Attack of the 50 Foot Blog – Page 3

Mistaken Identity

I know I’m not the only person in the world that has their names mispronounced. When I’m introducing myself, there have been countless times people have replied, “Nice to meet you, Mark!” or “Nice to meet you, Mr. Weaver!” Sometimes it both. Years ago, I received a call at work from a salesman. When I answered my phone, he asked, “How are you today Mr. Weiner?” I thought to myself, “A lot better than you are! I don’t care what you are selling!”

Fight Breaks Out at Wrestling Match

A coworker who knows that I occasionally watch professional wrestling recently asked me if I had seen a program on the Discovery channel called Big Little Brawlers. It is a reality series about a little person wrestling organization based in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Next, he mentioned that they were going to do a show soon in Jackson, Tennessee, where I live. I immediately started doing research and found out that the Micro Wrestling Federation would be doing a show at a bar called the Slide and Ride a couple of weeks later in Jackson. The Slide and Ride is a large enough bar to host concerts and even weekly bull riding contests on real bulls, not a mechanical bull. I’ve never been one to go nightclubs, especially country themed bars. Over the years, the local ones had reputations for being a good place to get your butt kicked if anyone decided you didn’t fit in. I don’t think I look like I belong in a country bar so the only thing that might be able to get me into one of these places would be a wrestling show featuring little people.

My Fez

I am a fan of Laurel and Hardy movies. One of their more popular films is called Sons of the Desert. In this film, they are members of a fraternal lodge called the Sons of the Desert. Part of their uniform is Fez with the name of the organization on the front. The official Laurel and Hardy fan club is named after this film. A few years ago, I was wondering if I might be able to purchase a Sons of the Desert fez. I discovered a company called Fez-O-Rama that makes them, but they don’t keep them in stock all the time. They have made limited runs of them in the past but were never available when I had checked. In mid-January of 2024 (this month as I write this), I was watching the movie Casablanca. When I saw Sidney Greenstreet’s character wearing a fez, it made me want to check to see if Fez-O-Rama had made anymore. I just happened to check it during the one week out of the year that they took orders for this fez. They limit their orders to a run of 50. On January 15, I got my wife to measure my head and I placed my order for a Sons of the Desert fez.

Welcome to Flint, Michigan

Several years ago, I was involved in a training program at work where I had to travel to Flint, Michigan several times a year. I spent a full week in the Flint area during each trip, weekends included. Another person from our facility was in the program at the same time and we traveled together. We traveled by shuttle bus back and forth between the airport and the cabins where we stayed and the training took place. This story takes place on what was probably our third of six trips to Flint. We had completed that week and training and were riding the shuttle bus back to the airport. I was reading something during our short trip and wasn’t paying attention to anything at the airport when we arrived. Before our shuttle bus could stop, my traveling companion said, “Look, there’s that guy that I don’t like.” I looked up expecting to see someone from our training program which would have been odd because my friend liked practically everyone in the program. I couldn’t imagine him seeing anyone else that he knew at the Flint airport other than the people in our sessions. I didn’t see any of our fellow trainees outside the airport. I finally saw film director Michael Moore, maker of Roger and Me and Bowling for Columbine among other films. I knew that my friends were more conservative than mine and I could understand why he would say what he did. I am a fan of Michael Moore and was excited to see him. What better place to encounter him than his hometown?

Flying With Woody

Woody Widenhofer was an assistant for the Pittsburg Steelers from 1973-1983 when they were having many of their trips to the Super Bowl. He was also head coach for Vanderbilt University from 1997-2001. So, it was no surprise to end up on a plane with him when I was flying out of Nashville on a trip during the years he was there. I didn’t immediately recognize him and wasn’t absolutely sure it was him until after I got off the plane.

Celebrities Galore!

This trip occurred in May of 2001. I was travelling back to Nashville from Oklahoma City. There were changes to my itinerary which ended up routing me through Atlanta even though I wasn’t originally scheduled to go there. But this was a better alternative than not getting home when I had planned. It’s no surprise to see celebrities when travelling through airports, especially when you go through larger, busier cities. This trip resulted in the most celebrity encounters that any trip.

Marlo Thomas Ran Over Me

When I was in elementary school, I took voice lessons from a man named Joe Kincaid. Joe gave these lessons at the school where I went. He was also the band director. There were many kids from the area that took lessons from him, several that didn’t attend our school. He had success with several soloists and vocal groups at area talent shows. Several times during the year, he would put on shows with all his students. The shows would usually begin and end with a larger production number where all the students sang together. Around 1970 when I was in second grade, the show included the medley Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In from the musical Hair. The recording by The 5^th Dimension was a big hit at that time. Everyone in the show dressed in hippie costumes for the production.

Meeting Happy Hal

When I was a little kid, I watched several kids shows on TV that featured cartoons. One of these was called The Happy Hal Show. It was hosted by a man named Hal Miller. He had an odd puppet called L’il Bow that he talked with on the show as he introduced the cartoons. One of the reasons he appealed to kids like me was his pleasant demeanor. He also talked a lot about toys. In addition to hosting his show, he also ran a chain of toy stores in Memphis. There was even a rack of “Happy Hal” toys at the pharmacy where my family went in the small town where I lived about 2 hours away from Memphis. I remember most of the toys on this rack were small enough to ask for as an occasional treat during a shopping trip. I don’t remember anything on the rack being big enough to make a Christmas wish list. I remember the Happy Hal Toy Rack probably better than I remember his show.

Another Successful Diet Plan

I recently shared a story about losing 100 pounds. In that post I shared that Slimfast was the main tool that I used for my weigh loss. This was not the first time that I have lost a significant amount of weight although it is the most that I’ve ever lost at one time (Its probably worth noting that this was a time when I had the most to potentially lose). It was the first time that I had used Slimfast. During previous diets I’ve lost 40-60 pounds depending on what I weighed at the time. On those earlier diets, I had a consistent plan that had me losing weight at about 2.5 pounds a week, the same that I saw on Slimfast. I thought I would share the details of that diet plan here as an alternative to my most recent success.

How Beautiful Heaven Must Be

Dream about heaven

Andrea and I were in heaven. I’m assuming we died and went to heaven. It wasn’t like we got a free pass to preview heaven. We were there under what would be normal circumstances. I don’t know how we died. If I dreamed that part, I don’t remember it. And I assume that we died at the same time. Anyway, we were in a room that appeared to be like the lobby of a church but was about the same size as our living room. There were people milling around in that room and we could see people in a hallway outside of the room we were in. I didn’t recognize anyone there. We were sitting on the floor against a half wall. There were no chairs in the room. Apparently, there are no chairs in heaven. The walls were a grey color. And they were playing contemporary praise and worship style music. I don’t really care for most praise and worship music. I was not enjoying the music I heard. I was thinking “Who programs the music in heaven?”