Just now clicked onto MSNBC and from the corner of my eye saw the headline “President resigns.” And for a microsecond there my heart leapt. But it was not to be.
Month: December 2001 (Page 1 of 4)
My friend Paul likes to say that I’m too narrow in my movie choices, that I stick too closely to my usual stuff. What this really means is that I’m not usually willing to sit through the English drawing room comedies and 14-part miniseries about French royalty that he seems to favor. So the other night he was in charge of renting a movie and bringing it back to my place, where I have a decent TV. He brought several movies, but the one he really wanted to see was called “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” starring a very young Alec Guinness.
I think you’re beginning to see where this story is going.
As the black-and-white credits of this movie started unspooling, with photos of the cast surrounded with cameos trimmed in lace, I unfortunately audibly groaned. It was a small groan, but not silent. I soon found out that the film was unfortunately misfiled in the “Comedy” section of the video store. But I sat through it, and I’m glad I did – it gave me enough movie ammunition for several months. Now when I want him to watch something produced in the modern era, he’ll be less able to fight with me about it.
I love it when I’m right.
I have a sense of optimism about the new year. Why this is, I couldn’t tell you. I’m not a big fan of New Year’s celebrations anyway, preferring to be a grumpy old man and boycott the whole enterprise. But as for the prospects for 2002, for some reason I have high hopes. It’s going to be a good year.
Movie sound bite grab bag:
“How’s that working out for you?” – famous WMT tagline
“No, unless round is funny” – one of many hilarious exchanges
“The penis is evil!” – can you identify this movie?
I was rooting through my MP3 collection and found these gems. Thought you would find them as entertaining as I do.
Couldn’t agree more. We humans do interesting things to fool ourselves.
A Christmas Story
My mother set out some small candy dishes on Christmas Eve, containing those red and green M&Ms they sell this time of year. I took a couple of them and they tasted sort of chalky. I told my mother about this, and she said, “Well, maybe it’s because they were in the freezer.”
“In the freezer?” I said. “Why did you put them in the freezer? They have a candy shell, after all.”
“Well, they’re from two years ago,” she said, with a straight face.
So my mother had purchased this $3 bag of holiday M&Ms in 1999 (!) and stretched them out for the following three (!) Christmases. She probably spent more on electricity to keep them frozen than she would have if she had bought a fresh bag. Live and learn.
As this year comes to a close, I just wanted to take a minute to thank all the fantastic, intelligent, funny, cool people who come to my little corner of the web on a regular basis. There were times this year, like many other webloggers, when I thought about just packing it all in. I’m so glad I didn’t. The people I’ve met through this site have changed my life in ways I could have never imagined, and I’m so grateful for that. All of you mean more to me than I can express. Thanks again, and I hope we continue to entertain, educate and irritate each other for many years to come.
Happy Holidays.
Saw “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” yesterday afternoon. I waited to post about it, since last night the images were racing around in my head so much, I wanted to take a little time to digest everything. All I can say is, Peter Jackson and his amazing cast did a sort of magic of their own, making the book spring to life on the screen in a way that I haven’t seen before. There wasn’t a moment or a decision Jackson made that took me out of the world he had created. While hard-core fans are wetting themselves over this movie (and rightfully so), I think it would be enjoyable to a much wider audience than the subject matter would have you believe.
It’s worth contrasting this movie to the inert “Harry Potter,” which dutifully moves through the paces in order to cram as much of the recognizable plot into its 2-1/2 hour running time. The plot of LOTR, on the other hand, is definitely streamlined. But it has what “Potter” sorely lacks – real magic and soul. You feel this movie as much as watch it.
My friend Paul, who hasn’t read the books and is generally disdainful of anything fantasy-related, walked out of the three-hour LOTR and turned to me and said, “Now when is the next one coming out?” That’s about the best endorsement this picture could ever hope for.
A little Christmas tip: if someone opens your gift, and they repeat the name of it, most likely they don’t like it.
EXAMPLE: “Wow! Socks!” or “Gee! Competitive jigsaw puzzles! Thanks, Mom.”
You should also be mindful of this when you open your gifts, since other people may also know this trick. No need to thank me. Have a happy holiday.
The Xbox might more accurately be named Trojan Horse. Which of course does not dim my insane lust for the thing.