TV-"The Office" and "Pushing Up Daisies" Review; Guest Writer Defrags Her Garage

We've got some TV reviews on two new shows this season.

First, the 40 year old virgin stars in a quirky comedy known as "The Office". And what's "Pushing Up Daisies" all about?

Guest writer Michelle entertains us with tales of a garage in need of defragging.

Since when is our congress authorized to excoriate citizens for having an opinion?

The Democrats chose a formidable enemy this time but click in because while I love the guy I think Rush Limbaugh could end up silenced under Hillary's wrath.

Under "Weekly Whispers" on the sidebar.

Web Site Worth the Visit Bratwurst... ....everything you need to know.... CLICK HERE

NBC’s “The Office”

All in the interest of fair and balanced, I tuned into NBC’s “The Office” on Thursday night, 10/4/07. This show normally airs on Thursday nights in the 9 pm time slot. I figure it’s time to get away from the reality shows. Only, in its own way, “The Office” IS a reality show. Read on.

NBC’s web site for the show.

Steve Carell, known far and wide as either a 40-year-old-virgin or even God Almighty Himself, is the star of this series. Carell’s comedic and acting skills are capable enough. In fact, I think Carell is the force carrying this show along.

Understand that I tuned into this show not knowing a thing about it. All shows have story lines and characters that, upon the initial viewing, must be ascertained and understood by the new viewer.



I think I almost have it. Bear with me as I intend to write this review with assumptions I made in the watching. The reality might be different but this is an “on the fly” review.

Dunder Mifflin Infinity is, as I deduce, an office supply company. The characters who work in the Scranton, Penna. Branch of DMI are a bit kooky but I caution. The whole concept of this series is to create a comedic look at offices across the land, the DMI office serving up a “typical” cast of office characters. Of course this series tends to be satirical, using absurdity, as Rush Limbaugh would say, to make the point.

As would be expected, several of the office characters are involved in deep and blistering romances. Some are in the throes of breaking up. Some are just getting started. Much the same as in offices across the fruited plains.

The characters in this show do something very odd and I don’t know why. They tend to look into the camera as if talking to it, kind of like those vignettes in reality shows when one contender or another sits and has a chat with nobody but a camera, which we are to assume represents the viewing audience.

The effect is to make this series appear to be like some sort of office reality show. Steve Carell’s character does this very well.

In the episode I viewed, we had cats named “Garbage”, gift baskets as come-back bribes and Onstar telling drivers to head directly into the lake.

It’s a quirky series but if I were to be honest, I’ll not watch it again.

“The Office” is a show that seems to garner a cult type of audience. This show has been on for at least a year and judging by the comments on its NBC web site, the audience is devoted to this goofy tale of an office deep in the coal country of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Below, a short video of the drive into a lake.



ABC’s “Pushing Daisies”



So okay, THIS series is brand new this season so it’s not like I was intruding in on a private joke or anything.

Whew. Folks, this series has one very complicated story line. Even now, with time to digest and ruminate on the episode I watched on the evening of Wednesday, 10/3/07, there’s still caveats and limits to Ned’s power that confuse me. I’m not going to research the answers either. I’ll be brave and write my confusion for all the world to mock.

ABC’s web site for “Pushing Daisies” HERE.

Show Cast
Ned-Lee Pace
Anna Friel-Chuck
Olive-Kristin Chenoweth
Chi McBride-Emerson
Ellen Green-Vivian Charles
Swoozie Kurtz-Lily Charles

Ned is the show’s protagonist and he’s the one able to bring people back from the dead. Ned’s powers, however, are limited with substantial caveats attached to his talent.

Ned discovered his “gift” as a child when his beloved dog was hit by a truck. He touched his dead dog in grief and the dog came back to life. Later that same day his mother died from a sudden eruption of a brain aneurysm. Ned touched his mother and brought her back to life.

Meanwhile, what with dogs and Moms dying, Ned chanced to see a neighbor, one “Chuck” Charles, playing with her father. Somehow, and it’s not at all clear to me, Ned’s act of bringing his mother back to life has the effect of causing another living thing to die. After bringing his own mother back to life Ned chanced to see his childhood sweetheart’s father die.

This is confusing to me in that Ned brought a few people back to life during this premiere show and so far as I knew no one else died in their place. Although there is also a one minute time limit and again, this minute limit was very unclear to me. Go with me here, but Ned still has that same dog as the adult he is now in the series and he did bring his childhood sweetheart Chuck, whose Dad Ned killed please remember, back to life and she will be an ongoing character in the series. It’s not clear who died in Chuck’s place or even the dog’s for that matter.



Ned has a friend who witnessed Ned’s power at bringing the dead to life. The two formed a team and their scam is for Ned to bring murder victims back to life, ask them who killed them, then “solve” the crime to collect any reward offered.

After touching the dead and bringing them back to life, ideally under that one minute timeline, Ned then touches them again and they die again. Which is why Ned cannot touch his dog or his childhood sweetheart Chuck. If he does they will die.

Got that?

Chuck Charles has two weird Aunts that will somehow figure into this ongoing series, we must suppose.

The intriguing thing about this series is going to be the love spark between Ned, who runs a restaurant serving only pies called “The Pie Hole”, and his childhood sweetheart Chuck, who has a business raising bees and giving honey to the homeless.

Because, you see, Ned cannot ever touch Chuck. If he does, she dies.

Got that?

In fact I am going to watch this show again if for nothing else to flesh out the things that confuse me. The show does have a story line. The premiere episode involved Ned’s bringing Chuck back to life and solving her murder. That story line involved a corrupt travel agent, a gold monkey disguised as a toy and an unknown murderer. The quirky Aunts got involved somehow as well.

Stay tune because we’ll check back with this series and fill in our missing blanks.



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Those Wacky TV Chefs. Includes Rachel Ray and the sexiest chef of them all.

TV News Pundits including Russert, spitting Matthews and the one I adore.

"Dancing with the Stars" of 2007, reviews, pics and videos.

American Idol 2007 and The Bachelor. One night's review with links to all the others.
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Defragging the Garage

Remember the floor refinishing? That was 2004, I believe. And guess what? A lot of the stuff we moved out of the house for that task is still in the garage. Bit by bit, I'm sorting it out into boxes.

The boxes fall into five categories. There's the box for stuff I want to keep, but either don't know where I want to keep it (yet) or the spot for it is not available. There's the box for yard sale stuff. (Oh, yes, each category may have more than one box; Yard Sale is up to number twenty-two.) The box for tools 'n' parts, because I didn't want them to all be in the next box: The box for stuff that Harry needs to look at, to see if he wants to keep it. Once he starts doing that -he's not been home - I guess we'll have another box for stuff he wants but the space isn't available, too. And last, so far, the box for stuff we need to look through together. I hear your confusion. Why do we need an "us" box? Because some things I simply can't make a decision about on my own. The Nintendo, for instance. It hasn't been hooked up since before the floor job, but . . . I can't quite bring myself to just toss it into the Yard Sale box alone. Make sense?



Perhaps I'm being a bit more ruthless than I should, but after finding the fortieth thing we saved "in case we need it some day" I realized that we don't need to do that anymore. Why? Because all those saved items are now either rusted, ruined, or have been replaced because we couldn't find them when we did need them.

I'm also finding lots of surprises. Things I thought were lost forever and I've missed quickly find places in the house once they're unburied. An example? The little thingy (what are they called?) that slides along the toothpaste tube to squeeze all the toothpaste out. That thing's been gone a *long* time and we've missed it. Another was the handheld bathroom mirror. I can finally see the back of my head!

Some surprises are things I don't want to keep. Mummified dog food, for instance. Perhaps I drove the rats out too early last year. Three books originally meant for a yard sale, but now a bottle of shampoo has leaked on them. Ever tried to wash spilled soap out of something? All you get are millions of bubbles. Odd how something can be considered dirty when it's so clean.

Each bag or box is a miniature Christmas present. I never know whether I'll find something I've missed and will be excited about, or if it'll be like those long-ago gifts from my grandmother, full of new Christmas clothes I didn't want. (She did get me some really good stuff, too, but the memory of opening a box with yet . . . another . .. pair . . . of . . . socks . . . can't be forgotten.)

I've found one half-grown black widow spider, but no rodents. So far,not even any recent trace of rodents. Perhaps I'll get lucky, because having a rat erupt from a box or bag I'm opening might put me in the hospital.

I thought, when I started this process, that I was cleaning out the garage. I found out a few days ago that I'm actually defragging it. Anyone who's watched the computer defragging process will be able to relate. Among the mounds of boxes and bags, dust and cobwebs, sticks and cardboard, lurk some immovable objects. I can sort and sift all I want, around them. They will not be moved.

Like an archaeologist, I carefully remove items from around those big things. A motorcycle peeks through on the left, an old microwave cart and four-drawer chest on the right. Half a bicycle protrudes from the mess in the middle, but once that's unburied I can move it.

And as soon as I get enough cleared space, I'll start stacking my boxes back in there, so I have more room in the house to sort. Each day, some spots get better and others get worse. Overall, it feels good and I've already sent off six weeks of full garbage cans. A dump run will happen in the near future, and maybe a yard sale when I'm done.

After all, I wouldn't want those Yard Sale boxes to go to waste, and I'm certainly *not* going to save them for when I might need them.

Michelle
The Desk Drawer writer's exercise list
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