The X-Entertainment Blog!

07/18/2007: Summer Megaparty: Reruns?

Oh God, I hate dial-up so, so much. I can't do anything. Plus, X-E is brought to you by a combination of a desktop and a laptop, but mostly the desktop. Unfortunately, I can only get online on the laptop, meaning that every picture, Word document and anything else has to be built on one computer, burned to a CD and brought to the other to upload. If I make a mistake or forget something, I get to do it all over again. I'm counting the minutes until Verizon comes tomorrow, bearing the gift of Fios. Beautiful, beautiful Fios.

So, since putting anything of substance together on dial-up is entirely too frustrating for my fragile bones, let's use this space to reflect on a couple of articles from X-E's past that newer readers probably haven't seen. Here are five from 2003 that I've always liked…

The Mystery of Hostess Choco-Diles: I grew a profound obsession with these west coast-only Hostess cakes, and went absolutely batshit crazy trying to track them down. Ultimately, I called some random Hostess bakery in California, plead my case, and wired 'em like a hundred bucks to rush-ship me a box of dozens of Choco-Diles — most of which ended up being glue-gunned to an antique frame we had laying around as some alien form of art. Nearly all of them fell off the frame in the weeks following, but the thing looked pretty cool during its short life.

The article had a lot of traction when it was first published, and got linked all over town. I'd like to think that it had a big part in the current availability of Hostess Choco-Diles — not from Hostess, mind you, but from day-playing entrepreneurs who realized that they could charge people double or triple the retail cost and make decent cash running their own little Choco-Dile mail order businesses.

Recreating Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving: I never really have a huge queue of articles waiting to be written, so it's always exciting when I stumble upon something that inspires me. Sometimes, something inspires me so much that I get seriously depressed when I'm finished writing about it, because there's just no telling if I'll ever "feel it" like that again. This is a great example. I don't know why I thought it was so cool to recreate the absurd dinnertime feast seen in the Peanuts Thanksgiving special, but I did, and still do. From freeze-framing on all of the table and kitchen shots in the cartoon to running rampant in the grocery store on the hunt for pretzel sticks and jelly beans, it was just such a blast.

Glofish - The Living Fad: The house of X-E was built on random nostalgic musings, but when I review what I've covered, that barely seems to account for half of the articles. Truth be told, it's much more exciting for me to hunt for and write about all the new holiday-themed candies and toys that come out each year. This is partly because I've written about enough old crap to know that we live in a world that throws most of its stuff away, and it's important to me to "archive" those little slices of heaven that would otherwise be forgotten. This article, about that "Glofish" fad from a few years ago, kind of falls under that umbrella.

The 1984 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: There are times when I get so excited to write about something, it becomes almost daunting. When I know I have a goldmine of material and that material just happens to be something I have a very genuine and true love for, it's almost hard to write about it. In this case, I handled those feelings by turning what would normally be a regular-length article into like 450 pages of words, pictures and videos. Looking back on it now, I'm not exactly thrilled with my choice of words, but when I reflect upon the morning I spent watching the parade on a grainy VHS, screaming over and over again about how cool everything was, it reminds me that doing this site is half about what I publish and half about what I get out of the trip. If that makes sense?

The Halloween House: Sometimes, the stuff I write about is the fruit of months-long searches. The Macy's Parade review, for example, was no easy find — it involved phone calls, long drives and at least a little begging. Other times, shit just falls in my lap. When you're spending an October writing about any and every Halloween "thing" you can find, and you drive past a house with two dozen life-sized statues patterned after every horror icon imaginable, it's tough not to feel a little charmed. As things turned out, there wasn't much to say about the place once I put the article together. There are times when I'd say in retrospect that maybe I shouldn't have bothered writing a certain article, but with something like this, fuck that. It was posted on Halloween in 2003. It couldn't have been more perfect, all things considered.

Great, now I'm jonesing for Halloween during a Summer Megaparty. This is what happens when you're on dial-up.

Brillant! I love flashbacks, and believe it or not I've been coming to your site for years, but I never left a comment until about a month ago. I was a slacker in the beginning, and I promise to slack no more.

Wow…I remember when these articles were posted, and I was coming to the site a while before this.

On another note, that stupid explosion in NYC pre-empted Last Comic Standing, and that makes me a saaaad panda.

I have super fond memories of all those 03 articles, especially chocodiles, I had never heard of them prior to the article and was excited when I saw them mentioned on an episode of American Dad because XE had taught me of their existence.

Every time I think of Chocodiles I think of Summer School, the movie. Kirstie Alley says to Mark Harmon something about staying with the chocodiles when he offers up other junk food.
I tried them for the first time last month on my road trip. And only because of that article. I can see why they are in high demand. For Hostess, they are alright.
Count me in the hungry for fall group. There's literally NO holidays for awhile. One ought to be invented for August.

The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is one of my favorite articles ever on the site. Also, I always like those Macy's Parade reviews especially since they have so many old commercials on them.

I've never seen one of those old time toasters that pop outward though in person.

I dig any Halloween article. I was at the mall today asking a shoe repair specialist (Two old people chiseling on heels) if they could get paint dot splatter off my Kenneth Cole shoes. She didn't even look at them before saying, "No paint off shoes."
I was a little miffed at her complete discard for my business so I said, " you know, you have the profession of gnomes."
Then she flipped her shit and screamed, "Get out!! Get out!!"
Can you believe that? I said it in a nice way.
My original point is that they were clearing a spot in the mall for an upcoming Halloween store that opens in three weeks. It's coming!

Ah chocodiles, my breakfast for almost 3 years in high school consisted of a chocodile and a free sample cup of ultra sugary faux latte type dealy from Circle K. And, to rid my mouth of the sugary goo, a 25 cent pack of wrigleys gum. Delicious AND nutritious.

"…it reminds me that doing this site is half about what I publish and half about what I get out of the trip. If that makes sense?"
Hell yeah it does. In fact it's just what makes this site so great.
You should throw the spotlight on old gems like this more often

I remember reading the Thanksgiving meal article, in the computer lab of our department.

Kinda like how I listened to the new Yellowcard today and had to rush to the (other) lab to listen to it in there. THEY HAD CHANGED THE FREAKIN' LOCK. So after much rigamarole (mostly me just complaining about the injustice (I practically live in there) I get in, and THERE'S PEOPLE IN THERE!!!!

I mean one, I obviously wanted some alone time, but two I could have just knocked to have gotten in. *sigh*

Hi Matt. I've read your site for years, and I feel like I owe you a favor or two. Why don't you buy a router so you can share your internet connection amongst your PCs? Is that why you await Verizon? Shoot me an Email and I can walk you through setup.

I remember reading all of these articles in the autumn of 05—which is an unimportant memory. I was in the UK for a few months all by my lonesome, and hankered for some American nonsense, or something. I came for the Thanksgiving/Halloween nostalgia and stayed for the chocodiles.

I still every flavour of Halloween Jones Soda mini cans sitting in my closet that I was inspired to buy by Matt…once i cracked open each to test ON Halloween day of course I had no use for them…by the end of the night we resorted to adding malibu to all of them because we figured, hey, its halloween, we might as well get drunk. they're not exactly a can of pop u crack open to enjoy during dinner or anything. So right now they're sitting in my closet.

The John Ratzenberger song! My most favorite parade review moment! Thanks for prompting me to enjoy it all over again.

The other day I was wondering when I first started hanging out here and now I know…2003. I still feel like a newbie.

"The Worst Witch" Halloween review will always hold a special place in my heart; it's the one I make everyone read.

Side note, Matt/Jersey folk, do you pick up the mag Weird NJ? They did a whole article about Dracula's castle in Wildwood a while back I just found. Now I need to re-read yours. I think I'll do that instead of work tomorrow.

Wow, I definately remember the CB Thanksgiving (always wanted to do what you did, but never had the guts) and Chocodiles ones off the top of my head. It's been 4 years already? Man, once you turn 18, times definately flies.

Heck, I just got done watching "TVLand Confidential: Finales." Tony Danza was on it talking about the "Who's the Boss" series finale. That was 15 years ago and I remember watching it. I feel old and I'm only 25.

I'm a big fan of the American Science and Surplus article from quite a while ago. Back in the pink haired Matt day. Matt, are you still doing that to your head? If so, is there long term effects to drastic blue and pink dye on the follicles? Just wondering.
http://www.x-entertainment.com/as&s/test.html

Those were some good articles. We have a Halloween House like that around here. Also, I'm quite glad that the Thanksgiving layout is preserved on the CB article- that was a nice one. 2003 was my first year here- I can't believe it's been that long already.

I am SO ready for fall! Summer sucks here this year- its like it hasn't even STARTED yet but it's almosy August…it is always rainy and gray, yet muggy. I can count the sunny days this month on one hand. I have given up- bring on the crisp air, the colorful leaves and the anticipation of Halloween!

"You have the profession of gnomes." Holy shit, that was funny! The closest I ever got to that level of cool was when a guy from a carpet cleaning business tried to sell me something, and I put on a hillbilly accent and told him we had dirt floors. So he told me they also cleaned furniture. Gotta admire his quick thinking, but I came back with, "We don't got no furniture, we sit on boxes!" Surprisingly, he thought it was funny, and told me to have a good day.

Wow, that Hostess Bakery Thriftstore took me back. it's identical to the one in Wall NJ my mom used to take me to after school to pick up ungodly amounts of discount Wonderbread and the occasional Ninja Turtle pie. I went back recently and it was long gone. Sad.

Before I derail this very sincere and cooly subdued blog entry, I must perform an "awww geeez" for all of the valentine's the other day.

kb, no imposter on the last thread, that was me. I just wanted to wait for a new thread AND it was also a nod to COOL HAND LUKE (when Luke comes into the room before the egg eating contest).

2 X-E moments before I get started:
1. I saw a local Air Conditioning company van with a terrible air-brushed "Sub Zero" on the side. "A" for effort, "F" for execution.
2. The Macon hospital has a McDonald's inside it(let the irony begin) but they had the old scary Hamburgular in there AND Big Mac.

Gory details: Monday was a no go with the induction. We had contractions but…
We were upset that it didn't take and nervous that we had bought a one way ticket to Caesarean Town.
Next morning @ 4:30, we started again. Contractions, etc. Epidural at 8:30 and that is what got us going. By 10:30, it was on. I got to put on the scrubs and two pushes later, there she was, in my arms. Allie Elizabeth. 8 lbs, 21 inches. Mom and baby are doing well and E. Claire loves "Baby sistah Al-leee".
Well, I guess that's it. I may not be around because of obvious reasons and fear of HARRY POTTER spoilers.
Thanks again for all of the love. Mrs. Manimal (or WoManimal

) and I appreciate it. Click my name to see Minimal (you guys are too much).

Wow, I live no more than 10 miles from one of the American Science and Surplus retail locations. I had never even heard of the place before.

I think I may have just found a field trip to take over the next couple of days.

YAY for you Manimal. I remember when E. Claire was born. Now you have two! Very happy for you and your family.

Congratulations Manimal! My girlfriend almost hurt herself running from the kitchen to the den to see Allie's picture. I'm glad everything went smooth. You had us sweating earlier.

I too am surfing in fear of Harry Potter spoilers. I glance at any given page for the word Potter and if I see it I close out the page. hehe.

Mystie: I just looked at your action figure makeovers, and they're wonderful! I can't stop giggling about Darth Bunny Wizard. True artistic genius!

good blog post Matt. Don't feel bad it aint your fault your doing the best with what you got. We are having probs with this laptop not being able to print through the network. My best friend will fix it eventually. There is a piece of freeware called print anytime that basically you can tell somebodys (with their permission of course, can you imagine the pranksters and what they would do with this? Or just spammers) printer through the internet to print something on your computer. It's for companies, so they don't have to have a picture or a document on their computer to print it. It's easier then to set up a printer network too if both computers have an internet connection. I find lots of coupons online that I want to print but I have to email the link to my best friend in order to print it. It's a pain for sure.

Going through Matt's old halloween articles it reminded me that I have a packet of Ghoulaid that my sister had. Last year when I was living with her, I was looking through the cupboards and saw a tupperware container and she said our cousin when she was moving out of the area asked if my sister wanted that. It had a bunch of old koolaid packets in it. I saved another packet and Ghoulaid and that's it most of them are still being made like grape. I was jumping up and down batty over it because of Matt's article. Halloween retro ANYTHING is enough to go crazy over. I remember instantly sitting down and typing it out right here like I am right now. This is the effect this site has on us.

I fully agree, I hate dial-up. Great now I'M pumped for Halloween. And I TOTALLY feel like putting Halloween in the DVD player.

That Halloween article reminds me of that Castle Dracula article I also like. What I wouldn't give to ride it just once…

I've read all of them at one time or another, the 1984 Thanksgiving Parade many times. It was the only parade I got to see that year - all the men in my family were suddenly seized with the desire to watch "X-Men 2" NOW. The last two mentioned are favorites.

Hey Matt, I was just wondering if you were affected at all by the steam explosion on Lexington today. I work two blocks from Grand Central, and the whole area was full of panicked crowds when I got out. Anyone else in Midtown when that happened?

Holy shit congrats Manimal new life is awesome. I too remember all of those articles wow I have been lurking for a very very long time…the midtown stuff was crazy wasn't it?

Matt, I must say, the Recreating Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving is probably my all-time favorite X-E article, slightly beating out your Bar Harbor trip recap, and all the old quests for Bulbasaur(s). I totally get what you were trying to do with the CB piece and still think it’s ingenious.

thank you so much matt for providing this summer megaparty, it had kept me entertained at work during seemlessly endless hangovers.

also anyone who does not want harry potter spoiled avoid YOUTUBE. i read something that i'd rather not know there, especially given that my internet wont let me download the shity cell phone pictures of the book. if anyone has been able to download it please email ME. othompson@christies.com yes i work at christes. no i can not get you an original storm trooper helmet, although i have touched one. it felt like god.

Great stories Bill and heeree. I wish I had some clever story like that.

Did anyone else expect this to be, on reading the title, like a mid-week SNT, with us reminiscing about great re-runs? Like Seinfeld last night, where Kramer had a kidney stone

I remember these articles. Good times indeed. That Macy's Parade one made me love "What A Feeling". I had actually read that one, all through, the day after my uncle died. Got my mind off it. Thanks Matt, since you helped me, and I'm sure alot of us, through some rough times.

And obvious congratulations to The Manimal and family (Manifamily?

). How beautiful.

also additional congrads to manimal … don't post here often enough. but always read the comments. i feel like that weird uncle at thanksgiving who sits in the corner but knows everyone a little too much about the nieces and their hobbies… (fave article … first one that brought me here the entire star wars xmas special long since removed)

Allie is such a cool name.
I was too busy waxing emo earlier to notice that Bill had won another thread.

And I never realized the Manimals were so nearby! Cue "It's a Small World" theme

Ah, memories… I actually remember being in highschool and finding XE while googling "bathroom etiquette"…

Congrats to Manimal. Allie is a great name. Now all we need is a Kate

( sorta obscure sitcome reference)

Awesome! I still think my favorite Matt adventures are the Nads eating, Nerds cereal review, Bulba quests, and the story about trying to make copies of articles and everything goes to shit at Staples or wherever. Good times! Been reading since '02!

{Sigh} someone get the drunk guy out of the party. Just put him in a cab and send him home…

On another topic: I did a write up about the random beach trip. It's a bit long, but I think it came out pretty good. For those interested, click my name…

It takes me so long to write my follow up comments I can't even tell if I'm double-posting or not. Anyway, is there any good way to find the articles that have been written in ages past, other than going through the blog archives? Admittedly, I am a somewhat recent reader (around Halloween last year) and have a whole lot of catching up to do.

I think I'm going over to Manimal's house with some junk food (including chocodiles) and have a pity party. LOLalso Ben You can use the search engine on the bottom of the home page, there is an archive section that doesn't have all the articles but a lot you can read from but I don't know what it is someone does.

Awesome blog post about your beach trip. Glad you had a good time. I could definitely use something like that in my life right about now.

didn't realize i'd been lurking for so long… might as well lurk no more… my first read was the x-2 ice cream article.

and i found chocodiles once, and only once…then the hostess outlet store closed down

Tomorrow is our Harry Potter party at the bookstore…should be a crazy time. I will be capturing the historic midnight moment on my archaic old VHS camcorder.

The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is one of my favorites. Does it have to be Thanksgiving to fix it though? If not, this sounds like a pretty sweet idea for later.

Did I submit that comment again just now? Don't know how that happened, sorry. It was from last night in the heat of annoyed-on-Manimal's behalf/upset-at-being-spoiled passion. Really I was mad at myself for not resisting that last refresh.
Catch up with you guys Saturday

I found this site via another website's link back during Halloween 2005. Only recently started posting though; I was sorta intimidated by the regulars and their interaction with one another… still am a bit. Whoever said they were the crazy uncle of the site, I always felt like the random cousin who only shows up when there is free food to be had.

I have to say that my favorite article was the random children's books review that featured the dinosaur book and the Full House trivia book. Tears came to my eyes at the "Hamie" part I was laughing so hard

I came across X-E as I did a search for pictures of American Gladiators. Everyone on here has such a great whacky sense of humor and I love that.

This site is the only way Im able to get through this slooooooooooooow time at my office!

Wow I am slow…just thought of this but reruns and summer go hand in hand usually. All the networks spend the time replaying all the shows from the fall and spring…Summer Megaparty indeed

I LOVE the flashbacks, but can you make one sometime that doesn't access articles that are already on the front page? There are so many hard-to-find gems lost in the web of the X-E archives.

Huh. As it turns out, Tuesday after next will be my fourth anniversary as an XE reader. Like many of you, I first came here looking for a site with solid information pertaining to giant ape juice. What I found instead was a hilarious review of the 1984 Supergirl movie. I was in Oxford and out of money, and every time I stepped out the door I ended up spending eighty-seven dollars American, and we were in the grip of a massive heatwave and the computer room was the only place in the entire house that had air conditioning. So I ended up reading through most of the front-page archive mostly out of self-defense.

Of course, then I lurked for two years before ever posting on a blog entry. And I still think some of my favorite articles are Matt's old E-Bay scams. Especially the Infinity Fortuna Spellkit, which now seems to be accessible only through the search engine.

I found X-E while either searching for Halloween things or random toys; I don't recall which, just that it was in October of 2002. I had just started my first big high school job and the interwebs became a great outlet each night to recharge for the next day.

I also lurked for about two years before posting here and there in blogs where I felt like I could add to the conversation. That went on for two more years until last year's Summer Mega Party, where late night conversations were very much needed in a crazy time in my life. Tear

My favorite articles are the road trips or whenver Matt goes out on a mad search for something…oh how I can so relate….

it sounds as if you have a wireless network in your house for broadband. you should be able to, even without broadband working, make a shared folder between the 2 computers and sharing files like that.

Continuing last articles thread, I have had UC now for 11 years and thats exactly what it is, not Crohns…I can see how something like that can be misdiagnosed in its early stages cause it takes some time to wreack havoc…just got a new doctor since I moved to a new state and had it reaffirmed again, just in case. Thank Titan I've never had anything removed and that I can still eat and drink most anything…though its not always a pleasant outcome.

Second, based on a post yesterday, I went out to get me some Carnival Skittles. Not bad. But while I was there I found another limited edition candy I think everybody should know about: Retro Starburst.

The concept is to take a flavor and assign pop culture names representing the past four decades. The 60s is represented by "Psychedeli-melon". I'm not sure what that name means. The 70s have the flavor "Disco Berry". The best one (namewise anyway) is the 80's entry, "Optimus Lime". And the 90s have "Hey Mango-rena!" to remind us all that the 90s truly were just as horrifying as the 70s or 80s.

Haven't actually tried any of the flavors yet. Still recovering from the diabetic coma I put myself into with the Skittles.

and the 90s have "Hey Mango-rena!" to remind us all that the 90s truly were just as horrifying as the 70s or 80s.

I'd like to cast my vote for "more horrifying". Every once in a while I'll run across something from the 90's that makes me nostalgic, but for the most part I hated that decade.

Hooray! Baby! That really is exctiting news. I'm happy for you, Manimal. She is truly a blessing.

CONGRATS Manimal, another girl! I love the name! Hearing your tale is making me excited/nervous about having my number 2 in November.

Wow, I remember being delighted when some of those articles were first posted. Couldn't have picked better ones for the blog. I don't remember how I first happened on this site, or exactly when, for that matter. I have the feeling that it was while searching for a legitimate review of a crappy movie, and this is what turned up.

Hooray once again for Manimal! Forget what the Chinese Governmment says, Girls are very Important! Allie is a cutey. Our ranks grow slowly, but they grow exceeding dedicated.

Second, I happened on this site a couple of years ago in my search for the elusive Chocodile and have been coming here ever since. I don't post much (I'm very shy and that translates to a virtual shyness), but I am here everyday and I read everything. I am thankful that I can come here and I know it will put a smile on my face (at the least!!). You guys are great!!!

I had gotten linked here randomly a few times in 2005, but the article that got me to come here regularly was the review of Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue. It was one of the funniest things I'd ever read.

Thanks for doing this, Matt; there's a lot of stuff on here that I haven't had a chance to read yet, and these are all gems.

I'd like to cast my vote for "more horrifying". Every once in a while I'll run across something from the 90's that makes me nostalgic, but for the most part I hated that decade.

Lori, you can't hate the 90's. The 90's were great, and the decade we're in now is WAAAAAAAAAAY worse!

This is the article that got me here in the first place. That was so very long ago.

Lori, you can't hate the 90's. The 90's were great, and the decade we're in now is WAAAAAAAAAAY worse!

It seems that every following decade seems to be getting worse than the previous one. I agree that the last 6 years were far worse than all 10 years of the 90s, in terms of…everything. Poltics, war, music, tv, movies (most of the top grossing films so far this year alone were either sequels, remakes or were based off books or tv shows)

With the exception of the growth of awesome sites like this one & fark. This is one of the things that is making like the 00's.

I fear for the next generation of nostalgic nerds that are going to reminisce stuff about this decade. Spongebob & Fallout Boy don't even hold a candle to stuff from the 80s, or even the 90s.

I agree with Mars —-
The 90's weren't too bad. What was the worst thing we worried about? Mulder getting abducted and Y2K?

Perhaps it's just me, but I grew on the East Coast and distinctly remember Chocodiles all of our convience store shelves. Perhaps they only had them in select East Coasts markets?

Oh, and Matt, let me know how that whole Fios thing works out for you. I know Verizon has been putting people on DSL when they can't get the Fios to work.

Congratulations Manimal! Hope she grows up healthy and happy and you both enjoy having her in your life!

I love reading old X-E articles. I've been coming here for almost 8 years now. I remember a few years ago, when they started monitoring firewall usage, one of the admins called me up and told me that my internet access habits are bringing up flags. I tried to explain to him that X-Entertainment is NOT what they think it is. That was a pretty awkward day at the office.

I still love the Spiderm-man Crayola Review, the Chia Pet Plot, but my all time favorites are the Advent Calendar stories. Well, that and God know how many others.

Magic Toy You completely need one of those. I have 3! Not that one, but the Japanese RE-Issue of Soundwave.

I know I asked this about 2 posts ago, but was there a MySpace group for this? Any of you nutty X-E'ers have MySpace?

Has anyone tried the new limited edition Reeses PB and Banana Cups? Elvis is on the packaging. I just tried one and they taste just like the regular pb cups, with a banana aftertaste. Not bad, but nothing to go bonkers over.

As for the 90s, I remember watching VH1's "I Love the 90s." and I honestly couldn't remember half the stuff they talked about. Was I in some sort of coma during that decade? I remember more stuff from the 80s and 70s (and I was born in 81) than I do the 90s.

I actually really loved the 90s, but in terms of pop culture, it was kind of fucked. The Macarena. The Spice Girls. Hootie And The Blowfish. N'Sync. Greedo shooting first. I could go on, but I'm depressing myself.

Not to say there weren't good things. Internet. Internet porn. Illegally downloading tunes from the internet.

The 2000s or whatever this decade is going to be called may be the worst ever. The W Decade? The Pantiless Celebrity Decade? The Pre-faded Jeans Decade?

Burning CD's?!? Matt didn't you get a Flash drive shaped like a penguin or something once? Or was I just drunk and imagined the whole thing?

(The tangent herein contained is kinda general, so just keep that in mind

)
It seems the modern decade has fallen apart because everything commercial is now too self-conscious and calculated. Nobody takes risks anymore, and the product suffers for it. I think of shows like Seinfeld and All In The Family- ground-breaking, somewhat puzzling shows that were runaway hits. Why don't we see things like these anymore?

And I was thinking about the same thing Invader Norbert mentioned- will the kids of today eventually be as nostalgic with their entertainment as we are? Because yeah, I think even objectively speaking, we had better product. Look at the cartoons now- its all either bad anime or bad anime-inspired. And its only on for a fraction of the time it was say 10 years ago.

But, in fitting with the general vein here, I will say that we've basically expereinced a "revolution" of sorts in the last few years. Now, thanks to the modern internet, a person can instantly and easily find virtually anything. Perhaps that is what the decade will be remembered for.

Congrats, Manimal! Now you get to double up on My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, and Barbies! YES!

Count me in as another person who came here via "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue." My bro sent me the link and I've been an avid reader ever since. Was that story link passed around or published somewhere? My bro can't remember where he first heard of it. Anywho, that article was (and still is!) high quality writin'!

I found myself mourning yesteryear today when I realized that five, ten years ago, we wouldn't have to live in quite so much fear of books getting spoiled. The Internet is great and all, and I certainly don't want to go without, but it seems like you can find out anything instantly, whether you want to or not!

*no spoiler, I promise* I read an article that JK Rowling was super pissed that the NY Times published a review of her book. Their response was that they bought it "legally" from some store in NY. Um, if it isn't meant to be sold until Friday night, then no, it isn't legal. So ridiculous. Any good HP fan worth their salt wouldn't read the review anyway (for fear of spoilers), so what the hell was the point??

I come here every frickin day but hardly ever post, I just had to today. Don't feel weird for Halloween jonesing, I've been excited for Halloween since spring! (I actually found this place looking for Halloween stuff 3 or 4 years ago) I got my costume last weekend, now I just have to wait for fall!

purplegirl247: That does seem sort of silly. And I find it very hard to believe that one single solitary person is going to read a review of the seventh Harry Potter book and have it change their mind on whether or not they're going to buy it. You know who frigging Harry Potter is, and you certainly know he's got another book coming out this month. Either you don't care, or the only question you care about is "Has it got Harry Potter on the front?" The merits of the actual book ceased to be an issue about three volumes back.

That being said, I imagine I'll wait until I'm working in the library again, and then read it while it's sitting on the Holds shelf, just like the last two. I am poor.

Okay. You guys are full of great weird candy ideas. I rushed out and got me one of the Peanut Butter & Banana Creme Reese's. Went to Rite Aid. They had the regular candy bars and the giant pack of bite-sized. I opted for the regular bar. It tasted pretty much like a regular Reese's. The banana is barely perceptible. But it did seem somewhat sweeter than the regular Reese's. If you're an Elvis freak or just love Reese's, probably worth a try. Otherwise, skippable.

The friggin' Spider-Man Crayola review! That's what started it all for me…glad someone brought it up; it was driving me crazy trying to remember what the first article I actually read was.

I can't remember exactly what article I read first, but it was before the Bulba saga, and the Jack Chick comics were still up. The Colonel linked me the site itself, not with a specific article in mind. Though, I'm sure it was probably because of the Transformer ones.

You know what's worse than dealing with dialup? Nearly breaking one of your little toes. >

purplegirl247/Jedoc - I read the review in the Times mag - it doesn't ruin it - I won't go into what it does say but I wouldn't say there are spoilers at all. In fact if you did want to know what happened, you'd be rather peeved if you read the review.
But I find it odd that a bookstore was already selling it.
12hrs to go!

I remember when some stores started selling FF XII like a week early. I think it was in the PAL region, iirc.

I'd like to read some of the spoilers, just to hold it over the Colonel's head. I'm like that with M. Night Shamalamadingdong's movies.

From what I read earlier today what was upsetting the publisher was the fact that the NYT broke the review embargo while so many other uphelp it. There is supposed to be an embargo for all reviews and press covering actual information and opinions on the book until 12AM UK time Friday night. I'd link the site I read, but it seems to be down at the moment.

I can't remember exactly what article I read first, but it was before the Bulba saga, and the Jack Chick comics were still up.

Have you ever noticed that not even archive.org can resurrect Chick Comics Theater? Although I do believe outside sources are still making them available…

I honestly haven't checked around, but I did notice that the Wayback Machine no longer works. I liked going back to the days of the Quickies and Awesome Dishwashing liquid

Alright, if Matt's going to do it, I think we should too. Let's get our 'playlistism' on. Here's a quick and dirty dip into Kneg's favs, sans the Bulba Saga, as I already linked those.

Like Friends, "The one with A Very Bradey Christmas."
Des Webb, "Hoth Wampa", makes me laugh so hard I wheeze and flare nostrils.

man…lookin at those old articles and the blog entries makes me wonder whatever happened to trajeal, Gabbylicious, ME, and other regulars from back in the day….hope they are doing well…..

Thanks for the Brady Christmas article link. I had never read that before. I am however sorely disappointed to finally realize that the girl who played Cindy was not the original actress. I suppose looking back on the pictures of her it should have been obvious. However, to an 11-year-old kid, all I can remember thinking is, "Damn! Cindy Brady grew up to be quite the looker!".

I have 12, count 'em, 12 (!!!) freakin' mosquito bites on my left leg alone after my visit to the drive-in two nights ago. I don't know why my left appendage is more appetizing than my right, but I have 8 bites on my left foot alone.

Oh, I remember the reading of the super long 1984 Macy's Parade. That was about an hour of bliss, every Saturday morning kid's show I remember with TV stars doing weird things. I think I started reading as early as finding the reviews for the "Ewok" movies from 1984/85 and I can remember so many things that are reviewed on this website. The offbeat commentaries are what makes it all so entertaining.

I remember when I came to this site… I believe it had something to do with M.U.S.C.L.Es… I know it was before the first Xmas countdown, and that I've read all the flashback articles… Sometimes I wonder if I've exhausted this site's prospects.

Ah! The Peanuts Thanksgiving day! I forgot it, I watched it many years ago. Pop corn, toasts, butter… what's the problem with that?

"Flashback" posts are a great a idea. But darnit, where's a decent archive section ?!?!

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