Leslie Nielsen will (Shirley) be missed!

Sadly, Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84. He had what actor Michael McKean called “one of the greatest second acts in movie history,” after stealing several scenes in the comedy blockbuster, “Airplane!”

Nielsen died yesterday at a hospital near his home in Fort Lauderdale, where he was being treated for pneumonia.
A nice tribute on the national news here in Canada.

"In a career spanning more than six decades, the Regina-born Nielsen
was an accomplished actor on stage and screen, in both dramas and comedies.... We can be grateful that his most famous performances
are preserved on film and will delight audiences for years to come."
~ Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Rest in Peace Leslie Nielsen...

Going Green & getting a Gretzky jersey!

I happened to catch this live last night on the tube - former Kelowna Rocket Jamie Benn scoring on a spectacular effort shorthanded:


Canada's football championship goes tomorrow and I say, "Go Green!" That would be throwing my support behind the Saskatchewan Roughriders against Montreal! Some sweet hands here by Weston Dressler with the 2010 CFL Play of the Year. Dressler wasn't able to play in last year's Grey Cup featuring the same teams because he'd broken his leg and sprained his ankle simultaneously October 10. He ended up watching his team's agonizing 28-27 loss to the Alouettes from the sidelines.

The Grey Cup game tomorrow is in Edmonton, while tonight two Edmonton Oilers' jerseys autographed by Wayne Gretzky will be auctioned off at the Kelowna Chiefs game! I will be your PA announcer.

Wayne Gretzky is the uncle of the Chiefs' Bobby Brown (above). Five members of Bobby's immediate family (his mother, father, grandmother,
an aunt and uncle) have all been diagnosed with one form of cancer or another. Read Bobby's story of courage here.

Other Wayne Gretzky posts you may enjoy from my blog archives:
-- Gretzky at the Olympics / My Gretzky flashback (February 14, 2010)
-- Quenching your thirst for COMEDY and GRETZKY (August 9, 2008)
-- Getting Animated with Stephanie Ciccarelli (July 15, 2010) 

The return of Friday Facebook FUN!

I introduced Friday Facebook FUN in late June and we had three more editions of it by the end of July. Four months later, it is finally back on Black Friday!

My status late last night: NNN-FL is right! Winners on US Thanksgiving: New ENglaNd, New OrleaNs & the New York Jets...DDDefeat for DDetroit, DDallas & Cincinnati...2/3 ain't bad according to Meatloaf...
 
Thursday morning link: Join us this Saturday at the Kelowna Chiefs' game. You could win one of 2 autographed Wayne Gretzky jerseys!
Hockey fundraiser for cancer.
 
Wednesday morning quote via Karen Commins: "Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
Tuesday morning status: workin' on my PhD...Pizza Hut delivery...
 
Saturday afternoon status (November 20): College football NAMEday!
1) Marvin McNutt, Iowa Hawkeye receiver; 2) Vaingamalie Tafuna, RB
at Weber State; 3) Essray Taliaferro, RB at Marshall...

Saturday afternoon link: Yesterday was International Men's Day. Guys, did you grab your TV remote to mark the occasion? Voice talent Paul Strikwerda got his "new" TV for only $14.95 dollars! His latest blog post is all about money management. Great read! Call Off Black Friday.

DWTS = Dine With Turkey and Stuffing?!

I recorded my Buffalo Bills' segments for the upcoming "Thurman Thomas Show" late last night. Most of it got done before the "Dancing With The Stars" finale with the rest after Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough won it all! Yes, I predicted they would earlier this month on: DQ on DWTS? Also on that blog post, a nice picture of Josh Hamilton, who played for the Cincinnati Reds in 2007, but won the AL MVP award yesterday with the Texas Rangers! Lots of football players have done well on DWTS - including:
- Cincinnati's Chad Ochocinco
- Kurt Warner on the most recent edition (season 11)
- NFL Hall-of-Famer Emmitt Smith winning it all in 2006
- Warren Sapp
- NFL Hall-of-Famer Jerry Rice placed second in season two

With US Thanksgiving tomorrow + my recent fascination with Cincinnati + my great memories from radio:

Let's roll this clip:

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends!
May you DWTS! (ie. Dine With Turkey and Stuffing)

Celebrating in Cincinnati/Canada!

Canadian Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds is now a baseball MVP while the Buffalo Bills won in Cincinnati Sunday, 49-31.

Home teams barely won out on Sunday in the NFL:
8 wins for the home teams and 6 for the road warriors. Only one team, Tampa Bay, scored 21 points on the 21st as they shut out San Francisco. Little stranger to see the unique number of 19 scored by three road teams:

• Washington 19, Tennessee 16
• Seattle 19, New Orleans 34
• Detroit 19, Dallas 35

Joey Votto's numbers:

• Second in the NL in batting average at .324
• Third in homers (37) and RBIs (113) 
• Led the NL in slugging percentage (.600) 
• Led the major leagues in on-base percentage (.424)

Votto received 31 of 32 first-place MVP votes and 443 points in voting announced by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America yesterday. Yes, Christmas has come early for the Canadian kid...

Christmas Eve 2005 in Cincinnati was the setting for this weekend's "Thurman Thomas Show" Billieve Moment:

Rest in Peace, Pat Burns

Visiting teams won 9 of 11 games on Saturday night in the NHL. But the games (the NHL hit 50, 000 of them yesterday) did NOT matter as much as celebrating the life lessons the late Pat Burns taught us as an NHL coach and as someone who battled cancer courageously.

• Pat Burns taught us how to live by Scott Morrison
• The pre-game tribute to the late Pat Burns at Montreal's Bell Centre with music by the Beatles:
• Don Cherry's "Coach's Corner" starts off with a tribute to Pat Burns. Music by the Good Brothers.

C'mon Canada! Be a Hockey Power!

It is International Men's Day! Grab your TV remote!
It is also World Toilet Day - NOT really a joking matter actually...BUT play this song if you have to...

Four years ago today, Steve MacNaull wrote a very nice article for the Kelowna Daily Courier on my voiceover business. You can check out that cool print publicity via this old blog post: Thumbs Up!
 
In the NHL last night, Toronto beat New Jersey, 3-1. Montreal lost to Nashville, 3-0. Those results are better than Wednesday, when all four Canadian teams lost to US teams. Wednesday in Washington, the Buffalo Sabres lost to the Capitals, 4-2. Can't blame Ovechkin as he didn't even get a point! Maybe we should give credit to the Canadian spinning tunes for Washington? I have a great guy doing music besides me on PA for the Kelowna Chiefs. Corey Bell-Esau is his name and he is launching a recording studio so we'll be working together there too. We'll see you tonight at 7:00 pm for our home game against Princeton!

Canada's best junior hockey players just lost the Subway Super Series to Russia...
Going into this year, the Western Hockey League had won 13 of the 14 games it had played against the Russians in this series. But Russia beat the WHL all-stars in Prince George last night and Kamloops the previous night. The next WHL game on Shaw-TV? I can fill you in on that right now...cue the announcer:

For all you non-Canadians, Brandon is in Manitoba - where the band I linked to above is from as well. BUT, BTO is from Winnipeg, Manitoba - not Brandon.

That wraps up post #100 this year and #263 overall...Thank you for dropping by!

TSN's James Duthie ink & JamesDugan Inc. commercial

If you follow hockey in Canada, one of the broadcasters "in the know" is James Duthie for TSN. His impressive bio is here along with some fun facts (e.g. Chicago Blackhawks and New York Islanders fan growing up). Duthie has a popular new book out with an attention grabbing title:

Sign of a good book?

This reviewer had a hard time wrestling it away from his girlfriend.

=========================

JamesDugan Inc. is a full-service marketing, advertising and business strategy firm located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. While most of my time today will be spent voicing the December promos for Shaw-TV's WHL hockey games next month, yesterday's time in the studio revolved around several commercials for Inwood Furniture in Inwood, Iowa. I have been voicing commercials for them since early 2006 - thanks to JamesDugan Inc.!

Coaching Marvels and Milestones

Chan Gailey won his first game as the Buffalo Bills' head coach yesterday! Buffalo 14, Detroit 12.
He won 18 and lost 14 in his last head coaching gig in the NFL - with the Dallas Cowboys in 1998 and 1999. Their interim coach, Jason Garrett, got his first win yesterday! Dallas 33, New York Giants 20. Don't doubt Tom Coughlin as the Giants' coach though! He has been driven by his core values of how the game must be played with honor and inflexible on how individuals must sacrifice to become a team.
More in this FanHouse article.

So, congratulations to Thomas Chandler "Chan" Gailey, Jr.! This weekend on the "Thurman Thomas Show", we featured Marv Levy's 100th win as an NFL coach with the Bills on November 16, 1992. "Monday in Miami" is the title of this Billieve Moment:


Another coaching milestone in Buffalo saw the Sabres' Lindy Ruff coach his 1, 000th game last Wednesday. That tied him with his mentor, the late Roger Neilson, for 17th place on the NHL’s all-time list. It was Neilson who first suggested that Ruff should get into coaching when Ruff played for Neilson and was winding down his NHL playing career with those Rangers in 1990.

Taking on the Sabres tonight in Buffalo are the Vancouver Canucks. Their head coach, Alain Vigneault, won his 300th NHL game in Ottawa last Thursday. 191 have been with the Canucks - the second most in franchise history behind Marc Crawford, who has 246 wins.

Back to football: Nine days ago, 84-year-old Joe Paterno became the first major-college football coach to hit 400 wins as Penn State came back from a three-touchdown deficit to beat Northwestern University 35-21. “People ask me why I’ve stayed here so long, and you know what?” Paterno asked the fans  at Beaver Stadium after the November 6th game. “Look around, look around. Now that the celebration’s over, let’s go beat Ohio State.”
That did not happen this weekend against the Buckeyes. Penn State was up 14-10 in the second half but Ohio State scored 28 straight to hand Paterno his 133rd loss.

Finally, one odd thing about the Buffalo Bills' coaching staff.
Chan Gailey has 18 assistants and three are named George...

Football and Art collide!

The Buffalo Bills had their annual game in Toronto this past Sunday and lost another close one to Chicago, 22-19. The star of the "Thurman Thomas Show" got some nice exposure in a different way:

Oh My Guitar...gently weeps...

Here is my buddy Thurman lighting it up against the Kansas City Chiefs in a recent segment from the "Thurman Thomas Show":


There is a football artist here in Kelowna who was inspired by Dick Butkus of the Chicago Bears. Check out Bob Mueller's story here.

Oh My Gridiron! Cats playing football

Four NFL teams are named after cats. In alphabetical order:

• Carolina Panthers
• Cincinnati Bengals (on the Monday night game versus Pittsburgh)
• Detroit Lions (the Bills' next opponent)
• Jacksonville Jaguars 

Only the Jags have a half decent record at 4-4. Cincinnati is 2-5; Detroit is 2-6 despite having scoring 15 more points than they have given up; and Carolina is 1-7. Me-OUCH!

No NFL teams scored 31 points last Sunday (31st, Halloween) while two NFL teams scored 7 points on the 7th.  Dallas painfully lost their seventh of the season to Green Bay, 45-7, while the New York Giants manhandled Seattle, 41-7. Dallas plays the New York Giants next. Fortunately for football fans in Big D, the game is in the Big Apple.

=================

In the Canadian (Cat) Football League on Saturday, the BC Lions defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 23-21, to advance to the playoffs next Sunday in Saskatchewan. The CFL is an exciting brand of football!
Have a look here.

Oh My Gord!

BC Premier Gordon Campbell took our province by surprise this week announcing he is stepping down!

It's Gordie Howe Night tonight in Vancouver when the Kelowna Rockets pay a visit to play the Giants!

Kelowna's Gord Hotchkiss IS one of the most knowledgeable guys in North America when it comes to the search marketing industry. Last week, Gord's company, Enquiro, became part of Mediative, a Yellow Pages Group company. More on that on Gord's blog: Out of My Gord. Gord and his company were responsible for getting the Kelowna Rockets on the web years ago. His partner all these years has been Bill Barnes. I used to work with them both in radio. Bill has been the longtime PA voice of the Rockets. I mentioned that on a blog post last year:
A picture worth a thousand words? Thousands of calories...

I did not go trick or treating on Halloween. I spent time at Walmart scanning a bunch of family photos and music memorabilia including this one from a famous Gord:

Here is some classic Hip. It appears here that Gord is a Boston Bruins fan too...

Tina Fey mentions Dairy Queen on "Letterman!"

Tina Fey got animated talking about Sarah Palin tonight on the "Late Show with David Letterman" and the punchline involved Dairy Queen!

Some classic stumbling and bumbling by Letterman for six seconds too at the 1:25 second mark:


Tina Fey is the animated voice of Roxanne Ritchi in "Megamind" opening on Friday. The voices of Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt are also featured.

DQ on DWTS?

DisQualified on DWTS on the same night as Edmonton and Vancouver played in their 200th all-time NHL meeting? Surprisingly, Rick Fox! The retired pro basketballer was born in Toronto 41 years ago. By the way, Vancouver won the game, 4-3, and now trail the all-time series with the Oilers, 77-96-27.

I am hoping Jennifer Grey wins it all against the other four teams on "Dancing With The Stars" because she is a cancer survivor!

I had the famous Dairy Queen sign in a blog post two months ago, but snapped this today with the beautiful blue sky and mountains in Kelowna as a backdrop. The word bacon three times on the sign made John Bigl's day I think. John is a voice talent in New Hampshire who loves bacon and hockey big time! I shared the latter before on Welcome this amazing Goalie!

Tomorrow, our teams collide. Boston is riding high with Tim Thomas sizzling in the net. He was just named the NHL's Second Star for October thanks to a 6-0 record with three shutouts, a 0.50 goals-against average and a .984 save percentage. Buffalo's Ryan Miller is just 3-5-2 with a 2.71 GAA and .903 save percentage and will likely miss the game with a lower-body injury.

My top pick in my Hockey Pool is out for three months! I introduced you to Zach Parise and the rest of my team here. Today, Zach (of the New Jersey Devils) underwent exploratory arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and had a torn meniscus repaired. So I guess he'll be back when baseball spring training starts...

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for winning the World Series yesterday!

These magazine covers came out about a month apart in the summer of 2008.

Treat yourself to DWTS and the WS

My wife and I do enjoy watching "Dancing With The Stars" and tonight is episode #200! Congratulations! This is blog post #255 if you are keeping count...

I left a comment today on Dave Courvoisier's post:
Oh, The Humility (or lack of it).
It includes a lot of wise words from Bob Bergen. I started off by giving a plug to Voices.com and their Who Got The Gig component on their blog. I had noticed that Stephanie had not had an entry there since the spring BUT lo and behold she published one today and I left a comment. It has been a real busy time with my voiceover work! I am very thankful for some great clients. Check out the link and share your successes too!

World Series game 5 in Texas shortly. I did not watch any of the action yesterday but let's hope Texas wins so a game six can be played in San Francisco...