Join my team in the fight to end Alzheimer’s!

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Private Asel Hagerty (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on April 6, 1865, at Sailors Creek, Virginia. His citation reads:

Capture of flag.

Sergeant John H. Haight (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on May 5, 1862 at Williamsburg, Virginia and on August 27, 1862, at Bristol Station, Virginia. His citation reads:

At Williamsburg, Va., voluntarily carried a severely wounded comrade off the field in the face of a large force of the enemy; in doing so was himself severely wounded and taken prisoner. Went into the fight at Bristol Station, Va., although severely disabled. At Manassas, volunteered to search the woods for the wounded.

Corporal Sidney Haight (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on July 30, 1864, at Petersburg, Virginia. His citation reads:

Instead of retreating, remained in the captured works, regardless of his personal safety and exposed to the firing, which he boldly and deliberately returned until the enemy was close upon him.


Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. I’m fighting to stop it – and I’m asking you to join me!

I’m participating in the 2012 Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s™, the nation's largest event to raise awareness and funds to fight Alzheimer’s. By joining my team, I’m just sayin…, you can help end this epidemic and show your support for the more than 5.4 million individuals currently living with the disease.

It would mean so much to me if you would join me as a member of my team for this year’s Walk.

The Alzheimer's Association is the largest voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research, and the funds we raise will go directly toward supporting their efforts. To join my team, visit the link below.

http://act.alz.org/goto/imjustsayin

Thank you.

If you join my team, please ask other people to donate. If you would “just” like to give, go to:

http://act.alz.org/goto/greghorres

Even if you do “just” donate, feel free to point other people to that site. Let’s try to give as many people the opportunity to give.


The I’m just sayin… Kid Show of the Week

The Kid Show of the Week this week is Mama’s Family. Mama's Family is an American sitcom that premiered on NBC on January 22, 1983. It was cancelled in May 1984, but NBC would continue to air reruns until September 1985. In September 1986, Mama's Family returned in first-run syndication, where it aired for an additional four seasons, ending on February 24, 1990. Mama's Family is a spin-off of a recurring series of comedy sketches called The Family, which appeared on The Carol Burnett Show in the 1970s.

The show, set in the fictional town of Raytown, revolves around a typical squabbling family, headed by Thelma Harper — a buxom, blue-haired, purse-lipped, 65-year-old widow, who is volatile, abrasive, and sharp-tongued. Looking back, it’s funny she was 65, because I would have guessed she was a lot older. Anyway, living with Thelma originally was only her uptight spinster sister Fran (Rue McClanahan), a journalist for a local paper. Thelma's son, Vinton (whose wife, Mitzi, had left him to become a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas, Nevada) and his two children, Sonja and Buzz, moved in with her later.

During the first season, Vinton forged a relationship with the Harpers' flirtatious next-door neighbor Naomi Oates (whom Thelma had a distaste for), and soon married her. After selling her house and losing the money in a bad business deal, Naomi and Vint are forced to move into Thelma's basement, where they remain for most of the show's run. Also seen on a recurring basis were Thelma's two daughters: the snobbish Ellen (Betty White) and the ornery Eunice (Carol Burnett). Harvey Korman, who directed many of the earlier episodes, made featured appearances as Eunice's husband, Ed Higgins. During the eleventh and final season of The Carol Burnett Show (1977), the Ed Higgins character was written out of The Family skits, having left Eunice. Korman also appeared at the beginning of each episode as the stuffed shirt Alistair Quince, who would soberly introduce the program in the style of Masterpiece Theatre. These monologues were cut out of the later syndicated reruns and the subsequent DVD release of the first season.

After Mama's Family was cancelled by NBC in 1984, it moved to first-run syndication in 1986. Major cast changes occurred during the convert, with only Vicki Lawrence (Thelma), Ken Berry (Vinton), and Dorothy Lyman (Naomi) returning as regulars from the NBC run. Eric Brown and Karin Argoud, who played Buzz and Sonja in seasons one and two, did not reprise their roles; their characters, though mentioned briefly in the first episode of the third season, were never to be spoken of again. During Mama's Family's hiatus, Rue McClanahan (Aunt Fran) and Betty White (Ellen Jackson) had both gone on to star in the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls, rendering them unavailable to return. White returned as Ellen for one episode in 1986 while Fran was killed off in the first episode of season three, having choked to death on a toothpick at the local bar. Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman, meanwhile, did not reprise their roles either, resulting in their characters (Eunice and Ed Higgins) being written as having moved to Florida.

To fill the void, Allan Kayser was cast as Thelma's delinquent teenaged grandson, Bubba Higgins (Ed and Eunice's often mentioned, but never seen, young son from The Family sketches on The Carol Burnett Show), who was ordered to stay with the Harpers after being released from juvenile hall and placed on probation. Also added to the cast was Beverly Archer, who played the new character of Iola Boylan, the family's prissy neighbor; she was known for her catchphrase, "Knock, knock!" As the series continued, more new characters were sporadically brought in to evoke comedic situations.

The syndication years saw far less bickering than the NBC years and particularly The Family sketches. The Naomi and Vinton characters became far less serious and more dimwitted, and Mama was represented as more of the leader of the family throughout the show's syndication years. A recurring theme throughout the fifth season was Naomi's desire to become a mother. Following through with this, the penultimate season concluded with Naomi's announcement that she was pregnant. Preparation for the baby became a central theme of the sixth and final season. The series finale featured Naomi giving birth to a baby girl, who was named Tiffany Thelma.

Here’s what you need to know about this show: Vicki Lawrence was AWESOME and Rue McClanahan and Betty White, while not in every season, were in the first two seasons and they are two of the best. This is a great show to watch with your children.

As always, thanks to Wikipedia for this info.