"Cougar Town" vocab lesson: "graysonship"

"graysonship"; noun:

• a relationship with an emotionless robot (or closed-off partner).

Origin: Jules Cobb, portrayed by Courteney Cox, in "Cougar Town" episode 201, "All Mixed Up" (written by Bill Lawrence & Kevin Biegel).

Screen cap credit: JerkDoubleBitch.

Jules comes up with the term "graysonship" to describe her relationship with Grayson. Grayson is emotionally closed off and, therefore, somewhat robotic.



Grayson [doing the robot, with a robotic voice]: I don't like to feel things.
Jules: No he doesn't.

Use it in a sentence: "My boyfriend never opens up; this is a total graysonship."

Movie Mashup

Game: Movie Mashup
Origin: "Cougar Town", episode 201, written by Bill Lawrence & Kevin Biegel.

Photo credit: Yawgurt.com.

This is a really fun game to play with friends. On "Cougar Town" they call it a drinking game ("cause we drink while we play"), but it doesn't have to be. It would be especially great to play on long car trips, when you need to fill the time with something fun.

So how do you play? It's simple. You pick two movie titles that share a word (i.e. one ends with the word and the other starts with it). Then you describe what the plot of that movie would be, and your friends/the other players guess the title. Here are a few examples from our friends in "Cougar Town":

A crime-solving greyhound deals with racism in Brooklyn... Scooby Do(o) the Right Thing
A fat lasagna-loving cat plays baseball with his dead dad... Garfield of Dreams
Al Gore does a PowerPoint presentation on Madonna's naked body... An Inconvenient Truth or Dare

I love coming up with these mashups. I even tweaked it a little and did TV mashups for my Emmys party!

Hit me with your best mashup ideas... leave 'em in the comments and I'll feature a few of my favorites!

Quote of the Day

Maris, who runs the superb site Slaughterhouse 90210, posted this quote on Goodreads and I love it:

"For most people, there are only two places in the world. Where they live and their TV set. If a thing happens on television, we have every right to find it fascinating, whatever it is." 
- Don DeLillo, White Noise

Costume idea: Liz Lemon of "30 Rock"

Halloween is right around the corner, and if you're looking for an easy, no-fuss TV costume, why not choose the First Lady of Couch Potatoes, Liz Lemon of "30 Rock"?

Dressing up like Liz Lemon is pretty simple. Start with her standard uniform of a button-down shirt under her "TGS with Tracy Jordan" hoodie.

Good news: you can snag the hoodie from the "30 Rock" NBC store. Bad news: it'll run you about $50. But come on, can't you think of a thousand other occasions you might have to wear it?! No? Well, come on, you can have it all! Including this sweatshirt. You can find a plaid-ish button-down anywhere, from the Gap to Goodwill, for not much cash. Throw 'em on with jeans and sneakers and you're ready to go!

Don't forget Liz Lemon's trademark glasses! Bonus if you already wear them (or, like me, are required by law to wear them while you operate a motor vehicle or take more than five steps in a row), but if not, just grab some cheapies from a drug store or dollar store and pop out the lenses if they're prescription. I was also "blessed" with naturally Liz-ish brown hair, so when I threw this costume together last year it didn't take much extra effort:

For good measure, I bought a cheapie "backstage pass" lanyard at iParty and wrote "Liz Lemon" on it, for any certified non-geniuses who couldn't already figure out who I was supposed to be. And voila! Suck it, nerds.

Places... from "Mad Men"

Game: Places
Origin: "Mad Men" episode 211, "The Jet Set", written by series creator Matthew Weiner.

When Don Draper (Jon Hamm) takes a business trip to Los Angeles, he meets a beautiful and intriguing woman named Joy (Laura Ramsey) and takes off with her. At dinner with her friends, the group plays a game called Places.

Screen cap credit: TakeSunset.com.

The point of the game is simple: one person names a city, and the next person has to name a different city that starts with the last letter of the name of the previous city.

For example:

Person A says Paris. Person B names a city starting with "s", such as San Diego. The next person names a city starting with "o", and so on.

It's not a complex or particularly thrilling game, but it would be a good time-killer in a situation where you're bored or want to seem sophisticated by naming a bunch of classy jet-set spots!

"30 Rock" vocab lesson: "mind grapes"

"Mind grapes"; expression:

• the fruit of one's mind, from which "juices" (ideas, concepts, etc.) may be produced.

Origin: Jack Donaghy, portrayed by Alec Baldwin, and Tracy Jordan, portrayed by Tracy Morgan, in "30 Rock" episode 107, "Tracy Does Conan" (written by Tina Fey).

Screen cap credit: Lore-85.

In "Tracy Does Conan", Jack Donaghy is trying to write a speech about Jack Welsh, saying that Welsh "squeezes... juice out of his workers' mind grapes". Liz and Jack agree it doesn't make sense, and moments later Tracy says, "what else is on my mind grapes?" ... perhaps confirming that it does not, indeed, make sense. But I dare you not to use it in your everyday life.


Use it in a sentence: "I'm on a deadline and I've got to squeeze every last drop of juice out of my mind grapes."

Wise words: Tracy Jordan of "30 Rock"

Tracy's keys to success:

Screencap credit: lore-85.

1. Live every week like it's Shark Week.

2. Dress every day like you're going to be murdered in those clothes.



Origin: "30 Rock" episode 104, "Jack the Writer", written by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock.

"30 Rock" daily diversion: one-minute dance party

Daily diversion: One-minute dance party.
Origin: "30 Rock" episode 104, "Jack the Writer", written by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock.


Sometimes we all need a little break from the day-to-day dullness. What better way to bust out of a funk than to bust a move? Liz Lemon and her staff of "TGS" writers like to take a quick dance break when frustration sinks in.

Incorporate it into your life: throw together a quick playlist of awesome songs to break it down to. (Use songs that start strong; you've only got a minute, so don't choose anything that builds up to a crescendo. You want it to bump all the way through.)  Then, when you're having an "ugh" moment, play a random song from the list on your iPod, iPhone, computer, or boom box (props for goin' old school) and dance your little heart out for a full minute. Even more fun if you bring friends or coworkers into the mix!

Song suggestions: Liz and her team "love the music of Chamillionaire" and dance to "Grown and Sexy". Some other good options are: "Gonna Make You Sweat" by C&C Music Factory, "Beat It" by Michael Jackson, "Push It" by Salt-N-Pepa, "Lose My Breath" by Destiny's Child, "Bust a Move" by Young MC, and anything by Girl Talk.

"New Girl" Jess's DVD collection

Show: "New Girl"
Character: Jess Day, portrayed by Zooey Deschanel.

Photo credit: FOX.

FOX's new comedy "New Girl" is peppered with pop culture references, which gives it instant cred to me. Part of main character Jess's quirky charms are the way she makes up her own theme songs and quotes Lord of the Rings at inopportune times, as well as her obsessions with certain movies.

Much like her hair, her glasses, and her overall personality, Jess's taste in movies is pretty adorable. In the pilot episode (written by series creator Elizabeth Meriwether), she attempts to get over her breakup by watching Dirty Dancing on repeat, much to the chagrin of her three male roommates. In episode 101, "Kryptonite" (also written by Meriwether), Jess offers up her DVD collection for a movie night with her roommates. Her collection consists of classics like Adventures in Babysitting, Newsies, and Curly Sue (which Schmidt takes an interest in; "Curly Sue -- let's do this").

So if you're up for a movie night, Jess-style, here's what you've gotta move to the top of your Netflix queue:

Dirty Dancing

The classic 80s swooner about a privileged young woman who falls for a dirty dancer at a resort in the Catskills.


Adventures in Babysitting

A babysitter's ordinary evening turns extraordinary when she takes her babysitting charges into Chicago to rescue her friend.


Prancer

A farmer's daughter nurses back to health an injured reindeer, believing it to be Prancer from Santa's crew.


Newsies

A newsboy strike is organized in turn-of-the-century New York.


Curly Sue

A homeless man and his curly-haired little companion con people, until they meet a woman who changes everything. (Bonus: it's straight from the heart of the late, great John Hughes.)

There you have it! Also, Zooey Deschanel's favorite food is popcorn, so make sure you pop some hot & fresh for your Jess-inspired film fest.

"30 Rock" vocab lesson: "buying all the hot dogs"

"Buying all the hot dogs"; expression:

• overreacting to a situation and doing something illogical or grandiose just to prove a point; impulsively enacting an over-the-top solution to a not-so-major problem.

Origin: Liz Lemon, portrayed by Tina Fey, in the pilot episode of "30 Rock" (written by Tina Fey).

Screen cap credit: Lore-85.

In the pilot episode of "30 Rock", Liz Lemon gets upset that a man cuts in line at the hot dog stand, and further incensed when people in line behind her leave to start a second line behind him. Infuriated, Liz buys all of the hot dogs so that the cutter and his followers can't have them. She proceeds to hand them out to the "good people" who stayed in her line, as well as random strangers, homeless people, and the writers on her show. She also eats four of them herself. She later explains to Pete that she hates it when people cheat or break rules, so her solution was to buy all the hot dogs. She realizes that it was irrational, impulsive, and over-the-top, but it proved her point and the "bad" people didn't get hot dogs.


Use it in a sentence: "Joey wouldn't stop chewing on the pens I lent him, so I bought all the hot dogs and threw away all the pens in the office."

Penny Can

Game: Penny Can
Show: "Cougar Town" (ABC)

Penny Can is a game created by Bobby Cobb on "Cougar Town". The basics are very simple: players throw pennies into a can from at least 10 feet away. Sounds a little snoozy, no? But if you give it a shot (pun 100% intended; it's how I roll), I promise you'll get hooked, just like our favorite Cul-de-sac Crew.

Since the game's inception, the gang has developed some additional funtimey rules.

• When a player gets a penny in the can, all players yell "penny can" in a high-pitched singsongy tone. If a player sinks a penny while the can is moving, players sing "moving target penny can".
• If your penny goes in the can but bounces out, it's time for a 'Stache Attack! That means another player gets to draw a mustache on your face. (If you're already mustachioed, you may get a Crazy Brow.)
• If a "rim shot" occurs, the other players flick your ears. (Ouch!)
• If your penny spins, you become the meat in a "face sandwich" with two other players until the penny stops.
• If you sink three pennies in a row, you do the robot and say "penny can" in your most robotic voice.

Adaptations of the game include Ultimate Penny Can and Truth or Penny Can. It's also very easy to turn into a drinking game. (You miss you drink; another player gets a penny can and everyone else drinks.)

So how do you bring Penny Can into your life?

Step 1: obtain a penny can. I was lucky enough to have one delivered to me in the mail (for free!) because my friend and I called 1-855-Penny-Can and spoke to Nellie, one of the show's writers. A stroke of good luck, and the Penny Can is glorious in person! The Penny Can is occasionally on sale here for $19.95, but if it's out of stock just grab an old paint can or coffee can to use. If you're feeling creative you can add a label as in the photo above, or personalize it for you and your friends.

Step 2: get some friends together. Penny Can is most fun with at least 3 or 4 competitors. Ideal occasions? A backyard barbecue, a night at the beach, or after everyone's had a tall glass of wine, beer, or cream soda. I personally brought mine to a work barbecue:

... and good times were had by all.