My Beef with Thanksgiving Turkey

Whether you’re with family, friends, or co-workers on this (almost the best) holiday of the year, I hope you have a great day! People have already started with other (the best) holiday festivities – Walmart and many other stores have Christmas decorations up, TV advertisements from major corporations prepping us for Christmas sales, and to be perfectly honest, I’ve been playing Christmas music for weeks. I’ve scanned through all the SiriusXM stations I can find playing holiday songs. I was listening to one of their stations and the guy said this holiday season they have more Christmas stations than ever before. I’m not sure it was necessary but I still fully support it!

I have a Christmas Spotify playlist, too. Click here and it’ll open up in a new window, or directly in Spotify if you’re reading this from your phone.

And now can we discuss what time is acceptable to eat a Thanksgiving meal? For me, lunch is around noon. So why is it that a lot of times the Thanksgiving “lunch” is 1pm or 2pm?What the??? And this holiday, we’re eating at 3pm… it’s ludicrous! It’s unprecedented that I’ll be taking my post-lunch nap BEFORE lunch. Turkeys don’t sacrifice their lives for such foolishness.

*stares into the abyss, deep in thought*

On the other hand, I guess I can take a nap after first lunch and another one after second lunch. I’m kind of liking how this sounds now. Maybe if I play my cards right I can take another nap before first dinner.

*stares into the abyss, wondering when I became an old man who naps all the time*

Fine, Thanksgiving is a nice holiday. But it’s second place behind the best holiday of the year. I love the fall season with cooler weather, the leaves are changing, naps, entertaining football, Turkey Trots, more time with family, and did I say naps yet?

Gobble, gobble, I hope you have a wonderful time. Thanks for trotting by…

-Out of the Wilderness

Amazon Romeo and Juliet Commercial – The Music, the Mic, and More!

Amazon hits a nerve with anyone who has in-law issues during the holidays. Their latest ad highlights the drama between the families of Romeo and Juliet. But with the help of Amazon, a family fiasco is finally finished…

*UPDATE: Who’s the woman behind the British accent in these Amazon ads? Click here*

The Music. There are a couple of songs featured in this commercial. The first one playing in the background is “Greensleeves,” which is the same melody in the Christmas song a lot of us know. Can you name the title of the Christmas version of this song?

The Next Song. The karaoke queens in this commercial are singing “Jiggle Jiggle” by Duke & Jones and Louis Theroux.

The Gold Mic. I can’t quite find the exact microphone used in the ad but Amazon has quite a few that are similar. Check out this one, which will take your karaoke party to royal Shakespearian levels.

Do you have any upcoming in-law anxieties you’d like to share? And what’s that Christmas song from the beginning of the post? Chime in below and thanks for dropping in!

-Out of the Wilderness

Disenchanted is a Disney Disappointment!

My favorite thing about this movie was trying to come up with all the words that start with dis- ….like dismayed, disagree, dislike, displeased, and discard. As in, I’m going to discard this movie from my “recently watched” display so I’m not reminded of this dissatisfaction of dis movie!

Hello there, I’m Ben. Like you, I was looking forward to the follow-up story of a movie I loved, “Enchanted.” But what did Disney do? They ruined it! They made everyone we love in the story kind of unloveable. For instance, Pip the chipmunk. He was simply adorable when we last saw him starring alongside Giselle. But in this movie he gained a New York accent, yuck (no offense!). If that wasn’t disastrous enough, they turned him into a cat, and not even a cute one!

Then there’s Giselle. She was so happy, kind, and innocent in “Enchanted,” nothing to dislike. So why not turn her into a villain, right? She went from everyone’s favorite princess to the wicked witch in a matter of minutes. Plus, was I the only one a little disconcerted with the movie having a wicked witch AND an evil queen? Two villains don’t make sense in this type of Cinderella story.

The next lovable character was Robert (Giselle’s hubby). We know him as a strong, decisive, although a bit stubborn, confident man. But in this continuation of their story, he turns into bumbling, goofy, goofball. He can’t use a sword and is conveyed as a soft, beta male. This is disjointed with the Robert we saw in “Enchanted.”

So take away the chipmunk, the humor, and the charm of the original “Enchanted” and what do you have? Yep, “Disenchanted.” I fell asleep more than once trying to finish the movie. It’s not that I went into expecting to dislike it, as was the case when I tried watching “Hamilton.” WIth that live version of the stage play, I made it to intermission and if I never watch the rest, I’m perfectly OK with that. I’ll say this, the music (in “Hamilton”) is fantastic. But I spent more than half the time not knowing exactly what was going on because I caught only about every 5th word in the rap songs. And I’ll say this, too… the music (in “Enchanted”) doesn’t have one song I’ll remember. And that is VERY different than the first one. It even includes one of my favorite songs of all time from Jon McLaughlin.

Some reviews point out something I completely agree with… the magic just isn’t there. Trying to recapture the magic of a successful first film has got to be very difficult. It’s the reason nearly everyone will poo-poo sequels in almost every movie franchise. I think for Disney, though, they could’ve pretty much stuck with the formula that worked for them in “Enchanted.” And by that, I mean don’t change Pip into a unlikeable and unfunny cat. That seems like a no-brainer. And meow it’s time for my final thoughts…

I wish (with the magical wishing wand, perhaps?) that I could go back to before I watched “Disenchanted” and NOT watch it. The movie was that disappointing. If you’ve seen it, let me know if I’m overthinking it or missing something. Share your dispute in the comments below!

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

The Final Dates of 2022

We’re three quarters through November so with about 6 weeks left of 2022, I *think* I’ve wrapped up my final dates of 2022. It was kind of crazy that I had a date after just a couple of months of being in Florida. In 2022 dates were few and far between but in the fall I had more success. One woman was very unexpected. We both made ourselves available so that led to a few fun hiking adventures and lots of talking. That one fizzled because I’m picky (too picky sometime), then another date was pretty fun at the fair in town. We only went on two rides and I’m 100% embarrassed to say the flying swing ride thing made me feel nauseous. After that we went on the ferris wheel which was much more my speed, although we only went around twice. Tens of dollars later we went our separate ways and haven’t met up since then.

We weren’t a long-term match. But I could go back and see those farm animals weekly! The goats, cows, and sheep were so cute.

Part of why I didn’t date very consistently is because I was traveling quite a bit. The first half of the year was mostly Florida then in the summer I went out to Texas which was amazing. But it’s hard to connect with anyone, much less an attractive woman, when I’m only in one place for a few days.

I still need to think about what my goals and aspirations will be for 2023, but I have a strong feeling it will include more camping adventures and hopefully some meaningful dates!

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

Holiday Gifts – My Children’s Books!

With all the holiday commercials on TV, I almost totally forgot that I have my own ads to throw into the mix! They might not make you cry tears of joy like this Publix Thanksgiving commercial or the Christmas commercial from Amazon, but if you have little ones that love to smile and love great stories about cute animals, either of these children’s books will be a huge hit this Christmas!

I absolutely love the artwork in both of these books. The illustrators I worked with created such adorable animals, from giraffes to hound dogs. Take a chance on either of these books by adding them to your Amazon cart with the following links. PS. They’re available through other bookstores as well, if Amazon isn’t your thing!

Big and Small, God Made Them All

The Brave Bamboo

What is your favorite wildlife animal? Do you have a story of bravery to share in the comments below? I can’t wait to hear it!

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness