Who knew our serious, often grumpy, crossword puzzle obsessed Stanley had mad singing skills? Check out his new song 2 Be Simple featuring NUM; it’s certainly a side of Stanley we’ve never seen before. Kudos to Leslie David Baker for this fun party song. The video is pretty entertaining too.
Enjoy,
~Suri (aka HDF)
I had a great idea for this holiday post; I was going to put up a collage of all the LITO members, and photoshop “pilgrim” outfits on all of us; the hats with the buckles on them, the bonnets, the wide collars, the aprons… and it was gonna be a bad photoshop job, the kind that Michael Scott used to do. It was gonna be classic. But then we ate Thanksgiving dinner here at home, and the trytophan got me feeling sleepy (like that old Seinfeld episode), and I got to thinking “What the heck… who cares?” So, you’re just gonna have to use your imagination here; picture a group photograph with poorly matched pilgrim gear pasted on, and an out-of-scale live turkey, and stuff like that. That’ll have to do. Happy Thanksgiving!
I don’t read synopsis of upcoming episodes anymore so I have no idea what the next Office episode will be about. So when I saw another one of NBC’s misleading commercials where Pam appears to be going into labor I was like “Oh yeah! I’m gonna recap the baby episode! Cool!” But, no. Instead I get Gettysburg, oragami and cookies. Bummer. Read on »
Anytime the Dunder-Mifflin gang takes an out-of-town field trip, it presents a special challenge for “Scrantonicity.” This episode was looming as the next biggest challenge after “Niagara Falls,” from way back in 2009. And to make matters worse, even though I grew up in northeastern Pa, and I was kinda-sorta somewhat of a Civil War buff as a kid, I never visited Gettysburg. It never even occurred to me to want to travel three hours to south central Pennsylvania. In fact, the only battlefield I have ever visited was the Little Bighorn National Monument in Montana, the site of Custer’s Last Stand. That was very educational and thought-provoking; and also very haunting and evocative, as a lot of heavy history had gone down on that hallowed ground. I had these deep thoughts as we were standing there on the lonely prairie with the eerie wind moaning and the tall grass hypnotically undulating; honestly though, the main reason we stopped there was because the visitor center had a bathroom, and you tend to pay attention to stuff like that on those long drives through the sparsely populated western states, when you’re drinking a lot of coffee from a thermos. 
Read on »
When I started to slap this “Scrantonicity” together, it occurred to me that I, uh… “borrowed” the name “Scrantonicity” from Kevin Malone’s band way back from Season Two. What the heck, I figured, it was a great name and the show didn’t seem to have any more use for it. Why not revive the name for a column about Scranton? So I did, and now we find out that Kevin Malone has moved on to a new musical project, “Kevin And The Zits.” Now, there’s a name that’s reasonably safe from ever being “borrowed,” by anyone… for anything. “Scrantonicity” may have gotten swiped… but the name “Zits” will remain unblemished. 
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I’d like to start out by wishing Jenna Fischer and her RL husband, Lee Kirk, congratulations on the birth of their son, Weston Lee, born on September 24, 2011. I haven’t been able to find a picture of the little angel just yet, but all the articles say that mother and baby are doing just great! Information about the birth was not released until October 3rd (a day before my twin’s birthday) and I have to say that in watching the first few episodes, I had my suspicions that Jenna might actually be carrying twins; since she was so huge. Oh well, she may just have to wait until her next pregnancy to experience the joys of having twins, like myself, and so many other celebrities before her. That’s right, I’m up there in the ranks of Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez and Rebecca Romaine O’Connell (although they’ve never had the prestige and notoriety that comes from writing for LITO; just sayin’. )
I just have to say that I’m really pleased that I got the opportunity to recap this particular episode, because I can totally relate to the feelings of paranoia, insecurity, and general overall irrationalism and insanity that go along with pregnancy hormones. In that respect, I felt the episode was written very realistically. I mean, in what universe would Pam actually be crazy enough to completely trust Dwight above Jim and genuinely subject him to Dwight’s eccentric antics? Only in a pregnant Pam universe, that’s where. The subplot, however, not so in touch with reality; but we’ll get into that later. Read on »
One of these days there is going to be an Office episode with absolutely no Scranton references. There won’t be a single product placement that hasn’t already been pointed out, nor a local name-drop, nor an outdoor scene to be dissected for its correctness… and therefore there will be no “Scrantonicity.” I know that episode is a-comin’ eventually, and I had this feeling that it just might be “Doomsday.” That title was just too prophetic to be ignored. “Doomsday” would be that day… except… that it isn’t. “Scrantonicity” scrapes by once again! Read on »
Last episode, LITO writer Donna felt “very lucky” that she got to recap “Spooked,” because she is so fond of Halloween. Well, this episode, I feel very lucky that I was in line to recap “Doomsday.” Not because I am particularly fond of “doom,” but mainly because of the hilarious cold opening, “Closing Time.” As regular LITO readers are both well aware of, when I am not tossing off slapdash recaps and other dubious writing efforts, I work as a nighttime bartender. “Closing Time” is a song that is near and dear to my heart, and rest assured I will be enthusiastically singing it as my shift winds down tonight. Although… I won’t be using a bar towel as a prop in my choreography quite like Andy so graphically illustrated on the show. Read on »