Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.
Archive for January 10, 2007
Hints are up
You all certainly pulled it out at the last minute yesterday. Only two movies left. Hints have been added.
Update: Only one left!
Tuesday Trivia Time: 1/9
1. The customer doesn’t know if a computer accessory will work on his Mac. He also doesn’t know that the man talking to him will meet him at a hotel in the near future.
Hint: The star of this film is one of those comics-turned-dramatic-actors.
2. The American persuades the Englishman to trespass in a walled garden, where they find a lovely bench.
Solved by Melville.
3. A college student goes to a costume party dressed as a Freudian slip.
Solved by Amy.
4. “Why can’t you just be a good boy and die?” / “You first.”
Solved by Proteus.
5. She rows out to a lighthouse to paint, and that’s where she falls in love.
Solved by Evn.
6. He holds a jail hostage by threatening to blow it up with fake dynamite. (This is obscure.)
Hint: This little-known (but delightful) film features a remarkable cast, including an Oscar-winner who is also the father of a well-known Indie actor, an actress best-known for a Kubrick film, and an array of comic character actors (including Strother Martin) stealing their respective scenes .
Solved by George.
7. “My patients didn’t like my cough.”
Solved by Proteus.
Fun With Language: Department of Redundancy Department
In regard to the situation in Bangladesh, NPR news said:
The interim government, which is temporarily in charge…
As opposed to?
Decaffeinated
I drink a lot of coffee. A lot. I’m thinking oh, a cup before I leave the house, then two or three cups in the morning at work, then one or two after lunch. But never in the evening unless there’s a special reason.*
Now, my story about this is always that it doesn’t interfere with my ability to go to sleep. I’ve had touches of insomnia from time to time for twenty years, but I’ve never related it to coffee. Largely, this is because sometimes I can’t sleep because of an evening cup of coffee (or two), and that has a very specific feeling, which is different from my “normal” insomnia feeling.
Okay, so when I’m sick I switch to tea. Gotta maintain the caffeine, but I find coffee too dehydrating when my throat hurts. So Earl Grey with honey. I switched to tea about December 28 or so, and have been tea at home and coffee at work** since. Since I was out sick Friday it’s been just tea again.
Yesterday in the early evening I got a headache and felt very sleepy. Fell asleep from 7 to 9 pm after taking ibuprofen. It was a sudden, heavy sleep that surprised me. I attributed it to some kind of reaction to the ibu. Then I went back to bed and slept heavily. When I rolled over and woke a little around 6 am, I realized it was my first time awake all night. That’s when I realized that headache-plus-sleep equals caffeine withdrawal. Yesterday I had just one cup of tea in the morning, and one glass of Coke in the afternoon. Not. Enough.
So this says to me that the increasingly troubled sleep I’ve had over the past six months is caffeine-related, and the story I tell myself is a lie. So as of today, I’m down to three cups a day; one at home, one at work in the morning, one after lunch. That’s a sizeable decrease that should still avoid withdrawal symptoms. We’ll see how I sleep.
*Special reasons include: Have to drive late at night, have been at a party drinking and end the evening with coffee, or long-haul road trippin’.
**Tea at work doesn’t work out for me because of the honey. Bringing honey to work is messy. Drinking tea without honey sucks.
Monday Movie Review: The Cooler
The Cooler (2003) 9/10
Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) is a “cooler;” a guy who “cools off” a table in a casino when the gamblers are winning too much. According to casino manager Shelly (Alec Baldwin), Bernie is the biggest loser who ever was; “Kryptonite on a stick.” But when Bernie meets Natalie (Maria Bello) his luck starts to change, and Shelly isn’t too pleased.
I fell in love with The Cooler fairly early on, and when it started to fumble in the final reel, I stuck with it. This movie is so wonderful, so lyrical, that I kept forgiving odd moments, small cliches, and failures of logic.
The most extraordinary part of the film is certainly Macy’s performance. As Bernie, Macy makes being a loser a kind of poetry; Bernie is tender, sad, careful, angry, cynical, and hopeful, all in a delicate and graceful arc. Yeah, sure, Baldwin is the one with the big nomination, but for my money, this movie is all Macy’s.
When Bernie meets Natalie, at first she ignores him, and that’s fine with him. He’s a loser, what else can he expect? When she shows interest in him, he’s so surprised he tells her he can’t afford to pay for her; he assumes that’s the only reason anyone would want him. He’s well into making love to her before he’s sure that she really does want to be there.
The Cooler has a theory about luck and having an open heart; that being a loser is about how you feel and who you choose to be, and it’s all so lovely that you hesitate to notice that it’s also stupid. Because the movie shows you things that are stupid; if our basic goodness and joyfulness created good luck, well then, life would be much more predictable than it is. Yet the movie haunted me, its insane implausibility seemed incongruous, but I wanted to embrace it anyway, and then I realized…
The Cooler is a fairy tale.
Fisking the Anti-Witch
So, all groggy and using many tissues, I turn on my computer this morning and the first thing I see is When Your Mother Is a Witch.
DEAR MARGO: We are Catholic, but about eight years ago, my mother decided she was a Wiccan. I have tried very hard to accept it, but I cannot.
Margo Howard, daughter of the late Ann Landers, does a nice job, telling her to stop hiding the truth from her fiance, and to drop the devil worship bullshit. But the letter is irresistable, and while fisking is more common in political blogs than Pagan ones, I’m going for the gusto.
I find it humiliating for people to know because it’s embarrassing. She does, however, respect my need for it to be kept quiet.
She finds it humiliating because it’s embarrassing. Does she also find it cold because it’s chilly? Damp because it’s moist? Stupid because it’s dumbass? Just wondering.
Blog. James Blog.
I’m launching a separate blog for my James Bond writing: The Ultimate James Bond Blog. It seems reasonable to cross-post the Bond stuff in both places, but I think I have (or will develop) a fairly different readership for the two blogs.
So. Bookmarks at twenty paces.
My theory
I don’t understand why cough syrup comes in little bitty bottles with a measuring cup. Cough syrup should come in quarts with a sippy top, like spring water.
Who’s with me?
Bush’s Disorder
Here’s a fascinating analysis of Bush’s personality from a psychiatrist.
Even as a narcissist, Bush knows he isn’t a great intellect, and compensates by dismissing the value of intellect altogether. Hence his disses of Gore’s bookishness, and any other intellectual that isn’t kissing his ass. Bush knows that his greatest personal strength is projecting personal affability, and tries to utilize it even in the most inappropriate settings. That’s why he gives impromptu backrubs to the German Chancellor in a diploamtic meeting–he’s insecure intellectually, and tries to make everyone into a “buddy” so he can feel more secure.
As you’ve heard me say before, read the whole thing.
