Favorite Fictional Characters --- The Designing Women

When I originally thought about doing a FFC post about Designing Women, I was only going to talk about Julia Sugarbaker, who was my absolute favorite character on the show. Then I realized that without the other 3 original characters Julia wouldn't have been the same. So here I am talking about 4 of the funniest female characters to ever come across TV into our living rooms.

Now I know that some of you are going to realize that I'm leaving out some main characters from the show but I wanted to focus on the original cast. I was never a big fan of the replacement characters or of Anthony Bouvier, played by Meshach Taylor. I never felt that they added all that much to the show. This was one of my favorite sitcoms and I wish it was still in syndication.

So to start we have Julia Sugarbaker, played by the brilliant Dixie Carter. A true Southern Belle with all the grace and dignity that the term implies. She is the owner, along with the other three characters, of Sugarbaker Design, a small interior design firm. She is a fantastic character who never keeps her opinions to herself and is know for magnificent speeches that get her point across. The character is about as liberal as I am but Dixie Carter was a registered Republican so she made a deal with the producers that anytime she made a liberally minded speech on the show, she would be allowed to sing in a future episode. Julia is the brain of the show and without her I don't think it would have lasted for as long as it did.

Next up is Suzanne Sugarbaker, Julia's sister and a former beauty queen. She is played by the sassy and beautiful Delta Burke. Suzanne is vain, petty, and a little ditsy. She will always try to put herself first, but will always end up doing the right thing. She has a big heart which always steers her through to the right decision.

Annie Potts plays Mary Jo Shively. Mary Jo is a divorced mother of two with a sarcastic wit and a generous spirit. She is the everyday woman who is juggling a career and family. She is the down to Earth character that can always be counted on to ground the situation and make everyone see what needs to be done.

And last but not least we have the comic relief of the show. Charlene Stillfield, played by the fantastic Jean Smart, is the typical country girl who still loved Elvis and never thinks a mean thing about anyone. She can always be counted on to lighten the mood just by being herself. She is wonderfully naive about the world and looking through her eyes makes most of us feel better about the world.

Mailbox Monday for 11/2/2009

Mailbox Monday is a weekly Meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

This was another slow week for me so I only had three books come in the mail for me. I didn't even buy anything over the last week, which is really odd for me. So here goes what I did manage to get.

I received The Silent Gift by Michael Landon Jr. and Cindy Kelley from the publicist for review.

I received The Crypto-Capers in The Legend of The Golden Monkey by Renee Hand from the members giveaway section on Librarything.

I received Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind: Thoughts on Teaching by Phillip Done from Beth at Beth's Book Review Blog.

Crazy Love by Michael Buble

I'm in a weird mood right now so I've been listening to the new CD by Michael Buble, Crazy Love.

Now I'm a humongous fan of his (seen him in concert already) so I was excited when this CD came out. For the most part it didn't let me down. His voice is able to bring to new life some old pop standards, some new songs, as well as his own.

Some people didn't like when he sang "Me and Mrs. Jones" on his last CD but I loved it. They said he didn't have a soulful enough voice for the song but I totally disagreed with that. I loved his version of the song and listen to it all the time. Now on this CD he sings "Georgia On My Mind" and I must say he finally covered a song that I don't think he has the voice for. This was the really only disappointment for me and at first I was a little dismayed by it. He had never sang a song before that I didn't like so I'm going to chalk this one up to nobody can do everything right and let it go.

Three Of My Favorite Tracks

(I'm just going to post the links not clean them up, everytime I do they break for some reason)

Cry Me A River

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBmiSrSDBIA

Haven't Met You Yet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AJmKkU5POA

Baby (You've Got What It Takes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9CYPovSRB8

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween

I hope that whether you are hanging out with the kids or having grownup fun tonight, I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween.

Prom Night

I had never seen this movie before so when I saw it a store for $5 I snatched it up and figured even if I only watched it once it was still cheaper then going to a movie. So I brought it home and let it sit around for a few days and almost forgot I bought it.

Well the other night I was cleaning up a bit and found the DVD amongst a few books so I figured why not watch it. I didn't get around to it until I was ready for bed so I put it in my portable DVD player, put the earphones in, and enjoyed a wonderful 80s movie.

The opening scene has the creepiest game of hide and go seek that I have ever seen. These kids are playing in a abandoned building and the seeker yells out "The killers are coming, The killers are coming". It's shot wonderfully and has the perfect sense of menace to it. Well needless to say one kid meets the end of her life and the others swear themselves to secrecy.

Skip ahead 6 years later and the older sister (Jamie Lee Curtis) of the dead girl is dating one of the kids who caused her death and they are getting ready for the Senior Prom. One by one they are getting rewarded for their past behavior.

I figured out who the killer was pretty early in the movie despite a red herring that is fed to us on a silver platter. Half way through the movie I began to doubt myself and shift the blame to someone else but that quickly went out of my head and I became convinced I was right the first time.

If you like cheesy 80s slasher/horror movies (the way I do) then this is a must see. Try to get to it before Halloween if possible, that way your brain is already wanting to be scared.

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Four Hamilton High School seniors have been hiding the truth of what happened to ten-year-old Robin Hammond for six long years. But someone saw what they did ans i preparing for revenge--a prom night killing spree. Hooded, masked, and wilding an axe, he'll stalk his prey in the dark, empty halls, striking when his victims are alone. And just as the spotlight falls upon the newly crowned king and queen, the killer will show everyone what his favorite game to play is...

Foundation by Mercedes Lackey

This book came out a while ago and I always meant to pick it up every time I went to the bookstore. Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite authors and her Valdemar books are amongst my favorite books of all time. So when this book came out I was so excited that I started bouncing in my chair as I was reading about it. Then life set in and I didn't pick up until recently.

This is the first book of a series that takes place between the Last Herald Mage trilogy (my favorite) and the stand alone book, Burning Brightly. Now for those of you who aren't familiar with the Valdemar books that probably won't make much sense to you. Just know that it takes place before most of her other Valdemar books.

The book takes place while the new Heralds Collegium is being built along with a new Bardic and Healer Collegiums. The main protagonist is a typical example of what can be found throughout the Valdemar books. Mags is a young man who has been living, working as a virtual slave in gem mines. The description of his daily life is monstrous and this causes you to take an instant liking to him. Well that and the fact that he is generous and kind without thinking about it. That he in very small ways tries to look out for the younger children and thinks about others more than most kids in his situation would.

The rest of the story is typical (by which I mean wonderful) of these books. Young man is Chosen by one of the wondrous Companions to become a Herald in the service of Valdemar (the kingdom they live in). The young Herald Trainee goes to Haven (capital city) to start training and is caught up in a situation that tests their skill and courage. I say typical because this is the way a lot of the books start. There is a reason for it though, it works for the type of characters that Heralds are. Heralds have to be tough, resilient, and kind. Now not all the Heralds come from a miserable background but would that make a good story?

I'm looking forward to the next book in the series as I always love to read the history of a Kingdom I want to live in, about the Heralds I want to be like, and about right trumping wrong.

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Mags had slaved at the gem mines for as long as he could remember, completely unaware of how unusual his paltry existence was--until some strangers on huge white horses forced their way past the mine owners and carried him away to Haven to become a herald Trainee.

Suddenly the whole world opened up for him. He was warm and well fed for the first time in his life, and he had Dallen, his Companion, who seemed more miraculous than an angel. There was political upheaval in Valdemar's capital, for the ancient was of training heralds--the system of one-on-one mentoring that had been successful for centuries--was failing. Many veteran Heralds had died in the wars, and there were too many Trainees to go around. A Herald's Collegium was being built, and many thought it was wrong to train Heralds in classrooms the same way the Bardic and Healer Trainees were schooled. But dissent among the Heralds was not the only discord in Haven, for the court had been infiltrated by foreign "diplomats," who seemed to be more interested in seeding discontent than in actual diplomacy...and Mags seemed to be the only one who'd noticed...

Word Verification Balderdash

Word Verification Balderdash is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Here is what you do. You write down all the word verifications you come across as you are posting comments on other people's blogs. You then play Balderdash with them. Now for those of you who don't know how to play, you take up a made up word and come up with an authentic sounding definition for it. Do this for a week and then post your bests ones on Thursday.

Here are mine for this week:

Veeder: Wild vines that grow throughout the woodlands of South Carolina and Virginia. They can be identified by their brown stems with heart shaped green leafs that are speckled with purple spots. The only other way to identify them is when you accidentally walk through a rather large patch of them and find yourself trapped amongst their stems. Of course that won't do you much good because once you are trapped you can never get out and you will find yourself being slowly consumed to feed the carnivorous vine.

CawCaw: Small, annoying black birds that never seem to shut up. Their cawing can get so loud at times that small babies and the elderly will find blood oozing out of their ears and will experience horrible headaches that last for days.

Pligger: Genetic crossbreeds that were created by overly full of themselves scientists in a secret lab that should be bombed out of existence. They are a horrible cross between pig, lion and tiger. They have the snout and forelegs of a pig, the mane and body of a lion, and stripes and back legs of a tiger. They were made to be front line soldiers in the upcoming Cross dimensional Wars. They were found to be uncontrollable and all know specimens have been destroyed. Of course there is always the chance they weren't all found.

Blockmon: Ancient Aztec guardians that were used to secure temples and royal palaces. They were composed of large blocks of stone stacked on top of each other. They bore the crude outline of a human but were 15 times the size of an average adult male. They were normally armed with large stone spears but they were not necessary as they were more than capable of simply stomping on any trespasser.

Downder: Specialized term for thunder that is produced while a storm is winding down. It tends to be less severe and is no longer capable of scaring small children and dogs.