I always appreciate you taking time to see what’s on my mind in my random thoughts each Friday (or whatever day you read them).
I have a few more things I’ll share this fall, but this is it for a while for my “Random Friday Thoughts”.
CHANGE
Change — it can be fun, scary, stressful, unnerving, and many more adjectives. But, I’ve always embraced it.
Two years ago today, Miss Xanadu and I faced with a big decision — to shave or not to shave! At that time, 6 months together, she’d never seen me without a mustache!!
While it was time for it to go — ahead of “No-Shave November” — I enjoyed it since I couldn’t grow one in my younger days!
PRINCESS DIANA TIME CAPSULE
Last weekend was the 28th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death.
A time capsule was put together by Diana and two children in 1991 to represent the 1990s decade.
It was recently opened and included a pocket TV, a snowflake hologram, a solar-powered calculator, a passport, a photo of Diana, and Kylie Minogue’s 1990 CD, “Rhythm of Love”!
Speaking of the icon, Kylie just wrapped her 2025 “Tension Tour” and she announced a live CD of the tour and she released this live version of “Tension”.
The live show be released on digital platforms September 26th.
I’ll be waiting for the tour DVD & CD. I saw the show in Chicago on April 2nd!
And, Kylie walked by me during the show. We were this close!
HOT KITCHEN TALK
As you know, I love to cook and bake fun-flavored cheesecakes.
On the Food Network, I love Aarti Sequeira, Bobby Flay, and Ted Allen. However, when Carson Kressley comes on, I turn it off.
I have a love/hate relationship with him — I love to hate him. Okay, hate is too strong of a word. I strongly dislike him after several near encounters on a Holland America Caribbean cruise in December 2014. (Snooty and rude!)
I’ve never watched any iteration of “Queer Eye”. However, I’m totally crushing on Antoni Porowski of the latest Netflix version of the show. Antoni is the food and wine expert.
I recently checked out his second cookbook and I can say I’ve never been this put together when I’m cooking in my kitchen! 🙂
From “Let’s Do Dinner” (2021), I can’t wait to try his recipes for Sheet Pan Chicken with Rosemary and Grapes, his Coconut-Cauliflower Korma,
and his “My Favorite Shakshuka”.
“LOCKED”
This was a very interesting movie starring Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins and Pennywise (“It”) himself, Bill Skarsgård.
Skarsgård plays Eddie, a jobless, down on his luck criminal that makes the mistake of breaking into an expensive SUV sitting in a parking lot. What he doesn’t know is that the owner, William (Hopkins), has had his car broken into many times.
So, William rigged the car to lock the next criminal inside. Eddie is that unfortunate person.
He tortures Eddie until they finally have a face to face confrontation.
GRADE: C
“THE MONKEY”
I love seeing Theo James in anything. In this horror movie, he plays two roles.
So, I thought I was getting a bargain. However, what I got was losing 90 minutes of my life I’ll never get back!
This movie was horrid. But, some of the kills were clever and dramatic.
That saves the movie from getting an “F”!
GRADE: D
“MONKEY”
I’ll take this “Monkey” instead.
George Michael took this song to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (two weeks) and the Dance Club songs chart (two weeks) in 1988.
“Monkey” became Michael’s sixth solo single to reach number one in the U.S., and the fourth single to do so from the “Faith” album!
“MARATHON: THE PURSUIT OF THE PRESIDENCY 1972-1976”
Jules Witcover’s massive 1977 book is a great analysis of the 1976 presidential election.
I shared some tidbits last week and here are a few more things I learned from the 656-page “marathon” book:
Hamilton Jordan, Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign manager, expressed many times that Carter had what he called “the weirdo factor” (Carter’s differentness) — “off-beat style of political evangelism, a Southern accent, and, above all, an out-front religiosity”, which were seen as negative factors outside the South.
While Carter and U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy considered each other “friends”, there never really was a lot of love for each other. Carter once said, off the record that made its way public, that he wasn’t obliged “to kiss his ass” [Kennedy’s].
In Ohio, ABC’s Sam Donaldson and other reporters bought sweatshirts showing a donkey’s rear and it read, “Kiss My Ass”. They gave one to Carter and he smiled and said, “Don’t give one to Ted Kennedy.”
Diplomatically, Carter added, “Thank you. You’ve treated me well.” When a reporter asked, “Compared to what?”. Carter grinned again and said, “Compared to the way you treated Nixon the last year.”
In the contentious race for Republican nomination between incumbent President Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, Reagan misspoke about the conflict in Rhodesia and if American troops would be involved. The press began to question him and so did politicians.
President Ford’s team hit the airwaves with a hard-hitting commercial: “Last Wednesday, Ronald Reagan said he would send American troops to Rhodesia. On Thursday he clarified that. He said they could be observers, or advisers. What does he think happened in Vietnam… When you vote Tuesday, remember: Governor Reagan couldn’t start a war. President Reagan could.”
An innocent statement made in the fall of 1976 would become much more ironic after the 1980 presidential race when then President Jimmy Carter lost to his Republican challenger Ronald Reagan.
In the 1976 fall campaign, Republican President Ford was running against Jimmy Carter and the Democrat stated, “We’ve seen an almost unbelievable spectacle in Washington, the President of the United States deeply concerned about an ex-actor…”
While that “ex-actor” lost to Ford in the Republican nomination race in 1976, he’d make Carter a one-term president in 1980.
THAT’S IT
With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!
Anthony
What's Peeps Thinking About Now? It's Probably Random! 