Saturday Surprise — A Celebration of A Grumpy Life

Posted on May 18, 2019 by jilldennison under animals, Saturday Surprise, Social commentary, Tributes

It is with great sadness in my heart that I must bring you the news: Grumpy Cat has died. 😢

Now, I can hear you saying that Saturday Surprise is supposed to be fun, not sad, and that the death of the world’s best-known Grumpy Cat is not a happy thing. I agree, but … this post is not about Grumpy’s death, but rather about her life … rather a tribute, a celebration of her life in pictures.Grumpy Cat was rather the ‘Maxine’ of the feline world. Grumpy’s real name was Tardar Sauce, and while I always thought Grumpy was a he, he was in fact a ‘she’. I guess I just think of grumpy beings as male. (No comment from the peanut gallery here!) Grumpy’s perpetual scowl, that earned her the nickname Grumpy Cat by which the world knew her, was actually caused by a form of dwarfism.She first achieved some level of Internet celebrity in 2012, after pictures featuring her frowning face went viral on social media, then turned into a mean-mugging meme. It wasn’t long before Grumpy Cat was everywhere. She appeared on TV, popping up in episodes of “American Idol,” “The Bachelorette” and WWE’s “Monday Night Raw.”In 2013, Grumpy beat out “Gangnam Style” and the “Harlem Shake” to win Meme of the Year at the Webby Awards. The following year, she scored her own Lifetime holiday movie, “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever,” a two-hour spectacle featuring the voice talents of actress Aubrey Plaza as the title character. Two years later, she made her Broadway debut, a one-night only appearance in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, “Cats.” Of course she did.In 2016, her sculpture was added to Madame Tussauds Las Vegas — and the cat was invited to curl up alongside her own wax figure.

Grumpy Cat had amassed nearly 4 million combined followers on Instagram and Twitter, with a Facebook page that boasts 8.5 million likes.

In 2013, Grumpy became the official “spokescat” for Friskies cat food.

There is even a Grumpy Cat online store, Grumpycats.com, where you can find hundreds of products available for purchase, from ugly Christmas sweaters and laptop sleeves to drink coasters and guitar straps — all of them, of course, bearing the cat’s famous frown, usually along with a similarly surly message.

Grumpy wasn’t a huge fan of holidays …

Grumpy Cat’s death is indeed sad, but you know what? She will live on forever in both our hearts and on the Internet, for there must be at least a million pictures and memes out there. And I close with a short video of some of her finest moments …

Saturday Surprise — Office Christmas Party

Posted on December 8, 2018 by jilldennison under animals, Holidays, Humour, Saturday Surprise

If there was one thing I dreaded even more than the Annual Review in my other life as an accountant, it was the office Christmas party. I generally avoided them at all costs … as it was, I spent most of my waking time each week with these people, about half of whom I didn’t even like, so why on earth would I want to spend what little ‘free’ time I had with them, too? And, as you probably all know by now, I have a stubborn streak about the length of a football field, so telling me that I must do something is the best way to ensure that I won’t do it.As the season, I am told, is upon us, I thought it might be fun to indulge in a little Christmas Office Party humour. And besides, we all need something to laugh about, right?

I went looking for funny stories about Christmas office parties, sure there must be many, but every one I found pertained to either people having sex with co-workers, or getting drunk and being disgusting, none of which do I find humorous. And so instead, to wrap up Saturday Surprise, I give you this …

Jolly Monday … Sans Jolly

Posted on March 5, 2018 by jilldennison under Humour, Politic-Free Mondays

The missing Jolly

Welcome, friends! I hope you all had a marvelous weekend! The sun shone here, which was a welcome relief after weeks of clouds and rain. Sadly, I must report that Jolly still has not returned. He was last seen somewhere in the western UK, after my friend Jeannie found him playing with her boys in the Netherlands last week and sent him on his way home. I’m not sure if he got lost, or simply distracted, but a friend in Western England said she spotted him frolicking in the snow on Friday. Nonetheless, life goes on and I have a commitment to my readers to start the week out with humour and smiles, so I shall do my best to proceed sans Jolly. Oh, and if anybody sees him, would you please tell him that he is needed and send him on his way?

So, pull up a chair and grab a cuppa and let’s try to find something fun or funny to start our week, shall we?

Through the roof …

Imagine that you are lying on the bed in your home, chatting on the phone with a friend, when suddenly an 80-pound life raft crashes through the roof of your house and lands on your bed! That is exactly what happened to Luce Rameau of Miami, Florida last week, and at first she thought a bomb had gone off in her home.

Turns out a Royal Canadian Air Force helicopter was passing overhead when something must have snapped, and the life raft dropped from the bottom of the helicopter, through Ms. Rameau’s roof and onto her bed. The Canadian Air Force had been conducting an off-shore training exercise and somehow the raft “separated from the helicopter”.

The Canadians are good guys and are planning to help Ms. Rameau with accommodations and other support. Ms. Rameau was shaken, but not injured.

Homeless …

For Fran Clarke, it was just another day, showing up early for her job at Cobden Technical School in Victoria, Australia. Until she discovered that the school had sheltered one of the homeless overnight …

Yes, this cute little critter sheltered for the night in the school, apparently sleeping on the couch

“Sitting up right on the couch was the koala. He didn’t want to leave.”

Now, some thought he looked like he was ready to attend classes, but I thought he looked more like he was patiently waiting for breakfast to be served.

What would you do?

If you were a mail carrier for the United States Postal Service, and part of your route was a nudist colony, would you feel comfortable delivering their mail?

One substitute postal worker in Florida refuses to enter the RV complex where octogenarians are not wearing clothes. To be sure, she does put the mail in the boxes, but when there is a package or other item that cannot be left in the box, she leaves a notice in the box and returns the item to the post office, where the recipient can either travel to the post office to pick it up – presumably after donning clothing – or re-schedule delivery for a time that the regular carrier is on duty.

Since she is a substitute carrier who only works two days a week, it seems to me a minor problem, and the USPS apparently agrees, saying, “Carriers are not required to deliver beyond the centralized delivery units. We can assure all customers that mail and packages are being delivered according to national centralized delivery requirements.”

I suppose one’s point of view varies based on which side of that fence one sits. I take the side of the carrier on this one, though … I prefer, with an exception or two, to see people with appropriate clothing. I am old and I can tell you that old bodies are not exactly a sight for sore eyes.

I found it interesting that other reasons for carriers refusing to deliver to certain locales include aggressive wild turkeys in Rocky River, Ohio, and fear of contracting bedbugs at a Detroit apartment building.

Whimsical Artwork

Hakan Keleş is an architect, academician and illustrator in Turkey. He has done some amazingly fun artwork … I will let him tell you about it in his own words …

I started to draw big characters on street photos I took with my smartphone, named “Lilliputs series”. The name comes from the novel “Gulliver’s Travels”, the city of dwarfs. Here, we, real people, become dwarfs.

Some of them are kind of monsters, some of them are influenced from real people and the others are a bit humorous. They are from different urban areas I visited in Turkey.

And here are a few of his drawings …

Aren’t those fantastically fun?

And now, my friends, I am afraid that you must go off to work, and I must tackle some chore or another. Did I do okay without Jolly? With any luck, he will return home soon! I hope you have found a bit of something that brought a smile to your face this morning, and I hope you will share that smile with somebody who needs one today. Give smiles, give hugs – they cost you nothing and may mean so much to the receiver. Keep safe, keep warm, and have a great week! Hugs ‘n love from Filosofa!

Jolly Monday #91

Posted on January 29, 2018 by jilldennison under Humour, Politic-Free Mondays

Good Monday morn, my wonderful friends! I was looking back through my archives and realized that I started this Jolly Monday feature in March, 2016, nearly two years ago, and that this is my 91^stJolly Monday post! I hope you are all well and happy, relaxed after your too-short weekend, and ready to tackle another week, do some great things, make the world a little bit better place. What’s that? Oh … a bit too much for so early on a Monday, eh? Yeah, I think I agree with you. Let’s then start the weekend with some fresh coffee and … I made fresh bagels for you this morning … blueberry and cinnamon crunch. Speaking of cinnamon … I was out with the girls this evening and we stopped to pick up kittie food and litter, and I noticed a new flavour of Oreo cookies on the shelves

I like hot ‘n spicy cinnamon, like Mexican chocolate, but when I showed them to Miss Goose, you would have thought I was showing her fresh road kill by the look on her face. Anyway, grab a cup of coffee and a bagel … sorry, Hugh, but I’m all out of wine, for it’s been a rough week, y’know? And let’s try to have a bit of fun before we start another week, shall we?

Oopsie … Wrong Number …

If you want some marijuana, perhaps you shouldn’t be texting the request to police.

The person sending the initial text, once realizing his misstep, typed:

“oh my god. I’m so sorry”

Wouldn’t you have just loved to have seen the look on his or her face when she received the text showing the badge?

Grumpy Cat Is Rich

We all know and love Grumpy Cat, right? Well, Grumpy Cat just won $710,000 in a lawsuit over copyright infringement. Long story short, Grumpy Cat had a contract with coffee company Grenade Beverage LLC., giving them the rights to use her picture on its Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino iced drink. The company ultimately used Grumpy’s picture on other products as well, and the matter has been bouncing about in the courts for a few years now. Did the money make Grumpy Cat finally smile? You be the judge …

That is one cat that won’t be stuck eating kibble any more. Meanwhile, though, in reading the article about the lawsuit, I found some interesting trivia about Grumpy Cat:

Grumpy’s real name is Tardar Sauce
Grumpy is actually a ‘she’ … I would have sworn it was a guy, with that level of grumpiness!!!
Grumpy and her owner, Tabatha Bundesen, live in Morristown, Arizona.
Grumpy Cat has her own company and an extensive list of merchandise and has had cameos in films and on TV.
She also has 1.42 million followers on Twitter, 2.4 million on Instagram and almost nine million likes on Facebook

French Riots Over … Nutella?

I like Nutella, the chocolate-hazelnut spread that can be found alongside the peanut-butter in your supermarket. I don’t often buy it, but I do use it in a couple of recipes, and I like it on an English muffin every now and then. But never in my life have I seen people go as crazy over the stuff as people in France did last week!

Riots … riots, they say, ensued after retailer Intermarché slashed the price for a jar of Nutella from 4.50 euros to 1.41 euros — from $5.60 to about $1.75. I have to ask why it was $5.60 to begin with, for it is only about $2 here.

In at least three cases, police were called after customers came to blows in the frenzy for Nutella. “At 8:15, there was already a waiting line of 200 people in front of the store” said one Intermarché employee. “After a few minutes, the director had to intervene. He distributed one pot per person, next to a security guard. The pallet was empty after 10 minutes.”

Describing customers running and fighting, a manager of a store in Metz said: “People were aggressive. They were trying to tear the pots out and menacing us.” All over a jar of Nutella … who knew?

Lastly, an article in a UK publication tells of some of the stranger things people have called 999 (the UK equivalent of our 911) for, and I found them funny …

A concerned woman dialled 999 for help because her pet cat looked unwell.
One caller phoned 999 because they had a dry mouth, and one woman complained of irritated eyes from false eyelashes she had done five days previously.
Another man demanded an ambulance because he had been coughing for two weeks.
The East Midlands Ambulance Service even received a call from a woman asking if a broken egg could be left overnight in the fridge.

Methinks that some people need to learn the definition of ‘emergency’. Back in the day, when some of my staff would call off work for an emergency, I gave them my definition, which I still hold to today: If somebody is dead or likely to be in the next 24 hours, it’s an emergency. Everything else can wait until the end of your shift.

Okay, folks, I hope you are relaxed now and in a good frame of mind to face the week ahead. I wish you all a wonderful week. Keep safe and warm, and please, my friends … share a few smiles this week. Not everybody got to come here for coffee, bagels, and my strange sense of humour! Love ‘n hugs from Filosofa!