Jack Flacco

Buddy the Elf

Posted on December 2, 2015December 1, 2015 by Jack Flacco

From the North Pole, where Santa prepares for another Christmas, the elves’ manufacturing machine churns out toys 364 days in the year. That fateful day, Christmas Day, the elves receive a few hours of rest as their reward for a year well done. From there, they begin the cycle again, pressing toward another tight deadline, another joyous Christmas with all its splendor intact.

What better way to usher in another Season’s Greetings than to focus attention on Buddy (Will Ferrell), the holiday warrior in the film Elf who sees things differently than the rest of us?

Buddy isn’t a normal Santa little elf. In fact, he isn’t little at all. At the height of well over six feet, he’s got his brothers and sisters beat. His feet are too big for his bed. His appetite is even larger, consuming a vast amount of candy that would choke anyone into an early grave. And his spirit for the season is equal to that of Santa’s.

Buddy is a warrior for Christmas.

Elf's version of the Christmas spirit — Elf’s version of the Christmas spirit

However, one day Buddy realizes he’s not like the other elves. Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) tells him he’s not an elf at all. That’s when he sets out to find his true parents across the northern tundra, through the great Canadian Rockies, traveling to New York where he finds clues that lead him to his real father.

Only, his real father, Walter (James Caan), is not who he imagined him to be. As a big publishing executive, Walter’s goal with his book company is to make as much money in the industry, despite if he has to cut a few corners—or throats—to get there. The spirit of Christmas definitely does not live within Walter.

Once Buddy meets his real father, he doesn’t let his dad’s preoccupation with his job get to him. Determination sets in for him to show his dad what a wonderful time of year it is instead. Selfless acts of kindness, like staying up all night to decorate the apartment, comes easy to Buddy. Hauling a tree into the apartment and decking it from from top to bottom with homemade decorations is what Buddy’s good at.

Yet, Walter doesn’t appreciate his son’s passion for the day. He wants nothing to do with his son other than for his son to disappear from his life.

Unaffected by his dad’s rejection, Buddy carries forward to bring back the spirit of the season to shoppers everywhere. His sudden interest with a department store and the endless possibilities he has at his disposal to create a Christmas wonderland excites Buddy to pull another all-nighter. The next morning, the entire children’s department becomes a wonderful destination for parents and kids everywhere.

The story doesn’t end there. Buddy’s unwavering belief in the spirit of Christmas, and its effect on those it comes in contact, to change them, provides him the inspiration to spread cheer toward everyone, including his father.

Buddy is more than a two-dimensional character. Buddy represents someone with absolute faith in the power to move crowds into a call for action. As lighthearted as the film Elf is, the underlying message it delivers, that of tolerance and forgiveness, makes for fun moments of entertainment laced with a few lessons for those in need of a positive role model.

The film is correct in saying Buddy isn’t an elf. He’s more than an elf. He’s a character filled with hope—hope for the future, and hope for a time when the spirit of the season will flow year-round.

Get the Ranger Martin trilogy now!

What do you think of the film Elf? What do you think of Buddy’s positive attitude?

Monday Mayhem

From Utopia to Dystopia

Posted on November 30, 2015December 16, 2015 by Jack Flacco

I’ve been watching a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation lately—benefits of having a Netflix subscription. So far, I’m halfway through Season 4, and by the time you read this, I will have blown past Season 5’s premier. Having watched the series during its first run back in the late 80’s, early 90’s, I’ve come to appreciate all the hard work that went into the show. From props, makeup, set design to story, music and characters, there is a bit of everything for everyone.

First, I will have to agree with you that it’s a strange conversation to talk about space, aliens and worlds from a far distant galaxy for my Monday Mayhem post. The thing is, I’ve always found something interesting when I watch Star Trek in that it has appealed to my sense of optimism. No one can say The Next Generation wasn’t way ahead of its time.

For instance, tablets of every size grace the hands of all those aboard. Many scenes with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) features him in his ready room reading a report on what looks like a prototype for an iPad. He then quickly switches to a small device that looks like an iPod touch. From there, he scans the small display standing upright on his desk—again, another prototype for LCD monitors.

It is evident Star Trek is forward thinking in design and intent. Even today, the show does not look dated in any way. It still has lessons for all of us who are looking for something that would put life into perspective.

My biggest lesson I’ve gleaned from many of the show’s social commentaries is that the Prime Directive rules. For those unfamiliar with the Prime Directive, it is a moral code devised by the United Federation of Planets to prevent members from interfering with cultures, either at the cusp of development, or unwilling to have outsiders to work with them in any way. The idea is meant to discourage Federation members from imposing rule on a less than developed civilization against their will.

Funnily enough, many civilizations, in the context of progress and time, are not looking to change, but want to remain stagnant—drawn in their own ways, unwilling to progress from the ameba stage—whether intelligent or not.

One of those civilizations in the show, for example, is the perfect utopia. Visitors to the planet notice the difference immediately. The stark contrast of it citizens wearing a minimal amount of clothing in comparison to their visitors is intentional. Also, their laws are simple to follow and provides a sense of security to all those who follow the law. The planet, however, has one flaw. It isn’t immediately visible. If anyone breaks the law, even the least of these laws—perhaps accidentally stepping on a flower in a greenhouse—the sentence is quick and immediate. Death.

For this planet, the Prime Directive is a no-no. They will handle their own affairs in their own way.

And that’s what I’ve learned most from Star Trek—you cannot help those who do not want help. Try if you may, a person convinced against their will is of the same opinion still.

Get the Ranger Martin trilogy now!

Have you watched any of the Star Trek shows or movies? What have you learned from the series?

Freedom Friday

Black Friday Deals

Posted on November 27, 2015November 22, 2015 by Jack Flacco

By the time you read this, I’m hoping it will have snowed. At least that is what the weather channel says. Putting it into perspective, I’m writing this a week in advance with the thought that Americans will have celebrated Thanksgiving the day before and it is currently Black Friday. Happy Thanksgiving weekend, y’all.

For today’s Freedom Friday, let’s have a look at shopping on Black Friday. Is it worth it?

In recent years, Canada has played host to Black Friday deals offered to Americans. That’s how I had purchased my new laptop last year. I managed to pick up one of those fancy IPS touch screen laptops. It’s a beautiful machine, fully loaded and made to last. Only, you wouldn’t have found me lining up in front of the store. Shortly after midnight, when the online specials had gone live, so did the thrifty shoppers with their clickers. I was one of them. I’d saved $200 on that deal alone. The next weeks leading up to Christmas, that same laptop had gone back up to the regular price.

Worth it? Definitely.

In 2010, as part of a promotional deal, an unknown site was raffling off several Apple iPod touch at half-price. To give you an idea how it worked, a shopper had to click an “I want one” button, fill in their credit card details in the form, and submit. The site had only 70 devices available, displaying also the amount of shoppers wanting one. The odds? 1,200 to 70. You guessed it. I won the chance to purchase the device at half-price. I saved $160. At the time, it was the best Christmas ever.

I’m also a finicky buyer when it comes to headphones. My ears are important to me, and how I feed them is equally important. Being a Tinnitus sufferer—that’s ringing in the ears to all you folks who are wondering—I make sure when I purchase headphones or earbuds that they are of the highest quality. Anyway, one year I’d wandered into the Best Buy in town to see what deals they had to offer in the audio department. I wasn’t expecting much. I figured everyone had already picked over the spoil. But to my surprise I found a top-of-the-line pair of Sennheiser earbuds stuck behind the cheapies stock on the shelf. I’m assuming someone had placed them there for safekeeping until such a time when they could come back and purchase them. Total savings for that purchase was $200.

There are other deals. Like the $250 my kid saved last year for his very first laptop, the $75 for my first Apple iPod classic in 2007, and the $90 for my second Apple iPod classic in 2009.

Adding it all up makes for quite a chunk of change. Is Black Friday worth it? I don’t know. You do the math and tell me what you think?

Get the Ranger Martin trilogy now!

Do you shop on Black Friday? What did you pick up that made the day special?

Wednesday Warriors

The Men of Friends

Posted on November 25, 2015November 22, 2015 by Jack Flacco

Has anyone else watched Friends and said, “I know those people, they’re my friends!” I’ve done that. In fact, I’ve watched episodes of the sitcom thinking, “Gosh, has someone peeked into my past to document my life in a comical way?” The television show, which was a hot commodity in the late 90’s, early 2000’s, is now a syndication gold mine. What better way to celebrate Wednesday Warriors than to include the men of Friends?

Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer

Each male character in the Friends universe has his quirks. Ross (David Schwimmer), for instance, is never quite sure where he stands in a relationship. Chandler (Matthew Perry) is the wisecracking joker of the group. Who doesn’t have a sarcastic buddy in their group of friends? Then there’s Joey (Matt LeBlanc), the struggling actor who doesn’t seem to have much luck landing a job in his profession. Together, they make up the men of Friends.

Let’s go deeper.

Ross Geller—He works with dinosaur bones. He knows a lot about science. Ask him about carbon dating and he will tell you everything there is to know about the subject. Unfortunately, Ross’ problem is not his job but the women with whom he falls in love. His first wife left him after becoming a lesbian. Divorce soon followed. To make matters worse, at the time of the split, she was pregnant with his child, which she carried to term with her new wife by her side. His second marriage lasted a day. She was English and the sweetest thing, but also a control freak he luckily shook from his life with a second set of divorce papers. His third marriage was with Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), the love of his life, but we won’t count that since they hooked up in Vegas and were drunk to high heaven while doing it.

In spite of Ross’ affinity to falter in his relationships with women, he really is a nice guy. Rachel once fixed him up with the pizza delivery chick and said that once she got to know him, she’d find he was kind, considerate and gentle. She would realize what a good heart he had.

Chandler Bing—Crazy Chandler. Nothing but sarcasm spews from his mouth, but in a good way. Quick-witted, funny and wise beyond his years, Chandler rules every scene. His problem? He uses humor to hide his insecurities about his present state. The more awkward the scenario, the funnier he gets as the humor rolls from his lips in buckets. Chandler also has one other slight problem that gets in the way. He’s been dating Janice (Maggie Wheeler) since, like, forever. Janice is, what you would call, annoying. Her laugh can cause any man to drive an icepick through his skull.

Yet, Chandler’s good qualities are his tolerance for his goofy friends and his perpetual willingness to help those in need. Can anyone forget the $1,500 he wanted to give Joey as a way to help him ride out a glut in his acting career? Generous is what makes Chandler special.

Joey Tribiani—He’s Italian. He loves food. And it’s a guarantee he also has forgotten how many sisters he actually has. His issue is that he’s been looking for work in acting for such a long time that he’s numb with the silly jobs he’s held in the meantime. Wait, Joey did have one job as a doctor in Days of our Lives, but it blew his head so big that he trashed the writers. The writers did one better. They threw his character down an elevator shaft. It was a dark day in soap opera history.

Joey’s biggest attribute is his big heart. He’s the traditional naive character with the generous eyes. He loves the women, but he’ll drop them in a second if it meant helping a friend.

And those are the men of Friends, folks. In some strange and wonderful way, each character in that show reminds me of my very own friends. How about you?

Get the Ranger Martin trilogy now!

Have you seen the show Friends? What do you enjoy most about the show?

Monday Mayhem

The Survivors

Posted on November 23, 2015November 22, 2015 by Jack Flacco

I’ve talked a lot about zombies in the past, lending credence to an apocalypse of unfathomable proportions. The thing that sticks out in my mind as the number one reason I wouldn’t want the apocalypse happening, is not because of the roaming undead seeking of whom they may devour, but because of the survivors who are in it for themselves. The thought is nothing short of a Monday Mayhem post.

Zombies don’t scare me. The undead are rather benign when separated from the crowd. A quick spike to the head and they are no more. As part of the horde, they are a fearsome bunch consuming everyone in their path. Nothing alive can stand in their way. However, take them out of their element and place them in water, they’re useless.

On the other hand, people, those who have survived the end of days, are the ones who I fear the most. They are the ones who, if for nothing else, will hunt their victims down and put an end to their lives all for the benefit of themselves.

Is that an exaggeration?

Let’s have a look at what humanity has done in times of peace.

The U.S. Navy has taken flack lately for its missile testing it has conducted a few weeks ago near San Diego, on a Saturday night no less. Witnesses stated they thought they saw UFO’s hovering in the skies.

The lights didn’t reveal the military’s intention.

That’s for starters. How about this? In a little while, Black Friday will be upon us. In the past, crowds have gone from restless to stampeding, taking human lives along the way. All for what? a toy that will end up in a junk heap a year from now? Have we lost our minds?

Okay, that may seem trivial to some, but can you imagine what humanity is capable of in times of a future societal breakdown? It won’t be pretty. The first to go will be the weak. If the zombies don’t take them, the strong among us will. They will dictate our future and run our lives. Then there are the ones who society has discarded. The dregs of society who ended up in our jails and prisons. What will happen with them? You can be sure, the jails and prisons won’t hold them. The first thing on their mind will be getting out of their cage so they can roam free among us.

What do you think?

As wonderful and as great humanity thinks it is, nothing can stand in the way of human nature. Human nature dictates an attitude of one-for-one, all-for-one. It drives humans to do the most deplorable things to each other, all in the name of survival. And the worst part about it? I just don’t understand the human compulsion to self-terminate. When things get hard, too difficult, a gun is there, not for protection, but to make a quick exit.

I know it sounds pessimistic, yet if history has anything to do with it, I don’t want to survive an apocalypse. I’d rather be one of its first victims.

Although, I still hold hope that one day, if the roof does cave in on society, humanity will do the right thing and think of the weak and unfortunate among us, giving them the aid they need to survive with dignity.

That, at least, is my hope.

Get the Ranger Martin trilogy now!

What scares you most about surviving a zombie apocalypse? The question is, would you like to survive a zombie apocalypse?

Freedom Friday

Christmas Talk Already?

Posted on November 20, 2015November 19, 2015 by Jack Flacco

I wrote an entirely different post for today that I eventually scrapped because I felt the tone was not conducive to a positive atmosphere. My original post poked fun at the phrase “pay it forward” and it’d implied a message of performing good deeds with the expectation of getting something in return. Some folks call it reciprocation, but I have a better word for it.

In my world, I call it a transaction.

Anyway, after thinking about it, for today’s Freedom Friday I decided to talk about something else.

With winter right around the corner, it’s that time of year when I start thinking about putting the lawn furniture away, raking the leaves, and sealing all doors and windows to our house in preparation for those cold days when all I can see is my breath floating in the air. For some, autumn is over the day after Halloween. The Christmas lights go up. The carols play in the department stores. And the first snowflakes hit the ground.

It’s also the same time of year that many use to finish old or plan new projects. In my case, I look forward to this time as a way to draw closer to the family. Given I have such a stringent writing schedule, it’s nice to settle indoors and spend time with the people I love.

However, in the hustle and bustle of yearend, I’m eagerly anticipating one thing—Christmas shopping season. It may be a strange thing to think about, considering Christmas is a month away, but I actually love the buzz in the stores. As we get closer to that fateful period. Many of the game manufacturers wait until now to deliver their most prized treasures to consumers.

I know the film industry is on top of it. Who can deny Jurassic World hasn’t already prep’d the audience last summer with the subliminal suggestion that folks ought to offer the DVD or Blu-Ray as a gift under the tree? The whole opening sequence to the movie has Christmas in mind.

Then LEGO announced recently the company has a brick shortage and won’t be able to fill all its orders on time, in spite of opening new manufacturing plants throughout the world. I don’t know about you but Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without at least one LEGO set making an appearance. Isn’t there some unwritten rule about that? I don’t know.

Let’s not forget the crowds. Oh, how much the crowds make up the best part of the season. Elbow to elbow, everyone gunning for the last toy on the shelf. Is there anything else that can be so perfect?

Of course, I’m being facetious. The idea of driving around senseless to grab the last parking spot in the mall so that I can drag my butt into a store I never will visit again to buy a toy that in a year’s time will end up as part of a junk heap really appeals to me. Do you see me jumping for joy?

Okay, so maybe I’m not really looking forward to Christmas as much as I thought, but you can’t tell me it isn’t fun watching the season unfold into chaos. That’s the best part.

Nothing quite replaces the spirit of giving when everyone’s thinking about materialism.

After all, greed and fear is what makes the economy go around, especially during this time of year.

Get the Ranger Martin zombie trilogy now!

Are you looking forward to the holiday season? What are your plans?

Wednesday Warriors

Raymond Barone

Posted on November 18, 2015November 17, 2015 by Jack Flacco

A lot of folks will disagree with me for choosing this lovable television character as a Wednesday Warrior. After all, he doesn’t strap on a shotgun to kill zombies, nor does he sport a muscular physique that would deter criminals from robbing banks, nor is he some kind of superhero ready to save the planet from alien invaders. He’s simply Ray Barone (Ray Romano), the father of three growing kids and the husband to Debra (Patricia Heaton), the woman who does it all.

Everybody Loves Raymond's Cast — Everybody Loves Raymond’s Cast

If you haven’t watched Everybody Loves Raymond before, then let me summarize the show with one word–family. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s all about family.

When I first began watching the show back in the early 2000’s, I thought Raymond was nothing more than a wuss. He complains a lot. He fixates on insignificant things an ordinary person would dismiss as minor. And, in some miserable but lovable way, he’s annoying. In other words, he’s the typical dad with all the bad habits intact, including watching TV when he should be out doing the lawn.

Which reminds me, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ray cut the lawn, despite the perfectly shaped hedges and manicured plants. Then again, he could have a service do the job for him. He is a sportswriter, therefore he can splurge on the nice things in life while everyone else slogs away at holding the line on the family budget.

Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton as Ray and Debra

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the show is about family. What family wouldn’t be complete with the parents living across the street? They appear when Ray and Debra are eating, sleeping, taking showers, taking the kids to school, cleaning, working, painting and in between all the other little errands that make up The Barone’s ordinary lives. Without Frank (Peter Boyle) and Marie (Doris Roberts), Ray and his family would be normal, but then there wouldn’t be a show.

Ray’s brother Robert (Brad Garrett) also plays a part in driving Ray crazy. He shows up at the most inopportune time always asking the question “Is this about me?” If you thought Ray has a problem with a mind for detail, Robert has him beat. If he’s eating, he touches his chin with his food. The habit stacks up next to all the other bad habits he has, like overthinking things, moping around the house without a girlfriend, and having a hidden crush for Debra, Ray’s wife. Of course, he’ll never admit it, but that’s another element to Robert’s character that makes him endearing to the audience.

As for Debra, I’ve always said this to my friends–she reminds me so much of my wife. She’s strong-willed, tough and incredibly intelligent. The other thing about Debra is that no matter what happens with Ray, the screaming matches, the fights, the slapstick humor, Debra loves Ray with all his flaws and all his little quirks intact.

But then there’s Ray. I can’t say much more about Ray except he’s your typical father trying to make it in today’s world with an above average income and a family who he loves very much. Is he a wuss? Sometimes. But as annoying as he can get, Ray’s heart is with his family. That’s what’s important above all else.

Get the Ranger Martin trilogy now!

Have you seen Everybody Loves Raymond? What do you think of Ray?

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