Stefon's Guide to New York

I don't know how many times I have to say it - when you're writing a skit where you're having trouble staying in character, do NOT write in midgets. I say it again and again and somehow nobody listens. It almost makes me think that the writers of SNL aren't reading my blog but that's impossible.

Charades With The Stillers

Ben Stiller and his parents play "Charades" with Jimmy Fallon. I'm not going to lie, when I heard Ben Stiller's parents were coming out, I did actually imagine Jerry Stiller with Estelle Harris. Hilarious segment.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Not to criticize, but it's obvious that you have to split up the married couple in order to have fair teams. This is the first "perfect game" in the history of Late Night Charades.

Phour Aces

This blog is hardly sports-related but I'm a good cop and I don't play by the rules.

Earlier, Cliff Lee re-signed with the Phillies, giving them a pitching staff that, if not unparalleled in history, is at least rarely seen in history.

Now the race is on to find a nickname for the group now that the former "H2O" moniker (Halladay, Hamels, Oswalt) is outdated.

"R2C2" (Roy, Roy, Cole, Cliff) seems to be the early favorite though we are early on in the voting (only 5% of districts reporting, this one is a hot potato on a jumping stove during an earthquake). I like "Four Aces". Of course, it will be tweaked to "The Phour Aces", that's a rule.

Click here to view the photoshop/slogan fun (the real point of this post).

My favorite is "The Four Horsemen"

Though I feel if that were actually to take off, by law it must be tweaked to "The Phour Horsemen". That's a rule.

I find myself intellectually able to recognize the amazingness of the situation but still emotionally unexcited. Somehow in the city that is specifically designed to be pessimistic about our sports teams, I may be the most pessimistic. I thought last year was their year and the season is so long with so many ups and downs, I was so excited for the beginning of the playoffs and the team just faded away. Then they're one year older and they lose Jayson Werth and I just feel emotionally spent. I just don't want to expect a Championship until the final game is over. I'm looking at a baseball "Dream Team" and not excited. Maybe this is my superpower. Maybe I should wear a cape and a big "thumbs down" picture on my chest. Maybe I'm just in a mood.

Conan - The Comic Book Guy

Conan visits Warner Brothers' animation department to explore various super heroes and to get animated himself.

American Chopper Returns (AGAIN)

This show is constantly either cancelled or questionable to return but keeps coming back. It's the Brett Favre of shows but without all the cell phone stuff. Not that that's a criticism - I still love the show and want it to keep going.

Discovery aired a special last Monday with new interviews about the family feud and what has happened in the past year. I haven't seen it yet. It'll mostly just be a rehash of the previous season but I'll check it out anyway.

Then, this coming Monday (Dec. 6th) new episodes of the new season will air. HOLY SHORT NOTICE, BATMAN! It's hard to complain about getting what you want and getting it RIGHT NOW but I do fear that it's not enough time to emotionally prepare. I wonder if they have Paul Sr. as head of production now.

"DON'T GIVE ME THIS 'WE NEED TIME TO EDIT' 'WE NEED TIME TO ADD SOUND' BULL****! MAKE THE SHOW! YOU GOT ONE JOB, JUST GET IT DONE AND PUT IT ON THE AIR!"

Guess The Pies

It's a Thanksgiving tradition. Every year on the Thanksgiving episode of the Late Show, we visit Dave's mom and try to guess which pies she baked this year. See if you can (psychically) determine which pies she made.

Can't embed the video. Follow this link for the full episode and skip to the second segment.

Spoilers Below....

First off, way to go Dave's mom, denying global warming. Stickin' it to the man. Dave is obsessed with global warming so it features in the show often (to my annoyance).

Dave's first guess is Pumpkin. And Dave's first guess is ALWAYS pumpkin. He goes for the percentage shot first. Out of the years that Guess the Pie has been played, a Pumpkin pie was a correct answer 75% of the time. If that guess is correct, the real work begins but at least it's only one-to-go. If that guess isn't correct (as is the case this year), he's really in trouble. In these situations he does the best thing which is to just do the "RSTLNE" of the pie world (Cherry, Apple, Blueberry, Pecan).

In years in which she's feeling creative, the pie(s) can be virtually ungettable. The fact that he got the Sugar Cream pie was quite a home run (though it was huge that he got the clue he did). Looking it up, it looks like Sugar Cream is a pie that's specific to the Indiana region. It's also known as "Hoosier Sugar Cream" and "Indiana Sugar Cream". That explains why I've never heard of it.

The major pie in the "ungettable" category that sticks out in my mind was from 1997. That year she made a Coconut Butterscotch Pecan pie. WHOAH. Are you kidding me?! Another year the (much less difficult) pie was a Rhubarb pie which always reminds me that I've never had a Rhubarb pie and I'll have to find one some time.

GUESS THE PIE BONUS COVERAGE:

As the Sugar Cream is specific to Indiana, I've never had it but there are tons and tons of pies specific to my region. The most obscure one, which I have had, is Ground Cherry pie. Oh, you mean a Cherry pie? No. Oh, you mean a specific type of Cherry pie? No, GROUND CHERRY pie. It's a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition/recipe and sure enough my great-grandmother used to make them every year for Thanksgiving. (The recipe was passed down to my grandmother and then my aunt). What do ground cherries taste like? It's very much an "aquired taste" [read: kinda gross]. The closest thing I can point to is they kinda taste a little bit like tomatoes. As such it's a pie that, I think, is teetering on the edge of extinction. It doesn't even have a wikipedia page to link to. I'm not partial to it, myself, but I always think it's a shame when the old-timey traditions like that die out.