For those of you wondering why I’m not writing more about the Michigan primary, coming up in five days, the NYT’s Nick Bunkley explains on the paper’s Caucus blog:
Because Michigan’s Jan. 15 primary violates Democratic National Committee rules, Senator Barack Obama and John Edwards withdrew from the state’s race, leaving Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as the party’s only major candidate on the ballot. (Mrs. Clinton has pledged not to campaign here.)
The alternative, for Edwards/Obama supporters, is to choose “uncommitted,” which sort of takes the oxygen out of a campaign: Vote for no one! I’m still undecided, but considering a GOP crossover to vote for McCain. He’s a grumpy old fart, but at least he thinks torture is bad.
Talk about setting the bar kinda low.
My local-local paper, tool of the management class that it is, goes all the way parochial and endorses local favorite Mitt Romney. Don’t think so. Mitch Harper once related a quote he attributed to LBJ former Ohio Gov. Jim Rhodes, who reportedly said Mitt’s dad, George, “couldn’t sell pussy on a troop ship.” The apple did not fall far from the tree.
About that endorsement — something about it smells canned to me. I googled random phrases with no luck, but I’m still thinking it was e-mailed whole from Fortress Mitt. It’s fluently written, for one thing, and reads like a campaign speech, heavy on bumper-sticker phrases and glibness: “In 2002, Romney was elected Republican governor of liberal Massachusetts. In just one term, he eliminated a $3 billion budget gap inherited when he took office by eliminating waste, streamlining government and offering economic reforms that stimulated economic growth in the state.”
See what I mean? Just a bit script-y.
A situation like Michigan’s, where the viable candidates are off campaigning in other states and a Yellow-Dog D like me is doing the primary crossover, leads to some strange moments. Dennis Kucinich made a big splash in Troy this week:
They treated him like a rock star, screaming in adoration and repeatedly giving him standing ovations when he said he would call for the removal of all troops from Iraq within three months of taking office, and advocated impeaching vice president Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush and charging them with crimes after they leave office.
Imagine what they’d have done if he called for a public execution. They’d have lifted the little guy up and carried him around the room. Or maybe all that yelling was for his wife.
Kos thinks Mitten State Dems should vote for Romney, but not because he streamlined government and raised five sons. A pretty basic argument:
Meanwhile, poor Mitt Romney, who’s suffered back-to-back losses in the last week, desperately needs to win Michigan in order to keep his campaign afloat. Bottom line, if Romney loses Michigan, he’s out. If he wins, he stays in.
And we want Romney in, because the more Republican candidates we have fighting it out, trashing each other with negative ads and spending tons of money, the better it is for us. We want Mitt to stay in the race, and to do that, we need him to win in Michigan.
In any event, crossing over and voting for candidates I don’t endorse is a very familiar experience for me. It’s just like living in Indiana.
So, with that, then, let’s get to the bloggage:
“The Bucket List” looked like a p.o.s. from the get-go, but it does give us the pleasure of reading Roger Ebert’s withering pan. Ebert knows a thing or two about how people with cancer really experience life:
I’ve never had chemo, as Edward and Carter must endure, but I have had cancer, and believe me, during convalescence after surgery the last item on your bucket list is climbing a Himalaya. Your list is more likely to be topped by keeping down a full meal, having a triumphant bowel movement, keeping your energy up in the afternoon, letting your loved ones know you love them, and convincing the doc your reports of pain are real and not merely disguising your desire to become a drug addict. To be sure, the movie includes plenty of details about discomfort in the toilet, but they’re put on hold once the trots are replaced by the globe-trotting.
I know you will be as astonished as I am to learn Jack Nicholson plays a crusty old fart, and Morgan Freeman a wise old man. What a way for Jack to end his career, with crap like this. He wasn’t even that great in “The Departed.” Maybe these guys should retire.
Our friend, neighbor and sometime commenter here, JohnC, makes it onto the Prairie Home Companion site with a short essay about loving and hating the Red Sox with his grandma. Among other things.
Thank you, Fark, for finding stuff like this:
BREMERTON — The 27-year-old Poulsbo woman told police officers she promised sexual favors to a man if he bought her alcohol early Wednesday morning. But after getting two bottles of inexpensive fortified wine, she used one to hit him in the forehead.
He had it coming, I’d say.
Friday! Friday! Friday! Have a good one.
Julie Robinson said on January 11, 2008 at 10:01 am
Roger Ebert is a national treasure. His writing elevates in his reviews of bad movies far above the movies themselves. He obviously relishes the challenge. I’m so sorry that he may never regain the voice to return to his TV show, but happy that he can still share his gift in print.
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merrill said on January 11, 2008 at 10:06 am
Longtime lurker (hate that word) and admirer here, Nancy. I googled bits of that Romney endorsement, and part of it sounds like this guy (check out the second comment):
http://coloradansforromney.blogspot.com/2007/01/colorados-bill-owens-supports-romney.html
“Instead, he brilliantly eliminated waste, streamlined government, and enacted comprehensive economic reforms that stimulated growth in Massachusetts.”
You’re right, they must be getting from Fortress Romney.
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brian stouder said on January 11, 2008 at 10:09 am
Wow. I knew there was a wrench in the works in the Michigan primary, but didn’t realize just how comprehensively fouled up the situation is.
Who to be upset with? Howard the Duck, for his characteristic petulance? (“The voters of Michigan want to cast their ballots in mid January? NO!! HELL NO!! In fact, they can all just GO to hell!”)
The Obama and Edwards campaigns, for pulling out of the Michigan campaign, thereby sealing the disenfranchisement of the voters of a major state – a state which has many crucial concerns that the unDemocratic party SAYS it cares about?
The Michigan legislature (was it them?) who succumbed to temptation, and (in the attempt to get an early primary date) screwed a large portion of their electorate right out of the presidential election of a lifetime?
Seriously – if people didn’t like the Electoral College in 2000 – how can we accept this fouled up, unrepresentative nominating system? (and Katy-bar-the-door if one or both of the conventions ends up brokered, and we get a nominee who didn’t win the most delegates in the primary state elections!)
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Peter said on January 11, 2008 at 11:16 am
Since I live in the People’s Republic of Illinois, I have no idea what a truly competitive primary would look like.
The good thing is that for the most part, I’m spared those ridiculous campaign ads.
That being said, there’s something to be said about staggering the primaries over a longer period of time, and even shuffling them around so states can take turns being important. This whole Super Tuesday thing only rewards the ones with a big campaign chest.
Anyway, Thank God for Fark. And The Smoking Gun. And TMZ, too for that matter. And Thank God for the Spears, and all the trailer trash who make this all possible.
Oh, and one last thing – Did anyone read Maureen Dowd’s column about Hillary? Sure, Dowd’s targets deserve her ridicule, but seriously, is she EVER happy?
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brian stouder said on January 11, 2008 at 11:23 am
Sure, Dowd’s targets deserve her ridicule, but seriously, is she EVER happy?
Possibly, but she’s ALWAYS dowdy! (didn’t she used to date some movie star-type fella?)
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nancy said on January 11, 2008 at 11:25 am
Excellent catch, Merrill. I should have broken down the phrasing more. I’m buying you a virtual drink. With virtual money. In our virtual bar. Called Nance’s.
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Sue said on January 11, 2008 at 11:29 am
Friday! Friday! Friday! AND, it’s my drinking weekend! (I allow myself one 750ml bottle of wine every other weekend – spread over Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night – so I know that I won’t turn into an alcoholic.)
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merrill said on January 11, 2008 at 11:49 am
Cool! I’ll buy the next virtual round!
I’m used to googling like that, since I feel compelled to keep my college students in line.
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Danny said on January 11, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I’ve always liked Maureen Dowd’s columns. She is hilarious. And her Clinton and Gore stuff was priceless. I think in the 2000 election cycle, she said Gore looked like a giant candle that was about to melt.
In any case, she is not only talented, but attractive and well-spoken. I’m surpirsed she hasn’t done more television work. Perhaps she realizes that the shelf-life of her own particular brand of ascerbicism would be quite short in a more visual format. Poison Pen is probably best kept to paper.
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ashley said on January 11, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Ebert is so right on. He talks about trying to convince the doc that you really are screaming because the pain is authentic, when, on the other hand, you have the ‘mook Glenn Beck getting Fentanyl and a morphine drip for getting his head excised from his ass.
And Beck is the one complaining about how horrid healthcare is. When I had my leg split open and my tibia chisled into pieces, a hole bored down the center of what was left, and a titanium rod inserted in there with 3 bolts, well, all I could do was beg for pain pills and I get lectured about how having a tylenol 3 could make me a junky.
I just really want to be alone in a room with Beck for 3 minutes.
Oh, and Morgan Freeman even does background narration in the movie. Except for the wardrobe, he *is* Red from Shawshank.
I like that the chick from Poulsbo got 2 bottles of Thunderbird. I would have hit him on the head for that, too. At least Cisco, bitch. Damn.
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ashley said on January 11, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Danny, I occasionally enjoy Dowd’s writing, and everybody knows my weakness for redheads, but are you serious about the television work? Have you seen her on Bill Maher’s show? She’s, well, less than telegenic, especially when she starts talking.
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Danny said on January 11, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Yeah, I know what your saying, Ash. I’ve only ever seen her on one panel at some university event and I noticed it a little there. But I still think she’s al’ight. And being enlightened and all that crap, like you all know me to be, I find her intelligence extremely attractive. That’s just how I roll.
And Jack Nicholson kinda fits into the same category as Al Pacino for me. They just don’t act anymore. They swear and try to chew of the scene with their mere presence. I thought The Departed was horrid and boring. Jack didn’t help matters. In fact, he was a big part of the reason I hated that movie.
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Jeff said on January 11, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Jack was still superb in “As Good As It Gets,” and the thing he was in with Diane Keaton wasn’t bad. The Lovely Wife and i counted it two hours not entirely wasted, and somewhat diverting.
For movies right now, that’s setting the bar pretty high (with “Serenity” clearing it, elevating, and slamming the dunk before gently descending to earth).
Oh, Danny, note from yestd’y; i still have no opinion, even about that which i have no opinion of. With Jack, my opinion is that he is doing a bit better than Sturgeon’s Law, so i . . . have no opinion!
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Danny said on January 11, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Jeff, are you referring to this “Serenity”? I agree. Great movie.
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Jeff said on January 11, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Is there any other? That’s the one, not to say The One.
Hope there’s another Firefly movie before too long; his Jossness keeps hinting . . .
Oh, and i’m really curious, and won’t mind strong counter-arguments: was it just me, or did anyone else think “As Good As It Gets” is a remarkable movie, with a whole bunch of great performances (and one of the all-time great HMO lines in movie history; saw it twice in theaters, and the ovation was nearly standing for the line, which you know if you’ve seen the movie).
Plus the only re-appearance of the closing song from “The Life of Brian,” in as unexpected and delightful a way as i could imagine.
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Dorothy said on January 11, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Mindy your package arrived today! I owe you a treat – I’m dreaming one up over the weekend and will mail it next week. Wait for a surprise!
Forgot to mention that we saw “No Country for Old Men” over Christmas week. Ooooooooh WHEEEE it was quite a movie! Hard to say that I “enjoyed” it but it was a remarkably crafted film. I’m gonna run in another direction the next time I see anyone with an air compressor for the rest of my life.
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Danny said on January 11, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Hmm. I saw someone hit a car in a parking lot at the movies on Christmas week and since I had gotten the license plate, I left a note with my phone number. The guy who got his car hit called just as we were finishing dinner, but before our movie started (Alien Versus Predator..it stunk, BTW).
Anyway, he and his family had just gotten out of No Country for Old Men and he said they hated it. Before that, I was thinking about seeing it. Then I decided it was a rental.
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James said on January 11, 2008 at 2:48 pm
You can’t be serious about McCain. He’s a weasel!
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Mitch Harper said on January 11, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Nancy –
The description of LBJ making that quote did not come from me.
While LBJ could be profane in private (and in public, too, although there were different standards then and many reporters did not write of LBJ’s scatalogical – and worse – references) the quote is more commonly ascribed to then-Governor James Rhodes of Ohio.
Governor Rhodes, I believe, was to have made the comment to a fellow governor while at a governor’s conference.
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alex said on January 11, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Lucky for you, Danny, that his insurance company isn’t calling you and accusing you of hitting his car. I was a good samaritan once and it took years to get the insurance company off my back. Was very sorry I stuck my nose in someone else’s problem. Will never do it again.
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Mitch Harper said on January 11, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Hmm… while trying to find that quote reference, I did come across this:
In The Making of the President 1968 Theodore White described the Michigan governor as “a missionary abandoned to the cannibals,” while recording for posterity Ohio Governor James Rhodes’s comment that Romney’s campaign was somewhat akin to “watching a duck try to make love to a football.”
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Danny said on January 11, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Actually, Alex, this one was a slam dunk. The truck that did the damage was red and left red paint all over the damaged car. We don’t own any red vehicles.
Incidentally, a cop called for a statement a few days later and I asked if they had had any luck catching the person responsible. Turns out that they had. I was somewhat surprised because the plates were from out of state (Texas).
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Kirk said on January 11, 2008 at 3:22 pm
But Jim Rhodes wouldn’t say “make love.”
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Dorothy said on January 11, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Alex something similar happened to me about a dozen years ago. I was in a J C Penney’s and saw two elderly women get on an escalator. Within a few seconds one of them was crying for help. I was right around the bend there, so I stepped onto the stairs to see one of the women lying down, head pointed towards my feet. The poor thing had fallen, and she was heading up the steps feet first! I got to her and lifted her head up so it wouldn’t get pinched in the stairs, and hollered for help much louder, but when the 3 of us got to the top, my feet buckled, and me and the old lady sort of slid onto the landing.
All kinds of commotion ensued, and the manager of the store came over, and when I started telling her what happened, she started acting like I was the one who knocked down the old lady!! Fortunately her friend straightened her out and confirmed my story. I would do it again, but people can be so nasty sometimes when all you’re trying to do is help! At least the old ladies were sweet to me and very thankful.
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nancy said on January 11, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Mitch, sorry for the misattribution. That does sound like LBJ, but Jim Rhodes was definitely a salty-tongue guy, too.
No way he would have said “make love,” true dat, however.
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Danny said on January 11, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I had a woman faint in my arms once in an elevator.
I know you’re probably thinking this happens all the time to Danny. Hehehe.
But seriously, it was lucky others were in the elevator at the time. Otherwise, it may have looked odd when the doors opened.
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Sue said on January 11, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Here’s another watch-out: If your toddler takes a toy or candy bar from a store and you find out about it later, DO NOT take them back to the store to talk to the manager and maybe teach your little one a life lesson. A relative of mine did that and had the store call the cops on her. The relative actually grabbed her daughter and ran out of the store. She told me and her husband and that’s it – to this day she’s both humiliated and enraged by it. Fortunately, her daughter doesn’t remember it and we never talk about it.
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Jeff said on January 11, 2008 at 5:19 pm
As a juvenile court employee, listen to Sue. Many stores now have a no-exceptions, across the board policy handed down from corporate — all theft is reported by the store manager, or lose your job.
The problem is that many of those same corps. don’t allow the store mgr. to participate in mediation/diversion, and since they won’t go to adjudication, it becomes a fairly empty process of paperwork and the consequence (not a small one, really) of losing your chance at diversion if it happens again, which is all the business is after.
But the store mgr in many cases has no options other than to make a police report, per company policy. Instead, take the Xbox away for a couple weeks . . . or sell their car ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/10/AR2008011003852.html?hpid=topnews — now there’s consequences and following through on threats!).
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MichaelG said on January 11, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Merrill — you weren’t a lurker, you were an observer.
I remember Roger Ebert from way back in college days. He was the editor of the “Daily Illini” and was two years or so ahead of me at Univ of Ill. I remember one night at somebody’s party the cops came. They were forever showing up at parties because of the noise and also because they were looking for underage drinkers. I happened to look around and saw Ebert’s not inconsiderable even then ass going out a window. Guess he didn’t want his name in the wrong part of the paper. He did a damn fine job at the DI and I’ve been a big fan of his ever since.
I find it interesting that people in Michigan and New Hampshire can evidently vote for whomever they please in a primary. In California we don’t have open primaries. You declare D or R or Ind and you get a D or R or Ind ballot so you can only vote for candidates in your declared party. Every now and again somebody brings up the idea of having open primaries, but both Dem and Rep party bigwigs get a case of the lama damas and start howling at the very idea. I can’t recall CA ever having any say in choosing a presidential candidate. They don’t campaign here other than to maybe run TV ad or two. They only show up in person on whirlwind visits to collect money at carefully planned and very restricted umpty dollar a head fund raisers. So Peter and Brian, don’t feel like the lone strangers. You guys aren’t any worse off than we are here in Calif.
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joodyb said on January 11, 2008 at 6:43 pm
what ashley said. mo’s handlers know better. otherwise she would be all over the video. she shouldn’t even be on the radio. a lot of people got to hear her on the book tour a few years ago and boy were they surprised.
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Kim said on January 11, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Aha! So MichaelG is an Illini, as am I. Ebert’s rapid departure from where all the fun was sounds typical.
What I like about Dowd, even when I don’t like what she’s written, is how she gets the details. I remember a profile she did of an NFL team owner’s wife, who ate her mustard-slathered hotdog in suede gloves — or something like that.
Even if you’re talking about Mitt, anytime you can get the phrase “brilliantly eliminated waste” in anything, you’re a winner with me.
Bassett? Your turn.
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Jen said on January 11, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I write a movie review every week for the newspaper where I work, and I can’t even express how much I admire Ebert. His reviews are consistantly informative, not to mention usually quite hilarious. I don’t always agree with his opinions, but he always backs them up. I hope that, with enough columns under my belt, my reviews will someday come close to being as great as his. I also admire the fact that he can watch that many movies and write such great reviews of all of them. That’s a lot of time sitting in a theater every week.
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michaelj said on January 11, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Jack was in the best movie anybody ever made, and the portrayal of Jake Gittes is just as good as at it gets in movies, and that would be Chinatown. The point of movies is is to fool you. Maybe rosebud fooled you. Maybe the story of Ilse and Rick fooled you. Maybe those photos in Blowup fooled you. If you say Jake Gittes and Mrs. Mulray didn’t fool you, you didn’t ever like movies in the first place.
If you say that’s not true, I’d say you’re lying, or you don’t know what you’re talking about. There is no way there’s a better movie.
Aside from Bladerunner. Best movie ever made.
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nancy said on January 11, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Such a coincidence. I’m watching “Chinatown” right now. And I agree.
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brian stouder said on January 11, 2008 at 9:13 pm
the best movie anybody ever made
Well, if we exclude The Wizard of Oz (just to make it fair) –
Breaker Morant
The Party
Father Goose
A Bridge Too Far
Unforgiven
North by Northwest
Run Lola Run
And a movie that MichaelJ should like – (and which I loved) is Mulholland Drive
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Mouse said on January 11, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Good list Brian—-maybe add The Last Picture Show just to see the great Ben Johnson one last time.
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Jeff said on January 11, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Went to a talk with my wife about park naturalist interpretation, an event for interpreters and docents and trail guides, and the speaker starting making references to the best-known basis for getting the general public thinking about their connection to nature and ecology and economics. Wish i could remember his name — at first he had us thinking he meant Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” then you coulda sworn he was alluding to John Muir and Ansel Adams, then a little Paul Ehrlich or Carl Sagan, or maybe E.O. Wilson . . . then he asked us what we thought he was referring to?
His “text,” of course, was the movie “Chinatown.”
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michaelj said on January 12, 2008 at 12:05 am
Oh, god. Breaker Morant broke my heart. But in that vein, there are Paths of Glory and Gallipoli. One with the most gorgeous song. The other so morally frightening it should have put an end to chickenhawks waging war with other people’s lives.
And this brings up Edward Woodward, the poor man’s Michael Caine? Yeah, but he was “The Equalizer”. I love shows too smart to survive. Especially if the so-called high concept is involved. What ever happened to Miss Parker and Jared? Sex and the City? Under inducement. And bored to tears. Pure vengeance with a superbly deserving targeted villain?. Brilliant TV.
Especially when the hero is in love with the seeming villain. I’m thinking about Fraser and the woman he brought back from the wilds of the Northeast Territory, with words and music by Sarah MacLachlan. And a deaf wolf named Diefenbaker.
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basset said on January 12, 2008 at 10:41 am
>>Bassett? Your turn.
Mitt? Dog on top of the car, that’s all I need to know. His dad was pretty much responsible for AMC’s commitment to small cars, though. Small for the time, anyway.
Maureen Dowd? Never seen her in person or on tv, based on the still picture I’d hit dat.
Movie? “Hard Day’s Night.”
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michaelj said on January 12, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Julie Robertson,
I’m not sure about a national treasure. I think Roger Ebert writes very well while never showing an iota of effort, and if he likes a movie, I know I’ll like it.
One of my brothers thinks that music critics should say ‘If you like Kiss, you’ll like this’, and leave it at that. I fet his point which seems to be a variation of ‘Those that can’t’. Bit I think artistic expression precludes that view.
Carlos Santana says everything is everything. No it isn’t. Some of it’s dross. Like teaming up with Rob Thomas.
We’re listening to Arthur. Now I’d say that’s as good as anybody’s offered since the British Invasion (including Seargent Pepper and Satanic Majesties. It’s particularly informative since the PNACenturions have acted it out for real on the world stage.
On the other hand, Dave Davies’ guitar estravaganza at the second half of Australia would mean if you’re a deadhead, you’ll this album. Critical writing is just writing. It’s either good or it isn’t. By nature, it’s sort of second-hand. Somebody that couldn’t imagine something questioning somebody else’s powers of imparting imagination.
About Arthur. If you’ve never heard this, you should. But that’s just my opinion, casting a cold eye on nancynall.com.
Oh, and Julie, Roger Ebert wrote the funnest worst movie of all time, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
‘You’ve been a man all along, and a Godammed ugly one.’ And Roger Ebert proved he could write a script and bring Tab Hunter out of the closet.
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michaelj said on January 12, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Bassett. The choice is between Maureen Dowd and Anne Coulter. I’d take the one with a brain and no racial animus.
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michaelj said on January 12, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Actually, modern readers consider the architect McCauley a great writer. Mainly, he critisized the work of his friend Thomas Carlyle. We hold our friends close. We hold our enemies closer.
Other than that, Carlyle wrote drivel and just about nothing else. And in an ague of envy, he burned Carlyle’s manuscript for The French Revolution, claimed it was an accident, and stewed when Carlyle reproduced it verbatim.
The French Revolution, it’s brilliant.
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Peter said on January 12, 2008 at 7:06 pm
michaelj, i’d check that last post; methinks there’s some wrong attribuiton there.
Maureen Dowd vs. Ann Coulter? I think the only way Ann could score points is if she would dress up like a Nazi Commandant.
Wait a second – what am I thinking? When DOESN’T she dress up as a Nazi?
Hey – speaking of Nazi’s – here’s a shout out for a favorite film – The Third Man. Although I would give lots of props to Paths of Glory as well. And a notch below those good ones – Bob Le Flambeur.
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michaelj said on January 12, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I don’t think so. One’s got great legs, the other’s anorexic. Bob le Flambeur isn’t as good as Pepe le Moke, much les Chinatown.
And what wrong attribution? I know. McCuauley burnt Carlyle’s papers. As we say, my bad. No attribution. I know the difference whether or not anybody else does. It’s the glory of these internets to be nearly right and to be right almost simultaneously.
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Cosmo Panzini said on January 12, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Does anyone remember when George Romney blew his bid for president in 1968? He said something to the effect that the Army “sure had brainwashed” him while showing him around the various posts in Viet Nam. This caused general guffawing and derision when reported at the time. Jim Rhodes’ remark about pussy,etc, seems to have been pretty much on the dot. Now along comes Mitt (is his real name something else? Hard to imagine people naming children that), who seems a somewhat smoother version of W, in that he can actually form sentences and speak the English language, displaying the same grasp of un-reality as our current president. Hell, if he’s on the ticket when the primary dog and pony show comes here to Ohio, I’m crossing over and going for him. He gets nominated, history will fersure repeat, and ol’ Mitt will step right on his own dick, just like Dad. Likely more than once. The papers will have to invent a new word to replace landslide. Maybe burial. OTS-Best films in no particular order–Chinatown , Apocalypse Now , The Third Man, Out of The Past , Bringing Up Baby , Sullivan’s Travels , A Man For All Seasons , Topper.
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basset said on January 13, 2008 at 4:01 am
>>The choice is between Maureen Dowd and Anne Coulter.
that’s no choice at all… even if you don’t have to talk to ’em.
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Danny said on January 13, 2008 at 9:46 am
Speaking of good movies, I really have to put a vote in for “To Have and Have Not.” I like it better than Casablanca.
Last week I was watching the original Pink Panther and was (re)introduced to a beautiful actress by the name of Capucine. I had forgotten about her or not really been paying attention when I was a child. How lovely she was.
Turns out she was good friends with Audrey Hepburn. One of my coffee-mates brought up Audrey and wondered if she was related to Katherine. I told him no, but I could see how one could imagine she was Audrey’s skanky cousin.
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john c said on January 13, 2008 at 10:27 am
I’d put One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next just above Chinatown, both for the movie and Jack. Both great, though. Also, I thought About Schmidt was a nice performance by him, in the midst of his recent phone-ins.
As for Ebert … great critic and great guy. We were technically colleagues at the Sun-Times, though I only met him once or twice. One thing I always appreciated was that, whenever we’d get into spats with management and start thinking about going on strike, he’d always show up and conveniently give an interview to one of the TV crews outside saying that of course he was one of us and would honor a strike. No idea how the bigwigs felt about that but it had to help, seeing as how he was a franchise.
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Danny said on January 13, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Yeah, Chargers!!!
Mmm-hmm. Love it. Next up… Patriots.
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LA Mary said on January 13, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I keep thinking of the brainwashed comment when I hear Romney speak. I thought it was one of the few truly honest things a presidential candidate has ever said, but it sank his campaign.
MichaelG, you can vote in the Democratic or American Independent primary if are non-partisan. The Republicans don’t want your stinking free thinking vote though.
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ashley said on January 13, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Coulter? Yecchhh. Vincent Schiavelli in a wig.
I like Dowd, I really do, but there’s a reason that an attractive, intelligent, well spoken redhead doesn’t have a TV show.
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basset said on January 13, 2008 at 7:39 pm
two words… target demographic.
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Jeff said on January 13, 2008 at 8:33 pm
If you liked “The Third Man,” try Carol Reed’s previous movie, “The Fallen Idol,” also with Graham Greene involved in the writing. Criterion has an edition out.
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Jolene said on January 13, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Mitt Romney’s real first name is Willard. Mitt is his middle name. Neither one seems like a nice thing to do to a child, although I guess Willard might not have seemed as uncool sixty-some years ago as it does now. Mitt just seems weird, both then and now.
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brian stouder said on January 13, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Mitt just seems weird, both then and now.
Maybe it is a reference to being a Michigander (in which case, if he was from Louisiana, his name might be Dick)
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ashley said on January 13, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I thought it was Mitthew, which is just odd.
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Danny said on January 13, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Brian, I think Florida would be the Dick one. Look at a map and see if you agree.
If he was from Colorado or Wyoming, I’m guessing something like Box. Box Romney. I think we’re on to something here.
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John said on January 14, 2008 at 8:02 am
I love all aforementioned movies, but how about a shout-out for some independent projects from the 70s? I watched “Super Fly” yesterday morning and had a great time.
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brian stouder said on January 14, 2008 at 8:16 am
Danny – I see your point, but I think if Romney was from Florida his name might be Ud (short for udder) or Fore (short for foreleg)
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MichaelG said on January 14, 2008 at 9:15 am
I didn’t know that, Mary. I never registered Indy and one reason was that I just assumed that I would not get any say in a primary. I never checked. Mitthew. Not bad, Ashley.
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joodyb said on January 14, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Mitthew! HA!
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michaelj said on January 18, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Brilliant movies? Chinatown and Blade Runner, and everything else. I’m willing to listen, but once there’s been Shock and Awe, and that many people die, you can say what you like but slaughteringl innocents is acceptable. Officially.
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