Random Friday Thoughts — January 30, 2026

While I shared a few blogs last fall and early this winter, the last “Random Friday Thoughts” was on September 5, 2025!

Wow, that’s almost five months ago. Let’s change that.

QUIET FIVE MONTHS

Real life — a move, unpacking and decorating, starting a new job, and my sister’s death have all kept me busy and kept me from sharing my random thoughts on Fridays.

Plus, there’s not a lot of positive things going on in the country. And, what is happening, I can’t be open and honest about. Back when I started my blog in 2012 and over the next several years, I was much more open about politics and things that were happening in the country and the world.

But, I don’t feel that I have that luxury anymore being a public figure — in today’s political climate. I don’t want to be cancelled (what was formerly called “Dixie Chicked”) or have a cult come after me!

MUCH-NEEDED GETAWAY

Last week, Pug Xanadu and I took a road trip to Murray, Kentucky, to visit two of my favorite cousins.

Dennis, a dear friend and one of the longest friendships in my life, drove down to have lunch with us.

I love eating at Sirloin Stockade when I’m in Murray and we all paid tribute to Tammy with our desserts. Okay, ours weren’t as boring as her sundae from December 2021 when we were there!

Xanadu and I are ready to go back!

STILL MISSING MY IDOL

A friend recently sent me a link of Paula Deen visiting President Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia, for a segment of her show, “Paula’s Home Cooking” in 2006.

I watched the 22-minute show and loved it. I also want to make that very unhealthy Gorilla Bread.

THIS!

President Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in Oslo, Norway.

Three other presidents have been awarded the prize: Theodore Roosevelt (1906), Woodrow Wilson (1919), and Barack Obama (2009).

Vice President Al Gore was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his efforts to spread knowledge about climate change.

RE-GIFTING AFTER THE HOLIDAYS

This has been my absolute favorite, so far.

“HEATED RIVALRY”

The absolute best and most buzzed about series on television is the gay hockey series, “Heated Rivalry” on HBO Max in the U.S. Yes, I said “gay” and I said “most buzzed about series”. And, it’s not just “the gays”. It’s women, middle America, and even Peoria!

It’s the first series in God knows how long (if ever) that I wanted to start watching again as soon as I finished it.

I can’t believe how much straight America is fawning over the series and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie).

My favorite character is Scott Hunter and the actor, Francois Arnaud, is so dreamy! And, “Kip” Grady (Robbie G.K.) is so adorable!

While I know the country and the world is full of homophobes and idiots that have no shame in proving that, I’m pleasantly surprised at how the love story is going over and playing in middle America.

Plus, the sex scenes are very hot and people are eating it up!

I saw this post and it cracked me up. It suggested scenes to skip past if you’re watching with your parents.

I looked at it as a guide to the scenes to fast forward to. 🙂

Here’s the trailer and season two is coming!

GRADE: A

“GAME CHANGERS” (THE BOOK SERIES)

I’m now going to read Rachel Reid’s six books the series is based on.

I’m on the list for the first two books through the Moline Public Library. I was 8th in line for the first book and 24th in line for the second book! (I’ve now moved up to 3rd and 18th!)

Someone wants to read them!

The seventh book, “Unrivaled”, which focuses again on Shane and Ilya, is due September 29, 2026.

JENNIFER LOPEZ

I’m a huge fan of J Lo and I still want to see her in concert one day, preferably, in Las Vegas.

With that being said, this snarky comment still cracked me up!

“MEAN GIRLS”

Late last fall, a woman was being “bitchy” (or “cunty” to the British) on my work page, so I posted a photo from “Mean Girls” and explained the situation to her.

A co-worker saw it and asked me about the movie and I said, “I’ve never seen it”. He left the DVD in the weather center for me and I finally watched the 2004 classic and loved it!

I was shocked at how many young stars were in it.

Now, I have to watch the other romantic classic I’ve never seen, “The Princess Bride”!

JONATHAN BENNETT

One of the stars of “Mean Girls” I was surprised to see looking so freaking young and adorable was Jonathan Bennett.

Well, I was four years late to this party below (an Insta post by Bennett that was quickly deleted), but I enjoyed it nevertheless!

Coffee, anyone?

MY FAVORITE SONG RIGHT NOW

The trip back to Kentucky last week gave me a chance to hear my Sirius XM more than the 10-minute drive to work and back.

My favorite song right now is “Cry For You” from the Grammy Award-nominated EDM duo, Sidepiece.

ONE OF THE LAST BOOK I READ

Since moving to the Quad Cities in early November, the only walks I’ve done are with Miss Xanadu and a few on my own — but, no reading. I haven’t read a book since leaving Central Illinois.

One of the last intriguing books I read was Jeffrey Toobin’s 2023 book, “Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism”.

He pointed out an interesting fact: Before the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001, the Oklahoma City bombing was incorrectly reported as “the deadliest terrorist assault on U.S. soil”.

And, the FBI, in its official history, calls it “the deadliest act of homegrown terrorism in U.S. history.” Neither are correct. There was an even deadlier attack and it was in Oklahoma, too.

In June 1921, a racist white mob (pogrom) killed about 300 Black residents in Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood!

After the Oklahoma City bombing, the Tulsa race massacre was hardly mentioned.

THAT’S IT

With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!

Anthony

Random Friday Thoughts — September 5, 2025

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