TAKE ELEVEN

Old joke:
Daddy, Mommy and Baby Tomato are taking a walk when the baby falls behind and begins to cry.  Daddy Tomato goes to the baby, smacks it on the head and says:
“KETCHUP!”  I’m here till Thursday!  Be sure to tip your wait staff!

I am in catch up mode and here goes:

Despicable Me Versus Toy Story 3

Why bother?  Toy Story 3 (TS3) is far better in all categories.  TS3 is so hip that it tips its hat to “Cool Hand Luke!”  TS3 represents the high point of both a franchise and the technologies used to create it.  BUT, Despicable Me (DM) has it’s charms.  It was never going to compete against Pixar.  DM competes instead with Bond.  James Bond. 

With the news that it may be years before we see another Bond picture DM fills the bill.  I want  more of the Minions.  The Minions nearly steal the show.  I like the character Gru but I love the Minions.  Here’s hoping the studio does this.

TAKE TEN

I choose to go to Jordan Commons in Sandy, Utah because it is

different.  The within the complex serves to separate you from reality.  The mini-town square does this well.  The concessions are different and varied.  Pizza, salads and gelato are among the choices.  Popcorn is still the king of the concessions stand. 

I did not like the lack of choices in the diet realm.  Diet Coke, Coke Zero and bottled water.  Yesterday, Ellen and I had a new experience.

Enter the new Coca-Cola Freestyle Beverage System.  The self-serve fountain has a touch screen where there is a choice of more than 100 different drink combinations.  This includes waters, juices, teas and sparkling drinks that have never before been available in this country.  Several machines are working at the Jordan Commons as a test of the idea and to gauge customer reaction. 

From what I saw, the Coca-Cola Freestyle Beverage System machines are an instant hit with moviegoers.  Adults and children excitedly choose several flavors at a time.  The flavor most chosen so far?  Orange Coke.  My choice is Fanta Zero Peach.  This could be the start of something big.       

TAKE NINE

The Summer so far.......
Iron Man 2
Toy Story 3
Hum.  Ho Hum.
That's all, folks!

Ages ago, when I worked in the oil fields around Bartlesville, OK there came time to clean out an oil well with chemicals called fracking a well.  I am sure the well owners had other "f" words to call it.  To frack a well, you had to have several large trucks filled with men and the men ran the pressure gauges and looked after the equipment.  It was a traveling circus of the oil patch.  I asked my boss, Blaine, what it was costing to do this. 

"Well, Jimmer," he slowly replied in his Idaho and Oklahoma drawl.  "Get yourself an oil drum and fill it full of one dollar bills.  Then light the whole thing on fire!"

He let out his crazy laugh. 

Hollywood is burning bunches of barrels of one dollar bills, only, they aren't laughing.