A Bracelet for the Ocean

How Jewelry Can Help Save the Ocean

I am wearing a lovely bracelet made of clear 'glass' beads on a blue braid (a green bracelet was available for Earth Day). I love it! My bracelet is waterproof and so adjustable it will fit anyone.

The blue cord on my bracelet is recycled polyethylene terephthalate from water bottles and the beads come from glass bottles. The 4Ocean charm on each bracelet is stainless steel.

Pull a Pound

And best of all, it’s good for the ocean! The clear glass beads on my wrist are made from the equivalent of one pound of plastic trash removed from the seas through local clean-ups and global efforts – from Key Largo (pre-Irma) to Montserrat to California, Connecticut, Canada, the Philippines, Norway, the Bahamas and Eleuthera.

Thanks, Irma!

Thanks to Hurricane Irma, more trash has entered the ocean in the past 10 days than in the last 10 months. 4Ocean is working overtime.

And, Best of All!

Watch Lila the dog* collect plastic bottles from the ocean and the beach! To her, it's all a game. Good girl, Lila!

Recycling Trash Since January 2017

Two scuba divers starting picking up trash and in January founded 4Ocean. The movement has since grown to 34 full-time employees.

4Ocean conducts both onshore beach clean-ups that you can volunteer for to prevent trash from entering the ocean environment, and five offshore boat clean-ups around the world to remove trash that is already in the ocean.

Success Around the World Cleaning the Ocean 7 Days a Week

US                  37,312 pounds of trash removed for recycling

Bahamas - 31,173 pounds

Canada - 871 pounds

Montserrat -1,102 pounds

Haiti - 15,615 pounds

Philippines - 3,647 pounds

Norway - 3,192 pounds and counting!

Buy it. You’ll Love it.

Buy it because it’s beautiful, both in appearance and philosophy. Spread the word. You owe it to yourself – and to our oceans.

Read more about it: www.4Ocean.com

Remember: One Bracelet, One Pound!

*https://www.facebook.com/HigherPerspective/videos/1605977202767926/

Movie Review: Underdog (beagle, boy, family, superpowers)

Underdog: Saving the World, One Paw at a Time (Disney, 82 minutes, 2007, Rated PG)

“Look, it’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a frog!”

“No. It’s Underdog!”

If you didn’t grow up with Underdog, or if your kids didn’t, here is your chance to get caught up on modern canine culture from the very beginning. Underdog is truly a classic and a delight for the entire family. It is a movie that I will gladly watch again.

A rookie talking beagle* on the police force doesn’t ‘make it’ (and neither does his cop, John Belushi) – a rookie pup, competing with the three experienced talking German Shepherd Dogs.

But our hero, Shoeshine, can smell food in a can in a cupboard, can open cans with a squeeze of his teeth, can even fly (but has to learn how to fly straight).

Underdog has Everything

Would you believe a Chinese Crested (that’s a dog) in a secret science lab, a leopard-skinned Dachshund, a Rottie, a Frenchie, a bulldog-type, a black dog, a girl named Molly and her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Polly, and, of course, the requisite mad scientist. Oh, and throw in Jay Leno. And a single dad (former cop now security guard) and K9 Police Dog (now, a pet).

The Plot

“Let’s kidnap the mayor!”

“There’s no need to fear. Underdog is here.”

When the boy plays hooky, chaos ensues as the dog, our hero, Shoeshine, slowly learns his superpowers** and learns to harness them (some, though, he never gets the hang of: flying without bumping into everything and through everything!). Our hero speaks English along with a little Chihuahua and some Retriever but his Shih Tzu is a bit rusty.

DogEvals Loves Shoeshine!

Easy jokes for us older folks. And, of course, a lesson to be learned about family and home but astute jokes that fly by so quickly it’s hard to remember them.

See John Belushi as an older father to an older middle school boy and Samantha Bee as a middle school principal!

There is even some romance – of the canine kind. And the middle school kind, too.

Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” Is. . . . a Dog?

Yup.

*a nose connected to four paws and a constantly wagging tail

** how our hero gets his superpowers is something that I will not reveal

Dogs courtesy of Boone’s Animals (movies, TV shows, commercials and more: The Parent Trap, Hachi, Must Love Dogs, Pirates of the Caribbean) 

Movie Review: The Truth about Cats and Dogs (comedy, roller-skating dog)

The Truth About Cats and Dogs (20^th Century Fox, 97 minutes, 1996 – with Uma Thurman, Janeanne Garofalo, Ben Chaplin and Jamie Foxx)

The truth about cats and dogs, or, how a prostitute and a veterinarian become best friends only to fight over a cute but dumb British guy whom the ‘plain jane’ wins – an outcome predicted in the first few minutes but which turns into such a long movie.

If it weren’t for the absolutely incredible dog, Hank, DogEvals may not have watched The Truth About Cats and Dogs to its predictable end. In addition, what the good (animal) doctor advises over the radio would get the client in deep doo-doo in real life, according to dog trainers. However, dangerous situations often make for humor.

So, Let’s Talk about the Dog

Hank is a roller-skating big-guy canine who is simply adorable, for a Mastiff or a Bullmastiff or a natural-eared Fawn Great Dane Cross. When he stands up on his back feet, he is nearly the height of a man – man’s best friend. A real cutie who appears often on the screen.

As For the Title

So, what is the truth about cats and dogs? We never found out, but it is a cute title.

And, . . . .

For the last few years, we have paid attention to whether or not the AHA (American Humane Association, not the Humane Society) ‘seal of approval’ appears at the end of a movie plus who trained the animals. Steve Berens did this remarkable job in Truth, as good as he did for our favorite (reviewed last year in DogEvals), Who Get’s The Dog?

Movie Review: A Fish Called Wanda (heist, comedy, London, Yorkies, Jamie Lee Curtis)

A Fish Called Wanda (MGM, 108 minutes, rated R, 1988 – with Kevin Kline, John Cleese, and Jamie Lee Curtis)

Question: Why is DogEvals writing about a fish movie?

Answer: Because of the dogs!

But first, about the movie: a British-American heist comedy, on the slapstick side, and recipient of three Academy Award nominations and one winner.

Is There Really a Fish Called Wanda?

Yes, there is a fish (besides Jamie Lee Curtis) called Wanda (in an aquarium) and two French Fries up the nose and someone eating the aquarium fish and even some funny Italian spoken and some Russian (mostly names strung together to sound like actual sentences – listen for “Benito Mussolini” and wines and cheeses) and a stuttering star and three Yorkies* who are killed off one by one, hilariously.

Some might call DogEvals callous to love the three creative dead Yorkie scenes best, but bear in mind that this movie was made nearly 30 years ago and slapstick from that era is a bit jaded by now, even if Curtis is ‘easy on the eyes.’

Frankly, we just don’t see why the awards were given to Wanda but it must have been a great movie in its heyday to receive so many accolades and to become a phrase in nearly everyone’s lexicon.

If you have been to London, you will love recognizing the sights! And pre-teen boys will get a kick out of the French Fries - and Ms Curtis.

*Yorkshire Terriers, the 9^th most popular breed in the US, are small dogs, under 20 pounds (usually 5-10 pounds)