TIME TO DONATE SOME RICE TODAY!
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Build your vocabulary, feed the hungry...
9,481,828,970 grains donated at this point...
Yesterday the winner of the "Frosty The Snowman" sing-off...
the incomparable BING CROSBY with 77.8% of the votes,
followed by Willie Nelson with 44.4%
18 voters yesterday...
Our favorite Christmas Carol...
"WHITE CHRISTMAS"
Written by Irving Berlin. The morning after he wrote the song — Berlin usually stayed up all night writing — the songwriter went to his office and told his musical secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written — hell, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!"
The song was written in early 1940 while Berlin sat poolside at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona.
Introduced by Bing Crosby in the 1942 musical "Holiday Inn". In the film, he actually sings it in a duet with Marjorie Reynolds. The song went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Though, while Marjorie Reynolds was the actress playing Linda Mason, her voice was dubbed by Martha Mears for the movie, and in the script as originally conceived, Reynolds, not Crosby, was to sing the song.
The first public performance of the song was also by Crosby, on his top-rated NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941.
The song was written in early 1940 while Berlin sat poolside at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona.
Introduced by Bing Crosby in the 1942 musical "Holiday Inn". In the film, he actually sings it in a duet with Marjorie Reynolds. The song went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Though, while Marjorie Reynolds was the actress playing Linda Mason, her voice was dubbed by Martha Mears for the movie, and in the script as originally conceived, Reynolds, not Crosby, was to sing the song.
The first public performance of the song was also by Crosby, on his top-rated NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941.
Once again, you get two choices...
THE BEACH BOYS
THE DRIFTERS
DESTINY'S CHILD
SHANIA TWAIN
OTIS REDDING
FRANK SINATRA
As he was the winner yesterday, we did not include the original by Bing Crosby, but will put it here for all y'all to hear...
This one amazed us...yesterday we decided to sign up with blogrush. It is a service where you add a widget and other blog posts are displayed on your site ... our good friend Matt-Man has it on his site...
So, we scoot over to their site and sign up. We are told to insert the widget and they will review THE COUCH and get back to us within 24-48 hours...la la la la la ...less than an hour later we receive an email back with the header "We're Very Sorry"...
WHAT? Huh? WHAT?
The email reads in part:
So, we scoot over to their site and sign up. We are told to insert the widget and they will review THE COUCH and get back to us within 24-48 hours...la la la la la ...less than an hour later we receive an email back with the header "We're Very Sorry"...
WHAT? Huh? WHAT?
The email reads in part:
"This message is to inform you that
we have carefully reviewed your blog:
Big Leather Couch
http://bondsbigleathercouch.blogspot.com
And your blog did not meet the strict BlogRush quality criteria.
Reason Your Blog Wasn't Approved:
Not Enough Unique Content
Therefore, your blog has not been approved for use in our network.
Please do not take this decision personally.
We have decided to only approve the highest quality blogs for our network.
You should remove the BlogRush code from your blog's pages.
Our Quality Guidelines and criteria are listed within our
Terms Of Service agreement:"
we have carefully reviewed your blog:
Big Leather Couch
http://bondsbigleathercouch.blogspot.com
And your blog did not meet the strict BlogRush quality criteria.
Reason Your Blog Wasn't Approved:
Not Enough Unique Content
Therefore, your blog has not been approved for use in our network.
Please do not take this decision personally.
We have decided to only approve the highest quality blogs for our network.
You should remove the BlogRush code from your blog's pages.
Our Quality Guidelines and criteria are listed within our
Terms Of Service agreement:"
WTF??? OK, OK, maybe we missed something...so we head over to look at those TOS...
here is what we found...
BlogRush Quality Guidelines & Criteria
- The blog contains unique, quality content that provides opinions, insights, and/or recommended resources that provide value to readers of the blog. Articles, videos, public domain works, press releases, and content written by others are okay to be used on the blog, but the ratio of unique content should far outweigh content from other sources.
16 original works of fiction in the last year...
9 Tuneage Tutelage posts in the last 10 months...
Show us where our posts are not original??? SHOW US..
OK, if you look at the last 5 posts only, 2 are Tutelage that maybe do not fit since there are few words, but Friday's post was about the Mitchell Report...ALL original words...
Did they spend 5 minutes and look at three, maybe four posts????
'splain it to me lucy...de ratio it be heavy to the original side me thinks...
- The blog should be updated on a regular basis (at least several times a month) and should not just go a few months between posts.
FIVE days a week...FIVE days a week...ok, so we have missed, what??? 10 days this whole year???
- The blog should already contain at least 10-12 quality posts. New blogs with very little content will not be accepted.
ummm...477 posts...just a tad more than 10-12
- The blog's primary content must be in English. BlogRush is currently not available for non-English blogs.
OK, so maybe sometimes we speak "Couch-eze" but it am mainly in English...ain't it?
- The blog should not contain an excessive amount of advertising and links and very little actual content. The focus of the blog should be quality content.
NO advertising...the links are to give our guests additional information...wut am quality????
- The primary content of the blog should not be "scraped" content from other sources and/or script-generated pages for the sole purpose of search engine rank manipulation. The focus of the blog should be quality content.
Pullllllllleasssssse...have you seen our Technorati ranking lately? If you have, tell us about it because it has shrunken smaller than a steroid users gonads...
- The blog's content (or advertising) should not contain any of the following types of content: hate, anti-racial, terrorism, drug-related, hacking, phishing, fraud, pornographic, nudity, warez, gambling, copyright infringement, obscene or disgusting material of any kind, or anything considered illegal.
Well some might think we are disgusting...but we don't do any of those other things...
- BlogRush reserves the right to determine if any blog is suitable for its network or not.
Guess this is the out-clause...we don't want you in our club, so go away little boy ya bothering me...
Now, we know some of you are shaking your heads saying "who the hell gives a sh..." oops, they might be watching...
and some will say, "don't you write your blog for you????"
Just kind of ticks us off is all..and HELL YEAH, we write this for ourself, so guess what???? We get to write what we want and this is what we wanted to write about...
We have not put one link to this site, because they do not deserve it..you can find it easy enough and maybe you will want to join in on the fun...
we actually found some content on Matt-Man's site and visited the blog that caught my eye...we think it is a good idea...YES THINK...but we would love to hear how THE COUCH is not original...
BLOG TALK RADIO UPDATE
Join MO as he discusses the Dickens classic
"A Christmas Carol"
here is what we found...
BlogRush Quality Guidelines & Criteria
- The blog contains unique, quality content that provides opinions, insights, and/or recommended resources that provide value to readers of the blog. Articles, videos, public domain works, press releases, and content written by others are okay to be used on the blog, but the ratio of unique content should far outweigh content from other sources.
16 original works of fiction in the last year...
9 Tuneage Tutelage posts in the last 10 months...
Show us where our posts are not original??? SHOW US..
OK, if you look at the last 5 posts only, 2 are Tutelage that maybe do not fit since there are few words, but Friday's post was about the Mitchell Report...ALL original words...
Did they spend 5 minutes and look at three, maybe four posts????
'splain it to me lucy...de ratio it be heavy to the original side me thinks...
- The blog should be updated on a regular basis (at least several times a month) and should not just go a few months between posts.
FIVE days a week...FIVE days a week...ok, so we have missed, what??? 10 days this whole year???
- The blog should already contain at least 10-12 quality posts. New blogs with very little content will not be accepted.
ummm...477 posts...just a tad more than 10-12
- The blog's primary content must be in English. BlogRush is currently not available for non-English blogs.
OK, so maybe sometimes we speak "Couch-eze" but it am mainly in English...ain't it?
- The blog should not contain an excessive amount of advertising and links and very little actual content. The focus of the blog should be quality content.
NO advertising...the links are to give our guests additional information...wut am quality????
- The primary content of the blog should not be "scraped" content from other sources and/or script-generated pages for the sole purpose of search engine rank manipulation. The focus of the blog should be quality content.
Pullllllllleasssssse...have you seen our Technorati ranking lately? If you have, tell us about it because it has shrunken smaller than a steroid users gonads...
- The blog's content (or advertising) should not contain any of the following types of content: hate, anti-racial, terrorism, drug-related, hacking, phishing, fraud, pornographic, nudity, warez, gambling, copyright infringement, obscene or disgusting material of any kind, or anything considered illegal.
Well some might think we are disgusting...but we don't do any of those other things...
- BlogRush reserves the right to determine if any blog is suitable for its network or not.
Guess this is the out-clause...we don't want you in our club, so go away little boy ya bothering me...
Now, we know some of you are shaking your heads saying "who the hell gives a sh..." oops, they might be watching...
and some will say, "don't you write your blog for you????"
Just kind of ticks us off is all..and HELL YEAH, we write this for ourself, so guess what???? We get to write what we want and this is what we wanted to write about...
We have not put one link to this site, because they do not deserve it..you can find it easy enough and maybe you will want to join in on the fun...
we actually found some content on Matt-Man's site and visited the blog that caught my eye...we think it is a good idea...YES THINK...but we would love to hear how THE COUCH is not original...
BLOG TALK RADIO UPDATE
Join MO as he discusses the Dickens classic"A Christmas Carol"
I am sorry to hear that Vin screw blogrush! I had to vote for (did it right this time) Otis & The beach boys.
Bing's version is better than all of them. It was hard to choose 2 as really I only tolerated one and didn't really like any others.
I do like this game though.
Obviously the e-mail came from a foolish person... possible a lazy foolish person who did not take time to look properly. We love you & your blog x
"Should not contain...obscene or disgusting material of any kind,..."
How the hell did my site get approved? I guess their editors are into naked SPAM sex.
I've seen a couple of sites that are almost entirely comprised of pasted jokes n'shit with little original material that got approved. I'm sure you won't lose any sleep over this.
I voted for Frank, I like Frank. I also voted for Shania, because, well, she's HAWT.
Cheers, you un-original bastard you!!
ROGER: Thanks and good votes
TOPCHAMP: I actually like three...but it is my duty to preserve the integrity of the voting and give you multiple choices...ty TC I appreciate your support
MATT-MAN: I have also seen sites that I can not imagine what they saw...but no lost sleep, you are correct...bumpkins all of them...voting for hawtness is within the rules...
Who isn't into naked SPAM sex, I ask?????
Blog rush can, no wait its the holidays, so thats just wrong.
I went with Otis for sure and then the Drifters because Frank sounds too much like Bing in this one and there can only be one Bing
I only voted for one this time...The Drifters. Didn't like any of the others at all...and yes I did listen to all of them. :-) But nothing beats the original by Bing. I don't like my Christmas songs messed with. LOL
Aww poor Vinny...well just don't let it get to you dear.
I clicked on my favs but no one comes close to Bing! I saw the video with him and that woman at the piano...great clip!
Written poolside at the Biltmore, eh? I can believe that, but I'm surprised I never knew that. Of course, if I were poolside at the Biltmore (which in no way possible would I ever be since I can't even afford to drive on the grounds!), I wouldn't be writing songs. Well, unless they were about naked cabana boys...
Ahem, anyway, I voted for my two. Decided to be different and not to go with the flow. Listened outside the box, so to speak.
And there is no way possible that your blog should have been rejected for that stupid site. Their loss, right? I love Matty dearly, but your blog and his blog are two different animals. (And, yes, I do mean that literally - *grin*.)
Ummm... you won Bestest Blog of the Year!!!! That's insane!!!
As for the music, I chose Otis and Frank... although I had some fun playing all of them at the same time. It was a Christmas injection to the vein. What a rush!
Don't worry dude...you're still at the head of the cool kids' table.
I love the Tutelage game.
SPARKY: Don't hold it in dude...that is how you get ulcers....LOL
Interesting thought on the Frank version
TWYLA: This is a free-zone blog, you can vote for as few as you please!
JULIE: OH I am over them totally... LOSERS...IMBECILES.....OK, NOW, maybe I am over it
I just thought it would not be fair to put Bing up for vote twice
SONGBIRD: When I visit I will take you there dear...Their loss...correct...Good gosh girl, we are totally different animals..but both STILL animals..growl...
108: KYRA...all at once??? OMG my brain might explode...let me go do it and check
BOOOOOOM ...oops I was correct...
TRAVIS: LOL...I thought you had the head chair...Glad you enjoy it....I likey too and think it will become a regular feature to intersperse with the full Tutelages
Frank and Shania...I knew I would go with Frank....and was surprised I liked her...(I woulda voted for Bing TWICE)
I don't even know what Blogrush is....somesort of frat boy initiation? You could always appeal the decision?
LOL... don't do anything to hurt that brain of yours!
BlogRush???? Sounds like a result of some cheap street drug! You are still the leader of the Blog Pack, as far as I am concerned!
Chose my 2....Otis and Shania....although I did like The Drifters too.
Hugs!
Frank, the Chairman of the Board still phrases his singing the best of all. And the Drifters sound great here, even if this song wasn't written by their usual writers Leiber and Stoller.
Shania sounds like a cat being beaten over the head with an accordian. I go with the Chairman of the Board. Mostly because Bruno and Guido made me.
Now, excuse me, while I make Bruno and Guido pay Blogrush a visit.
Chee! If the Big Leather Couch didn't qualify, I highly doubt the Puppy's Palace would. You are such a prolific and interesting blogger who is WAY original, how could they NOT include you? Me thinks they are just jealous! :D
I thought about doing the blogrush thing just to see what they said about me - self-claimed boring grandma who doesn't post regularly, but then I just decided they turned YOU down, they can kiss my pasty-white ass. ;-)
I voted - D & D - top & bottom of the poll so far...LOL. Guess I like to mix it up a little.
KATHERINE: I just figured we would shake it up since Bing had already won...I can reapply in a month they say, but why belong to a site that does not want me to begin with...
108: KYRA wayyyyyyyyy to late for that dear...LOL
SUEANN: LOL street drug..bwahahahahahahah and thank you dear friend...HUGS
RALPH: Thanks for coming by and you make two excellent points...
DANA: LOL funny how we all hear things differently...Bruno and Guido are ordered to stay away from the site that shall remain unnamed
MERI: Now dear, they might just love you...
TUG: OOOO pasty-white? Well you do live in the middle of Hell! LOL..so that is where the D.C. vote came from...
hiya there, seasons' greetings from jakarta, indonesia. i've put a link to your blog in mine. congrats on being blog of the year 2007! - bj vadis
I voted for Otis and The Beach Boys (don't say it....weird combination)
Blogrush: That is INSANE!!! A robot must be "reading" blogs for them. I have never seen anything obscene or inappropriate here except those gravy lasagna videos and that was just well....obscene!
That must be it, Vinny. It was the cooking. Yup. Had to be.
OTIS!!!
Couldn't hear the version by The Chairman, but I have it so I'd pick him as a second. Can't listen to Bing's.. makes my eyes tired.
Screw the idjits.. seriously, don't give them any thought... you'll give yourself an ulcer.