Day 260
2014/09/17
The shirt for today is a clever homage to the 1965 exploitation flick by Russ Meyer “Faster Pussycat Kill Kill”. The movie starred Tura Satana. Russ Meyer is known for such films as “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens”. Tura Satana is best known for her work with Meyers. Tura Satana had a fascinating but turbulent life that included her turning down a marriage proposal from Elvis Presley. If someone were to do a biopic of Satana’s life and do it right it would be amazing. Thanks to MeduSirena Marina for making this shirt happen.
Day 256
2014/09/13
Time for another Tiki bar shirt. An island beach bar where every hour is a happy hour.
Day 257
2014/09/14
Coexist. It would be a nicer planet to live on if people could just get along. In the immortal words of Josey Wales, spoken to Ten Bears, “I ain’t promising you nothing extra. I’m just giving you life and you’re giving me life. And I’m saying that men can live together without butchering one another.”
Day 255
2014/09/12
The shirt for today is the official Northeast Tiki Tour (NeTT) shirt. Picture was taken before the Friday night kickoff party with three quarters of the band Ninth Wave.
Day 253
2014/09/10
Old Navy Flag Tee from 2009. That was just five short years ago. The year 2009 was the year that Michael Jackson died. News of his death pushed the internet to the breaking point. The number of people accessing several major websites reached unprecedented and historic levels and crippled services.
Day 254
2014/09/11
Abercrombie and Fitch was founded in 1892. The company was based out of New York City with its flagship store located in Manhattan. The store was an elite outfitter of excursion goods. The company was known for, among other things, its top of the line shotguns. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1976. The company has since emerged as a clothing store that sells to the young and their clothes are meant only for the “good-looking cool kids”. The present day Abercrombie and Fitch has come under fire for marketing thongs to ten year olds and padded bikini tops for seven year olds. The CEO has stated that there are “certain” people that don’t belong in his clothes. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t talking about me because I’m one of the cool kids, right??!
Day 251
2014/09/08
Time for another rum shirt. This one has a Tiki on it as an added bonus. Appleton Estate makes some really nice Jamaican rum.
Day 252
2014/09/09
There were two schools in a neighborhood. One was the Adams school and the other was the Morgan school. During segregation one was black and one was white. Today the neighborhood in Washington, D.C. is known as Adams Morgan. The name of this restaurant and bar in that neighborhood is a play on the words Adams Morgan. Madam’s Organ is known as a venue for the blues and for bluegrass.
Day 232
2014/08/20
My dive shop T-Shirt with the mermaid on it. Picture taken at the Jersey shore. I am on the boardwalk by the beach with the amusement park at Seaside Heights behind me.
Day 230
2014/08/18
I have a small piece of metal in my heart. Eight years ago on this day I had a heart attack. I had a 99% blockage in the main coronary artery they call the ‘widow maker’. I had a stent put in. I am happy every day to be alive and healthy.
Day 231
2014/08/19
I made quite the fashion statement on the beach at the Jersey shore. I had on one of my Hawaiian ‘wife beater’ T-shirts and my French Foreign Legion cap. While the hat is not authentic the French Foreign Legion pin affixed to the cap is in fact an antique and authentic.
Day 227
2014/08/15
I wore this shirt on the boardwalk at the Jersey Shore and I got a few approving comments.
Day 228
2014/08/16
MKAA stands for Minoa Kirkville Athletic Association. This was the youth sports program that my kids first played in and where I first coached; soccer, baseball, and softball. The league was later assimilated into a larger organization. I have fond memories of the MKAA.
Day 229
2014/08/17
I got this shirt at the Hot Rod Hula Hop in Columbus, Ohio and now I’m wearing it at the Jersey Shore.
Day 224
2014/08/12
The Soundgarden is a great place to get music. I like to support small businesses.
Day 223
2014/08/11
Another shirt from my days in nuclear power. Re-fuel outages nineteen years ago.
Day 222
2014/08/10
Pink Floyd. “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way…The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older, Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.”
Day 216
2014/08/04
Seven Tiki is a spiced rum from Fiji. I got this shirt gratis as part of the promotions being done for the rum at the Hukilau in Florida a few years back.
Day 215
2014/08/03
Stephen King is one of my favorite authors. This shirt is from a book tour he did helping to promote his book “Insomnia” and to help promote independent bookstores.
Day 214
2014/08/02
Who doesn’t love the minions?
Day 213
2014/08/01
Two years ago, on the first of August 2012, I began my early retirement. The last two years have just flown by. I have absolutely no regrets that I retired when I did. I didn’t get a gold watch after 24 years. Hell, I didn’t even get this lousy T-Shirt. I bought the shirt at the company store.
Day 212
2014/07/31
Big Dog Sportswear has been around for awhile. Here’s an oldie but goody. Taco Bell and Star Wars in the same shirt. Love it.
Day 209
2014/07/28
My youngest son Michael was in San Antonio and he went to a Spurs game. He got a free shirt and he didn’t want it so he gave it to me. I am not a fan of the Spurs but I am a fan of free T-Shirts.
Day 210
2014/07/29
Monopoly, as a board game, was originally published and sold by Parker Brothers. The board game is now the property of Hasbro. The game, as published by Parker Brothers, was first sold to the public in 1935.
Day 208
2014/07/26
Another shirt that I have no idea where I got it or when. This is probably not a real beer. If it was a real beer I would try it.
Day 207
2014/07/26
I have no idea where or when I got this shirt. I am assuming that it probably isn’t a real charter service. Nice logo though.
Day 206
2014/07/25
Who doesn’t love popcorn and a movie? Well, maybe corn doesn’t! Did you ever consider that?!
Day 205
2014/07/24
“King Kong” was a 1933 film that was groundbreaking in its day for the special effects. The film introduced the character of ‘Kong’. Kong was worshipped by the natives of Skull Island. Filmmakers that had come to the island discovered Kong, captured him, and brought him to New York. The film has been remade at least twice and Kong has appeared in sequels and even battled Godzilla. This T-Shirt is from the 2005 remake. When displayed in New York the phenomenal Kong is billed as the 8th wonder of the world.
Day 204
2014/07/23
Conan the Barbarian was a character created in 1932 by Robert E. Howard. The character originally appeared in the pulp magazine “Weird Tales”. Conan the Barbarian or Conan the Cimmerian has been featured in books, comics, films, cartoons, and games. Conan was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in two films. The first film, and the better of the two, was directed by John Milius. James Earl Jones played Conan’s adversary Thulsa Doom. This shirt is from a recent re-boot of the Conan film. I haven’t seen the new version yet, it did not get very good reviews.
Day 203
2014/07/22
Flex Comics is a comic strip that focuses on gym humor.
Day 202
2014/07/21
This is the second of my Disney Enchanted Tiki Room shirts. I have had some comments about my hats in these posts. This is technically a T-Shirt post but I do have a few hats. This is a hat I haven’t shown in one of these posts before. I got this hat at Eddie Bauer’s in Toronto, Canada on my honeymoon thirty one years ago. It’s a heavy canvas hat great for blocking out the sun.
Day 201
2014/07/20
DC Comic’s Justice League of America (JLA) is the shirt for today. Not as cool as The Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. the DC Comics superhero team was formed in 1960. I am a bigger Marvel fan than a DC fan but I do enjoy Batman and I have to admit that I have been watching Arrow on the CW. This shirt will kick off a new page on the website for the third one hundred shirts.
How many T-shirts does Khan Tiki Mon have? A lot? More than a lot?
More than that?
THE DAILY T-SHIRT 3
Day 295
2014/10/22
A Who shirt for today. Thirty five years ago the film “Quadrophenia” was in theaters. I was taking a film class in college and had to write a thesis comparing and contrasting two films. I actually did three films. The films were “Quadrophenia”, the 1971 Kubrick film “A Clockwork Orange”, and the 1962 film “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”. My professor said my film choices were truly inspired and my insights into the common themes exhibited in the films were spot on. My thesis was celebrated as the best in class. I feel that was the best writing I ever did. Somewhere along the way moving to the various places I have lived in the last thirty five years I lost my copy of what I wrote. Part of me thinks it would be interesting to read now what I wrote then and see if it is as good as I remember. The rest of me is happy to not have to find out I was as clueless and naïve as I probably was all those years ago. The older I get the better I was. “Quadrophenia” is still my favorite music by the Who.
Day 294
2014/10/21
Another Red Hot Chili Peppers shirt. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
Day 293
2014/10/20
Richard “Rick” Nielsen is the lead guitar player and primary song writer for the band Cheap Trick. Nielsen has used a black and white checkerboard motif on his clothing in concert including classic Checkerboard Vans sneakers. Shirt for today is another Vans shirt.
Day 291
2014/10/18
Another Vans shirt for today. In the 1982 film “Fast Times at Ridgement High” the character of Jeff Spicoli, a surfer played by Sean Penn, wore Vans shoes. Really cool people ever since, up to and including me, have worn Vans stuff.
Day 292
2014/10/19
Another Old Navy Flag this one from 2011. The year 2011 saw the deaths of Osama Bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi. There was a magnitude 9.0 earthquake near Japan that caused a devastating tsunami. The nuclear reactor Fukushima Daiichi was severely damaged by the tsunami and became the second level 7 disaster on the International Nuclear Event Scale; the first being Chernobyl. The extent of the damage to the Japanese reactor is still not fully understood and to this day there still remains the possibility that the reactor could go into full meltdown. More than 15,000 people died during the earthquake and the tsunami with thousands more unaccounted for.
Day 290
2014/10/17
The shirt for today is a celebration of New York City. In the words of Billy Joel, “…I’m takin’ a Greyhound on the Hudson River line. I’m in a New York state of mind. I’ve seen all the movie stars in their fancy cars and their limousines. Been high in the Rockies under the evergreens. I know what I’m needin’, and I don’t want to waste more time. I’m in a New York State of mind.” Picture for today was taken at Chittenango High School, under the ‘Friday night lights’. The Chittenango Bears vs. the Solvay Bearcats. Cameo for today by my friend Michelle whose son Ben plays for the Bearcats. My sweet little Alice is photobombing. I love my little photobomber
Day 289
2014/10/16
I don’t think there was anything special about the year 2010. It was a year with ups and downs the same as any other year. For some reason I have two Old Navy Flag shirts from 2010. One grayish blue one that I already posted and this white one for today.
Day 287
2014/10/14
Vans is an American manufacturer of shoes and apparel based in California. The brand is popular with skateboarders, surfers, and other action sports aficionados. Basically the cool kids wear Vans (I got special dispensation). Today’s shirt is for one of my newest friends HonoluluHandGrenade666.
Day 272
2014/09/29
“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is an animated TV show that first aired in 1966. While Christmas has many TV specials that have endured over the years I think this is the only one that has for Halloween. ‘Tis the season as they say. Halloween is right around the corner.
Day 271
2014/09/28
I have no more Oktoberfest shirts. This ‘Shocktober’ shirt is a clever piece of advertising referencing both Oktoberfest and, with Frankenstein featured, Halloween. It is the perfect segue from my Oktoberfest shirts to my Halloween shirts.
Day 269
2014/09/26
Traditional garb for Oktoberfest includes a Dirndl for the ladies and Lederhosen for the men.
Day 270
2014/09/27
Oktoberfest has been held continually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany since 1810. The only exceptions were when the festival was cancelled due to cholera outbreaks in 1854 and 1873. And when the festival was cancelled during war; the Austro-Prussian war, the Franco-Prussian war, and World Wars I and II. In 1980 there was a terrorist attack where a pipe bomb killed thirteen and injured hundreds but the festival went on.
Day 244
2014/09/01
Labor Day at the Great NY State Fair. Shirt for today the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Cameos by my friends Apple and Corn. Karen was snapping the picture and she told Apple to smile. It was a funny thing to say, but also a little cruel. I don’t think Apple has any choice but to smile. Imagine going through life with only one emotion ever visible on your face. It makes me sad to think of it.
Day 243
2014/08/31
Another ESM Youth sports shirt. This one is in yellow. Every time I coached a new team, if I didn’t already have that teams’ color, I got a new shirt.
Day 242
2014/08/30
This happened probably twenty years ago. I came home from work and I pulled into the driveway. My daughter was tied to the tree in front of the house. There was no one else around. I asked her if she was all right and she said yes. I started to untie her and she said don’t. She was actually very happy. She told me that her brothers were letting her play Ninja Turtles with them. She was April O’Neil and the boys were Ninja Turtles and they were going to rescue her. I went into the backyard where my boys were playing on the swing set. I told them they better rescue their sister ASAP or there was going to be a problem.
Day 240
2014/08/28
Here I have another Led Zeppelin shirt. In the news recently it has been reported that Robert Plant is probably retiring. His latest effort “Lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar” will most likely be his last. Does that make anyone else feel a little old?
Day 237
2014/08/25
Don Tiki is a neo-Exotica band out of Hawaii. I can’t remember how or when I came into possession of this shirt but it is one of my faves.
Day 236
2014/08/24
“Blue Hawaii” was a 1961 film starring Elvis Presley that took place in Hawaii. Elvis gave me this super cool shirt. Not really. But it is a super cool shirt. The film was a musical romantic comedy. It was the first of three films featuring Elvis in Hawaii. The next two were “Girls! Girls! Girls!” and “Paradise Hawaiian Style”. The soundtrack album for “Blue Hawaii” was nominated for a Grammy and sold more than 3 million copies. The album spent twenty weeks on the Billboard charts at number one and had a total of 79 weeks on the chart. The title song “Blue Hawaii” was featured in the 1937 film “Waikiki Wedding” starring Bing Crosby. Crosby released the song as the B-side to “Sweet Leilani” in 1937. The cocktail Blue Hawaii is related to the Elvis film only indirectly. The cocktail was created in 1957 at the request of Bols Liqueurs. The legendary bartender at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Harry Yee, was tasked with inventing a cocktail that highlighted Bols blue colored curacao. The cocktail is made with rum, pineapple juice, the blue curacao, and sour mix. The cocktail was named for the song “Blue Hawaii” as it was used in the 1937 Crosby film. My wife Karen and I; our song is “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” from the movie “Blue Hawaii”. Pretty sure that was our first dance at our wedding.
Day 235
2014/08/23
ESM Youth sports was the program my kids played in after the MKAA league closed. I coached soccer, baseball, and girls’ softball. Those were some good times.
Day 233
2014/08/21
Another of my Hawaiian ‘wife-beater’ T-Shirts. Picture taken in the condo we rented on the Jersey shore.
Day 226
2014/08/14
Bristol Myers Squibb clambake 1997. Seventeen years ago. Yep, I was there.
Day 225
2014/08/13
Another ‘National Greed’ shirt. It’s an old joke but it still works.
Day 221
2014/08/09
Shirt for today was a gift from Lucky the Painproof Man. He gave me this shirt at the Hot Rod Hula Hop. Cameo for today is Lucky hisself. Picture taken outside the Sequoia Pro Bowl. Enjoyed my first ever ‘trunk tasting’ at the Hop. A ‘trunk tasting’ is where you sample craft rums, provided by Lucky, from the trunk of a car in the parking lot. Sweet!
Day 220
2014/08/08
Shirt for today is a Corona shirt. Picture taken outside the Grass Skirt Tiki Room in Columbus, Ohio. The cameo for today is George the fountain. George greeted visitors to the Tiki palace that was the Kahiki for many years. The Kahiki suffered the wrecking ball but George survived and is being restored. George will be a fixture at the Grass Skirt for years to come.
Day 218
2014/08/06
Got this shirt when my kids were in elementary school.
Day 219
2014/08/07
The Cocktail Preachers are one of my favorite bands. I have their CDs but had never heard them live until last year at Hot Rod Hula Hop 5 in Columbus, Ohio. The band traditionally performs wearing fez and so I broke mine out for this picture. I got this shirt from the band last year at the Hot Rod Hula Hop.
Day 217
2014/08/05
Woodland Elementary is where my kids went to school. Twenty years ago the school had a 25 year anniversary celebration and I got this T-Shirt.
Day 211
2014/07/30
Another Costa Rican shirt. I’m pretty sure this one was a gift. I don’t believe I got this when I was in Costa Rica all those many years ago. Costa Rica kicked ass in the World Cup this year. I’m pretty sure that Costa Rica is the most successful soccer team for all of Central America and the Carribean.
Day 283
2014/10/10
Born lucky? I don’t know; it depends how you look at I guess. They say unlucky at cards but lucky at love. Or something like that right? I have been married for 31 years to the same woman. Most of the years were pretty good (LOL). So, I guess, yes, I was born lucky.
Day 284
2014/10/11
Time for another Tiki shirt. One can never have too many Tiki shirts (Not necessarily an opinion shared by my wife).
Day 282
2014/10/09
The Vieux Carre, or the French Quarter as it is better known, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. The French Quarter is a popular tourist destination known for its restaurants and the music. Rue Bourbon, or Bourbon Street, is the most famous address in the Quarter.
Day 275
2014/10/02
Here is another shirt using the likeness of Frankenstein’s monster to get consumers into the Halloween spirit. I wonder who gets the royalty check; the good Dr. Frankenstein or his creation? It seems a bit of an ethical puzzler to me.
Day 274
2014/10/01
Halloween is that time of year when Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein’s monster enjoy a pumpkin pie flavored coffee on a crisp Autumn morning. Parks Coffee is a privately owned family business based out of Carrollton, Texas.
Day 262
2014/09/19
Old Navy Flag Tee 2010. Only four short years ago. Do you say “twenty-ten” or “two thousand and ten”? Did anything important happen in 2010? Well, yes, “Despicable Me” came out and so now we have the Minions.
Day 264
2014/09/21
Oktoberfest is a sixteen day festival running from late September to the first weekend in October. The event has taken place in Munich, Bavaria, Germany since 1810.
Day 258
2014/09/15
Time for another MeduSirena Marina shirt. Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid! (MeduSirena) rocks. My favorite fishtailed floosie.
Day 234
2014/08/22
Last of the Hawaiian ‘wife-beater’ T-Shirts and last day at the Jersey shore.
Day 297
2014/10/24
Time for another MeduSirena Marina shirt. This one featuring the artwork of Tom “Thor” Thordarson. Thor is an artist with an incredible amount of talent and I have several of his prints hanging in my house.
Day 288
2014/10/15
Today’s shirt has on it the schematics for the Pocket Monster Containment Capsule. Sometime around 1996 an association was formed where participants fought creatures they had captured and trained; similar to the morally repugnant sports of cock-fighting and dog fighting. The creatures forced to fight were known as Pokemons (a contraction of Pocket Monster) and there were 719 different species. The people fighting these creatures were known as ‘trainers’. These so-called ‘trainers’ would capture the Pokemon and then imprison them in these Pocket Monster Containment Capsules that were also known as Poke Balls. FREE PIKACHU!!!
Day 278
2014/10/05
Another classic scary movie that’s perfect for the Halloween holiday season is “Psycho”. The 1960 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock is considered a classic by many. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including best supporting actress for Janet Leigh and best director for Hitchcock. The ‘shower scene’ is one of the best known in all of cinema history.
Day 276
2014/10/03
More shameless commerce capitalizing on the Halloween holiday. Today it is Corona beer and Count Dracula. Halloween is a big drinking holiday in America. The biggest drinking holidays aren’t in America. Oktoberfest in Germany and Carnival in Brazil both dwarf anything in the U. S. of A. Halloween has been moving up the list of drunken holidays here. St. Patrick’s Day is still number one. I don’t think there is a clear second place. Cinco de Mayo, Super Bowl Sunday, Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday; they all are up and coming on the party list. New Year’s Eve reign at the top has come and gone.
Day 259
2014/09/16
Time for a Guinness. They’re not just for breakfast anymore. Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout. That’s actually an understatement as Guinness is consumed worldwide at the rate of 1.8 billion pints per year.
Day 265
2014/09/22
The Oktoberfest in Munich is the largest Volksfest (People’s Fair) in the world. Annually there are more than six million participants. Fifteen percent come from foreign countries including the U.S.
Day 261
2014/09/18
I have many fond drive-in memories. I saw Walt Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” in a torrential downpour with the wipers going full blast; somehow it seemed appropriate. I saw my first James Bond film “Dr. No” at the drive-in. It was the second or third feature and not when it first came out – I’m not quite that old. One of my fondest drive-in memories though was the dusk to dawn showing of all five of the original ‘Apes’ movies. “Planet of the Apes”, “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”, “Escape From the Planet of the Apes”, “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”, and “Battle for the Planet of the Apes”. I still like the originals better than the re-boots.
Day 247
2014/09/04
Time for another Minion shirt. Who doesn’t love the Minions?
Day 248
2014/09/05
Time for another superhero shirt. This time we are going ‘old school’.
Day 241
2014/08/29
I spent a lot of time watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoons with my kids. I spent a lot of money on TMNT action figures and the like back in the day. Now, all these years later, I took my grandson to see the new Ninja Turtle movie and I am buying him TMNT legos.
Day 296
2014/10/23
Old Navy Flag shirt from 2012. That was the year the world was supposed to end. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. There was a big budget film “2012” that was released in 2009. I wrote a review after seeing it. “The plot and the characters in the movie just serve as a means to get from one special effects sequence to the next. The plot is contrived and formulaic. John Cusack plays the main character. He’s a novelist that wrote a book that only sold 400 copies. One of the copies is being read by the scientist in the White House that’s spearheading the efforts to preserve humanity from extinction. Because the Cusack character only sold 400 copies of his novel he is working as a chauffeur for a Russian billionaire. The Russian billionaire bought seats in the top secret project to preserve humanity. The Cusack character is divorced from his wife, played by the still hot Amanda Peet, and she has a plastic surgeon doctor boyfriend. The Cusack character’s kids get along better with the doc than they do with their Dad, the not too successful writer. The Russian billionaire has a cute young Russian girlfriend. The cute young Russian girlfriend knows the plastic surgeon boyfriend of the Cusack character’s ex-wife because he had done her boob-job. Of course all of these disparate characters are going to end up in the same place together and in great peril. Near the end of the movie the cute Russian girlfriend bemoans the fact, to the doctor, that she had the breast enhancement. She only had the surgery at the insistence of the billionaire boyfriend. You know the Cusack character has to get back with his wife and kids and the doctor boyfriend is in the way. So, when the cute young Russian girlfriend is drowning I thought she might be saved by her new extra buoyant tatas and then end up with the doctor in gratitude for his saving her life by installing the built in water wings. But they’d already killed off the doctor and so the cute Russian girlfriend was no longer required and so she just drowned. She drowned but her dog made it. That’s part of the formula. You can kill off most of humanity on screen, women and children included, but the pets are off limits. Don’t hurt the little yippy dog. The plot is of course laughable but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the movie. You go to see the special effects and the big action sequences and those didn’t disappoint.”
Day 281
2014/10/08
Another H5O shirt; this one from season three. In season three the character of Catherine Rollins, played by Michelle Borth, was made a regular. I liked the character, I think Michelle Borth is a good actress, and she’s easy to look at. I am disappointed she has since been written out of the show.
Day 279
2014/10/06
“The Wolf Man” was a 1941 Universal film that starred Lon Chaney Jr. Chaney would appear in four sequels to the film. Over the years there have been countless films that have featured werewolves. Halloween and werewolves go together quite nicely.
Day 280
2014/10/07
I have a bit of “A Bridge Too Far” situation that I have gotten myself into. “A Bridge Too Far” was a book and then a movie. It refers to WWII’s Operation Market Garden and has become an idiom meaning that one has overreached. I don’t have enough Halloween shirts to make it to Halloween. I started the Halloween shirts too soon. So, I am going to regroup. There will be a break in the Halloween shirts for a time but there will be more Halloween shirts to come; I promise. For today, please enjoy some surfboards, the beach, and a hot rod. The scheduled celebration of Halloween will resume at a later date.
Day 267
2014/09/24
Traditional foods served at Oktoberfest include Schweinshaxe (grilled ham hock), Brezen (pretzel) with Obatzda (a spiced cheese-butter spread, Wurstl (sausages), and Steckerlfisch (grilled fish on a stick).
Day 268
2014/09/25
Oktoberfest shirts continue. Today’s pic was snapped at my friend Ron’s retirement party. Ron is my cameo for today. Oktoberfest in Munich is held at the fairgrounds called Theresienwiese. The fairgrounds were named for Princess Therese. Seven million litres of beer are served at Theresienwiese (Therese’s meadow) during Oktoberfest.
Day 266
2014/09/23
All of the beers served at Oktoberfest are brewed within the city limits of Munich. Breweries that can brew Oktoberfest beers include Lowenbrau, Spatenbrau, and Staatliches Hofbrau-Munchen.
Day 245
2014/09/02
Another surf design T-Shirt for today.
Day 246
2014/09/03
Time for another Costa Rican shirt.
Day 238
2014/08/26
Punta Cana is a popular vacation destination in the Dominican Republic. The beaches there face both the Atlantic and the Caribbean. The name Punta Cana refers to the cane palms found in the region. Punta Cana literally means “tip of the white cane palms”. I haven’t been there yet.
Day 300
2014/10/27
Another milestone reached today as we complete three hundred shirts and start tomorrow on the next hundred. “The Last Werewolf” is a book by Glen Duncan. It is the first in a trilogy of books about a one hundred year old werewolf. The director Ridley Scott, of “Alien” and “Bladerunner” fame, is working on a film adaptation.
Day 299
2014/10/26
As promised I am back to Halloween shirts. Fright Night as it is sometimes called. Today’s pic was snapped at the Rosamund Gifford Burnet Park Zoo during the annual Zoo Boo. Cameo appearance for the picture was a Lego guy.
Day 298
2014/10/25
After yesterday’s MeduSirena Marina shirt today we have a Medusa shirt. Medusa was one of three Gorgon sisters; Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale. Medusa was the only sister that was mortal. The Roman poet Ovid described Medusa as a ravishingly beautiful maiden who, after being raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple, was cursed by having her beautiful hair transformed to serpents. Merely looking at her face and the serpents would turn a man to stone. She was beheaded by Perseus. When Medusa was killed she was pregnant by Poseidon and thus the winged horse Pegasus sprang from her body. That’s some messed up stuff, right? Today’s shirt picture was taken at Dinomania at the Museum of Science and Technology (MOST). Cameo is by Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Day 286
2014/10/13
The Columbus Day holiday is officially celebrated on a Monday so as to make a long weekend. The holiday was originally pushed for by Italian Americans and the Knights of Columbus. It was observed as a celebration of their Italian heritage. I find that somewhat odd as Columbus was representing, and acting as an agent of, Spain. Recent criticism of Columbus Day comes from protesters who question celebrating someone who treated the indigenous population so cruelly. Columbus enslaved 1500 Arawack Indians. He chose the 500 ‘best’ specimens to sell in Europe. Of the 500 shipped 200 died in transit. Said Columbus, “Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold”. Hard to believe we made that a Federal holiday.
Day 285
2014/10/12
Columbus arrived in the Americas on October 12th, 1492. Columbus Day became a Federal holiday in the U.S. in 1937. It became a holiday largely due to the lobbying of the Knights of Columbus. There was early opposition to the holiday by groups opposed to immigration and the Knights of Columbus. These activists saw the holiday as promoting the spread of Catholicism; something they were opposed to. More recent opposition to the Columbus Day holiday comes from people protesting the cruel treatment of the indigenous people by Columbus.
Day 277
2014/10/04
Halloween is a time for scary movies. The all-time classics are the Universal horror films made from 1932 to 1960. The Universal monsters were Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man, and the Mummy. The original 1932 film “The Mummy” starred Bela Lugosi. One of the sequels was “The Mummy’s Tomb” in 1942 that starred Lon Chaney Jr. The shirt for today is the movie poster for that 1942 film.
Day 273
2014/09/30
Halloween approaches. Time for a little werewolf action in this Black Bush shirt. Old Bushmills is the oldest working distillery in Ireland. Black Bush is one of their products. Not sure if a shot of Black Bush with a beer chaser will keep the werewolves at bay but I suppose it couldn’t hurt.
Day 263
2014/09/20
Today is the first day of Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest has started in September since the end of the Nineteenth Century. Originally it was celebrated starting October 12, 1810 after the marriage of Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese. Oktoberfest was moved to take advantage of better weather and now starts the third weekend in September. Don’t be a ‘Bierleichen’. Those who have consumed too much and pass out are called ‘Bierleichen’; German for ‘beer corpse’.
Day 249
2014/09/06
Time for another Bristol shirt. The perspective in this picture is a little different because my 7 year old grandson took the picture. Usually I have a few pictures taken and then pick the least objectionable. Today I had no choice as this was the only picture where he didn’t cut my head off. Maybe he’s a critic and he’s trying to tell me something?
Day 250
2014/09/07
Time for yet one more BMS shirt. This one from the 1996 clambake.
Day 239
2014/08/27
A friend of mine told me this story. His nephews were discussing music. One of them mentioned the Beatles and another asked who the Beatles were. “The Beatles,” it was explained, “were Paul McCartney’s band before Wings”. Does that make anyone else feel a little old?