The Nate's World of Words Bloggiversary - Two Dozen Classics Part I

Greetings from Central New Jersey - the College Football Capitol of America! I am just applying the finishing touches to this column as the sound of celebration continues to emanate from nearby Rutgers Stadium. Mazel Tov to the Scarlet Knights for their huge win against the Cardinals! Do you realize that if they win their remaining 3 regular season games they could be playing for the national championship? My friend Mike Roth just bet me that Rutgers will be on the cover of next week's Sports Illustrated. Amazing!


It was exactly one year ago today that this blog premiered with my adventures of watching the Star Wars movies in chronological order. Today we present the 75th column! .. Feel free to count ‘em if you don’t believe me!… Last year, I had been thinking of writing a blog for awhile, AND I had also been thinking of seeing all 6 Star Wars movies. Who knew that the two concepts would merge thus leading to the creation of this blog! .

Oddly enough, or maybe as part of the celebration, tonight Cinemax will be showing all 6 Star Wars movies in chronological order! I think that is very noble of them and I appreciate the recognition. Coincidence? Nah.

Today we take a look back at the archives at the 24 columns that define this blog. All Six Star Wars Movies have been seen and written about…. Our movie club has now moved on to the Godfather Trilogy and I will be posting my Godfather III review soon, after which we will also be announcing the series of movies for our next anthology.

So without further ado… let’s take a walk down memory lane to see the columns that define Nate‘s World of Words:. Click the link to check out the column.. The audio and video files are embedded right here on the page! Enjoy!

1. November 10, 2005 - THE GRAND PREMIERE - My first trip to the blogosphere… . On the following day - November 11th was really when the fun started. That was when I started my rule of screening the comments section. I learned the lesson when an old chum who shall remain anonymous (hint: radio buddy Dangerspouse) posted a “funny” long forgotten comment that some might not have found so funny, and may have been a bit off color.. Nowadays all posted comments go through my email first. Don’t get me wrong,… Dangerspouse is a great guy.. But sometimes America is not quite ready for his humor…

2. November 21, 2005 - THE FIRST MOVIE REVIEW - My first movie review… of the 1st Star Wars movie.. And the reintroduction of the bladder scale that I used to use when I did reviews on the radio back in the early 90s.. Nowadays, I don’t review new movies on that scale since I don’t like including spoilers that might give away the plot, so the reviews are basically left for the older films, Incidentally this movie got 2 and a half bladders out of 4... And as you can see, I totally missed the point of … THE FORCE!

3. November 30, 2005 - MY FIRST TECHNOLOGY SCHMECKNOLOGY CONSUMER REVIEW This column also featured my first experiment at pod casting with an old radio clip with myself and Dangerspouse from the early 90s. Ironically it revolved around a story he told about a radio contest to see if people could remember our names. Was it true? Click below to hear it. The consumer review involved my adventures in purchasing my snazzy digital camera. Speaking of podcasting, this is where it really started. Today I do a regular podcast, and I was just a guest on another podcast talking about how to use podcasts for business promotions. I will talk more about that next week!




4. December 21, 2005 - THE FIRST FOUR BLADDER MOVIE REVIEW This was the column that featured a Jew’s Guide to Christmas Movies! Also, we showed that the camera reviewed in the 11/30 column had been put to good use as Trophy Wife went around doing interviews that would put Borat to shame!




5. December 25, 2005 - THE ARRIVAL OF PUMPSTRADAMUS This column marked the arrival to these pages of the great psychic Pumpstradamus. Listen closely to hear some of his great predictions for 2006.. None of which have actually come true!




6. January 6, 2006 - OUR WINTER VACATION MOVIE - So we went to Florida and brought our new video camera along. Click below to see all the craziness! After seeing this movie again, I think it’s time for us to take another vacation!




7. January 19, 2006 - MY RADIO INTERVIEW WITH THE LATE GREAT GENE RAYBURN This was the column where readers could get a little insight into my earlier career in radio. This column also included an interview I did with game show legend Gene Rayburn from 1990.




8. January 24, 2006 - THE JEMIMA AND THE SUGAR PLUMS STORY This was one of the more fun columns I have done… telling the story of how I met my wife with a bit of a twist. Is this really a true story??

9. January 29, 2006 - MY POLITICAL COLUMN This was the column designed to give the reader insight into what makes me tick politically. Based on last Tuesday’s results, it looks like a lot of other people thought the same way. It also shows that we Democrats are not a bunch of Pelosi-ans… as evidenced by the way I blasted the absurd newspaper comments made by a person who criticized a Rabbi for wishing that the evil President of Iran would drop dead.

10. February 10, 14, and 17, 2006 - THE THREE PART COLUMN OF MY LIST OF THE TOP 14 GAME SHOWS OF ALL TIME - As readers of this blog know by know I am a huge game show fan. This column ran in 3 parts with Part 1 featuring one of the few times Trophy Wife posted a comment on the blog She doesn’t read it - She hears enough of me talking about the column's ideas before I write them!

IN PART TWO I made an impassioned plea defending The Gong Show as the Number 9 pick and how it inspired the current phenomenon American Idol. It also featured a debate between myself and Belchie over the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire appearance by my former radio co-worker Young Chuck. I saw Belchie last week and amazingly he remembers the exact questions Young Chuck was asked… even though the show aired seven years ago.

PART THREE - THE TOP FOUR GAME SHOWS OF ALL TIME This was the column where I speculated about the possibility of Dave Price replacing Bob Barker as host of The Price is Right. Amazingly, with Barker’s retirement announcement last week, there has been quite a bit of speculation that Price will become the next host of the show!

11. March 16, 2006 THE MOST INCREDIBLE FIVE DAYS IN TELEVISION HISTORY This is the column that every TV programmer should read prior to unleashing the garbage they spew on us every Fall. So far this year only one new show - Heroes - is a huge hit and one other - Friday Night Lights - has gotten almost unanimous excellent reviews. Nonetheless, it’s amazing to read about the number of incredible classic shows that premiered that fateful week back in September of 1965.

12. March 27 and March 30, 2006 OUR BASEBALL PREVIEW PART ONE and PART TWO It’s always fun to look back and see how horrible my pre season picks came out! However I did hit the nail on the head when I predicted the Cardinals would win the World Series and that Mikes Piazza and Cameron would combine for more than 40 homers for the Padres. Interestingly enough I also mentioned that the Mets lack of starting pitching might come back and bite them in the tushie.

In Part 2 we will reveal the other Dozen columns. We will also have the story of my guest appearance on that other podcast.


Now time for the football picks where last week we were 6-8 dropping to a humiliating 54-68-6!

GIANTS Pick ‘em over The Bears – The Giants can complete a nifty weekend Giants Rutgers sweep in one of the best football weekends in local history.

NEW ENGLAND 10 ½ faves over The Jets – The Patriots coach Bill Bellichick seems obsessed with his feud with Jets coach Eric Mangini… Could it get to his head and allow the Jets to cover? Possibly but not likely.

CINNCINATI 1 doggies over San Diego – This is my last week on the Bengal bandwagon, unless they win against the Chargers who I dopily pick against each week.

DETROIT 6 faves over San Fran – The Lions are a decent home team in this ho hum affair. See Pumpstramus (now an impressive 5-3-1) for his pick below.

COLTS 12 faves over Buffalo – If the Colts win they will be the first team ever to start back to back seasons 9-0!

JACKSONVILLE 10 ½ faves over Houston – Home teams look good at 1pm on Sunday.

ATLANTA 8 faves over Cleveland – What the heck is the deal with Atlanta and Cleveland? These 2 teams are like yo yos. Is this the week they bring their A game?

Kansas City 1 fave over MIAMI – The run of 1 o’clock home faves comes to an end here.

MINNESOTA 5 faves over Green Bay – This would be a big statement if the Packers can pull this out. Is Favre going to the Monday Night booth next year replacing Kornheiser?

PHILADELPHIA 7 faves over Washington – Anybody else watching the live scoreboard on CBS Sportsline.com last week notice the mass confusion on the final moments of the Skins game? No way they beat an angry underachieving Eagle team!

Baltimore 7 faves over TENNESSEE – Titans fans always have the Grand Ole Opry for entertainment.

OAKLAND 9 doggies over Denver – The Broncos only score 18 points a game.. that’s a tall order to expect them to win by 10. I used the same logic in the last Raider Bronco game and got the win on that game.

PITTSBURGH 4 faves over New Orleans – Why do I bother picking the Steelers? Why? Why? Why?

Dallas 7 faves over ARIZONA – Ya think the Cowboys are ticked about last weeks meltdown against Washington? Maybe Parcells and Favre in the booth on MNF in ’07?

SEATTLE 3 ½ faves over St. Louis – Oddly enough a Rams win ties ‘em for 1st.

CAROLINA 9 ½ faves over Tampa Bay – See ya after Heroes. Hey this is the episode that we find out if Cheer-Daddy is a good guy or bad guy? And when is that crazy blonde with the split personality gonna start oil wrestling the cheerleader?

PUMPSTRADAMUS PICK OF THE WEEK – (5-3-1 so far this year!) This week in honor of The big Democrats win and San Francisco native Nancy Pelosi’s rise to power.. we go to San Fransisco where Pumpstradamus says.. “In honor of Pelosi I’m picking San Francisco over Detroit. Besides, Montana was a pivotal state in the GOP defeat, and doesn’t Joe Montana play for the 49ers?”