Which Gum is the best?

    Not many people realize gum is very well known to people who just want to have a good chew in between meals.

   Some gums you blow, some to get rid of plaque while others... are used to freshen breath. Which gum is the best? Well, here are a few brands that I have tried.

  Don't get me wrong, chewing gum isn't a bad thing, but for some people...it's a bad habit. I like to chew gum to help me conquer hunger as well as clean my teeth. There's an old saying four out of five dentists recommend with certain gum brands. Here's a few that I've tried and well...wasn't a fan of.

   Bubble Tape is a bubble gum that was created back when I was kid. They had these commercials for the gen X kids that stated 6 feet of flavor...for you, not them. Them being the adults which we ironically are now.

  I've tried it and, and I wasn't a fan. It had too much sugar in it and it didn't taste that great. It changed companies as I got older. Now with Hubba Bubba owning Bubble Tape, it went from six feet to three feet of gum.

 

  This gum made my jaw hurt and I thought it was similar to Bubble Tape. Very sugary. Every chew seemed like you were working your jaw to death. You can't blow many bubbles in it. That's the sad truth.

   I've tried it once, maybe twice, and never again.

   Orbit gum was considered a healthy way to clean your teeth while chewing. They had ads where a certain woman would show how dirty your mouth is by showing a scenario of people politely cursing. Chewing the gum changes that. I think? I don't know.

   I tried it and I didn't care for it.

   This gum was one of the first of many bubble gums I would try. Bazooka Joe was a famous old-time gum that had a fun comic strip on the wrappers.

   It tasted ok when I was young. They changed the recipe when I was older and...it started to hurt my jaw. Even cut it. I don't know why they would change such a classic. I stopped eating this gum.

  Back in the 80's, there was this ad that showed this gum with people either skiing or going to the beach saying, "Juicy Fruti, the taste is gonna move yeah." Somebody was smoking something while creating this ad.

   The taste doesn't do anything to me. I don't care for it, and for some reason, there's some artificial flavoring.

   I still chew this gum. This is the gum that dentist recommend. Trident is actually a pretty good gum. Although...I just eat the bubblegum one.

   It doesn't make a lot of bubbles, but it does have an interesting taste. I don't mind it. However, word of advice. If you want to eat this gum...or any, please remember to chew after you clean your mouth. This gum leaves food residue of stuff you ate before the gum.

  When I was a kid, Carefree was the gum my mom would buy. I tried a piece...and wow...this gum is disgusting. 

  Not her fault. This gum is considered sugar free. Not a bad thing, it's good to have a gum with no sugar. I think it was something else in this gum that made it a turnoff for me.

   The gum shaped in a cube. I buy this gum as well. But I buy the peppermint flavor instead of the bubble gum one. 

  It has pellet like crystals inside that makes my mouth feel cold on the inside. And when I drink water while chewing this gum...it gets colder, and colder.

  I love this gum. However, I don't have time to eat it all, so I try my best to keep as many pieces as I can before I choose a different gum.

   This gum is supposed to be one of those...chewing gum that gives you energy and goes through five of your senses.

  I think someone was high while making this. I never tried it, but some people think it's ok. I don't care for it and well...I feel this is a gum suited for athletes.

  This gum is an old timey version gun where it comes in small pellets. I used to eat gum that came that way. Not Chiclets, but another brand.

   Chiclets I feel is an old-fashioned style gum that isn't really known as much as it was back then. The only reason I know about this gum is seeing it in movies when I was a little kid.

  Winterfresh gum is a Wrigley brand gum that supposed to cool your mouth. I've tried it before, but it was nothing like Icebreakers where it really did make my mouth feel cold.

  Winterfresh does try it's best with advertising saying that it's the only gum that will cool you off. I don't know if that's true but...who knows.

    I haven't had this gum in a long time, and I think I'll stick to a gum that makes my breath feel cooler.

   Extra is a similarity to Trident. They both are great gums...they help you with cavities (sort of) and they both taste good.

    I like both Extra and Trident. Extra has a gum that not only freshens your breath but leaves a message saying.... give a little Extra to someone you love. The gum is a pretty basic bubble gum. They have other flavors as well, but I think I will stick to the bubble gum flavor.

   Gum, and bubble gum, are going to be around for a long time. From great flavor brands to ones, you wanna throw in the garbage.

   Bubble Yum, Double mint, and other brand gums I never tried, and I don't think I will. When I like a certain gum, I stick to it.... pun intended. 

They always come in threes-POEM

 

Things that always

come in threes

Stooges

Pigs

Musketeers,

and the deaths,

of celebrities

Trouble,

always come in threes,

like death,

strikes,

three times,

for any celebrity

Whether from Cancer,

Drowning,

Overdose,

heart attack,

and much more

Why in threes,

is it a magic number,

that is good,

yet bad,

why in threes

One,

after the other,

falling,

to death,

from a drowning,

to a heart attack,

The rule of three,

as it stands,

three famous people,

must die,

one,

after another,

after,

another

and then,

a new crop,

of three,

emerge

By the end,

of the year,

the threes,

mushroom,

into many

There have been theories,

wondering,

when this all began,

and if,

it will ever end,

who started it,

who thought of it,

why is it still,

happening?

Many people die, 

every day,

but when a celebrity dies,

two more follow,

it could be anyone,

at anytime,

and anywhere,

and always,

always,

in threes

Happy B-Day, Steve Carell

 

     If it weren't for the hit show The Office, nobody would know whom Steve Carell was and how much the show made Steve Carell a star. Today he turns 63...but what was Steve Carell like before making it big in the Office?

    

  Born August 16th in 1962, Steve Carell lived in Massachusetts and was the youngest of four older           brothers. His father was an engineer, and his mother was a nurse. He was raised in a Roman Catholic household as he didn't start getting into acting until he went into college. He even spent time as a disc jockey in his youth.

   He wasn't mostly known until the 1980's when he starred in a now defunct Chicken restaurant had him a commercial for Brown's chicken.

  He was one of the workers that was putting up a sign saying, "Cholesterol free Chicken" Only Free was seen as people were rushing in for free chicken.

 

   He wasn't mostly known in the industry since some of the shows he did before being well known. He was on a short-lived Dana Carvey sketch that had him a few roles...but the show felt flat and didn't have many viewers. 

    Around that time, he also starred in a McDonalds ad and well...again not many people knew who he was.

  Bruce Mighty was a movie that came out in 2003 and that's when he started to be seen. As an anchor that is taking over the spotlight for Jim Carrey who ends up being God for a day thanks to Morgan Freeman.

   He had a small roll, but he was soon known and became in big hits like Anchorman: Ron Burgandy, Little Miss Sunshine, Over the Hedge and many more.

   In 2005, NBC decided to make a show called The Office which was based on a British show created by Ricky Gervase. 

    Stave Carell became Michael Scott and was on the show for a couple seasons, leaving for the final season only to return in the final episode of the series.

    He's done other works like Dinner for Schmucks, knocked up, 40-year-old virgin (Which was his beginning to stardom) and even a sequel to Bruce Almighty called Evan Almighty which focused on Steve's character.

   He ends up being Moses and building an arch. It wasn't that great, but neither was the original

  Steve's voice is very well known in animated rolls. Like Over the Hedge which he played a hyperactive squirrel, Horton Hears a Who! where he portrayed the Mayor of Whosville, but his best has to be when Despicable Me came to theaters where he played Gru. 

   A villain who ends up with a heart of gold by the end of the movie. They made three other sequels and a Minion's movie where he voiced young Gru.

  Like I've mentioned before with comedians, many of them are great at doing dramatic roles. Steve Carell is one of them.

   Like the late Robin Williams who showed his dramatic skills in Good Will Hunting and Dead Poet Society, Steve Carell flourishes in dramatic as well as haunting roles.

   In The Big Short, he portrayed a banker based on a true story. Foxcatcher, The Practice and many more dramas that earned him nominations for awards.

  Today, Steve Carell has been busy with working, and spending time with family. He has hosted SNL when The Office was ending. He has been married and has two children. He recently received an honoree for the Doctor of Arts award.

   He still is acting today starring in TV shows and movies, but not as many as he used to. Happy Birthday Steve! Enjoy it

   

 

Robert Downey Jr. and the Unknown SNL cast

 

     Not many people knew that Robert Downey Jr. was once a cast member on SNL. back in 1985. I was only a baby. He was a few segments on the show. Especially the Weekend Update with Anthony Michael Hall. Another SNL cast member who only lasted one season. He isn't the only that made it big when leaving SNL

  Janeene Garafalo is another One SNL cast member who left to peruse her comedy. She's hit and miss but, I don't remember her that well since she was around during SNL's worst season. I think it was around the late eighties/early nineties that this happen. 

    I don't remember her much on the show since I didn't start watching SNL until the late 90's. She was low on the radar, and not as funny as people thought.

   

   Around the year I was born in 84, a few famous people started being on SNL's downfall. Seasons 10 and 11 were not great with most of the cast staying for one season. Christopher Guest was one of them. He and Harry Shearer, another one-time SNL member created Spinal Tap, and the movie was a huge hit on the year I was born.

   After Season 11 ended Christopher left and so did Harry. He has been doing parody movies and married Jamie Lee Curtis since then.

  Anthony Michael Hall was considered one of the youngest cast members of SNL to be on the show the same year Robert Downey Jr. He was only seventeen when he came on the show. Being a big hit in John Hughes movies like Sixteen Candles, National Lampoon, The Breakfast Club and many more.

   He left because he wanted to pursue a movie career, and it worked for him. He hasn't been in much lately but has still been working hard. Leaving SNL behind. I think he's forgotten about it.

  Ben Stiller was also on SNL for a little while. I don't remember him either since he was only one for one season as well, before I started watching of course.

   He was funny, charming and did his best. However, he didn't want to be on SNL and to pursue a movie career just like Anthony Michael Hall. He's doing ok. His parents were considered funny, and I guess it ran in the family.

   There was more one season only characters like Joan Cusack, Sarah Silverman, Rob Riggle, Harry Shearer, Jim Belushi (his late brother was funnier), Gilbert Gotfried and even Laurie Metcalf.

    Why is Robert Downey Jr. more important than all of them? Well, they're not, they're all equal. It's just...Robert Downey Jr. has something no other SNL cast member have. An Oscar. Sure he's had his ups and downs with the law and has been sober for years, but he made a miracoulous comeback that no one  thounght he would do.

   Not only has he been sober, but he was also Iron Man, might be the next Doctor Doom in a future Fantastic Four movie, but his portrayal in Oppenheimer won him an Oscar for best Supporting Actor.

  Guess SNL was his short-lived stepping stone. It seemed he...as well as others have had to start from somewhere to get to where they were. And one day, they will acheive an Oscar or Emmy or what not, and thank SNL for their start.

Who was Andrew Wyeth?

 

   Who was Andrew Wyeth? To me, he is an artist that embraces what he creates. An Artist that is well known in Kennet Square, Pennsylvania that there is a restaurant he would frequently eat at around the summer at his leisure.

     Even though he's no longer with us, Andrew is well known to many people who live not far from the art museum that is home to many of his paintings.

  Andrew was born on July 12th in 1917 by N.C. Wyeth, another artist who is known for his paintings in certain novels like "Treasure Island" and "Kidnapped"

    Unlike Andrew, I never was a huge fan of N.C.'s paintings. Even if he is the father of Andrew, they have different styles and techniques when it comes to their artistry and their paintings. 

    Sadly, N.C. died in 1945 with his grandson who was three at the time in an accident involving a train.

    Andrew mostly painting scenery of Chadd's Ford, and Cushing, Maine where he would spend most of the summers back when he was young.

    He would paint mostly of girls or men or even dogs sleeping on a bed. But there is one famous painting that he is known for that I have seen many times, and the more times I see it...I start to understand the tragedy behind the woman in the painting.

   Her name was Christina Olsen, and the painting named Christina's World depicts of her lying on the ground getting closer to home. Some people think this painting is of a woman just lying on the grass, but no one knew the other side of the painting.

   It seemed Christina Wilson was suffering from not only a muscular disorder, but Polio as well. She died twenty years after the painting was finished in 1948. It is considered one of Andrew's greatest works and no one knew the suffering from the painting.

  Andrew has paint what he has seen through his eyes throughout his life. Some that are from his life in either Chadds Ford or Cushing, Maine.

   Some were just models that would approve of Andrew painting him in the nude or even, certain models that would just stand there sad or wonder what he would paint next.

  One model was named Helga Testof who used to be a neighbor of the Wyeth family back in Chadd's Ford and of the course of their neighborly bond, Andrew would paint her for many years.

   Some people would think that... she was doing the painting in order to.... have her way with Andrew. The truth was.... Andrew would quote, "The difference between me and other painters is that I have a personal contact with my models. I had become enamored. Smitten. That's what happened when I saw Helga." He left it at that.

 













   In 2007, when he was almost 90 years old, George Bush awarded Andrew with the National Medal of Art. It wouldn't be his first since he received one in 1963 for the Presidential Medal of Freedom; and in 1990 he was one of the first Artist to be rewarded the Congressional Gold Medel. 

    It was one of his final appearances and many people were proud of Andrew for receiving this award. Me included.

   It seems artistry runs in the Wyeth blood for not only was Andrew a son of an artist, but his son, Jamie is an inspiring artist of his own.

   Like his father, he too has brilliance in his work.

   Although I prefer his father, Jamie's paintings are also seen in the Chadd's Ford art museum. He also has a granddaughter named Victoria who also is a talented artist and is carrying on the Wyeth family tradition of painting. 

   Sadly, we lost Andrew Wyeth for an illness in 2009 at the age of 92. I still have the memorial newspaper clippings in my home. 

   What I will remember most is through the paintings that I still love. I even have a few books that have notes on each painting including Helga and Christina's World.

    Even though he's been gone for almost 16 years, he's still known and remembered through his art, his family, and everyone that knows Andrew Wyeth...will always be an amazing painter.