Category: Trivia

Today’s my birthday. I’m 47. It’s hard to believe that I now easily fit into the category often described as “middle aged.” Truth be told, unless I live to be 94, I’m past my middle age.

It’s always a cliche when people say that “you’re only as young as you feel” or “I sure don’t feel ___.” But truthfully, I don’t FEEL 47. Well, not unless 47 feels like 27.

There was a guy I worked wih years ago. He was a few days older than me. When he turned 30 he freaked out. Really. He couldn’t stop talking about how depressed being 30 made him. For me 30 was just another birthday. So was 40. For some strange reason 45 seemed different. I wasn’t freaked out like my co-worker at 30, but 45 did seem like a milestone. How did I become 45 so fast?

Now I’m 47. I don’t feel older. Well, not THAT much older. I know that 47 seems old when you’re a teenager, or even if you’re in your 20’s. I’m here to tell you that 47 is the new 35!

At any rate, it is my birthday and I’ve got to tell you, “You’re only as young as you feel and I sure don’t feel 47.”

This past weekend my wife, youngest son and I headed up to Tallahassee for Parents’ Weekend. We were able to spend some quality time with my oldest son. We saw the FSU circus, played some poker [for paperclips], hung out with friends, and attended the Florida State / Wake Forest game.

But that’s not what this post is about.

What it IS about is what happened before the game.

And what happened is this: after the National Anthem was sung a B-1B Lancer did a fly-over. This isn’t the first time that I’ve been at an event where a plane did a flyover. It’s always a cool experience. Sometimes you hear the plane first, then look up to see it zooming overhead, and at other times you see it growing larger and then it’s gone with the sound trailing behind.

That’s not what happened this time.

We were seated about 3/4 of the way up on an end zone side. Everyone knew that the plane was going to fly over and so as the National Anthem ended, all eyes were searching the skies for the plane.

Suddenly it was there. It just seemed to appear. It looked huge! The crazy thing was that it seemed to be REAL LOW. I mean REALLY LOW. And it seemed to be moving WAY TOO SLOW.

Too low and too slow is NOT a good combination for a jet.

I looked over at my wife and said, “That plane looks awfully low.” I looked back and the plane was still heading our way. My mind flashed on about a dozen thoughts: “The twin towers — a terrorist act — a problem with the plane — a problem with the pilot…” The plane was still heading our way. How could such a huge plane be going so slow?

And then the thought hit me… “If there’s really a problem with the plane, there’s nothing that we can do.” We couldn’t run. Or get out of the way. Or hide. We wouldn’t have time to do anything other than close or eyes in the last seconds before impact.

As these thoughts went through my head, the plane passed over us and the rest of the folks above us in the stadium. Then the thunderous roar of the engines hit us and most people covered their ears. When the sound died down, you could hear a lot of people commenting on how low the plane was and how cool the flyover was.

And it was.

But I just couldn’t shake the thought of what it must have felt like to have been in the twin towers and see the planes coming.

Ten years ago OJ Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman. The evidence against Simpson was overwhelming. Fortunately for Simpson, his legal team, especially Johnnie Cochran, was able to sway the jury to not only discount the evidence, but it many instances to ignore it completely.

The trial lasted a year and had more drama and startling turns than a soap opera. In the end Simpson was found innocent. This article from the associated press describes the fallout from the verdict:

Next Tuesday at 9pm, PBS will revisit the case in the special “Frontline: The O.J. Verdict.” Featuring extensive interviews with the defense, prosecution and journalists, the special will explore the verdict and the wide difference in reaction to it which fell along racial lines.

Oddly enough, this weekend, Simpson will make a rare public appearance signing autographs [for cash] at,of all places, a horror convention! Talk about bad taste.

The fact that this weekend marks the tenth anniversary of the “not guilty” verdict, and Simpson has chosen to be a special guest along with movie murderers, monsters and zombies shows a real lack of compassion and common sense on Simpson‘s part.

There is NO WAY that one could justify Simpson’s appearance at this show as a sports star. Nope, the draw here is certainly because of his link to the murders of Nicole and Ron. And if you doubt that, then why is Simpson’s friend, A.C. Cowlings [who is more famous for the slow speed Bronco chase than his professional sports career] making a joint appearance with Simpson on Sunday?

OJ SImpson was found not guilty of the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. Ten years later people are still arguing the validity of that decision. I doubt that there are many though who would argue that Simpson’s appearance at the horror convention is in good taste.

My buddy, John Beatty has started up a new blog where he posts his art and thoughts on just about everything. The thing is that in the last three days he’s changed the blog’s name three times! The blog was first called, appropriately enough, Read Me First. Then it became XXL Artist… and now it’s Big Beatty’s Blog O’Rama.

It was kind of funny as we discussed possible names for the blog. Beatty liked the name Art Whore, but [fortunately] that was taken. BBB [Big Beatty’s Blog] was considered. So was Diary of a Fat Man: The Road to Less [a GREAT name for a blog about weight loss, but Beatty’s new blog isn’t, so the title was rejected].

Beatty also rejected some of my suggestions such as: Beatty Watches Ethan… So You’re Bored Too? … A New Name Coming… Are You Looking At Me?… and settled on Big Beatty’s Blog O’Rama [a nod to his nickname and first web site].

My guess is that Big John has at least ONE more name change coming, so I saved the best suggestion for now. Since Beatty‘s blog is about nearly everything he could call it Beatty On Nearly Everything… BONE!

Uh… on second thought maybe that isn’t such a great name for his blog.

I’ll bet ZONERs can help come up with good names should the big guy decide a new one is needed!

I used to buy stuff fairly regularly off of e-Bay. Usually the items that I won were either hardback novels or items for my Stallone collection. In the last year or so, it’s been pretty rare for me to find ANY THING that I really want.

That changed last week when I saw a belt buckle that Sylvester Stallone had commissioned for folks who worked on his movie “Paradise Alley.” It was pretty cool in that it featured the title of the movie, the lead characters and the year the movie took place on the front. The back had the quote, “Never perfect people, only perfect moments” and was signed “Sly.” Yeah, the buckle would make a nice addition to the collection.

No one had bid on the buckle. I decided to watch the auction. Days went by with no bids. Winning the buckle for the opening bid of less than ten bucks was becoming a REAL possibility. The auction was set to close yesterday and I wasn’t going to be able to be home. Only one thing to do… call in Beatty. Big J and I agreed that a bid of $20 would probably win it.

Big John was set to place a bid for me right as the auction was closing. At 4:59:45 another bidder dropped in with a bid of $23.98. Beatty knew that I wanted the buckle and so at 4:59:57 he popped in a bid of $25.67.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

We had the high bid…for 20 seconds, then with just 7 seconds left in the auction the first bidder came back with a bid of $26.67 to win.

Oh well… I still may be able to find some hardbacks…

Well, what do you know? I’m a winner!

That’s right. I am a winner!

When I came home from work today, I found a package from the fine folks at Chud.com waiting for me. In it was Tilt – Season One.

Chud.com, in addition to having the latest movie news, interviews, and more also regularly runs contests for free dvds, posters, hats, and other coolness. And I was lucky enough to win, the Tilt dvd set. This is especially cool since, I like poker and only was able to see the first episode of Tilt [which I enjoyed].

At any rate, check out Chud.com. Who knows, you may end up with some swag too!

My buddy, John Beatty recently posted similar thoughts about his fight against weight gain and had even started a blog to track his efforts to lose weight. I posted here that I thought that was pretty bold, going public with his plan. John has since pulled the plug on his blog, but his battle to lose weight continues [and is going well].

It’s strange that Chris and I are in the same boat [although I’d venture a guess that my boat is even bigger] but that we got here by different paths. Chris says that he was skinny for the first half of his life. I was never skinny. As a little kid I was “husky” [man, I hated that word].

In high school I was in pretty good shape. I played football, lifted weights, and was a pretty good wrestler. And consequently I was in shape. I remember a couple of my coaches who were heavy. At the time I thought, “Man, why don’t they get in shape? I’ll never let myself get like that.”

Then I graduated high school and started college. I was no longer playing football or wrestling and had stopped jogging. The first year I gained a bunch of weight. At the end of the year, I started running again… and lifting weights. I got back into wrestling shape… and said “never again… never again will I get overweight.”

Yeah, right.

Once you’re married, have a job, have kids, heck, as you get older, the weight gain comes easier… as do the excuses to not eat right and exercise. Because really, that’s what it comes down to.

Eating right and exercise.

My goal is to get back into shape.

I’ll probably never make the 188lb class again, but my goal is small steps back to decent shape.

I don’t plan to talk about my progress [or lack of] much here. In fact I’m surprised that I’m even saying this much. I guess the fact that Beatty and Chris were willing to go public, made me at least “weigh in” on the subject.

At any rate, you’ll be able to tell from the pictures that I post from time to time how I’m doing. Maybe in a year or two, you’ll wonder, “Who is that normal sized guy that kinda looks like Zablo?”

Napoleon Bonaparte was at one time a self-proclaimed Emperor who had conquered nearly all of Europe.

Napoleon died an early death from stomach cancer when, despite his military genius, he was defeated and banished to a small island in the South Atlantic over 180 years ago.

Now it appears that Napoleon may not have died from cancer after all. A new toxicological report shows a “toxic form of arsenic, used for centuries as rat poison, was found in Napoleon‘s hair samples at 37 to 42 times above the normal level.” .

Although the house is quiet now, soon the sounds of Christmas morning will be everywhere.

Still in this period of calm, as I reflect on the many blessings that I have, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Wonderful Kwanzaa, or great whatever you celebrate. And if you don’t celebrate anything, have a good day anyway!