Farewell, Richard Pryor

I'm sad to report that Richard Pryor died this weekend.  The great comedian was 65 years old, and died Saturday morning of a heart attack.  Pryor had also battled multiple sclerosis for over twenty-five years.  Pryor was married six times, and had four children.

Pryor was regarded early in his career as one of the most foul-mouthed comics in show business, but he was widely successful for this expletive-filled insights on life and race relations.  Even though his material is modest when compared with some of today's raunchier comedians, it was shocking to us back in the day.  Yet he never apologized for it and everybody loved him.  His style has influenced such great comedians as Eddie Murphey, the Wayans Brothers, Arsenio Hall, and RobinWilliams. 

A series of hit comedies in the '70s and '80s, as well as filmed versions of his concert performances, helped make him Pryor one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. He was one of the first black performers to have enough leverage to cut his own Hollywood deals. In 1983, he signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia Pictures.  His films included "Stir Crazy," "Silver Streak," "Which Way Is Up?" and "Richard Pryor: Live On The Sunset Strip." 

Sadly enough, my generation probably doesn't remember Pryor for his comedy sketches or his movies; they remember how in 1980 Pryor was almost killed when he suffered severe burns over 50 percent of his body while freebasing cocaine at his home. An admitted "junkie" at the time, Pryor spent six weeks recovering from the burns and much longer from drug and alcohol dependence. Unfortunately, this terrible incident was the topic of many jokes from his fellow comedians. 

Throughout his career, Pryor focused on racial inequality, once joking as the host of the 1977 Academy Awards that Harry Belefonte and Sidney Poitier were the only black members of the Academy.   Pryor once marveled "that I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can't do much better than that."   

I'll laugh and think of Richard Pryor every time I reminisce about the scene in "Stir Crazy" when he was teaching Gene Wilder to walk and talk like a cool dude.  They were walking out of jail, strutting and saying "We bad, that's right. We bad."  You were bad, Richard Pryor.  And we'll miss you. 

Cookie Pies, Anyone?

Christmas means different things to different people.  To kids, it means presents and two weeks off from school.  To adults, it means paying for those presents and two days off from work.  To us working folk, it means the annual Christmas party and leftover food brought to work.  To us at ZCO, it means all of the above, and something else - it means the traditional Cookie Pie. 

The Cookie Pie tradition started at ZCO three years ago.  A company in Taiwan that we deal with sent us a few boxes of Cookie Pies.  Not just any Cookie Pie, mind you; these were pineapple Cookie Pies.  In typical ZCO fashion, just about everybody in the office tasted one of these Asian treats when the boxes were put in the lunchroom.  Note I said "tasted."  They are horrid.  I can't even begin to describe one for you - I am relying on my faithful readers at work to post a comment and tell you.  They can describe them more eloquently than I could. 

This year's supply of Cookie Pies arrived today.  I can't remember so many co-workers laughing about something like we do with the Cookie Pies.  We don't laugh about how they taste or look - we laugh about the wrapper and the wording.  In case you can't read the paragraph in picture #2 above, let me tell you what it says.  With exact punctuation and capitalization,  I quote:

"These pine-apple cookie pies are the most favorite refreshments in Taiwan, which were confectioned with the selected fresh pine-apple, pure honey, milk, and flour, etc. The taste is so mild and peculiar that not only children but also anyone would fancy them Suitable for indoor and or outdoor refreshments if refrigerate, the taste would be much different and better."

Just like we all will quote from favorite movies or songs throughout the year, if you keep your ears open at ZCO you're liable to hear "if refrigerate the taste would be much different and better." 

Link Of The Week

Once again, the town folk are abuzz with talk of more snow tonight.  For the past two days, the weatherazzi said we would just get a dusting tonight - not even a half an inch.  Well, for those of us Ohio Valley seasoned veterans, that translates to a big snow.  If you're like us here in the 'Ville and are tired of listening to the weatherazzi cry wolf about snow predictions, I found the perfect site for you.  Check out http://www.intellicast.com.  For this time of year, click on "Winter Storm" and then "Snow Forecast" and it will give you very accurate weather forecasts and snowfall predictions.  This past week when we were bracing for a half a foot of snow, Intellicast accurately predicted less than an inch.  As of 3:00 this afternoon, the weatherazzi said a dusting.  Intellicast said the snowfall would be halfway between the "light to moderate" range, and would be two or less inches.  We'll see tomorrow who was right. 

Thelma And Louise, PRP-Style

With the root canal drama going on for a week and a half, and with the weather this week, I'd put off the unpleasant task of going to WalMart.  I kept saying "I'll go tomorrow."  Well, "tomorrow" finally came.  This morning after breakfast, Mom and I bundled up and made our way out on the frozen tundra, aka our driveway, and hopped in the Blazer and headed to WalMart.  I was thrilled when we found a parking spot on the end of the aisle, just a mere few feet from the door.  We got inside, and were surprised to find that for a Saturday morning just fourteen days from Christmas, it wan't crowded at all.  We found the items we needed, and then headed to the check-out lanes.  It didn't take us long to figure out that the reason the store wasn't crowded was because eveybody was standing in one of the three lines open to check-out.  There was nowhere else to go, so we picked the least full line and patiently waited, reading the soap opera magazines and the National Enquirer while we waited.

We had about a dozen items in our shopping cart, and being filled with the Christmas spirit Mom let a Woman With Only One Item get in front of us.  Before you jump to conclusions and call me Scrooge, let me say for the record I didn't have a problem with that.   I did, however, have a problem with the Group Of Young Women in front of the Woman With Only One Item.  During what seemed like an enternity waiting there to be checked out, that Group Of Young Women were as annoying and as rude as can be.  They had all of their items to purchase in one big pile on the check-out conveyor belt, and were evidently paying for them all together.  First one woman would get fed up with waiting and grab her stuff and get out of our line and go to another line to wait.  Then a few minutes later, she'd get fed up with that line and come back to our line. This went on for about ten minutes. I was ready to take their Dora the Explorer table and hit them with it.  Then Mom had an idea - no, wait, she said it was merely a "suggestion" - she said I should grab the CO2 BB pistol I was getting Dad and see if I could move the line along a bit.  For a minute, I considered it.  It was a pretty safe bet that there were no air marshalls nor SWAT team members in the store to shoot me.  But then she repeated "It was just a suggestion."  So I stayed in line with her, where I wouldn't get into trouble. 

Then it came time for the Group Of Young Women to pay for their stuff.  That's when it really got interesting.  The first one gave the cashier a credit card, which was quickly declined.  After arguing with the cashier, she dug in her purse and handed her another credit card, which was also declined.  A second woman gave a credit card to the cashier, and told her to only charge X amount of dollars on it, and then the third and fourth women did the same.  The first woman, who had been digging through her purse, gave the cashier some cash which added with the other credit card transactions, was enough to finally pay for their stuff.   Now you can see why I wanted to shoot them.

On a side note:  in keeping with the WalMart tradition, there was in deed a half dozen people huddled around the crane game when we came in and when we left.  Some things never change. 

Digital Photography 101

A funny thing happened at work today.  It happened between my previous boss and my current boss. The women in the office had a wedding shower luncheon for a girl in the Customer Service department.  It's always nice to get together with co-workers you don't normally see during the course of the day.  Everybody brings something, and you take your normal lunch time and go upstairs to the conference room and party with your co-workers. 

Before we started eating today, Previous Boss came in carrying not one but two cameras.  One was a 35mm camera and the other was a digital.  She still had the digital camera in it's case, and was taking pictures with the 35mm.  She handed the camera to Current Boss and asked her to take a picture of her with the bride-to-be.  Current Boss took the picture, and before she handed the camera back to Previous Boss she looked at the back of it and had a puzzled look on her face.  She asked Previous Boss "Where's the display?  I want to see how the picture turned out."  Previous Boss looked equally puzzled. "I didn't know it had a display," she said earnestly.  Then the two of them damned near took the camera apart, trying to find the display window that was not there.  I was holding in the laughter as best as I could, since I was sitting there next to those two, and it was all I could do to keep my Diet Coke from snorting out of my nose.  I let this go on for a minute or two, and then finally spoke up "That's not the digital camera - that's the thirty-five milimeter camera.  There is no display window on that one. The display is on the back of the DIGITAL camera." 

This actually happened, faithful readers.  Trust me - I could not make this stuff up. 

Darn The Weatherazzi

I guess I'm probably the only person in Louisville that is disappointed that we didn't get our 4-6" snow today.  I was prepared - I wore my snow boots today, and the Blazer had a full tank of gas.  My whole department at work was prepared, too - I gave them their Christmas presents a couple of weeks early: deluxe combo ice scraper and brush. We were ready.  But it never came.  Well, it came in spurts, but not the snow of the century like the weatherazzi was predicting.   It started out as sleet this morning before lunchtime, then it snowed for about 10 minutes.  Then it stopped for an hour before sleeting again.  Then it rained for a bit, and then turned to snow.  We got maybe an inch of snow out here at The Compound, but that's it.   Guess we'll have to wait till another time to use the new snowblower.  Damnit.

Get Those Snow Blowers Ready

The grocery stores are packed right now with people buying bread, milk and beer; the weatherrazzi are making their snow accumulation predictions; I'm giddy with excitement.  The city is bracing for our first snow of the season.  I can't wait. We'll finally get to use our new snowblower that's been stuck in the back of the garage since I bought it last January.  

If you have a snowblower, or any other piece of equipment that has a gas engine and is used only a few times a year, I have some advice from my dear friend MP that I would like to share with you.  Please take the time to purchase a bottle of Sta-Bil additive.  Here's MP's testimonial, and some information on the product:

The gas stabilizer is an additive that comes in a little self dose bottle.  It prevents stored gas from deteriorating thus preventing the gum deposits in the engine that old gas typically does.  Most hardware and retailers sell it.  I use STA-BIL that Home Depot and Wal-mart stock. I keep plain gas in a five gallon container and add STA-BIL to that.   Then I divide that when needed into the two gallon containers for the weed eater, lawn mower, and snow blower since they require different oil/gas mixes.   A neighbor that resembles and sounds like Tammy Wynette stopped by because she could not get her weed eater starter since it had layed around for a year with old gas.  I replaced the fuel with my own gas with STA-BIL and it started right up.  You can put one dose to make last for a year, two to make it last for two years.  And now a word from our sponsor:

STA-BIL Fuel Stabilizer: • America’s top selling fuel stabilizer keeps fuel fresh for quick, easy starts after storage. • Removes water to prevent corrosion and cleans carburetors and fuel injectors. • Protects engine from gum, varnish, rust, and corrosion. • Prolongs engine life. • Eliminates need to drain fuel before storage. • For all 2 cycle and 4 cycle gasoline and diesel engines.