I can’t get this install to work.

Since thanks to my own general sloth I have few if any regular readers, I’m taking the opportunity to start over. I’m going to try out the free version of Expression Engine. I’ll figure out how to move this all to an archive folder… then start over. But if I bork everything I’ve written up until now, well, you were warned.

Let’s try this new theme. It seems like it should be doing something up there at the top, since it’s NOT SHOWING THE BLOG TITLE. However, I still like how this looks, so whatever. I’ll leave it for now.

“Tales of the Wizard of Oz” was an early TV foray by Rankin-Bass, the creative team behind all those Christmas specials. Using Canadian voice actors as usual, this show went a step further and did the animation at Canada’s Crawley Films.

The show is badly animated, but the writing and acting are sharp. Because of its CanCon status, the series ran for years and years on Canadian local stations, often at 7 a.m. Here’s an episode (I love the quirky closing theme, by the way.)

Mort Crim in Philadelphia, before he becomes a news icon in Detroit, gets even with sportscaster Big Al in this legendary clip.

Awakened from my metaphorical slumber… (oh yeah, the running thing? Don’t ask) Here’s Mark McEwen’s emotional return to the CBS Early Show after a massive stroke nearly killed him.

Since walking is getting me nowhere, so to speak, I hereby make it official: beginning tomorrow (Tuesday), I will jog for some small period of time each day. It may not be long at first, but I watched “Rocky” recently, and he went from short distances to being able to visit several widespread Philadelphia landmarks in a short period of time.

Keep your eye on Guy Smiley in this, one of my all-time favorite Sesame Street bits.

I just got through watching GoodFellas again, and there’s one thing that bothers me: the music. The soundtrack is highly acclaimed, and I have no quibble with the song choices themselves. But I am bugged by the fact that they tend to bear little or no connection to the year a particular scene takes place. In fact, with the possible exception of “Gimme Shelter”, they’re all at least 10 years older than the scene setting.

One of the very few things I remember distinctly from “The Electric Company”, here’s Tom Lehrer’s “L-Y” song.