Tag: New York City

One Lovely Blog Award! Thanks! Just What the Doctor Ordered

One Lovely Blog Award. Cheers george-b!

I was very chuffed to be nominated for this award by george-b  over at euzicasa yesterday! Cheers mate, it was just what I needed to get me started this week!

I had a friend around yesterday who was checking on whether the rumours of my still being alive were true and that the surgeons did indeed find the presence of a heart in my chest.

One cup of tea and coffee later, he looked at me closely and said, “I’m wearing you out. I’ll be going now, don’t forget to call if you need anything.” I did feel a bit tired.

I decided that I’d write something about 9/11 and how it had impacted on me, a ‘yank’ living abroad, and I couldn’t get past two paragraphs.

I decided that another coffee was in order and after making it, I started from scratch and still could not get much further than three paragraphs.

Three very short paragraphs.

It then dawned on me that perhaps I had exhausted my meagre intellectual pool on my social visit. I jumped at this excuse and decided to give my brain a rest and have a long soaking bath instead.

It was after getting out of the bath that I got george-b’s comment informing my that he’d put my name up for the ‘One Lovely Blog Award’ and in case you missed his blog post here’s a link to it: One Lovely Blog Award – second time around is sweeter.

I decided to write on this new development, but,  I was still not getting around the ‘three paragraph’ stonewall. I watched Tombstone, the vastly entertaining Wyatt Earp film by Kurt Russell and co. My brain was so tired that, if threatened, I could not have written the most abbreviated shopping list in the world.

It was only after sleeping for well over 12 hours, that my mind has recovered from it’s hour long visit from yesterday.

So! The One Lovely Blog Award is another of those ‘feel good’ awards that helps the the blogging community identify itself and lets the same community learn a bit more about the folks who populate it. It’s a bit of fun, a bit ‘self indulgent’ (But honestly, isn’t that what blogging really is? Our creative self indulgences in print?) and a good natured way for blogs of all disciplines to shine a bit. *Whew! That was a long paragraph!*

There are only 3 rules connected with this award, which is not bad at all in the world of blogging awards, and pretty simple.

1. Give credit to the awesome person who nominated you. 

2.  Describe 7 things about yourself:

1. I have just been realised from hospital after emergency open heart by-pass surgery.

2. I am single again after almost 27 years of marriage.

3. I am not in a hurry to have any ‘deep and meaningful’ relationships with anyone at the moment.

4. I am in the process of ‘re-discovering’ myself.

5. I have worked as a professional actor.

6. I have always hated the way my recorded voice sounds.

7. I am completely addicted to real coffee.

3. Nominate 15 other bloggers:

1. Tim The Film Guy 

2. leOpard13

3. Deep Rem Rum

4. Marked Movies

5. Noah’s Ark 13

6. Christine Friesenhahn

7. Daphne Probst

8. Fortyteen Candles

9. oatmeal&art 

10. jennifermdarling

11. Terry Malloy’s Pigeon Coop 

12. Cinema Schminema

13. Cinema Train

14. Out of Fal

15. My Far Away Places

And that, as they say, is that. I can only apologise in advance to those  who did not ‘make’ the list. I follow so many wonderful blogs that I have to use a sort of ‘shorthand’ lottery. If you were missed, it doesn’t mean that you are forgotten.

Thanks again for the award!

12/09/2012

Related articles

Toe-besity? Plastic Surgery for Fat Tootsies. What the Fudge??

Family toes
Family toes (Photo credit: dospaz)

Looking out for the weird and outlandish on the net and…What? You don’t do that? Well, I do, okay? And the latest thing I’ve discovered is the new trend in plastic surgery. It appears that American’s have discovered the one part of the body that, up to now, has been safe from the surgeon’s scalpel.

According to Dr. Oliver Zong, a New York based Plastic Surgeon, ‘toe slimming’ operations are on the increase. He admits he was a bit taken aback when people starting asking for plastic surgery on their toes.

“When people first started asking, I said ‘What?’ We were mostly doing toe shortenings in the beginning.” Dr Zong has been performing  toe re-shaping procedures for people who neurotically feel embarrassment over the width of their  toes. This new trend has been called “toe-besity.”

Not all plastic surgeons are willing to perform the procedure or even willing to contemplate it. Some have told horror stories of women who want their little toes surgically removed so they can wear a smaller shoe size.

Did I forget to mention that this new trend has been started by women.

That’s right. Women have now gotten so paranoid about their entire body that they are resorting to plastic surgery to remould themselves into a complete package of perfection. I don’t get this. I really don’t.

I know that culturally the focus has been on people looking ever younger, trimmer, fitter, prettier. The big lie is that we can all reach this pinnacle of perfection with the help of a surgeon’s knife. How stupid can people be?

We know that pictures in magazines are airbrushed within an inch of their 2D life. Advertising, the modelling industry and Hollywood perpetuates the myth of the perfect person. Capped teeth, hair implants, tummy tucks and bottom lifts all help to make folks look more stream-lined and assembly-lined.

But when folks start worrying about their toes? I think we all need to step back a bit and really look at each other with a bit of clarity.

I’ll use Hollywood as a good example. Not the Hollywood of today with it’s new homogeneous stars who are practically interchangeable like so many Lego’s.

I’m talking about the stars of yesteryear. The Gary Cooper‘s, Clark Gable‘s and Errol Flynn‘s. The Katherine Hepburn’s, Bette Davis‘s and Grace Kelly‘s. These stars did not look perfect. It was their imperfections that made them special, that made them shine.

Gable’s ears were too big, Davis had bulgy eyes and Grace Kelly was a little small upstairs. But none of that mattered at all. It was their abilities and persona’s that made them beautiful. Perfection has never been obtainable for the average person or the famous one.

Perfection is, to a degree, like beauty. It is in the eye of the beholder. In the search for perfection the beholder is the person seeking to be perfect. Their narcissistic and inward vision is skewed and terrible. They are willing to put their bodies through pain and possible infection and even death in their ridiculous pursuit.

I am sitting here writing this and wondering whatever will be next. Will tongue surgery be next? Are there people out there that are so neurotic that if they believe their tongues are too fat or ugly will  have them surgically altered?

I am appalled at the idea that women have become so superficial. I am also quite sad that so many folks believe the lie of perfection.

English: Plastic Surgeon Vishal Kapoor, MD per...
English: Plastic Surgeon Vishal Kapoor, MD performing liposuction surgery on female patient using the power assisted liposuction technique. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Related articles
%d bloggers like this: