Birthday Times!

 Last week was my 38th birthday! I'm old.

It was...fun to start the month with my parents and I coming down with a case of Norovirus or something. Thankfully the worst of it lasted a day or two, but it was just freaky for all of us to catch it out of the blue.

And I managed to catch The Looney Tunes Movie: The Day The Earth Blew Up while it was in the theater! WB's loss is our gain, I thought it was fantastic. Farmer Jim steals the entire movie, and he's barely in it.

But enough about that, it means it was time for my annual birthday trip to New York City!

And this time I took a stroll around Central Park! It's big, but this time I only walked up to the ice skating rink because my feet were already killing me from the trip there. Coulda went to the zoo, but that's a next time thing.

Some fantastic views.

And once again made it to Ichiran for lunch. That was real a real good bowl of ramen, no notes. Just right.

And had to snap some pics of a disappearing sight: Forever 21s that will soon be gone forever. 21. The one in Times Square used to be the Virgin Megastore and that's a hell of a thing to think about.

And finally the other reason I went into the city: American Woodcocks were spotted in Bryant Park! Apparently they show up there at the first sign of spring, and all the birding accounts I followed starting going nuts over sightings of them.

These are such borbs. They're the birds that go "meep."

It took a little while to look for one (there was a lot of brush clearing when I went and Bryant Park is not as big as you'd think it'd be), I found this one chilling under a bush. It was just sleeping when I found it, I didn't get to see it do its dance or anything. I never saw one in person before, it was such a rush when I spotted it. It's like "where is it?" then BOOM! It's right there. 

And now as we say goodbye to March and welcome the April showers, here's some more random pics I took on that trip.

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Sweet Seventeen

 Can you believe it? This lil blog turned SEVENTEEN?!

There's really no good pop culture reference to "17." Nothing good, anyway. That Sesame Street image is the best we're gonna get.

17 is such a weird age, it's like it doesn't even count. You passed the Sweet 16, and you're not a legal adult until you turn 18. You're just a junior in High School and frankly, that's a year of my life I don't want to revisit.

As for what I've been up to since I last posted...not much. We saw Kendrick's diss track to Drake earn multiple Grammys and sung in front of the whole world at the Super Bowl, for one.

SNL had its 50th anniversary special

The world lost a few people, like Michelle Trachtenberg, Roberta Flack, Gene Hackman (the jury is still out on HOW he died. It's sad enough that he passed at 95), and just today Kingda Ka.

Man, just like the ride itself, it was over in about ten seconds. I only got one ride on it, and frankly that was enough. It also marks the end of the drop tower that was attached to it, Zumanjaro. The view at the top was incredible, and again, I only managed to ride it once.

And of course, we lost Lynne Marie Stewart.

Miss Yvonne from Pee-Wee's Playhouse! Decades in show business and she's one of those people I've never heard a bad word about. She'd been nothing but warm, sweet, and hilarious.

Pictured above is a signed pic I snagged off eBay the moment I heard the news. It was only a matter of days when other signed pics were taken off and relisted for double the price. Bastards.

And while I was there, I picked up this signed pic of Kurtwood Smith.

This was much cheaper, mostly because 

1) He's still alive

and 2) Coming out to defend Danny Masterson really reduced the demand on his stuff. Don't think I paid more than $20 before all the fees and stuff.

And my mind was blown when I learned that Lynne Marie Stewart also played Mrs. Kelly on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

The show won't be the same without her, and I know she's gonna be in the upcoming season. It's gonna be tough when we see the "in memory of" dedication.

So farewell to the most beautiful woman in Puppet Land, and farewell February. Let's hope March is better.

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Goodbye January

Okay, I'd like to make a correction from last month's post: I'm ready to go back to 2024.

January's finally over, and that felt like forever. David Lynch AND Simpsons Tapped Out died, not to mention any hope of not being anxious over the...general state of everything.

But I hope you all remembered to celebrate National Gorilla Suit Day!

Somewhat related, but earlier this month I picked up a book I'd been searching for since my childhood.

"Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head & Other Drawings" by B. Kliban.

A now-deceased family friend that lived Upstate had it when we went to visit on family vacations. She had a few Calvin and Hobbes books and a few other comic strip collections, but this was the one I poured over most of all.

It was the first time I ever saw swears in a comic strip and it blew my tiny mind. It was the first comic in the book, and it was a taste of what was to come.

For literal decades I could not remember the name of the book, nor who drew it. But then one of those engagement farm posts went around Bluesky about comics that influenced you, and I googled the only drawing I remembered (the one you see above), and I hit the jackpot. I quickly found the cheapest copy off Amazon and now it's all mine!

The book was published in 1976 and B. Kliban (or "Hap" as he liked to be called) was once an artist for Playboy, and this book does not hide that one bit.

It's one of a few nude pictures in that book, but it was the one that stuck with me. And it's still timely all these years later.

But THIS is my all time favorite drawing in the book. Just eating pies like he just bit into a big sandwich. There's so many pies, and there's even pictures of pies on the wall! It just tells one hell of a story.

If these cartoons seem familiar, Gary Larson has cited B. Kliban to be a giant influence on The Far Side, and man does it show. This one seemed to be the most Far Side-like, in both artwork and the story it tells. 

Then I saw this one and I said "oh yeah, I see it now."

I think about this one all the time.

And this one.

And especially this one.

You can tell this is from 1976.

Incredible pun.

And another one that would've been at home in The Far Side.

I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure the website was named after this.

And now a bunch of my other favorites.

Another piece of my puzzle falls into place.

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Onward to 2025!

 Let's leave 2024 behind. Starting with History's Greatest Monster, Jimmy Carter.

He really came in under the wire, didn't he? He might not have been the best president, but he was probably the best person to BE president. And that bar is so ungodly low, especially before AND after him.

December was very...trying. Beginning of the month, I got rear ended. Two weeks later, the alternator decided to crap out on me. And when my dad took my car to His Guy, they decided to replace the battery while they were at it. So it was kind of an Imagination Christmas for me.

I mostly got gift cards, and most of them have already been spent.

That Amazon gift card went towards two things: that Jurassic Park Transformers 2-pack, and the bottle of Underwood Ranch Sriracha sauce. It's the farm that Huy Fong used to get their peppers from, so it's the closest thing to the original sauce. My verdict: it's GOOD. Huy Fong has better consistency, but this one blows it out of the water in every other aspect. Huy Fong might as well be red sauce compared to this.

And my other gifts. New portfolio books! New bbq sauce and deodorant! The highlight was this:

Peanuts-branded hot sauces. From "wishy washy" to "AUUGH!" Or from Good to Grief. I haven't tried these out yet, but I don't have a lot of trust in novelty hot sauces from Big Lots.

But I also started wearing my Simpson socks I got LAST Christmas.

They're comfy. Why hadn't I been wearing them before?! Well, they're finally getting used, that's the most important thing.

And let's have a look at this year's tree.

And a closer look at some of the ornaments.

This year I got to decorate the tree, and all the ornaments I bought over the past few years made it on this time. I bought quite a few this year, like the Boo, the Magikarp, the Pokeball, and the ketchup bottle. They made an ornament of the Weinermobile, I'm not made of stone!

And finally, the McRib came back!

It looked and tasted just as good as it used to be. But if I want to make it to 2026, one is all I'm gonna eat this time.

And for the third New Year's in a row, I went out for sushi.

Not pictured: all the other stuff I ate.

There's not a lot of options for this New Year's Eve programming. I'm staying in, Times Square is getting rained out, and The Honeymooners doesn't come on until 12:30. But at least Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen get to drink again.

I hope your 2024 went better than mine, let's at least look forward to 2025!

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