Month: November 2011

Post-Turkey Day

Spent several hours helping my father and my brother-in-law clean the gutters and leaves in the backyard, while the dogs ran around. (Well, Chloe, my sister’s dog, ran around, but she did enough of it for anyone.) My sister’s husband, Brian, is tall and less nervous than I am climbing up on the roof — it’s less the height than the incline, I think — so it’s good that he was here. Not that it’s really been cold, but it has been at least a few months since we had any call to switch the AC on.

Anyway, that took up a big piece of the afternoon, and this evening we all went out for Chinese. Then I tried to finish watching Prince of Persia: Sands if Time, which I started watching yesterday…but then the internet (and the streaming video) went out. Maybe the universe was trying to tell me something? (It’s not a great movie so far.)

Random 10 11-25-11

A little later this week, thanks to some post-Thanksgiving loafing. First, last week’s answers. And now, this week’s mystery lyrics:

  1. “Know Your Rights” by the Clash, guessed by Kim
    This is a public service announcement…with guitar
  2. “It’s All Understood” by Jack Johnson
    Everyone laughed at her joke
  3. “Bygones” by Sara Watkins
    As faint as a phantom, but I can pull you under
  4. “Laid” by James, guessed by Kim
    The neighbors complain about the noises above
  5. “Dearest” by Buddy Holly
    You scold and you were so bold
  6. “Help Yourself” by Sad Brad Smith
    Oceans of water underneath our feet
  7. “Shy” by Ani DiFranco
    And I’ve locked myself in it to think
  8. “Another Brick in the Wall (Pt. 1)” by Pink Floyd, guessed by Kim
    Daddy’s flown across the ocean
  9. “Blame it on the Stones” by Kris Kristofferson
    And the taste of his martini doesn’t please his bitter tongue
  10. “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp, guessed by Kim and Clayton
    I’m hoping it’s going to come true

Good luck!

Happy Thanksgiving

There’s a long list of things I’m thankful for, the little joys in life. I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving (or Thursday, as the case may be).

Had a lovely turkey dinner with my parents, my sister, and her husband (along with two dogs underfoot), and now I’m just kind of sleepy.

Thanksgiving cornucopia

  • We live in a country where pizza is a vegetable. I’m just saying. [via]
  • Harry Potter director developing all-new Doctor Who movie. Not at all a sure thing, but still, when do we stop remaking things? Maybe when the last remake is still on-going?
  • Genevieve Valentine on Immortals, which she describes as “a batch of snickerdoodles with thumbtacks inside.”

    The labyrinth and Minotaur are well turned out, and their showdown takes place in a temple mausoleum, where an archway of stairs frames a goddess’s head that’s inset with candles to make it glow from within. It’s the sort of thing where you think, “Man, that’s good looking! I wish this stupid scene would stop so we could just look at it.”

  • I really don’t know what to think about actress suing IMDB for revealing her age. They both seem to have a perfectly valid point.
  • Massive plagiarism might help your book sales [via]
  • Billy Crystal will be hosting the Oscars this year, giving me another reason not to watch. Which is not a dig at Crystal, necessarily, who I generally like…you know, back when he made movies people watched. But it’s such a safe, boring choice. The Academy really missed a golden opportunity to let the Muppets host the Oscars
  • Tilt-shift Van Gogh
  • Polite Dissent on Forgotten Drugs of the Silver-Age:

    The more I think about it, for all intents and purposes, Jor-El was a mad scientist. He espoused scientific theories well outside the accepted norm and performed numerous unauthorized scientific experiments of questionable ethics.

  • Mysterious D.C. rampage leaves smashed cars in its wake. Seriously, it looks like the Hulk went through there. [via]
  • And finally, the Center for Fiction interviews Margaret Atwood:

    I think it’s a human need to name – to tell this from that. On the most basic level, we need to distinguish – as crows do – the dangerous creature from the harmless one, and – as all animals do – the delicious and healthful food object from the rotting, poisonous one. In literary criticism it’s very helpful to know that the Harlequin Romance you sneak into when you think no one is looking is not the same, and is not intended to be the same, as Moby Dick. But stories and fictions have always interbred and hybridized and sent tendrils out into strange spaces.