Trouble

So, I was doing an informal survey of television commercials last night and it seemed like every other commercial featured or included a dog! There was a begging dog in a Ragu ad, a giant poodle driving a car in a Bud Light spot, a dog fetching anytime minutes... lots and lots of pooches.

I admit that I'm a dog lover, so I'm probably more inclined to go for this type of ad. And it does accomplish its goal; I am aware that it's a commercial for Travelers Insurance and I remember the red umbrella. I'm sure that it's been true for years and years, but dogs do help sell products.

(S02E08) Chris, quite rightly I believe, points out that Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays ever, because all you do the entire day is eat and sleep. Of course, that's only if you're not the one waking up with the chickens to prepare a feast for the entire family.

When I was growing up, we always had Thanksgiving at my grandparents' house, and grandma pretty much ruled the kitchen, not because it was expected of her, but because she wanted it that way. The kitchen was her domain, and most Thanksgivings it was just her and the other women, and sometimes me because I would get bored easily and want to do something to kill time.

The planned movie remake of the hit '80s primetime soap Dallas has encountered numerous road blocks on its slow crawl to production. Jennifer Garner said no to role of Pam Ewing, then Jennifer Lopez, who was set to play Sue Ellen, dropped out of the project. Meg Ryan came in to take her place, but she has also left the project, along with Shirley MacLaine and Luke Wilson. That leaves John "JR Ewing" Travolta as the only one left out of the main cast. Apparently focus groups only liked the JR character, and director Gurinder Chadha was not happy with the casting choices. The abandoned roles will be recast, but it's not clear whether Chadha will stay with the project. Sounds to me like it might be time to put this particular dog to sleep for good and start working on a movie people really want to see: an animated version of Falcon Crest.