His name is Geoffrey Holder...

...and because of him, Mr. Snarky feels kind of inadequate today. No, that's not quite the right word. An underachiever? Getting closer. Let me explain and you'll get the idea. Last night, when Mrs. Snarky went to the store, I asked her to get me some 7up. Not a regular request for me, in fact I don't think I've had one for a few years, but whatever. I was in the mood. When she came back, the old Uncola commercial popped into my head. Some of my readers will be old enough to remember this I think. 

"And they paid me to do this! HA HA HA HA!"

Mr. Snarky has an interesting skill... well, it's interesting to me anyway. I am very good at voice recognition. I shall tell a little story to illustrate. In my 20's, I was often invited to bachelor parties. Sometimes, believe it or not, those parties had strippers. At one such party, my friend and I were sitting in the living room at the apartment it was held in, while the stripper was talking to her escort out of sight in the kitchen. I heard her voice and said to my friend sitting next to me, "That's the same stripper from Jimmy's party two years ago." He told me I was full of it. It couldn't be. When she walked into the living room my friend's jaw dropped. Actually, so did mine because I was amazed at my previously undiscovered skill. Now you may not believe me, or perhaps have determined in your mind that the stripper must have had a distinct voice or speech impediment or something of that nature, but I assure you, it is true, and she had a normal voice with no accent other than the Chicago nasal twang that nearly everyone in the apartment had. I've proven my skill in this many times to Mrs. Snarky who, while slightly impressed by it, does not believe as I do, that one day, this talent will bring me untold riches. I just haven't figured out how it will happen but... IT WILL HAPPEN!!! 

As the Uncola guy's voice went ringing through my head, it quickly occurred to me that this was the same voice as the narrator in...

Long video I know, but skip to around 4:00 and listen to that voice

Obviously the same guy when you hear them one after the other, but remember, the two videos are 30 years apart or so. Being of the Google generation, I had to look it up and prove myself correct, which I was. I then went to his IMDB  page... I'm Geoffrey Holder and look at all the shit I've done. and his Wikipedia entry What have you done in YOUR life? If you don't want to click, here is the start of his Wikipedia page: Geoffrey Richard Holder (born 1 August 1930) is a Trinidadian actor, choreographer, director, dancer, painter,costume designer, singer and voice-over artist.  They forgot to add author to that list. Some of you might be familiar with the man as a contestant on Celebrity apprentice last year, but Mr. Snarky doesn't watch that show. His eyes prefer not to look at Donald Trump, and watching that show would make his goal of never looking at "The Donald" again... impossible/unreachable. Mr. Snarky prefers reachable goals. But Mr. Holder (his middle name is Richard... do you think anyone ever called him Dick Holder? Just wondering) has made Mr. Snarky's simple goals seem... well... just that. Simple. He holds 2 Tony awards, ran his own dance troupe, studied art at the Guggenheim, was a renowned choreographer and has authored 2 books. And what does Mr. Snarky know of him? Yeah... he did a television commercial in the 70's and a voice over for a remake of a Roald Dahl kids book turned movie. Well, what have you done in your life Mr. Snarky, you might ask? Thanks. Yeah. I've written a kids book (not published) a novel (not published) and have been planning a silly little e-book for around a year. I write a blog now and then, I watch Dexter and Supernatural, a lot of sports and play Wii sports ping pong. 

I really hate that Lucia. Bitch beats me every time!

So thanks a lot "Dick Holder." You have made me feel a little worthless today. Also made me feel like I have a ton of work to do and that maybe I should stop screwing around all the time and get to work. Yeah. That's what I'll do. Right after I get done beating Lucia at a game of Ping Pong.

Happy New Year!! 

With Love,

Mr. Snarky

Excitement is in the air. Can you feel it?

I know I can. While skimming through the TV listings... which now takes around ten minutes to discover there is nothing on as opposed to when I was a kid when it took around two minutes to actually turn on each of the five or six channels we had available... I discovered that tonight, the Miss Universe pageant is on. Now THERE is some amazing television. What?? You aren't watching? You can even watch it in Espanol on telemundo or something like that, only it's called Miss Universo. Those Spanish speakers are so clever with all their code words that nobody understands, don't you think? As usual, I digress. I'm very good at that I think. It's quite possible that I could be the worlds number 1 digresser. Or is it digressor? The spell check on this thing doesn't like either spelling, but it doesn't like Espanol either and I'm sure that's a word. Doesn't matter, I'm using it. I'm not gonna let blogger tell me what's a word and what ain't. Is ain't actually a word? According to this it is, but not according to my 4th grade English teacher. Wait, where was I? Oh yeah. Digressing. That's right.

My 4th grade English teacher looked nothing like this.

Anyway, the beauty pageant. I know I'm dating myself, which would be really cool if I was a hot blonde, (don't you hate when you think something is funny and then you say it, or in this case type it, and then it's just lame?) but I remember when one of the television events of the year was the Miss America pageant. Just about everyone my age watched it. It ranked right up there with the annual showing of The Wizard of Oz, Charlie Brown Christmas, and the Muscular Dystrophy telethon with Jerry Lewis. (Okay, now I'm REALLY not listening to this spell checker because it doesn't know the word Dystrophy and when I right clicked it, the only suggestion was "Astrophysics." Really?!?) To those of you 25 and under, it must sound like we lived a boring life, but it really was fun to get together with friends once a year to watch the Wizard of Oz. We didn't have VCRs or cable TV, and the kids shows available were on for about half an hour after school 1 day a week (remember the ABC after school specials?) Saturday morning cartoons, or on PBS, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, and the Electric Company, starring Rita Moreno, the amazing Spider-man and Mr. Morgan Freeman.

I really hope my movie career takes off.
This bites!

Yes, THAT Morgan Freeman. That was just about all the kids programming for the entire week. So when Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was coming on on a night in December, every kid knew, and every kid got to watch, because "it's only once a year" and if you missed it, you were S.O.L.

And so it went with Miss America. It was corny. The speeches about curing hunger and bringing about world peace were lame. But, for two or three hours, every middle aged man in America could watch a bunch of hot young ladies prance around in evening dresses and then in swimsuits, and he was able to act like it really mattered to him if Miss Illinois was going to make it into the top five. This crap was important! Again to you 25 and under folks, as you probably know, we also didn't have internet, Cinemax after hours, or the Victoria's Secret catalogue, among other things. The pageant was about as close to porn as many of the men of my father's generation got for many years... although, I did once find a Playboy in the bottom drawer of a cabinet in my bathroom when I was around 12. I'm guessing my Dad wanted to read the Jimmy Carter interview in it, but I could be mistaken.

Hmm, Jimmy Carter, or Sex in Cinema? What should I read?

Thinking back, my favorite part of Miss America was when they were down to two finalists and they would say that the first runner up would get to take over if the winner was unable to fulfill her duties as Miss America. What an awesome amount of responsibility it must have been for both of them! They would announce the winner and you just knew the first runner up was plotting ways to knock the crown off the winner's head. They would both hug and cry, moms at home would watch and cry over how beautiful the whole thing was and hope that their daughter would one day rise to such heights, and the dads would cry because they had to go back to watching news, or nature shows on PBS. Porn night was over.

I hope my mascara isn't... oh crap. It is.

Maybe it was a little boring, but we didn't know better. Sometimes, boring and naive is okay, don't you think?  Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays from the Snarky Family!

mele kalikimaka!

PS. Sorry Mr. Snarky is such a bad liar. This is only my second post since February 29th. I'm not gonna lie and tell you I'll write more soon, but I hope I get the urge a lot more.

PPS. After last week's awfulness, be sure and tell the ones you love how much they mean to you... and not just for the next few weeks. Do it all the time. It just feels good. I love you guys. Snarky.... OUT.

Ode to Mrs. Snarky

Well, last time I posted, it was around Valentine's day. As I said at the time, Mrs. Snarky wrote a lovely, wonderful tribute to our love which was all kindsa mushy and stuff. In just a few hours, we will begin celebrating our 8th year of marriage. As you may have gathered by reading our posts, we are a bit on the goofy side. We decided it would be a good idea to get married on "Leap day", not in order to only have to celebrate our anniversary every four years, but so that every 4 years we would have an extra special day. You see, we still celebrate on non-leap years, we just get to choose whether it is March 1st or February 28th. Then, when there is a February 29th, we do something a little more special. We kind of like it. So Happy 2nd anniversary Mrs. Snarky. I love you!

Now, I don't mush exactly the same way she does. Usually, it takes me a having a couple of beers to really let out my emotions. I don't drink often, but when I do, I get all happy-squishy-gooey-mushy. It's kind of gross actually. Mrs. S. loves on me all the time. I LOVE her all the time, I'm just not as good at showing it as her. Typical male, right? Anyway, this is my attempt at being sweet and snarky at the same time. I hope it's not too disgusting.

This one's for you honey-bunny/love-muffin/sugar-sweetie-poops.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

One-one thousand!

Two-one thousand!!

Three-one thousand!!!

Hmmm, that one's already been done before. How about this?

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:

...

Nahhh. That's not me either. Okay, this one is from the heart. Truly.

To my lover, my wife and best friend:

One fine day

now eight years ago,

you gave me your hand

and the man called me YO.

I said my name's John

now please marry us

'twas done in our front room

with nary a fuss.

We went on with our lives

as if nothing had changed

for we both knew the other

was a little deranged.

We've gone through rough times

as the money got tight

but we pushed our way through

with hardly a fight.

Through good times and bad

through the ups and the downs

we've laughed all the way

like a couple of clowns.

Now your days are all filled

watching our grandchildren's shows

Oomi Zoomi and Dora

and that really blows.

But you've managed to show them

how much they are loved

like a g'amma from heaven

sent down from above.

and you gave me the thing

I was longing to take

you gave me your heart

which I never shall break.

I know that forever

for the rest of my life

I'm the luckiest man

with the most bestest wife.

Thank you for being mine. I'm very happily yours.

And thanks to all who read this. I'll try to get back to Snarkiness next time. I promise. Love to all!

Mr. Snarky.

a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

This is Mr. Snarky's brain lately. It seems to get this way every year between the Super Bowl and March Madness. I do enjoy a little NHL and NBA, but I'm mostly a fan of those sports during the playoffs. Good news though; pitchers and catchers report this week for spring training, so Baseball is not that far away. Okay, so this blog is not really about sports, and in fact I have done very little sports writing on it... but for some reason, watching my favorite sports seems to get my brain moving. Not that you care about any of that anyway. So there's that.

Here's this: Can someone send me a check for a hundred thou or so because I know if I didn't have to go to work, I'd find funny stuff to video or blog about all the time, even in February.

Mrs. Snarky wrote a lovey dovey post on her other blog, (in actuality, "The Snarky Couple" is her other blog... while this is her real blog) and it was really amazing and sweet. So of course, I'll do no such thing here other than this... "Hey Mrs. Snarky!!! You're pretty badass. Happy Valentines day and stuff. Love ya's!" So there's that.

Here's this: Was it just me, or are the 2012 Giants one of the worst teams to ever win a Super Bowl?

It's funny how there are times when blog posts pop into my head no problem and then I go home and write them in like 15 minutes, and then there are times like now when I seem to be writing forever and nothing interesting comes out. I wish there was a creativity button I could just push and the stuff would start flowing. But there isn't. So there's that.

Here's this: Was it just me, or were the Super Bowl commercials really lame this year?

I have intentionally stayed away from politics on this site for a myriad of reasons and will continue to do so. Anyway, there are plenty of places to look for political opinions on the internet, so why would I bother doing it here? The only thing I'm going to say is that both sides need to chill out. Seriously. There's far too much hatred going on over a bunch of bullshit. Just look at the comments on Facebook or on any of the news sites after a major, or even a minor news event. I'm tired of it. So there's that.

Here's this: I'm tired in general.

Is anyone else out there completely sick of all the reality shows on tv? The other day, one of my kids came in the living room, turned on the tube and switched to MTV Real Life. The subject was "Addicted to Texting" or something like that. They followed a 20 something married girl, and a 15 year old who both spend most of their waking hours sending and receiving text messages. Now there's something to waste your time watching, right? I only stayed in the room for 10 minutes or so, but two quotes still ring in my head. First, the married girl saying, "I hope the day never comes when he tells me I have to choose between him, or my phone." Well sweetheart, if you were my wife, and you were texting so many guys that I felt the need to say that, I'd already be gone and you and your phone can be together. Oh, and I'd be taking the phone records into court when we divorced so I would get custody of the kid. The 15 year old told her mom, "It's my life! You can't tell me what to do!" The mom patiently tried to help her to spend a little less time texting. The girl said she texts 13 or 14 thousand times a month. Well mom, the time for being patient is OVER! Here's what you do. You take the phone from her hand, or wait till she's sleeping if you want, then you can drop it in the toilet, hit it with a hammer, throw it against the wall, put it under your tire and back up, throw it over Niagra Falls... the possibilities are endless. However, I wouldn't recommend you shoot it and post it on her Facebook wall... although you might get a hit youtube video if you do. So there's that.

Hope you all get some excellent Valentine's Day action!

Love, Mr. Snarky

Invading South America... and ...The "Big Game"

South America, YOU ARE MINE!!! Last week, I lamented the fact that South America was the least Snarky continent on the planet. Readers were getting their Snark on from all over the globe.... just not there. Well, thanks to some help from a loyal reader, I have brought Snarkiness to one of the lands to the south, (does the continent have a good nickname? Australia and the rest of Oceania is down under, Africa is the dark continent, what the heck is South America?) and the entirety of the continent shall soon fall under my spell. In all 12 countries of South America, people will be learning to say "Snarky" in Spanish and Portuguese and asking each other questions like, "Why do we say a pair of underwear?" Then their friend will say, "Yeah, really. But a bra... is just one. Es mui loco," or some such Spanish stuff. Seriously though, why do we say I'm going to put on some shorts and a t-shirt, and then come back with just one of each? I've never understood that. But if you said, "I'm putting on a short and some t-shirts, people would look at you as if you really were mui loco. Anyway, I digress. To the person in the country of Chile... I salute you for your bravery. To the rest of the continent, c'mon! Check it out! And to Collie, as promised, a free lifetime subscription to the Snarky Couple and my undying gratitude for getting things started down there.

Now, on to part 2. The Big Game. The Snarky Couple is not affiliated with the NFL or any of its franchises and therefore cannot use the phrase Super Bowl without the expressed, written consent of the National Football League. Except for in the preceding sentence. Yeah.

Every year at this time, I get tired of people being unable to use Super Bowl (oops) in their advertising unless they are one of the official sponsors. Joe's bar and grill has to say "Big Game Party." That is until the elephants, tigers and lions in the jungles of Africa sue for the exclusive rights to be called "Big Game" and then the NFL will come up with some other phrase that is acceptable such as, "The Extremely Monumental Annual American Football Classic" or some such nonsense. I'm seriously tired of it. But if I were an ad exec, here's what I'd do. I'd cheat. I'll show you what I mean. Here is my "Screw the NFL" TV and Radio ad campaign.

1. Chunky Soup: A couple is chatting and all of a sudden the man looks at his watch and says, "It's time for the big game honey. I think this one is going to be Super." The wife immediately says, "Bowl of Chunky Soup dear?"





2. Great Clips: Announcer: This week and this week only we are offering our incredible "Super Bowl-Cut" for just 9.95!"

3. Target: A little girl is walking around trying to bounce her ball and it just isn't bouncing very high. She walks up to her dad and says,"Can I get a new Super Ball Sunday Daddy?" Announcer: "For all your Super Ball needs, and much much more, get to Target."

4. Beef: A woman is standing on the porch of her farm house ringing a bell. All the farm hands come running in to the kitchen. She is serving steak. Announcer: When you're ringing your supper bell Sunday, be sure they leave it all out on the field. Beef, it's what's for dinner.

5. Tupperware: Announcer: "Kids. They're just plain messy. But after years of development, tupperware has finally come up with a mess free way for your kids to eat cereal. We call it "The Sipper Bowl"

and finally...

6. FOX network: Announcer: "You've seen him appear as a comedian, on game shows, and on the Tonight Show. Now, comedian Soupy Sales takes on his biggest challenge ever. On February 1st, Mr. Sales heads to the lanes. Don't miss "Soupy Bowls Sunday!"

It probably would be his greatest challenge ever since Soupy is deceased, but Whoopi Bowls Sunday just didn't work.

Hope everyone has a Happy Big Game Day!

Love, Mr. Snarky

Why I Love Post-Apocalyptic Shows but Could Never Survive the Post-Apocalyptic Era

       I've always had a thing about post-apocalyptic shows.  Books as well, as I'm pretty sure this whole fascination started with Stephen King's "The Stand."  Not the unabridged version, mind you.  That one just grosses me out.

I watch "The Day After Tomorrow" at least twice a year.  I'm on pins and needles waiting for "The Walking Dead" to hurry up and add more episodes.  I've made my way through the television shows "Jericho," "Jeremiah," "Survivors," along with "Lost" which lets face it, is really along the lines of post-apocalyptic.

There is just something about going up against the odds with a group of people and having to survive something completely unthinkable.

I do have say though, I could seriously NEVER ever ever EVER survive during a post-apocalypse.  Seriously.  I'm too nice.  Haven't eaten for days?   Here, take my food.  No place to sleep?  Well, gosh, take my weather beaten refrigerator box.

I REALLY wouldn't make it through a ZOMBIE apocalypse.  "Oh Hi Zombie.... sure, eat my brains!"

What about an apocalypse that is filled with Vampires?  Oh hell no.  I am NOT letting "Twilight" and "The Vampire Diaries" fool me.  Vampires are bad-mmmm-kay?  Not that Zombies aren't bad.... they are.  But I'm sure I could outrun one.  If a Vampire attacked me and bit my neck.... I'd want it to finish the job.  Drain me dry because NO WAY do I ever want to BE a vampire!  Come on.... vegetarian vampires?  Whatever.  Not true.   I'd be WAY pissed off if I were turned.  Live for hundreds of years?  On BLOOD???  Ummmm, EW!  I like my steak WELL done.  There is no way I could drink blood to survive or keep myself from mummifying.  That is what happens you know.  If a vampire doesn't drink blood.... she just gets REAL ugly and wrinkled and can't move because her body becomes mummified.

Another reason NOT to become a vampire for me...  I'm too old!!!  If I were in my 20's and in good shape I MIGHT go along with the idea of surviving hundreds of years as a vampire.  But seriously, I'm WAY too out of shape.

Aside from vampires and zombies... if I survived the apocalypse I'd be down right angry.  No hot water??  No electricity????  No FACEBOOK???  No VIDEO GAMES???  Ahh, come on!!!!

Gotta run.  Need to stock up on water, vitamins, pain killers, anti-biotics, dried food, blankets, battery operated televisions, laptops, water heaters, washers, dryers.... you know, the basics.

                                                                                             Mrs. Snarky

There's nothing worse than....

... a dead battery. Huh? A commercial I saw the other day told me that. Seriously? NOTHING WORSE?!? You've got to be kidding me. I could probably think of {TEN THOUSAND} things that are worse than a dead battery. Cancer for instance. That's worse. That's WAY worse. Maybe if they said, " There's nothing worse than a dead battery when you're on the south side of Chicago at 3 am, drunk as hell, carrying 22 grand that was closer to 30 grand a few hours earlier and you were supposed to have given the whole 30 to your "Uncle Guido", who is rumored to have dumped somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 bodies in a swamp out in the western suburbs over the last seven years. True, there probably is nothing worse than that, as I can tell you from experience. Which is why I moved halfway across the country and am now disguised as Mr. Snarky. But that's a tale for another time.

Anyway. Due to the fact that I haven't slept much lately (mostly due to bad dreams about Uncle Guido) and because I don't really feel like it, I am absolutely not going to try to come up with those 10,000 things that are worse. Actually, it would be 9,998 now with the whole cancer and Uncle Guido thing. No, I'm not doing that. Instead I give you my TOP FIVE THINGS NOT INVOLVING DEATH THAT ARE ALL IN THEIR OWN RIGHT MUCH WORSE THAN HAVING A DEAD BATTERY. Now, you might say that having a dead battery involves death... you know, the damn battery, and therefore the car is dead. I'd tell you to shut up if you said that. Seriously. Shut up. Thanks.

5. The New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, Boston Celtics, Detroit Red Wings, and Notre Dame Fightin' Irish Football all win championships in the same year... AND Tiger Woods wins the Grand Slam in Golf. For my friends across the pond, which is kind of a dumb saying if you want to know the truth, because, really, who are we kidding, it's a damn ocean, not a pond... umm yeah, Manchester United takes the Premier League. That would ALL suck as far as Mr and Mrs. Snarky are concerned. She probably would only be pissed about the Yankees, but then she'd be very empathetic for me, so what more can I ask for. Sorry if you're a fan of one or more of these teams. Really... I AM SORRY.

4. Internet outages. Damn I hate those.

3. While you are exploring a cave in Mexico, the owners of the land decide to start strip mining and cover up the entrance. You are trapped for 12 days, subsisting on spiders, ticks, and rats and drinking your own... {no forget that part...} drinking from a small underground pond with water that tastes like a mixture of oil and mud, only to discover that if you had continued around the pond for about half a mile rather than drink the foul water, the back end of the cave opened into Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina AND if you had done this on the 2nd day, you would have been there just in time for his "Birthday Bash" AND you would have met your future wife, who instead has hooked up with your arch enemy from high school who was the quarterback and who seemed to always wind up going out with the girl you liked who said, and I quote, "He's a really nice guy, but..." A little unrealistic? Maybe. But it truly would suck.

2. Falling off a third story balcony and being impaled on a fence post. Through the rectum. Ouch.

1. You've died and gone to hell. I know, I know, I said there was no death involved. I lied. Sue me. Anyway, it's my damn blog and I'll write what I want. Maybe you were dead before I started writing. Did you ever even think of that? Huh? Okay. Glad that's settled. So this hell we are talking about, it's not that whole fire and brimstone hell that people usually envision. No, this is Dante's Inferno hell, 7 levels or whatever, because nobody has ever actually read that, have they? {Mrs. Snarky just informed me that she HAS read Dante's Inferno} In your... well, who am I kidding, let me start over... In MY personal hell, I am living in a single wide in an area like Seattle, only colder, and wetter. 24-7, 365. The sun NEVER shines. I am married to a lovely woman who is 4 foot 3 and 476 pounds. She has not gotten out of bed in over 300 years. We have 12 kids. All in diapers. We have 15 cats. 1 litterbox. (I've told you about my gag reflex, right? I don't mind cats, but...) We have a television and a stereo. They each get two channels. The TV has Disney and Nickelodeon, but SpongeBob has been cancelled. The stereo actually gets its feed from Sirius Satellite, which sounds okay until I find out that my choice of stations are "Conway Twitty and Friends", or "All Eminem, All the Time." I live next door to the playboy mansion, only all the walls are glass and it is walled off more securely than Guantanamo. The only food I can ever seem to scrape up are beets, bread and butter pickles and sardines.

So now, I would like 2 things from you, my readers. First, I pose you all the same question: What is worse than a dead battery. I would love some comments. Short and sweet like # 2 or 4, or long winded like 1, 3 and 5.

2nd, and maybe I wasn't clear enough about this the first time I asked...

I WANT SOUTH AMERICA!!!!

Of all the hits I get on this thing, one of you must know someone in South America. Please email them or facebook message them the following and I will love you forever if they do it:

Dear (insert name here), could you do me a favor? I'm trying to win a contest. Just click on this link http://thesnarkycouple.blogspot.com/ and I win! Then, if you comment on the blog that you got someone from whatever country they live in to click it, you really will win. What will I win you ask... that's easy. A free lifetime subscription t the Snarky Couple AND my undying gratitude. Isn't that great?

Love and hope and peace and harmony,

Mr. Snarky