I found this the other day on YouTube while looking up prune videos. Not sure why it would come up there, but I am glad it did.
This video resonated in me for multiple reasons: 1. I have had multiple family members over the years who have participated in singing groups. My first trip on an airplane was because my Mom's Sweet Adeline's group was going to sing in Washington D.C. and families were allowed to come with. Both my sisters have been in Sweet Adeline's as well. I also have several family members who have been in Barber Shop Quartets. 2) I love parodies, write them myself, and love to see them performed. 3) Since the time my youngest daughter was in 4th grade started performing in speech contests, my wife and I have been volunteer judges in them. This performance is a send-up of judging rubrics, especially for judging barber shop quartets, but I found it matched up to speech judging in a most delightful way.
Extra Bonus Video: Judges by The Fabulous Bentley Brothers from Jelly Telly which was Phil Vischer's follow up to Veggie Tales. And, yes the Bentley Brothers are Rhett & Link.
I scheduled thispost to coincide with the beginning of President Carter's National Funeral Service.
Jimmy Carter gave a Eulogy at President Ford's Funeral service. It is eloquent, homespun, and humorous. In that it embodied many of the traits of both Presidents.
Welcome to the 1st 2024 Iteration of Team Sturdazzle, a hopefully weekly postpourri of random thoughts and regular segments.
Occasionally I will try to curate ideas from my FB pages and share some of the comments here. Today was supposed to be one of those occasions. On Thursday night I posted the following on both my personal FB page and the FB page for my blog:
Am approaching the 16th anniversary of my blog. On Jan 6th 2009 I published the first post there http://dave-homeschooldad.blogspot.com/2009/01/why-we-home-school.html A few years ago I changed the name from Home School Dad to Leap of Dave. I’m considering changing the name once again. Here are some ideas I have for a new name:
1. Sustainable Bedlam
2. Toaster Pastries w/o A Toaster
3. Blogging, People Still Do That?
4. A Hat, A Brooch, A Pterodactyl
Let me know which one you like, or If I should stick with Leap of Dave, or perhaps make a title suggestion of your own. I'll post results and suggestions in my next Team Saturdazzle post.
As of 11:30 Friday night I had no comments on either page. I did ask 3 members of my family the same question over a rousing game of Catopoly, which I am winning. The results were mixed: my wife Amy prefers Sustainable Bedlam, my daughter Emma is a fan of Toaster Pastries w/o a Toaster, my daughter Lucy likes Blogging, people still do that?, and I am fond of A Hat, A Brooch, A Pterodactyl. Certainly, there is no consensus on the nonsensical.
I will put this post on both my FB pages again and see if I can get more votes. If you happen to be reading this, please leave a comment with which one you prefer or a suggestion of your own.
The Mountain Dew Code Red of Trailers
On January 3rd, 2022, I published a post called The Mountain Dew Code Red of Trailers about a movie trailer for The Unbreakable Boy, which was due in theatres in March 2022. The movie, based on a book based on a true story, starred Chuck actor Zachary Levi as the father of a middle school boy who had brittle bone disease and autism.
Days before the March 22 release date The Unbreakable Boy was pulled from its release schedule with little to no explanation. Fast forward to yesterday, January 3, 2025 when I was working at my movie theatre 3 years from the date of my original post. I was patrolling the theatre and ensuring all the movies started successfully when I saw this new trailer for The Unbreakable Boy:
Apparently, Lionsgate has a February 21st 2025 release date. I'll believe it when I see it.
25. The Fall Guy 92.9 M 24. Red One 96.81 M 23. Bob Marley, One Love 96.89 M
22. Alien Romulus 105.31 M 21. IF 111.15 M 20. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire 113.38 M
19. Mufasa: The Lion King 128.14 M 18. A Quiet Place: Day One 138.93 M
17. Venom: The Last Dance 137.73M 16. The Wild Robot 143.19 M 15. It Ends With Us 148.51 M
14. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 151.56M 13. Gladiator II 164.55 M
12. Kingdom of the Planet pf the Apes 171.13 M 11. Bad Boys: Ride or Die 193.57 M
10. Kung Fu Panda 4 193.59 M 9. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire 196.35 M 8. Twisters 267.76 M
7. Dune: Part Two 282.14 M 6. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 294.1 M 5. Despicable Me 4 361 M
4. Moana 2 404.02 M 3. Wicked 432.94 M 2. Deadpool & Wolverine 636.75 M
1. Inside Out 2 652.98 M (Movies I watched are in bold)
10 highest-grossing movies I watched this year by rank on Box Office Mojo
90. Here 70. Cabrini 68. Unsung Hero 53. The Forge 52. Reagan 51. The Boys in the Boat 27. Wonka and the aforementioned The Wild Robot (16), Twisters (8), and Wicked (3).
Top 10 Films December 2024
10. Interstellar 2024 Re-release
9. Kraven The Hunter
8. Red One - Down 3 from November
7. A Complete Unknown
6. Nosefartu
5. Gladiator II - Down 2 from November
4. Mufasa: The Lion King
3. Sonic The Hedgehog 3
2. Wicked Down 1 from November
1. Moana 2 - Up 1 from November
Top 5 Films for 2025
5. Wicked
4. Nosferatu
3. Moana 2
2. Sonic The Hedgehog 3
1. Mufasa The Lion King
That's all I have today, for your weekly dose of Saturdazzle. Please comment especially about changing the blog's name or anything else that struck your fancy today.
10 years ago or some I curated a list of my 100 favorite films. A few years ago, I began the process of revising the list. Recently, I found a post in draft status which had a list of 16 films that after further consideration would not be making the top 100. I have a history with each of these films, and while they may not be in my top one hundred, I recommend them highly. If you click on the film,s title, you will be able to view a trailer for the film.
This is my 100th post of the year. This marks the 8th year since this blogs inception in 2009, and the 4th consecutive year that I’ve published 100 or more post in a year.
That is of course, it will be my 100th post of the year if and when I publish it. A few years ago I wrote a post about having 100 posts in draft status. At the end of the post in the only comment, I had written that I had deleted all but 15 of the posts in draft status and hoped never to accumulate nearly as many post there again.
Well it turns out that I have been accumulating posts in draft status again. I currently have 77 posts with that distinction. The majority of these are from 2023, but I do have 14 from this year. As part of my 100th post of the year celebration,I will now list each incompleted post of 2024 by title in Chronological order.
Double Library Day
Team Saturdazzle
(Untitled)
Milwaukee Brewers Catcher William Contreras bringing major league streak to begin season
Crystal Lake Library
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Anniversary vs. Annual
A to Z 2024 Reflections
(Untitled)
What’s most wrong about the 2024 White Sox
The Newfangled Four - A Spoonful of Sugar (Parody) [From Mary Poppins]
Former Chicago White Sox MVP , The late Dick Allen, elected to the Hall of Fame.
Not everybody needs a college degree (Writers Workshop)
That’s the 14. Some of these may see the light of day and most will be discarded. One of the drafts from last year is scheduled to post tomorrow for the next edition of Wordless Wednesday. I also hope to share the story behind that picture in a subsequent post.
Tomorrow’s post won’t be the last post of the year as I have a Michael Card Christmas Concert video scheduled to drop on 12/25. I’ll probably land somewhere between 103 and 107 2024 posts before the New Year and the whole race to 100 begins again.
The past coupla Saturdays I've tried and failed to put out a Team Saturdazzle post. The truth is my Fridays have been frenzied lately and my Saturdays have been swamped. The phrase 20 pounds in a 5-pound bag aptly describes them. My best friend noticed yesterday that yesterday at least until mid to late afternoon was anything but dazzling and told me to stop what I was doing, go home, and spend a quiet evening with my wife. This worked out well for my best friend and my wife as they are the same person.
So I went home, and we watched a movie together. The Movie was the 1938 Film: You Can't Take It With You. I have blogged about it before here, as the Y entry in "A Month at the Movies" from the 2023 A to Z challenge.
It did Saturdazzle my weekend right up. So much so, that I am taking some time on a Sunday to breathe a little and blog a little. In the A to Z post, I shared the below YouTube video which is a good synopsis and review of the movie.
I have been campaigning sometime now for my first White Sox hero, Dick Allen to get into the the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. Last night he finallt got voted in. I'm sure I'll have some more posts to add in the coming days but for now here are three videos I've pulled off of You Tube to commemorate his big moment.
First up a career retrospective from MLB
Next: Local Chicago Newscast reporting Allen's induction
Today is the 161'st anniversary of the Gettysburg address, If I had a bucket list, visiting Gettysburg would definitely be on it.
Last year, during the A to Z challenge, I published this post, which includes a video of the address plus an 8-minute film telling the story behind the movie The Last Full Measure. I included it because The Last Full Measure is a line from the address.
I just knew that if I Googled the Gettysburg Address Rap, I would find something. I was not disappointed. I have included it here as well to help commemorate the day.
Sunday was not just another home game for the Chicago Bears. First of all the game started at 8:30 A.M. Central Time which is very early for a Sunday match up. It started this early because the "home" game was played in London, England. The Bears defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 35-16 on Sunday. It was also an unusual game for Bears TE Cole Kmet.
Kmet whose Dad played for the Bears among other teams but never played in an actual game grew up in the NW suburbs of Chicago and played football and baseball for St. Viator before going to Notre Dame for college.
Cole Kmet hits HR for St. Viator in 2016 Sectional game
Here is Kmet in an interview in his time with ND.
Here is footage of Kmet while playing with the Irish.
Kmet was drafted by the Bears in the 2nd round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
C.K. is kind of a Superman for the Bears. In addition to playing starting Tight End, He is also the emergency long snapper. A long snapper is a specialized center who snaps the ball on punts, field goals, and extra points. The Bears usual long snapper suffered a knee injury in the first half of Sundays game. That meant that when Kmet scored 2 touchdowns in the 2nd quarter he had to snap the ball on the subsequent plays for the Bears extra points.
Click here to see Kmet's first touchdown on You Tube.
My wife bought prunes this weekend and I was reminded of this commercial that came out a few years after I was in high school about prunes. It was like the funniest commercial I had ever seen. The problem was when I described it to people even back then, they had never heard of it let alone seen it and thought it was more like a fake commercial from Saturday Night Live. I'll admit it's very much like the change bank.
After Amy brought home the prunes I started looking for the commercial on You Tube Again. I have looked before and never able to find it. I had found this commercial before that Stan Freeberg (Dragonnet) had produced in the 60's (He's also the off screen interviewer)
This is a very funny commercial but still not as funny as the one from the 80's at least in my memory.
I finally found a clip of it. While The YouTube video below Could be of better quality, here is a link to a Facebook page that has a better copy of the commercial
15 years ago today, on July 24th 2009. Mark Buehrle pitched a perfect game for the Chicago White Sox. to commemorate the anniversary enjoy this look at all 27 outs back when White Sox victories were not few and far between.
In late December 2022, my daughter told me about a poetry group that met the first Monday of the month. She and I went in January both enjoyed it so we have been attending ever since. The group meets both in person ad remotely. Emma and I have only attended in person so far.
The structure of the group is that the poets share any poems they are working on the the moderator leads us through the theme of the week and then gives us a prompt to work on. After the group is finished composing, they share the work they just completed. n
In 2023 several poets shared one poem about Elgin, the city I live in, o Valentines Day. Our group was asked to participate in that. In April of last year we all participated in a event called Poetry Alive where we all read several of our poems at a public meeting. My daughter chose not to participate last year i the event but went with the rest of our family to see me read.
Many of the poems I have submitted for Poetry Friday have bee written during or shared at our monthly poetry meetings . For today's Poetry Friday I would like to present the You Tube video of the 2024 Poetry Alive presentation. This year Emma participated as well. We are the 2nd and 3rd poets. There were 4 rounds of recitations. Poetry Alive 2024 took place on the night of my 26th wedding anniversary, so in honor of the occasion, I adapted a song I wrote for her into a poem and recited it in the third round.Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise.
