A couple months ago I wrote a blog post on Kellogg’s Unicorn Cereal. I reviewed the cereal because it was bright, colorful, and odd to make for great content. The response to that post was terrific.
I’m back on the “novelty food" beat with a review of Nabisco’s Limited Edition Celebrate Mickey Birthday Cake Oreos (the name alone is a mouthful).
I’ve sampled a number of these peculiar, special edition Oreo cookies in the past. I’ve had everything from Peep-flavored cookies at Easter to apple pie Oreos in autumn.
Some of the flavors are good. Others taste awful.
These Mickey Mouse Oreos are somewhere in the middle. They aren’t awful, but they aren’t spectacular.
The cookies feature traditional chocolate Oreo wafers on the outside. The filling is somewhat similar to regular Oreo filling, but has birthday cake confetti pieces in it, and the overall experience leaves a strong aftertaste.
There are three unique wafers on the cookies in the pack. One features the number “90,” another features a party kazoo, and the third features Mickey Mouse.
I hate to be a party pooper, but I wouldn't recommend this variety of Oreo.
The “birthday cake” concept is popular among artery-hardening snack foods, but this is a party you want to leave early...
“It feels like we were just here, but it’s 23 years ago. That’s a long time...” -- Andrew Lewis
In the summer of 1995, Bridget and I had the opportunity to do internships in the public relations department at Bellevue University.
For those unfamiliar with Bellevue University, it is a small, nonprofit school nestled in … where else: Bellevue, Nebraska. The school serves various demographics, including non-traditional professionals working on their degrees, with special emphasis on military personnel. (Bellevue University's website boasts that the school is "routinely ranked among the nation's top military-friendly institutions.")
At the time we worked there, we were in the midst of earning journalism degrees from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Bridget’s oldest brother, Sean, was the director of public relations at Bellevue University in the mid 1990s. He brought in both of us to help him with projects and programs under his charge (the biggest being an updated student handbook).
I learned a great deal during that summer.
The experience planted the seeds for us to start our own marketing communications business the following year (a business that keeps a roof over our heads to this day).
It also allowed us to experience an often “unheralded” achievement in the annals of Nebraska sports history. The Bellevue University Bruins baseball team won the NAIA College World Series that year. They were known as the "Cardiac Bruins" for their ability to come-from-behind and keep the dream (and season) alive. The team became only the third team in NAIA history to come back and win the World Series after losing the opening game.
After the team won the national championship, Bridget and I helped Sean design t-shirts and signage and assisted with the planning for the team’s victory party at the university’s student center.
The 1995 team was recently honored at the 6th Annual Bellevue University Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Aug. 4 at the John B. Muller Adminstrative Services Building.
Life is full of serendipitous moments. One of the members of that team is our friend Andrew Lewis.
AJ (as Bridget and I know him) is someone we met after our time at Bellevue University. We know him through UNO Hockey — and our fan site MavPuck.com.
He acted as a quasi-SID during his time as a player on the Bruin team — a role that took on significant importance during the team’s magical run in the 1995 NAIA College World Series.
One of the things I love about sports — no matter what your role — is how they forge lasting bonds between disparate people.
It was wonderful catching up with AJ during the festivities in August. He and his family live in Kentucky these days, so it was nice to chat in person.
AJ spoke on behalf of the team during the ceremony. He is a passionate speaker and did a terrific job capturing the essence of the team’s championship run.
He even gave a “shout out” to Bridget and I during his talk: “Jon and Bridget were along for that ride... and it was a blast! I know them from UNO Hockey, and we have a great time talking about those days.”
My brother-in-law, Sean, died unexpectedly last year at age 49 from undiagnosed diabetes. He would have loved attending the ceremony — and likely would have had unique insights surrounding the baseball team’s 1995 run.
“Sean Weide was my help in the front office here at the U,” AJ told attendees. “Sean passed away last year. He was a wonderful friend.”
Bridget and I are the same age as the players on that 1995 team. It is amazing how fast 23 years fly by... and how different life looks at 45 than it did at 22.
The ceremony featured a highlight compilation from the team’s 1995 run in the NAIA College World Series — with player commentary interspersed throughout.
“No matter how much destiny you think you have, and it is a game of inches, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” AJ said in his speech.
AJ described the 1995 Bellevue Bruin Baseball team as being “scrappy as hell” — a team that was angry about a missed opportunity to win a championship in 1994. “We learned our roles, we acknowledged our roles, we did not accept our roles. And there is a huge difference between acknowledging your role and accepting your role.”
AJ said that while his teammates didn’t always accept their role, they worked within the framework to make sure they were the “best damn” players they could be in those roles.
While Bridget and I weren’t part of the heroics brought by 1995 Bellevue University Bruin Baseball team that summer, we were still part of a team at the university.
As I mentioned earlier, my brother-in-law Sean was kind enough to give us internships working for him in public relations at the university.
Sean wasn’t a warm and fuzzy guy in the work environment. He demanded the best when you worked for him — mainly because he demanded the best from himself.
He only had the resources to pay one of us an hourly wage. As a result, Bridget was the bread winner because she started there a couple weeks before me.
Even though I didn’t get paid for all the hours I put in, Sean came up with “creative ways” to pay me that summer. For example, he found money in his “freelance photographer” budget, and would periodically surprise me with a check for my work.
Much like the experience those young men had winning the NAIA College World Series, that experience — which only lasted a few months — had a profound impact on the professional I would eventually become.
As AJ says, “It always ends. And that goes for our team, to every team in the past, to every team in every sport... if we could give one piece of advice: Just enjoy it, enjoy each other.”
Nebraska is 151 years old. Sports aficionados here in Nebraska likely don’t realize that of the 17 colleges that have fielded a baseball team, there have been 938 seasons worth of teams.
All but one failed to win a national championship.
“One team out of 938 did what they set out to do,” said AJ. “That’s amazing, fellas.”
It is amazing, and I’m happy to have had a small part celebrating that team’s accomplishment in 1995... and recognizing the feat in 2018.
Bellevue University posted video of the 6th Annual Bellevue University Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on its YouTube channel:
Like many of you, I absolutely love the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The first trailer for “Captain Marvel” dropped yesterday.
I had heard a week or two ago that “Captain Marvel” wasn’t going to be an origin story. The news left some fans scratching their heads about the direction this new MCU entry would take.
The new trailer seems to answer that question.
Captain Marvel is the alter-ego of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson). According to a cursory web search, the Carol Danvers backstory is that of a capable Air Force fighter pilot who ends up working at NASA.
At NASA, Danvers works with Walter Lawson (Jude Law). Lawson is apparently a Kree super agent known as Mar-Vell (the alien race is featured prominently in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies).
I don’t want to delve into Danvers’s entire backstory, but she eventually transforms from her human form and develops powers similar to Mar-Vell, becoming the superhero Captain Marvel.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get back to the trailer...
“Captain Marvel” takes place in the 1990s. The trailer establishes this fact by showing Danvers crashing into a Blockbuster Video store — a great bit of nostalgia in my opinion.
As the trailer progresses, we get the distinct impression that Danvers has a vague recollection of her past. She is recruited in the trailer by a young Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).
I don’t know what all the intricacies of the story will be, but the first trailer looks cool. Looking forward to seeing more in the coming months.
There is a bit in the trailer where Captain Marvel slugs an old lady in the face. I would imagine it isn’t some innocent AARP member she decks...
When I heard Jennifer Garner was starring in a revenge movie helmed by Pierre Morel (the director of “Taken”), I was pretty excited.
I didn’t have particularly lofty expectations for Garner’s new film “Peppermint,” but I figured it might be an amusing diversion.
Ever since Garner starred in the TV series “Alias,” I’ve been a big fan. When that show aired, I told Bridget, “That girl is talented... she can kick ass, then cry on cue, and it all feels authentic.”
Those traits are on full display in “Peppermint.”
“Peppermint” tells the story of Riley North (Garner), a mother who seeks revenge when her husband and daughter are gunned down at a carnival by members of a Los Angeles drug cartel.
That might be the simplest plot summary I’ve ever written on this blog.
The setup for “Peppermint” is a bit more involved than that, but do you really need to know more?
Nah, probably not.
Suffice it to say, the perpetrators aren’t brought to justice. Riley North absconds with $55,000 (from the bank she works at) and disappears overseas for five years — where she learns to shoot guns, do mixed martial arts, and become a general bad ass.
She surfaces near the anniversary of the killings, ready to mete out justice on those who “done her wrong.”
I was entertained while watching “Peppermint.”
That said, there were significant flaws in the movie — big and small.
For example, after the deaths of her children, Riley North is prescribed Lorazepam — a medication that is referred to in the movie as an “anti-psychotic” drug (something used to discredit Riley during courtroom testimony).
A cursory Google search will tell you that the drug is not classified as such.
The reason I checked is that I’ve had elderly relatives who’ve taken the drug in conjunction with surgery (afterwards, to help with sleep).
That’s just lazy writing, in my opinion.
In addition to those “factoid foibles,” the filmmakers also tried too hard to wrap up all the loose ends in the story. As a result, the movie might have gone on longer than it should.
The longer the movie went on, the more time there was to poke holes in the plot.
Revenge stories aren’t always the most plausible tales, but if the filmmakers keep the narrative moving, those holes are less noticeable.
The most compelling revenge tale of the past decade was 2014’s “John Wick.”
“Peppermint” doesn’t achieve the quality seen in “John Wick” (despite amping up the gun play and fisticuffs).
By the way, are you wondering where the title “Peppermint” comes from?
The flavor of ice cream Riley North’s daughter Carly orders — just before her murder — is peppermint. What’s odd is that fact didn’t come into play as the movie wore on, nor did it have any particular significance.
In some respects, “Peppermint” tried to walk in the footsteps of the 2011 Zoe Saldana movie “Colombiana.”
Both movies are B-movie revenge tales, both movies star alums of the TV series “Alias” (Michael Vartan plays Danny Delaney in “Colombiana”), and both movies feature French directors from the “Taken” franchise.
The fact is I liked “Colombiana” more, and am disappointed “Peppermint” wasn’t as compelling.
We’re not talking high art here. The bar is pretty low with these sorts of movies.
“Peppermint” could have been much better... despite Jennifer Garner's best efforts.
In the tradition of food trucks — and in the tradition of YouTubers “popping up” at shopping malls around the nation — Sanrio’s “Hello Kitty” brand has unleashed the “Hello Kitty Cafe Food Truck” on fans of cuteness across the fruited plain.
According to the Sanrio website, the food truck debuted at Hello Kitty Con 2014 — offering “super cute treats to fans in Southern California.” These days, there are two Hello Kitty Cafe Trucks that tour throughout the United States.
On Sept. 8, the Hello Kitty Cafe Food Truck came to Omaha, Since Bridget is a fan of the Hello Kitty brand, we made a trek out to Village Pointe shopping center to see the truck.
(We currently have a Hello Kitty ice pack in the freezer...and Bridget has carried Hello Kitty notebooks in her purse for years.)
The Hello Kitty Cafe Food Trucks are an offshoot of the brick-and-mortar Hello Kitty Cafe locations strewn around California (there are two mini-cafe locations, a pop-up container cafe, and a “grand cafe” in CA).
Those stores feature more in the way of Hello Kitty themed treats and snacks.
By the time we hit the Hello Kitty Cafe Food Truck, most of the “eatable” items were sold out. But Bridget was lucky enough to secure the 3-piece cookie set:
Because she purchased two of the cookie sets, she got the Hello Kitty mini-tote bag:
Back in June, I wrote a review of the second season of the Netflix series “The Toys That Made Us.” In that season, the show’s creators explored Hello Kitty. As I wrote in that post, the folks at Sanrio used a strategy called “kawaii” to build the brand’s popularity in the U.S. (which is some sort of voodoo-like cuteness quotient Hello Kitty possesses).
Judging by the number of people in line to purchase items during our afternoon visit (we were told there were “thousands” at the truck early in the day), it appears that Sanrio’s strategy continues to have a hook.
With the new Mitch Rapp novel “Red War” set to hit bookstores later this month, I’ve been on a mission to finish up all of the “post-Flynn” Rapp novels written by Kyle Mills.
In July I reviewed “The Survivor” — a terrific continuation of the series.
Mills is an adept writer. In addition to continuing the “Rappverse,” he has written novels under Robert Ludlum’s banner, and has a stable of content all his own.
“Order to Kill” finds CIA operative Mitch Rapp trying to stop Pakistani nuclear warheads from falling into the wrong hands.
In the early stages on the novel, Rapp is in South Africa trying to aid Claudia Gould (the wife of the deceased assassin who killed Rapp’s wife Anna in “Consent To Kill”) on a tip that someone is out to assassinate her.
It turns out a Russian thug and a couple Middle Easterners (suspected of being ISIS) are on scene to take down the unknowing woman and her daughter.
During the course of the derring-do, Rapp learns the assassination attempt is a distraction to keep him away from Pakistan.
Our hero surmises that this act of subterfuge means someone is planning to “make a move against one of the nukes the army’s moving around.”
Before we know it, Rapp is on a G550 to Islamabad — set to rendezvous with friend and former Navy SEAL Scott Coleman (a special operator who owns a private military company called “SEAL Demolition and Salvage Corporation”).
The whole setup is a trap put in place by an assassin named Grisha Azarov, who works at the behest of Russian President Maxim Vladimirovich Krupin.
It is part of an elaborate scheme the Russians have hatched with terrorists in the region — one that Rapp & Co. must work thwart in “Order To Kill.”
Kyle Mills has put together a terrific follow-up to “The Survivor.”
In “Order To Kill,” Mills is given more room to breathe as a writer. He does solid job creating a taut and intriguing Mitch Rapp novel.
One of the things I appreciate about “Order To Kill” is the fact that our protagonists aren’t invincible “He-Men” — which often seemed the case in some of Flynn’s latter novels.
Mills isn’t afraid to put Mitch Rapp through a meat grinder in “Order To Kill.” That strategy harkens back to action movies I grew up with like “Die Hard” and “Lethal Weapon” — stories where brawny protagonists took a beating before they could save the day.
I also think the novel’s main antagonist — Grisha Azarov — is one of the more compelling villains seen in the “Rappverse.”
Mills spent time fleshing out the villain’s personal side (ex. we get to see him at his retreat in Costa Rica during the course of the novel). The author was able to instill a bit of sympathy for the crafty assassin — which is difficult to do in genre stories like this.
Rapp novels aren’t typically known for subtlety and nuance, but the dance between Azarov and Rapp reminded me of the “cat and mouse” game played by Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Michael Mann’s brilliant crime drama “Heat.”
It is a difficult task to walk in another writer’s shoes. Kyle Mills deserves credit for helming the Mitch Rapp series with skilled precision.
One of my favorite novels of the past decade is “The Martian” by Andy Weir.
I don’t typically read a lot of science fiction (even though it seems like a genre I would read a lot), but I loved “The Martian.” I also enjoyed Ridley Scott’s movie adaptation starring Matt Damon.
The reason that novel is so compelling is the protagonist Mark Watney — brought to life with Weir’s relatable first-person narrative.
Last December I purchased Weir’s latest novel “Artemis.” The story itself isn’t a follow-up to “The Martian” (not a novel that lends itself to a sequel).
“Artemis” is told through the eyes of Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara — a 26-year-old porter and smuggler on the moon colony Artemis. Her favorite food is ginger ice cream, but Jazz (like many of the permanent inhabitants) primarily eats "gunk" — an algae-based food substance.
Despite the odd cuisine, Artemis is a city that revolves around tourism — featuring high-end hotels, tourist attractions, and gourmet food emporiums.
In Weir’s novel, tourism on the moon is spurred by affordable low-orbit flights (“Paging Elon Musk...”). I learned that little factoid in this terrific talk Weir gave at Google last November:
Readers of “The Martian” will appreciate Weir’s penchant for infusing science into the story. Readers learn that females can’t gestate a baby in lunar gravity because it “leads to birth defects” (and raising a baby on the moon is terrible for bone and muscle development).
The main narrative of the story focuses on Jazz’s life. She lives modestly as a porter on Artemis (supplementing her income smuggling outlawed items from earth). Her home is a scant hovel without a bathroom — an occupant can’t even stand up.
She dreams of simple things, like comfortable beds and private commodes.
Jazz imports contraband for a myriad of inhabitants, including a wealthy businessman named Trond Landvik.
Landvik makes Jazz an offer she can’t refuse — a huge sum of money to commit an act of sabotage so he can take control of services provided by a company called Sanchez Aluminum (the process of extracting aluminum from “moon rocks” has the ancillary effect of creating the city’s entire oxygen supply).
She accepts, but things soon go haywire. To make matters worse, Jazz finds herself the prime suspect in a murder.
“Artemis” isn’t as captivating as “The Martian,” but it is still a fairly intriguing novel.
Weir’s envisioned moon society tends toward “libertarianism” when it comes to certain rules and regulations (a trait my sister-in-law tells me is reminiscent of Robert Heinlein’s writing). That fact creates some interesting dynamics for Jazz to have to deal with in “Artemis.”
Some of the decisions Jazz makes (especially in the early parts of the novel) left me scratching my head, but the character readily admits she makes “poor choices.”
Like “The Martian,” science is employed to great effect in the final act. Things don’t always go according to plan. As Jazz muses during one of her capers, “a clumsy, awkward success is still a success.”
“Artemis” is being developed into a movie by 20th Century Fox. The film will be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller — the duo dismissed from “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
I’m curious to see what a movie version of “Artemis” will look like.
One of the reasons I was first drawn to Weir’s writing is because the author distributed “The Martian” in serialized form on his personal website — giving away chapters for free.
He eventually put the book in Kindle format (sold it for 99 cents) — attracting the attention of New York City publishing houses as it rose up the charts.
Weir’s path to publishing success is a neat one, and gives hope to aspiring writers.
When the Super Bowl ad aired for Amazon’s new streaming series “Jack Ryan,” it looked like a slam dunk.
I started reading Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels in 1989. I was a sophomore in high school, and my English teacher (who loosely followed the prescribed curriculum) gave us the option of reading a Clancy or Ludlum novel in the final weeks of the semester.
I chose to read “Patriot Games”... and the rest is history. Clancy’s novels spurred my passion for reading espionage-related fiction.
In my opinion, “The Hunt For Red October” is the entry that truly captures the essence of the Jack Ryan character (Alec Baldwin was very good in the movie).
Amazon’s new entry in the “Ryanverse” is a mixed bag. The first half of the 8-episode season feels uneven and (at times) awkward.
The setup for the first season of “Jack Ryan” is fairly routine. Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) is a former U.S. Marine and Wall Street analyst who works for the CIA’s T-FAD (Terror, Finance, and Arms Division).
Ryan is a desk jockey who scrutinizes “money movement” in an effort to track down various “bad actors” around the globe — including potential terror organizations.
In the first episode, Ryan uncovers millions of dollars in transactions tied to a suspicious player in Yemen named Suleiman. Ryan and new boss James Greer (Wendell Pierce) head overseas to investigate — to an American installation where they’re holding a pair suspected of involvement.
It turns out one of the men is Suleiman himself — a man with nefarious plans. Unfortunately, Ryan doesn’t realize the man is Suleiman until it’s too late. That sets into motion a tangle of knots our protagonists spend the first season of “Jack Ryan” working to untie.
We’ve seen these “follow the money” setups a number of times in the geopolitical thriller realm.
I don’t say that as a criticism. It is just well-worn territory.
The strongest aspect of “Jack Ryan” is John Krasinski. Some of you will remember Krasinski from the 2016 MIchael Bay movie “13 Hours” (about the 2012 tragedy in Benghazi). In my opinion, that film was basically a “demo reel” for Krasinki’s turn as Jack Ryan (Bay is an executive producer for the series).
Krasinski is solid in the titular role — bookish, affable, tough, and daring.
I also liked Abbie Cornish as Dr. Cathy Mueller, an epidemiologist (eye surgeon in the novels) who is Ryan’s love interest in the first season.
The main rough spot in the first season involves a pointless subplot involving a drone pilot. (I won’t get into spoilers, but I think you’ll understand what I mean after watching the season.)
There were also a couple of completely unnecessary sex scenes in the first half of the season. I’m not a total prude, but those instances cheapened the overall narrative and at least one was completely gratuitous.
I also have mixed emotions about some of the changes from Clancy’s source material. In particular, the James Greer character is a surly, disgraced intelligence officer in the Amazon series (not the straight shooting former vice admiral seen in the books).
Wendell Pierce is a terrific actor (who has some great one liners on the show), but I felt the writers tried too hard to give the character a unique "angle."
Ultimately, I think the series will improve in subsequent seasons.
The reason I say that is because the first season became very compelling by the time the final four episodes rolled around.
The pacing improved, Krasinski had more screen time (always a good thing), and there were some truly suspenseful moments (the subplot involving Suleiman’s wife Hanin were among the most enjoyable sequences in the first season).
For my money, the fifth season of “24” serves as the “gold standard” for espionage-related thrillers.
“Jack Ryan” doesn’t rise to that level, but it is entertaining. If you can get past the flaws — and look at future potential — “Jack Ryan” is a good launching pad for upcoming seasons (it has already been renewed for a season season).
