Grab Bag Friday: Beanie Baby Hunger Games

This weekend, I'm lucky to be at the New England Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators conference. Which means three whole days to talk about writing and books! I've already been to a fun session called "Writing Camp for Grown-Ups" taught by Jo Knowles and Cindy Faughnan, and I'm looking forward to learning from great authors like Cynthia Lord, Kate Messner, and Linda Urban over the weekend.

In between today's sessions, though, I took a little time out for silliness and watched this fantastic video. Of course, it begs the question: Who did the Hunger Games better? Hollywood or the Beanie Babies? May the odds be ever in your favor!

Beanie Baby Hunger Games

Grab Bag Friday: Downton Abbey

Since I'm suffering the symptoms of serious Downton Abbey withdrawal, here is a hilarious spoof of the first episode of season one. (If you still don't know what we're all talking about, I would recommend updating your Netflix cue, stat!)

Uptown Downstairs Abbey Part One: Red Nose Day 2011

Summer Blog Reruns: The Court Jester

Because I can never get enough Danny Kaye...

Grab Bag Friday Movie Vault: The Court Jester, originally posted March 28, 2008


(Fair Warning: Hyperbole will follow.) I was browsing over at Educating Alice, and she posted this clip from the 1955 Danny Kaye movie, The Court Jester. My family and I used to laugh ourselves to tears watching this movie. And I still hold that it is one of the most hysterical comedies of all time. And that Danny Kaye is perhaps the most hilarious comic of all time. That's right. Of all time. :)

Now, some of you who know me may argue that I have a somewhat, oh shall we say, specific sense of humor, but that's a discussion for another day...

Here's my family's beloved "Brew that is True" scene and some fun trivia about The Court Jester from IMDB:

• Unimpressed with him in tights, producers of the film made Danny Kaye wear 'leg falsies' to improve the shape of his legs. This adds a touch of irony when Hubert Hawkins offers the princess all of him, including his legs and calves.
  
  
• Danny Kaye's daughter, Dena Kaye, said for the rest of his life, when people recognized Danny in a restaurant, they would walk up and spout the entire "brew that is true" speech.
  
  
• Basil Rathbone was a world-class fencer and it was due to his efforts that the hilarious fencing scene was filmed without injury. He later admitted that several times he was almost skewered by Danny Kaye's sword.
  

Summer Blog Reruns: A Little Friday Humor

Because all three of these deserve repeat viewings...

Grab Bag Friday: A Little Friday Humor, originally posted March 6, 2009

Here are three videos that made me smile this week.

My sister, Steph, sent me this one and I roared. I love the airplane bit at the end:



I came across this one on the blog As The World Stearns. It's another clip from Improv Everywhere. These people are creative geniuses.



Lastly, this one is Improv Everywhere's latest mission. I just love how quickly a simple thing like a high five can put smiles on people's faces. When these people get on the escalator, they're dour, lost in their own little worlds (like we all are half the time). When they get off, more than half of them are grinning, interacting, enjoying the moment. Think about that. It's brillant. What can you do to brighten somebody's day today?

Grab Bag Friday: New Yorkers and Ghostbusters

I haven't posted a video from Improv Everwhere in a while and they have been busy creating hilarity as usual.

Their most recent prank, The Tourist Lane, is a riot. If you go to the webpage, be sure to scroll down and watch the actual news footage on the project.



And last month, I loved their reenactment of the New York Public Library Ghostbusters scene. The project was intended to raise awareness for the giant budget cuts (25%) facing the library. Once again, creative genius.

Grab Bag Friday: Paula Poundstone

I spent much of my exciting Friday evening in Frequent-Flyer-Miles Limbo, doing my best to get out to Idaho for my younger sister's thesis defense (woohoo Anna!) To treat myself after hours of sitting on hold and searching flights, I've been watching some videos from my favorite Wait Wait Don't Tell Me panelist...the hilarious Paula Poundstone.

Here's a good old bit about shoulder pads and airplane views that made me chuckle:

Grab Bag Friday: Grocery Store Musical

Obviously, I am an Improv Everywhere junkie. I loved their original food court musical, and the new grocery store musical is just as hilarious. I love the reactions from the "audience" at the end.

For more outtakes, behind the scenes info, and reaction shots, visit Improv Everywhere. What fun!

Grab Bag Friday: Who Let the Dogs Out?

Here's the latest caper from those brilliant people over at Improv Everywhere. This time, they came up with 2000 invisible dogs and unleashed them on the city. It *almost* makes me wish I lived in New York. :)

P. G. Wodehouse: Leave It To Psmith

Whenever I'm in the mood to get lost in some light, rainy day reading that will guarantee a good chuckle, I invariably ask Kevin the same longing question:

Don't you have any more Wodehouse?

A couple years ago, a friend gave Kevin a small stash of novels by the British humorist P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975), and we've been hooked ever since.

A Wodehouse novel is nearly always guaranteed to deliver at least three of my four favorite comedic elements:

1. Mistaken Identities
2. Stowaways
3. Hair-brained schemes
4. High physical comedy (soot in the face)

Wodehouse is a genius at these four elements, and luckily for me this weekend, Kevin had picked up a Wodehouse novel at a used bookstore recently. Leave It To Psmith did not disappoint. Let me see...there were at least four characters with mistaken identities, an absolutely hair-brained scheme to steal Aunt Constance's diamond necklace so that her husband could buy her a new one and sell the old so he could have some spending money of his own (and of course far too many people get involved for it to ever go smoothly), and yes, lots of soot in the face and throwing of flowerpots. There wasn't a stowaway in the traditional sense, but the main character, Psmith, arrives at Blandings Castle under such false pretenses that if we stretch the term a little, this book gets a perfect four.

Happily for me, P.G. Wodehouse was incredibly prolific and wrote something like 90 novels and collections of short stories. So by the time I work my way through the complete library, I will have forgotten the ones I started with and can begin fresh!

There are actually a few P.G. Wodehouse novels and short stories available to read online at The Free Library and Classic Reader (none of which I have read yet!) I simply can't read this stuff online, though. Somehow the charm of bumbling aristocrats, witty banter, and the lush gardens of Blandings Castle gets lost when I'm staring at a computer screen. I might try printing one out (but by that time, I may have spent enough on toner to just go out and buy the book).

For more information about Wodehouse (and there's a lot out there):
The Wallingford Library Blog
P.G. Wodehouse Books
Wodehouse.org