Celebrities Busted! Blind Items Exposed!

"Gossip Girl here.  Your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite" intones the third person, omniscient narrator on the show with the same name.  

Since it would be a welcome relief from the glut of Hurricane Irene coverage on the news, I thought it would be fun if today's version of Husky Taco read like the blind items that appear on Page 6 every now and again.  Except Husky Taco is actually going to offer some answers/strong guesses pooled from internet sites.

For those of you who may not know, Page 6 is a gossip/celebrity sightings/celebrity rumor part of "The New York Post."  And no, it's not actually on page six, but farther back. 

Every once in a while, The Post publishes "Blind Items" that are either statements or questions about celebrities and socialites; they are usually tips from people in the media or parts of celebrity entourages or staff. 

These questions are not answered and are simply written to enthrall the public and to get people guessing.  These blinds (sometimes referred to as blind vices) are fun to read and there are sites devoted to guessing who the blind involves.  I'll start off with an easy example.

Which normally pot-smoking country/pop star has found a new habit involving a little white powder?  She's ditched the pot for this new habit and her friends are all extremely concerned about her health.  (And it ain't: Shania Twain or Carrie Underwood.  Best guess: Taylor Swift).  Who knew?

WHICH starlet's team insists that size-6 tags be cut out of her dresses by designers and a size-2 tag sewn in its place to preserve her vanity and prevent a body image-inspired meltdown?
(Kim Kardashian)


This A list actor (mostly A list in the 90's) loves dressing up in women’s clothing and having one night stands with men he meets at clubs, but he tells everyone he is most definitely not gay.


(Kelsey Grammer)

WHICH former "Dancing with the Stars" finalist has a secret obsession with Walmart? The weight-challenged performer doesn’t want to get caught shopping for clothes at the discount chain, so she drives to the 24-hour stores far away from Hollywood.

 (Best guess: Kirstie Alley) Lots of "Cheers" blind items today...sheesh.

THIS cooking show superstar is squabbling with her relatives over the future direction of her food empire – and the TV star’s family feud has the popular chef so steamed that she’s even amended her will! Who is she?

  (Paula "Where's my box of sticks of butter to eat?" Deen)

This aging Academy Award winning actor is having trouble getting parts for the first time in his life. Not because there are no offers, there are lots, but our actor cannot remember his lines and is showing first stage signs of Alzheimer's.

 (Best guess: Jon Voight)

Will this female Superstar realize that her weed smoking is getting in the way of her career?

 (Queen Latifah)

Which hip-hop star's gold teeth are emitting a foul stench? Music industry noses are turning away in disgust because of his vile breath -- but it doesn't seem to put off the ladies.

 (Lil Wayne)

Woman 1 is a reality show cast member. She’s getting fired because she’s brunette and nasty and nobody likes her anymore. At least she has her husband’s money to fall back on.

 (Jill Zarin, "The Real Housewives of New York City"  I still like you, Jill.)

WHICH right-wing politician's spouse bats for the other team? The pol's Bible belting can't keep the other half from the gay bars.

 (Michelle Bachmann's husband, Marcus.  Maybe you can't pray the gay away.)

Which actress never leaves the house without a wig? The long-locked beauty has been losing hair from emotional stress.

 (Catherine Zeta-Jones)

It looks like that no matter how much money you make, you can still be cheap, and not a gentleman. When this A list baseball player takes out his A-list actress girlfriend, he has a price limit of how much he will spend. It is embarrassingly low. Like barely more than McDonald's low. So, inevitably, despite him making way more money, our actress picks up the check for almost everything all the time.

 (Alex Rodriguez and Cameron Diaz)

Last one: This Golden Globe winning actress was A+++ list. She was primarily known for television and comedy and for a very distinctive voice. Prior to hitting it big though, our actress made ends meet not in the odd jobs she always claimed in her authorized biographies, but turning tricks. Supposedly it is also how she met her future husband.

 
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it/learned something!  I took almost all of my information from AGC Main Page Blind Items.  It is not my intent to muddy the names of celebrities, although I couldn't resist poking fun at Paula Deen.

Saving Money in a Bad Economy

I know that most of you know that it's time to tighten the belt in terms of money once again, as things are going from bad to worse.  Jimmy Fallon said in his monologue last night that men from countries with poor economies have, ahem, an advantage, well, you know where.  Which leads to the best new pick-up line ever: Hi, I'm an American.

Here are my money saving tips, some sarcastic, some real, some half-hearted...you be the judge.

One: COUPONS, COUPONS, COUPONS!

My family got out of the habit of using coupons back in the 1990s when the economy was great, and I must admit that I let my habit of clipping them from the paper each week fall by the wayside.  But they are great money savers.

I'm not talking like being like the people on TLC's Extreme Couponing.  Those people are nuts and devote waaaay to much time to clipping coupons. But if you get a newspaper and have access to coupons, by all means clip them.  There's no need to be embarrassed; some stores double coupons. 

I brought a stack of coupons to Shop-Rite a few weeks ago and almost every coupon I had (even for $1 or $1.50 off) was doubled.  I knocked about $30 off my bill at the end.  Sweet.  Also, if you email companies that make products you like, such as Proctor and Gamble (Skippy peanut butter...yum! ) they will mail you/send you extra coupons not in the newspapers.

Two: CHANGE HOW YOU FILL UP ON GAS

I have found, weirdly enough, that if I fill up my tank when it's half full, my credit card bills end up being lower each month and I've found myself filling up much less.  Coupled with falling gas prices, this is a good strategy.  I charge gas to my credit card, by the way, as I'm sure most of you do.

Three: IF YOU HAVE PETS...

I assume you feed them some sort of wet food.  Well, if every time you are at a fast food restaurant or a convenience store, take some of the plastic silverware they have out.  Then you don't have to use anything else and you can throw it out when you're done.  My brother and I are out a lot, and as weird as it sounds, we take some plastic silverware from each place we go.  It adds up, and to these corporations, it's not a lot of lost money.

Four: CUT THOSE DISPOSABLE RAGS AND DRYER SHEETS IN HALF

Sounds cheap, but the packages last twice as long.

Five: STEAL OFFICE SUPPLIES

Just kidding....or am I?

Six: COUPONS, PART II

Lots of stores and websites have coupons online.  Use that idle time at work to print them out on company supplies.  Saves you time and money. 

Seven:  ONLINE ORDERING

  It's rare that you won't find some kind of free shipping discount or other percent off coupon code when ordering online, so run these searches.  Even when you're ordering food online some local restaurants have codes to save you money.  Again, don't be embarrassed.  Who cares?  Every penny counts

Eight:  START A LOOSE CHANGE JAR

My brother and I do this.  And he got one for Christmas last year that keeps track of the money.  It really adds up.  Since then we have $191.62 in that jar at last count (please don't break into my house, though).

Secondly if you ask for one of these devices for your birthday or Christmas or Chrismahannakwanza, it's free of cost to you, and you can scam TD Bank out of a free prize each time you cash it in because your guess will be within the machine's margin of error when that annoying CGI girl asks you if you want to guess how much money you think you have.  You could win a prize, dude. 

Nine:  ATMs

Each time you take money out of an ATM, put away some of that money in an envelope.  Trust me, it adds up, and cash is king, not cotton.

Ten: RAID YOUR PARENTS' PANTRIES

If you're over your parents' house, and they ask if you if you want to take anything home, have at their pantry.  They usually overbuy and don't eat half of what they have.

Eleven: INVEST

If you work for a company that matches 401k contributions or offers any kind of benefits, take advantage of them!

Thanks for reading.

After shock, then what?

Usually when we on the east coast think about earthquakes, we think of the stereotypical.  California.  San Francisco.  San Andreas fault.  A "Desperate Housewives" ratings grab during sweeps. 

We think this because for many of us who grew up on the east coast, we have not experienced an earthquake before. 

Today was the first time in my life that I have experienced an earthquake. Whenever I would hear about a very minor one on the news and what time it occurred in the Delaware valley, I would justify to myself that I might have felt it, even though I really didn't.

But today, while visiting my grandmother at Rockland Place, it happened. I was with my grandmother outside her room on one of the common area computers. She was sitting by the window and I was looking up something online.

As I was typing I felt a rumble underneath my feet, like one of the maintenance crew in her building were moving a large piece of machinery such as a dishwasher, across the floor and out the door.

I turned to her as she was sitting by the window and quizzically asked, "Do you feel that?"  At first I ignored it.  Perhaps there was a large plane overhead, or a train was going by loudly outside (even though there are no train tracks near where she lives). 

But the shaking continued.  The keyboard began to slide, then two of the flat-screen monitors started to slide across the circular table.  They eventually tipped over.  The heavy printer on the counter opposite the desk started to move as if possessed like Ellen Burstyn's refrigerator in Requiem for a Dream.  Well, maybe not as much.  But that's what it felt like.  

She got up from her chair and walked over to where I was.  "What do you think that is?," I asked her.  She looked at me blankly.  The shaking continued.  And got more intense.  I gave her a sort of hug I guess and pulled her next to me. 

I'm not trying to over-dramatize the situation.  I knew that we would be ok.  But I quickly realized that "This is what an earthquake must feel like.  I bet this is an earthquake."  For a few seconds while I was hugging her I was worried because the floorboards beneath the carpet began to shake up and down and perhaps side to side.  The floor felt weak beneath us. 

The ceiling above was shaking.  Other residents were running (as far as older people go, I guess, or wheeling themselves) out of their room.  The resident meanie, who lives across the hall from my grandmother, came out of her room with her cane.  "Bah, oy gevault! Vat are you people doing out here?" We just looked at her.

And all of a sudden everything stopped and went back to normal.  It was eerie the way the whole phenomenon had come and gone so quickly.  Although while it was happening it felt like two minutes even though it was probably 30 seconds at the most from start to denouement. 

We quickly went downstairs and someone said one of their friends tweeted about an earthquake.  We didn't realize until I made it home that it was a 5.9 (or 5.8?)  quake on the Richter Scale and was felt from Georgia to Maine and as far west as Ohio and Michigan.  Pretty creepy.

It was definitely a unique experience but one which I will not soon forget.  And before you Left Coasters start mocking us East Coasters for being scared and wusses, just remember how you all reacted to your Carmageddon kerfuffle with your freeway a few weeks ago. 

Hey Blake Lively: What are you doing in "The Town?"

I sat down the other night and was flipping through the channels and came across "The Town" just beginning on HBO.  I had always wanted to see it, but just never made the time.  If you are looking for an excellent, suspenseful movie, this is it.

Ben Affleck directed it as his follow-up to his directorial debut (which I have not seen but want to) "Gone Baby Gone."

I particularly liked "The Town" because I could tell right away that it took place in Charlestown, MA, which is where I used to work for the Massachusetts Democratic Party.  The scenery was great and every time they panned over the city I saw Bunker Hill Community College, where I would often walk on lunch hours. 

  This movie claims that there are a greater percentage of people who rob banks that are from Charlestown.  That number is disproportionate to other parts of Massachusetts and the rest of the country.

The movie itself (aside from those Boston accents) was excellent and focuses on a budding relationship between Ben Affleck's character and a hostage he took (she doesn't know it was he) from the bank that was robbed at the opening of the movie.  He eventually let her go, but then worries she might recognize him, so he mini-stalks her and runs into her at a laundromat.  She does not recognize him.

The movie centers on a series of more and more daring heists that culminates in an attempted robbery of Fenway Park.  I enjoyed the movie a lot because of the great action and the love story wasn't that mushy or annoying since Ben Affleck's character was trying to strike a balance between leaving his old life, dissembling it from his love, and trying to commit more robberies due to pressure from what I assume is the Irish mob.

Jeremy Renner was pretty good in it, too, despite me not liking "The Hurt Locker" in any way.  The performances in the movie are great, and Jon Hamm of "Mad Men" did an awesome turn as a frustrated FBI agent trying to take down Ben Affleck and his crew. 

     

The only piece that didn't seem to fit, however, was Blake Lively.  She usually is type cast in teen/twentysomething comedies but perhaps is best known for her role as Serena Vanderwoodsen on "Gossip Girl."  Well, I kind of wondered why she was in "The Town" since her accent was terrible and she seemed incongruous with the rest of the casting.  Stick to the Upper East Side, Blake. 

I included Leighton Meester in the picture, well, just because.

"The Town" is a great movie and if you have two hours to spare I highly recommend it.  The scenery of Charlestown and Boston is very excellent and adds to the mood of the movie, and throughout the whole film you wonder if Ben Affleck, who claims to want to start a new life, will be able to do so.  Excellent flick, and I know you Mass. people will love the scenery, the accents, and who knows, maybe even Blake Lively.  Happy watching. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not read the Harry Potter novels or haven't seen the last movie, read no further.

I went to Regal Brandywine on Friday and finally saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.  Had this not been a sequel, I would easily give it the Academy Award for Best Picture.

There was no "Previously, on Harry Potter..." and the film opened where the last one left off, with Voldemort in possession of the Elder Wand.  The movie then cut to the beach house where Harry, Hermione, and Ron were staying.  Before allowing us into the house, though, Dobby got his due with a picture of his grave in the beach.

He had been slain by Bellatrix at the end of the last movie.  He was one of the many who died in

Harry Potter's quest to defeat Lord Voldemort, or He-who-must-not-be-named.  But as Hermione aptly pointed out in the second film, "Fear of the name only increases the fear of the thing itself."  In true to the book fashion, however, it is not long before Harry strikes a deal with Griphook the troll to enter Gringott's bank to obtain one of the final Horcruxes, which are items used to contain a wizard's soul should the split it.  They are a part of the Dark Arts, and theoretically increase a wizard's chances of becoming immortal. 

Hermione disguises herself as Bellatrix and enters Gringott's in the hopes of obtaining this horcrux, but is almost immediately discovered as a fraud by the head troll guarding the vaults. 

However, Harry, from under his invisibility cloak, uses the forbidden Imperius curse to control the troll so that they let him into the vault.  After they enter the bowels of Gringott's and obtain what they want despite the multiplying enchantment placed upon the vault causing everything bumped into to multiply exponentially, they get what they want. However, Griphook goes back on his word and closes the vault behind them.

After a quick "reducto" spell by Hermione,  they break out of the vault and battle security forces for a short time.  Once Hermione again tells them to hop upon the dragon guarding the vault, they escape.  Determined to get to Hogwarts, they surreptitiously enter Hogsmeade under the cover of night, only to be almost discovered by the howling cat sounds that alert the dark wizards to their presence. 

However, Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother soon helps them into his pub.  After a brief discussion he reveals that the portrait of his sister on the wall is actually a tunnel to Hogwarts.   After my favorite character, Neville Longbottom returns to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione, they all begin their quest into the heavily defended Hogwarts in order to find one of the last horcruxes, the diadem of Ravenclaw. 

Chaos ensues, and the Battle for Hogwarts has begun.  The  Diadem is found through the help of the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw, and it lies in the Room of Requirement.  Hermione, Ron, and Harry go into the room at various times and Harry finds it; however, this is not before Draco and his henchmen Crabbe and Goyle come into the room to fight Harry.  After setting the room on fire to smoke them out, all find themselves in danger.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione grab broomsticks and begin to fly out, but not before saving Draco.  Once out, Harry destroys the horcrux and yet another part of Voldemort has been destroyed. 

Upon regrouping, Professor McGonagall begins to help protect Hogwarts in order to delay Voldemort's impending rush to seize the school and kill Harry Potter.  The protection fails but delays the army long enough and bloodshed begins.  Everyone does their best to defend the school but body after body piles up in a bloody wizarding war pitting evil versus good in the ultimate battle.  Voldemort is weakened and the movie cuts to him talking to Professor Snape .  Voldemort interrogates the potion master because he senses the elder wand does not belong to him.  Voldemort then kills him in cold blood and walks away.  Harry rushes up to Snape who is crying, but in Potter world tears of the dying represent the last thoughts.  Harry grabs these tears, puts them in a bottle, and brings them to the pensieve to interpret them.

As it turns out, despite Snape's purported hatred for Harry that has been "evident" throughout the film and books, is revealed to be a front.  Snape has never turned completely to the dark side of the wizarding world, and his love for Harry's mother, Lily, is made clear.  Lily's love saved Harry the night that Voldemort, and it turns out Snape's love for her was just as fierce, even though they never married or dated.

Through Snape's memories, Harry learns that he must die in order to save the others.  However, he is unable to die, but Voldemort does not know this.  Harry meets Voldemort and allows him to kill him with the forbidden Avada Kedavra curse.  Harry is then thrust into a white world, a train station as he calls it, where he meets Dumbledore once more. 

Dumbledore explains to Harry that Harry has done the necessary to save the wizarding world from Voldemort, but at the end tells Harry that everything he sees is in his head.  Flash back to Harry's "lifeless" body.  Narcissa Malfoy runs over to confirm that Harry is dead but sees that he is breathing.  She realizes that Harry is invincible and simply asks him if her son Draco is alive.  He nods, and she lies to Voldemort and says that Harry is dead. 

Hagrid carries Harry's body back to Hogwarts and Voldemort returns, "triumphant."  It is sadness all around as everyone mourns Harry's "death,"  and in the ensuing second scuffle Harry leaps up and no one can believe what they have just seen.  Harry Potter truly is the boy who lived. 

The snake is the last Horcrux, and Ron and Hermione try to use basilisk fangs to kill it but they are unsuccessful. 

However, Neville gains the sword of Gryffindor and decapitates Voldemort's snake and horcrux, Nagini, and saves the day.  Voldemort is destroyed and the saga concludes.  Not without an epilogue, the movie cuts to 19 years later when Ron and Hermione, Harry and Ginny are bringing their children to Platform 9 and 3/4, where it all began, to send them off to Hogwarts.  Even Draco, despite his trespasses against the wizarding world, is there to see the Hogwarts Express go on another journey. 

I know that this was a cursory summary and I skipped over a lot, but I just wanted to convey what a great movie it was and that no matter what, good always defeats evil, no matter how dire circumstances may seem.  Happy reading and felix felicitas.