Holy Fucking Shit!!!!

Wow.

Who would have thought that this whole blogging thing would be such hard work?

The whole intent of this blog has been for me, your humble curmudgeon, to sound off about everything that pisses off, stresses out and generally annoys The Blog.

But, holy fucking shit! Who could have imagined that so much would come at The Blog so fast and furious?

The Blog has intended to write a whole series about disconnected wealth. (And he will get to it, once he has caught up.) But, Willard "Mitt" Romney, the poster child for disconnected wealth, has single handedly provided so much material in the last few days that The Blog can't keep up.

The Right-Wing fuckery that clogs The Blog's inbox is bad enough. He could blog full time just on that shit alone. But, this past week, a new infestation has attacked his inbox. An "organization" that calls it's self the "In Jesus' Name We Pray Coalition" has bombarded The Blog with some of the most vile hateful "Obama's Homo Agenda" shit that The Blog has ever had to endure. In Jesus' name, no less.

And then there is this video, shared on Facebook by one of my extreme Right-Wing friends. A bit of false equivalency that is so mind bogglingly stupid that your Blog is left speechless. (And THAT takes some work!)

Jesus Howard Christ!!! The Blog needs a break, just to catch up!

$2.9 Million

2.9 million dollars

According to smartmoney.com, that is the amount of money that the average American will spend in a lifetime if he or she lives to the age of 81.

$2.9 million.

$2,900,000.00

Total average lifetime spending.

Hmmmm.......

This is a figure that makes The Curmudgeon ponderous. For the last few days, since The Blog learned this fact (via this month's Reader's Digest), he has pondered and pondered (to paraphrase Dr. Seuss) until his ponderer was sore.

Because, you see, the average annual salary of the top 20 American corporate CEOs (as of 2008, the most recent figures that The Blog could find reported) was $85 million.

That's $85,000,000.00.

Per year.

Income!

The CEO in the number one slot was Oracle's Lawrence J. Ellison at a whopping $192.92 million. The number 20 slot goes to William R. Berkley of the unimaginatively named W R Berkley company (whoever the fuck that is) at $54.60 million.

Walmart CEO Michael Duke makes $35 million per year. That works out to an average Walmart employees annual wage every hour!

Presidential wannabe Willard "Mitt" Romney made a reported income of $21.6 million last year.

The bottom line is that neither the top CEOs in America or the GOP presidential candidate would get out of bed for the money that the average American (the same CEO's employees) spends in his or her lifetime.

And, BTW.... The President of the United States, the "leader of the free world,"  since 2001, has made an annual salary of $400,000 plus a $50,000 non-taxable expense account.

Ponderous, man. Truly ponderous.

No Posts for a Couple of Nights....

Taking a few nights off.

Jonathan Frid, ‘Dark Shadows’ Star, Is Dead at 87

Observations about Ted Nugent will have to wait one more night. (Unfortunately, The Blog suspects that he isn't going anywhere, soon.)

The Curmudgeon wants to spend a few moments reminiscing about someone much less horrifying, Barnabas Collins, AKA: Jonathan Frid.

Barnabas Collins was the 175 year old vampire who found himself awakening in the late 1960s and thrust into the world of a strange, low rent, low rated and gaffe prone soap opera known as "Dark Shadows."

Jonathan Frid was the Shakespearian actor who portrayed Barnabas, and similarly, found himself thrust into the world of a strange, low rent, low rated and gaffe prone soap opera known as "Dark Shadows."

And with that introduction, "Dark Shadows" became something that would alter an entire generation.

Sure, you can blame/credit The Beatles, Viet Nam, Woodstock, "free love" and "HAIR"  for the revolution that came with The Blog's generation. But, you would be missing a major contributor.

Frid's Barnabas and the ghosts, werewolves and witches that he brought with him had an entire generation of kids running home from school every afternoon to watch this strange, dark, campy phenomenon.

The Blog's generation was Goth before goth was invented.

Because of Jonathan Frid, The Young Blog wore a large, black ring on his index finger for several years, with no apologies. To this day, he still covets the wolf head cane that Barnabas carried.

Barnabas was immortal. But, sadly, Jonathan was not. This morning, he received the blessed relief that Barnabas longed for. Jonathan Frid passed away today at the age of 87.

The New York Times reports...

The Blog had the honor of meeting Mr. Frid a number of years ago. Jonathan was playing the Boris Karloff inspired Jonathan Brewster in the play "Arsenic and Old Lace."  (A role that The Blog himself had played about seven years earlier.) At a "meet and greet" after the show, Mr. Frid was warm and gracious.

Ironically/strangely/coincidentally, or maybe, poetically, Jonathan Frid passed away one day before the release of the Tim Burton remake of "Dark Shadows" starring Johnny Depp. Mr. Frid appeared in a cameo in the film. His last acting role.

It seems fitting that he got to pass the role of the immortal Collins patriarch on to a new generation via the quirky Mr. Depp.

The world moves on and The Curmudgeon is at peace with that.

Okay, One Quick Post... This is important!

To all of my friends... Angela Rockwood has always been one of the special people. Even before her accident, she was caring and empathetic. In the early hours of my birthday in 2001, just days before 9/11, she was thrown from an SUV in a single vehicle accident that took the life of one passenger and left Angela paralyzed with the same injury that Christopher Reeve sustained. Eleven years later, thanks to some experimental stem cell treatments and her own determination, she is still going strong. She is as beautiful and vital as ever!  And she is one of the subjects of this wonderful Sundance Channel documentary series. Do check it out!

Push Girls Sneak Peek

No New Post Tonight

But, you can bet your ass that The Blog will have a thing or two to say about Ted Nugent tomorrow night!

Holy Wishes Batman!!!

The Blog is has always had a soft spot for two things.

Children's "Wish" type foundations. And anything Batman.

Check out this video.

Kudos to the Arlington, Texas police and fire departments and "Wish With Wings," for letting leukemia patient Kye live his fantasy!