The Loss Of Two Legends

David Lynch
1946 - 2025
Legendary filmmaker David Lynch, who was just evacuated from his home due to the ongoing wildfires in southern California, passed away at his daughter's home earlier this week.  He was just five days short of his 79th birthday.

Mr. Lynch was the co-creator of Twin Peaks, which is one of my favorite things that I've ever seen on television.  He also wrote and directed many critically acclaimed films, including Eraserhead (which I saw for the first time at the Mahoning last season), The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive.

Bob Uecker
1934 - 2025
We lost another legend on the same day that Mr. Lynch's death was announced to the public.  Bob Uecker also made his mark in television, starring as George Owens in all six seasons of Mr. Belvedere.  Like Mr. Lynch, he also worked in the motion picture industry in the 1989 comedy Major League and its sequels.  His role as Cleveland Indians commentator Harry Doyle is one of the most beloved performances in any sports-related movie, with his lines quoted and referenced by players, journalists,  commentators, and fans countless times for over 35 years.  As good of an actor as he was, he will always be best remembered as the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers whose games he called for 54 years.

Mr. Uecker was also a catcher with a MLB career that spanned seven seasons in the 1960's, part of which was spent in Philadelphia.  The Cardinals traded him to the Phillies shortly after the 1965 season in the same deal that sent Bill White to Philadelphia.  He caught 93 games for the Phillies during the 1966 and 1967 seasons before they traded him to the Atlanta Braves where he finished his playing career.

Cat Soup

Hello Kitty Garden Veggie Noodle Soup
Prince Katsu (2024)
This was one of the things that I picked up on my last visit to Big Lots.  Since that time, it was announced that Gordon Brothers Retail Partners agreed to a deal to take ownership of between 200-400 Big Lots stores.  I'm not sure if the West Hazleton location will be one of these, but there's at least a chance that it might remain in business.

Either way, I'm going to have to head back there soon to pick up some more of this Hello Kitty Garden Veggie Noodle Soup because it was delicious!  The cup includes a little packet of dried vegetables and a liquid flavor pouch, and it ended up being one of the best tasting cups of instant ramen that I've ever had.

At The End Of A Long Day It's Gonna Be Okay

Nightshift
Commodores (1985)
The eleventh Commodores album, and their second since the departure of Lionel Richie in 1982, was released forty years ago today.  I'm not overly familiar with the entire album, but its title track is one of my favorite songs of the decade.  It's a loving tribute to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson who had both died the year before.

Nightshift
Commodores (1985)

Marvin, he was a friend of mine

And he could sing a song, his heart in every line

Marvin sang of the joy and pain

He opened up our minds, and I still can hear him say

"Aw talk to me, so you can see, what's going on"

Say you will sing your songs forevermore

Gonna be some sweet sounds coming down on the nightshift

I bet you're singing proud, oh I bet you'll pull a crowd

Gonna be a long night, it's gonna be all right, on the nightshift

You found another home, I know you're not alone on the nightshift

Jackie, hey what you doing now?

It seems like yesterday when we were working out

Jackie, oh you set the world on fire

You came and gifted us, your love it lifted us higher and higher

Keep it up and we'll be there at your side

Oh, say you will sing your songs forevermore

Gonna be some sweet sounds coming down on the nightshift

I bet you're singing proud, oh I bet you'll pull a crowd

Gonna be a long night, it's gonna be all right on the nightshift

You found another home, I know you're not alone on the nightshift

Gonna miss your sweet voice, that soulful noise on the nightshift

We all remember you, your songs are coming through

At the end of a long day, it's gonna be okay on the nightshift

You found another home, I know you're not alone on the nightshift

Neon McDonald's Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion Chanegables
McDonald's Japan (2025)
The latest collaboration by McDonald's in Japan has managed to capture several of my nerdiest interests in a single promotion.  Earlier this month, the fast food chain began a partnership with Khara to create toys and limited edition menu items based on 90's anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The toys are very similar to the McDonald's Changeable series that were available in the United States during the late 80's and early 90's.  Changeables were a Transformers-like toy which looked like different food items and packaging from the fast food chain, but each one could be transformed into a robot (in the 1987 and 1989 sets) or a dinosaur (in the 1990 set).  The Evangelion Changeables transform into the giant mechs that are piloted by Rei, Shinji, and Asuka in the animated series.

Eva Unit-00 is a soft drink cup

Eva Unit-01 is a Big Mac

Eva Unit-02 is a carton of McDonald's fries

These toys won't be available until January 26th, but they're only available in Japan and only to consumers who enter and win a lottery for the chance to purchase them for ¥3,900 (about $24.72 American).  Pre-orders for the set of three have already popped up on eBay with prices hovering around $200.  If you're like me and would rather keep that money in your pocket and look at images of these toys for free, there are lots of high quality photos of the box and each of the figures at Tformers.com.

The toys are very cool, but if I lived in Japan, I'd be even more excited to try each of the three limited edition McEvangelion burgers.

 

Representing Unit-00 at a cost of ¥540 (about $3.42) is the Zakugiri Potato & Thick Beef Garlic Mayo burger, which is described as follows on the McDonald's Japan website:

This hearty dish consists of a thick 100% beef patty layered with garlic mayonnaise sauce, steak sauce and chopped potato patty. 

The Unit-01 sandwich is the Cheese Double Teriyaki costs ¥530 (about $3.36).  Its description is:

This hearty dish consists of two pork patties tossed in teriyaki-flavored sauce, combined with rich cheese and crunchy lettuce.

Finally, the Unit-02 sandwich is the Mexican Cheese Chicken.  It has a price of ¥490 (about $3.11) and is described as:

A spicy Mexican dish made with a chicken patty, taco meat filling, cheddar cheese, and pickles.   

*Please be careful if you don't like spicy food.

All three of these look very tasty, but trying them would be even more cost prohibitive than buying the toys on eBay since it would involve a round trip flight to Japan.

I might try to recreate these here in Pennsylvania, but it's going to involve more than a few creative liberties that I'm sure would taste quite a bit different than the ones currently available in Japan.  I'm thinking a McDonald's hashbrown on one of their cheeseburgers with some A-1 steak sauce and garlic mayo for the first burger, a couple of McDonald's breakfast sausages with lettuce, cheese, and teriyaki sauce for the second, and a McChicken with pickles and cheese, and some beef from the Taco Bell that's next to the McDonald's in front of the Laurel Mall in Hazleton for the third.  If I actually do this, I'll share the results on here.

The Pierogie Burger

Schnecksville Family Diner
Route 309 - Schnecksville, PA
We found this place a couple of years ago on the way home from Weil's Antiques and thought it might make a nice place to meet our friends for dinner on Saturday evening before the horror double feature at Shankweiler's Drive-In Theater.

The menu referred to the name of this restaurant as The New Schnecksville Family Diner.  I'm not sure if it changed ownership since we last visited in 2023 or if they went by that name the last time we were there and I just didn't notice.  In either case, I didn't really notice a difference.  It's a pleasant little diner that reminds me of the kind of places that I would go out to eat with my family when I was a kid.  When you walk in, there's a lunch counter and booths on the left hand side of the cash register, and a nice dining room on the right hand side just past the dessert case that has more booths and tables for larger groups.

The PA Burger jumped off of the menu as soon as I saw it.  It's an 8 oz cheeseburger topped with pierogies and sauteed onions.  I never would have thought to make a burger with pierogies, but the combination works because it was delicious.

The Day Whitey Went To The Windy City

The Philadelphia Inquirer
January 12th, 1960
Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn's playing career with the Philadelphia Phillies came to an end on this day 65 years ago when he was traded to the Chicago Cubs in for third baseman Alvin Dark, pitcher John Buzhardt, and minor league prospect Jim Woods.

Richie Ashburn batted .291 and led the National League in walks (116) and OBP (.415) in his first season with the Cubs.  Collectively, he put up a slash line of .279/.400/.327 in his two seasons in Chicago before moving on to play his final season as the leadoff batter for the expansion '62 Mets.  He returned to the Phillies in 1963 as a color commentator which he continued until he passed away in 1997.

The most accomplished of the three players that went to Philadelphia in the deal also spent the shortest amount of time with the team.  Alvin Dark won Rookie Of The Year and finished third in the votes for National League MVP in 1948.  He was also a three time All Star who won a World Series with the '54 New York Giants.  Unfortunately, he was in what would be the final season of his playing career and his best days were past him.  Dark stayed in town just long enough to log his 2,000th career hit in a Phillies uniform before they traded him to the Milwaukee Braves after just 55 games.

John Buzhardt ended up being the most impactful player that the Phillies received in the deal.  The right hander pitched over 400 innings with 56 starts and 11 complete games in two seasons with the club.  He put up decent numbers with a 4.18 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP during his time in Philadelphia, but poor run support gave him a less than stellar record of 11-34 as a member of the Fightins.  He was traded to the Chicago White Sox after the 1961 season.

Finally, the prospect that the Phillies received in the deal was minor league third baseman Jim Woods.  He had technically already appeared in the big leagues prior to the trade, but his service time was limited to two appearances as a pinch runner for the Cubs in 1957.  His first game with the Phillies, and his first plate appearance in the big leagues, occurred on September 13th, 1960 in which he went 0-5 with four strikeouts across both games of a double header.  He appeared in 34 games across two seasons with the Phillies before his contract was sold to the Cincinnati Reds on May 14th, 1963.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (January 12, 1960)

Needless to say, this trade didn't work out too well.  The Phillies finished dead last in the National League in '60 with a record of 59-95, and again in '61 with an even more horrendous record of 47-107, and no one that the team acquired in the trade remained with the club after 1961.  They might as well have just kept the face of the franchise in Philadelphia for his entire career.

Two Chillers In The Freezing Cold

The Thing / The Shining
Shankweiler's Drive-In Theatre - Orefield, PA
Tonight was our second visit to the oldest operational drive-in theater in the world for their screening of two horror films that take place in a cold and snowy climate: John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece, The Thing, and Stanley Kubrick's incredible 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's novel, The Shining.

It was 30 degrees with a thin layer of snow coating the ground when we pulled onto the lot.  The chill in the air made for an immersive experience while we watched R.J. MacReady and his colleagues fight to survive in Antarctica and Jack Torrance stalk his family with an axe through the blizzard that surrounded the Overlook Hotel.

The concession stand had hot cocoa and warm cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing that helped us keep warm, and both were really freaking good!

 

They also had some fun movie-themed toys available at the concession stand, including The Thing Infection Detection Kit.

Speaking of which, the first movie of the night was The Thing.  This was our second time seeing this movie at a drive-in theater after having been in attendance for a Tunnel Vision Tuesday screening at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater in September 2022.  This is one of those horror classics that I've grown to appreciate more every time that I see it.

The second half of the double feature was The Shining.  This is another horror classic that I saw at The Mahoning when it was screened four months ago for Thread-Up Thursday.  The 35mm print that we saw that night in September was in pretty rough shape, so I was happy to have a second opportunity to see it on the big screen.

I mean no disrespect intended to the Mahoning with that statement.  If a film print is in reasonably good condition, I'll always prefer to see a movie on 35mm than to see it digitally.  The occasional pops and scratches or dropped frames add more to the experience than they take away.  However, when a 35mm print has degraded to where the picture is in sepia tone throughout the entire movie instead of the full color that it was meant to be seen, I believe that you have reached the point that the negatives outweigh the positives and the 35mm print should be shelved.

We sat in our nice warm car with the heater on throughout both movies, so thankfully, we did not look like Jack Torrance at the end of The Shining by the end of the double feature.

And that's a wrap on our second annual winter screening at Shankweiler's Drive-In Theater.  This is a nice place and I appreciate the work that Matt and Lauren go through to keep the place open.  Eastern Pennsylvania has a thriving drive-in theater scene that includes the Mahoning Drive-In Theater in Lehighton, Becky's Drive-In Theater in Walnutport, the Garden Drive-In Theater in Hunlock Creek, the Circle Drive-In Theater in Scranton, and several others.  The Mahoning is always going to be my favorite, and the place where you'll find me in the front row nearly every night throughout their season, but I'm very happy to see this tradition of movies under the stars being continued in so many places in our area.  With all of the changes that we've seen over the years, many of which that have not been for the better, it's nice to have a place to escape the world for a little while and enjoy good films, good food, and good company.

Bring Your Jabber Nuts

The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Game Boy Advance (2005)
The twelfth Nintendo game in The Legend Of Zelda franchise, and the fifth for their portable systems, was released in North America twenty years ago today.

Playthrough by Nintendo Central

You Can't Miss

Video Game Club

Columbia House (1983)
The Columbia Record Club, which would evolve into Columbia House, was formed by Columbia Records 70 years ago.  I'm sure that just about every middle-aged Gen-X nerd like myself remembers the deal where you'd get a bunch of records, 8-tracks, cassette tapes, or CD's for a penny if you joined their music club and committed to buying a certain number of others within the next few years.  Some might remember that they had a video club where they offered a similar deal for movies on VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD.  However, I'll bet that there are a lot fewer folks who remember that there was once a Columbia House Video Game Club that sold Atari 2600 and ColecoVision cartridges.

Truth be told, I don't remember it existing in the 80's either, but I definitely would have bugged my family to join if I knew about it.

One of the perks of joining the Columbia House Video Game Club is the fact that they'd send order forms that had posters for video games with a place to write your high scores.  Some of them, like the Moonsweeper poster above, have been archived by Digital Press.  Click here to see them.

Life Is But The Shipwreck Of Our Plans

The Shape Of Water
Searchlight Pictures (2017)
Last week, I mentioned that our friend Cary gave me a 52 Week Movie Challenge book as a Christmas present.  The idea here is to choose a different movie to watch each week according to the prompts given in the book and then to answer a few questions about the film.  

The first challenge in the book is to watch a film that has won Best Picture, so I did a little research and put together a short list of movies that fit the category that I've always wanted to see, but haven't gotten around to it yet.  This list included Coda, Parasite, Birdman, The Departed, A Beautiful Mind, and Gladiator, but I settled on the movie that won Best Picture for 2017 at the 90th Academy Awards: The Shape Of Water.

This movie premiered a few years before joined Regal Unlimited.  Since that time, and since discovering the Mahoning Drive-In Theater, I've become a much bigger fan of movies.  I wouldn't presume to be an expert on films or even claim to knowledgeable about film history, but I'd like to think I've developed an appreciation for cinematography, visual effects, and for some things that filmmakers do to pull you out of your own world and draw you into theirs.  The Shape Of Water does this as well as any movie I've ever seen.

The story is set in 1963 and it follows a woman in her mid 30's named Elisa Esposito, who was portrayed in an incredible performance by Sally Hawkins.  She has been mute since she was found next to a river with scars on her neck as an infant.  She lives in a small apartment above a cinema and works on the janitorial staff at a top secret government research facility in Baltimore.  While working, Elisa discovers that her employers have captured an aquatic life form similar to The Creature From The Black Lagoon, and the movie is about the connection she builds to this creature.  Anything else that I could say about the story would stray into spoiler territory, but it's a beautiful film that is deserving of all of the praise and awards that it has received.

One last thing I wanted to mention is the fact that The Creature in the film is played by actor Doug Jones.  He has a remarkable filmography including roles in movies such as Batman Returns, Hocus Pocus, Men In Black II, Pan's Labyrinth, and Hellboy 1 and 2, but my favorite of them all was one of his earliest acting gigs when he was hired by McDonald's to portray my all-time favorite mascot in their Mac Tonight advertising campaign.

From The Dungeon Master's Snack Drawer

Dungeons & Dragons candy
Amurol Confections Company (1983)
I was only three years old when Dungeons & Dragons candy was introduced on store shelves, so I've got only the vaguest recollection of their existence  If they were released just a couple of years later, I would have been all over these.

I'm not sure what the candy tasted like.  Frankly, they could have tasted like chalk and I still would have wanted them if only for the free trading card on the back of each box.  

Here's A Golden Brown Surprise

Banana Scallops
United Fruit Company (1949)
I'm not sure if I'd serve them alongside beef and cauliflower, but I'm absolutely interested in trying this recipe from a 1949 magazine advertisement.

I'm Dreaming Of A January Christmas

White Christmas
Dutch Apple Dinner Theater - Lancaster, PA
Our annual trip to Lancaster for the holiday show at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theater was postponed for a couple of weeks due to snow.  As a result, my wife and I enjoyed a night of Christmas In January with my dad and stepmother with the musical adaptation of my wife's favorite holiday movie.

The food was delicious as always, especially the vegan sausage and peppers.  I don't think I have the patience to ever stick to a vegan diet full time, but there are a lot of pretty delicious meatless options out there these days.  The pecan pie was also very good, and the show was excellent.

Steven Flowe Is On His Way

Steven Flowe
The Superwrestlers (2024)
Last month, a Chicago based promotion that's billed as Earth's Strangest Pro Wrestling Show introduced the world to a new indy wrestling character that is pure genius.

Stephen Flowe is a 90's grunge rock character who comes to the ring carrying a guitar and wearing a flannel with another flannel tied around his waist.  If it isn't obvious enough that his name was inspired by the second track on Pearl Jam's debut album, his entrance theme will really drive it home.  It's a parody of Even Flow, but most of the lyrics are just his name being sung over and over again.

In an interview with Sean Ross Sapp, Stephen revealed that the Cokane from JCW came up with the idea for this gimmick while the two were traveling.  It started out as a joke a few years ago, and it has now come to life in the squared circle.

Canadian Cookies For Christmas

Oreo Maple Cream
Christie (2024)
These were given to me by a friend as a Christmas present, and I think they're my new favorite variant of Oreo Cookies.

Oreo Maple Cream are exclusively available in Canada, but they're worth going out of your way to get.