WMDs

I have a hard time listening to presidential candidates like Lincoln Chafee. He was one of 23 senators that voted against the Iraq War and to this day touts it as a mistake because no weapons of mass destruction were found. If that's all he's got to go on, he's delusional. The fact our troops found no cache of bio-weapons or a nuclear warhead doesn't mean the regime of Saddam Hussein didn't have WMDs. Ask the Kurds if Hussein had WMDs and I'm sure they will disagree with Chafee, seeing as how they were the target of the Al-Anfal genocide or those Kurds living in Halabja. You will never convince me that Saddam didn't have WMDs, whether we found them or not at the time. There are roads that lead to the likes of Syria and Iran and things called cars and trucks that have traveled those roads. In my opinion, Saddam Hussein himself WAS the weapon of mass destruction, killing hundreds of thousands of his own people. The world is better off without him. And I thank George W. Bush for that.

WMDs

Latest Read

Here is a link to my latest book review on Amazon. 

Family of Lies: Sebastian

Latest Read

Hottie of the Year!

Taylor Kitsch. Yeah, I know, I don't really have to say anything else. But how can you not? I mean, this guy is gorgeous beyond gorgeous. I spent several weeks in January binge-watching all of "Friday Night Lights," and followed that up with a select X-Men movie! And of course, not too long ago, Taylor was in a new movie, "Lone Survivor." He's definitely one to keep an eye on. That's why I'm just making him my hottie for all of 2014!

Hottie of the Year!

Delayed Hottie!

I can't believe I've been obsessing since May and haven't bothered to post about it til now. I must have been really distracted by this one!

Freddie Smith. He plays Sonny Kiriakis on "Days of Our Lives." The weirdest part is getting back into DAYS. I watched this show while I was in college. Wow! Freddie is also currently doing some soap-opera-esque comedy improve which is hilarious!!

Delayed Hottie!

Awesome videos!

If you want to see some awesome Q&A from Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann, formerly of As the World Turns, check out this series of videos starting with this one....




Make sure to watch all of them. They get funnier as it goes along! Including a bit about Van's undergrad degree from Carnegie Mellon! Yes! Just down the road from my grad degree at Duquesne, at the same time! Crazy small world, eh?

Awesome videos!

A few words about my "celebrity crushes" .....

Lest you think I have no life and suffer the doldrums of living only in my imagination, well, you know me pretty well then. No seriously. Not really. I just wanted to point out that my celebrity crushes might or might not be like yours.

When I discovered a passion for Rick Savage of Def Leppard in 1988 (yes, God, that dates me SO BADLY!), I turned it into over 65 concerts, befriended their road manager and hung out with the band. Not to mention I got to travel to places like Canada, San Francisco and Dallas! I also sent their management company a spec proposal for a fan club that garnered me a phone call from said manager. I even published a full-color magazine for them once that used up ALL of my savings. That wasn't successful because the internet was just being born, but it was on my bucket list just the same. Cross that one off.

If you go back further than that, that little "crush" I had on Duran Duran when I was in high school led to several years publishing a successful fanzine for them called "Carnival." When I rolled that over into a fanzine for their guitarist, I got a phone call from his solo management company as well.

Oh yeah, that hockey thing... A passion for Darius Kasparaitis and hockey led to traveling to Pittsburgh for games, which led to me moving to Pittsburgh for graduate school and running a website for Kaspar. So if he ever wants his name back as a domain, he has to call me!

Let me not leave out Sean Astin. Yeah, Samwise Gamgee himself, way before he was Samwise, mind you. That little obsession saw me traipsing around Tennessee and Virginia checking out sites where he filmed movies, which turned out to be kinda cool! I love a good road trip!

I can even trace this back to one of my first real loves, who shall remain nameless, and my attempts to reach him by phone. I once got a letter from his step-father and I think I talked to the maid on the phone. Hey, I was 10, give me a break. "Stalking" didn't exist then! And it's not like I could travel by myself.

So even though people laugh at my little celebrity obsessions, I can guarantee you that they have led to many unbelievable personal experiences for me. And I've met some wonderful people along the way! Come along for the ride, because you never know where we may end up!

A few words about my "celebrity crushes" .....

Hottie for the Hot Season!

Yeah, well, one obsession quickly leads to another. The old ones shouldn't feel bad. They'll always have a special place in my heart! But there comes a time to move on....

This is Van Hansis. Look familiar? If you ever watched daytime soaps, he might. He spent five years on As The World Turns. More recently he's been in episodes of Nikita, Psyche and The Mentalist. Thanks to YouTube, I'm now spoiled against commercials. I've been watching his entire ATWT storyline unfold in 5-10 minute clips. I'm almost to the end (the show went off the air in October 2010) and I'm going to be very sad when it's over. I've thoroughly enjoyed watching hours and hours of soap online and spouting off crazy storylines to my indulgent friends.

Here's hoping he gets lots more acting jobs so there's more to watch. In the meantime, here's a funny student short he was in...

Hottie for the Hot Season!

Hottie of the Season!

 

Yeah, since I don't post often, I had to change it from Hottie of the Month, to Hottie of the Season, meaning Winter. This is Luke Kleintank. You've probably never heard of him. Too bad for you. He's young enough to be my kid, but hey, he's legal! He's been on episodes of CSI: Miami, Law & Order: LA, Parenthood, Gossip Girl and had a recurring role on last year's No Ordinary Family. Most recently, he's played a new Squintern on Bones. Oh, he also was on the Young & the Restless for about 6 months, playing Noah Newman, where he sang and took lots of his clothes off!

Here is the trailer for his first feature film:

Hottie of the Season!

Sans Soucy Blackberry Sangria

If you read my post about Clarksville's Wine Fest then you know how much I loved Sans Soucy Vineyard's Blackberry Sangria. They took the recipe  off their website but were nice enough to email it to me:

Blackberry Ginger Sangria

• 2 bottles of Sans Soucy Blackberry wine
• 1 cup of finely chopped fresh ginger
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 2 cups of frozen berry fruit mix
• 1/2 of pineapple tidbits 
• 1 can of frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1/2 liter of 7-up or other lemon soda

One to two days before, combine all ingredients except soda. Keep refrigerated. One hour before, add soda, mix well, serve very chilled. Makes approx 1 gallon. Optiona: add a tablespoon of berry fruit to individual glasses for garnish.

Trust me, you should try this recipe. Obviously, any blackberry wine will do but Sans Soucy's is especially awesome!

Sans Soucy Blackberry Sangria

10 years ago today

Exactly ten years ago today, I was recently moved in to my high-rise apartment in downtown Pittsburgh! This was my view. Pretty cool, eh? A great place to live for a hockey stalker like me. Of course, they have a new arena now but if you could turn just a little left in this picture, you'd could see where the new one was going to be built. Pittsburgh is a gorgeous city!

10 years ago today