Thursday Thirteen #83 -- Who IS that guy?

Thirteen Products
Sold by Billy Mays

He begins all of his many, many TV commercials by announcing/shouting, “Billy Mays here!” My immediate response has always been, “So what?” But since I unintentionally spend more time with this leather-lunged pitchman than I do with members of my family, I decided to do a little research on him. (Thank you, Wikipedia.)

His full name is William D. Mays. He was born in 1958 in McKees Rocks, PA. His birth sign is Cancer. He lives with his wife, Candace, in Odessa Florida. Their home is rumored to be worth $1.8 million.

Billy began his career a salesperson in Atlantic City, selling the “Washmatik” to passersby on the Boardwalk. His big break came when he met Max Appel, the founder of Orange Glo, in the 1993. Max hired Billy to sell their cleaning products on The Home Shopping Network. Today he is the CEO and major star of Mays Productions, Inc.

Here are 13 of the products he has promoted on TV:

1) Awesome Auger
2) The Bedazzler
3) Bloomin’ Onion Maker
4) Fixit Car Scratch Remover
5) Foodsaver
6) Hercules Wall Hook
7) Kaboom!
8) Lint-B-Gone
9) Oxi Clean
10) Never Scrub
11) Swiffer Sweeper Cleaner
12) Zorbeez
13) Mighty Putty (the only one I’ve ever purchased)

Include your link in the comments and I'll add you here:
1) Malcolm reveals the true identities of your favorite sitcom stars
2) Michelle takes a trip in the Way Back Machine
3) Sandy's TT is a tribute to one of my favorite activities
4) Small Reflections is creative, visual, and guaranteed to make you say, "aw ..."
5) Ashley Ladd critiques her own cooking
6) Gnostic Minx has a highly visual and thought provoking TT
7) Popping Bubbles has a reading list for the kid in you
8) Marcia looks back ... way back!
9) Anthony shares a poem
10) Hootin' Ani's TT is tasty
11) Meju looks at towns with unusual names
12) Lori reviews her summer
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DAY 27 -- August 08 Happiness Challenge

Lunch with a legend. Today at lunchtime, I took in Marilyn Monroe: Life as a Legend at the Chicago Cultural Center. First of all, the Cultural Center is a beautiful old building, once Chicago's Public Library, and it's a treat just to walk around in it. Second, the exhibit was FREE. And, of course, it was Marilyn.

Marilyn fascinates me both as a movie star and as an icon. On screen, she was a delight. Funny and luminous. Her material often seems dated today, but she never does. Whatever was going on in her tumultuous personal life, her movie persona is always upbeat, sweet and vulnerable.

As an icon, she is captivating. Brave and sad sometimes, silly at others, often teetering between "vulnerable" and "victim." Especially in the photo shoots toward the end of her life, she seems to be trying to tell us something. Her loneliness is so powerful it reaches out to us across the decades. The actual photos -- many in glorious black and white -- are far more compelling than the artists' interpretations of her life and myth.

On a lighter note, I'm proud to report I resisted EVERYTHING in the museum gift shop!

Well, lookee here!

Thanks to Ms. Kwizgiver, I am officially a Kick Ass Blogger!

Instructions:
1. Choose five other bloggers that you feel are “Kick Ass Bloggers”
2. Let them know that they have received an award.
3. Link back to the person who awarded you.

So now it is my pleasure to pass this along to five other ass kickers …

Cupcake -- A teacher who kicks Genius ass every day, fights the good fight, and has mostly the same taste in Celebrity Boyfriends as I do

Book Mama -- A book lover, safety advocate, wife, daughter (of the lovely and supportive Snowbird), sister and working mom to two adorable blond kidlets, and she blogs about it all with wit and sensitivity

Jenny McB -- A blogger who talks about everything from golf to knitting to motherhood to pets to politics. But she doesn't do it enough! So I hope that this prestigious award will be a "kick in the ass" to get her back to her keyboard more regularly. We miss her when she's AWOL.

Silver Neurotic -- The blogger of The Quarter Life Chronicles, she generously shares with us as each new phase of her life unfolds. The issues she confronts, and the way she writes about them, make me think.

No Nonsense Girl -- The only foreigner on this list. She is funny, unconventional, and has a heart as big as her home country, Canada. I admire her indomitable spirit.