Actors From The 80s

A good friend is in town for the weekend so last night a group of us assembled for a little shinding at his mother's house. It has been close to year since he was last in LA so it was nice to see him and everyone else. I may blog about that a little later, but right now I want to touch upon a related topic called actors from the 80s.

This arose because during the course of conversation we realized that it is 20 years since we were in Israel together and more than 20 years since a number of the films that marked high school came out.

So the question came up as what actors from that time period have survived the test of time and are still fun to watch now. Here is an incomplete list of those who made it followed by those who did not. Please note that most if not all of them have made some very bad movies, but they include some very good ones too.

1. Tom Hanks
2. John Cusack
3. Kevin Bacon
4. Clancy Brown- Ok, more of a bit player but he was the Kurgan. ;)
5. Sean Penn- Don't like his politics but I love Spicoli.
6. Nicholas Cage
7. Tom Cruise- Pre-wackout days.

And now off the top of my head a list of actors/actresses whose careers have totally tanked or are very close to it.

1. Bill Paxton
2. Charlie Sheen
3. Emilio Estevez
4. Jon Cryer
5. Judd Nelson
6. Molly Ringwald
7. Rob Lowe
8. Ally Sheedy
9. Paul Gleason- Ok, he at best was a bit actor.

These lists may be adjusted or reworked. What do you think. Do you have anything to add to this?

Michael Moore Was never Smarter

Gail turned me onto this movie. It is Michael Moore's investigation of the Aragorn affair. You can find the website here and the movie here.

"One of the most controversial and provocative films of the year, Fellowship 9/11 is Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore's searing examination of the Aragorn administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events at Helms Deep.

With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering - or if necessary fabricating - the facts, Moore considers the reign of the son of Arathorn and where it has led us.

He looks at how - and why - Aragorn and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saruman connection to Helms Deep, despite the fact that 9 out of every 10 Orcs that attacked the castle were actually Uruk-hai who were spawned in and financed by Isengard.

Fellowship 9/11 shows us a Middle Earth kept in constant fear by "Orc Alerts" and lulled into accepting a piece of legislation, the Patriot Scroll, that infringes on basic civil rights. It is in this atmosphere of confusion, suspicion and dread that Aragorn, backed by the secretive "Fellowship Group," makes his headlong rush towards war in Mordor - and Fellowship 9/11 takes us inside that war to tell the stories we haven't heard, illustrating the awful cost to soldiers and to orcs and to their families."

Thoughts about the Holiday Season From the Other Side

I have written about my feelings on the holidays on multiple occasions. You can some of them here and here.

Q has written a piece that I think is worth reading. I don't agree with him on a number of things, but I think that his heart is in the right place and he touches upon something that resonates with me. At least my interpretation of his words is roughly this.

Why have people taken what should be a holy day and turned it into something that doesn't reflect the holiness of that day.

From a Jewish perspective it resonates with me because I don't understand why some Jews feel a need to try and compete with Xmas. It is not our holiday and that is ok. Chanukah is not the Jewish Xmas, never was and never will be.

We have always given our children Chanukah gifts and will continue to do so but have been very careful not to go crazy with our gifts.

I think that the real point of what Q is saying is that the meaning of the day has been lost and that the noise surrounding it is obscuring that.

Anyway, just my two cents.

Curling

I have to admit that I have been one of those people who make fun of Curling. It is one of those things that looks funny and growing up in a place with little to no snow it is not something that we encounter often.

Anyway, for those bloggers who are fans of curling allow me to send you here.

Cleveland Creates Waves

This is an old story, but I never did hear how it was resolved. Personally this whole thing seems silly to me.

Updated: 8:48 p.m. ET Feb. 8, 2005

"CLEVELAND - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has sued the online Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame over alleged trademark infringements of the rock hall’s name.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Cleveland seeks to halt the use of the name Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and award the Cleveland rock hall unspecified damages. The lawsuit claims the rock hall has sold more than $5 million in licensed items in the past 10 years, and the Jewish rock hall jeopardizes that brand.

David Segal, a writer for The Washington Post and one of founders of the Jewish rock hall, said backers plan to launch the new Web site next month. The Jewish rock hall’s site showed a single message Tuesday: Future Home of JewsRock.org.“The idea that the public could possibly be confused between a large museum backed by any number of corporations and a Web site run by a couple of Jewish guys is kind of nuts,” he said.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for The New Yorker magazine and another Jewish rock hall founder, called the organization “a little Web-based exercise in ethnic pride.”

“It seems to be improbable that these people own ’rock ’n’ roll,’ it’s entirely unlikely they own the phrase ’hall of fame,’ and I know for sure they don’t own the Jews,” Goldberg said."

How I Cook

I love to cook. I find great joy in preparing meals. There is something very rewarding and exciting in it.

Now I know that a number of my readers are avid cooks as well and you are probably going to ask me for my favorite recipes. I can provide some of those, but the truth is that I don't really follow a recipe very closely.

More often than not I grab the basic ingredients and just add things based upon my gut. I stir, sprinkle, flip, shake, bake and turn it over. I taste, test, taste and then move with it based upon what tastes good to me.

There is no real formula. The one constant to this is that I hate doing dishes. I hate cleaning up. As a child one my chores was doing dishes and I grew to really dislike it. Four sisters, parents, extended family members and friends always meant that there were 2,873,098 different items that needed to be washed.

Not to mention that at least one of them had some nook or cranny that seemed impervious to my efforts to clean.

Odds and ends to include. In my days at Ramah it was not uncommon to find me standing over the firepit grilling for a hundreds or more. Nothing has changed. I still love to barbecue. Hot dog, hamburgers, steak, chicken and fish.

I like making chili, french toast, Matzoh brei, steak and am a master at producing the ultimate bowl of cold cereal.

In the near future I think that I am going to start working on making various soups. Getting hungry now, so I am going to have to end this post here. Batei Avon.

Foolish Threats

Hi Folks,

I received the following comment on 15 different posts. I am going to post it in its entirety one time so that you can see the foolishness of the person who is posting these remarks.

They think that harrassment is an appropriate response for dealing with people who disagree with them. It is kind of a funny thing. She/he started by complaining that I didn't agree with an opinion piece one of her favorite writers produced.

I replied to her email and blogged about it and she grew upset with me and her letters and comments have grown progressively nastier in which she/he has accused me of being a wife beater and child abuser.

She has attempted to upset me by making specious threats in which she says that she is going to turn me into the proper authorities. But she has also said that if I apologized she would relent.

What this tells all of us is that not only are we dealing with a sick individual but that they do not really believe that there is any abuse going on here because if they did they would go ahead and report that.

In any case these antics are typical of those of a person who has no facts to support their allegations. There is no substance to the claim so they yell and scream and hope that amidst the cacophony no one notices that the emperor is naked.

So here you go Lynne/Susan/Max, whoever you really are. Go ahead and enjoy your time in the limelight.

And for those who are curious about the ranting of the mentally imbalanced I present the following.

Shavua Tov everyone!

This guy Jack is a fraud. He is an embarrassment to Torah values, Yiddishkeit and Judaism. Not only is he a mean, dangerous man, but I think anyone who wastes their time reading his pathetic Blog, should first be aware of the email exchange we had ( which I have posted below).

He claimed he would post our "total" email exchange and of course never did so. I plan to report him to the proper authorities for what may be going on in his home. He wouldn't know Shalom Bayis, if it hit him on the head!

Of course a public apology to me and his fellow bloggers by noon on Monday, December 5th, 2005 would be enough for me to find the compassion to drop this matter. Otherwise, you will read about it or see it on CNN!

Lynne Goldberg--Juris Doctor, LL.B.

#############################


My Dear Lynne,

I am really impressed by your diligence and desire to
engage me, for that matter I wish to become engaged with you.

A man of your intellect should not be locked away onsome leper colony but paraded around and displayed as befitting his needs.

I am almost ready to put up my new post but I need
your help. I really need you to comment on one of the first two because no one believes that you are a real person.

If you could help me prove to them that you are not
some fabrication of your mind I would really
appreciate it.

All my love,

Jack

Lynne Gold hotmaydel1818@yahoo.com wrote:

Attention: Little Jack Sprat, the child beater,

Where can I find my letter posted on your blog? I am
being up front with you and sending it to child services in LA. If you think I am kidding , you watch
me.

You are a typical liberal who gets all hot and
bothered because of deserved personal attacks on
you.

Well, of course I am going to criticize and attack
you personally after you beat your own child. Exactly
who would you like me to blame and attack for that evil?

Society? Your parents? The drugs you may take?
Pressures at work? I know. It is not your fault that
you hit a 4 year old!

And by the way, I am not impressed with who you
think you know;You are an embarrassment to Torah values, Judaism and Hashem. When I showed my husband your blog, he said, "This is a man who is totally untalented, morally confused and cannot write for any website, so he posts his own worthless garbage."

For you to write about Judaism or Israel, is like
Louis Farrakhan writing about those subjects. You
are ignorant, besides being a child beater. Your mother must be spinning in her grave.

By the way, how come I don't see my last letter on really pushed a button with the childbeating thing, so I will not stop unless I am certain they are safe. It is one of my passions--the protection of children.

Lynne Goldberg


Jack Benimble talktojacknow@sbcglobal.net
wrote:

Hi Lynne,

I am pressed for time right now but am happy to
respond briefly. Your continued personal attacks
demonstrate that I do indeed have your number.

I look forward to blogging about this later this
evening. Foolish threats make you look more
foolish than you already do.



Jack


Lynne Gold hotmaydel1818@yahoo.com wrote:

Oh Jack, you poor little boychik,

Calling a well known writer and speaker who you do
not even know a "lunatic," I guess that is "not" a
personal attack. Why don't you listen to your own
rhetoric and learn what the mitzvot are all about?

Your blog is a total waste of time. I spent a
few minutes looking at it and it showed me a very
troubled man who has no respect of his own mishpacha's privacy, so he writes bad things about little children.

Frankly, from what I have briefly read, you
should be arrested for child abuse and I just may forward your waste of a blog link to social services in California.

What are you getting your kids involved, you
disturbed, troubled man? Calling a little boy "your finest work" as if he is a bicycle you manufactured;
Hashem is very angry with you for thinking you
are the Creator you abusive, sick man. What did your poor little son do to deserve his father beating him? Most probably, he did not want to eat the chulent your wife overcooked on Shabbat, because you bother her too much.

To call a 4 year old "obstinate, insubordinate," and
to say that "corporal punishment would
straighten him out," well Jack, you should be in prison for such physical abuse. You are a real meshuganah.

The Talmud teaches us that we should not air our
dirty laundry in public (especially about our mishpacha), and you are posting all of this laundry on the Internet for Kol Haolam to see. Don't you have any shame? Your Yetzer Hara has taken over your entire body!

Now that I think of it, I really do believe that social investigate your serious mistreatment of the children. I have a lawyer friend who is a Child Advocate and I will now turn this matter over to him. You can expect to hear from the proper authorities at some point in the future.

How dare you complain in your stupid blog that your yeled and yaldah have "tired you out so much" and
you "have no time for yourself" (you selfish putz),
and now you have "lost your patience"--oy gevalt, I feel so bad for you! I think you are the type of man
who should have never been blessed with the bracha
of yeladim.

Perhaps in a new foster situation, these two
lovely children will learn to say the Shma every night
before they go shlufin and have real parents who will appreciate this incredible miracle from Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

I am sorry, but it is really for your son and daughter's benefit. You are a very scary man. I
respectfully suggest you give some tzdakah and do
tshuvah immediately. Your poor Ayshes Chayil. Do
you hit her as well?

Lynne Goldberg


Jack Benimble talktojacknow@sbcglobal.net
wrote:


Lynne,

Only a sick and twisted individual would get off on
the moronic rantings of a silly lunatic like
your lover Irwin.

I encourage you to keep writing me because I intend to use your emails as more fodder for more
material.

Jack

Jack

Only a sick little boy like you would post someone's
private email to you, although I am not offended at
all nor surprised. You are very troubled and need some
serious therapy. After looking at your blog briefly, I
can only say that I am not surprised that you are such
a loser in life.

Why don't you post your mother's phone number so that
I can call her.

Lynne "Susan Gold"berg
Boca Raton, Florida

Hi Lynne,

I am going to give you a seat of honor at my blog as
I am going to share your comments with my readers.
I do invite you to respond.

Hugs and kisses

Jack


Dear Jack

I happened to come across your blog and was especially interested in what you had to say about one of my favorite writers, Irwin Graulich, who wrote an article
about Jews and Christmas. All I can say is that I
would bet a fair amount of money that you are not
married. Your foolishness shows that you have not
grown up and are still a little boy inside.

That is why you still get called up to the Torah as a
"bachur"--a little boy. Your immaturity and lack of
common sense was obvious in everything you wrote about
Mr. Graulich's brilliant piece. It gave me and a
friend of mine a very good laugh. It was actually
better than Comedy Central.

Keep masturbating at your computer Jackie boy, because
no decent girl will ever have you for long. You are
just a big bad joke.

I guess your little Yiddishe mama did not do such a
good job! She certainly isn't getting any naches from
you.

Susan Goldberg
Boca Raton, Florida

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Posted by Anonymous to Random thoughts- Do they have meaning? at 12/03/2005 04:25:48 PM