勝美2

A Friday Five and Friday5 doubleheader!

1. Whatcha been up to?

Nothing much.

Watching Yuka Kinoshita, Dianxi Xiaoge and Raina Huang.

Same as last week.

The latest thing has been the Chicken McNuggets challenge. So. Left the house. Went to McDonald's. Forty McNuggets, two large fries (not the mega fries like in California and Florida) and sweet sour sauce. I used my own teriyaki, hot sauce, bleu cheese dressing, Heinz 57 ketchup and plates, dishes for condiments, paper towels and chopsticks. I don't eat stuff like that with my fingers; for one thing, I put the ketchup directly on my fries and dipping McNuggets in sauces is messy. And chopsticks are faster and more accurate than a fork. Cooking with the kitchen chopsticks is faster, too. Or grilling outdoors.

For beverages: half gallon of milk, half gallon of water and Cherry Crush (Pick 'N' Save was out of Tahitian Treat. Again) shaken up to remove some of the fizziness and decanted into a half gallon container. Beverages strictly optional.

As a precaution, put Myrtle The Wonder Cat in the kitchen with a big bowl of Starkist. With her favorite "cat soda water" (tuna juice) so she wouldn't be tempted to be my helper.

Heavy D. 6:58.

Raina. 7:45. She was kinda pokey.

Freak. 14:31. He poured Hershey's Chocolate Syrup on his chicken and french fries. French fries, maybe. Sometimes I dunk my fries in my choco milkshake. But chicken? Mexican mole sauce isn't sweet. Why didn't he put the choco sauce in a bowl? I guess that's why they call him Freak.

Wreckless. Disqualified. Tantrum. Started throwing his food around.

Wayne, Bob, Randy and Mitch did not compete. Or deleted their videos before I could watch.

I finished in 9:25.

ゆいまる / Yuimaru and her little brown dustmop dog recently did a one hundred and twenty-one Spicy KO McNuggets mukbang. So spicy they will knock you out! With two new special spicy sauces. Black mapo (as in mapo tofu) and jalapeño cheese. She ate them all but she took a few breaks. And a costume change. Might have been over the course of a couple of days.

I don't know. Spicy KO McNuggets, celery and a bowl of bleu cheese dressing...

I'd love to travel to meet and mukbang with them.

Well, Xiaoge isn't a mukbanger but you know what I mean. Dianxi Xiaoge (her real name is Dong "Penjie" Meihua; Xiaoge is the region and Dianxi means Little Brother 'cause Xiaomei — Little Sister — is too cutesy) and Dawang, The Wonder Dog.

Plowing better than a skateboard champ. An ox, not Dawang.

Penjie originally kept Dawang "offstage". She was afraid her viewers would be offended because Dawang is an American breed and not a Chinese dog.

And Ashyi, Peggy Neo and Hyunee. Maybe Bo and Trinity from Food Tales but they haven't been uploading regularly for the past two years and Australia is kinda outta the way.

2. What up?

Protesters tore down the State Of Wisconsin "Forward" and the statue commemorating Civil War hero Col. Hans Christian Heg, Grand Army Of The Republic, an immigrant from Norway, abolitionist, journalist, anti-slavery activist, politician and soldier. Led the Scandinavian 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment. Died in battle at Chickamauga. But I can see why the rioters were confused that the colonel may have been a Confederate because Wisconsin is as far north as you can go without being in Canada and his curriculum vitae was chiseled into the statue's plinth.

So. We can chalk the rioters' poor reading comprehension to the educational system.

Activities were sparked by the arrest of a black who went into a restaurant with a megaphone and a baseball bat and started screaming obscenities. I believe he is currently under observation at Mendota (state mental hospital). Let us pray he gets the help he so desperately needs.

A state senator was beaten, attempts made to break into the Capitol. and a Molotov cocktail was thrown into a government building.

Molotov cocktail. Rookie move. Rioters are suppose to break into a store, loot it and then torch the place. Now you've got attempted arson of a government building. The ATF is investigating. It's a federal offense. Those guys play for keeps. That means federal prison.

National Guard activated. That means shoot to kill.

3. Have you ever been jealous of anyone’s socks?

In seventh grade the fashion was mountain climbing socks with our school uniforms. Betsy's socks always had the perfect slouchy look without her having to pull them up repeatedly and readjust them all the time.

Betsy's secret: Socks Glue.

Fashion is fleeting. The nuns outlawed mountain climbing socks and introduced mandatory navy knee socks with our school uniforms shortly after the autumn semester began. They were too distracting from our prayers.

4. How many times a day do you brush your teeth, honestly?

Recently because I've been recuperating at home, three to four. May have something to do with my new Hello Kitty Turbo Powered Spin Toothbrush and Hello Kitty strawberry toothpaste.

You only go around once in life. So grab for all the gusto you can. Even in the toothpaste you use.

Feel free to quote me on that.

5. What brand is your current shampoo? Does it have a specific scent?

Shisheido Tsubaki shampoo and conditioner in a few different formulations. Head & Shoulders, Selsun Blue, Hello Kitty.

Hello Kitty is momoberry.

I try to stay away from scented detergents, fabric softeners, shampoos, soaps, lotion, etc unless they are ancillary products as they interfere with my perfume.

Wishing Guerlain had Mitsouko shampoo / body wash.

Friday5 questions courtesy of Scrivener. Thank you!

Friday 5 for June 26: Tubular.

1. What’s your least favorite episode of your favorite television program?

Last Salute to the Commodore.

Lt Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, has to catch out the murderess or murderer of the commodore of the sailing yacht club.

Directed by Patrick McGoohan. To say that Columbo is rumpled and eccentric is an understatement. McGoohan, who starred in the titular role on The Prisoner and previously guest starred and directed the Columbo episode Identity Crisis, lets everybody do whatever they want. So. We see the rumpliest and most eccentric Columbo ever.

At points it is hard to watch. Worse than one of those Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack caper movies oozing with booze and broads and bonhomie. Everyone being palsy walsy. 'Cause when film stops rolling, it's off to the casino for more booze and broads.

Robert Vaughn (Napoleon Solo on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and previous Columbo guest murderer) counteracts the sticky sweetness as the sourpuss married to an alcoholic.

Columbometer: ⭐.

2. Across its series run, in what way did a favorite television program get worse?

Monk. Friends were teasing me because they thought I am so much like Mr Monk, brilliant detective with the San Francisco Police Department until his wife, Trudy, was murdered by a car bomb and he suffered a nervous breakdown.

My friends and I were sitting on the shore outside the reception hall in our bridesmaids dresses. "勝美, 勝美! You are just like Monk!" And I'm thinking of a monastery. Mainly because at that point I'd left my novitiate or maybe because I was a little drunk.

Sister Mary 勝美. It's got a ring to it.

So. Years after the program went into syndication, I stumbled across a Monk marathon on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.

From what I can determine, I am just like Mr Monk because I do not like my food to touch on my plate. I have a lot of little rules like that. I do not like fruit and vegetables together. A Waldorf salad would probably kill me. Or fruit and mayonnaise. Thank goodness I am an American girl and a tomato is legally a vegetable. And what kind of barbarian cuts toast into rectangles?

Now these are girls I have known since kindergarten. We went to school together. Church. Piano. Ballet. Lacrosse. We served alongside each other in the Girl Scouts. I can think of a couple of camping trips when it rained so hard my supper was swimming in a puddle on my plate.

I have asked my friends about this. They do not remember the conversation. I don't think they remember the wedding.

What was the question? Oh yeah, program got worse.

At the beginning, Leland Stottlemeyer, captain on the police force, is barely tolerant of Monk's peccadilloes which go from endearing to abrasive. By the end of the series they are buddies again.

3. Among television programs you like very much, which ended far too soon?

Green Acres. Classic example of an Odysseus-type constantly stymied by ill fortune and the fates. And not being able to understand Arnold Ziffel.

It would be twenty-four long years until a porcine thespian of Arnold's magnitude would grace the American theatre. And that pig's name was Babe.

FUN FACT: Mr Douglas has a Hoyt-Clagwell tractor. That never seems to work unless Eb the hired hand sweet talks it. My friend Spewgie's aunt owned a Massey-Ferguson; after designing motorcycles at Harley-Davidson, my grandfather engineered tractors at Allis-Chalmers.

4. Among television programs you like very much, which dragged on for too long?

Gilligan's Island.

The castaways are stranded on a tropical island. That doesn't leave a lot of room for plot complications. A problem on the island exacerbated by Gilligan, amnesia, a visitor whether satellite, headhunter or The Mosquitoes (a rock band)...

I learned all my groovy dance moves from Mary Ann and Ginger.

...or dream sequences with Mary Ann in a skimpy French maid outfit looking more like a cocktail waitress. That's children's programming for you!

And they probably should have rethought the Japanese sailor in the submarine episode.

5. What are some lines of dialogue you love from a favorite television program?

"Just one more thing..."

"It's a blessing... and a curse."

"Oink oink oink oink oink."

"Skipper!"