OSJ

The pots and pans banging gave it away...

Okay, Kathy just went to the store with the intent of getting a small ham. There's just the two of us this year as her sisters and their families are all doing their own thing. So we don't have to worry about making something that we really could care less about (turkey) and just have what we like. So the menu is somewhat shortened since we don't need to make stuff like yams, etc. Here's what we're having: Ham - Made properly with some pineapple glaze Relish tray - Screw all that, we'll just have some black olives (I may make some salt n' pepper shrimp for me, we'll see, Kathy refuses to even try them.) Cornbread - With a can of creamcorn added, and maybe some peppers if I can sneak some in when Kathy isn't watching Rolls - King Hawaiian (good stuff!) Green beans - Kathy will have this, I do not eat green beans. Pecan pie (I have had pecan pie every Thanksgiving since I was a little kid, I see no reason to break with tradition now.) Okay, so whatcha having?

Well, New Mexico is on full lockdown again. Looks like SubWay for dinner. All best to @The Natural and @Six String Orchestra; having eight kitties, I know how upsetting it can be when one of the little guys is sick. The good news is 90% of the time it's because they ate something they shouldn't have and they will either throw it up or poop it out in a day or so. Cats are really smart except when it comes to anything that might be edible.

ADF is one of the most stand-up guys to ever walk the face of the Earth. Pay the man.

The only things that will keep this from being a great list as opposed to being merely a very, very good one is the absence of Hasil Adkins and Bob Log III. Hell, I could make a case for Out to Hunch being a top-100 of AT. If you can't fill at least three albums with songs about poultry your soul is dead. The Haze did all those EXTRA songs about poultry so his colleagues could share the wealth.

For some odd reason I just had a micro-dream (in that I'm sure that there was more, but all I can recall is this teeny-tiny bit of it) wherein JT and I were given the script-writing and show-running duties of Into the Badlands. Only problem is that while I know how to write a TV script I haven't actually done one and I think JT's actually real-life experience is even lesser than mine... Still, all I have to do is turn on Little House on the Prairie and it suddenly seems like anything is possible, yeah, in a world wherein Sami Kallihan is employed as a professional wrestler... I note that upthread someone referred to a certain piece of trash starring one of the finest actors in the English-speaking world wherein mean-spirited Irish stereotypes that would have been considered racist and vile fifty years ago, are now somehow "edgy" and "current". Yeah, you just stop right in at The Old Peculiar or Murphy's Pub and start tossing off such "clever" and "edgy" terms such as "Paddy" or "Mick" and see how we all laugh right along with you. What's that? Some help with your teeth? Oh, just pour in some soda water with some ice cubes and the dentist should be able to save most of them for you...

This pretty much nails it. JJ was consistently pushed to just a higher level than he should have been. Lots of guys like that, Paul Roma was a perfectly good mid-card guy, he just wasn't a horseman. JJ had a very punchable face and with that accent, simply no chance of getting over anywhere else.

Thanx, mate!

Guess I wasn't clear in my babbling... *I* never saw him in skinny condition, last time I saw him (when it was for the random bowling, he was still cut like a wrestler.) We were also in the process of moving and he graciously offered to do the final pre-occupancy cleaning and would just drop off the keys in the mailbox. Hey, it's been forty years, since I tied the knot, but I remember all the codes for "I don't want to have to pay for a motel room if I don't have to!" The word on him dropping weight was second-hand from his mom (who unfortunately would know all about meth and alcohol). What a trip... I just realized that none of my nieces or nephews have ever seen me drunk, my step-sons and oldest niece are old enough to have had the "pleasure", but the timing didn't work out right...

God, I hate to post this on what should be one of the greatest days of my life, but I'm angry and sad and realizing just how powerless I am. My 29 year-old nephew hung himself this morning. We hadn't seen him since mid-summer, nothing too unusual about that, new girlfriend(s) after being locked down with sort of a headcase for five years (Yeah, don't interfere, see must have something going on that makes him happy...) The break-up was as nasty and mean-spirited as one might imagine. Ty took his uncle's advice well, :"Aren't you glad you only invested five years in it? Ten years would be worse, you would have had kids and have had to deal with her for a lifetime, as it is, you can hang up the phone or walk in the opposite direction if she pulls some drama. It hurts, but it isn't permanent, I always thought "she was the one" until I met your auntie, and as it turns out, she was the ONE. SHE'S out there and you'll meet her..." Word is that he was really skinny, last time I saw him was when I knew for sure that we wouldn't be bowling anymore. My back just wouldn't put up with that shit. I thought that I could transition from darts, but no such luck. Anyway, the skinny thing puzzles me, last time I saw Ty he was cut like a fucking wrestler (this is not the nephew that I kicked in the head, that's the 34 year-old nephew, who I'm pretty sure that I can take down and hold down; Ty would get up on his own and it wouldn't be pretty. To lose a bunch of muscle definition in such a short amount of time coupled with other stuff like basically disappearing from everyone's life has me thinking alcohol and meth, which has me pissed because with 32 years of sobriety I should be able to read that shit like a book. The duality is that I know deep inside that I'm fucking powerless over my own drinking, let alone anyone else's. But there was that odd visit in the middle of summer, "Let's go bowling, uncle!" We hadn't gone bowling since we moved from Rio Rancho where the drill was: Send Ty to the bowling alley to play darts or go bowling with uncle while parents and wife go to casino.. That way I'm not bugging them every half-hour to leave and I'm not freaking out about how much money is being gambled. It was such an odd visit, that I'm wondering if I should have picked up on some clues that there was something going on that I missed and it's driving me crazy... If I post something nasty and out of character, this is why. This is the weird thing about having a large family of in-laws, half of whom aren't speaking to one another for slights real and imagined, it's positively gothic at holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas where the traditional Irish attitude is "invite everybody, if they want to be shits to each other I don't fucking care it's one of two days that I pretend to be interested in football and I cook Salt & Pepper Shrimp which causes certain people to drink too much, which I find hilarious as they are such sanctimonious twats throughout the year and they still vote for the Orange Shit-gibbon. Despite being related to half the town, you can disappear from family and it is just assumed that you are lining up behind so-and-so's side in an argument and thus are avoiding talking to so-and-so. The usual clarification is to deliberately bump shopping carts with a loud "Sniff" and "Excuse Me!" Ah, life in a small town... Apologies in advance, (and no, I don't expect a pass for being a jerk, if I AM a jerk, so be it, this is why, it's not an excuse, but rather an explanation. I've been wanting to go off on certain TV shows, this gives me an excuse. Michael Landon, Steve Harvey, and Dr. Phil, you're in my sights and I don't fucking miss...

Despite some great news here in the US that I can't talk about, this weather sucks... We're getting the high desert cold plunge in the late afternoon which catches the birds completely by surprise. So far, the cats have been doing what cats do, that is to say being opportunistic predators with the total running to three birds over the last three days. What's worrisome is that the violence is being perpetrated by the little cats (18 months old), which means that they've just discovered their killswitch which does not bode well for the birds. Further, Spike has discovered how to get up on the roof, but lacks any knowledge of how to get down.

I think that the word you're looking for is "ghouls".

That's fucking harsh, accurate, but harsh.

Well, in all fairness to the Messiah, it's difficult to wrestle without any thumbs...

My wife usually cuts mine, she heard me say "#1 with the clippers at the stylist, but since our clippers are shite, she resorts to "#1 with the damn scissors", (I have to confess not being able to discern any appreciable difference).

We did not see a single trick or treater this year. Usually they load up the school bus on the rez and bring all the kids into town. You have to watch out because if you've got good stuff the little rascals will go around the block and try to double or even triple dip.

Thought I had mentioned Gonzales, if I didn't, I certainly meant to. No idea if there's any truth to the rumor that Onita plotted to lure him to Japan where he could be offed by the Yakuza, but considering that Onita is at least 50% batshit crazy, I tend to believe it. To a nicer guy, it couldn't happen. Certainly Brody was a pain-in-the-ass to deal with, but if you have a problem with the guy, just don't book him; there's no reason to knife the dude when he's taking a shower.

Thanks, Mike!

Probably the most over-rated worker of my lifetime. His ridiculous human pinball over-selling is ludicrous to the point of japery. Were Marty Janetty not such a complete headcase there's no doubt who would have been more fondly remembered. I can't think of a single Shawn Michaels match that wasn't lowered a notch or two by his ridiculous in-ring antics. That the guy was talented is without a doubt, unfortunately, he's one of those guys that needs someone to tell him when to turn it down a notch, sometimes less is more, a concept that eluded him his entire career.

Well, first off I will admit to being a Cornette fanboy from way back, over the years we've corresponded a bit and he seems to be a totally nice guy, (probably helps that our politics are pretty similar). I LOVED Smokey Mountain Wrestling for exactly the reasons that you didn't, (I don't know how old you are, but Jim and I are months apart in age, so Smokey Mountain was, in fact a throwback to what we grew up on). If you watched Smokey Mountain strictly for great wrestling you were bound to be disappointed, if you watched it for the angles, (many of which took weeks to unfold) it was absolutely great. As I said, it was a throwback to what I grew up on (Don Owens' Portland Wrestling), and viewed as such it was a treasure. I was also a big ECW & FNW guy during the 1990s and all I can say is that you really had to be there. I traded tapes like a maniac in order to keep up with the stuff that had no Washington State TV (such as SMW & ECW), we got the sporadic ECW broadcasts, but it was constantly pre-empted or moved around on the schedule until it was impossible to know when it was actually going to air. Tapes became an absolute must in order to keep up. Ii really sort of wish that I'd transferred all that stuff to DVD, as it would have been hella easy to store and transport when we made our big move from Washington to New Mexico. As it is, my permanent DVDs are primarily an 18-disc set of Barry Windham, a dozen or so Kevin Sullivan and another dozen of Arn Anderson. My misc file includes a bunch of Benoit, Flair, Superst*r Graham, Dusty, & Orndorff. The Japan disc collection is loaded with Jumbo, Misawa, Kawada, and every disc of Onita that I could get my hands on. I actually wouldn't mind getting a complete set of Smokey Mountain to re-watch in chronological order, same for ECW. Both feds are testaments to Cornette and Heyman being able to make stars out of fairly mediocre talents. When you can make stars out of guys like Justin Credible and Mikey Whipwreck, you're doing something very, very right. Oh, as to your point about the tennis racket, it was alluded to on several occasions that he had a horseshoe in the thing, no; you can't do a lot of damage hitting someone with a tennis racket, hitting them with a tennis racket that contains a horseshoe is a whole different story. "Cheap & tacky" was part of the gimmick, see Cornette was supposedly from a wealthy family which made the polyester suits and cheap ties all the more amusing as part of the gimmick. I don't agree with everything he has to say on his podcast, but he's always worth a listen.

You and I are of a like mind here. A whining crybaby throughout his career when he didn't get his way and a complete racist jackoff post-wrestling, (well, he probably was DURING his career, but was smart enough to keep his mouth shut so that guys like Tony Atlas didn't cave his face in.) I have to go with Warrior as one of the most singularly useless human beings that our species has yet produced. A racist, homphobic punk who was quite rightly flattened (with one punch), by Ric Rude. Rude was everything as a wrestler that Warrior could never be, good worker, great on the stic, equally adept at face or heel. Warrior was a complete waste of space. I hated him in Seattle/Portland as the "Dingo Warrior" before he got national exposure and I've seen no reason to change my opinion of him. Fuck him.

Tsk, tsk! "Iconic" and "Woodstock" are words reserved for Alvin Lee and Ten Years After. Sadly, my bro, JT isn't here any longer to back me up on this. Anyway, Happy Halloween! If you're listening to anything but the Cramps today, you ain't doing it right...

Jeff Jarrett was a perfectly acceptable mid-card guy who had a genius for convincing promoters that he was a much bigger star than he actually was. The Harris twins, in addition to their deplorable politics stunk it up like nobody's business in the ring. A hearty "fuck you" to both of them. Justin Credible was, (as with Jarrett), a perfectly acceptable mid-carder who was pushed to the moon when Heyman didn't have anyone else to drink his Kool-Aid. I don't really blame the guy, he tried, he just wasn't convincing when elevated beyond his capabilities.