I was a teen in the 1980s, which I thought sucked at the time. Looking back, I feel blessed to come of age in that wild, weird decade that gave us all permission to march to the beat of our own drum. And if you were REALLY lucky (i.e. smart with a sense of humor) you had this pied piper of weirdness to lead the way.
A favorite holiday movie/show:
And speaking of 1980s clever, irreverent humor...
A holiday recipe:
There are two types of people in the world. Those who love sweet potatoes, and those who don't yet realize they do. Oh, they'll tell you they hate those orange chunks of sweet, yummy goodness, but my theory is that they're all in denial. Perhaps they were introduced to sweet potatoes the way most Americans are... mashed into goop and smothered with sticky melted marshmallows for an ooey, gooey sugar overload.
Well, I'm here to tell you... there's another way.
Maple-Cranberry Sweet Potatoes
(I make it pretty much the same way, except I add nuts. It's autumn in your mouth. Guare-on-teed.)
Book of the day:
If you have a kid on your Christmas shopping list, I humbly offer "Comic Squad" for your consideration.
EXCERPT FROM COMIC SQUAD
Back in her bedroom, Alice lay tummy-down on the bed, and dove into her new – yet nefariously confiscated – comic book. Sure, she'd broken some rules to get it. But Dwight stole from her first. As far as she was concerned, turnabout was fair play.
Just as she withdrew the 3-D glasses from her overalls, a knock came at the door. Before she could answer, Barbara cracked it open and peaked in. “Can I come in?”
“You already are in,” Alice pointed out.
As Barbara opened the door wider she caught sight of Alice's reading material. “Oh, Alice, I thought we'd talked about this. We decided you weren't going to spend so much time on your comic books.”
“You decided,” Alice countered.
Barbara leaned against the door frame. She was tired. She was always tired. “They're a waste of time,” she said as she rubbed her eyes. “They're not real.”
Alice gave her a pointed look. “They're real to me.” Then, “If Dad was here, he'd understand.”
That's when Barbara spotted the family photo by Alice's bed. Her daughter's barb hit its mark. Suddenly overcome with a vulnerability she couldn’t afford to show her daughter, Barbara left the room.
Alice slid out of bed and headed over to the door, where she watched through the crack as her mother disappeared into her own bedroom. Within minutes Barbara was out again, a novel and towel in hand. She disappeared into the bathroom, closed the door behind her, and began running her bath water.
Alice closed her own door and ran back over to pounce on her bed. She sent her father's image a grin. This one's for you, Daddy, she thought as she slipped on the glasses.
She opened the book, and, much as the comic store, shards of light spilled from inside. Bright color crawled up her arms and over her face, and Alice's scream was lost in the howl of the wind.
With Joe Dakota safely tied up in one of the examination rooms, Dr. Horror was free to put the finishing touches on the green potion. Using tongs, he delicately poured it from a beaker into a test tube, and secured it with a cork.
Twitch picked up the beaker to examine the strange, glowing fluid.
“Put that down!” Dr. Horror barked. Twitch was quick to comply. “It's the only batch in existence. All I need is for some nitwit to pour it out… or worse yet, drink it.”
Outside the room Alice suddenly found herself hunched down by the door, the 3-D glasses hanging by one of the straps of her overalls. She looked inside the room, and gasped when she saw Dr. Horror and Twitch, and the bubbling tube of green.
“What would happen if someone drank it?” asked Twitch.
Dr. Horror smirked at him. “You ever dissolved snails with salt?” Twitch nodded. “It's like that.” Dr. Horror spilled a drop of the liquid on the lab table. It bubbled and smoked and sizzled right through the metal surface. “Only it hurts.”
“So what's it going to do to Joe Dakota?”
Dr. Horror chuckled. “Joe who?”
“Joe Dakota. You know. That big, strong guy who comes along and messes up all your plans...”
“I know who, you twit. But after tonight, I think he might be more of a what.”
Alice flattened back against the wall. A million questions flooded her brain at once, the most important of which was how to get out of there without getting caught. The second most important: how to get out and take that strange and dangerous potion with her? She grabbed the magical glasses.
One thing was certain; she could do neither without them. She tucked them into a pocket for safe keeping.
She peered back around the door to find both Dr. Horror and Twitch standing with their backs to her. She knelt down and quietly duck-walked across the room, then hunched down beside their lab table. Listening for their steps going in one direction, she managed to go in the opposite direction, remaining hidden from their view as they turned for the door.
“Come,” Dr. Horror told Twitch, “let's make sure that Joe is safely secured for tonight's main event.”
They departed the room, leaving the beaker and test tube on the table. When she thought the coast was clear, she peered over the edge of the table, her heartbeat so loud it thundered in her ears. She found herself staring directly into the creepy, bubbling, green fluid in the tube.
She gulped as she reached for it, hesitating only slightly as she spotted the deep hole that one drop had burned into the table’s surface. She’d read the books, she knew what Dr. Horror had created this stuff to do. Just as the original formula had reinforced every cell inside Joe Dakota’s body, reinforcing them with the power to rejuvenate at the least little hint of destruction, this new formula was created to do the opposite. Injecting this potion into a human body would cause each cell to break down and combust. The destruction would be quick and total. That was why she knew she couldn’t take a chance and leave it behind. Just as her hand touched the tube, lightning filled the room and thunder rattled the windows; Alice nearly came up out of her overalls.
Finally, before she could lose her nerve, she grabbed the tube and stuffed it into one of her many pockets and prayed the cork would hold.
She sprinted to the door and checked to see if the hall was clear. She crept out slowly and quietly with no idea where she was heading, but determined to make sure that potion never went anywhere near Joe Dakota.
Spread some joy!
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