NYC Watchdog - A Pile Of Dog Bones

So yesterday I was in McDonald’s with DJ after we went to a birthday party because… well… I wasn’t feeling the chicken cutlet hero they had for adults. It wasn’t horrible… but when you’ve had Sonny’s or even the place where Squirrel gets the food for New Year’s Eve… well stuff just doesn’t compare, ya know? So while standing online the following conversation took place in front of me:

Big Woman: Do you have any of those turtles?
Server: Yes ma’am.
Big Woman: Okay, I’ll take one of each.
Server: Sorry ma’am we only have one kind.
Big Woman: Oh really? Which one?
Server: The orange one.
Big Woman: Oh. No red one?
Server: No, just the orange one.
Big Woman: I think they have the orange one already. We need the red one.
Me: You need Raphael.
*Big Woman and Server proceed to stare at me for a moment*
Server: Uh, we only have the orange one.
Me: You only have Michaelangelo.
Big Woman turns, puffs her chest, and states matter of factly: We’re talking about turtles, not painters.
Me: You stupid fucking cow all of the turtles are named AFTER renaissance painters as an ode to their comic book origins!

Well… okay… I didn’t say that. I was with my kid and as it was about to come out I stopped. Had he not been there… I would have been forced to give them Turtle 101.

So this weekend the new TMNT movie opened. I had wanted to go… but we went to the aforementioned birthday party instead for Baby Squirrel. Just as a little education… there are the ORIGINAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie, The Secret of the Ooze, and Turtles In Time. I have a long infatuation with TMNT ever since it was a black and white (yes… they did it in black and white) comic book by Mirage back in the 80’s.

The movies have a really special place in my heart… because I saw each one of them in the movie theaters with Christine. It became sort of a tradition by the third one. Of course… we still aren’t talking… so tradition appears to be broken in that aspect… but the truth is those movies, while not close adaptations to the comic, were way before their time as far as the costumes and characters. In today’s age of CGI, yeah, they look hokey… but back then they made Yoda look like a child’s toy.

I can go on and on about TMNT… in fact I may in another post… but today is Monday… and we need an Ooogle dammit! So I give you from the ORIGINAL movies… Miss April O’Neal…

That is actress Judith Hoag who played the intrepid reporter who befriends the turtles, Leonardo (blue), Raphael (red), Michaelangelo (orange), and Donatello (purple). Red hair… green eyes… she was hot then… and just as hot now. How I wish I was green.

Now Casey Jones has been debated to the ends of the earth. He is a street vigilante who wears a hockey mask. Back then everyone felt he was a Jason Voorhies rip off. What no one realizes… is that TMNT was really making fun of two major comic titles. Think about it… MUTANTS… and NINJAS… think about it. So to say they ripped Voorhies for Casey… well its just more of the making fun of. People can be so dense.

Here he is from the movie where he starts off as the Turtles enemy, and then befriends them. Casey was played by Elias Koteas who is pictured here on the right on the set of House.