I'd Buy That for a Dollar!

Yesterday we payed tribute to those films from 2010 that made us laugh, those that made us cry and those that bored us to tears. But I feel that with all the hype surrounding these movies from the present, we've forgotten great films from the past. Films from, say, 1987. Mayor Dave Bing, I'm looking in your direction.

Mayor Bing is the mayor of Detroit, Michigan. For those of you not familiar with Detroit, it's probably because it's in Michigan. I'll give you a quick background: The city was founded by the French in 1701. They named the city after the nearby river called the "Rivière du Détroit," which translates, roughly, to "lions who will never qualify for the Super Bowl." Since that time Detroit has grown and is now known for their auto industry, Motown and, of course, Robocop.

I've mentioned Robocop on this site before, but I feel like I should state again how much of an influence it had on me as a child. I watched this movie a lot. This movie is the reason that catchphrases like "I'd buy that for a dollar!" "You have 20 seconds to comply." and "Drop it! Dead or alive, you're coming with me" have found their way into my everyday vocabulary. This movie is also the reason why I never trusted Kurtwood Smith when he was on That 70's Show. I owned the toys, I played the video game, I wanted to be Robocop when I grew up.

However, sadly, I didn't end up becoming a cop, or a robot for that matter. Though my lovely wife is probably happy about both of those failures. She would worry about me getting hurt or getting rusty. Nevertheless, Detroit should be proud that the movie Robocop was set in the Motor City. Instead, the leadership has turned a blind eye to their part man, part machine, all cop heritage.

Here's what I'm getting at. On February 7th, 2011, a man tweeted Mayor Dave Bing saying, "Philadelphia has a statue of Rocky & Robocop would kick Rocky's butt. He's a GREAT ambassador for Detroit." Mayor Bing tweeted back, "There are not any plans to erect a statue of Robocop." The mere fact that the mayor responded to this idea at all created a flurry of activity on the web.

The tweets led to a Facebook page, created by John Leonard. This pushed the idea even further. They created a website, started to raise funds, got media attention (I learned about this story from a news article that, alert reader, Brent sent in), they picked out a proposed location for the Robocop statue and they've even contacted sculptors about the best way to cast Peter Weller's iconic Detroiter.

And the rest is history. Or it will be. Their goal was to raise $50,000 to fund the building of this statue. As of the time of this post, they've raised almost $63,000. It's apparent the people of Detroit (and the United States of America) wants a statue of Robocop. Your move, Mayor Bing.

You have 25 days to comply.

Everything's Better with Bacon!

Bacon.

Admit it, the mere mention of that word made you drool just now. Now wipe off your keyboard and let's get to the meat of this post (pun absolutely intended). Bacon can be used for so many things. It's used as a breakfast food, of course, it can be found on your salad at lunch and it will make any burger at dinner better.  Bacon has even made its way into dessert when it's covered in chocolate. Yes, bacon can do anything. Heck, I bet some vegetarians still crave the yummy, crunchy, chewy baconness of bacon!

And it was actually an alert vegetarian reader named Andrea who showed me that bacon is so much more than just a food. She showed me that bacon can actually heal.

Behold, the bacon bandage!

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that this isn't real bacon. Real bacon can only heal the wounds of your soul, but these bacon-like band-aids are the perfect way to say "Hey! I got injured! And I like bacon!"

But it doesn't end there. Archie McPhee, the genius company behind the bacon bandage also offers a bunch of other bacon bounty including bacon air fresheners, bacon floss, bacon-flavored gumballs, bacon lip balm, bacon mints (don't quite know how that one works. . .oh well), bacon soap, bacon toothpaste and more!

Now some may say this is overload, but I beg to differ. In fact, I am willing to try every single bacon-related item on that site while incorporating something with bacon into every meal for an entire month. . .presuming someone else is paying for it. I've blown my months budget on a bacon suit.

I'm Not Alone - I Have Salad!

Now, I don't claim to be a historian, but, as we all know, Valentine's Day is the very special day where we celebrate the birth of Saint Valentine, who shot arrows at people until they married each other. He also gave out candy.

And since that day Valentine's Day has become a day for couples. Women get showered with flowers, chocolates, jewelry, stuffed animals and other gifts, while men get to buy these things for the women. It's a wonderful holiday.

But what about those that don't have someone on Valentine's Day? Women, in particular, seem to get very down on V-Day if they don't have someone to share it with. Not to worry, ladies! You don't need another person to enjoy Valentine's Day. You just need salad. That's right, salad!

Don't believe me? Take a look at this small sampling of pictures from a post on The Hairpin, a website created by Edith Zimmerman and Liz Colville. Edith happened to notice that, for some reason, there seems to be an abundance of pictures of women laughing while they hold bowls of salad. Apparently it's a marketing trick to get you to eat healthier. See if it works for you.

That's right. Stare off into the distance and laugh at your salad.

"Ha! Salad is C-R-A-Z-Y!"

That's right, ladies, fruit salad is just as funny as regular salad.

If you're still feeling lonely, even with your salad, add a glass of water. The combination is hilarious!

Indoors or outdoors, salad is endlessly entertaining!

You don't even need to be eating salad to enjoy your loneliness! Making salad is just as fun!

In fact, don't actually eat the salad - just laugh with your salad. After all, once you eat it, you'll be lonely again.

And believe it or not, this is only the beginning of "Women Laughing Alone with Salad." You can see the rest of the pictures from the article here.

I'd like to thank, alert reader, Ted for showing me how fun and funny salad can really be!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Lego My Best Picture!

So the Academy Award nominations are in and either the Academy has read my last few posts about the Oscars, or I'm getting more film snobbish, because I didn't have any big problems with this year's nominees. Maybe it's because they expanded the Best Picture category to 10 films so even though, let's face it, some films have no chance of actually winning, at least the general public doesn't feel like their film was snubbed.

Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick recap of the Best Picture nominees here on Slice of Fried Gold, Slice-of-Fried-Gold style! Alex Eylar, a Lego designer, being the Lego genius that he is, has recreated each one of the nominated films with pet dander. I'm kidding, of course - pet dander is reserved for the Best Live Action Short Film nominees. But here are the Best Picture nominees in Lego form.

Let's see how many you can identify without cheating and looking them up!

***WARNING: The comments will probably contain spoilers. You've been warned.***

Note: I've only seen 4/10 of these films as of the date of this post. Surprisingly, I plan on seeing almost all of the nominees this year.