Well I survived camping...again. I ran an Archery Range for the scouts. I treated it much differently than I would a cub scout range. Besides the distance and more powerful bows, we were using compound rather than Re-curve bows. I also put a Zombie Apocalypse spin on the range commands from comments like "The zombie you miss will be munching on your buddy's kneecap" or " please when you retrieve your arrows, Please leave the entrails on the field, they are most distracting." Remember the "Walking Dead" TV series from AMC is filmed in the area. The Fictional town of "Woolsbury" is actually Senoia Ga.
The city featured in the 1st season poster is Atlanta GA
This scene is I-75 Northbound The Zombie theme I ran as a spur of the moment idea was extremely well received by the scouts. I heard comments that my Archery shoots were very popular with the scouts....Mostly for the Zombie themes. I also ran a more relaxed range. I did stress the 4 safety rules as I call it but I let the kids cut up a bit. I also worked the dining facility, a 18 hour day. Then I slept poorly...Friday and Saturday. I am not a fan of muggy no moving air. Copious amounts of coffee was consumed for breakfast so I would be mentally alert I came home and immediately went to sleep, woke up and went to work. I ran wide open at work, came come, got my son off to school then tried to do a "Monday Music" post and fell asleep on the laptop. Rather than do a crappy post, I went to sleep and figured I would try again. Well I this weekend I was listening to my MP3 on my phone and this song came on and I decided to use it on Monday. I remembered Poison led or was on the forefront of the "hair band" movement. I also liked my "Hair Metal" which The style can be traced back to acts like Aerosmith, Kiss, Boston, Cheap Trick, The New York Dolls, and Van Halen.[3] It arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, particularly on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene, pioneered by bands such as Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Dokken, and Bon Jovi. It was popular throughout the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, bringing to prominence bands including Poison, Cinderella, and Warrant. Hair metal was also associated with flashy clothing and makeup. Poison, for example, had long shaggy or backcombed hair, accessories, metal studs, leather and make-up during their live performances.
"Nothin' but a Good Time" is the first single from the glam metal band Poison's second studio album Open Up and Say... Ahh!. The B-sides are "Livin' For the Minute" and "Look But You Can't Touch".
The song was released as a single in 1988 on Enigma Records and reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #19 on the Mainstream rock charts. It also charted at number 10 on the Australian charts and number 35 on the UK Singles chart.
The music video
features a restaurant employee, played by the same actor who appeared
in the video for Mötley Crüe's "You're All I Need", washing dishes while
listening to the Kiss hit single "Rock and Roll All Nite",
performed by Poison. The manager enters, turns off the radio, and
delivers to the employee a scathing reprimand, reminding the employee
that he is being paid "to wash dishes, not to listen to that... that
rock 'n' roll," and accusing him of "moving in two speeds: slow, and
stop." The manager exits, whereupon the employee abandons the dishes and
kicks open a nearby door to reveal a concert hall stage, upon which the
band then performs the song. When the song is over, the manager
returns, discovering, to his surprise, that all the dishes are washed.
Nothing' but a good time is also commonly quoted by the high school
legend Justin "Jman" Moyer.
I am loading this post in my scheduler since I will be camping with the Boy Scouts again....I will try to post some pics like I did last week. But we will see.
I snagged some pics that seemed to 'splain liberal views pretty well so I figured I would post them and expound on them.
You noticed that the same people that believe that all cops are racist murderers should be the only ones that are armed.....For some reason there is a disconnect of a higher brain function. They want to be told what to do by the state for they view the state as "Mother and Father" and we as children should do as we are told. They want the "nanny State" but at the same time they disparage the enforcement arm of the nanny state.....It is a cause and effect thing.
You notice that the same people that pilloried "W" for his "Warmongering" has been silent since the "anointed one" has interfered in Libya, Syria and other places....where in the hell is "Code Pink" Those moonbats have been silent since the Democrats have been in charge of the government. That tells me that they are political opportunist. You will see them at a conservative event, but not as a liberal event.
What is with Liberals that believe that we "belong to the state." That totally goes against Western Thought. We the individual is prized. But these people believe that "society" or in their case " The State" has first dibs on us. That is totally against American thought and beliefs.
I decided to do a thing about Vegas, you know the place Frank Sinatra, and the Mob made famous as the playground for the connected. Since then Vegas has evolved into a show town. Elvis really made it famous for his shows.
Vegas has gotten a reputation as "Sin city". Where if you want anything, you can get it.
We went to Vegas a few years ago, to see the Grand canyon, Hoover Dam and I went to the actual
"Pawn Stars" pawn shop and I met Chumlee and "The Old Man". In person both were totally polite and gracious. I bought some swag from the show. I wanted to buy more, but I was limited on what I can buy mostly due to what we could pack in our suitcases. The shop wasn't as big as the TV show made it out to be. They had creative placement of the camera's, They have the block, but the showroom is a small part of the facility. I would like to go there again and see more stuff. We had stayed at the "Orleans" hotel, it was reasonable and a couple of miles off the miracle strip, and if you want to explore outside Vegas, stay at a hotel off the strip or you will be bogged down in traffic.
Well here are some fun facts about Vegas:
-The Las Vegas strip's gaming revenue for 2013 was $6.5B. Annual state gaming revenue exceeds $9B.
-There's estimated to be at least 1,000 people living beneath Vegas in underground tunnels. -When Sammy Davis Jr. took a swim
in the pool at the New Frontier hotel & Casino in Las Vegas in
1952, they drained the pool when he was done because it was a
whites-only swimming pool.
-Michael Jackson had plans to build a 50 foot tall moon
walking robot replica of himself to roam the Las Vegas desert. It was
intended to be an advertisement for a planned 2005 comeback. -Archie Karas is famous for
turning for having the largest and longest Vega winning streak. He
turned $50 into $40M but managed to lose it all in less than 3 years.
-In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital had to suspend workers who
were betting on when patients would die. One nurse was even accused of
murdering a patient so she would win. -There is a service in Las Vegas that will come to you and cure a hangover with IV fluids and IV vitamins.
-It would take 288 years for one person to spend one night in every hotel room in Las Vegas. -Contrary to popular belief, prostitution in Las Vegas is not legal. It is however legal in some areas of Nevada.
-The reflective surface of the Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas
concentrates the sun's rays into a "death ray" that creates dangerously
hot areas around the pool. -Las Vegas currently boasts 1701 licensed gambling venues.
-A 1910 law made it illegal to gamble in Las Vegas. -FedEx CEO Fred Smith saved his
company in the 1970s by gambling their last $5000 in Vegas. He turned
it into $32k playing Blackjack; enough to cover the company's $24k fuel
bill. This allowed FedEx to stay in business a few days longer, at
which point he was able to raise $11M to keep FedEx going.
-According to suppliers, Vegas Bingo players' favourite colour ink daubers are purple. -There is a place in Vegas you can pay $40 to shoot a grenade launcher, twice.
-The average number of pillowcases washed daily at MGM Grand is around 15,000. -The Golden Gate Hotel and Casino opened in 1906, making it the first hotel and casino to open in Las Vegas, Nevada.
-Water structures in Las Vegas, like fountains and
man-made lakes, use grey-water, which is recycled water from sinks,
bathtubs and showers. -The Las Vegas Strip is the brightest place on Earth when looked at from outer space.
-The Dunes, demolished in 1993, was the first resort to
feature topless showgirls in a show called Minsky's Follies.
-The 1/2 scale replica of the Eiffel Tower outside the
Paris hotel in Las Vegas was originally planned as full size, but had to
be shrunk due to the nearby airport. The original Eiffel Tower was
built in 1889 and is made of wrought iron pieces which are fastened
together with 2,500,000 rivets. The one in Vegas is made from welded
steel and is stronger structurally and has "fake rivets" to duplicate
the look of the original. -Las Vegas is informally known as Hawaii's 9th island, due to the city's large community of Hawaiians.
-There is over 15,000 miles of lighted neon tubing used along the Strip and Downtown. -In 1899 Charles Fey invented a slot machine named the Liberty Bell. The device became the model for all slots to follow.
-The Bronze lion outside of the MGM Grand Hotel weighs 50
tons, making it the largest bronze sculpture in the country. -There have been 14 major building 'implosions' in Las Vegas since 1993.
-Approximately 34% of thefts and cheating in Las Vegas casinos are committed by staff. -Wealthy businessman and aviator
Howard Hughes requested a 200 gallons shipment of Baskin-Robbins'
Banana Nut ice cream while staying at Las Vegas' Desert Inn. A few days
later, Hughes decided that he was tired of the ice cream and announced
that he would only eat Chocolate Marshmallow ice cream. The inn ended
up distributing free Banana Nut ice cream for a year.
-After staying longer than his initial reservation (in
which he had booked the inn's entire top two floors), Howard Hughes was
also asked to leave the Desert Inn by the owner. Instead, he purchased
the resort for $13 million. -In 1996, Wayne Newton celebrated his 25,000th performance while Siegfried and Roy celebrated their 15,000th performance.
-The Las Vegas Harmon Hotel, a key part of an $8.2B Las
Vegas Hotel project will be demolished before a single guest ever gets
to check into a room due to major construction defects. -A study conducted in 2013 showed that 15% of people come to Las Vegas primarily to gamble, but 71% gamble during their visit.
-The Mirage Hotel's iconic golden windows actually get their colouring from real gold dust. -Nevada's prison-population growth since 1990 is 100.4%.
-The Stratosphere is the tallest, free-standing,
observation tower in the US and the tallest structure west of the
Mississippi River. -15 of the world's top 25 hotels are located in Las Vegas.
-Caesars Augustus tower and Treasure Island all have an
architectural feature designed to trick the eye into seeing the
buildings as smaller (thus closer) than they really are. Each window
covers four rooms on two floors. Wynn Las Vegas uses the same trick, in
that there are two floors between each white stripe. -In 2004, a British gambler,
Ashley Revell, sold all of his possessions, including all of his
clothes, and bet $135,300 on red for a single spin of a roulette wheel
in Las Vegas and won $270,600.
-The Silver Slipper was the first casino to hire female card dealers on The Strip. -There's a heavy equipment playground in Las Vegas where you can drive bulldozers and other big machinery for fun.
-Before Las Vegas was famous for gambling, it marketed
itself as a place to watch atomic bomb tests in the desert. Over 10,000
people have successfully claimed half a billion dollars back from the
US Government in compensation for fallout-related illnesses.
I decided to continue with my cartoon characters, although I should go with "Goofy" to describe the antics or the shenanigans of the Washington on the Potomac crowd, from the election cycle and the petulant boy King who didn't even want to switch hands and saluted the marines with a coffee cup in his hands....I guess it is good to be the king and dis the underlings
But I decided to wait on a political rant until later this week. In the meantime I decided to get some information of "TAZ"
As the youngest of the Looney Tunes characters, Tasmanian Devil, or
'Taz' as he has come to be known, is generally portrayed as a ferocious
albeit dim-witted omnivore
with a notoriously short temper and little patience. He will eat
anything and everything, with an appetite that seems to know no bounds.
He is best known for his speech consisting mostly of grunts, growls and
rasps, and his ability to spin like a vortex and bite through just about
anything.
In 1991, Taz got his own show, Taz-Mania, which ran for four seasons, in which Taz was the protagonist.
Robert McKimson based the character on the real-life Tasmanian devil,
or more specifically its carnivorous nature, voracious appetite, and
surly disposition. Owen and Pemberton suggest that the character of the
Tasmanian Devil was inspired by Errol Flynn. The most noticeable resemblance between the Australian marsupial and
McKimson's creation is their ravenous appetites and crazed behavior.
Although the bipedal Tasmanian Devil's appearance does not resemble its
marsupial inspiration, it contains multilayered references to other
"devils": he has horn-shaped fur on his head (similar to the Devil's appearance) and whirls about like a dust devil (similar in appearance to a tornado)
which sounds like several motors whirring in unison. Taz is constantly
ravenously hungry. His efforts to find more food (animate or inanimate)
are always a central plot device of his cartoons.
In fact, this appetite serves as the impetus for McKimson's Devil May Hare (first released on June 19, 1954). In the short, Taz stalks Bugs Bunny,
but due to his dimwittedness and inability to frame complete sentences,
he serves as little more than a nuisance. Bugs eventually gets rid of
him in the most logical way possible: matching him up with an equally
insatiable female Tasmanian Devil. The character's speech, a deep,
gravelly voice peppered with growls, screeches, and raspberries, is provided by Mel Blanc.
Only occasionally would Taz actually speak, usually to utter some
incongruous punchline, (e.g. "What for you bury me in the cold, cold
ground?") and yet the character is capable of writing and reading. A running gag
is that when Bugs Bunny hears of the approach of "Taz" and looks him up
in an encyclopedia and starts reading off a list of animals that "Taz"
eats; Bugs finds "rabbits" not listed until "Taz" enters and either
points out that "rabbits" are listed or writes rabbits on the list.
After the film short debuted at theaters, producerEddie Selzer, head of the Warner Bros.
animation studio, ordered McKimson to shelve the character, feeling
that it was too violent for children, and that parents would dislike
this. After a time with no new Taz shorts, studio head Jack Warner
asked what had happened to the character. Warner saved Taz' career when
he told Selzer that he had received "boxes and boxes" of letters from
people who liked the character and wanted to see more of him.
McKimson would go on to direct four more Tasmanian Devil cartoons, beginning with Bedeviled Rabbit (released on April 13, 1957). McKimson would also pair the Devil with Daffy Duck in Ducking the Devil (August 17, 1957) before pitting him once again against Bugs in Bill of Hare (June 9, 1962) and Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare (March 28, 1964). His last two appearances done by the classic Warner Brothers directors, writers, and voice actors were in Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales appearing in The Fright Before Christmas segment and at the very end eating the sleigh full of presents. Then he appeared in the 1983 movie Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island as Yosemite Sam's first mate.
The Tasmanian Devil appeared in "The Looney Tunes Show" episode "Devil Dog" voiced by Jim Cummings.
In the show, he is portrayed walking on four legs like a real Tasmanian
Devil and his eyes are bloodshot red (later turned yellow when Bugs
uses a taming trick that Speedy Gonzales taught him). Initially, Bugs believed Taz to be a dog
and kept him as a house pet, to his roommate, Daffy Duck's discomfort.
Eventually Bugs learned the truth and tried to return him to his home in
Tasmania, only to find out that Taz would rather live with him, naming
him "Poochie". Taz subsequently appears in the following episodes, "The
Foghorn Leghorn Story", "Newspaper Thief", and "Bugs and Daffy Get A
Job".
I saw this pic on the U.S.S. Yorktown, I having a warped sense of humor thought it was pretty good, I don't know if the modern navy would immortalize the same thing as they did the navigator of the carrier back in the late 60's
Well I survived camping this past weekend. the boys had a good time tubing and shooting. I saw some impressive shooting groups. Apparently they pay attention well when I was giving them some pointers Mostly no "Prairie Dogging"
when using a bolt action Rifle.
I was going to roll with "George Thorogood" and "Bad to the Bone". But I was in my Ranger rather than the motorcycle on the way from work this morning and my Ranger has a much better sound system so I had the base up and this song came on. I am not a fan of "gangsta Rap", I tend to like the "Old School" rap that was prevalent before Gangsta Rap exploded on the scene in the early 90's and quickly replaced the "Old School" rap that was popular. I do like a few songs and this one is one of them.. It tells of a story of a "OG" and the lifestyle and choices he is making and forced to make. Well I decided to "roll" with Coolio instead. This song is for Momma Fargo that like rollin "Dirty in her G-Ride" or the "Barbie Mobile." in " Da Hood".
I am sure this song was in her repertoire of songs to blend in the hood.
The music is a reworking of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise", a song from his album Songs in the Key of Life. "Gangsta's Paradise" uses the same melody, but a different orchestration
of the same music. Coolio's main contribution to the song was in
changing the original's attack on living in the past or future (and not
dealing with the pressing issues of the present) to the story of a young
African-American "gangsta", regretting the life he has chosen.
The song begins with a line from Psalm 23:4
from the Bible: "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death",
but then diverges with: "I take a look at my life / And realize there's
nothin' left." Adding to some of the religious overtones are choral
vocals in the background.
This song is one of the few Coolio tracks that does not feature profanity.
There are several parodies of the song, including "Amish Paradise" by "Weird Al" Yankovic,
which was released the following year, reaching number 53 on the U.S.
chart. Coolio claimed that he did not give permission for the parody,
which led to disagreements between the two. Yankovic claimed that he had
been told Coolio had given the go-ahead through his record label, and
apologized. Because of this incident, Yankovic now only does parodies by
artists that he has spoken with directly, rather than through
intermediaries. Photos from the XM Satellite Radio booth at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show suggest Yankovic and Coolio may have made amends.
The director of the music video for “Amish Paradise” was “Weird Al”
himself. “Weird Al” has directed many of his music videos since 1986.
The music video for "Amish Paradise" is very similar to the "Gangsta's Paradise" music video, although several concepts have been parodied. These include:
When Yankovic says he is up at 4:30 in the morning milking cows, he is shown milking a cow directly into a bowl of cereal instead of a milk pail. A box of corn flakes can be seen next to him. The Kellogg's brand name is covered.
In the next scene, when Jebediah is "feeding the chickens" he is giving them pizza.
The line "Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1699," is a not-so subtle jab at Prince and his song "1999".
Prince is one of the very few artists in the music industry who has
consistently refused to let Weird Al record parodies of his songs.
When Al is churning butter, a woman walks by, and he is seen churning faster in an arguably suggestive manner.
When the man is sawing and checking his sundial watch (on a cloudy day), the man behind him is playing golf (the follow-through of which resembles the use of a scythe).
When Al says "We sell quilts at discount price," a wooden booth is shown selling quilts, with a sign that says 'OUR PRICES ART INSANE!!!' in a parody of 'Crazy Eddie' advertisements.
At one point Al is seen reading a fake Lancaster, Pennsylvania, newspaper, with the headline "Much Butter Was Churned". This is a homage to the film Witness, which takes place in Lancaster County, home to perhaps the most well-known Amish communities.
In one part, two boys are looking at a supposed "Amish Babes" porn magazine (the cover slogan says "Plow My Field!"), but in the centerfold all the woman is showing is her leg up to her knee, insinuating that this is considered to be scandalous among the Amish.
When the young Amish children are on Yankovic's knee, they each have a beard, even though they appear to be about 6 years old.
Al's face is seen, with him sweating more every time a close up is
taken to mock how L.V. is sweating profusely in Coolio's video.
When Yankovic states he's "scoring points for the afterlife," he takes off his hat to reveal a hairstyle very similar to that seen on the cover of his album Bad Hair Day. These are both parodies of Coolio's trademark hairstyle.
On the back of the carriage just before the sign reading, "Welcome
to Lancaster," there's a "bumper" sticker stating, "How am I driving?"
Other signs are seen saying among other things "BE GOOD", "NO FUN",
"SIN-FREE ZONE", and "Mind Your Manners".
The man in white shirt and glasses attempting to use the vintage
telephone (and in turn being coated with dust) is fashioned after a
photograph of 1960s comedian Allan Sherman.
The lyrics "No phone, no lights, no motorcar - not a single luxury... like Robinson Crusoe, it's primitive as can be" are originally from the closing theme song to Gilligan's Island.
Near the very end, Yankovic is shown walking away from a barn while everything around him moves backwards in a rewinding fashion; for this effect, the scene was recorded normally while Weird Al lip syncs
the words backwards, so when the scene is shown backwards, his lips
sync with the song itself. The inspiration for this scene was the video
for the rap group Pharcyde's "Drop", which was filmed in the same manner, and the backwards scene performed in the movie Top Secret!
The video features Florence Henderson in the role originally portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer. Reportedly, Henderson jumped at the chance to be featured in the parody, after seeing the Coolio video.
Al's parents Nick and Mary Yankovic are featured in the music video.
The video shows many aspects of regular Amish life, such as raising a barn (the scene directly parodies Witness).
However, when the barn is raised, the frame falls towards Yankovic, who
is standing where a gap in the frame is. He has acknowledged that this
gag is a Buster Keaton homage. Keaton performed this stunt in Steamboat Bill Jr.
American post-hardcore band In Fear And Faith covered the song in 2008. Swedish boy band E.M.D. covered the song on their 2010 album "Rewind". American singer-songwriterKina Grannis has covered the song in concert. Richard Cheese covered the song on his 2010 album "Lavapalooza" (as "Johny Aloha"). New Zealand band Like a Storm covered the song for their 2012 album, "Chaos Theory". American band Falling in Reverse covered the song on the album Punk Goes 90's 2. American industrial band Battery covered the song on their 1996 album, "Distance".
Kris Allen, winner of the eighth season of American Idol, has also performed an acoustic cover in concert.
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's nothing left
'Coz I've been blastin' and laughin' so long, that
Even my mama thinks that my mind is gone
But I ain't never crossed a man that didn't deserve it
Me be treated like a punk you know that's unheard of
You better watch how you're talkin', and where you're walkin'
Or you and your homies might be lined in chalk
I really hate to trip but I gotta, loc
As I grow I see myself in the pistol smoke, fool
I'm the kinda G the little homies wanna be like
On my knees in the night, sayin' prayers in the streetlight
Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
They got the situation, they got me facin'
I can't live a normal life, I was raised by the stripes
So I gotta be down with the hood team
Too much television watchin' got me chasin' dreams
I'm an educated fool with money on my mind
Got my 10 in my hand and a gleam in my eye
I'm a loc'd out gangsta set trippin' banger
And my homies is down so don't arouse my anger, fool
Death ain't nothin' but a heartbeat away
I'm livin' life, do or die, what can I say
I'm twenty-three now, but will I live to see twenty-four
The way things are going I don't know
Tell me why are we, so blind to see
That the one's we hurt, are you and me
Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Power and the money, money and the power
Minute after minute, hour after hour
Everybody's runnin', but half of them ain't lookin'
What's going on in the kitchen, but I don't know what's cookin'
They say I gotta learn, but nobody's here to teach me
If they can't understand it, how can they reach me
I guess they can't, I guess they won't
I guess they front, that's why I know my life is out of luck, fool
Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise
Tell me why are we, so blind to see
That the one's we hurt, are you and me
Tell me why are we, so blind to see
That the one's we hurt, are you and me
Songwriters
RASHEED, DOUGLAS B. / IVEY, ARTIS L. JR. / SANDERS, LARRY JAMES / WONDER, STEVIE
I have gone camping with my troop this weekend. I also am using my phone to make a post.
This is a first so I will put up some pics off my phone I will see how this works.
Well it won't let me pull off my gallery so I just used my camera and directly uploaded a pic. Ain't modern scouting cool!
I will do my road runner post tomorrow.
This our campsite and my trusty Ranger. Nothing Screams
"Disgruntled Veteran" like my Ranger does.
The boys are getting in some shooting and tubing so
they are excited. I will take some pics later of that
.
This is the bathroom and the playing field. This facility
is pretty good especially for a rural council like where we are at.
I took my son and a few other kids to a county commissioner meeting to fulfil a requirement that there is for the "Citizenship in the Community" Merit Badge. Here are the requirements:
Discuss with your counselor what citizenship in the community
means and what it takes to be a good citizen in your community. Discuss
the rights, duties, and obligations of citizenship, and explain how you
can demonstrate good citizenship in your community, Scouting unit, place
of worship or school.
Do the following:
a. On a map of your community, locate and point out the following:
1. Chief government buildings such as your city hall, county courthouse, and public works/services facility
2. Fire station, police station, and hospital nearest your home
3. Historical or other interesting points
b. Chart the organization of your local or state government.
Show the top offices and tell whether they are elected or appointed.
Do the following:
a. Attend a meeting of your city, town, or county council or
school board; OR attend a municipal, county, or state court session.
b. Choose one of the issues discussed at the meeting where a
difference of opinions was expressed, and explain to your counselor why
you agree with one opinion more than you do another one.
Choose an issue that is important to the citizens of your community; then do the following:
a. Find out which branch of local government is responsible for this issue.
b. With your counselor's and a parent's approval, interview one
person from the branch of government you identified in requirement 4a.
Ask what is being done about this issue and how young people can help.
c. Share what you have learned with your counselor.
With the approval of your counselor and a parent, watch a movie
that shows how the actions of one individual or group of individuals
can have a positive effect on a community. Discuss with your counselor
what you learned from the movie about what it means to be a valuable and
concerned member of the community.
List some of the services (such as the library, recreation
center, public transportation, and public safety) your community
provides that are funded by taxpayers. Tell your counselor why these
services are important to your community.
Do the following:
a. Choose a charitable organization outside of Scouting that
interests you and brings people in your community together to work for
the good of your community.
b. Using a variety of resources (including newspapers, fliers
and other literature, the Internet, volunteers, and employees of the
organization), find out more about this organization.
c. With your counselor's and your parent's approval, contact
the organization and find out what young people can do to help. While
working on this merit badge, volunteer at least eight hours of your time
for the organization. After your volunteer experience is over, discuss
what you have learned with your counselor.
Develop a public presentation (such as a video, slide show,
speech, digital presentation, or photo exhibit) about important and
unique aspects of your community. Include information about the history,
cultures, and ethnic groups of your community; its best features and
popular places where people gather; and the challenges it faces. Stage
your presentation in front of your merit badge counselor or a group,
such as your patrol or a class at school.
Well the scouts went to a county commissioner's meeting. There were several issues that were presented to the commissioners, most were fairly mundane but the one that got the biggest response was a proposal to build another "Dollar General" in a rural area and the local residents are up in arms about it. They pointed that there are already a bunch of them in the area and the money that the county would get in taxes would be more than offset by the infrastructure that would have to be improved from the roads, traffic lights, and increased crime that such places seem to attract. the people were well armed with facts and several of them mentioned the "stick" of politics...If they go against the residents, they would have a hard time keeping their commissioner jobs at the next elections.
There was also a resolution about this week being the "Constitution" week since this week back in 1787 the final form of the U.S. Constitution was presented to the states for ratification.
Also the parking was at a premium because of the proposed zoning hearing over Dollar General and of course there was one of these..
"Asshole parking"
Yes I had considered posting this pic on Facebook but I am a scout leader and we are supposed to be above that. So I immortalized it on my blog instead .
On today's "Monday Music" I decided to go with "Gonna Fly Now", it was the theme from Rocky. The song is used a lot especially when people train, I used the cassette version back in the 80's when I would go running my 10 KM every day( back when I was kinda skinny and had good knee's. ) I miss running, I enjoyed it, but I am a stocky guy and not really built like a runner, but I would regularly amaze people with my speed and endurance when I would run. I remember my first "marathon" run, I ran 5KM at Fort Devens, the first time I ran any kind of distance and it was originally mocked by the training NCO( he was a douchenozzle, his replacement we got later was far superior in leadership and other positive qualities) until others that were there vouched for my running it. I quit running when I got out of the service, finding a place to run where I lived in an urban setting was difficult, I had to run at night due to my schedule and that made it even more difficult. Then I stepped in a pothole and wrenched my knee and ankle...and by the time it healed, it took a long time because of my bullheadedness and not allowing my body to heal properly, I had a lot of scar tissue in those areas and that affected mobility.
"Young Me" I was in the Gulf after the war ended, I had finished running and a friend wanted to take a picture of me, so I quickly grabbed the headress we had bought from a street vendor and put it on as a "gag photo"
They talk about a "Runners High" from the endorphin rush from the wind and air rushing past your nose...well it is true, also the "second wind" is also accurate. I would hit my second wind early, then it was almost " cruise control" after that...I would run and run....I did 2 miles in 13.55, not bad for a guy that had to be " taped" on a regular basis due to my exceeding the weight requirements in AR. 600-9. The max weight for my age and height was 169. Well I weighted 180 so I had a lot of waivers for the requirements.
"Gonna Fly Now", also known as "Theme from Rocky," is the theme song from the movie Rocky, composed by Bill Conti with lyrics by Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins, and performed by DeEtta Little (the sister of actor Cleavon Little) and Nelson Pigford. Released in February 1977 with the movie Rocky, the song became part of American popular culture after main character Rocky Balboa as part of his daily training regimen runs up the 72 stone steps leading to the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia,
while the song plays. Rocky, training for a fight he doubts he can win,
struggles to run up the steps ("Trying hard now, it's so hard now"). As
Rocky gains strength and inspiration ("Getting strong now, won't be
long now"), he begins running up the steps with increasing ease and
speed. The song finishes ("Gonna fly now, flying high now, gonna fly,
fly, fly...") as Rocky runs up the "Rocky Steps"
before the Philadelphia Museum of Art easily and with vigor and raises
his arms in a victory pose. The song was written in Philadelphia. The
song is also often played at sporting events, especially at sporting
events in the city of Philadelphia or featuring sports teams from there.
The song (whose lyrics have a total count of 14 words some sung multiple times) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in the 49th Academy Awards. The version of the song from the movie, performed by Conti with an orchestra, hit number one on the BillboardHot 100 chart in 1977, while a version by jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson hit the top 30. Disco versions by Rhythm Heritage
and Current were on the chart at the same time (Conti's own version
reveals some early disco influence in the orchestration). Conti's single
was certified Gold by the RIAA, for shipments exceeding one million in the United States. The American Film Institute placed it 58th on its AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs list.
"Rocky Steps" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
In Rocky II, an alternate version of the song was used, with a children's choir singing the chorus. Rocky III
included an updated disco influenced arrangement during the training
montage on the beach. This recording is however missing from the
soundtrack album, the sleeve notes of which say "All music on this album
selected by Sylvester Stallone",
who instead opted to reprise the original versions of "Gonna Fly Now"
and "Reflections" from the first film and "Conquest" from the second
installment. Rocky IV
was scored by Vince DiCola who mainly introduced new themes of his own
but "Gonna Fly Now" returned with its composer for later installments.
In Rocky Balboa, a slightly different version of the song used more trumpets and different vocal tones. The soundtrack for that film also includes a vocal remix performed by Natalie Wilde.
Due to its original use, the song (or soundalikes) is used frequently in various forms of popular media where a main character is forced to train hard in order to defeat an opponent, often during a montage sequence.
American politician and former Vice President Walter Mondale used this as his campaign song in 1984.
It is often played at sporting events in the city of Philadelphia. For example, it is played right before kickoff of Eagles games at Lincoln Financial Field.
In the Philippines, the song was used in the commercial for Tiger
Energy Biscuits which shows the Tiger mascot eating the said biscuit
brand before jogging in the streets of Manila.
The 2013 back to school advertising campaign for Target featured the song as a little girl attempts a chin-up during gym class.
The song was used in an episode of the television series My Name Is Earl.
The song was also played in one of Despicable Me 2's mini-movies, "Training Wheels" when Agnes was training for her new rocket-bike.
The song was used in Jackass 3D as part of a recurring gag called "The Rocky," which involved Bam Margera throwing a cup of water on an unsuspecting victim, then punching him with a boxing glove.
Well I am finally going to start on my "Wile E. Coyote" post after having real life get in the way. I had a bunch of errands to run today after I got off work. I also am a glutton for punishment, I agreed to run either a BB or an Archery Range for a cub scout "loop-o-ree" tomorrow, what was I thinking..??. But anyway..that will kill my Saturday for me.
But I will start on my "Wile E Coyote: post...and the Minions go wild....
I have used "Wile E" image in a post before, I saw this pic when I was going through my prior blog pictures,
Wile E. is one of my favorite characters, what can I say..I am a kid at heart...that is why I don't look my age I guess.
I am crowding the half century mark...and no gray hairs...Yay..Go me!! Immaturity has its pluses I guess. But I was using the above image in a post when I did my frequent rants against the TSA. The skies are not as friendly partly because of them and also the lowered societal norms of behavior...but I digress.
Wile E. Coyote (also known simply as "The Coyote") and The Road Runner are a duo of characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. In the cartoons, Coyote repeatedly attempts to catch and subsequently eat the Road Runner, a fast-running ground bird, but is never successful. Coyote, instead of a coyote's animal instincts, uses absurdly complex contraptions (sometimes in the manner of Rube Goldberg) and elaborate plans to pursue his prey, which always comically backfire.
The characters were created by animation directorChuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese.
The characters star in a long-running series of theatrical cartoon
shorts (the first 16 of which were written by Maltese) and occasional
made-for-television cartoons. It was originally meant to parody chase
cartoons like Tom and Jerry, but became popular in its own right.
The Coyote appears separately as an occasional antagonist of Bugs Bunny in five shorts from 1952 to 1963: Operation: Rabbit, To Hare Is Human, Rabbit's Feat, Compressed Hare, and Hare-Breadth Hurry.
While he is generally silent in the Coyote-Road Runner shorts, he
speaks with a refined accent in these solo outings (except for Hare-Breadth Hurry), introducing himself as "Wile E. Coyote — super genius", voiced with an upper-class accent by Mel Blanc. The Road Runner vocalizes only with a signature sound, "Beep, Beep", recorded by Paul Julian, and an occasional "popping-cork" tongue noise.
"Fail vs Epic Fail"
To date, 48 cartoons have been made featuring these characters (including the three CGI shorts), the majority by Chuck Jones. TV Guide included Wile E. Coyote in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.
Jones based the Coyote on Mark Twain's book Roughing It,
in which Twain described the coyote as "a long, slim, sick and
sorry-looking skeleton" that is "a living, breathing allegory of Want.
He is always hungry." Jones said he created the Coyote-Road Runner cartoons as a parody of traditional "cat and mouse" cartoons such as MGM's Tom and Jerry, which Jones would work on as a director later in his career. Jones modelled the Coyote's appearance on fellow animator Ken Harris.
The Coyote's name of Wile E. is a play on the word "wily." The "E"
was said to stand for Ethelbert in one issue of a Looney Tunes comic
book, but its writer had not intended it to be canon. The Coyote's surname is routinely pronounced with a long "e" (/kaɪˈoʊtiː/ky-OH-tee), but in one cartoon short, To Hare Is Human, Wile E. is heard pronouncing it with a diphthong (/kaɪˈoʊteɪ/ky-OH-tay). Early model sheets for the character prior to his initial appearance (in Fast and Furry-ous) identified him as "Don Coyote", a play on Don Quixote.
The desert scenery in the first two Road Runner cartoons, Fast and Furry-ous (1949) and Beep, Beep (mid-1950), was designed by Robert Gribbroek and was quite realistic. In most later cartoons the scenery was designed by Maurice Noble and was far more abstract. Several different styles were used. In The Wild Chase (1965), featuring a race between the Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales, it is stated that the Road Runner is from Texas,
insofar as the race announcer calls it the "Texas Road Burner." That
suggests that most of the Wile E. and Road Runner cartoons could take
place in Texas. However, in To Beep or Not to Beep,
the catapult is constructed by the Road-Runner Manufacturing Company,
which has locations in Taos, Phoenix, Santa Fe, and Flagstaff,
suggesting that it takes place in or near the Four Corners (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado) region, specifically Monument Valley.
In Going! Going! Gosh! (late 1951) through Guided Muscle
(late 1954) the scenery was "semi-realistic" with an offwhite sky
(possibly suggesting overcast/cloudy weather condition). Gravity-defying
rock formations appeared in Ready, Set, Zoom! (early 1954). A bright yellow sky made its debut in Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z (early 1955) but was not used consistently until There They Go-Go-Go!, later in the same year. Zoom and Bored
(late 1956) introduced a major change in background style. Sharp,
top-heavy rock formations became more prominent, and warm colors
(yellow, orange, and red) were favored. Bushes were crescent-shaped.
Except for Whoa, Be-Gone! (early 1957), whose scenery design harked back to Guided Muscle in certain aspects (such as off-white sky), this style of scenery was retained as far as Fastest with the Mostest (early 1959). Hopalong Casualty
(mid–1959) changed the color scheme, with the sky reverting to blue,
and some rocks becoming off-white, while the bright yellow desert sand
color is retained, along with the 'sharp' style of rock formations
pioneered by Zoom and Bored. The crescent shapes used for bushes starting with Zoom and Bored were retained, and also applied to clouds. In the last scene of War and Pieces (1963), Wile E. Coyote's rocket blasts him through the center of the Earth to China, which is portrayed with abstract Oriental backgrounds.
The Format Films cartoons used a style of scenery similar to Hopalong Casualty and its successors, albeit less detailed and with small puffy clouds rather than crescent-shaped ones. Freeze Frame, a made-for-television short originally shown as part of the 1979 CBS special Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales, depicts the Road Runner taking a turn that leads the chase into mountains and across a wintry landscape of ice and snow.
Wile E. Coyote often obtains complex and ludicrous devices from a mail-order company, the fictitious Acme Corporation,
which he hopes will help him catch the Road Runner. The devices
invariably fail in improbable and spectacular ways. Whether this is
result of operator error or faulty merchandise is debatable. The coyote
usually ends up burnt to a crisp, squashed flat, or at the bottom of a canyon
(some shorts show him suffering a combination of these fates).
Occasionally Acme products do work quite well (e.g. the Dehydrated
Boulders, Bat-Man Outfit, Rocket Sled, Jet Powered Roller Skates, or
Earthquake Pills). In this case their success often works against the
coyote. For example, the Dehydrated Boulder, upon hydration, becomes so
large that it crushes him, or the Coyote finds out that the Earthquake
Pills bottle label's fine print states that the pills aren’t effective
on road runners, right after he swallows the whole bottle, thinking
they're ineffective. Other times he uses items that are implausible,
such as a superhero outfit, thinking he could fly wearing it. (He
cannot.)
How the coyote acquires these products without money is not explained until the 2003 movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action, in which he is shown to be an employee of Acme. In a Tiny Toon Adventures episode, Wile E. makes mention of his protégé Calamity Coyote possessing an unlimited Acme credit card account, which might serve as another possible explanation. Wile E. being a "beta tester"
for Acme has been another suggested explanation. Wile E. also uses war
equipment such as cannons, rocket launchers, grenades, and bayonets
which are "generic", not Acme products. In a Cartoon Network
commercial promoting Looney Tunes, they ask the Coyote why he insists
on purchasing products from the Acme Corporation when all previous
contraptions have backfired on him, to which the Coyote responds with a
wooden sign (right after another item blows up in his face): "Good line of Credit."
In Whoa, Be-Gone!, after successfully avoiding being hit by his own rocket, the coyote is run over by an "ACME" truck emerging from a tunnel.
The company name was likely chosen for its irony (acme means the highest point, as of achievement or development).
Also, a company named ACME would have shown up in the first part of a
telephone directory. Some people have said ACME comes from the common
expansion A (or American) Company that Makes (or Making) Everything, a backronym
of the word. The origin of the name might also be related to the Acme
company that built a fine line of animation stands and optical printers;
however, the most likely explanation is the Sears house brand called
Acme that appeared in their ubiquitous early 1900s mail-order
catalogues.
As in other cartoons, the Road Runner and the coyote follow the laws of cartoon physics. For example, the Road Runner has the ability to enter the painted image of a cave,
while the coyote cannot (unless there is an opening through which he
can fall). Sometimes, however, this is reversed, and the Road Runner can
burst through a painting of a broken bridge and continue on his way,
while the Coyote will instead enter the mirage painting and fall down
the precipice of the cliff where the bridge is out. Sometimes the coyote
is allowed to hang in midair until he realizes that he is about to
plummet into a chasm (a process occasionally referred to elsewhere as Road-Runnering or a Wile E. Coyote moment).
The coyote can overtake rocks (or cannons) which fall earlier than he
does, and end up being squashed by them. If a chase sequence runs over
the edge of a cliff, the Road Runner is not affected by gravity, whereas
the Coyote will realize his error eventually and fall to the ground
below. A chase sequence that happens upon railroad tracks will always
result in the Coyote being run over by a train. If the Coyote uses an
explosive (for instance, dynamite) that is triggered by a mechanism that
is supposed to force the explosive in a forward motion toward its
target, the actual mechanism itself will always shoot forward, leaving
the explosive behind to detonate in the Coyote's face. Similarly, a
complex apparatus that is supposed to propel an object like a boulder or
steel ball forward, or trigger a trap, will not work on the Road
Runner, but always will on the Coyote. For instance, the Road Runner can
jump up and down on the trigger of a large animal trap and eat bird
seed off from it, going completely unharmed and not setting off the
trap; when the Coyote places the tiniest droplet of oil on the trigger,
the trap snaps shut on him without fail. At certain times, the Coyote
may don an exquisite Acme costume or propulsion device that briefly
allows him to catch up to the Road Runner. This will always result in
him losing track of his proximity to large cliffs or walls, and the Road
Runner will dart around an extremely sharp turn on a cliff, but the
Coyote will rocket right over the edge and fall to the ground.
In his book Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist,
Chuck Jones claimed that he and the artists behind the Road Runner and
Wile E. cartoons adhered to some simple but strict rules:
The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going "beep beep."
No outside force can harm the Coyote — only his own ineptitude or
the failure of Acme products. Trains and trucks were the exception from
time to time.
The Coyote could stop anytime — if he were not a fanatic. (Repeat: "A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim." — George Santayana).
Dialogue must never be used, except "beep, beep" and yowling in pain. (This rule, however, was violated in some cartoons.)
The Road Runner must stay on the road — for no other reason than that he's a roadrunner. This rule was broken in Beep, Beep, in a sequence where Wile E. chased the Road Runner into a cactus mine. And also in Fastest with the Mostest when Coyote lures Road Runner to the edge of a cliff.
All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters — the southwest American desert.
All (or at least almost all) tools, weapons, or mechanical
conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation. There were
sometimes exceptions when the Coyote obtained other items from the
desert such as boulders to use in his attempts.
Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy (e.g., falling off a cliff).
The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.
The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote.
The Coyote is not allowed to catch or eat the Road Runner, unless he
escapes from the grasp. (The robot that the Coyote created in The Solid Tin Coyote caught the Road Runner so this does not break this rule. The Coyote does catch the Road Runner in Soup or Sonic but is too small to eat him. There are also two CGI shorts on The Looney Tunes Show where he caught the bird, but was not able to eat him because the Road Runner got away in both shorts.
In an interview years after the series was made, writer Michael Maltese said he had never heard of the "Rules."
Bugs Bunny and Wile E with a music video
Wile E. Coyote has also unsuccessfully attempted to catch and eat Bugs Bunny
in another series of cartoons. In these cartoons, the coyote takes on
the guise of a self-described "super genius" and speaks with a smooth,
generic upper-class accent provided by Mel Blanc.
While he is incredibly intelligent, he is limited by technology and his
own short-sighted arrogance, and is thus often easily outsmarted, a
somewhat physical symbolism of "street smarts" besting "book smarts".
In one short (Hare-Breadth Hurry, 1963), Bugs — with the help of "speed pills" — even stands in for Road Runner, who has "sprained a giblet",
and carries out the duties of outsmarting the hungry scavenger. That is
the only Bugs Bunny/Wile E. Coyote short in which the coyote does not
speak, and to use the Wile E Coyote/Road Runner cartoon formula. As
usual Wile E. Coyote ends up falling down a canyon and fails to catch
and eat Bugs Bunny, much like how the coyote fails to catch and eat the
Road Runner.
In a later, made-for-TV short, which had a young Elmer Fudd
chasing a young Bugs, Elmer also falls down a canyon. On the way down
he is overtaken by Wile E. Coyote who shows a sign telling Elmer to get
out of the way for someone who is more experienced in falling.
In the 1962 pilot for a proposed television series (but instead released as a theatrical featurrette titled Adventures of the Road-Runner — when the project failed as TV pilot, it was reedited intoTo Beep or Not to Beep by Chuck Jones with additional new music by Bill Lava. But few years later reedited again into Zip Zip Hooray! and Road Runner a Go-Go, by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises).
Chuck Jones' 1979 movieThe Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie
features Jones' characters, including Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.
However, whereas most of the featured cartoons are single cartoons or
sometimes isolated clips, the footage of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
is taken from several different cartoons and compiled to run as one
extended sequence.
Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner have two cameo roles in Robert Zemeckis' Who Framed Roger Rabbit first silhouetted when the elevator maneuvered by Droopy goes up, and then during the final scene in Marvin Acme's factory with several other Looney Tunes and other studio characters.
Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner appear as members of the Tune Squad team in Space Jam.
There, Wile E. rigs one of the basketball hoops with dynamite to
prevent one of the Monstars from scoring a slam dunk. And during
practice before Lola Bunny
shows up, Wile E. Coyote gets his hands on a basketball, but the Road
Runner steals the ball from him, and heads into a painted image. But
Wile E. doesn't know it's a painted image, and he runs right into it.
Wile E. Coyote appears as an employee of the Acme Corporation in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. There, his role is similar to that of Mustafa from the Austin Powers movies.
Wile E. Coyote also makes a brief cameo in Tweety's High-Flying Adventure, being held by the neck by the Tasmanian Devil holding up a sign that says "Mother" before they both fall in the sea.
Wile E. is an employee at Daffy Duck's store, in the film Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas.
He is seen staring hungrily at a vending machine but Daffy does not
allow him to eat during work hours. The Road Runner also appears as an
employee as a delivery boy.
The two appeared in many different advertisements for Shell, Honey Nut Cheerios and Wile E. appears without the bird in adverts for the Energizer Bunny.
In 2012, both Wile E Coyote and Road Runner appeared in a GEICO
commercial, in which the wandering gecko is lost. While he is doing so,
he nearly gets crushed with an anvil, and then a piano. Just after this
happens, Road Runner runs up to him, says its trademark phrase, "Beep
beep!" and goes on his way. The gecko then gets confused about the Road
Runner's catchphrase by saying "Meep, meep." Suddenly, Wile E., chasing
the Road Runner, runs up, sees the gecko and imagines him as his dinner,
but while doing so, is driven into the ground by a falling Acme safe.
The commercial ends with the gecko concluding, "What a strange place."
The two also appeared in the webtoons "Wild King Dumb", "Judge Granny: Case 2" and "Wile E. Coyote Ugly" on looneytunes.com.
Wile E. appears as a defendant on the show Night Court
and is subjected to a stern lecture by Judge Harold T. Stone, who tells
him to "go to a restaurant, a supermarket, but leave that poor bird
alone!" and finds Wile E. guilty of harassment.
In another series of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons, Chuck Jones used the character design (model sheets and personality) of Wile E. Coyote as "Ralph Wolf".
In this series, Ralph continually attempts to steal sheep from a flock being guarded by the eternally vigilant Sam Sheepdog. As with the Road Runner series, Ralph Wolf uses all sorts of wild inventions and schemes to steal the sheep, but he is continually foiled by the sheepdog.
In a move seen by many as a self-referential gag, Ralph Wolf
continually tries to steal the sheep not because he is a fanatic (as
Wile E. Coyote was), but because it is his job. In every cartoon, he and
the sheepdog punch a timeclock, exchange pleasantries, go to work, take
a lunch break, and clock out to go home for the day, all according to a
factory-like blowing whistle. The most prominent difference between the
coyote and the wolf, aside from their locales, is that Wile E. has a black nose and Ralph has a red nose.
Wile E. was called Kelsey Coyote in his comic book debut, a Henery Hawk story in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies
#91 (May 1949). He only made a couple of other appearances at this
time. The first appearance of the Road Runner in a comic book was in Bugs Bunny Vacation Funnies #8 (August 1958) published by Dell Comics.
The feature is titled "Beep Beep the Road Runner" and the story "Desert
Dessert". It presents itself as the first meeting between Beep Beep and
Wile E. (whose mailbox reads "Wile E. Coyote, Inventor and Genius"),
and introduces the Road Runner's wife, Matilda, and their three newly
hatched sons (though Matilda would soon disappear from the comics). This
story established the convention that the Road Runner family talked in
rhyme in the comics.
Dell initially published a dedicated "Beep Beep the Road Runner" comic as part of Four Color Comics
#918, 1008, and 1046 before launching a separate series for the
character numbered #4–14 (1960–1962), with the three try-out issues
counted as the first three numbers. After a hiatus, Gold Key Comics took over the character with issues #1–88 (1966–1984). During the 1960s, the artwork was done by Pete Alvarado and Phil DeLara;
from 1966–1969, the Gold Key issues consisted of Dell reprints.
Afterward, new stories began to appear, initially drawn by Alvarado and
De Lara before Jack Manning became the main artist for the title. New
and reprinted Beep Beep stories also appeared in Golden Comics Digest and Gold Key's revival of Looney Tunes in the 1970s. During this period, Wile E.'s middle name was revealed to be "Ethelbert" in the story "The Greatest of E's" in issue #53 (cover-date September 1975) of Gold Key Comics' licensed comic book, Beep Beep the Road Runner.
The Road Runner and Wile E. also make appearances in the DC ComicsLooney Tunes title.
The Road Runner and the Coyote appeared on Saturday mornings as the stars of their own TV series, The Road Runner Show, from September 1966 to September 1968, on CBS. At this time it was merged with The Bugs Bunny Show to become The Bugs Bunny and Road Runner Show, running from 1968 to 1985. The show was later seen on ABC until 2000, and on Global until 2001. The theme song of the TV series went as follows: If you're on a highway and Road Runner goes Meep-Meep,/ Just step aside or you might end up in a heap./ Road Runner, Road Runner runs on the road all day,/ Even the Coyote can't make him change his ways.
Chorus: Road Runner,/ The Coyote's after you!/ Road Runner,/ If he catches you, you're through!
(repeat of chorus) That Coyote is really a crazy clown;/ When will he learn that he never can mow him down?/ Poor little Road Runner never bothers anyone;/ Just running down the road's his idea of having fun!
(non-verbal chorus and repeat of chorus)
In the 1970s, Chuck Jones directed some Road Runner short films for the educational children's TV series The Electric Company.
These short cartoons used the Coyote and the Road Runner to display
words for children to read, but the cartoons themselves are a refreshing
return to Jones' glory days.
In 1979, Freeze Frame, in which Jones moved the chase from the desert to snow covered mountains, was seen as part of Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales.
At the end of Bugs Bunny's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny (the initial sequence of Chuck Jones' TV special, Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over),
Bugs mentions to the audience that he and Elmer may have been the first
pair of characters to have chase scenes in these cartoons, but then a
pint-sized baby Wile E. Coyote (wearing a diaper and holding a small
knife and fork) runs right in front of Bugs, chasing a gold-colored,
mostly unhatched (except for the tail, which is sticking out) Road
Runner egg, which is running rapidly while some high-pitched "beep,
beep" noises can be heard. This was followed by the full-fledged
Runner/Coyote short, Soup or Sonic.
Earlier in that story, while kid Elmer was falling from a cliff, Wile
E. Coyote's adult self tells him to move over and leave falling to
people who know how to do it and then he falls, followed by Elmer.
In the 1980s, ABC began showing many Warner Bros.
shorts, but in highly edited form, because the unedited versions were
supposedly too violent. Many scenes integral to the stories were taken
out, including scenes in which Wile E. Coyote landed at the bottom of
the canyon after having fallen from a cliff, or had a boulder or anvil
actually make contact with him. In almost all WB animated features,
scenes where a character's face was burnt and black, resembling blackface, were removed, as were animated characters smoking cigarettes,
or even simulated cigarettes. Some cigar smoking scenes were left in.
The unedited versions of these shorts (with the exception of ones with
blackface) were not seen again until Cartoon Network, and later Boomerang, began showing them again in the 1990s and early 2000s. Since the release of the WB library of cartoons on DVD, Boomerang has stopped showing the cartoons, presumably to increase sales of the DVDs.
Though Wile E. Coyote isn't seen in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue he is mentioned by Bugs Bunny saying that he borrowed his time machine.
Wile E. and the Road Runner later appeared in several episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures. In this series, Wile E. (voiced in the Jim Reardon episode "Piece of Mind" by Joe Alaskey) was the dean of Acme Looniversity and the mentor of Calamity Coyote. The Road Runner's protégé in this series was Little Beeper. In the episode "Piece of Mind", Wile E. narrates the life story of Calamity while Calamity is falling from the top of a tall skyscraper. In the direct-to-video movie Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, the Road Runner finally gets a taste of humiliation by getting run over by a mail truck that "brakes for coyotes."
The two were also seen in cameos in Animaniacs. They were together in two "Slappy Squirrel" cartoons: "Bumbie's Mom" and "Little Old Slappy from Pasadena".
In the latter the Road Runner gets another taste of humiliation when he
is outrun by Slappy's car, and holds up a sign saying "I quit" —
immediately afterward, Buttons, who was launched into the air during a previous gag, lands squarely on top of him. Wile E. appears without the bird in a The Wizard of Ozparody, dressed in his batsuit from one short, in a twister (tornado) funnel in "Buttons in Ows". Also, in the beginning of one episode, an artist is seen drawing Road Runner.
In a Cartoon Network TV ad about The Acme Hour, Wile E. Coyote utilized a pair of jet roller skates to catch the Road Runner and (quite surprisingly) didn't
fail. While he was cooking his prey, it was revealed that the roller
skates came from a generic brand. The ad said that other brand isn't the
same thing.
Wile E. and Road Runner appeared in their toddler versions in Baby Looney Tunes,
only in songs. However, they both had made a cameo in the episode, "Are
We There Yet?", where Road Runner was seen out the window of Floyd's
car with Wile E. chasing him.
Wile E. Coyote had a cameo as the true identity of an alien hunter (a parody of Predator) in the Duck Dodgers episode "K-9 Quarry," voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. In that episode, he was hunting Martian Commander X-2 and K-9.
In Loonatics Unleashed, Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner's 28th century descendants are Tech E. Coyote and Rev Runner.
Tech E. Coyote was the tech expert of the Loonatics (influenced by the
past cartoons with many of the machines ordered by Wile E. from Acme),
and has magnetic hands and the ability to molecularly regenerate
himself (influenced by the many times in which Wile E. painfully failed
to capture Roadrunner and then was shown to have miraculously
recovered). Tech E. Coyote speaks, but does not have a British accent as
Wile E. Coyote did. Rev Runner is also able to talk, though extremely
rapidly, and can fly without the use of jet packs,
which are used by other members of the Loonatics. He also has super
speed, also a take off of Roadrunner. Ironically, the pair get on rather
well, despite the number of gadgets Tech designs in order to stop Rev
talking. Also they have their moments where they don't get along. When
friendship is shown it is often only from Rev to Tech, not the other way
around; this could however be attributed to the fact that Tech has only
the bare minimum of social skills. They are both portrayed as smart,
but Tech is the better inventor and at times Rev was shown doing stupid
things. References to ancestor's past are seen in the episode "Family
Business" where the other Runners are wary of Tech and Tech relives the
famous falling gags done in Coyote/Runner shorts.
Road Runner appears in an episode of the 1990 series Taz-Mania
in which Taz grabs it by the leg & gets ready to eat it until the
two gators are ready to capture Taz so he lets Road Runner go. In
another episode of Taz-Mania the Road Runner cartoons are
parodied with Taz dressed as Road Runner and the character Willy Wombat
dressed as Wile E. Coyote. Willy tries to catch Taz with Acme Roller
Skates but fails, and Taz even says "Beep, beep".
Road Runner and Wile E. feature in 3D computer animated cartoons or cartoon animation in Cartoon Network's new TV series The Looney Tunes Show.
The CGI shorts were only included in season one but Wile E. & Road
Runner will still appear throughout the series in 2D animation. Road
Runner and Coyote Will also appear in the upcoming TV series Wabbit.
Several Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner-themed video games have been produced:
Looney Tunes Double Pack (published by Majesco Entertainment, developed by WayForward Technologies, where "Acme Antics" is the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner half of the double pack)
In the film "The Shining",(1980), Danny And Wendy are watching the
Road Runner on television, in their hotel room. Later on , when Jack
chases Danny and Wendy through the hedges, Jack becomes the Coyote, who
fails, while Wendy and Danny become the Road Runner, who successfully
escapes to freedom.
Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner have been frequently referenced in popular culture. The Villain (directed by Hal Needham) is a parody of these animated shorts as well as being a spoof of westerns. In The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!, Road Runner gets run down and dies, after which Coyote commits suicide by shooting himself in the head with a prop gun.
In an episode of Cheers, some bar patrons discuss the Road Runner cartoons. The discussion continues and builds in intensity as a minor subplot
throughout the entire episode until at the end of the show some of the
bar patrons are boisterously declaring that the Coyote character is
meant to be symbolic of the Antichrist. Wile E. Coyote appeared briefly in an episode of the live-action show Night Court, where he was admonished by Judge Harry Stone for chasing a bird.
Wile E. Coyote has appeared two times in Family Guy: his first episode, I Never Met the Dead Man, depicts him riding in a car with Peter Griffin; when Peter runs over the Road Runner and asks if he hit "that ostrich", Wile E. tells him to keep going. In PTV,
Wile E. appears in a flashback when Peter offers a store credit when
Wile E. claims a refund for a giant sling shot that "slammed me into a
mountain".
Wile E. also appears on the DVD version of Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy
in a segment called "Die, Sweet Roadrunner, Die". In the segment, Wile
E. finally manages to kill the Road Runner (by accident) and eats him
for dinner, and then he has no idea what to do with the rest of his life
because he has been "chasing that damn bird for almost 20 years". Wile
E. becomes an alcoholic and is fired from his job as a waiter after
having an outburst when he messes up an order. Wile E. almost commits
suicide by catapulting into a cliff, but has a revelation and decides to
be an evangelist.
The Road Runner made a cameo in The Cleveland Show episode "Pilot".
In the episode, Peter Griffin straps a rocket to his back in a parody
of Wile E., and tries to catch the Road Runner only so he can blow up Cleveland Brown's house.
Wile E. made a cameo in The Simpsons episode "Smoke on the Daughter" on the couch gag in which he paints a fake couch on the living room wall and leaves and the Simpsons then run into the wall as Maggie zooms in and says the Road Runner's catchphrase "Beep, beep!" The Simpsons has also referenced Wile E. and the Road Runner in several other episodes including "The Scorpion's Tale", which showed a real coyote chasing a real roadrunner.
Wile E. appears in the South Park episode "Imaginationland Episode III"
in which he was rabid and marches among myriad other evil fictional
characters to battle against the surviving good characters. The Looney Tunes characters who appeared with him included Marvin the Martian and Gossamer.
In a Robot Chicken
segment, Wile E. pretends to commit suicide. The Road Runner goes to
Coyote's funeral and when the Coyote reveals he is not dead, he kills
the Road Runner with a blowtorch and then eats the bird. 101 Dalmatians: The Series included a parody of the cartoons in the episode The Making Of..., where Cruella De Vil takes the coyote's role, and Spot the Roadrunner's.
Guitarist Mark Knopfler created a song called "Coyote" in homage to the cartoon shows of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, on the 2002 album The Ragpicker's Dream. The Tom Smith song "Operation Desert Storm", which won a Pegasus award for Best Fool Song in 1999, is about the different crazy ways the Coyote's plans fail.
Humorist Ian Frazier created the mock-legal prose piece "Coyote v. Acme", which is included in a book of the same name. Karen Salmansohn wrote an article on The Huffington Post centering on the characters.
In the Cartoon Network TV series Class of 3000,
a parody version Wile E. Coyote is seen constantly in one episode,
using rocket shoes and howling like a real life coyote. His Latin name
is "Jokis Callbackus".
In 2009, a group of EMRTC engineers attempt to recreate Wile E. Coyote's failed contraptions on a TruTV series Man vs. Cartoon.
In the What's New Scooby-Doo?
episode "New Mexico, Old Monster" Scooby-Doo sees both Road Runner and
Wile E. within their usual desert speed chase out the window of the
Mystery Machine. After the usual failure by Wile E., it left Scooby to
be saying "beep-beep". In the 2010 TV series Kick Buttowski Suburban
Daredevil episode Kyle E. Coyote Kick and his cousin Kyle do an
imitation of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote by using the type of
gags from the cartoons.
In the Total Drama Island episode "Wawkanakwa Gone Wild" the duck Gwen meets parodies Roadrunner, such as the running and the tongue sticking.
Road Runner appeared in the Mad
segment "Meep! My Dad Says" as a father. In the sketch "RiOa", Road
Runner finds a ring in his lunch and gets the power to fly as Wile E.
gets hit on the head by an anvil. In "Body of Pwoof", Road Runner is
dead and at a hospital and Elmer Fudd blames Wile E. for killing the
Road Runner. Road Runner is also seen in the sketch "Does Someone Have
to GOa?" In another Mad segment, Road Runner gets arrested for speeding and Wile E. gets arrested for using an illegal rocket.
In a 2013 episode of Saturday Night Live, Weekend Update
reported on a proposed bounty for killing coyotes in Pennsylvania to
reduce the coyote population, and whimsically implied the legislation
was initiated by the Road Runner, whose comment was "Beep beep!"
The Farscape
episode "Revenging Angel" has many small animated segments reminiscent
of Road Runner cartoons where D'Argo pursues John Crichton while using
ridiculous weapons and plans which, of course, always go wrong.
While not mentioned by name in the Wild Kratts
episode entitled "Road Runner," there have been several allusions and
mentions of the cartoon duo throughout the episode. Especially when it
came to the actual fact that in reality, coyotes could catch road
runners.
In the Lilo & Stitch: The Series episode "Slushy", when Lilo takes Slushy (Experiment 523) away from Gantu, Gantu falls off a cliff like Wile E. Coyote.
