Fascinating

After a question about assassinated presidents on the Discovery Channel show Cash Cab, I was inspired to do some web surfing and fact finding. The most interesting factoid I unearthed? James Garfield was the first president to be ambidextrous. He could simultaneously write in Latin with one hand, and Greek with the other. That's hot.

Squirrel, Please....

Does anyone know if it's squirrel mating season or something? I've been in and out of the house with various errands today and every time have noticed an uncannily high number of the fuzzy tailed terrors chasing each other around. I'm taking the high road and assuming that there's some fine squirrel lovin' in the air, because I guess the only other alternative is that there's some kind of squirrel gang war going down.

Remember When?

I miss the days when you could open a box of cereal and get a prize - a real toy. Seems like everything nowadays is just a matter of, "Send $8.99 along with a UPC code and get....." which is not really a prize, it's just something you could probably get in the store anyway and it wouldn't even have the word "Kelloggs" written in huge print on the front of it.

Along these same lines, has anyone else had a box of Cracker Jacks lately? The "prizes" there are even more pitiful. Instead of a secret decoder ring, you get a piece of paper that you can fold in three places and see a monkey walking or some such nonsense. It's a sad state of affairs to be sure.

United or Untied?

Does anyone else find it questionable that they released the movie United 93 on DVD the Tuesday just prior to the 5 year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks?

A New World

WARNING: Timmy, don't bother with this blog entry, and definitely don't click on any of the links. In fact, if you are a boy, don't bother. Unless you're JB, or maybe Jon, then you can click the Broadway links but don't bother with the MMC one. And if you're a girl, even then proceed with caution. If you don't approve of my loving RENT or High School Musical, don't bother reading this. In fact, Abby, you can read this. And Melody, you can read this. Everyone else, not sure, unless you're some other freak who can relate to my love of musical theater and/or Ryan Gosling.









I am trying to write a blog to adequately express my joy, but I don't think it's possible. All I can say is youtube.com. We're talking about: old MMC clips of ryan and justin and christina and matt. We're talking live performances of Kush singing One Song Glory on Rent: I didn't think I would ever see him perform Rent again. We're talking about Idina Menzel performing My Strongest Suit on Aida: I never saw her on this show and only wondered what she was like. This site is hours of pure enjoyment waiting to be had. It's all due to Abby. Thanks Abby!

Unfortunately, it seems this site lacks the one video clip I long for most. It's an old episode of Reading Rainbow that I saw last year where LeVar learns how to hip-hop dance. I can't begin to tell you how funny this episode is. I so want to find it and pass it along to "A." He couldn't believe it when I told him about it. Someday, maybe, I'll find it. Maybe someday someone will post it on youtube.

Hollywood Video

So tonight we found ourselves, along with half of the other residents of the tri-boro area, at Hollywood Video.

I was presented with two "choices" by Melissa: the recent attempt at "Pride & Prejudice" with Keira Knightley or "Shop Girl" with Claire Danes & Steve Martin. The following exchange then took place:

Me: (Holding up "Pride & Prejudice") If we watched this, I think my brain might fall out.
Melissa: Abby's seen it five times. She loves it.
Me: Honey, Abby also likes Meatloaf. I'm not exactly going to base my evening on her recommendation.

So, anyway, we ended up with "Shop Girl". We'll see how that goes.

(Oh, and also "The Constant Gardener" - my choice. It was not pitched against anything else. It was just, "I'm getting this one." That's how I roll.)