"You're Uninvited"

A couple of days ago, Lennon and I were walking to the mailbox.  I had my cane, and Lennon was on her Tinker Bell bike.

Suddenly, she stopped pedaling.

"Daddy.  You and Mommy aren't invited to my birthday anymore."  (She turns four in May.)

"How come, Bug?"

"Because you won't buy me that dog poop toy for my birthday."

This is the toy she wants....



This is a real toy.  I'm not kidding.  A couple of months ago, she saw a commercial for it on Nickelodeon, and was instantly enamored.  Who can blame her?  It's Play-Doh dog shit.  I'll admit:  I'm almost 37 years old, and I still think the way dogs look when they poop is one of the funniest things on Earth.  If there is a god, you know he has a sick sense of humor.

Am I right?!

'Doggie Doo' is the latest in a long line of toys that Lennon has begged for.  At Christmas, it was Lite Sprites.  To this day, I still have no idea how that doll works.  She pestered us about that thing for months.  Played with it on Christmas day.  Hasn't touched it since.  The same goes for the "Ice Cream Play-Doh Maker" she received for her birthday last year.  On that one, she practically started a Change.org online petition.

Not this time.

I very politely explained to her that, even if Mommy and Daddy don't go to her birthday party, she still wouldn't be getting that toy as a present.  I told her that we had already told all of the party guests that she wasn't allowed to have that toy.  

She huffed.  Then pouted for a second, and started to ride away.

"You still can't come."

74 Years Ago Today

A young, pregnant showgirl by the name of June Frances Nicholson, gave birth to a little boy.  She named him John Joseph.  Immediately upon being delivered, he looked up at the doctor, and said, "Wait until they get a load of me".  He then asked one of the nurses for a cigar, two fingers of scotch, and to refer to him as "Jack".

The rest was history.

Jack Nicholson is an actor that puts a little bit of himself in every role.  You never know at what point Jack stops and the character starts.  He has been superb in everything he has done.  As the most nominated actor in Oscar history, with 12 Academy Award nominations and three wins, he has set the mold for the American actor for decades to come.

Perhaps my favorite Nicholson movie of all times is 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'.  In it, Jack plays Randle McMurphy, a trouble maker and criminal that hopes to serve out the rest of his sentence for statutory rape in a mental institute, instead of doing hard labor while in prison.  It's possibly the greatest performance of Nicholson's career, a role that earned him an Oscar in 1975.  I have seen the movie 20 times or more, and the final seen makes me cry every time I see it.  It's the epitome of friendship, love, mercy and compassion.  Happy Birthday, Jack.

Interesting Fact

On this day in 1852, Charles Taze Russell, the man that founded the religion now known as Jehovah's Witnesses, was born. In his day, it was still acceptable to celebrate birthdays. I wasn't able to celebrate my first one until the age of 31.

So, Happy Birthday, Chuck! Asshole.