The Power Of The Spokesman

Only two more weeks and we will be on our way to California for the Fabulous Fords Forever Carshow at Knott's Berry Farm. Although we missed it the past two years this will be our fifth time going since I joined The Copperstate Mustang Club. I will be driving the Mustang as this year Ford celebrates the 30th Anniversary of the Fox Bodied Mustangs which mine is one of them. As always we will be going to the amusement park on Saturday and then us guys will do the show on Sunday while the girls do their girly stuff.

Megan knew her time had come and so she went out with a bang. She told Simon that she liked him a lot but she just didn't care about his critique as she once again was chosen to be a bottom three contestant. The she acted silly pretending she was a crow and flew to her stool while she made this crow like noises. A few minutes later she finds out she is the one leaving and when Ryan asks Simon if they would consider saving her, he proceeds to tell "With all due respect when you said you didn't care, neither do we", no we will not save you just do your good bye or your swan song and be on your way. Ouch! She took it graciously and didn't seem to be affected by it, she once again performed the song and in the end when all the other contestants came to her she finally broke in tears. The musical guest was Lady Ga Ga, I think the only reason they asked her to perform was to use her as a vivid example of what the contestants should NEVER sing in the show unless they want a ticket back home.

How did this guy become the spokesman or should l I said spokesdog for Taco Bell. I think his whole speaking repertoire was "You Quiero Taco Bell". I think if he would have said "Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof" would have been more realistic. I think he's been fired though.


Here's another one that made it big and he is a nudist. In one of the commercial they bring him a little suit but he prefers to go al fresco and obviously refuses to wear it. And so people continue to listen and buy car insurance as naked gecko advises.




This guy is totally creepy. I have said it before, just because of him I don't go to Burger King. What possessed them to even think of these series of commercials.







This one for sure is one of my favorite spokesman, OK spokesbeagle. And he irony is that he doesn't even speak.








And again this is why I like Knott's Berry Farm. Snoopy is a sort of spokesbeagle for the place. If you know me a little bit then you'll remember that I love Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the whole peanuts gang. The whole lot of them.

As my grandkids tell me when they see Snoopy. "Look grandpa there you are".


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Changing the things I can

Just about everybody is suffering to some extent from the financial crisis, except maybe the AIG execs who are cashing bonus checks paid for with my tax money. I finally figured out that the carefully selected mutual funds in my IRA have sunk in value to what they were worth in 1999. We're all asking each other, "Should we bail out now or is it just going to get worse?" I remember thinking when my funds were doing well, "Should I bail out now, or is it just going to get better?"

Since we got home last weekend I've been spending hours on the couch or bed, my foot elevated on a pile of pillows, reading, dozing and pondering issues like finances, health and aging. Far too much thinking time is available when you're laid up with an injury. And lurking in the back of the mind is the knowledge that I haven't had any exercise in almost two weeks, and nightmare visions of myself as Jabba the Hutt are haunting me.

So when a friend we hadn't seen in a few months came by and told us about the diet he adopted this year, I paid attention. Fit for Life, by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, is a somewhat dated book with an approach that has quite a few detractors, but our friend JB has just about made me a believer. He has lost more than 30 pounds and has considerably more energy than last year, when he looked somewhat bloated, drank too much and had a scary cholesterol count. The Capt is interested, in hopes he can beat the sinusitis that has been plaguing him for the past few years, making him feel like he has a perpetual cold.
The ground rules are:
Eat nothing but fruit before noon. This rules out coffee, too, although we haven't been able to live up to that restriction yet.
Concentrate on fruit, vegetables, whole grains
No dairy. Dairy, says Harvey, is for baby cows. (Although, curiously, a small amount of butter is allowed.)
No sugar or refined flour (hard to avoid in Mexico)
There are also quite a few guidelines about combinations of food, which I'm still learning about.

JB stressed that the rules don't have to be followed religiously, and in fact the book itself has at least one recipe calling for a little heavy cream (aha!) but he says after a while he lost the craving for the foods he used to think he couldn't live without.

We've only been doing this for a couple of days. JB and the book both warn that the first month we will be processing and discharging toxins. I'll spare you the disgusting signs we'll be experiencing, but I've got extra incense and mouthwash in the bathroom.

All my pondering hasn't resulted in a single solution to my financial crisis, beyond getting out of debt, on which I'm making headway. So I've been applying the Serenity Prayer a lot lately. And how I feed myself and the Capt is one thing I have the courage to change.

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference