Elizabeth Hurley Hops Into A Pool, Rashad Jennings Wheel of Fortune Disaster & Are Ohio State Fans Using The Goodyear Blimp To Spy?
Set your DVRs...a Screencaps reader wrote a Hallmark Christmas movie and it debuts Friday night
This one caught me off-guard but this is yet another reminder of how this community will surprise you on a daily basis.
• Steve B. in Grand Junction, Colorado writes:
If you'll indulge me in some blatant self-promotion, a Christmas movie I wrote airs Friday on the Hallmark Channel.
Yeah, I know: Screencap readers and Hallmark viewers are two entirely different demographics. But I figure if any readers out there are going to sit down with their wife and watch at least one Hallmark Christmas movie this season, "Checkin' it Twice," should be the one.
It's got sports, and some laughs and may be a nice distraction from the craziness out there. Game 4 of the NLCS is on at the same time, but the way the Phillies are crushing the D-backs, this movie will have more drama. For the "respect fall" crowd, you can stream the movie on Peacock in November or December.
Kinsey:
Woah, wait just a minute. As I told Steve, who has been sending me emails since December 2021, now he has my attention. How in the world does a guy like Steve end up writing Hallmark Christmas love stories? I need details.
Steve B. continues:
I love writing and cranked out a couple of feature movies screenplays, but those are hard to get sold (and made), especially if your main characters don't wear capes.
On a screenwriting forum I'm part of, a reader posted that they had success in getting a producer to at least read their Hallmark-type script. Having no experience, or connections, and living in the middle of nowhere, just the idea of a Hollywood producer reading my script was incredibly exciting, so I decided to try my hand at it.
To stand out, I tried to make it more from a guy's perspective (probably stupid in hindsight as Hallmark has something like an 80% female demo). I've always loved "Bull Durham" so the idea of the guy transferred to a new town, then having to choose between chasing his dreams to play "in the show" or staying with the woman he was falling for was my inspiration.
The steps (in my case) were as follows:
There's some elements of my life in it. My grandma used to try to serve us pickled beets at holidays, (I still have nightmares about that), so in the movie I have the grandma serving her horrible homemade eggnog to the family. I also used some names of people I know as characters. It's surprisingly hard to make up a fake name that sounds real.
In the movie, the main characters meet when they get their credit cards mixed up. This was inspired by when my wife and kids and I were at a Cowboys game at AT&T Stadium (my bucket list item to see that stadium), and I got my card mixed up with the drunk guy behind me.
Kinsey:
Next question --
Steve adds:
I totally get it. I've never put up our tree until after Thanksgiving. But these October Christmas movies pull in millions of viewers, so from their standpoint, they're probably thinking: "The market has decided."
Kinsey:
Hell yeah, Steve. Go get paid. It doesn't matter when the movie airs when they have already deposited a check into the bank.
Screencappers: I want you guys to set the DVR to record "Checkin' it Twice" for your wives. Not only will you be helping your marriage, you'll be supporting Steve B. in Grand Junction, CO who just might become one of the great Hallmark Christmas movie writers of his generation.
We fully support our own around here. Do Hard Things -- Steve B. went out and got the job done. It's admirable.
Set a reminder right here! Let's make Hallmark know Steve B. is one of ours.
#notsponsored
Things that might surprise Los Angeles-based Christan A. who is about to attend his first SEC game: Tennessee-Alabama
Jon U from Dahlonega writes:
I saw in SC today about the guy from California visiting the Alabama/Tennessee game. My two children graduated from Alabama in 2012 and 2014 and I have also attended several games over the years. I polled them and we have come up with some bullets that he should be aware of:
Both children said RMFT! R is for Roll and T is for Tide and you can figure out the rest.
By the way, after you included my last letter to you, a very upstanding member of our local community texted a screencap of it to my wife and asked if her husband is Jon U from Dahlonega. I found that amusing and shows the massive reach that you have throughout the country.
• Ken in New Orleans writes:
I'm a diehard LSU fan with my oldest son a senior at Bama. He WAS my favorite child before he made this decision! I've been to Bama the last 2 years as an outsider, your boy from Cali has picked a great weekend. I will be back on Nov 4. for the LSU game.
1. The party will start on Thursday and will be full throttle on Saturday afternoon. Lots of parties everywhere, make sure to walk the strip to see the college bars. All fans and all ages are welcome.
2. The fraternity / sorority houses are enormous. Every fraternity will have a front-yard band party on Friday night. These are not open to the public, but you can walk on the sidewalk and watch all the action.
3. 75% of the female students are gorgeous. I know Cali has hot girls, but this place is next-level hotness. Only Ole Miss comes close to the talent at Bama.
4. Several fans come in from nearby trailer parks and look homeless. The mix of hot girls and these fans is a fantastic juxtaposition. The only thing you will hear the homeless say is ROLL TIDE and F--K the Vols (LSU, Auburn, etc).
5. The campus will be perfectly manicured with red / white tents ready for the masses inside the quad. These are the Bama graduates who have real jobs and make real money. Everyone here is very friendly and will invite you in if they know he is from out of town. This is next to the Denny Chimes Tower.
6. No place to eat in T-Town on a football weekend be prepared to wait a long time for a table. The food is very average so don't have high expectations.
7. Visit the north side of the stadium and see the statue of famous coaches and championships they have won. Even though they claim they won 2 more national championships than they deserve.
Hope he sends us a full report on Monday.
• Jess in Alabama writes:
I bet you’re getting a ton of responses about Christian and his trip to the South. Just curious- is this his first trip to the South for football or first trip to the South ever? It reads like first-ever, but just making sure. Also, is he staying and hanging out only in Tuscaloosa or going anywhere else like Birmingham? I wonder if he thinks many people at the game eat dirt and kiss their cousin…
The Instagram models bracket makes me laugh. I bet that’s a hit.
Lastly, we had friends throw us a baby shower a couple years ago. It was at night (lasted until around midnight) with BBQ and lots of alcohol and no games or present opening. I’ll admit it was pretty entertaining to be one of the only sober people there. I think maybe 10 pictures were taken. Lots of fun.
• RidgeRunner says:
Hey, responding to your column item about what might surprise a Cali guy on his first experience with the Third Saturday in October. First of all, he should have gone last year on Rocky Top, he could have witnessed the greatest game ever in the history of sports. But, since he missed that Game of Games, one thing in general he'll notice about the South is people are nice. Sure, there's no love lost between Tennessee and Alabama fans (the very first meeting between the two teams broke out in a riot), but generally Southerners and SEC fans are pretty friendly people (except for Gator fans in the Swamp, where they spit on Coach Fulmer's wife Vicki back in the day).
Other things he might notice::
*We have gravy (the further West you go after crossing the Mississippi, the worse the gravy gets until you get to LA and there is no gravy at all).
*Our women are pretty.
*We have Waffle House.
*It takes 13 Alabama fans to make a complete set of teeth.
*The roads suck in Birmingham, and the entire city just smells bad.
*It just means more.
Should be an eye-opening experience for the guy, but as I told Bama fans many times while limping home back to Rocky Top: "At least we get to go back to God's country, ya'll are stuck here in the armpit of the South."
• Jonathan W. writes:
Differences he will notice..the unbelievable scenery and how girls will get dolled up for a football game.
The size of Bryant Denny.
The next level of tailgating.
How friendly everyone is.
For starters lol
• Glyn has advice:
Tell Christian to skip Dreamland BBQ and go to Archibald's. It's been a few years so I shouldn't give any more advice.
• Arin in Alabama writes:
This is coming from an Oklahoma State alum who’s married into an Alabama family, so I feel like I can relate to an extent.
I think what makes college football special is that most of the universities in the SE (or any school east of the Rockies) are by far the most important thing in the town it’s in. Tuscaloosa will be bananas on Saturday, and with the rivalry, a home game v Tenn being about as big as it gets, especially since this game could be very competitive this year.
Other things about college football and Tuscaloosa/university towns…
-Parking and tailgating is everywhere, there’s no massive garages or parking lots unless you’re a donor/booster, you’re gonna park in a backyard, at a church, wherever you can find…
-you’re gonna walk miles
-you can get food or drink from anybody
-ALL ALABAMA FOOTBALL GAMES HAVE A FLYOVER! Not just the big games, ALL the Crimson Tide home games have a flyover, so be in the stadium at least a half and hour before kick to see the band do it’s thing and then the National Anthem and the flyover. Last weekend v Arkansas, we got a flyover from the B-2 stealth bomber!
-literally say “Roll Tide” to everybody. Say it instead of please, thank you, and you’re welcome…
-the crowd uses pom poms or “shakers” in the stadium
Hold up, you're telling me back in the 1980s & '90s workers weren't getting lit on Thursday nights and using sick days because they weren't in the mood or shape to work?
I have no choice but to push back on this headline out of the Wall Street Journal that was sent by Mike T. in Idaho.
Calling in because people aren't in the mood to work isn't exactly something Gen Z & the Millennials pulled out of their suburban mom Coachella hats.
Let's do a Google News Archive search real fast on the Baby Boomers and go back 28 years to 1995.
Americans who are burned out and looking to clear their minds in 1995. I have to assume there were segments of the workforce that took 'I just don't feel like coming to work' sick days.
"The signs are everywhere; people are at the end of the line in what they're willing to give up in their humanity," an economist and author told the reporter for this piece. "The mental fatigue today is every bit as significant as the physical fatigue of the early Industrial Revolution."
Conclusion: This isn't new. This isn't something to get into a flame war over on Facebook. Need a day off to just decompress? Take one. Just don't be a jerkoff and abuse the system. Be capable of reading a room.
Should this be the TNML intro song?
Jake in Charlottesville, VA thinks so.
Greatest numbers ever
• Harold in Skokie writes:
How on earth could Matt U. leave out Roy Hobbs from the list of great American athletes who wore #9? After all, Roy is only “the best there ever was.”
Sunsets
• Indy Daryl of 'Do Hard Things' fame checks in:
I think the best part about sunsets is they are a little more predictably consistent from a beauty standpoint. The best sunrise definitely competes with the best sunset, but they are just harder to come by. Seems like more weather, light, cloud and other conditions have to be just right. Anywho, here’s a couple of sunset pictures from northern Wisconsin over Boot Lake.
