Tuesday, February 28, 2006
KING YUL
Today's NYTimes 1176 Best Film was
Yul Brynner owns the role of the king and Deborah Kerr almost owns Anna but can never quite come up to Gertrude Lawrence in the original cast. No one could.
Unlike most adaptations of Broadway hits, this one is quite successful and faithful to its core.
Except for Lawrence who died, they kept the whole thing intact. Jerome Robbins does the wonderful dances, Rita Moreno is Tup-Tim and the Siamese children march beautifully.
They have opened up the scenery but have stayed in a stage format. There are no attempts to make it anything but a theatrical venture. Some of the sets are almost too large but then it is the movies.
Brynner was not an A-list actor when he got this role but he made it his one shining hit and he inhabited it so fully that no one has ever really tried to take it from him. There may be a bunch of Curlys or Tevyas but there is only one King.
It is a 5 out of Netflix5 for sure.
Now, if I can just get the songs out of my head, it will be just perfect. Rodgers and Hammerstein. The other kings.
WSJ?OTD
"Who will take the honors in this year's Academy Awards?"
This is a nicely complicated one. A big multi-button layout.
Although I have seen none of them, I recorded my sentimental favorites and got 3 out of the 4 big winners on the poll.
I voted for Brokeback Mountain, Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Ang Lee.
The actual results were similar except for Ledger. The voters gave it to Philip Seymour Hoffman.
It is similar to the BAFTA where Gyllenhaal won and Ledger did not.
Interesting.
We are solid Jake fans here so, from a purely rooting section perspective, I am quite happy with the rest of the WSJ readers.
I was also pleased to see that Spielberg has fallen to the bottom of the barrel in this 'race'.
You know, I just am not too interested in the whole thing except from a totally non-cinematic bias. I want the homos to win and I have some favorite stars.
There are a few other than the Brokeback crew I could root for.
I would be happy with Matt Dillon who I have adored from afar since he was to young to be adored by an old man like me although I think that he flies our flag.
I like Frances McDormand and William Hurt a lot also.
The actual Oscars are sort of a popularity contest and if you don't win, and you live long enough, they will give you one anyway.
It is an interesting cultural phenomenon along the 'bread and circuses' model.
That's OK.
Actually this years nominees are more political than usual. Added spice.
CELL BLOCK
I am amused and amazed at the sudden interest by corporations in putting even more shit on cell phones.
News Corporation to Tap Not Just Its Film Vaults, but Art From the Street
Not only a clumsy headline but a clumsy notion.
Film on mobile phones?
Well, I will be the last to be a good predictor of fads and weird social activities.
Text messaging seems strange enough to me. All that thumbing.
I tried it once. That was it.
This is a phone! A little electro-mechanical device. You can talk on it. Why would you thumb type?
I have gotten a few messages. They are in thumb-lingo.
"2 shrt 2 b rdabl & 2 dmb 2 b blvd".
Why didn't they just call and leave a message?
I wasn't enthralled with pictures on the phone either; video. The phone as a camera.
Not a very good camera mind you. A blurry hand-held shot of people's own head and face. Why?
There has always been an interest in video-phoning but that is not what we have here. We have lousy still pictures.
The new idea of putting 'live' teevee on a phone arises from two sources, I think. There is the phone camera and pictures and then there are the rrrrrrring features where you can download sounds and stuff for your ring.
I do not know anyone who actually has this although one of the guys who worked on our pool a year or two ago had the start of a motor race on his;
"Gentlemen start your engines vroooom".
It is quite startling when you are standing there talking and the phone starts the Indy 500.
Look. Mobile (cell) phones are annoying enough. We don't need the Simpsons who are already annoying playing in the seat next to ours; Bart and the ever-present stupid 'doh' thing. 'Doh' indeed.
People already are a traffic hazard with the phones to their ears. Now what? Holding it in front to see last night's American Idol?
Am I getting through?
Oh. Sorry.
I didn't realize you were talking on your phone; that beetle-like thing there in your ear.
Time for the teevee news? Oh. Well, I will get back to you. What was your number again?
Monday, February 27, 2006
JASON
If you haven't seen this, do.
Jason McElwain: Autistic basketball player shines
Hold onto your hat!
FRIENDSHIP
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was tough to watch:
There is no imagining what the people who lived it went through.
The story is well known. A NYTimes correspondent has Cambodian assistant. Their story is told against the background of the 'non-war' in Cambodua and the ascendancy of the Khmer Rouge.
The impact of the film can only be had by watching it. I can't really describe it very well.
It is full of the fog of war. The best war films are those where confusion reigns and the 'plot' is very difficult to follow. This is realism. Eventually the story sorts itself out.
Cambodia was another one of those disasters waiting to happen with the USA igniting the fuse that blew the situation all to hell.
Nixon is shown. He sounds like bushie.
We are the auteurs of destabilization. All hell breaks loose and we claim victory.
No one shows the horror and pain of so many people who are caught in the middle of our meddling.
And so on.
I missed this when it was around and now I am glad that I saw it.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
WSJ?OTD
Which of these sectors will perform best in 2006?
Defense
Drugs/Biotech
Energy
Housing
Retail
Technology/Internet
I thought I would sit this one out. But, on the other hand, why not? My guess is as good (or even better) than anyone else's.
Defense: Well, I read again about the rise of the military-industrial complex. I think that this will continue to grow fast because the military's supplies are exhausted or blown up. And, we have a war prone administration.
Drugs/Biotech: I have family in this one but I wouldn't bet on it. New drugs aren't doing all that well and a lot of patents are running out. The government environment is good for big Pharma and maybe even little pharma but that will not last and it is not enough. I don't have much enthusiasm for this one.
Energy: Well, bushie is out front on this but it is a pitiful effort. As usual, all blather and no money. The big oil companies will continue to do well, There will be some new technology. But growth? No more than other areas. Not a standout.
Housing: Yeah. Out here, we are in an overheated market at 25% a year growth. Sure it won't continue but it won't collapse and if it collapses it will rise again on about a ten year cycle which has been dependable since I bought my first house in 1958 for 17,500 dollars; a three bedroom split level which is still in A-1 condition or was a few years ago. Today, I am sitting on 7 figures, free and clear, in the same size house (with a pool and a great view. The first house was in a tract development and was in the middle of farmland).
I have made more money (real dollars) in real estate than anything else except my own money machine business but it only lasted 30 years. The housing thing is still going. We keep making babies!
I didn't invest a lot in the loser REIT craze in the 80s. Friends who did, lost their ass. No more of that.
Retail. Schlump. Dead ended. The discounters are killing the profit end.
Technology/Internet: why did they put them together? Technology yes, internet no. Not for big bucks.
So I WILL vote. I give it to Defense and then Housing.
Here is how 980 other people voted: Defense=95 votes (10%); Drugs/Biotech=256 votes (26%); Energy=369 votes (38%); Housing =15 votes (2%); Retail=45 votes (5%); Technology/Internet=197 votes (20%)
So I am out of the mainstream again. But I am right on the contrarian market.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
A MAZE-ING
Frustrated with the voice answering systems you get from US Corps? Corpse?
Here is a remedy. And you can contribute your own discoveries.
To see the latest 'tricks' to get a human on line go to The Database
Saturday, February 25, 2006
FAMILY
Today I saw the wonderful
It is directed by Wayne Wang. We just sawChan is Missing, his first film.
It is like watching a kid grow up.
This one is a great picture with 8 intertwining stories; four mothers and their daughters.
It is also beautiful to watch.
I had not seen it before.
I am very happy that I saw it now as a NYTimes Best 1176 Film. That is why I am doing this; to catch what I missed or foolishly let go by.
The film starts with a roaringly large family party ; the camera swoops from room to room. It never lets you go after this totally engaging start.
This will be a 5 out of Netflix5.
THINK PIECE
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film is almost entirely expository. Or is the word 'didactic'?
Stanley Kramer's
is a meditation on the prosecution of the more bureaucratic war criminals and argues the old question of personal responsiblity for national crimes.
It takes place some three years after the big bang show trials. The urge to punish is waning. The Russians now seem a larger threat; the Berlin blockade is unfolding.
The pressure is on to get the trials over and not alienate the German people who are now needed as allies.
It is all interesting and is a relatively short three hours.
Spencer Tracy is the judge who must balance justice with the pragmatism of his times. Maximillian Schell is the defense lawyer. Richard Widmark is the prosecutor. All good, all fun to watch eat the scenery.
Surprisingly, Burt Lancaster is one of the accused. Not surprisingly he holds the center together with a bravura performance.
Also surprising is Judy Garland (!?) and Montgomery Clift as 'against type' witnesses. They are great! It works.
No surprise that Marlene Dietrich flexer her cheekbones and flares the nostrils to get through her stint as a lightly romantic friend of Tracy. All vaseline on the lens.
She is one kraut who 'didn't know' what was happening. She is disappointed in the verdicts.
A courtroom drama is a courtroom drama but there are enough ideas and conflicts bouncing around this one to make it interesting.
Many of the issues are perfectly apt today. I won't enumerate them. Just read the headlines: spying, extra-ordinary powers, torture. Well, I said I wouldn't enumerate.
Incidentally, this is a tribunal. They really existed and exist. Just another up-to-date wrinkle.
It ain't a perfect picture. It has dull parts and Marlene Dietrich. They even wring out a scene where she has a chance to hum and talk about the song Lili Marlene. Pleeeeease! Hit the mute button!
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix 5.
P.S. I love the picture which is from the 'album'. Funny. I don't even remember any music but there was the Horst Wessel song and Lili Marlene in the background. I guess that is the sign of good mood music. You don't notice it. It just works. John Williams take note. Note the High Fidelity logo. What times those were. Just before stereo! I was there! On the cusp. Sometimes, I feel so old! Not really. I am glad to have been there first.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
I remember this speech. It was a bombshell!
I was nineteen and at MIT. I had grown up with the 'red menace' and 'duck and cover'.
We had done our own demonizing of Stalin.
Now, the blunt and scary Kruschev says the unthinkable; let alone the unsayable!
It was the beginning of the dissidents.
They tried to put the genie back into the bottle but they could not. How a Speech Won the Cold War
A turning point, indeed.
Kruschev was scary. He came to the US to tell us that he would bury us. We didn't believe him but.............
Little did we all know where his overblown rhetoric would lead.
I guess we all live through interesting times.
I am sure grateful for mine. What a ride.
GOTTA LOVE BAXTER
This video will take a bit of ad watching to get to but it is worth it because it features an AIREDALE!
Franklin had to see it three times and wonders why we don't have a video camera!
Baxter is either younger or smaller than Franklin. They are all wonderful animals.
GOING FOR THE GOLD
Before I forget to ask, "what happened to the old coin-like Olympic medals"?
These thin things that the Torino winners are wearing look like CD's. In fact, that is what I thought they had around their necks the first time I saw them. Like ID discs or something.
The more I look at this edition of the big O, the more I see fundamental changes that somehow bother me.
There is more glitz. There is more hot-dogging. The serious obsession with doping (chasing the Austrians) pervades more levels of the coverage.
The pre-games media setup of a lot of 'stars' seems to have undone them. Many of the Bodes and Jeremys and the rest have flamed out. Too much, too soon?
I suppose the Olympics has been a bit of a circus since it started and the infusion of big big money into it has not helped matters one bit.
When did sports professionals or athletes already getting corporate endorsements qualify to appear?
Maybe that is why the medal has changed. It is a thinner and less durable symbol than it used to be. With a big empty hole right in the middle.
Going, going, gone.
Friday, February 24, 2006
OLD STORY
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film
shows us an old truth.
Contrary to the notion that things will always get better, this Chinese movie suggests that nothing is so bad that you cannot make it worse by screwing around with it.
Or by screwing around with each other, as happens to be the case here.
A nasty old man, a dyer, wears out two wives and buys a third. Her name; Ju Dou.
He beats on her as well. He is frustrated with his own impotence. No boys, no continuation of the line.
The dyer has an employee; a nephew that he has taken in as a son. Not a real son.
She and the dyer's 'son' fall in love and make out together.
She gets pregnant. She has a boy. The dyer has a son. The 'son' has a son.
All seems well.
Wrong.
Fate intervenes. Or Karma?
The tale is intricately woven and fascinates as the camera takes in gorgeous colors and scenery.
The whole production is entirely absorbing and, despite its tragic end, I felt fulfilled and completely rewarded for my interest and time in watching.
How many times can you say that about a movie?
This was a Foreign Film nominee. It is very good.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
TODAY'S WSJ QUESTION
"What U.S. entry point is least protected against terrorism?
My answer?
I don't have a clue.
The fact is that I don't even worry about it.
I have so little confidence in our ability to interdict any serious terrorist attempt that I, more or less, don't even consider vulnerability. I just think that we are and have been sitting ducks.
I also don't worry about terrorists.
Sure, it is upsetting.
But, we have always had nutcases here and abroad.
The Oklahoma City bombing and the letter bombs and the anthrax attacks were all home grown.
I figure that sufficient local and federal police protection and an aware citizenry are enough.
Do you know how many billions of dollars of the Homeland (goddammit I hate that word) Security Administration have been turned into pork and not used for any really credible threat reduction?
We now have the terrorist industry making big bucks out of our fear.
And so on.
The WSJ readers scored it 37% seaports and ocean front, 1 % airports, and 62% Canadian and Mexican border.
No surprise there.
The borders and the seacoast (not the ports) are indefensible.
I guess the ports are at risk. So lets put the A-rabs in charge of them and get it shut and overwith.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
F
Just for the record:
And this doesn't include general malfeasance, cronyism, and lying.
FULLY TOOTHED
I got my new lower partial plate this morning and it is in my mouth as I type.
It works. I have been a one-sided chewer since September. I have tested it on a bread heel, a ham and cheese sandwich and two anjou pears. I also gave them a peanut test.
They chew fine. I need to get some callous under the plate itself and nip off the part of my lip I keep biting by mistake. The lip hasn't got the message that there are teeth there yet.
It will take a while getting used to; a week or less if the top was any indication.
I have made this crack so many times it is stale. But, I will tell it again.
I have all my own teeth for the first time in thirty years! Some are boughten but they are mine.
O-LIMP-IAD
My point exactly about the jingoism of 'the games'.
Dave Zirin in The Nation:
TODAYS WSJ QUESTION
"How much Olympics coverage have you been watching?"
I was with the majority:
I did watch a tape of Sasha Cohen on-line and sent it to John this morning.
I sort of read a daily summary in Outsports, the gay sports site (see link to right). I like their roundup as it is a bit ironic in the gay sense and also has a lot of eye candy of the male athletes.
I skip the special section in the LA Times unless there is a headline that grabs me (one day out of 4).
That is about it.
I am amused that the medal count has gotten badly ripped up by new ways of scoring and the arrival of X-Sports. Good to see it pass into oblivion. I hate that aspect of it.
For the most part though, I am indifferent.
But then I am not a sports fan period.
Why am I even writing about it?
GRINGO NO
I really liked this article:
Inquiring Gringos Want to Know
It sort of ties into what I said the other day about the multicultural soup that we have here in Southern California.
In the process of reporting, the writer's had a lot of their own questions answered.
Me too.
I am not a gringo except to other gringos.
I am a gabacho.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
RIDE 'EM
We saw a nifty little Best Film today.
It is directed by Sam Peckinpah and is an ode to the rodeo.
It stars Steve McQueen and Robert Preston as father and son.
The story is so simple that it falls through the cracks of the keys I am typing on.
What matters is the relationship between father and son and the rest of the family. And, of course, the rodeo.
I have the idea that Peckinpah went to the Prescott AZ. Frontier Days and decided to make a film around the rodeo there.
That is what this is. It is not quite a docu-drama but there is a lot of real action here.
There is a lot of cow punching, bull riding, calf roping footage.
It is great to watch.
I know that there is a thing about mistreatment of animals here but it appears from the footage that the humans actually get the worst of it.
At some point, Ben Johnson (God love him) says he has to take his stock off for a rest. I believed him.
Another thing. There is this quiet about the proceedings. My reviewer noticed it too.
Yeh, I know. Peckinpah and rodeos are not known to be quiet. But there it is. It is the silence of beats between speech. It is the silence of the desert and the west. It is the quiet of simple, good hearted men and women.
There are no villains here.
The time passes quickly. We want more.
It is not high art but it is art just the same and a very elegant and enjoyable film.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
STUMPED
I mentioned that we are having the annual pruning done.
Sometimes I think that the people who have no leafy trees but palms and some non-leafy desert plants have the right idea. They don't have to do annual pruning. But that feeling only lasts a little while.
The heat and fertility (add water and stand back) here creates incredible growth. For back-east boys, this is phenomenal. I mean feet of branch; not inches.
But, the people who built our house planted trees and more trees. We have a male and female carob. Yes, they mate.
We have pepper trees, banana trees, citrus trees (three plus two in pots), we have olive (with blossoms and olives if we don't spray) and we have the California oleander to say nothing of our really wonderful orchid tree.
All of them need to be pruned. It takes a crew of two, two days plus some helpers for a few hours to clean up and work with some heavy lifting and sawing.
Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our mostest, favoritest, oldest grapefruit trees. It has been withering for a few years and was down to a minimum leaf growth. It could not even protect itself from the high ultra-violet sun. So we cut it to the base.
We watched. We felt sad. I had a few sniffs.
We did everything we could to keep it but it was over forty years old and that is the life span.
Now, when it is all over and the pieces gone, there is a nice open space out there and it is possible that we will not replace it at all.
We were going to put a smoke tree in. Gardener Paul says that they come in huge three by three tubs to hold the gigantic root they put down to get started. The above ground plant itself is about two feet high. It would take years to grow to any height. We could be gone first.
Desert plants grow slow. Another reason for desert plants and palms.
But we have trees! Our predecessors planted them. And we prune them every year. Severely. And that is fine with us because they are beautiful (if messy) and the shade is great in the summer.
TODAY'S WSJ QUESTION Revised 1030 AM--update at end
"Should the U.S. allow a Dubai company to manage American ports?"
I said NO as did 63% of over 7000 respondents; 37% yes.
I think that there is a case for the security thing. Look at the record and also how our 'friends' the Saudis continue to work it both ways as has Dubai/UAE.
On another plane, I am against it because these people, once again, are insiders. One of their key guys just took a top post at the US Maritime Admnistration. Treasury Sec Snow used to work for a company that was bought by the same company.
And another thing, it is almost as though bushie is piqued that it would even be questioned. His judgement?
Maybe substantively it doesn't make any difference. We have outsourced our ports (wrongly as far as I am concerned--Buy America--Stop Globalization!!) for years. This is probably just a paper thing anyhow.
But, it is just one more example of executive power taken to the extreme then taken up two more notches with resistance rather than negotiation.
All the congress is asking is to study it for 45 days WHICH IS BUILT INTO THE LAW AND THEY DIDN'T DO IT!
But, now, I am shouting.
I let my vote stand.
UPDATE: Clarity from the New York Daily News
WASHINGTON - The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House.
One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose agency heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port.
Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.
The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
SOMEONE IS FINALLY SAYING NO
I told you that they stepped on their own crank with this one:
Jack Cafferty: Are Ports the last Straw?
Boy, I like Cafferty. I used to watch him at the gym when he was on the CNN morning program.
Hey, hand me the popcorn.
Selling out to the cronies. We'll see.
Bush actually said today that he would VETO any attempt to stop this.
Alert the hubris watch.
What's amazing here is that Rumsfled apparently didn't know either.
Chertoff said he checked them out and they were OK but that the data was classified.
What a bunch of wankers.
LETTERMAN UNLOADS
What you can do with a big production budget:
Dick Cheney: A Big Bowl of Bad
And this on network teevee.
My my.
MORE ANSWER OF THE DAY
I got thinking.
Right there, we know we might be in trouble, huh?
There are two more reasons we should support illegal immigrant education at any level.
First is that it enriches the culture to do so.
We have a multilayered, mostly Mexican, Latino community here. At the upper economic and educational levels there is a lot of mixing with Anglos in every day work and society.
It is invigorating.
There is also a lot of prejudice. Not invigorating.
I know that some question the social theory that better education fosters diversity and that diversity is a good thing.
Here, it is not a theory. It happens every day. Better education equals less crime and social cost; greater social enrichment and better relationships.
The second reason for YES is that it is the right thing to do.
There is a cost in providing 'free' or low tuition education. But, in a sense, illegals have already paid for some consideration in working for less than minimum wage, without medical insurance, and in an economy that winks at the law for the convenience of the system.
That is enough for me.
I am glad that I started writing about the QOTD in the WSJ.
It makes me think more about the issue.
TODAY'S QUESTION
This is the daily feature of the Wall Street Journal. Monday through Friday.
Today's question is
"Should illegal immigrants be eligible to pay in-state tuition at public colleges?"
I said 'YES'.
I live in California.
The rest of the respondents said 14% YES and 86% NO.
They don't live in California.
I say yes because I don't see anyway for the immigrant, legal or otherwise, to get up and out without the opportunity to do so.
We let them work while they live here and go to public schools. Why not the local colleges?
First let's real about illegal immigration. Without it our economy here would be badly hurt.
There are a bunch of guys coming to my house today to prune trees. I am not going to check for their green cards.
Believe me, even if I was a hard boiled Minuteman and tried to get non-immigrant labor to do the job I could not do it.
These are the people who will do the jobs that no one else will or is available to do. And there are plenty of those jobs.
Unemployment is at a low right now.
And so on.
I am really voting against our present duplicitous immigration policy which keeps a lot of brown skin people at the poverty level by keeping them on the run. A form of involuntary servitude.
I have to say that I am not going to pay these people who prune my trees any more than they ask me for. I did not ask them how much they were going to charge though. That is my teeny liberal step for today.
It is a mess but I don't think that closed doors clean up messes.
I still vote YES.
And believe me, there are more than one or two illegal immigrants getting aid at Harvard too. Not public but..................well, you get my drift.
There I am. In the minority again.
Monday, February 20, 2006
WHOOPS
They keep stepping on their own crank:
GOP Governors Question Port Turnover
Chertoff said it was OK but then wouldn't give any reasons as they are classified.
Classified my ass.
It isn't any secret that the bushers are in thrall to big oil no matter where they are from.
Pass the popcorn around. This is going to be a good one.
PRESIDENTS I HAVE KNOWN
It's a bummer that this is not Presidents' Day or even President's Day because I was going to go on a bit about my favorite presidents.
I wouldn't go on too long as there are really only three in my lifetime.
I will do them in order of personal impact.
The first would be Harry S. Truman who I saw, in the flesh, in Philadelphia when Kennedy ran for the office. He was tan and tall and had a smile a yard wide.
He had incredible charisma. I think that is not generally thought of him. But he did.
He was a tough talker and a straight shooter although I suspect that he had not always been. A straight shooter.
Like Clinton, he had the air of the operator.
They said Al Smith was 'the happy warrior'. Well, Truman would fit the bill too.
The next favorite would be Clinton.
Enough said. He is still in charge. The most influential man in the world. I believe it.
Then there is Roosevelt; Franklin, of course. He was a god in my house as a kid. We had a bust of him on the desk with a small flag affixed. Only Kennedy rated this treatment at a later time for a different reason.
People sobbed when FDR died. We got in the car and visited relatives. It was very upsetting.
And he was a great leader in the worst of times.
I remember John and I going to see Campobello, his country cabin just over the border in Canada.
It was awe inspiring. One of his wheel chairs was there. It was as though they had just left and would come back any minute.
There were not even any docents in sight. None. We had run of the place.
We turned a corner and there was a radio playing in one of the rooms.
We went closer.
It was 'himself' giving a speech.
Notice that I have not said anything about their politics or their policies or philosophy.
It was their heart that shown from them. They were for us and of us.
I would like to see such a leader some time before I move out of here.
I am waiting.
IXNAY ON PREZ DAY
Well, fuck me; this is not President's Day.
Or was it Presidents' day (plural)?
Well, not officially anyway.
In fact, as recently as 2001, the Congress moved that this be Washington's Birthday and that there be a formal recognition (not a holiday) of Lincoln's Birthday and, and, and..................you can see it all here at Snopes Urban Legends--President's Day
It is all a bit complicated but that is the bottom line.
This realization came to me when I found that some school districts out here closed last Monday as a sort of Lincoln Day. Evidently, in California, it is up to the school district. There is no state mandate.
Back east they not only take the day but the whole week!
But that is New England for you. Maxing out the holidays and all.
So, here we are back at the beginning.
The Father of our Country.
Cherry pies.
Threw a dollar over the Delaware.
Never told a lie.
Boy, would he be out of step now.
Correction: I found out that some CA school districts take both Lincoln and Washington's birthday on the nearest Monday. But, they do not take the eastern February break.
SEE?
Bushie likes to preface his teachings and preachings with the word 'see'.
So see?
See, we want democracy in the Middle East as long it is serves our interests. But, when it doesn't, then fuck it.
Don't Punish the Palestinians by Jimmy Carter.
And also, today, we are telling the Iraqis not to have a sectarian government and to eschew warlords and the like.
US issues aid warning to Iraqis
See? We are the liberators so just do as we say.
Jeez.
No wonder they hate our asses.
See?
Sunday, February 19, 2006
ABUNDANCE Revised 022006--Louiso and asterisked
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
is an abundance of riches.
First of all, one of the gems; Todd Louiso as the jazz crazed nannie. He later perfected this type in High Fidelity. He is just great*. The eyeroll, the sweaty palms. If he can get a chance he could be the next Don Knotts; in a post-modern way, of course.
Then we get to Renee Zellweiger as the girl with funny and wise Bonnie Hunt as her sister.
We have Cuba Gooding Jr. as the football pro.
We even have bit parts with a lot of familiar faces including Beau Bridges and Jay Mohr as the snaky competition.
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All these people are brought together deliciously by Cameron Crowe who wrote and directed it.
Ebert thinks that it is too much and needs less to tell the story. I think that the richness and the generosity of the whole production is its entire success.
Oh yes. All these folks work around Tom Cruise in the title role. He is typecast successfully as an egocentric, high energy asshole.
When directors can get Tom into his niche and keep him there he shines. And, grudgingly, I have to admit that he does shine here.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
*Louiso also, famously, is the director of Tom Stoppard's The Fifteen Minute Hamlet which was made the year before. He also plays Ophelia!!! It has Philip Seymour Hoffman and Austin Pendleton in it too. I am trying to get it. Probably impossible. They don't put many shorts on tape or disc.
STARS PLUS
These are great photographs.
Go to the 'slide show' at the end of the article.
I am reluctant to link to the New York Times now because they have turned all their archives into subscription pay-fors.
So, this link may be time perishable. But, it is worth a look if it is still there for you.
I am not indifferent to the actors shown but the point of the link is actually the unique approach to photographing them. Body paint, faux tattoos, makeup. All interesting ways to highlight the personna of the actor.
The photo shown is of William Hurt, an all time favorite of mine.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
ALONE TOGETHER
Franklin and I are keeping bachelor hall this weekend.
John is off to a writers' conference in San Diego.
We keep the routine. I do the AM and the PM walk. No bike. That's OK.
I brushed him this afternoon for his appearance in public; usually John's job.
Otherwise, there isn't a lot of difference except for Franklin. He gets to stay alone in his crate while I go out to dinner with a friend (last night) or to a Meeting (this morning). He is OK with that. It is his den.
He doesn't even go into wild abandoned kisses when I get home anymore; grown up.
But, it is quiet; no one to make conversation with. Not the two way kind, at least.
I ramp up on my monologue to Franklin and he seems to warm to it. When I was combing his fur, there was a low rumble. But, maybe that wasn't conversation.
He is also more apt to be looking for me as I am the sole playmate or caretaker.
We will keep on our lonely regimen until John returns Monday.
We will have fun; but not the same kind.
Tomorrow's usual threesome walk will be a twosome.
The bedroom will be the same; two not three.
And so it goes.
But on Monday, Franklin will go to the groomer; one of his favorite things.
John will probably be back in time to pick him up.
A happy reunion!
RETURN OF THE GREAT WHITE
I saw
again today after thirty years and it still buzzes.
I actually shouted once.
I was alone with Franklin who jumped too.
It is Spielberg's second big film so he is still innocent and clear.
You know that I do not like what he has become. The maker of 'serious' hits.
There is not a lot to say. Everyone saw it.
Interesting note that Peter Benchley, the guy who wrote the book, died the other day.
The film has the great Robert Shaw as the fisherman/drunk character and he does ham it up wonderfully. They say that he wrote his own long speech about the sinking of the Indianapolis.
He died youngish too.
I liked it. It still bothers me, though, that they tarted up the Nantucket beach with cabana tents for crissake. And other things.
I will give it a 4 out of Netfix5 because it did induce the yell out of my mouth 31 years later, on a smallish screen, in letterbox shape, with sun in the room because it was cloudy when it started and I didn't want to get up to pull the blind.
I don't do 'pause'.
Here is some kid that made a model of the best scene. See how big the drops on the boat windows are? And it is way out of scale. But, that is how it feels when he comes to get them.
I actually felt bad for the shark having to put up with this shit.
I know that eating people is not the best behavior but there were a lot of times that I was rooting for the shark.
Early on when those guys come out and throw a roast beef off the pier and the shark pulls the pier down, I was rooting for him.
I wanted him to get the guy when he makes the u-turn and brings the floating dock back to the shore. He missed. Too bad.
I also was really kinda happy when he managed to swallow Robert Shaw. I was getting tired of the emoting.
I guess that I have become a bona fide animal hugger. Even when the animal isn't cuddly and nice.
Even when the animal is a contraption of foam and gears.
So be it.
I didn't like that they blew him up. Couldn't they just cut him loose and shoo him away?
Probably not.
His fate was written when he ate the innocent little kid; the second victim.
I was rooting for him on the the first swimmer because I knew we needed to get the plot moving. It sure did get moving That bastard drug her around the bay a lot of times before gulping her in.
Anyway, it is over and I won't have to watch the film for another 31 years or try to interpret the ethics of a great white on the prowl for various and sundry humans, innocent or not.
Friday, February 17, 2006
WEEPER
It is one damn thing after another in today's NYT Best 1176 Films:
I dreaded seeing this film. I saw it, improbably, when I was eleven years old.
What was my mother thinking? Or perhaps I had de-nested myself by that time. I managed to run away from home without leaving home.
In any case, deaf and dumb Jane Wyman gets a friend (good); her doctor (sorta good as he doesn't charge for house calls). He teaches her sign language and lip reading (good if improbable in the time given), then Jane gets raped by a local tough (very bad).
It takes a while for people, including Jane, to find out she is pregnant (bad).
After that, she is shunned from the small Cape Breton community (well not so bad as they are a bunch of gossiping assholes). The doctor, Lew Ayers, is also shunned because he is suspected of impregnating Jane Wyman.
Since he is the only doc in the village, this is pretty strong stuff for the villagers to do, shun him. What do they do if they get sick? (bad).
Jane's live-in aunt, Agnes Moorehead, becomes nice after the revelation of rape and pregnancy (good). I always liked Moorehead a lot.
Then, Charles Bickford (very good as always) finds out who really raped his daughter and there is all hell to pay. He goes after him and gets killed.(bad).
The town now decides that manless (the doctor had to leave for a practice in Toronto), Jane needs to give up the baby.
Of all the people to give the baby to, they choose the rapist and his new wife Jan Sterling (who I have always loved to see).
When they come to get the baby, Jan finds out that her new hubby raped Jane (bad, but eventually a good thing). He tells her to forget it and goes into the house to take his son (bad).
Jane shoots him (not so bad except she gets taken in for murder).
There is a trial scene where Jane's deaf and dumb condition makes things kinda bad (bad) on the witness stand until Lew comes to the front (good) to translate and Jan, who had a crush on Lew, fesses up that she knows what really happened (good).
Lew and Jane end up getting married and the few other survivors are happy.
It is well acted and surprisingly low on the melodrama. Keerist, the story is enough.
I endured. (good) But I didn't like it very much (bad).
It got a lot of Oscar noms (good) but only won one (bad).
I think that this is a 2 out of Netflix5. I didn't shed a tear (good and bad).
A final note. Jane Wyman lives in Palm Springs. She still has the doll face. She is a matron now and supports the local catholic church and such. She goes to fundraisers. What is more, she is able to hear and speak coherently (good).
DAILY QUESTION
Today's WSJ question is more of a survey.
How has your home's value changed in the past year?
There are six choices ranging from lost a lot to gained a lot.
We are in the top category. Most respondents gained a lot or a little. Very few lost.
It is a no brainer here. We live in Riverside County in California. It is the fastest rising population and real estate value. Also the highest building rate.
The new construction has not slowed the inflation of value; yet.
But, there are signs of the market softening.
So, it softens.
We are not going anywhere. At least, not around here.
To get our money out (four times what we paid at last count) we would have to move to some burg in North Arizona and, even then, we would probably draw a crowd.
We have managed to be in the first wave on the back of Beacon HIll, then the South End in Boston. Finally, here in PS.
We have been fixer-uppers until we got here and we always picked out property to fix just before the wave hit. There was some intent to it but, for the most part, we lucked out.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
BUSH DAY BLUES
These are the headlines off of today's Reuters headline email:
Pressure over Guantanamo rises - The United States on Thursday came under mounting international pressure to close its Guantanamo prison, with U.N. investigators saying detainees there faced treatment amounting to torture.I was worried that the bird-shot incident would crowd out the important stuff.Rice grilled over Iraq rebuilding - With water, sewer and electricity services below prewar levels in Iraq, a leading Democrat told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday that patience was waning over the pace and cost of rebuilding efforts.
Iraq seethes after new abuse footage - New images of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison prompted Iraq's president to condemn his close ally the United States on Thursday, demanding harsh punishment for "savage crimes" as Iraqis seethed over more humiliation.
Judge orders response on eavesdropping recordsWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday ordered the U.S. Justice Department to respond within 20 days to requests by a civil liberties group for documents about President George W. Bush's domestic eavesdropping program.
Guess not.
And as a bonus, off the Reuters; the Republican dominated Katrina committee blasts him and his gang for first doing nothing and then doing it badly.
The shit just keeps piling up.
GETTIN' NUTTY
While I am talking about rotation—the internet and all—I should cover my cereal rotation.
I think I have mentioned that I crave variety in my foods. So, I have a rotating menu for all meals.
That way I maximize nutrition and minimize boredom.
In the morning, I had five cereals going.
But somehow, the cycle seemed to tight. I was wincing when I got back to Cheerios in only five days.
There isn't anything wrong with Cheerios. It is just that I don't want to have to eat them that often.
So, I started looking around and suddenly remembered Grape Nuts!
Jeez. I used to eat them all the time. And they are another grain. Barley. More variety!
So I slotted them in and have been trying them out.
Actually, I am using my private label Stater Brothers product Nutty Nuggets.
Yeh, I know.
Now they are going permanent.
Here is the line up. Corn Chex, Shredded Wheat (bite size no frosting!), Rice Chex, Nutty Nuggets (barley), Cheerios (oats), and Wheat Chex.. Six days. Five grains.
It is hard to get away from the wheat.
I would like to find a seventh though to round out a week. What else is there?
Maybe I will go look at the organic shelf.
It is funny about Grape Nuts.
There are no grapes and no nuts.
It is an old recipe from the original cereal company that became General Foods.
Here is what Cecil of The Straight Dope has to say about it all.
How can Grape-Nuts cereal contain no grapes or nuts?
BLAND SLATE
I am thinking of taking the net magazine Slate off my links and off my daily reading.
My daily net tour is an ever changing 'organism'; sites come, sites go, sites change order.
Sometimes, I just get tired of the same old same old. Jesus General was like that. I started out with guffaws and ended with yawns.
The same with The Borowitz Report. A one trick pony. Hook two seemingly paradoxical headlines together and write a sketch.
Sometimes the authors change. Wonkette is a good example. Two guys took over from Ana Marie Cox who was, to put it mildly, a oner. It and they are not the same.
Now, we have Slate. Formerly a rebellious outpost in the Microsoft (god I hate to even type the name) empire, they began to lose their edge when Michael Kinsley left. Now, they have been sold off to the Washington Post and, as predicted, the edge is gone.
At the same time that Slate has waned, Salon has waxed.
I am reading them a lot more.
Today they have the new Abu Ghraib pictures and story. No one else here has yet printed them.
Salon determinedly leftish and, of course, I like that.
I get enough of the right wing from the NYTimes (just kidding, sort of) and Andrew Sullivan.
TODAY'S QUESTION
Like I said below, I love surveys.
Almost every day the Wall Street Journal (subscription) has an opinion question. The results are often surprising. To me anyway.
Take today's question.
"Should Internet companies refuse to do business in China because of the government's censorship?"
Yes or no?
I said 'no'.
I am an old man and was brought up on the idea that the russkies and red chinese were oppressive regimes.
Has anyone heard anything different lately?
Mao lives.
So, I don't think we ought to help them be more oppressive.
Interestingly, the other readers of the WSJ begged to differ with me; 59-NO to 41 YES. They are business types and, I suppose, amoral.
Or, they would say that doing business with the chinese (should that be capitalized?) could 'win them over' to 'freedom and democracy'.
I have another older and wiser man response to that one: "In your dreams"!
I even have a better, more businessy, reason. These bastards will rip you off! They will steal the technology the minutes they an get their hands on it.
How's that for minding the store?
Maybe I will make the daily question a daily thing with the blog. It is a big part of my day; to see how I am out of step with the rest of society. At least the WSJ part.
TODAY'S SURVEY
I love surveys.
Well, I love being a participant.
I am on the Zogby panel along with about 10,000 other people. We are an exclusive club.
Want to join? Go here if you do.
We don't have hazing although you might be asked to carry our books and wear a beanie for awhile.
There are some restrictions. You pretty much have to know how to read. Well, someone could read it to you.
Also, you need to know how to click on what they used to call 'radio' buttons. Maybe they still do.
Someone else could do that for you too but then what is the point of you being involved at all? If they are going to read it and punch it then sit back and let them join.
What else? No real estate agents or lawyers.
What is involved? I get questionnaires every two weeks or less often. They take anywhere from one to twenty minutes.
I got one this morning and it was a quickie. First question was 'age?'. I put in 69 and they thanked me for participating. They needed someone younger than me.
The last one, though, screened old. So you never know.
Incidentally, don't sign up for the surveys that are on all the blogs right now: "Do you think Bush is doing a good job". They are spam magnets. I tried one and am still suffering from it.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
HAPPY PILLS
We are still working on the final steps of the Medicare D signup. All good news.
Our plan got accepted my Medicare. Or, we got approved by Medicare to buy the plan.
It took two months from the time of our application to Blue Cross but I guess that is a normal time expectation. They have been dumped on.
Well, put it another way. They were not prepared to be dumped on. Only the relatively sparse enrollment has saved them from a total bureaucratic drowning.
To review. We signed up with the first million or so people in December for a January start.
We signed with an old 'friend', Blue Cross. It was in the middle price range of the forty plans available, its formulary covered all our present drugs, and our little non-chain drugstores are in their network.
We actually got out cards a few days prior to the first.
The cards were good. The first drugs we got were OK'd (except for my Allegra—another story) and we paid our 30.00 co-pay. We are already saving money.
There was a little hassle in getting our old plans to drop the drug portion but that is in the works and should be cleared up by March. We will be getting some money refunded because I paid ahead.
Oddly, we have yet to receive our first billings for the Medicare D.
Yawn. Zzzzzz. I know.
But some people who read this have not yet signed up. Others have parents who are thinking about it or in the middle of things.
Maybe we are lucky but it all has gone as well as I could have expected.
To those of you not in the plan, thank you. You are paying for most of our drug costs and we appreciate it. They are as happy pills as pills can be happy.
FRIGID
left me cold.
Some think that it is a movie masterpiece. It is one of the 1176 Best Films in the NYTimes list.
I guess that I have been dreading it. Maybe I spent the whole thing in a crouch not wanting to see any spatter.
Well, I didn't have to worry about that.
It is a crime spree, then a police procedural and finally a tract on the death penalty and the insanity question.
And I don't think it really does all that well at any of it.
It fights up hill of course. We already know how it is going to turn out. There is not too much to figuring out who did it. The guys leave a trail a mile wide. Stupid.
And the case for the death penalty or not is naive and somewhat loaded.
I don't know if I would have pulled the trap door on them but I am glad someone did.
I sorta wanted to pull the trap door on the movie a couple of times.
I linked to Ebert's original review above.
Here is a later more reflective one.
In its time, this work was revolutionary because Truman Capote turned the facts into a journalistic novel.
The movie does the same. It was actually filmed on the site of the killings.
Ghoulish.
We also know a lot more, now, about how Capote worked. A new film has been made about him with this event as a key point of study.
I suppose all these works should stand alone. But I brought a lot of baggage to the teevee set today and so did the film.
I will end up with a 3 out of Netflix 5.
AWAY
I have been away from any personal blogging for awhile. That is opposed to politics, movies, and the like.
I think that sometimes I run out of gas and need to park it for awhile until something comes along to refuel me.
I admire the people who blog daily with reams of stuff. But, I don't read those blogs or look into the details of what I see. Too much.
So maybe less is more.
In any case, right now, it is less.
We had a friend here on the weekend and that took away time and energy. After all, talking to friends is sort of what is in the blog. If I am doing a lot of it 'live' then there isn't a lot to write out.
And so on.
Circumstances. Life. All intrude.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
SICK
I don't hunt.
I am against hunting as sport.
Maybe if you need to kill to eat.
But, as I get it, these guys were shooting at quail that were pen raised, many of which cannot fly.
Many more don't fly because they think that the people are bringing them food.
When they fly they don't fly very high. They don't want to miss the food.
No wonder the dick was aiming low.
ANd that is only the beginning of it. When they get the bird shot, many do not die on the first shot. Many are alive when they are gathered.
Yes. Birds feel pain. They thrash about.
It is not pretty.
These sick fucks shot 700 of these birds in their fun shooting.
They went to the shooting site in cars and got out to shoot.
There is some indication (of course) they were drinking. Why did they bar the sheriff from the ranch when they showed up at night.
Where is Cheney and why hasn't he made a public statement?
What about all the jokes while this guy is in the hospital ICU and could die?
And what is so funny about killing and maiming and hurting these birds? For the amusement of fat rich old men?
What a bunch of sick fucks.
I said that.
Well we knew it before. Further confirmation.
OH-2 DISCONTINUED
I was interested in Hackett. He is out as of today. I think he was pushed although he did some things that could be called 'falling'.
Too bad.
I don't know enough to comment any more.
It is more of an update and finish to a story than anything else.
GOLDEN STANDARD
Today's Best 1176 NYTimes Film is one of the thirteen basic stories. Boring and bored guy faces death; guy gets reborn; guy does something worthwhile.
Nothing new.
But, in the hands of the great Kurosawa, the standard becomes unique.
In this case, a widowed bureaucrat, who has frozen his life for his work and his son, comes up with gastric cancer; six months to live.
Things happen. He changes. He makes a difference.
It is great!
Actually, this is all our story. We all have only so long. We know it. How can we make a difference?
The structure is interesting. The first half is seen with the guy. The second half is seen by the people left behind. A sort of piecing together of the truth of his life takes place at his funeral.
Overlay is a look at the Japanese bureaucracy. In the early portion there is a visit to Tokyo's night town. So it is a good cultural dunk too.
It is all good.
Gotta, gotta, gotta see it.
It is a 5 out of the Netflix5.
HAVE A HEART
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY
OH, NEVER MIND
That thing we said about putting Democracy in the Middle East and everywhere else, huh?
You know, fighting for the democratic way and all?
Well, we are re-thinking that.
U.S. and Israelis Are Said to Talk of Hamas Ouster
On second thought, we sorta kinda realized that you might not get puppets when they got a chance to vote.
Fuck all.
Cancel that propaganda line.
OUTAGE
Blogger was having a bad day yesterday so this—Mama—and some other stuff didn't get posted.
They have recovered but I lost some timely musings as a result. You can't go back.
MAMA
I remember
I would have been 11 when I saw it and I still remembered the feelings from that viewing. I wanted to be in that family!
The feelings are still there, as I view it again, but I am happy with my own family today.
It is a great sentimental piece which never falls off the tenous bridge over the sea of saccarine shlock.
The television series does not count, incidentally.
The structure is nicely drawn and the performances are well delivered.
I loved Oscar Homolka. In this one, he goes to the top of his form and that is just wonderful to see. He has the timing and the courage to take us through a whole range of emotions from laughter to tears.
It is all good. It was like meeting an old friend after, well, almost 60 years; and to have the ‘meeting’ go more beautifully than one could have suspected.
It has been a 5 all these years and will remain a 5 for Netflix.
Monday, February 13, 2006
WORM TURNS SOME MORE
The GOoPer house isn't willing to carry all bushie's 'water' anymore:
Republicans' Report on Katrina Assails Response
Good for them.
Perhaps honor and honesty have a possibility in these partisan times.
Well, it is an election year.
The 'king' is losing his subjects.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
WEATHER REPORT
I hope that no one back east takes it personal when I say that our pool temperature and the air temperature are the same today at 80 degrees F.
Yeh, I know we have occasional earthquakes.
A random sandstorm here and there (not in our neighborhood, really).
OK. It's a deal. I will take it.
INSIDE OUT
was a five out of five when we first saw it in a theater and it holds up as well or better on a new viewing.
Todd Fields uses Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek to the utmost in this drama of the inner self.
The outside events are dramatic and surprising enough but the inner reactions are even more intense. We can see them and feel them as we watch these actors work alone and together.
It is a great film and made the second NYTimes Best 1176 films printed in 2004.
I am glad that I saw it again and I will give it a Netflix 5 when they ask me to.
PRETTY SOUR
Add to the new blossoms!
We have the lemon and lime trees in bloom.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
STARR CROSSED
Always a sleaze. Ken Starr blows whatever chance a condemned man had with some crooked shortcuts.
Assholism is incurable.
Forgery Is Alleged in Killer's Clemency Bid
PEACEFUL SPOT
There may be chaos all over the country but, right here, we have a near successful adoption of the new Medicare D plan.
Way way back, it seems, in December, I made a run at the wall of confusion and sort of got over it.
I chose Blue Cross as our carrier and used a broker, who we knew from the past, to do the legwork on it.
As it turns out, they were not too supportive of the broker so I ended up doing a bit of the work myself at the end.
No problem with that.
We have both used our new cards and had a mixed experience.
Only one of my drugs is on the formulary but it is dirt cheap. An ancient generic.
The other drug I was using was Allegra. They came back and suggested I try Claritin which is OTC.
I didn't mind that, actually. I don't think that insurance is supposed to be a steal. It is a negotiation.
As it happened, I quit taking the Allegra and discovered, to my chagrin or relief, that I didn't need it.
So, I am not taking anything! I have some Allegra left if I want it, but so far, no problem.
I think that this is a good thing. One, I hate taking drugs of any kind and two, I don't think anyone should be gaming or using the system inappropriately.
I was worried about John's drugs though. We spend quite a bit on his stuff. If I had trouble with the Allegra then what would happen to him? Are they going to make us all jump through the hoops?
Nope.
He went yesterday and got the full monty.
It all worked. He got three expensive drugs for the 30.00 each co-pay; 90 bucks. We bought a plan with no deductible ever. No donut.
So his card worked and we paid about 25%.
He didn't try for his Allegra. It will be interesting to see if he has to try Claritin as I did.
The economics. I had already worked it out. We were barely justifying the drug insurance that we had with our Medicare supplemental; now cancelled—the drug part.
It was costing us about 300.00 a month for the two of us.
Now, we will pay about 70.00 a month for the two of us on the D plan.
Thank you. You are paying for the rest of it.
I know that the process has been easier for us. We have some cash and the resources to work through the decision process about a plan. We had forty options. I took the middle of the road where Blue Cross happened to be. Our experience with them has been good for a long time.
Easy.
That is not to say that I haven't worried a lot about it but that is me. Everything has gone rather smoothly.
I know a lot of people on Medicare. To be honest, I don't know of any that have gotten messed up.
I can't say I am sorry that the bushers are getting a black eye or, at least, no bounce over this. There have been monstrous screwups. But it is a complicated thing and difficult for a lot of folks. The automatic changeover was rough for a lot of people. I know some of those but none of them ended up without drugs at a good price or the zero they pay on Medicaid.
So, I gotta say that so far it is good here.
Now, I expect the rates to go up. This cannot be sustained unless all 40 million eligibles sign up.
We are in the first million.
We will see.
BISSONET (PRONOUNCED BISSONEY)
We have seen one of the best W.C. Fields films, The Bank Dick.
Today we saw the second:
We will see the third, My Little Chickadee when we get to the 'm's'.
This one has the great blind/deaf man sequence, Baby Leroy, and the memorable La Fong sequence:
Salesman: Carl LaFong, Capital L, small a, capital F, small o, small n, small g. LaFong. Carl LaFong.
Harold: No. I don't know Carl LaFong - Capital L, small a, Capital F, small o, small n, small g. And if I did know Carl LaFong, I wouldn't admit it!
There aren't too many comics who have three films in the NYTimes Best 1176 Films. Woody Allen and not all of his are comedies. That is it. I think.
This one is just one long set of routines held together by the flimsiest of plots.
There is no attention to continuity. Props change, broken porch swings are mended, some costumes change and yet you don't care. It is all so funny.
This is another 5 out of Netflix5.
Friday, February 10, 2006
TRUTH WILL OUT DEPARTMENT
Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq
Intelligence 'Misused' to Justify War, He Says.........WAPo today
Thursday, February 09, 2006
DRIEST
We are bottoming out with a relative humidity of 4 %.
This has been going on for a few days.
We are used to dry but this is an all time low for us.
We are used to dryness but visitors could be getting some problems if they don't take in a lot of water. Nosebleeds.
The thing is that you don't feel any sweat; there isn't any. And it is not that hot (88) and it doesn't feel even that hot. The dewpoint is 3 degrees. You start feeling humidity at about 60.
There isn't much to do about it. Enjoy it. Drink a lot of water. Turn the irrigation up a bit for the flowers and all.
Enjoy the effect of coming out of the pool or spa. You will really cool off. Even be cold.
Dry. The driest.
SLYEST
So, he kept them waiting until the last minute.
Would he show up for his tribute or not?
He did and outdid.
Look at that mohawk. The funkiest for sure.
SILVER EAR
Last summer I celebrated the 25th anniversary of my ear piercing.
Sorry to be giving you this news now but I just figured it out.
In a random, and seldom, moment of introspection, I asked myself how long the hole has been in there.
I was shocked and surprised to find that I had passed my ear-hole's silver anniversary without a card, a call, or even a mention.
You can't see it actually. There is a ring in it.
It is there though.
Way back in the 'old days' when everyone was getting them, I was on an early wave.
It was a craze! You had to have one.
You cannot imagine how revolutionary this was. People fainted when they saw a guy in an earring. So much the better.
This was after long hair had become a regular thing. We needed something new to rev up the revolution such as it was in 1980.
They were a statement!
I had two statements actually.
One was that I was avant garde and the second was that I was gay.
There was some confusion on the gay point however.
The early opinion was that gay went left and straight went right. So, I went left.
But then, a lot of het men were confused and got it on the left side. Straight boys have always been confused when it comes to fashion statements. So, the gay branding part got lost in the wash.
I think I got my piercing in an earring shop in Provincetown in 1980. It was our first year of renting a house there. Maybe I got it on Newbury Street in Boston. I know that I let the hole close once and had to have a second one done. Then later, I had a third hole put in a little higher on the lobe and let the old ones close.
A lot of piercing.
All the years I worked, I did not wear an earring to my training sessions or work with clients. I was closet with it.
But, when I retired, the ring stayed in.
It is still there.
For many years I had a large collection of studs and rings.
I still do, actually, but it is inactive.
I just have the one gold wire hoop.
Yeh, I know, a 70 year old guy with a gold earring.
But today, it is a modest and almost insignificant adornment. Look at the earrings now! The diagram at the top is a short tour of the options for drilling.
Anyway, this earring hole is mine. I earned it. The earring will stay to the end.
I don't want to have another re-piercing. Three holes are enough.
But now that I look at the diagram, I am thinking; maybe something along the top.
NEW INFO: Shit. I think maybe I got the piercing earlier than 1980. So nix the 25th and add a couple of years. It might be 30. But I am not going to delete. The spirit of the thing is true.
And this is a memoir not an autobiography!
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
HERESIES
Here are the cartoons that are getting all the play. A lot of US media won't print them.
Fuck that.
These are on the MSNBC website.
And here is a link to a whole set of cartoons about the Mohammed cartoons.
I have three spellings of the name now. I guess it is sectarian.
MAJOR DEFECTION
Fault lines appear in the invulnerable party discipline:
Republican Who Oversees N.S.A. Calls for Wiretap Inquiry
I told you. The second term would be filled with scandal and infighting.
We have plenty of scandal and worse. Now comes the infighting.
CLASS ACT
Today we watched the scruffy reporter snag the society dame in
Gable and Colbert go at it in this NYTimes 1176 Best Film (and everyone elses' too).
We had never seen it before; well, out-takes.
It is pretty good. What can I say about it?
The restoration is incredibly good. The by-play is langorous and easy to follow. The romantic parts of it are touching and realistic.
The bit with the blanket in the motel room has legs and keeps the whole thing delighfully innocent.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
TELEGRAMS
End of an era:
If you are under the age of—what? forty?—will have ever gotten a telegram.
It came on a yellow paper and pasted on was a ribbon of words.
I am sure you have seen them in old movies.
I got a few in my time.
They were always charged with excitement because they were rare and, somehow, very special.
A lot of death notices came on telegrams; so much better than having to tell the news face to face or on the phone.
The technology grew out of the telegraph key; a little printer at the end produced ticker tape. That is no longer with us either. No more ticker tape parades.
But, telegrams brought good news too. And flowers. Western Union went into the flower delivery business to try to save itself.
For a long time, money orders could be sent as well. Maybe that will still continue.
End of an era.
Good News
NARROWER BRUSH
I have painted evangelical christians with a broad brush. I think that they are complicit with the neo-cons of hijacking the republican party and setting much progress into a stall or reverse.
But, I have known that there is a vocal minority, now growing, who will see that there is more at stake than the so-called 'sin issues'.
This is a big hunk of the coalition taking a stand on global warming.
86 Evangelical Leaders Join to Fight Global Warming
The beginning of the end of the monolithic know-nothing movement?
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
STANDING O Updated 0208 4AM
Those black Baptist pastors sure know how to give a
Four Presidents including the present one watched.
Fuller version here if you have the time.
In another eulogy, Jimmy Carter noted that the Kings had been wiretapped and brought it down to today.
Of course, we don't know if george can or does process any of this.
But, it makes some of us feel good to see him out of the bubble for a change.
No one at this event had to get tickets or pass a loyalty test.
WAIT FOR ME!!!
I don't want to be left out of this photo of Muhammad thing.
Here.
This is a neighborhood poster from Seattle reprinted in The Stranger, an alternative newspaper edited by our man Dan Savage.
I like that it has the M-man himself with a bomb in his bonnet and a neat quote by Wendell Phillips.
