The Year of Peanuts Rolls On

The Post Office is issuing stamps commemorating the 50th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas.


"Xmastime likes this."

Updated.

Going from the iPhone 3 to 6S is from what I can tell so far my own version of Bob Beamon in Mexico City. 

Why Yes i AM the King of Rock and Roll!

In America

The VICE thing on HBO about prisons is totally depressing. After slavery and Jim Crow, the War on Drugs comes off as a younger sibling’s screeching, “hey, I wanna be racist too!”

Oh, Curt

If you were worried Curt Schilling hasn't been acting like a jackass since his suspension, you can relax now.

Live Forever

The rumor mill has Oasis getting back together.  I don't consider myself nostalgic for the 90's but this does take me back.

Thoughts. I Have Them.

Does any word other than "idiot" ever follow the word "blithering"?

One Year Ago Today

Was Jeter's final career at-bat:

Seems like this happened more than a year ago, but it was in fact on September 28, 2014 that Derek Jeter played his final Major League game. This isn’t the anniversary of his final at-bat at Yankee Stadium — that moment was far more memorable — but it’s the anniversary of a standing ovation at Fenway Park after Jeter beat out high chopper for an infield single. This wasn’t one of those all-time, iconic moments in his career, but it’s worth remembering Jeter’s final moment on the field.

What TV and The Movies Have Taught Me

Whenever anyone picks you up from jail, they're never waiting for you in the lobby or at reception; they're always straight across the street from the exit  leaning with their ass against their car that's in its curiously amazing parking spot, legs crossed at the ankles and hands in jacket pockets.

Two Years Ago Today

Curious Placemnt du Jour

A Day in the Life

A buddy at work took this pic of my desk.

Becks Is Funny But We Knew This

People are surprised David Beckham is kinda funny in a new ad with funnyman Kevin Hart:

No matter. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid man has just proved that he's got a sense of humor to match the best of them — in fact, he's shown that he can even go toe to toe with a professional comedian and come out on top.

Sorry, but some of us have known he's funny for a while now, ever since he paid homage to the funniest moment in tv history!
Only Fools and Horses - Beckham in Peckham from Doyen Global on Vimeo.

Presidential candidate bravely protective of wonderful nacho cheese flavored tortilla chips that can be dipped in queso or salsa.

WTF du Jour

It just occurred to me that over the course of their 22 years as a live band The Ramones never played Saturday Night Live​. Which in retrospect sounds impossible to believe. I mean, wtf?

This Is Really Cool

Original voice actors of Peanuts from the 1960s.

Oh come on Frank, stay in your lane!

Goals. I Have Them.

My new plan: ask women out on dates and then stand them up, only to later regale them with stories of why I was absent based on plot lines from Only Fools and Horses episodes. #goals

Thoughts. I Have Them.

If you were worried it wasn't possible to film a documentary on Keith Richards that was duller than shit, you can ease your mind now.

Yogi RIP

Is Whitey Ford the last of the Yankee greats from that generation still alive? The next group of greatness would be the late 90's teams, no?

Damn.

I first posted this as being a "sad, flaccid noodle of sweaty desperation" but got a letter threatening a defamation suit from a sad, flaccid noodle of sweaty desperation's lawyer.

It's official: the Pope hates freedom, probably Jesus and Jesus' scrappy, lovable sidekick Baby Jesus too. Sad.

Goodbye Yogi

Yogi Berra is cherished for being a lovable character, which I think has come to overshadow the fact that he was a ridiculously great player. See his stacked plaque: 3-time MVP, 10 rings! 100 RBI 5 times, 4 years in a row - AND he fought at D-Day!

My favorite all the billions & billions of Yogi-isms is, upon being asked at a pizzeria if he wanted the pizza cut into 4 slices or 6:

"You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six."

It was also on his triumphant return to The Stadium that David Cone threw his perfect game. Don Larson threw the first pitch to Yogi. Shit was spooky. 

A truly great Yankee who will be missed by all of baseball.

Job Update

I've been replaced.

When Someone Tells Me Nebraska is the Only Good Springsteen Album

YouTube Idiot

Why the fuck would you put the gotdam punchline in the fucking title of the clip!?!?!?

Headlines, with Xmastime!

Happy Birthday Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen

Here's Shawn Colvin doing a cover of his magnificent Tougher Than the Rest.  Must say, started out turning my nose up at this but she won me over.

Welcome Pope Frank!

So far, he's my favorite Pope. But let's not forget when I saw Pope John Paul II - so cool he was named after not one but TWO Beatles - when I was a kid:

With Pope Benedict the Sin Wrecka' visiting the good ol' USA, I'm reminded of when I went to DC to see the Pope on the Washington Mall in 1979. Our church got a bus, and all 11 of the town Catholics got on board and we rode to DC, singing Pope songs like "Rainy Day Pope #35", "It's Raining Popes" and, of course, "My Pope-rona." You know those songs. We got to the Mall and were so far back the only way we could see him without our iPhones being linked up to one of the 118 Jumbotrons was to stand on a trash can with a pair of binoulars. Also, ironically, the way I saw my first naked girl (and next, probably. Sigh.) I remember pissing in a paper cup behind a tree; there must've been a billion people.

But it's always bugged me my Dad wasn't there. My mother, my brother and I (I cannot recall if Sistatime!, who woulda been 2 at the time, was there or not) made the trip, but my Dad had to work. Looking back I don't know why he couldn't haven't gotten out of it; as a cop I'm sure it's just a matter of switching shifts or something. I have no idea. But it sucks that I went and he didn't, he was certainly the most serious Catholic I knew as a kid. My Dad dragged us around the state from church to church, trying to find one that wasn't so "modern." I can remember walking out of church twice: once when instead of the standard organ some hippy mofo pulled out an acoustic guitar and another time when in the middle of a song my Dad realized that as the song was being sung some ballerina was working her way up the aisle, performing some sort of dance/acrobatics. Sunday Dinner came early that day, my friends. Looking back, I'm surprised he didn't spend more time bemoaning the switch from Latin Mass to one spoken in English. I'm sure not a Sunday Mass passed after Vatican II without him shaking his head thinking "fucking pussies." When my parents dropped me off for college, my Dad drove me to the local church before we even saw my dorm room. "There it is. See that you get there on Sunday." I got a feeling if he had known that the priest was a young buck who wore jeans and smoked outside while saying goodbye to the churchgoers with words like "man" and "dude", I would never had set foot on that campus again. Coming from outside of Boston, I'm sure my Dad felt as if he had come from the Major Leagues of Catholicism, unlike the backwoods Single-A bush league Catholics he found himself in company with in Virginia. I mean, he actually sang out loud in church, for chrissakes; not the lips-barely-moving while pretending to be baffled re: "what page is this hymn on? what?" singing everyone else did, but actual singing. We went through a stretch wherein whenever we'd go to St. Benedict's in Richmond, we'd hit this restaurant called Duffy's which had biscuits that I loooooved. One such Sunday we were standing up to sing some hymn - me of course preparing to spend the next 3 minutes with my lips barely open acting as if there was sound coming out - and as we were standing up my father leaned slightly into me and out of the corner of his mouth like a ventriloquist said "SING for your biscuits, boy!" For one magical Sunday, I belted out the tunes like Aretha under a church tent made out of baked hams. Damn right I got my biscuits. And, of course, spent every Sunday for the next 7 years trying to not get stuck sitting next to Dad in church. If we went to Mass in town, we'd get home for Sunday dinner and he'd prattle on for 45 minutes about what was right or wrong about that morning's homily. Which was, on average, about 6 minutes. Our priest wanted to hurry up Mass to get home and watch the game; my Dad wanted to get home to talk about the Mass.

I'm glad I saw the Pope. Two years after that I saw President Reagan, so if nothing else in this life I can say I've seen a president and a Pope. Well, and Bruce. But if I could've switched places, if my Dad could've gone instead of me I'd have done it in a heartbeat. Being a Catholic meant a lot to him. He should've gone, and it bugs me he didn't.

Course, for all I know he skipped the trip cause the Pope wasn't old school Catholic enough for him. "Liberal hippy," I can see him shaking his head.

The King of Thrones!

In this pilot episode, The King braves a brown haze of funk so you don't have to.

Help!

It's not the cinematic, artistic masterpiece that is A Hard day's Night, but there's a lot to love about the Beatles' sophomore film, such as:

1. You get to watch the goddam Beatles be Beatles
2. The Technicolor/James Bond vibe
3. It virtually invented MTV (to people born before 1984, this is a compliment, btw)

Finally, Scott Walker can get back to focusing on completely destroying Winsconsite's lives.

You will be missed, dipshit.

Baaaaahston

Not a lot of people know this, but my mother invented the phrase “If your fathah has to pull this caaahhh oveehhh, so help me Gwad.” - XMASTIME

I've long bitched about actors trying to do the Boston accent in movies, which they always bitch and by they I mean mainly Kevin Costner:

But in this flick he's playing Kennedy advisor Kenny O'Donnell. Kenny O'Donnell...does anyone have any idea how Kenny O'Donnell talked in real life? Is his speech pattern/accent Cosell-esque; ie ingrained in us so much that an actor would have to try to imitate it? Anyone whipping out their Ken O'Donnell imitations at dinner parties? For fuck's sake Kevin you're not playing one of the Kennedys; I can fucking promise you there's not a single person watching the movie that is thinking "hey, waaaaaaaiit a minute...THAT'S not how Kenny O'Donnell talked! This is bullshit!!"

Could've just talked normally, nobody would've cared. Fucking distracting.

Even people FROM Boston trip up over it, a lá Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting.

I stand by my thinking that unless you're playing JFK, don't even bother trying it.

PBS Nails It OH WHAT A SURPRISE

The American Experience on Walt Disney is unsurprisingly fantastic. It pairs pretty great with the classic 1999 doc on Ub Iwerks, the real talent behind Disney.

Lovely Jubbly!

The BBC is about to offer a Netflix-style streaming sit:

The archives the BBC could offer up are staggering to contemplate. The network has offered original TV programming since 1929, starting only three years after the invention of the television, and it’s impossible to summarize its greatest hits.

Hell, just in the past year-ish I've found enough shows I absolutely love to fill out a bracket region!

Hmm. Any particular reason they felt like placing a big penis on top of this of all brackets?

Memories

Jimmy Fallon talks about the famous Springsteen/Fallon version of Whip Your Hair  (Note: he repeatedly says 1978, but the Born to Run Tour was 1975)

Are You Kidding Me?

Darlene Love's new album, produced by Little Steven and written by Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen. Phil Spector's kicking himself in the grave, I mean prison. Only Darlene Love can bring what would be a 4 song up to a 9.

Thoughts. I Have Them (Special End of Summer Edition)

The only thing weirder than me turning off my a/c and opening up the windows is OH WAIT there's nothing weirder than me turning off my a/c and opening up my windows.

Happy 9th Birthday from Rats to his once & future sidekick :)

Thoughts. I Have Them.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that no matter how many times they solemnly play The Battle Hymn of the Republic during Ken Burns' Civil War you can't stop following "Glory, glory Hallelujah!" with "my teacher hit me with a ruler."

BBC History

I love the show Vicious and REALLY love a bunch of Britcoms.

LaTroy Hawkins

I was excited when I just heard that LaTroy Hawkins is the oldest player in MLB, thinking "alright, a player older than me!" but it turns out he's not  :(

But it did make me stumble upon 11 LaTroy Hawkins facts, and this fun fact jumped out:

9. He is the last remaining active pitcher to have faced Michael Jordan during the basketball legend's brief foray into professional baseball in 1994.

Thoughts. I Have Them

The one reason I wish I was in high school today is so I could pull one of those ask a celebrity to prom stunts.

Video Memories of The Birthday Boy!

Florida Kids Still Waiting to Know How Book Ends

Happy Birfday

illWill!

Happy 9/11 from ESPN and George Bush

The latest 30 for 30 Short Film from ESPN is The Pitch, about George Bush's strike he threw at Yankee Stadium in the 2001 World Series. You can watch it HERE.

It's not a bad way to spend 24 minutes, but you don't learn anything you didn't already know from watching the incredibly awesome 9 Innings from Ground Zero other than Bush is the only president who's played Little League baseball and one of his daughters is pretty hot. Deadspin's asking why EPSN is doing Bush's heavy lifting re: making everybody forget he was a war criminal, which you can take however way you'd like.

But the last line Bush speaks in the film is telling:

“Standing on the mound at Yankee Stadium was by far the most nervous moment of my presidency"

At first it sounds folksy and quaint and something you say when you're trying to be humble/human. But then you think "REEEEally? Throwing a baseball was THE most nervous moment you had as a president who reigned over a terrorist attack and its ensuing wars?!" and a it reminds you of the worst of George Bush, that blissful, willful ignorance and thinking "from the gut" without the burden of any thoughts or care of consequence.

Questions. I Have Them.

If you wanna be a religious martyr that's fine but you can't expect to keep your job...does anybody know anything about Jesus’ actual work as a carpenter? #kimdavis

In Case You Were Worried You Weren't Already in Love with Emmylou Harris

I HATE WHEN YOU CAN'T EMBED!!!

"Area Man On Hamster Wheel Smells a Big 'ol Fart"

Ken Burns Civil War Quote du Jour

Shelby Foote, on Stonewall Jackson:

He had a strange quality of overlooking suffering.

LOL du Jour

VIA.

Ken Burns

I grew up in the capital of the Confederacy, Virginia, and as kids we were dragged from one Civil War battlefield to the next by my father. He was a huge history buff, but him being from Massachusetts meant that we got to regularly see all this history without it being colored by some sort of Southern, clinging pride.

It's Not Complicated

Look, if God is a Survivor fan - and sales of over 2 million suggest that he probably is - and insisted that they play Survivor, then that's that. Period.

Congrats Queen!

In honor of the Queen's big day today.  [I in fact love the whole idea of (powerless) British Royalty. Still a great song of course.]

18 seconds into an office party.

Hey, these things happen.

Long Live the Queen

There's a lot of fuss about Queen Elizabeth becoming the longest-reigning British monarch ever; not the least of which is this Xmastime post from a few years ago involving the Queen she's bested, Victoria:

Yesterday I asked a friend of mine (okay, it was Op, but I didn't wanna sound gay by referencing him in consecutive posts...sue me!) how old his grandmother was, and when he answered I was reminded of when I was a young kid, and my brother and I were trying to find out exactly how old my grandmother was. Even at such a young age we both could tell "this woman is ancient." At the dinner table after some hounding from us my father thought he'd be clever and riddled us with "your grandmother was born the year after Queen Victoria died." The words were barely out of his mouth before Brothatime! blurted out "She was born in 1902? Wow!" And those words were barely out of HIS mouth before I said "We have a queen??!?!!!"

This Is Exciting!

Queen Elizabeth becoming the shizzle to the rizzle of reigning over England:

Just like her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria before her, Elizabeth II was never expected to rule; as the eldest daughter of the king's second son, Prince Albert (later King George VI), hers was a life destined to be lived in relative privacy, until the 1936 abdication of her uncle, Edward VIII, after a reign of only 325 days, changed the course of history.

Already the country's longest-lived monarch and the world's oldest-serving sovereign, at approximately 5.30pm on September 9 Elizabeth will reach yet another milestone when she becomes Britain's longest reigning monarch, breaking Victoria's record of 63 years, seven months and two days on the throne.

Thoughts. I Have Them.

If I was a character in A Walk in the Woods, thanks to my comically-terrible-bordering-on-the-"are-you-shitting-me?" sense of direction I'd definitely be Chicken John.

Feels Good to Be Back Where I Belong: Between the Lines!

Thoughts. I Have Them.

Whoever wrote the songs Greensleeves and The Battle Hymn of the Republic sure made a killing from the Ken Burns PBS Civil War doc. I mean, nobody coulda written a third gotdam song?

Only Fools and Horses Thought

Not just for one of the greatest scenes ever, A Touch of Glass may be my favorite episode. Dropping Del Boy into old English blue-blood society was a stroke of genius; to be honest it maybe should've happened more often, as it reveals how Del Boy thinks of himself as he desperately tries to climb society:

Rodney: They don't wanna know the likes of us do they?

Grandad: No, they think we're peasants!

Del: Peasants? What do you mean 'peasants'? They may think that you two are peasants! Well come to think that I think you two are peasants! But me, I'm one of them that's accepted anywhere – whether it's drinking lager with the market boys down at Nine Elms, or sipping Pimm's fruit cup at Hendon regatta!

This Is Exciting

On Wednesday, Queen Elizabeth II will become the longest-reigning British monarch, surpassing her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria. Well, at least it's exciting to someone who got up at 3am to watch the Royal Wedding.

Sure, Why Not

Donald Trump says that even though he never served in the military, he understands what it was like to be in Vietnam because he went to a private military high school.

In his defense I would remind you to judge not, lest you too have experienced the somewhat unpleasant inconveniences of high school.

I mean, when is it enough already with this one, amirite?!?!?!

Happy Birfday!

34 years ago today, the first episode of Only Fools and Horses aired. Celebrate with one of the greatest scenes in all of tv history!

Del has decided to get into the chandelier cleaning business, but as he, Rodney and Granddad carry out their first appointment, things do not go to plan.

Plans. I Have Them.

I’m gonna combat all the “look at my kids going back to school today!” photos on Facebook today with pictures of me sleeping in ‘til 9:30am.

Sorry, But...

...there is but one Kentucky hero, and the only religion he espoused was in frying a delectable bird with 11 herbs & spices.

Only Fools and Horses Quote du Jour

(Del Boy, upon realizing that Trigger’s grandfather’s ashes had been hoovered up by the street-sweeper truck)

"I mean, don't you see the poetic irony of it? Arthur used to be a road sweeper - to him this must be like a Viking's burial!"

This Is Funny

Jack Watts!

I now know someone who's met and shaken hands with Buzz Aldrin. Wow.

Re-thinking Things

25 years later, PBS is re-running Ken Burn's Civil War doc this week. Interesting article re: how we may view it differently after recent events.

After a young loser named Dylann Roof walked into a prayer service at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and allegedly murdered nine innocent people for no other reason than that they were black and he saw himself in the sick tradition of Confederate-flag-waving white supremacists, comfortable perceptions of the Civil War and its legacy began to change, and very quickly.

Superslice

I wore the fuck outta The Small Faces 20 years ago.

"It's reallly a shame; we thought he was one of the good ones." - the GOP

Happy Birfday!

To long-time Xmastime buddy Anna Z.  :)

September 6, 2015:

I finally find a reason to have children.

Game Changer.

So long, Starbucks!

Thoughts. I Have Them.

"Pumpkin-flavor creep" is the new "Christmas creep."

OFAH Moment du Jour

Del Boy's absolute glee watching Rodney unwittingly sit in the chair Uncle Albert had just pissed in. Awesome.

#OFAH

Hysterical Only Fools and Horses Scene du Jour

Del Boy has tried to coach Uncle Albert on reacting to Rodney's news and of course he keeps fucking it up.

"Area Woman Still Fucking Talking"

If I Could Ever Have Been on One Show

It woulda been The Carol Burnett Show.

Outtakes and bloopers.
Posted by Matthew Hill on Sunday, October 27, 2013

New Show Update

Black Books, which I mentioned yesterday, has gotten better with each series, now that they've kind of calmed the main guy down. The high concept/surreal bits are better and better.

I'm nearing the end of the final series, which is making me depressed. This is the problem with streaming/binging shows - 24 hours ago I dind't know this show existed, and now I'm all "OMG HOW CAN I LIVE WITHOUT IT?!?!?!!?"

Have a Feeling...

...the Kim Davis "religious freedom" people aren't gonna be behind this one.

Superslice!

Good Question

When did colleges become country clubs?

Even dorms have gone upscale. Boston University set the bar high when it opened its 960-bed residential tower in 2009, with walk-in closets, private bathrooms, and sweeping views of the Charles. In late February, Berklee College of Music dedicated a 16-story glass-walled residence that, as a college publication put it, “offers Back Bay views that neighbors pay millions for.” It also has a fitness center, a roof terrace, and recording studios that “rival any in the United States, including commercial enterprises like Lucasfilm and the major Hollywood studios.”

It is this idea, that more equals better — that more amenities, more administrators, and a higher price tag in some way indicate quality — that lies at the secret heart of stratospheric tuition and student debt. Not professor pay.

Social Distortion Album at 25

From 2014, Xmastime talking about the album Social Distortion:

It just occurred to me that next year will be the 25th anniversary of the release of that album, the eponymously-titled Social Distortion.  I can still remember sitting around on my freshman dorm floor during my first few weeks of pretend college when I heard Story of My Life blaring from down the hall. In a move totally against my personality but so in love with the song I was hearing, I walked down and introduced myself to the guys who were playing it and asked what the fuck it was. It was Story of My Life, and it's still fucking great tonight.

We're still friends to this day, and I still love this album. And I think it's become one of "those albums" (like the first Violent Femmes record) that somehow, some way, everybody knows and loves.

And of course this year IS the 25th year anniversary. I still love that album; here's an interview with Mike Ness about the album and the last quarter century:

How autobiographical was "Story of My Life"?
One hundred percent. But what I didn't know when I was writing it was that it was also universal. I don't know how but I captured a simple human emotion in a song that is universally relatable. I try to write songs like that today, but it doesn't come around that often.

I was one of those kids who thought the song was about me. Still great. (And depressing I was a freshman in college 215 years ago!!!!!)

Hullo New Show!

Included in my "Great BBC Shows I've Found Over the Last Year" list (but too late for tourney time!):

Black Books.

Pretty much what I love about the BBC: budget looks like it was $10/day, a cozy setting, characters constantly drinking, and a minimum of them to keep track of.

AND a bonus: a Mrs. Xmastime!

Bourdain on White

Last week I mentioned my thrill re: a biopic on Marco Pierre White happening; turns out I missed Bourdain a few months back yammering about the 25th anniversary of White's classic book (which I've never read), White Heat:

Ten years before my book Kitchen Confidential supposedly ‘ripped the lid off’ the grim realities of the restaurant business, White Heat brimmed with casual admissions of what we all knew as chefs: that it was a hard, brutal, repetitive business. That even if we could afford it, we were unlikely to be welcome in our dining rooms. That we were powerless without money. That only by being extraordinary – or at least convincing people that we were extraordinary – could we hope to live like our customers.

White Heat depicted a great chef who was heading straight at that thing we’d all seen: burn out. He knew it. Was conflicted by it. But it wasn’t slowing him down. He had somewhere to go and he’d figure it out when he got there.

Kids Back in Philly

Interview with longtime Xmastime buddy Dave Bielanko from the great Marah on Springsteen's Backstreets site about the upcoming Kids in Philly 15 year-celebration show in Philly:

Christine and I kept going largely because we couldn't figure out anything better to do. Watch TV? We didn't even have one... so I don't know? We weren't gonna stop doing what we were doing. I don't have the answers. Which in turn just opens the door to more puzzling questions.... was it ever really broken? Is it even worth saving?? It goes around and around. To me it's still baffling how very important and human and soulful and irreplaceable certain chemistries and connections are. Our band feels like one. To me it is one.

“Duke lacrosse team party canceled.”

Via HERE.

Cushty!

Mongrels was not a great show, but it had the good sense to parody some of Only Fools and Horses most famous scenes.

Del Boy & Rodney's Drinks

Del Boy: A shot of tequila, a shot of coconut rum and one of creme de menthe. A smidgeon of Campari with the merest suggestion of Angostura bitters, top that up with fresh grapefruit juice then shake it. DO NOT STIR. Pour that slowly over broken ice Garnish with a slice or orange slice of lime, your occasional seasonal fruits, top that off with a decorative plastic umbrella, two translucent straws and voila!

Rodney: Half a lager please.

"Do your Parents Know You're Ramones?"

Some guy wrote about Rock 'n Roll High School yesterday. After Tommy died, I watched the movie for the first time in decades and was struck by two things:

1. Oh my God, they really do sound retarded. Like, they aspire to be retards.
2. Who took longer to show up onscreen in their own movie, The Ramones in Rock 'n Roll High School (almost 38 minutes in) or the shark in Jaws?  - XMASTIME

 Director Alan Arkush and screenwriter Joseph McBride look back on the now cult classic Rock 'n Roll High School:

Arkush was hoping The Ramones would be witty, like The Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night, but as McBride recalls, “When The Ramones showed up, they could hardly talk … they were not verbal people, actually rather monosyllabic. So Allan was smart enough to work around that. One of (famed French director) Jean Renoir’s pieces of advice was, ‘Never change an actor to fit the script. Change the script to fit the actor.’”

“Dee Dee was not really capable of sitting there and reading a script,” Arkush says. “John was, but he wasn’t interested and bored. They didn’t want to rehearse, although I tried to go over some of their lines, but that was kind of useless after a while. When we shot a scene, they either said it well or they didn’t.”

Still, Arkush got along well with the band, and they inspired another great gag in the film when the band gets pizza delivered backstage, but their manager makes Joey eat health food instead. “I had dinner with The Ramones at (Sire Records founder) Seymour Stein’s place,” Arkush says. “They ordered this lavish, Italian take-out meal, and once the band got there, they said, ‘I thought we were havin’ Italian food.’ ‘We are.’ ‘Where’s the pizza?’ So they had to order pizza because they didn’t want to eat the other stuff!”

"Challenge Accepted!" - Newt Gingrich

Ha hahahaha!!

There's hypocrisy, and then there's this woman.

Ba-da-ba-ba-ba, I'm Lovin' It

The one thing that McDonald's sucks at?

HAMBURGERS. - XMASTIME

In a move to shorten my already questionable life expectancy, McDonald's will start serving breakfast all day next month. Matt Yglesias points out one of the many reasons this is awesome:

Even at the chain's peak, nobody seriously thought those were the best burgers in the world. In terms of ground beef patties, McDonald's has always been selling convenience and price more than actual food. Reasonable people can disagree as to whether the best fast food burgers are at Shake Shack or In-N-Out or Five Guys or Smashburger, but nobody thinks McDonald's is in the number-one position.

Country Western Song to Write Later

"Baby, I Only Use My One-Wipe Charlies When I'm Coming to See You"