The Oscars

Look how he's growing....13+ pounds now.  I miss him so much.

I always look forward to the Oscars.  This is the first year I've seen more than a couple of the movies up for nomination.  I have a website in my movies folder that I enjoy looking at from time to time and it shows the movies nominated each decade and who they beat out.  Also includes the actors.  A couple of the years I wasn't impressed with any of the nominees for best picture but on the flip side, there were a couple of years where I liked every single one of them and could barely make a choice.

Some of the "misses"  (in my opinion) include these:

The Greatest Show on Earth beat out High Noon and The Quiet Man
Around the world in 80 days beat out The Ten Commandments
Tom Jones beat out Cleopatra and Lilies of the Field
The Sting beat out American Graffiti

Ordinary People beat Coal Miner's Daughter
Chariots of Fire beat On Golden Pond
Amadeus beat The Killing Fields

Out of Africa beat The Color Purple
The English Patient beat Fargo
American Beauty beat The Green Mile
The Artist beat The Help

The movies that I thought totally sucked include The Artist, Amadeus, and Chariots of Fire.

I found some interesting facts on the Oscar too....

The name Oscar comes from a remark by Academy secretary Margaret Herrick, who said the statue looked like her uncle Oscar. Oscar is 13½ inches tall and weighs 8½ pounds. An Oscar costs $400 dollars to make, but if a winner or their heirs wants to sell the gong, they must first offer the Academy refusal, at a pre-agreed price of one dollar. 

This year, everyone nominated gets a $45,000 gift bag. Presenters and performers at the Academy Awards received some $20,000 in merchandise in a gift "bag" that is sometimes so large that celebrities ask for it to be shipped to their homes, say industry insiders.

Although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which chooses which products will get into the bag, would not officially comment on what was included, many companies are often more than happy to tell the world that their products are among the items that end up in celebrities' clutches.

This year's goodies included a $1,500 private dinner party for the recipient and friends at any Morton's steakhouse worldwide, a pair of Beamer Video Phones valued at $499 together, and a four-night stay worth $1,500 at Rosewood's Badrutt's Palace Hotel, a luxury hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

But it's not just the official Oscar bag that celebrities had to look forward to. Other marketing companies organized "unofficial" Oscar bags worth as much as $40,000, while companies like Estee Lauder provided free spa days to help the nominated actors and actresses get ready for the big night.

Marketers say the gift bag has become one of the most coveted — and relatively inexpensive — ways to get exposure for a product. One photo of a celebrity wearing your product can ignite sales.

Trips to Australia, plastic surgery appointments and condoms are included in the $45,000 Oscars goodie bags for the nominees who don't win on Sunday. Party bags are not endorsed by the Academy, but that hasn't stopped the swag this year. The company announced that nominees would be receiving trips to Australia, Hawaii and Mexico; personal training sessions, hand-illustrated tennis shoes, acupuncture sessions, a $5,000 plastic surgery voucher, a week's stay at a weight-loss retreat and a year's membership to Heathrow's private VIP service.

Neil Potthoff, former teacher and principal at PT is turning 90 on March 8th. His daughter is welcoming snail mail cards to him at Seaport Landing, Apt. 304, 1201 Hancock, Port Towsend, WA 98368.  I stopped at Safeway and it was dang hard to find a "funny" card that wasn't too inappropriate.  Ha ha  I finally settled on this one:

I went to the physical therapist this morning and she scheduled five more visits for me.  I can only hope we can get to the bottom of this shoulder issue.  I'm getting very discouraged.

Depending on how I feel tomorrow, I may drive into PT for Jack Maloney's funeral at 3 pm.  His wife, Teresa, and I go back to high school days. She's Mary Gaboury's sister.

I haven't accomplished a heck of a lot today but who cares?  I did bake some bran muffins,though.

I also managed to do two loads of laundry but that's probably going to be the extent of it.  Think I'll do a little surfing online and see if I can't find that elusive Charlie Blankenship.