Agent Carter Returns!

Season 2 of Agent Carter starts tonight on television, YAY! Is anyone else a Peggy Carter fan?

For those of you not in the know, Peggy Carter is the British military intelligence officer who was Captain America's true love in World War II. Hayley Atwell did a magnificent job of portraying her in the movie Captain America: The First Avenger.

Peggy Carter is such a marvelous kick-ass female action star that Marvel decided to create a TV show around her. After the war (and Steve Rogers' apparent death), Agent Carter moves to New York to work in the Strategic Scientific Reserve spy agency. She must battle both the bad guys and her own colleagues' sexist undervaluing of her skills and abilities. What woman can't identify with that?

In Season 2, she is going to be transferred to Los Angeles to live and work. California in the late 1940s -- now that should be fun! And apparently she will have a love interest this season too.

[P.S. And speaking of kick-ass female action stars, Leanna of Can We Have a New Witch, Ours Melted says to let all her fans know she'll be back raising hell in the blogosphere next Monday! Glad you're feeling better, girl!]

KUDATAH!

'Murica isn't the only country with right-wing, anti-government rednecks who can't spell, y'know. We've got our fair share in Canada too, especially here in Alberta. And man, have they ever been worked up since the global price of oil tanked, our Canadian dollar plummeted, and a moderately left-wing NDP government got elected in our province!

On Twitter, one of our home-grown rednecks indulged in some typically overblown rhetoric and called for a coup d'état against our NDP government. Unfortunately, despite living in an officially bilingual French/English country, the tweeter had no clue how to actually spell this French term, so he just spelled it phonetically as kudatah!

Well, of course, this has set off a veritable firestorm of mockery and satire that Canadians have all been enjoying tremendously!

Now, I've laughed at this silliness as much as the next person, but I do feel a wee twinge of sympathy for the unfortunate tweeter at the centre of it. In all fairness and in his defence, I must point out that:

(1) he deserves props for even knowing the term coup d'état;

(2) he did use the term properly according to its correct meaning; and

(3) his phonetic rendering does accurately convey how coup d'état is actually pronounced.

Surely Canadians can cut this poor bugger some slack, just like we do for Ricky of the Trailer Park Boys who is, after all, a friggin' Canadian icon because of his (shall we say) creative language and spelling skills . . . .

And hey, you know what? Now that the cat's out of the bag, everyone is welcome to come to Alberta for the big event! Mark your calendars, kids!

Les Miz

I've been a fan of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables for many years -- the novel itself and the classic old black-and-white movie, stage musical and recent film musical made from it. Love the story, love the songs!

If you're not familiar with this sweeping epic of the human condition, sit down, have a few chips . . .

. . . and take a few minutes to decipher this condensed, but surprisingly accurate, summary of the plot. Emojis really are replacing words in our culture!

Believe me, it's a lot quicker to figure out that text message than it is to plow through Hugo's friggin' huge novel.

Les Misérables may be an unrelentingly grim tale of oppression and exploitation punctuated by short interludes of hope, but it can still inspire the unfortunates of today's world . . . .

And who doesn't love the soundtrack of that marvelous musical? So many awesome and memorable songs! How quickly they become earworms!

It's better watching the filmed version of the musical in the comfort of your own home, though . . .



. . . where no annoying people will be singing along with all the songs except for yourself!

Free at Last!

This post is dedicated to Birdie of Ditching the Black Dog, who is overjoyed to have had a hysterectomy last week. No longer will she have to tolerate the ongoing pain and tyranny of menstrual periods, the curse of every woman's life! You go, girl!

We women have to put up with soooooo much --

But the men in our lives have to put up with us when we have PMS --

Other than that, men don't have clue one, of course, and can easily be freaked out by periods --

However, men can be somewhat useful in temporarily halting our periods one or more times --

If only there were some way for women to cash in on the situation so all that pain and misery could be worthwhile --

Here's the only real advantage of menstruation --

Feel better soon, Birdie, and enjoy your wonderful new freedom!

Chrystos Rodyvsya!

Under the old Julian calendar used by the Orthodox Christian Church, today is Christmas Day. On the Canadian prairies, we simply refer to it as Ukrainian Christmas since they are the largest group who celebrate the occasion here.

You all know what a major Ukrainian wannabe I am, so I'm celebrating too -- okay, maybe not Christmas per se, but I'm celebrating Ukrainian culture. Like their fabulously ornate traditional dress (although I suspect photoshop may have been involved here) . . .

. . . their hearty stick-to-your-ribs food . . .

. . . and their high energy music! Give a listen to this wonderful traditional Ukrainian folk song performed with rock flourishes -- you'll recognize the tune as "Those Were the Days, My Friend" which is the name by which we know "Davni Chasy" in English.



Thanks to Professor Chaos at The Daily Irritant for introducing me to this music on his blog. If you want to hear more music by this British indie rock group, click here to go to his post containing more videos.

What Would Captain America Do?

Further to my last post which mentioned giving up swearing as a New Years Resolution --

As revealed recently in Avengers: The Age of Ultron, Captain America with his old-fashioned values is having a hard time adjusting to the kind of bad language used casually and routinely in today's society. And there are so MANY new swear words that Steve's never even heard of before! How's a fella supposed to keep up?

"Google" STILL makes him blush though.

And there are worse words out there! MUCH WORSE.

Well, at least poor Steve's not the ONLY shocked one.

I'm kinda with The Boys on this matter, though. We all know there's only ONE circumstance where use of that word is justified --



Now get to work, MOFOs! LOL

Happy New Year!

Time again for those pesky New Years Resolutions! Are you attempting any of these popular ones?

Quit Drinking

Quit Swearing

Exercise More

Diet

Good luck with whatever your Resolution(s) may be! Oh, ME? I don't need to make any Resolutions -- I'm perfect already! Hahahahahahaha!