All things entertainment

Magnet #831 - Geppi's Entertainment Museum

This magnetpost will be timestamped last Wednesday, but it's being written 11:31pm Friday night, after I've finally surfaced from a 4-day bout with food poisoning, thank you very much, Bojangle's.

Or, rather, that's what we think. I basically spent a whole weekend sharing the same meals, and no one else got sick, until Tuesday, when I just had to grab a Bojangle's breakfast.

Tuesday, with a 10-hour drive back to New York, and the yuckiest drive ever. So yucky that I was alternately praying to break the land-speed record and practically begging for stops along the way, just to get out of the car.

Geppi's Entertainment Museum was one of those stops. It's a great museum, a perfect pitstop in Baltimore. I've been meaning to go to this museum since they had a booth set up at NY Comic-Con a couple of years ago.

I wish we'd had more time to wander the rooms of the museum. From the little books, to the comics, to the timeline and all the associated memorabilia along the way, the museum truly was a tribute to pop culture.

It was just chock-full of basically my childhood - from Howdy Doody to Disney, from the California Raisins to Dick Tracy, it was fun taking that stroll through time. My only complaint is that they didn't have magnets. A pop culture museum, sans magnets! Mind you, I basically just took my museum badge and stuck a mighty magnet on it, but still! Oh, the horror!

Anyways, Geppi's Entertainment Museum, recommend!

Food poisoning, not recommend! Of course, I'm blaming the breakfast and not the iced tea, lest you think I've sworn off Bojangle's forever.

It sounds rather strange

Magnet #726 - Chesapeake Bay, Hooper Strait

The AGE10 brought this back for me, from a roadtrip they did to Maryland. It's the Hooper Strait Lighthouse that's been there since about 1879 - signaling the entry of Hooper Strait.

It's one of those screwpile lighthouses, because it has iron pilings with a screw at the bottom that dig down into the soft ground about 10 feet or so. Mind you, I just had to look that up, because I had no idea that they had lighthouses that screw into the grown. In my neck of the woods, we had all those towery North Carolina lighthouses.

All day, though, while I've been thinking of using this magnet for today, all I can think of is Disney's Pete's Dragon, which takes place in Maine, in and around a lighthouse.

And, in my head, all I hear is that It's Not Easy song with Helen Reddy and that ginger-haired kid playing Pete. Which, I guess in the grand scheme of things is easier to hear in my head than Candle on the Water.

Long may she wave

Magnet #478 - Fort McHenry, Baltimore, MD

Ya'll know I have a thing for visiting national parks, and historic places. A couple of months ago we visited Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, MD. It was always one of those placesigns along I-95 that you just drive past on your way north or south, and you just never stop. This time we did.

Here's the thing. You grow up with the national anthem, the American flag (and apple pie, I suppose), but you don't necessarily think about from whence they came. So to see the flag flying, and to stand in the very fort where the star-spangled banner waved, and to walk o'er the ramparts, is something pretty cool.

That same weekend, we also went to the newly renovated Smithsonian National Museum of American History in DC, where we could see the same flag from the song. And you think Fort McHenry was cool, seeing the actual flag itself is even more awesome.

Both places gives you more historical context more than any history book ever could - so it's highly recommended.

The flag itself and the journey it's been on since the War of 1812 is quite extraordinary. You can learn more about it through the Smithsonian's fabulous interactive demo - definitely check it out. I love this magnet because it really shows a couple of details that I find fascinating. Heh, so fascinating that I totally did their little quiz thingy and got this cute certificate.

The original flag was about 30 x 42-feet - which is insanely large. At the time that Mary Pickersgill sewed it, there were 15 stars on the canton (the field of blue on the flag), and it's the only time there were 15 stripes - one for Kentucky and one for Vermont just admitted to the Union. (Of course, they had to stop the extending the flags by the stripes, because they realized that the flag would become too cumbersome if they kept adding stripes. Really, imagine the flag with 50 stripes?)

After the War of 1812, the flag remained in the possession of the Armistead family (the husband was fort commander)...and over time, they would give away pieces of the flag as souvenirs or remembrances to people. That's why there's a star (the white halo'd one on the magnet) and about 8 feet of flag missing. You'll also see what they believe is a little red A sewn into a white stripe - sewn onto the flag by Louisa Armistead, the commander's widow.

Still, if there's one thing I love about this country, it's our recognized need to preserve our relatively short history. And this flag is no exception - the Preservation Project shows how workers have toiled painstakingly to help this national treasure survive.

You think you tear up now, when you hear the below words being sung? I promise, the below words will take on so much more meaning once you've visited both Fort McHenry and the Star-Spangled Banner in DC. Happy Flag Day!

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Honor. Courage. Commitment.

Magnet #231 - U.S. Naval Academy

I might have too many magnets from Annapolis, MD.

But, hey, this one's a good one, cuz the U.S. Naval Academy opened today in 1845.

Awww, even if I didn't get to do the tour, maybe now I never need to...especially since I have enough magnets. Eh, that's impossible. There are cuteboys in uniform running around Annapolis. Yeah, I think I'll go back eventually. Then I can actually see more than just the auditorium with their heavy-handed, yet tear-inducing recruitment video.

Good gravy, there is no way I'd been able to actually go to the Academy - too much math involved for me to ever be successful. Plus, too much discipline. My hats off to the Academy men and women, though. And thank you for your future service.

I wonder how many of them watched that Justin Lin/James Franco movie, Annapolis? I love me some James Franco, but I just didn't know what to make of that film. Was it a drama? Was it a buddy pic? Was it an inspirational tale? Was it a sports movie? Was it romance? Did it make any money? Wait, no, looks like it made like $17mil. Overall. Whoa.

Fun tagline though: 50,000 Apply. 1,200 Are Accepted. Only The Best Survive.

Baltimore boy done good

Magnet #177 - Fort McHenry, Baltimore, MD

One of my sisters has a blog called "I live my life up and down I-95," which she started because she spent a lot of time up and down the I-95 corridor. She lived up near Boston, I live in New York, my other sister lives in DC, and then our parents live in North Carolina. I suppose when you've got your favorite rest areas, and you know which ones to avoid, I-95 starts to feels like an old friend.

But one place that I've never stopped is Baltimore. No reason, really. It's always on the way to somewhere else, but it's generally not even a gas station stop.

My sisters brought this back for me from Fort McHenry. Birthplace of the National Anthem. Site of more than a few major battles in U.S. history.

I picked this magnet from Baltimore because it's also the hometown of Olympics golden boy, Michael Fred Phelps, who managed to score his 8th gold medal today. And, last night, after the preseason football game at the Ravens stadium, they broadcast the race on the jumbotron, and 70,000 folks cheered him on. That had to have been amazing...even though, I spent a bit of that race peering from behind a pillow.

I'm not even a big Phelps fan - definitely not as big as my DC sister. But you don't have to be, to be in awe of such an amazing accomplishment. Jeepers. And, yet, I still find myself wondering how he's displaying that stuff over at his mom's house.

Oh! And the best thing ever? Last night's "Congratulations, Michael" commercial. Visa was supersmart for getting all the spots in the can, and I can't believe the pinpoint accuracy the ad scheduling folks over at NBC are working with. Last night's was my favorite.

Where Morgan says, "But 8, 8 gold medals? Well...we're going to have to invent a new adjective for that one."

Blah-blah-blah, crabcakes

Magnet #147 - Annapolis, MD

Yep. Picked this one in anticipation of possibly going into work and trying to catch up after three days of being out.

It's a helluva lot funnier, if you know where I work.