Mr. Pink's Twelve Posts of Christmas: Five

Fozziwig: Here is my Christmas speech. "Thank you all, and Merry Christmas".

Jacob Marley: That was the speech?

Robert Marley: It was dumb.

Jacob Marley: It was obvious.

Robert Marley: It was pointless.

Jacob Marley: It was... short.

Robert & Jacob Marley together: I loved it!

Number 2 in the 5 best Christmas films ever is...

2. The Muppet Christmas Carol: The fourth movie to star the Muppets, and the first produced after the deaths of Muppets creator Jim Henson and long time collaborator Richard Hunt, "The Muppet Christmas Carol" was important for the Jim Henson company to show that a) there was still an audience for Kermit, Miss Piggy et al and perhaps more importantly to show that the characters could go on despite loosing two key players behind the scenes.

Charles Dicken's original story did not feature a blue wierdo with a rat as a sidekick as narrator, dancing penguins or a tadpole on crutches as Tiny Tim. Thankfully the Muppet gang correct these oversights in a surprisingly sombre, effective adapatation which remains true to both Dicken's festive classic and to Henson's legacy. Highly recommended.

Mr. Pink's Twelve Posts of Christmas: Two

Forget your "Wiggles" and your "In The Night Garden", the ultimate kids TV show was, is and always will be "Sesame Street". For some unknown reason though, today's children are being deprived as broadcasters in these fair isles haven't shown it in almost a decade. Well, here's an early Christmas present.

Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children's Television Workshop) has launched a brand-spanking-new archive of hundreds of classic "Sesame Street" video clips at Video.SesameWorkshop.com. Similar to youtube, the site features the largest online collections of clips from the show. With segments, sketches and songs spanning the past 38 years, there is enough material here to keep Sesame fans entertained for quite a while.

The video collection is easy to search, full of all your favorite "Sesame Street" segments and is 100% free. So surf on over to Video.SesameWorkshop.com and enjoy hours upon hours of "Sesame Street" fun – there is the "King of 8", tons of Kermit the Frog’s breaking Sesame Street News Flashes, Elmo's tricycle song, the Pinball Number Count, "The Ladybird Picnic", more than 100 Ernie and Bert bits, and so much more. There is something for everyone and I defy you not to have a big goofy grin on your face by the end of it.

Enjoy the game?

Before I start I am not a massive football fan, but I do enjoy the International side of football.

Was that not an absolute disgrace last night? I feel for Staunton, he was a great player for Ireland for so many years but unfortunately it looks like this "managerial" role will be what he is remembered for. As for John Delaney, yes he has improved the domestic side of Irish football but I think he should do the right thing now and admit he screwed up with his appointment of Staunton, his world class manager.

16000 people did not show up last night for the game, people were ejected from the stadium for putting up a "Delaney out" banner, Dunphy talked about the media being threatened, what are the FAI at.

Difficult Second Post

Forgive me father for I have sinned. It has been 3 days since my last blog entry.

It's taken me a long time, but I have to come out (no, not that kind of coming out, I did that a long time ago. Remind me to tell you the story some time. It's quite funny. In an embarassing kind of way). No, I have to come out as a big kid!

I don't know if you've noticed but for some reason people who were born in the mid-late '70s seem to be much more willing to hold onto and embrace their inner child. Some of my closest friends actually pulled sickies from work so that they could read the last "Harry Potter" book, stopping only to catch a couple of hours sleep. Other friends plan their Saturday nights around "Doctor Who"! And I'm sure all of us posting on this blog have at least one animated film in their DVD collection.

Me? I admit I have read all the "Harry Potter" books (usually on the long journey to and from work). I'm a proud to call myself a "Doctor Who" fan and "Finding Nemo", "Fraggle Rock" and "The Muppet Show" sit proudly amongst the rest of my DVDs!

Which brings me to the point of this post. When I was growing up, without fail, every Christmas along with the rest of my presents Santa would leave a Selection Box (it had to be Cadburys and I still insist on getting one!) and an annual. From around 1979-1984 it was the "Muppet Show" annual (I was, and still am a HUGE Muppets fan!) and I used to spend hours reading and re-reading the stories and simply just looking at the pictures and soon I'll be able to do it all over again!

"Disney Adventures" magazine will soon start printing some brand new "Muppets" comic strips written and drawn by cult cartoonist Roger Langridge, best known on this side of the Atlantic for his cartoons in "Inside Soap" magazine. The first strip is set to run in the "August 2007" issue (which means it should be hitting newsstands soon), and according to Langridge it'll be a two-page "Pigs in Space" adventure.

There's a sneak peak below and I bet it brings a smile to the face to even the grown ups out there!