I love Paris in the springtime

One of the best movies I've seen this year is last year's Oscar winner for best original screenplay: Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Tremendous cinematography created an ambiance that transports you there where you enjoy a tight, flawless script. Whether you want to suspend disbelief and think Gil/Owen Wilson truly time-traveled back to the 1920s or whether it was poetic license of the viewer gaining insight into his developing creativity, doesn't matter. The result was superbly lovely. And now one of my favorite Allen movies of all time. Since he's filmed around 41 movies, that speaks volumes.

The cast portrayed their characters so deftly that it seemed like being able to meet these great writers and artists from 90 years ago. Being a literature fan, I loved seeing Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Stein brought to life. Coincidentally, two days after watching this movie, a Jeopardy question/answer concerned a composer who lived in Paris in the 1920s. I'm shouting at the television "Porter! Porter!" but none of the contestants knew it. They should have watched the movie. Also coincidentally, it seems from my memory that in his later years, Dali was friends with Mia Farrow. Cue: it's a small world.

Better off dead if you haven't yet died

A couple months ago, we watched Michael Moore's documentary "Capitalism: a Love Story." Agree or disagree with Moore, and there are plenty of people who do both (personally I like to do both at the same time), he always makes some jaw-dropping points. The previous post about FDR stuck in my mind. Another "what in the name of sanity?" moment was about how employers are taking out life insurance on their employees. If your company does so, you are worth far more to them dead than alive. Think about the implications. And then check Dead Peasants to find out how much your workplace may value you.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

On January 11, 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a State of the Union address and proposed a Second Bill of Rights. This included:

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.

FDR did not live to implement these ideas. If anyone wants to pick this up and run with it, the entire nation would benefit from a touchdown.

Tell me who are you

For all your Dr Who crocheting needs, see: Dr Who Crochet. Okay, maybe they're lacking one rather important need. The patterns!

The qwerty effect

I don't know about anyone else, but right now I'm trying to type around a big fat cat body. Because of this, my right elbow is jutting out towards the front porch and the right side of my neck is scrunched up. This means that letters I'm typing with my right hand are significantly harder than those with my left hand. I suppose one could infer from this that I like the letters on the left side of the keyboard better because they're easier to type. I know my favorite password is all typed on the left side.

But wait. There's two linguists named Kyle Jasmin and Daniel Casasanto who may have never had to type around a big fat cat body. In their newly published paper, they argue the opposite. They state that because the QWERTY keyboard has more letters on the left than the right, it's easier to find the correct letters for right-side dominated words. Also, letter combinations for those right-side dominated words are easier. Therefore, words dominated by right-side letters "acquire more positive valences." That is, we like 'em. Well, do we kitties?

Your mother was a hamster!

Or head on over to the Luther Insulter for some creative gems from centuries past. This morning I got:

"Your words are so foolishly and ignorantly composed that I cannot believe you understand them."

From Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses, pg. 87 of Luther's Works, Vol. 31.

Hit the "Insult me again" button over & over for more.

The genealogy chart goes ever on

If you absolutely need to know how in the world all those Tolkien characters are related to each other, they're working on making it less complicated at

The Tolkien Project.

No monopoly on common sense

I don't drink but if I did and had some vodka around the house, This Old House magazine suggests some other uses for it:

• Erase Window Streaks - Use diluted spray
• Shine Chrome - Soak in soft cloth & wipe fixtures
• Deodorize Laundry - removes musty smells
• Remove Rust from Screws - leave in for a few hours, wipe clean
• Preserve Cut Flowers - it inhibits production of ethylene, which makes flowers wilt.
• Remove Stains from Upholstery - takes out ink, grass, and some foods.
• Kill Weeds - Mix 1 ounce of vodka, a few drops of liquid dish soap, and 2 cups of water in a spray bottle.
• Clean Mold and Mildew - Spray on, let sit up to 30 minutes, scrub clean.
• Soothe Aching Muscles - make a frozen pack with equal parts vodka and water.
• Stop Odors - use diluted spritz insides of shoes and boots

The girl with the most

A couple weekends ago we watched (or read, since they were in Swedish and subtitled in English) two of the "Girl Who" movies. I inadvertently picked up one and three, so we missed the second one. Last fall I'd read the first Stieg Larsson book, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (or in Swedish, "Men Who Hate Women") and found myself for the first time in my life NOT wishing to grab the next flight to Sweden. Wow, that was a lot of violence and cringe-worthiness. The movie, though more visual, seemed less violent to me. Perhaps because it was shorter and less internal. Meaning, I wasn't always aware of the mental and emotional pain and suffering the book showed.

Found the movies very well produced and acted. My only couple gripes are personal. Knowing some Swedish, I find myself annoyed when the subtitle translation isn't exact. And I see no need for Hollywood to re-do this, as they did, with British (James Bond?) or American actors. The dvd's had dubbing available if one didn't want to read the subtitles. I'll give their version a miss.

Advantage World

Last month, at the recommendation of my friend Dan, we watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World & loved it. B said it was the most creative film he'd seen all year or more. When they did the shout out to Pizza Pizza, I was like "so cool!" B says, "I thought you were making that up." (I still sing the jingle around the house sometimes. And it goes like this: "967-1111, phone Pizza Pizza hey hey hey.") The girl whose expletives were black boxed over was hysterical. Some quotes I really liked:

Envy : You just headbutted my boyfriend so hard he burst.
Gideon : You made me swallow my gum! That's going to be in my digestive tract for seven years!
Matthew : Didn't you get my email explaining the situation?
Young Neil: He punched the highlights out of her hair!
Crash: This song is called "I Am So Sad. I Am So Very Very Sad."
Crash: Ok this next song goes out to the guy who keeps yelling from the balcony. It's called "We Hate You, Please Die."

Smitten much?

If you enter your annual salary into the nifty Romney Income Calculator, it will figure out how long it took Mitt (in 2010) to make that amount. In my 10 hours 26 minutes and 1 seconds, he probably didn't even break a sweat.

I'll be right here when you come back

Having worked the front desk at a public library, I know you can find some interesting things left behind in books. For a while I saved bookmarks that I found and liked. Bookseller Michael Popek has been saving many things he's found and has compiled over 150 of them in his new book Forgotten Bookmarks. Tickets, receipts, love notes, flowers, drawings, grocery lists, postcards, recipes, even money. One of his rarest finds is a 1904 costume ball invitation. File under: wish I'd thought of this book idea, but I didn't so I'm giving this guy credit.

Do we need 'em: Pig speakers

If you have about 50 dollars hanging around & would like to plug your mp3 player or ipod into a pig's behind, you're in luck!

What, no cat model??

Please Mr Postman

When we got home from work last Friday, B says to me: "Stamps are going up to 61 cents!"
I said: "What?! They are not! They're 44 now. The post office is not going to raise them almost 20 cents."
B: "Yes they are! I saw it on the news."
Me: "Were you watching Canadian news?"
B: ....

Out on the wiley windy moors

Move: The Trip. When his girlfriend backs out of accompanying him on an assignment to tour Northern England's restaurants, actor Steve Coogan asks his fellow actor/friend Rob Brydon along. The gorgeous & breathtaking scenery made me want to start planning a vacation to Great Britain. The actors holding dueling impressions made tears start rolling down my cheeks. Their Sean Connery's reminded me of my nephews at Thanksgiving. I'm still not sure who had the better Michael Caine. Appreciated the "Wuthering Heights" nod and their trying to do Swedish accents without slipping into the Muppet chef. Fun ride.

I see that hand

Schools in a Florida county, a healthcare system in the Carolinas, a bank in Japan: they're all using a digital wallet. Instead of paying with cash or credit card, when you buy a lunch or pay a bill, the veins in your palm are scanned by near infrared light and your transation is completed electronically.

The 3D configuration of hand veins has proven more unique than fingerprints and faces. It's easy, quick and offers less chance of error and fraud. So why do I think of a Red Dward episode where they had to chop off someone's hand to use as ID verification in order to open a door? And, put down that carpenter's tool belt, Harrison. They may need you in yet another Fugitive remake.

Address unknown

Yesterday at break while reading Time magazine, I saw a blurb about the US Post Office putting zip codes into place in 1963. When I mentioned it to Carolyn, she asked what they did before that. I tried to kick-start the old brain, because I knew that there was a song which mentioned the previous system. All that came to mind was "Please Mr. Postman" but I knew that wasn't it. So, I was forced to Google and learned that for 20 years pre-63, the PO used zones (usually one or two digit numbers.) And then the light bulb lit. In the Elvis song "Return to Sender" he sings:


Return to sender, address unknown.
No such number, no such zone.

Up in the sky

Although the weather is near blizzarding, Wolfram Alpha says there are airplanes flying above me as I type. They are:

United Airlines from New York to Chicago.
Jet Blue from Buffalo to Ft. Myers, FL.
Jet Blue from New York to Vegas.
Atlantic Southeast from Connecticut to Detroit.
Delta from Newark to Salt Lake City.

To check who's above you, just ask Wolfram Alpha : "What flights are overhead?" In a Big Brother way, it knows.