Summer is why there are no good DVDs to rent in the fall. I cannot express in strong enough words how much I am not looking forward to “Sex and the City” — this kind of sums up one reason — and I am a person who enjoyed “The Devil Wears Prada.” Is that actually a cougar necklace? And Kim Cattrall actually wears it? On her body?
Boy, I can’t wait for October, a chilly weekend for staying in with the season’s first hearty soup and a nice bottle of wine, and nothing at Blockbuster except “The Love Guru.”
Busy morning, back later. Feel free to bitch about crappy movies.
Brian Stouder said on May 29, 2008 at 10:28 am
I liked “The Devil Wears Prada” too; and “27 Dresses” impressed me; and for that matter “The Nanny”, too – all movies that I wouldn’t have guessed that I’d like, before seeing them. Expectations versus what you see on the screen seems to be the black magic in movie marketing.
Bigfoot movies like Sex & the City and Indiana Jones are almost more cursed than blessed, with such high anticipation/expectations.
The other night I got sucked into the superb little movie “Breaker Morant” (again!) on Turner Movie Classics, and at the end, the host shared a fascinating tidbit: that Oscar-nominated movie got a very lucky, totally unplanned break, back in 1978, owing to the absolute crater left by Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate” debacle; that big-foot movie was booked into theaters all across the nation, and it’s collapse left a scramble to find a movie to fill the screens.
Quiet little unassuming “Breaker” was on a very few screens in NYC, and getting glowing word-of-mouth….and the rest is history!
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LAMary said on May 29, 2008 at 10:57 am
Breaker Morant is wonderful. Another movie I catch on cable several times a year is Hope and Glory. Absolutely charming movie. Dog Day Afternoon is another one. I’ve seen it maybe ten times and I still love it.
Nancy, you need a Netflix subscription. When there is only crap at the video store, they’ve got thousands of goodies ready to ship.
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Brian Stouder said on May 29, 2008 at 11:04 am
Absolutely charming movie
(which I have seen 8 or 10 times, and would watch again)
“Father Goose”, with Cary Grant and an attractive woman and Trevor Howard
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Dorothy said on May 29, 2008 at 11:09 am
Mary did you know that one of the women who played one of the bank tellers held hostage in Dog Day was also in Denzel Washington’s “Inside Man”, also about a bank heist? I recognized her right away since I, too, have seen DDA a bunch of times. She was also in “Recount” on HBO, which I saw on Monday.
Anyone seen “The Station Agent”? I just lent it to the director of the play I’m currently in rehearsal for. I found it to be a gem.
Brian Stouder: have you suddenly started capitalizing your name, or are you a fake brian stouder??
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 29, 2008 at 11:14 am
“The Station Agent” was wonderful — very leisurely set-up, but i was more than satisfied by the drawn-out but reasonable conclusion (or maybe a pause, followed by credits, after which you knew life went on, more or less satisfactorily). If you want a major learning or hugging moment at the end of your films, go rent something else, but i thought it was great.
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brian stouder said on May 29, 2008 at 11:14 am
Dorothy – I cleaned out my cache (this shows how badly I neglect THAT job!) and then had to fill out the name field again….actually there was no real thinking when I left it in lower case before, and capitalizing it was just as unthinking…..so we’ll put it back the way it was, as a proud indicator of my thoughtlessness!
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LAMary said on May 29, 2008 at 11:16 am
That cougar necklace is wrong in so many ways.
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Danny said on May 29, 2008 at 11:18 am
Okay, we hated “Into the Wild.”
The kid was a miserable ingrate who thought of no one but himself. His reasons for leaving without a word and worrying everyone to death were because his parents had the audacity to:
1. Be capitalist pig-dogs who paid for his college education and wanted to buy him a new car as a graduation present.
2. Argued from time-to-time (though the movie depiction of domestic violence was apparently and embellishment that didn’t happen in the real-life story).
3. Didn’t reveal to him that he was the love-child of their adulterous affair with each other… EVEN THOUGH they got married to one another after their previous marriage(s) were over.
So, as you can see, he was SOOOOOOOO abused and mistreated. Geesh, give me a break. And what makes the movie even worse is that Sean Penn was apparently in such total batty, crazy love with this story and this character that he choose to deify him. Shows what an idiot he is too, but we already knew that.
The whole movie, we were calling the kid a stupid little jerk and hoping he would get eaten by a bear.
If you’re 16, you’ll love this movie and really think the main character was a cool guy. If you’re an adult (with any sense), you’ll hate it too.
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Danny said on May 29, 2008 at 11:19 am
I’ve never watched a second of Sex in the City. I hope to continue that streak. Same for Idol and a few other shows.
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Mindy said on May 29, 2008 at 11:27 am
What LAMary said – you need to sign up for Netflix. There’s 68,000 titles available. Surfing through them is big fun. We’ve got the all-you-can-eat subscription and always have something great to watch just waiting on us. Two titles come in my name, one of which is a movie I want to see and the other is usually a TV show that both of us want to see. Currently that’s Six Feet Under. The third title is in my husband’s name where he has his own queue. All of this costs a whopping eighteen bucks a month or so and all I have to do is go to the mailbox. It will alter your life; go for it.
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Dorothy said on May 29, 2008 at 11:32 am
Danny I did not HATE “Into the Wild”, but found it heartbreaking. The actor was very good, Hal Holbrook was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role, and as a “story” it was told well. But the kid was a selfish, irresponsible dolt, an ill-fated one at that. It haunted me for several days after I saw it.
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Joe K. said on May 29, 2008 at 11:38 am
There was a good one a few years back called Madison, it was about the town of Madison IN and how they backed their unlimited hydroplane. It opened and closed very quickly, but the wife and I enjoyed it very much.
Joe K
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nancy said on May 29, 2008 at 11:40 am
It’s OK to hate the “Into the Wild” kid — any adult would have to. But I think you’re wrong about the movie, Danny, and about Penn’s intent. Krakauer’s book is pretty clear that the kid is terribly flawed but, given a few wiser decisions on his part, might have matured into a fairly decent human being. One of Krakauer’s themes was how much of himself he saw in the kid, and how, to some extent, the wild age of young manhood is universal. Penn obviously likes him, and I have to say I did, too; he treats his loved ones cruelly, but I prefer his type of wild age to the more standard frat-boy model of blackout drinking and chasing women.
I do agree with your assessment of the parental role in all of this, and if it had been my screenplay I’d have left a lot of that out. His rebellion seemed preposterously overplayed — his parents simply weren’t that bad. Again, the book makes this much clearer.
I heard it was the family’s objections that held up the film for so long, but if they were waiting for a more sympathetic portrayal, they didn’t wait long enough.
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Dorothy said on May 29, 2008 at 11:56 am
You said that much better than I did, Nancy, about the young man in the movie. I am in full agreement with you about “his type of wild age.” I take back what I said about him being a dolt. That was a poorly chosen word.
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Yvette said on May 29, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Saw one of my favorite movies on TCM the other night: “Brief Encounter” with Trevor Howard (mentioned in comments) and Celia Johnson. Wonderful ‘chick flick set in WWII Britain, and I am not one for chick flicks.
Another favorite is “The Red Shoes,” about a real-life ballerina with relationship issues and a passion for a certain kind of footwear. Many incredible actors you won’t recognize.
Finally, “Harold and Maude,” with Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort about a quirky May-December romance. Did I say quirky? I meant bizarre. Three very different movies, all my favorites. Enjoy!
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Danny said on May 29, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Nancy and Dot, part of my vehement reaction to the movie is that I personally knew someone who did this and got killed by a wild animal and broke their parents’ hearts.
A college buddy of mine had a sister who was a real “free-spirit”. She and her boyfrend were tie-dye, Dead-heads who, I kid you not, thought it was okay to fart in social situations because, hey, it’s natural. She would even fart in the midst of a conversation with total a stranger. Weird, the things we remember.
Anyway, her and the soulmate-bohemian boyfriend escaped their bourgeoise existence and went hiking and camping in the Cascades without telling anyone. About 5 years later, their skeletal remains were found.
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Peter said on May 29, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I got to tell you, I watched DDA many times, but last year I saw it for the first time in a long time and I don’t think that film has dated very well at all. Maybe it’s due to reading several unflattering reviews of Pacino’s subsequent over the top acting, but you can see the seeds of that in this movie.
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coozledad said on May 29, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I’m still waiting for someone to do “Sex and The Country”, but I guess “Deliverance” already covered that.
I guess it was natural for movies to start marketing junk to adults, since they’ve done it to kids for ages. I can actually see my wife in that cougar necklace: She’d also be wearing her Converse All-Stars and dungarees. If it’s more than a couple of dollars, though, forget it.
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Julie Robinson said on May 29, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Amen to Netflix! We have found some real gems by using the “if you like this, then try this” feature. I especially enjoy stuff from the BBC, and the hubby has now worked his way through all of Battlestar Galactica.
As to Sex and the City, how can I say this without sounding like a prude? It’s about shallow, selfish people with the wrong priorities. I shudder to think of all the young girls watching it and making life decisions based on those values. There, I guess I am a prude. So be it.
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Sue said on May 29, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I’ll lower the tone of the conversation by stating that one of my go-to movies (a movie I would watch in almost any mood) is Shawn of the Dead. Sorry folks; love that stupid British humor, which so often hides brilliance, in my opinion. American version of the same humor – Office Space.
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moe99 said on May 29, 2008 at 12:59 pm
JoeK: My former next door neighbor in Seattle is a Metro bus repair guy and as a hobby is a hydroplane restorer. He was a technical consultant on Madison. He went to the premier of the movie afterwards and had a lot of fun on the set as well.
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Julie Robinson said on May 29, 2008 at 2:51 pm
The little person who starred in The Station Agent was also in the pee-your-pants funny Death at a Funeral. I laughed hysterically all the way through.
Also good for laughs is Noises Off, with Carol Burnett, Christopher Reeve, Michael Caine, Julie Hagerty, and John Ritter. Based on the stage play of the same name. It follows the action of a play both onstage and off. Hilarity abounds. Since I’ve been in many a show with plenty of off-stage drama it rings particularly true.
And how about Arsenic and Old Lace? Cary Grant is nothing short of brilliant and the whole setup is funny. That was the first play I was ever involved in at our local community theatre. I think I was in 7th or 8th grade and I ran props, which included one very fast scene change when the dummy we used for the bodies had to transform from one murder victim to the next. It was community theatre and we didn’t have the budget for two bodies. In fact, we had borrowed it from somebody who taught CPR. Lots of good times.
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Jen said on May 29, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Sue: Shaun of the Dead is one of my all-time favorite movies. Have you seen Hot Fuzz, which is by the same guys? It’s also incredibly funny.
I’m probably going to see “Sex and the City” tomorrow night, because I review movies for the newspaper and should probably see the biggest movies this summer, but I’m NOT looking forward to it! At least they reimburse my ticket, but I’ll never get those two hours of my life back. I’ve seen a few minutes here and there on TV, and I thought it looked incredibly stupid.
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brian stouder said on May 29, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Another funny old movie – “The Party” with Peter Sellers…and as Leo Morris reminded us the other day, “The Front Page” (including remakes) is just good stuff
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 29, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Peter Dinklage is the actor, and he’s done some really interesting interviews about being a dwarf, which is a term he apparently prefers to little person. Too busy to google, not too busy to comment — Lord, Lord, they’re giving my son back to me tomorrow and closing the school doors, then my comments will tend to echo SpongeBob themes.
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John said on May 29, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Just saw Raising Arizona this weekend from NetFlix. Saw The Party a few months ago. I have the one movie at a time option which translates to about one a week. I am starting Weeds this week. After watching and enjoying Dexter, I decided to look at another Showtime series.
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Sue said on May 29, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Jen: Yes, I saw Hot Fuzz. Simon Pegg and Co. have only just started, I think; we should continue to see good stuff from them. I didn’t see his latest (Run, Fat Boy, Run) because it came and went so fast. I’ll have to rent it.
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Dexter said on May 29, 2008 at 6:29 pm
to get down
Off this Chinese Han Shan hill
…and make it
To the city & walk the streets
And drink good wine (Book of Blues 123)…Jack Kerouac
Thus wrote Kerouac as he sat in the fire watch station in 1956; later he wrote ‘Desolation Angels’ .
Alex Supertramp had that type of spirit, and if you were a bit put-off by “In the Wild”, you’ll understand Chris McCandless a lot better if you read Jon Krakauer’s book of the same title. I read it a few months before I saw the movie. The film didn’t go into the way Alex changes the Hal Holbrook character, not nearly deeply enough. Alex brought him out of his depression and talked him into buying a GMC van and exploring the country, instead of “sittin’ roun’ t’die”, as Towns van Zandt would say.
“No Country…” was the best movie I have seen in years, but we are bitching, not praising.
“Tootsie”, Pollack’s film, got praise, but to me it is the worst movie I have ever watched. Goodbye Sydney.
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Dexter said on May 29, 2008 at 6:34 pm
A friend who is 28 and unmarried told me she is going to SATC with girlfriends and then out for Cosmopolitans afterwards…she said “no man will be caught dead at those screenings.”
The TV show? Charlotte. Oh yeah, baby! Charlotte.
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Jeff said on May 29, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Sydney was from LaPorte, Indiana (you don’t hear that one often), and while i’m not with Dexter on “Tootsie” (Pollack and Bill Murray were great, as was Charles Durning, while Hoffman was good and Lange was . . . eh), Sydney Pollack’s only role where i felt you could literally hear him asking “what am i doing in this movie?” was in “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Now there’s a few hours of my life i’d like back . . . Kubrick was so in control of that shoot that he lost control of the story, such as there was one. Was there one? I don’t know, and won’t go back to check, orgy or no orgy.
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Suzi said on May 29, 2008 at 6:57 pm
“Arsenic and Old Lace? Cary Grant is nothing short of brilliant and the whole setup is funny.” Same goes for “Harvey” only it’s Jimmy Stewart.
“Sydney was from LaPorte, Indiana (you don’t hear that one often)” Belle Gunness, the serial killer, was also from LaPorte!
A movie that was a pleasant surprise for us was “Elf”.
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LAMary said on May 29, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Did anyone see Sydney Pollack in the Sopranos? He was great in a small part as a doctor in prison with Johnny Sack. I’m no great fan of his movies (The Way We Were? Feh.)
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Catherine said on May 29, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I know we’re supposed to be complaining, but Weeds is the best! The all-time-funniest, laugh-till-you-cry episode is in the second season, when the mom can’t figure out why there are socks in her sewer drains. Turns out her younger son is hitting puberty and uh, spanking the monkey rather frequently. Better than almost every movie I’ve seen in the past 2-3 years.
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Mindy said on May 29, 2008 at 8:18 pm
According to this, Sydney Pollock was from Lay Flat, not La Porte. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Pollack
My husband is from La Porte. The librarians in that town really really want someone more famous than Belle Gunness to be from there.
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Dexter said on May 29, 2008 at 8:22 pm
LAMary: Remember why Doc (Pollack) ended up in prison?
Pretty gory. I loved the way the Sack story-line set us to believe Pollack was really a top-notch brilliant doc and Johnny was really gonna beat this thing…and then, by god…the Cleveland docs really DID know their stuff and Doc Pollack was just full of shit. Great story line. Remember when Ralphie Ciffaretto burned up Pie-O-My and Tony killed Ralphie , then Chris and Tony chopped Ralphie up and tossed the hunks into a river?
And some of you won’t pony-up for HBO? You’re missin’ it, big-time!
The recently concluded “John Adams” is priceless for anyone who gives two shits about our history. It was great, but I don’t think too many others thought so. Anyway, I love all HBO projects except those goddam therapy shows. Fuck all that shit.
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Dexter said on May 29, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Mindy: I always loved Charlie Finley’s LaPorte ranch. Visible from the Indiana Toll Road, the barn had a giant “A’s” on it… and hey, ask the old man what they slice in LaPorte.
The high school calls the teams “The Slicers”.
My fave name: From Michigan, The Watersmeet Nimrods.
Nimrod Nation. Cool.
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nancy said on May 29, 2008 at 8:35 pm
My favorite line from “Tootsie” was Bill when-did-you-start-beating-your-wife Murray’s:
That is one crazy hospital.
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basset said on May 29, 2008 at 9:08 pm
How about the team from Epsom High in Daviess County… a little school which got consolidated into North Daviess High in ’68, along with Odon, Elnora, and maybe one or two more.
they were… you guessed it… the Epsom Salts.
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Dexter said on May 29, 2008 at 10:38 pm
basset: I tried hard to refrain from a reply, cuz I really didnt want to change the topic, but since I’m here, and this topic could be an all-nighter cuz it’s so damn much fun, I’ll add just one more, my fave from the Hoosier state:
The Frankfort Hot Dogs.
Also, there are The Dreadnoughts of Lakeland , Florida. They are a perennial football national powerhouse. One of their fans makes these gigantic dreadnought hats, all lighted up …a dreadnought is a naval ship and these hats are REALLY HUGE.
The creator of these hats is the dad of my close friend Belinda…she sent me a newspaper account of her crazy dad running the sidelines after a Dreadnought touchdown.
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LA Mary said on May 29, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Now I’m all sad about missing the Sopranos again. Sigh.
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john c said on May 29, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Then there is Pekin, Illinois, once-upon-a-time home of – I kid you not – of the Pekin Chinks.
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nancy said on May 29, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Midland, Michigan, home of Dow Chemical, gives the world the Midland?
Chemics.
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Dexter said on May 29, 2008 at 11:07 pm
…wondering whatever happened to Harl DeLos…
nance…”chemics” is the worst one I have ever heard of!
Auburn , Indiana was “Red Devils”. A preacher tried to get the name changes to the “Auburn Abes” in the early 1960’s. That was pretty bad…never happened…flip side: Tampa Bay Devil Rays dropped the “Devil” part and are in first place…go figure!
here’s the photo and story of my friend’s dad and his Dreadnaught hat…spellcheck corrected me but Dreadnaught is proper spelling.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 29, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Apparently i’ve confused Sydney Pollack and Chief Justice John Roberts — how could i take a credit away from Lay Flat, Indiana? Sorry, Sydney.
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moe99 said on May 30, 2008 at 6:44 am
Richland High School in eastern Washington is part of the Tri Cities (Richland, Pasco and Kennewick), whose existence is attributable to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where the atomic bomb was developed during WW 2 (in addition to the research done in the SW USA). Richland High’s team name is appropriately the Bombers, with a mushroom cloud as the symbol:
http://www.richlandbombers.org/
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Mindy said on May 30, 2008 at 7:26 am
Dexter – The Slicers got their name from the big employer in town, Berkel, which manufactured meat slicers for delis and restaurants. A high school chum working in a deli back in the day cut her finger very badly on one and was under strict orders from her dad not to tell anyone that he had written the safety manual on that particular machine.
Charlie O’s barn was the only nice thing about him. He had a reputation for stiffing the local businesses. My father-in-law threatened to take him to small claims court after Charlie O. refused to pay the repair bill on his stereo, if memory serves. My dad designed and paved the driveway on his property; he wasn’t keen on paying that bill, either.
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Mindy said on May 30, 2008 at 7:29 am
Dexter and LAMary – I’m going through Sopranos withdrawal, too. I was way behind the rest of the world when I finally got to see it. A friend who is a Sopranos addict always asked what I’d last seen whenever I saw him. When I got to Pie O My he smiled and said, “Two words – ‘bowling bag!'” Weeks later we got to the bowling bag. Ewwww……
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Kirk said on May 30, 2008 at 8:56 am
The Glenville High School Tarblooders of Cleveland, Ohio
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Jolene said on May 30, 2008 at 9:31 am
More team names . . .
One that must be familiar to all you Hoosiers: The Logansport Berries
And another team that takes its name from produce, the Fighting Artichokes, from Scottsdale Community College in Arizona
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brian stouder said on May 30, 2008 at 9:40 am
My lovely wife was a Pioneer Panther*, at Royal Center (9 miles away from Logansport) – and those hated Berries call their football field (and basketball gym) The Berry Bowl.
Seems to me that pep rallies for anyone about to play them would incorporate cheers like “Let’s cream the Berries!” or “Crush the Berries and make them whine” (although the alcohol joke might be a policy violation)…or if you were PRO-Berry, maybe the pep rallies would include Berry White crooning “Let’s Get it On”, etc etc
*so I’m married to a Panther, not a cougar
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Connie said on May 30, 2008 at 9:54 am
Blooming Prairie Minnesota, the Awesome Blossoms. Selected to replace an Indian phrase (Warriors? Red Skins? Chiefs?) some years ago. I believe the Minnesota legislature forced all the state’s schools to drop Indian names deemed offensive.
My own high school? The Zeeland Chix. He was a ferocious looking little bugger. When they went to two high schools a few years ago a community committee was formed to determine colors, mascot, etc. The newer high school is the Zeeland Dux.
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caliban said on May 31, 2008 at 10:04 pm
That’s Leslie Caron. And she’s more attractive than Cary, at least in my opinion.
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caliban said on May 31, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Tell you what Nancy. Dow sucked, serious assholes. Dow still sucks. ‘you know this as well as I do. Jesus what a jerk. Jesus what a jerk.
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