, even though I was invited as recently as 14 hours ago. I was very hurt, but after my boyfriend promising me last night that he wouldn’t go unless I could, I was sure he’d turn them down.

Well, guess where he is now? After I worked for six hours to make the perfect family dinner… on his first thanksgiving spent at my house… on a day when we are supposed to put up our decorations and eat pie and watch TV together… He’s at his mom’s house. Without me. The witch fucking snubbed me and my boyfriend still wanted to go over there.

It wouldn’t hurt so bad if I didn’t know that every holiday for the rest of my life was going to have some kind of conflict because of this awful woman. And to top it all off, our planned dinner tomorrow with my boyfriend’s father and stepmother, both of whom I actually really like, was cancelled due to everyone getting the flu.

Um.. I didn’t mean to be such a downer. I hope everyone else is having a better thanksgiving than I am.

Happy Thanksgiving to all on X-E!! JAZZY- That’s pretty low for your Boyfriend to do that to you. Reluctantly, I’m stuck home with the flu myself. I got to wait untill my girlfriend gets home to chow down on some leftovers. For now, a frozen dinner. Dear God, this sucks…

Well, I was gonna mention the M&M incident today, but it seems that i’ve been beaten to it tenfold.

Here’s a poll for later when you’re done gorging yourselves: What was on the Thanksgiving Menu for tonight/last night/whenever you read this??

as someone who’s been through this before…I’m gonna go all Dr. Phil on you sweetie.

i understand that you’re upset, but even if his mom is really that crazy, she is still his mom. if this is your first thanksgiving together, you’ve been together for less than a year. he’s known his mom his whole life.

ya, it’s rude to dis-invite you, but if you dont get along, you’re probably better off not going in the first place; it would probably create more drama than has already happened. and i bet your man promised not to go without you when you WERE invited, right? maybe the wrath he’s gonna get from you is nothing compared to what he’ll get from her…

for the sake of the relationship that you plan to maintain for the rest of your life, dont make him choose between you. be the better person (which doesnt seem to hard to do if she is a nut-job). if she knows how pissed you are, she wins right? dont let her upset you, and take it easy on your man–it’s not easy for him to be stuck in the middle of this sort of thing.

come on, its Thanksgiving, and Charlie Brown is on tonight! make yourself a drink, and revel in the fact that your boyfriend is probably miserable right now, the food you cooked is probably way better than his mom’s, AND there’s a frickin DOG SHOW on!

Jazzy, I feel your pain. Last Thanksgiving, my MIL (normally not this horrible) went psycho on me. She said some horrible things to me. Accusing me of wanting to kill my son horrible. Thankfully, I am not required to go to her house this Thanksgiving, but we will be seeing her after Christmas. Thankfully, this year we will be staying in a hotel. After last year’s debacle, it is understood that we are not welcome to stay overnight in each other’s houses.

You are probably better off not going to your boyfriend’s mom’s house. Hopefully he will come home soon.

Oh no, that’s terrible (M&M incident). I really hope those kids are okay.
My fam’s out of town, so today’s nothing but a strange midweek day off for me. No dinner cooking at my house…I’m going in a few minutes to help the Cub Scouts serve it up for local seniors and homeless. (I can’t take credit for true altruism, I have to do some volunteer hours for school and I thought this could be fun.) I’ll probably gate crash a friend’s family festivities later on just so I don’t feel deprived. Hope everyone has a delicious day.

Well once again great job on the Macy’s ‘89 Parade Review Matt! I know myself and others, were wondering and waiting for it! Being Canadian, I celebrated my TG last month…but either way I say Happy Thanksgiving to all my American XE family members. Hope you all have a good one.

Invader Norbert: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will be on tonight at 8 on ABC (after that they’ll be showing Finding Nemo…go figure

)

Jazzy: That really sucks, I mean hell I know I’m a bit of a mommas boy, but I’d never pull that kinda shit on my girlfriend..if i couldn’t bring her…I wouldn’t go. But that’s just my opinion

Anyhow fellow XE’ers, again have a Happy Thanksgiving…and don’t eat too much!

Oh man, great review, I really enjoy seeing these parade, I wish I was lucky enough to have them be a part of my childhood.
This year I went to the x-mas parade in Toronto and I got to see a Mc Donald’s float with Grimace the Hamburgler and Birdie I was so excited and shocked to see them, I didn’t think McDs had them anymore! I also saw the Kool-aid man, and I couldn’t help but think of X-E, it was cool to see him, I was so so close to yelling out OH YEAH! but I was interrupted by a kid on a nearing float yelling YOU ROCK KOOL-MAN, YOU ROCK!!!
On my train ride home some girls that were in the parade were handing out new chocolate from Cadburys that haven’t even come out yet, its chocolate with pop rocks in them!!!! I had such a blast!

Oh and I remember that lost and found commercial so well, it almost brought a tear to my eye I had so much excitement!!

Even though this Joker lacked the homicidal qualities so necessary for the character, I have to admit that the makeup was pretty good.

NOW I was able to watch the clips, and boy…that was one for the ages. 1989 was NOT a good year for the Looney Tunes. Mel Blanc died, that Bugs Balloon not appearing in the parade, that Godawful Song, even "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" had more disney characters than Warner Bros ones!

And what on earth was that grayish body suit man supposed to be, the Silver Surfer? He looked more like a walking Lightpost if you ask me.

And woo! 8pm I will be watching! I haven’t seen it in a few years either, so It’ll be refreshing.

Willard Scott doing his Hulk impression in the marvel section was quite disturbing. Why do I get the impression thats not the first time he’s done that to somebody…the silver surfer costume was rather freaky too…

I forgot to bring this up, but this is blog #700!!!!!!!! Woo! We’ve come a long way, Baby.

-Turkey (which is gettin me tispy as im typing this)
-Stuffed mushrooms
-mashed potatoes
-sweet potatoes
-corn
-Homemade stuffing (yum!)
-some crap with green beans & onions
-the usual can-shaped Cranberry Sauce

How bout Y’all? Don’t be suprised if you don’t see me for the next 36 hours…turkey & black friday and all that.

The Marvel float video was funny as hell! What’s with Magneto and Dare Devil? Did they have some sort of homo-erotic relationship I didn’t know about?

As most holidays are, Thanksgiving was the SuX0R. Went to my boyfriend’s mother’s house for Thanksgiving and it was terrible. I am *very* heat sensitive, and the house had to be atleast 85 - 90 degrees in there. The heat made me so sick I had to sit outside on the front porch while everyone else ate and they "aired" the house out. I felt so queasy afterwards that I still couldnt bring myself to eat any of the food they had.

-mashed squash (yuk
-mashed potatoes (no salt? no gravy?)
-sweet potatoes (boiled and cutup)
-sausage stuffing (yuk)
-turkey (made with mayo all over it and stuffed in the cavity. smelled sour)
-two pies, one chocolate, the other pumpkin made by the grandmother who can’t cook anymore - she forgot the sugar in both
-potato rolls (edible)
-brown sugar ham (I brought this)

Last year I brought a ton of food and no one ate any of it so I only opted to haul the ham this year. :( Oh well. I came home and stuffed myself with ham til I was about to explode and played Xbox. Blegh. Holidays sux sometimes.

LOL! seriously. Everyone on that float had some sort of "thing" going on together. I didn’t know being a super hero required posing in the most homoerotic positions possible!? who knew. ok, chocolate cake, chocolate cream pie, apple pie, schnecken, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie, cheesecake, coffee, tea, beer, milk and wine have been finished… time for Charlie Brown…

Well Just caught the end of Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. :( Don’t think I’ve seen it before. Yes I know, I’m deprived haha. Actually got up this year to see the parade. Had a little laugh about that lamp post. My parents collect M&M stuff.

Probably see a review of the parade in ten years or so. But looking back at these reviews they sure don’t have good parades anymore or something.

Makes me long for the old Comedy Central MST3K marathon. *singing*
"We gather together to watch cheesy movies" something something "on Thanksgiving Day. It’s Mystery Science (inhale) Theater 3000, it’s 30 straight hours and it’s called Turkey Day."

OK, I’ll admit it- It made me ridiculously happy to see the New Kids on the Block in this parade review. They still freakin’ rule in my mind!

Also- is anyone else’s link to page 2 of the review broken? I cannot get to page 2 :( Damn.

Well my thanksgiving sucked. We arrived late and everyone else left early. I put actual effort into my list (see above) for once with the most detail I could fit on the small piece of paper. Want a twist ending? The list I drew requested cash.

First of all and as always, Happy Thanksgiving to all bloggers who are celebrating it today (and to the Canadians, who enjoyed their turkey last month). I hope you had a wonderful day, with lots of turkey, parades…and, more importantly, friends and family.

After everything that’s happened this year, from family troubles to work problems to the hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes that destroyed people and property, it’s nice to know there are things you can still be thankful for…like Matt and X-Entertainment. As with the 1986 and 1987 parades, I likely only saw the 1989 parade in passing. I was a devotee of the Philadelphia parade throughout the 80s and into the early 90s. I watched the middle part of the Macy’s parade today, but turned over the remote control to my bored dad around 11 and thus missed the M&M balloon incident.

I was grateful to be able to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, sisters, brother, and my younger sister’s baby son. Mom has Thanksgiving dinner down to a science after 26 years of feeding a six-person family, so we were treated to mouth-watering turkey, real (not boxed) stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallow, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, orange-glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and chocolate chip bar cookies.

I didn’t get to see "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" tonight, as I left my parents’ house before it came on…but I DID get to see it yesterday, as I rented it a few days ago.

I saw Charlie Brown Thanksgiving earlier for the first time and years, while it was still good and funny, wasn’t there some whole story that Snoopy catered the dinner as Joe Cool Catering and it got cut out because of syndication? Or am I thinking of some other special?

Finally read the article, I remember this parade sooo well! I was thrilled about Alf being a host and was glued to the set. They really don’t do the parades up right like they used to, this was riveting stuff! Willard Scott was a great MC, the people they have nowadays are so annoying.

I remember that joker clip.. I was mighty disappointed as well seeing it wasn’t Nicholson. as for Fred Travalena he was basically a cut rate Rich Little celeb impersonator. I was hoping deep down that this Joker would do something crazy like use green nerve gas or something. alas this was just as deadly.. the singing being enough to drive a knife into my ears.

In the new issue of Toyfare (#101) there’s no article by Matt, but in those little cartoony-type things, one of them has the word Squee in it!! So, I guess Squee got a shout-out in Toyfare!! whoa.

Why is it that all the Charlie Brown Specials are only a half-hour long, but seemed sooo much longer when I was a kid?

Willard Scott was on Vh1 recently on the "I love the holidays" special.The parade today was good.I liked the new ballons though,when my daughter saw the Dora ballon she went nuts! She didn’t have the same excitement for the Barbie float. I did catch a glimpe of the incident on CBS but they were showing the fallen lampost,appereantly the people who were injured left the hospital as of now so they are ok.

On another topic:I got the Tyco typhoon on X-mas 89′ and I remember it fondly. Man that was the shit. On the 25th I took it to the lake and I was being envied. Thanks again for a great memory Matt.

Fred Travalena! Master Impressionist….but you wouldn’t know it watching that parade skit.

So in the bonus area there is the McDonald’s Little Mermaid commercial…funny thing…I still have my Flounder toy and we still put it on the tree.

Hee, kidneyboy. Actually, "Squee" is the name of a character from Jhonen Vasquez’s comic Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and later his own set of comics. The phrase "squee" is just sort of a sound effect of joy or fear or what-have-you. The Squee character is a sort of hyper-terrified nancy that I identified with, so when I needed a nickname back at Scout camp I picked it, then spent the rest of the week explaining "It’s like squeeze without the zee".

Thanksgiving is over and now onto Christmas! It’s Black Friday and I’m getting my ass over to Wal-Mart to hoard some cheap toys for Toys for Tots. Maybe a DVD recorder for myself.

my mom is always a big ticket item, every year!@ I pimp that bitch out like it’s goin’ outta style, yo.

That’s sweet, kidney

I’m so not looking forward to working tomorrow…why didn’t they just make Thanksgiving the last Friday of the damn month? I should be watching the recorded Chuckie Brown for the seasonality but I’m a little too ineebed with turkey and stuff that could conceivably have a turkey on the label for that kind of drollness, so I’m catching up this week’s Lost instead…lots of cute reunions there. Now that that’s done I’m going to rewatch the finale of Rome, which was epic and awesome even if almost anticlimactic after last week. Of course we saw everything that was coming from miles away but man did they weave those threads! I’m hearing March 2007 for season two but I haven’t seen it substantiated. They’re apparently playing fast and loose with history (Cleo should have been around for this business, I hear) but we should be seeing a lot of Anthony and Octavian whenever it comes back, which I think is great.

P.S. According to his website, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Presumably for his groundbreaking performance as The Joker.

If anyone wants to see the M&M balloon accident as captured by home video, its up on the wcbs website.

Click on my name for a link to that Jones Soda taste test I was talking about in the last post.

yeah, it was the sound effect of a monkey, actually, that I saw. But, it still made me think of you, so I thought I would share it!

kidneyboy: Yeah, it’s fairly frickin’ freezing. We had Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle’s house yesterday who happen to only live a mile from my apartment, so I decided to just walk over rather than drive. It took me like half an hour to unthaw. Luckily I won’t have to be outside today other than walking to my car and back.

Invader Norbert: I’m going to admit that I’m a bit of a Peanuts "fanatic" so I’m here with the info you’re looking for: The Peanuts special you’re thinking of with Snoopy having Joe Cool Catering is: Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? in which Linus and Lucy have to move away because their father got a new job. At one point in the episode, they have a going away party. They bring in Joe Cool Catering…and much like the Thanksgiving special. Snoopy sets up a table, with chairs (but not as comically) And all the food that’s served ends up being dog food and dog biscuits (the gravy bowl even has water in it to moisten up the food) Hope I was able to help clear things up…if there’s anymore Peanuts related questions from anyone…I’ll try to answer or help the best i can

In case anyone is hanging on my drama like a bad soap opera (unlikely, I know) I’d just like to say that the boyfriend and I made up after he got home. I think the whole thing may have been a misunderstanding. We ended up watching Charlie Brown together and then decorated the tree for a nice cozy ending to the day.

Here’s our menu from dinner (which I cooked all by myself! From scratch! w00t!)

-Turkey, of course, with gravy
-Cornbread dressing (my late grandmother’s recipe)
-Squash casserole (also my grandma’s recipe)
-Green beans
-Sweet potatoes, baked and slathered with butter
-Potato rolls
-Mysterious cranberry cylinder sauce from a can
-Pumpkin, pecan, and cherry pie (made by Sara Lee, not by me!)

When Black Friday comes,
I won’t go to the store
To watch early shoppers fight on the retail foor.
Won’t buy no discounted toys.
Won’t buy no shoes or clothes.
I don’t want to risk getting a punch in the nose.
When Black Friday comes,
Guess where I’ll be?
Posting on ol’ X-E.

Ahhhhh! Just got done my 12 hour shift at TRU. Wasn’t as bad as last year, I don’t think, but it was still pretty damn bad. People wanted everything, so I wouldn’t really say there was a HUGE demand for any one thing in particular. Though the buy 1 get 1 free on Magnetics went like hotcakes. The Bratz Styling Heads for 10 bucks also went faster than lightning. We never got in anymore LEGO X-Wing Fighters, so that was wonderful.

No fights broke out, but people always bitch when they realize they are in the wrong line. Was funny seeing the line wrap the entire way around the store and re-wrap back up around itself.

Everyone kept saying "OH this line is rediculous!" Umm, hello? It’s BLACK FRIDAY IN A TOY STORE! Idiots…

Cameron T: 63 degrees? Ridiculous. It’s been snowing here all morning. It’s been a while since I did a lot of driving in the snow, so here’s hoping I get used to it before I end up in a ditch. My car’s supposed to be good in snow though (’93 Mercury Topaz - I know you’re jealous).

Feel free to send the snow and cold down here…Hasn’t snowed here in two years.

Speaking of parades, I was watching Super Password on GSN earlier, and at the end of the show, Bert Convy advertised his hosting of the Macy’s Parade with Pat Sajak. I had to chuckle, because all I could think of was "baggies."

Double G: I blame the Cobra Kais, or at least the real Pat from Happy Days. I kept confusing the 2.

Ryane: Everyone kept saying "OH this line is ridiculous!" Umm, hello? It’s BLACK FRIDAY IN A TOY STORE! Idiots…

The exact thing happened in my KB Toys store earlier today (worked from 4:30-9am and I have to go back at 5pm and work till 9:30ish), and the store was smaller than yours to boot. The real line went down the first aisle while everyone else was wrapping around the front of the other 3 aisles, and when I told them they had to move, they didn’t move for 5 minutes and then they did move, they all bitched. At 6am, this was the funniest thing ever. And when I got home at 9:30, I slept till 2:30. Nothing like a power nap.

And if Jeff is out there, I missed getting your package and it’s at the post office now…at a town that I don’t live near.

On a totally random topic, my roommate got a nice new TV so he ordered this fireplace/aquarium DVD that just shows, well, a burning fire or an aquarium. It came in the mail today but he’s home for Thanksgiving and won’t be back until Sunday. I’m really tempted to open it up and watch it now. You get three choices of fire too: a beach bonfire, a colonial fireplace or a campfire!

Sounds very tempting, Gozer. If I ever get a big screen, I might put my Hallwe’en sights and sounds DVD on and leave it on for no reason. Hasbro is coming out with a video projector for 300 bucks next year, so I might save up for that.

Matt, the article was short but great, and the video clips kicked ass! I can’t get enough of those old McDonald’s ads, they were classics. Shame they don’t make them like that anymore.

Kittycatgirl: Thanks, it was good. Like I said, Mom’s been feeding minor armies for years and has cooking big meals down to a science. I’ve barely eaten anything today, because I ate it all yesterday.

Damn, it’s cold here, too, at least 20-something. Thank goodness though it’s been predicted on and off, no snow yet in Southern New Jersey. I’m not ready. We don’t usually get white stuff until January, if at all.

Well you’ve done an awesome job, yet again. It was like going through my very ovn flash back sequence!

This is incredible. Does anyone remember the 1988 or 1990 year when the Jets did the Rescue Rangers theme song? Does anyone have it recorded? If so, please email me at
carolyn@dia.net

I gotta admit, I had one of those Typhoons and it waddndat cool… although I was pretty pissed when one of the fans broke.

Didn’t see the Looney Tunes clip, but it can be nowhere near the blot on their reputation that Loonatics is now.

People above covered Fred Travelena, but I’ll add that if you really want to get acquainted with him, watch Game Show Ne…I mean, GSN, The Network for Games. He was a regular on many ’80s game shows, usually Match Game.

Dig the cardboard costume. And "I know you’re not supposed to talk to strangers, but I’m Ronald McDonald!" must have inspired the Gacys of the world.

re: Charlie Brown, whatever we got, it was better than previous airings on ABC apparently were…according to the Peanuts Animation list (web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/peanuts-animation.html), they previously deleted Snoopy and Woodstock swerving the rest of the gang and having their own turkey and all…and wouldn’t that be cannibalism for Woodstock?

BTW that Fred dude was the WORST Elvis ever. Even a show as stupid as the Mario Bros Super Show should have it’s limits.

That Sebastian ornament still sits on top of the tree every year, right next to baby Jesus and Joe Namath.

My Thanksgiving was…surreal. I don’t know if it was the absence of my late grandfather, which we all actually handled rather well, or the stress of my boyfriend meeting my extended family for the first time, or the fact that we ate dinner later than usual because my aunt is an idiot and can’t get anywhere on time and therefore we were all starving and finished eating in like fifteen minutes, or what…but the whole holiday was just weird. Though topping off the face-stuffing with a heart-warming CSI episode about a man’s stomach basically exploding was nice. Dammit, I missed Charlie Brown…I haven’t seen that in years.

Speaking of face-stuffing, here’s what we had, if I can remember correctly:
- Turkey (of course)
- Ham (yuck)
- Homemade stuffing
- Sweet potatoes (yuck)
- Can-shaped cranberry goo (yuck)
- Mashed potatoes and gravy
- Cheese ball and crackers
- Ambrosia-like fruit salad
- 2 apple pies, orange pie, vanilla cream pie, pumpkin pie (yuck)
And I think that was it. And pretty much all the leftovers are gone by now, sigh.

Another great parade review, Matt! I wish I could watch the damn video here at work, grumble. I need to take my computer to get it fixed, if only for the sole purpose of the Advert Calendar.

Better late than never, I guess. It’s updates like these that make me so determined make sure that once I get my own place and start my career (graduating in less than a month) I get a good internet connection, so that I can read these the day they go up, rather than waiting to be back on campus (lousy connection at home).

Still an excellent job on the review, like always. But I am hoping that you go back and do the 1988 parade at some point. We hadn’t been living in our new house for a month yet when that was on TV so all I remember is sitting in front of a very static-filled screen trying desperately to hear Willard Scott describe the balloons which I basically couldn’t see.

The white queen was awesome on the marvel float. Never knew she had the power to kick buildings that had fallen down back into shape. Happy Holidays everyone

Hey, I’m too lazy to read anyone elses stuff, but i thoughty i would talk about the Regional Holiday Pack.

I just finished drinking all of the Jones Sonda REgional Holiday Pack. I almost kille d my self trying to find it, but i did, so yaaaaaay.

Turkey and Gravey - Same exact as the National Holiday pack, but in a different box. Tasted like shit, and stilll pprobably my least favorite of all of the Holiday Flavors. I still gag everytime i try this stuff.

Corn on the Cob - Smelled like Vanilla Pudding, tasted like Vanilla Puddig that has been fermenting in a hole for the past fifteen years, but not that bad. Let’s put it this way. I didn’t gag.

Smoked Salmon Pate - This is the one i had been afraid of. Snoked Salmon Pate is good stuff, but I though that I would throw up the throw up of a million sick kiddlings with Bird Flu. We did the pre-smell, and all fo my friend’s were gagging and saying it smelled terrible, but it just smelled like Black Olive Juice. I still didn’t want to drink, it didn’t smell that bad, ut as i have leanred with these things, the smell can be decieving. What’s wierd is that it isnt that bad. Not somethig I would drink if i could have Code Red or something, but still i Didn’t puke. It tasted like Salmon, not at first, but the after taste, it was just like Salmon.

Green Bean Casserole - After Slmon not being bad, i applied my knowledge from the National Holiday Pack. I really excpected to gag while openeing this, but i didn’t. I thought i would gag as i smelled it up close, but i didn;t. I gagged as i drank this, but i could keep it down.

Pecan Pie - The worst in the pack, i Don’t know why,m but this one actually got me to throw up. That’s about it. Yea.

Who is Fred Travelena?
According to IMDB.com he’s basically a d-list celebrity who only does voices for cartoons and one epsiode characters on sitcoms.

Dude! I just found this site two hours ago and I haven’t left yet. This is now my new favorite website. Complete with video clips and everything. Man, when that guy in the McRib commercial says "Chomp!", I get flashbacks. That was the hook and it got me.

That bugs bunny segment is hilarious! And they managed to get arguably the ugliest singer/dancer/actors to do it too. Wow. I miss 1989.

The Marvel Comics Superhero float killed, I was laughing myself blue watching the superheroes prance so gingerly around the float…safety first gang. Melba Moore should’ve been singing she needs an agent! First thing she probably said after her mouth thawed: "Morty you’re fired!"

Oh wow. That NKOTB float brings back memories. (Jordan was a skanky ho! Pass it on!) They had a cabbage-patch doll line and a cartoon show, and when I was twelve my fantasies included beating the crap out of them with a cane! I preferred the Gummi Bears. Still do. Donnie was my favourite; I’m a good judge ‘cos he’s the only one with some small career left (cf the Sixth Sense). And they probably still own half of lower Manhattan between them. Life ain’t fair.

Wow, Matt, this post-Greymatter world is lush. Thanks so much! *This* one’s “for the children of the world”! Now we can comment on all your old reviews and comment on old comments…

I still have my original Tyco Typhoon Hovercraft along with its original box in excellent condition. What a great toy it was! However, I want to use it again, but the original rubber air-bag skirt is all dry rotted. I can’t seem to locate anyone that might have a replacement for this. Anyone out there know of anybody or company that might have these things? Website? I don’t want to throw this thing away. Thanks

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