Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Monday. How are you? A video out of Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin captured what was, to date, probably one of the more terrifying moments of one little boy’s relatively short life: a viciously territorial turkey chasing the sprinting boy down the street, ready to peck his eyes out for getting too close to its favorite bush, or something. Fortunately for the boy, not everyone was simply watching, filming, at laughing at the hilarious spectacle. “Stupid boy! He’s afraid of a pissed off wild animal that’s the same size as him! HA!” A driver pulled over to the side of the road and stopped the furious dinosaur. The driver was then nice enough to give the likely rattled boy a ride home. It’s actually understandable that a human child would find himself the subject of a turkey’s authority in this particular instance. The town of Ashwaubenon (a name I have been copying and pasting instead of typing throughout this article) is apparently and, somehow, unsurprisingly, run by turkeys. Turkeys are the ruling class in Ashwaubenon. A turkey named Smoke is the unofficial mayor of the Green Bay suburb because why not? It’s unclear if this was Smoke but, based on the turkey’s reputation... which is that it does whatever the hell it wants... there’s a decent chance that’s the same turkey. I feel for this kid. Running from something you know will catch you is a horrible feeling. With its black, soulless eyes, sharp, disease riddled talons, and a face made for stabbing? There’s no hope there. If and when that thing catches you it will listen to its ancient dinosaur instincts and leave you in shreds. Its time for the people of Ashwaubenon to rise up and overthrow their tyrannical turkey masters.
The father of a middle school girl is standing up for his daughter after she was cited for violating her school’s controversial dress code. Fisher Middle School officials informed 13-year-old Demetra Alarcon that the romper she wore to school recently was distracting to boys. Her father Tony brought her a change of clothes... jean shorts and a tank top... but school officials determined that was outfit inappropriate as well. Luckily, the father found a pair of leggings in the car as backup but says the dress code unfairly targets girls. “I mean, today it’s 90 degrees outside, and she’s wearing leggings because she doesn’t want to be dress-coded for wearing shorts. And it’s not okay. It needs to change,” Tony Alarcon said before adding, “Demetra isn’t alone. Just sit in Fisher’s parking lot and you’ll see that. I’ve heard from multiple girls that they just want to be comfortable, but they feel like they’re being pushed into wearing leggings in 100-degree heat. I was told by an administrator that the girls’ clothes are a distraction to the boys. That shouldn’t be a concern.” While Alarcon agrees students should be dressed appropriately for school, he doesn’t agree tank tops in extreme heat are inappropriate. He also added that it’s difficult to find girls’ shorts that meet the school’s 4-inch length requirement in most stores. He finds the regulations on girls’ clothing to be discriminatory, so he’s fighting back saying, “You have to stand up for what’s right and that’s what I’m doing.” The school district met last Monday night to discuss the dress code but has not announced any changes yet. Fisher principal Lisa Fraser defended the code in a statement that read, “There has always been a dress code. These are standards for reasonable decorum. I do reserve the right to set guidelines for the school, but I want to lead with the pulse of the community and reflect the community’s core values.”
A Minnesota mother is facing charges of child endangerment for failing to properly secure a child passenger restraint. Dashcam video captured the moment her 2-year old was ejected out of her vehicle and tumbled out of the back while strapped in a car seat. Chad Cheddar Mock was behind the mother at the time of the incident and was able to capture the footage through his dashcam. The video shows the vehicle making a sharp turn, and the door opening, quickly followed by the 2-year old falling out onto the street. Shocked at the incident, Mock quickly got out of the vehicle and checked to see if the child was okay, reassuring her chest straps were on correctly. He then attempts to flag down the mother, as she drives away unaware the child had fallen out. Thankfully, the child was okay and seemed “very calm” when Mock attended to her and quickly called 911. Authorities believe the toddler must have unlocked the car seat by herself, but are not sure how she managed to open the car door. At the scene, police said the child was properly strapped in, but the car seat wasn’t fastened well enough inside the vehicle. The mother eventually realized the toddler wasn’t in the back seat and showed up at the scene 15 minutes later. According to Mock, the mother was “hysterical” when she arrived. After checking to see if the 2-year-old was okay, police released the child to the mother. The child’s mother faces up to one year in prison and a $3,000 fine for the gross misdemeanor. The mother is also being charged for violating her driver’s permit after there was no other licensed driver in the vehicle at the time.
A high school teacher in Franklin County who was accused of feeding a live puppy to a snapping turtle last year has been found not guilty of animal cruelty. According to court documents, a six-person jury reached the verdict a few weeks ago, after a two-day trial. Robert Crosland, a science teacher at Preston Junior High School, was facing one count of misdemeanor animal cruelty. If found guilty, Crosland would have served up to 6 months in jail and fined up to $5,000. Surprisingly, the jury reportedly deliberated for less than 30 minutes before reaching their non-guilty verdict. The incident took place in March 2018. According to witnesses, Croslands’ son Mario, received the puppy from a farmer he knew. They soon realized the puppy was sick and it was refusing to eat. Mario and his sister attempted to nurse the puppy back to health, but it became clear that the puppy wouldn’t make it. The siblings then took it upon themselves to give a puppy to their father, who decided to feed it to either his python or his snapping turtle. According to his son, the teacher usually fed his small animals to the reptile pets he kept in his classroom at school. After attempting to feed the sick puppy to the snake, who wouldn’t take it, Crosland eventually fed the puppy to the snapping turtle. The high school teacher had stayed late to help some of his students with a special project. After checking the student didn’t have an issue with seeing him feed the puppy to the turtle, he put the puppy in the tank, where the animal was pulled under and then eaten. Prosecutors argued that the puppy had indeed suffered, and it was, therefore, an act of animal cruelty. Yet, the defense countered that the Idaho teacher is publicly known as an animal lover and was a “beloved teacher in the community." After examination, the turtle was seized and euthanized by The Idaho Department of Agriculture officials. This was done after the case gained national attention in March, due to it being considered an invasive species in the state. Now, I can’t be the only one who sees this whole situation disgusting and wrong. So what is he was a beloved teacher in the community? This man gave a LIVE dog to a turtle! I don’t care if the dog was sick or even on his last dying breath, which is still considered animal cruelty! The fact that the jury didn’t even spend 30 minutes on this case angers me to the core. What is wrong with people, this man has no humanity. What’s even worse is that he was back in his classroom this year despite his criminal charges against! I seriously don’t understand people.
A Pennsylvania man says his emotional support alligator helps him deal with his depression. Sixty-five-year-old Joie Henney, of York Haven, says his registered emotional support animal named Wally likes to snuggle and give hugs, despite being a 5-foot-long alligator. Philly.com reports Henney says he received approval from his doctor to use Wally as his emotional support animal after not wanting to go on medication for depression. Wally was rescued from outside Orlando at 14 months old. Henney says Wally eats chicken wings and shares an indoor plastic pond with a smaller rescue alligator named Scrappy. Henney acknowledges that Wally is still a dangerous wild animal and could probably tear his arm off, but says he’s never been afraid of him.
Instead of doing this blog thing I should be listening to this album...
Never mind... it's not Sunday. Haha. Hey, did you see the new Brexit stamp?
If I had a TARDIS I would go back to the 60s and try to meet Kirk Douglas. Knowing my luck though he'd be too busy talking to someone...
Well, it looks like America has changed the name and logo of an NFL team...
Hmmm. Ever get a note or receive a not from your neighbors like these ones?
Yeesh. Do you like Hot Pockets? There's a new flavor that just came out...
Kids are like what is that? Hey, future kids, this is 3-3PO and R2-D2...
Hahahaha. Just for the hell of it, here's a pic if Yvonne Craig...
Imagine thinking that there is anything sexual or romantic about a pap smear. A woman emailed the Phile asking if she was wrong or right for telling her boyfriend not to come to her OB/GYN appointment, and not disclosing that her OB/GYN is a man.
"Basically: my boyfriend wanted to accompany me to my OB/GYN visit, I told him that I don't like when there are men present in the waiting room and that there's almost never any men there as other women seem to share this feeling. I consider the OB/GYN to be something of a safe female space. My boyfriend was okay with that explanation and didn't insist on accompanying me. Some time later the topic of OB/GYN came up in a conversation and I said something about my doctor and I suppose a pronoun or two revealed that my doctor is a man. It just never came up before, there wasn't ever a reason to discuss the genders of my various doctors. My boyfriend got angry and reminded me how I told him that the OB/GYN office is a female space for me and how hypocritical that is given that my doctor is a man." She tried to explain to her boyfriend that a medical professional performing an exam and a dude hanging out with other patients in the waiting room are different scenarios, but he was not having it. "Well, for me there is a huge difference between a professional doctor and random guys who sit around the waiting room and making everyone awkward. Sure, men are not forbidden entry, but most guys who come with their partners just chill out in the hallway or in a coffee shop next door. The waiting room is also catering to women only, with chick-lit books, women magazines, only a female toilet, etc. My boyfriend told me that I'm being ridiculous if a man sitting in the waiting room makes me uncomfortable but having another man rummage around in my crotch is okay (his phrasing). Am I wrong for not telling my boyfriend that my doctor is male? Especially given the context when I told my boyfriend I don't want him to accompany me and make other women feel awkward." Hold up: this dude called gynocology "rummaging around the crotch"? What an asshole. Not the crotch. Him. There is no reason for your boyfriend to accompany you to a doctor's appointment unless you want him there. Also, the only person who needs to be comfortable with your doctor's gender is you. You are setting appropriate boundaries and making appropriate decisions for your body. Your boyfriend needs to drop this. You did nothing wrong. Maybe she should take her boyfriend with her to the doctor. A different boyfriend.
If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. So, my son and I used to watch "Sesame Street" together but now that show is on HBO...
"I used to be one of those people who was content jerking off to ordinary porn. Then I got DSL, and suddenly I had a whole world of it at my fingertips. I could find new, disgusting things to beat off to, faster than a rabbit gets fucked! Hell, sometimes that's what I'd jerk off to! I moved from one Satanic circle to the next, popping out knuckle children at a rate that would put Pee Wee Herman to shame. I finally found my niche a couple of years back, and God did it feel amazing. Have you ever watched morgue porn, John-John? Nothing got my dick harder than watching some stuff, glass eyed, disgusting sack of dead hooker shit get fucked! Or so I thought, anyway. Soon. it beaver just like all the fetsihes I've had before it. I could watch hours of it and not even get a wiggle down there. I eventually realized I just wasn't content watching anymore. My tastes had evolved, I couldn't satisfy my needs with visual stimulation. I had to experience it for myself, I had to know what it was like! So, John-John, hopefully you'll understand now. When I say that your mother just made me a very happy man, I want you to know that your mother just made me a VERY happy man!"
Kirk Douglas
December 9th, 1916 — February 5th, 2020
Now in a gunfight at the way, WAY less than OK Corral.
Yes. The Phile has three Disney theme entries coming up with some really cool guests. I won't tell you who they are yet. Okay, so there's this real masculine man who likes to come on to the Phile once in a while and tell us what is going on in his life. So, please welcome back to the Phile...
Me: Hello, Martin, welcome back to the Phile. How are you?
Martin Masculinity: Hey, dude. I was playing poker when my friend (who owns a store) let these guys we didn't know that well to join our game. I don't know why, I, out of the table got singled out but a girl walks in and this guy: complained that I didn't order pizza for him... said, "How about you go fuck yourself" when I asked him if he wanted some.
Me: What? I'm confused.
Martin Masculinity: Yeah, me too. He walked over behind me and "playfully" puts his arms around my neck, I told him I'd punch him in the face if he did it one more time because I don't know who the fuck he is.
Me: Hahaha. Now that's funny.
Martin Masculinity: No it's not. Absolutely ruined my day.
Me: Okay, I wold have thought this was weird too.
Martin Masculinity: Well, have a good day, dude.I'm going hunting.
Me: Martin Masculinity, the toughest man alive, kids.
Phact 1. Mozart had a sister (Maria Anna) who was also an accomplished musician and composer, sometimes even receiving top billing. She was no longer taken on tour with her famous brother once she reached “marriageable age."
Phact 2. Lenovo Computers is partially owned by the Chinese government and their computers come preloaded with secret back door access. As a result MI6, the CIA and other spy agencies have banned their use.
Phact 3. A company made a FPS game with Google Street View where you can walk around and shoot people.
Phact 4. Seventy percent of milk served in U.S. schools contains on average four teaspoons of added sugar per serving (about half the amount of sugar as a serving of Coke).
Phact 5. If a member of the U.S. military or a U.S. official is detained by the International Court in the Hague, the U.S. has a law allowing it to invade the Netherlands to release them.
This is really cool. is an English actor, voice actor, and mime artist. He is best known for playing C-3PO in the Star Wars film series, beginning with the original 1977 film. His book I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story is the 113th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club. Please welcome to the Phile... Anthony Daniels.
Me: Hey, Anthony, welcome to the Phile, sir. How are you?
Anthony: Hello, Jason. It's a pleasure to be here on this Star Wars related blog.
Me: So, I have to ask, how did you first get the part of Threepio?
Anthony: The phone was ringing, it was November 14th, 1975. It was my agent saying, "There's this American who is making a low budget science fiction movie. You've never heard of him, either have I. His name is George Lucas and he wants to see you for the part of a robot." So there was this pause and I just said no. She said, "What do you mean no?" I said, "I'm not interested." She said, "Don't be stupid. Go meet him. You never know what it could lead to." And here I am today.
Me: It led to my little blog.
Anthony: Fame at last.
Me: So, tell the readers who you play... just in case they don't know. If they don't they are crazy. Hahaha.
Anthony: I played the golden humanoid robot C-3PO in the Star Wars films for more than 40 years.
Me: You are the first Star Wars celebrity I ever met or saw in person, back in the early 80s at my first sci-fi convention in New York. I have the pic I took of you back then...
Me: Haha. And we met a few times over the years at Star Wars Weekends at Walt Disney World. Okay, so, I have to ask, when you hear the Star Wars theme what does that bring up to you?
Anthony: Like everybody I remember hearing it for the first time when it crashed in just after that little title "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." I had the huge pleasure of knowing John Williams on and off for 40 something years. Curiously I think John's music is provocative, we instantly know, it brings back memories. He's very, very clever. All his themes are like motives and all that.
Me: So, are you a sci-fi fan, sir?
Anthony: I walked out of 2001, but a lot of people did apparently. I think it was 1968 and it was kind of tedious. Space takes a long time to get there and walk through as it were. I was too young. Years later of course George showed me the real film, the whole thing and I thought wow, what a film.
Me: So, not liking sci-fi what was it that convinced you to take the role of C-3PO?
Anthony: It was basically down to a concept painting. A concept painting being how something in a film MIGHT look, artwork to indicate the direction they were going in. On George's wall was a painting by Ralph McQuarrie. In miniature it's reproduced in the book because the face of the character so touched me and it still does. This blank wonderment and sense of being lost is right there. And I think the character himself when he eventually arrives in the movies still retains the "what's going on, help me" quality.
Me: It's so weird, Threepio doesn't have eyebrows but we still know when he's happy and when he's scared. Do you ever think about that?
Anthony: That's an interesting point because eyebrows do really mark the face, they're a real key to know what's going on in the eyes behind. Threepio does have these little ledges, he has the most beautiful face when I saw it completed eventually by Liz Moore who sculpted it, I just thought how beautiful. He kind of retains that for me. I had to work out ways of using the head tilt, what the shoulders, the stomach area which sort of folds in if he's feeling weird and these outrageous arm gestures. But always remember the audience is supplying a lot of emotion themselves, for a start there's John Williams' music which will tell you instantly what we're feeling. and there's various scripts that put it into words so it's not a one man band.
Me: So, what was it like when you first started filming the very first Star Wars movie in the desert?
Anthony: The only sound that was heard was me saying the lines. Artoo's sounds were added on months later by Ben Burtt. Also the clunk when I kick him at the end ben enhanced that, I made this tiny noise. It's quite interesting and it was at that point a couple of days into shooting I said to George what a surprise and how difficult it was to be talking to myself.
Me: Why is that?
Anthony: Because in the script it has this dialogue written out, it said R2 beeps or burbles or whatever. Then my lines. No one thought to tell me, six months of work nobody said, "By the way, you're going to be alone on the set, nobody is going to be talking to you."
Me: So, with the book what is one of the main things that you wanted to get across, part from what it was like playing Threepio?
Anthony: It's about me pursuing something that I love against all odds. It's a risky profession and I wanted to be an actor and was encouraged to be a lawyer but I wanted to be an actor.
Me: So, how long did it take you to put on the Threepio suit?
Anthony: The first day it took about two and a half hours to put the costume on. By this time I had enough, and we haven't started shooting. We have to imagine dawns coming up around me because we had to be there because of the light and so on. And all that time, maybe six people are trying to screw me into this outfit. We tried it on briefly at Elstree Studios in London but this was the first time some two weeks later.
Me: Once you had it on how did you feel?
Anthony: The one amazement for me was walking out in that costume and being able to see with tunnel vision directly in front of me so I could kind of scope out the environment. It was a very strange desert. But groups of people, the crew, were just staring at me, at Threepio, in absolute wonderment. And I could see the impact it was having. It was kind of exciting but a moment that didn't last, believe me.
Me: You couldn't sit down in the costume, right?
Anthony: No. That became quite the torture in the end. It's not great for a body to be standing up for long periods, especially with all that weight on. But this was part of the gig I guess. I just didn't know how big of a part it was going to be.
Me: So, when you were baking in that suit in the hot sun did you ever think maybe you should've been a lawyer after all? Hahahahahahaha.
Anthony: Yeah, it was tempting to think that, but it was my choice. It was against the odds and if I had a story to tell anybody it was try and follow your dream. I just followed my need. My parents wanted me to have a proper life, being a lawyer or whatever would have been a good thing. But in the end I just had to do what I did.
Me: Was it true they were gonna have a different voice for Threepio?
Anthony: I think a lot of people may have heard the story that when we were filming I had at that point a little microphone on top of my forehead and a cable that went down to the back of my pants, I was speaking out of my butt to the whole nation. Immediately afterwards they would ask me, when they took my head off and stick a proper microphone near me I would track the lines because they felt the editors were going crazy listening to this mumbling so very quickly I did them the service of giving them a clean take. I think it was about six months I actually forgotten about it, believe me, I forgotten about Star Wars, I was off doing other stuff, there was another phone call to go to Hollywood for the first time which seemed a wild thing to do, that's how I found out George was facing me as I found out he had not wanted to use my voice because it wasn't the character he had in mind. He did a primary mistake as a director in not telling me what he had in mind. I would have tried to do something different.
Me: In the book you talk about how you were left out of the publicity of the Star Wars films. Why do you think that was?
Anthony: That was the whole production, Fox, Lucasfilm, took a decision which became really clear quite quick they were concentrating on Carrie, Harrison and Mark and they didn't want people to know that this golden droid was actually mechanised or puppeteered.
Me: How did that feel that you were left out of it? I saw this pic and you're not in it...
Anthony: It didn't feel good. Would it feel good to you? Can you imagine?
Me: I can't imagine that it would.
Anthony: Good. It's like writing a book, and you have a best seller and the editor forgot to put your name on the cover. Its like, oh, I did this, and nobody knew. So it was a difficult time, with longevity, and the gift of slight objectivity through time I could admit it was a difficult period.
Me: This movie became the biggest thing in your life, right?
Anthony: It did, and I think the early years of been slightly distanced from it has certainly taken time to clear those shutters away. But I have been around long enough to say these things that's hopefully in a way that is expectable to people. And to form another dimension to something they think they know all about already.
Me: One of my favorite Star Wars things is the Star Wars Christmas album!!! I have it on vinyl and CD! Tell the readers about it if they don't know what it is.
Anthony: "Christmas in the Stars" which was Artoo and Threeoip basically working in a to shop where S. Clause, I don't think we were allowed to say Santa Clause. It was trademarked. It was something that was a remarkable piece of craziness that that I flew from London to New York on Concorde and back over a weekend doing this wacky stuff. And I have to admit I can't sing. If I had one talent I wish it would be singing. There was this speech thing, "Christmas in the stars... out amongst the stars lightning up the Christmas tree." It's one of those kitsch things I could only do at Christmas like wearing that stupid sweater with balls on, or drinking egg nog.
Me: Did you mind doing all those promo things outside the actual films of Star Wars?
Anthony: It was always endurably clear that they didn't really want me, they wanted the "gold man" because he's kind of unique. I got to do the gig anyway. I would have fun and often there was some event afterwards so other people on the show would go into make-up and hair first I would go to hair and make-up afterwards to repair the damage of what the costume had done to me.
Me: How long did it take to take the suit off?
Anthony: The face took six seconds, the suit took six minutes. It does mean they can take me out of the face and I can breathe.
Me: So, what was it like playing Threepio again after all these years in the final trilogy?
Anthony: Well, I had a decision when it came to the second movie, The Empire Strikes Back, would I want to go through all that again? Eventually the real clincher was I didn't want to let Threepio go. When you think about it, how could I? He would've become a completely different personality with someone else doing it. Or they would have simply wiped him out, having him run over by some kind of spaceship and splattered.
Me: It was so sad in the new movie when Threepio said, "I'm just saying one last look, sir, at my friends." When I saw that trailer, and even thinking about that now I tear up. Damn it!!! What was it like filming that scene?
Anthony: It was a very touching moment on set. When I saw it in the trailer I was equally touched. J.J. left it just the way we shot it and there is an enduring, what can I say? Threepio touches us somehow. It's a combination of everything, part of it's me, part of it's the original writing. Part of it is the 40 years plus the audiences have put into this character. I meet so many people who were touched by him as child and made a bit of a help mate to them as they grew up. His vulnerability kind of reflected their vulnerability or vive versa. They found him as somebody's hand they could hold, metaphorically.
Me: Do you ever think about the last time you'll put the suit on?
Anthony: Every time I think it's the last time I'm doing that. When something comes up I'm always open, and now I'm not surprised when a new project comes up. Because these characters, not just Threepio, but these characters from the saga, are very big and very large, larger than anybody's life. The whole thing called Star Wars became such an integral part of people's families they are not going to disappear. All the performances now live in the ether forever and ever, what ever device.
Me: Anthony, this was one of my favorite interview. I hope it was fun and I hope you'll come back again soon.
Anthony: I hope so too. Thank you, Jason.
That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Antony Daniels for a great interview. The Phile will be back tomorrow with actress Mackenzie Davis. Then on Friday, Valentine's Day it's Shania Twain! Remember years ago when I had the "campaign" to get her on the Phile? Well, finally she'll be here. Then Saturday, Sunday and Monday it's three entries from Walt Disney World. Wait a minute... that's four days of the Phile in a row. Yeesh, what was I thinking? Good stuff is happening though. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.
I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon
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