Michelle Obama Jumps the Shark

Jumping the Shark, is actually quite difficult to do when you are famous when you think about it. You really need to do something that is jolting to accomplish this.

What is 'Jumping the Shark', you ask. It is a term that has been issued to an episode of Happy Days, where the Fonz, or Fonzie is water-skiing on a lake when he hits a ramp and jumps over 'tank' that holds a shark. Granted, it probably contained no shark, or was even a tank, rather a string of buoys in a circle. In any event, at this point the most popular character on the most popular show, did something to get more attention, hence 'Jump the Shark'.

Fast Forward 35 years to 2013, to the Oscars. A show that ranges over 3 plus hours holds the world's attention to the end for the Best Picture award. Jack Nicholson walks on stage alone (press was told ahead of time that Jack would announce winner with Dustin Hoffman), he then mentions that he is presenting with a special guest.

Enter America's First Lady Michelle Obama on Sunday, one who is not shy to the camera.

"Main Screen Turn On"

On the large display screen above the audience of Hollywood's elite, shows a Mrs. Obama standing in a room with several youthful uniformed armed servicemen and women.

My thought was..

First: if you are going to do this, then hold off on the armed servicemen and women, don't use them as decorations-they deserve better than that.

Secondly: if Mrs. Obama was to announce the winner, then why can't she appear at the event live in person.

My internal thought was, 'this is awful', no real reason other than ram political points during an entertainment awards show. The country can't settle on a budget, can't settle on cuts to spending, can't come to an agreement on taxation, and are 4 more days until another economic emergency with sequestration...but yet politics has infiltrated the Oscars.

Hell, even Democrat Donnie Deutsche says she was an 'uninvited guest'. "you have to give the consumer the ultimate respect...all of a sudden, politics is thrown at them...it is not what you signed up for." It was an intrusion, as Donnie says, he wanted more Jack Nicholson.

Michelle Obama who just chatted up the likes of Big Bird, Rachel Ray, and only God knows what else in the last 2 weeks, just over exposed herself has Madam of Entertainment LLC of the USA.

This reminded me of the 1984 Apple Computer TV ad, where Big Brother is telling the drones that they will prevail, until a heroine arrive....

with a sledgehammer and destroys the screen.

At this point I envisioned a movie hero taking this role from the audience..maybe Russell Crowe saying that this will not stand...

or maybe someone with a little more age, who has seen history go by and will not allow this to be repeated...

Clint Eastwood, o.k. too political...

the perfect scene would of been Pacino and DeNiro standing out of their chairs and stopping the 'Jumping the Shark' madness. Although old age might stop these two from accomplishing the mission.

Maybe we needed Jennifer Lawrence from Hunger Games to save the day, Oscar award in hand.

In the end, Mrs. Obama said her goodbyes to all her friends in the audience, Argo won Best Picture, and Seth McFarland put a ribbon on this years fun. Leave it to Hollywood to surprise us with the plot at the very end.

State Park Websites

Just a small word of advice to those that run websites regarding state parks and their cabin/lodge/tent reservation systems. Could you make sure your hyperlinks actually work from your pages. What is more demoralizing of scheduling a stay at your park if the whole trip gets wrecked by the reservation hyperlink button.

We are interested in making a couple small trips this year.

1. A 2 night trip down to Arkansas, there are several nice areas that may be worth staying at.
2. A 4 night trip out to Colorado, certainly seeing the Mountainous Peaks of Estes Park would be nice, but even other portions of the state are being considered. This trip would have many hours on the road, 8 each way, certainly no small feat with a little fella.

When Steak Restaurants Go Bad

That is really the question. It has me thinking more and more about the quality of steaks that restaurants sell. I am talking about those chain sit down places that sells steak plates from 10-18 dollars. Recently, we had dinner out and ordered 2 different steaks, same cut, but different oz. size. It turned out that neither cut reminded us of that particular cut, while the meat was just leveled with fat and grizzle (grissle, grizstle?). Turns out, after complaining about how awful those meats were, their replacements were just as terrible. So that got me thinking, is it possible for a restaurant to sell you a Sirloin but not sell you a Sirloin? At what point is it the restaurants fault, is it their upper management, is it the franchise responsibility? We have had dinner twice at this particular restaurant and have had mixed feelings. 1. Ordering non-steak food, no problems. 2. Order steak foods, major problems. But reading their name of their restaurant makes you think steak, and in a big way. So how is this possible? In any event, the restaurant gave the larger steak for free, but it still ruined dinner. Enjoy eating your sides without any eatable meat, only to get a replacement 12 minutes later, which is equally as awful?

I understand it is troubling economic signs, but certainly cutting corners regarding steak cuts at restaurants is not the solution. If you need to charge a couple of dollars more, then I will pay it so that the cut of steak is eatable!

Listen up America!