A flurry of movie reviews for your procrastinating pleasure...

I've managed to watch a flurry of movies over the past few weeks given my monk-like existence living by myself, and I've gotten quite behind in throwing my Cheetos of endorsement to some mighty good flicks this season.

First up, No Country For Old Men. This may be the best movie of 2007. This film seems a bit less quirky than most of Joel and Ethan Coen's earlier works, but still holds up to the fine quality of moviemaking we're all accustomed to from them. Based on a book by Cormac McCarthy (whose prose doesn't easily lend itself to movie adaptations), No Country For Old Men follows Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a nobody guy hunting on the plains of west Texas who stumbles upon a Mexican drug deal gone bad and ends up with a briefcase full of cash. Hot on his trail is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a hired bounty hunter who seems to embody the devil himself, seemingly having no one to answer to except fate itself. Throw in a gang of Mexican drug dealers trying to recover their money, and a Tommy Lee Jones as the local sheriff trying to keep Moss out of trouble, and the entire mess becomes a bloodbath where you're not really sure what's lurking around the corner.

If for nothing else, this movie is worth watching strictly for Javier Bardem. This may be one of the scariest villains on film in quite some time, ranking up there with Jack Nicholson in The Shining or Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. You may never feel comfortable around a tank of compressed gas again. And if Bardem doesn't get an Oscar for his performance, I can truly say he got robbed. The Coen Brothers manage to use only lighting, camera angles, and some strategic moments of sustained silence that will keep you on edge for the entire movie--all of this with nary a soundtrack to use as a crutch.

What's the central theme of this film? I'm not quite sure, other than an exploration of evil, and the influences of fate that seemingly have no bearing on whether we are good people or bad. There are forces of nature that exist that we can't control which will kill you or allow you to live with seemingly no reason at all other than the a flip of a coin. Like Cormac McCarthy's books, it takes some time to really digest the deeper meaning of it all, and I haven't yet had the time to figure it all out. Still, if you want a movie to chew around for awhile, this one is it.

*******

Next up--Beowulf. Beowulf was one of those epic poems I actually enjoyed reading back in high school. Telling the tale of an ancient hero slaying monsters and dragons, I'm surprised it hasn't got the high-dollar Hollywood treatment before. I was actually a bit hesitant to see this, though, given the use of that motion capture animation Robert Zemeckis has grown so fond of. I guess it's sort of cool to be able to manipulate actors at will using this technology. How else to get Anthony Hopkins to cavort around in nothing but a sheet in a beer hall, give Ray Winstone six-pack abs, and get Angelina Jolie to show full frontal nudity? Still, just a brief glimpse in those animated eyes gives you a soulless body staring back at you, which is kind of freaky.

The action, though, is top notch, and you don't need much in the way of soulful eyes to ramp up those types of scenes. The kinetic scenes alone probably saves me from giving this a "Stale" rating on the Kool-Aid Gang Cheetos scale. Given the freedom of computer animation, the laws of physics can be thrown out the window to provide the means to have epic-sized battles between mere men and dragons that will get your heart rate pumping along. And because it's all in 3-D, I managed to give it a pass on those animated zombie eyes, and stepped up it's rating just a bit. But watch this movie without the those special glasses, and I'll call this movie kind of "Bland."

*******

Finally, to round out my backlog of good films to review--Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. There's nothing spectacular about this movie about a simple jewelry heist that goes terribly wrong, but it's a good drama nonetheless. The beginning scene, watching Philip Seymour Hoffman's naked white chubby ass having doggy-style sex with a very naked and beautiful Marisa Tomei kind of puts you in an awkward situation, not knowing whether you're enjoying what you're watching or not. It's seems wholly out of place, a pairing that seems to be totally mismatched, and almost seems to be foreshadowing the whole clusterfuck that's about to happen.

Everyone in this cast has "Academy Award Winner" or "Academy Award Nominee" attached to his or her resume, so it goes without saying that the performances are great. Nothing that will get more Oscar credentials for them with the next Academy Awards, but good nonetheless. This is one of those movies that probably would play just as well in the comfort of your home on DVD as it did on the big screen.

Two Penguins

So there are two penguins heading towards each other on a one penguin bridge. When they meet in the middle one penguin asks the other to turn around and go back. That penguin responds by saying,

"What do you think I am a radio?"

Bwahahahahahah

Maybe I should try and buy some land on the moon now...

Wired Magazine has a short essay about the current battle for Arctic ownership that I've been somewhat obsessed with lately, and it's implications for future territorial disputes on the moon. Little did I know how much those Canucks were trying to flex their muscles up north:

In 2005, the Canadian military launched Exercise Frozen Beaver. Eleven soldiers flew in helicopters to Hans Island, a hunk of rock off the coast of Greenland that's long been claimed by both Denmark and Canada. When they landed on the half-square-mile outcropping, the troops planted a Canadian flag, ripping down the Danish colors that had been flying there since 1984. Once they got home they mailed the confiscated flag to the Danish ambassador in Ottawa.

Of course, they would pick on some puny country like Denmark. Sheesh! But as other countries besides the United States and Russia embark on journeys to the moon, similar skirmishes may begin to occur in the space above us. Even wars in space may not be science fiction either soon:

But what has gone unnoticed amid the international clamor is that the Arctic battle has implications that reach far beyond the top of Earth. The squabbling will be a prelude to — and even set the tone for — eventual sovereignty claims on the moon. At the same time that it was making Arctic claims, Russia announced plans for manned lunar missions by 2025 and a permanent base there by 2032. Japan might beat them to the punch with a 2030 base. Both will be able to stop over and share a glass of Tang with US astronauts, who are supposed to start setting up shop in 2020. China also has lunar aspirations, though officials will say only that they plan to get to the moon sometime after 2020.

Actually, I don't know what all the hub-bub is all about. The U.S. already planted the American flag on it's lunar mission back in the 60's. As far as I'm concerned, that entire orbiting rock is ours. Bwahahahahahahaha!!

Who watches the Watchmen?

If I were to write a script for a spy movie, I'd probably make up some diabolical scheme for world domination headed up by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google. They probably could already figure out what our deepest, darkest vices and fears are just skimming through the multiple Google searches performed in our lives probably linked to identifying IP addresses somehow, and the secrets hidden in the myriad number of messages stored on their Gmail servers. And now, they've figured out a clever way to keep track of your very whereabouts using their Google Maps service. Starting today, Google Maps with My Location can actually locate what cell tower your phone is hooked up to and approximate what your current location is. I wonder how many times this has been used by the CIA for a surgical assassination strike. Hmmm...perhaps I should turn off my cell phone now before the guys from Mountain View send in their own Predator drone in to kill me for exposing their nefarious plans.

And now that I've got that conspiracy theory out of my head, I'll just say that Google is very cool. Perhaps the most frustrating part of using my Blackberry to map directions for me was that I could never quite figure out where I was in the first place.

I am completely geeking out about this.

Check this out. Science fiction just became science fact.

What is the Kool-Aid Gang to do when Chuck Norris speaks?

Forget Oprah and her endorsement of Obama. The guy you really want on your side is Chuck Norris!

Hey Wait... that's not how you're supposed to cook a turkey?

Alternative title: How I plan to injure myself, my lawn, my house, and my neighbors this weekend.

Earlier this year after bringing home some Maine lobsters from one of my work trips, I realized that I didn't have a pot big enough to boil them in. No problem... I got a turkey fryer to cook those delicious suckers. Now, Thanksgiving has rolled around and I am excited to attempt a turkey fry.

Hot, hot oil. Check.
12 lb ball of meat. Check.
Couple of beers. Check.

Emergency room, distinct possibility. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

Even cheetahs need a little walk-a-bout sometimes...

I don't know why everyone's so baffled by how this cheetah got out. Us cats are not only dangerously cheesy cool, we're also super intelligent. Like mere cages can hold us in when we're in search of a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos:

Cheetah cub escapes briefly from zoo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11/20/2007

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Zoo officials are trying to determine how a cheetah cub got out of its exhibit for a short time.

The cub escaped around 10:45 a.m. Monday on a day when the popular zoo in Forest Park was crowded, in part because of the unseasonably warm weather. The cub was found a short time later, about 30 feet from the exhibit. It was unharmed.

A zoo worker tranquilized the cub.

While the cub was out, zoo visitors were told to go into buildings, but the zoo was not evacuated.

I guess this is one way to get people to slow down...

I guess this guy got so fed up with speeders in front of his house, he made his own speed bump.  Why do Germans always sound so intense?

The most awesome rendition of the Star Wars theme ever...

Oh, words cannot describe what I thought of this lady's version of Star Wars:

If you see something strange, going on in your neighborhood...

Who ya gonna call?  Terrorist Busters!  

Just sing the title of this post to that old theme song from Ghostbusters, then insert a trio of idiots in jumpsuits with this logo on their chests:


I imagine Osama bin Laden is sitting in some cave somewhere and has milk all over his beard because he was laughing so hard. Yes, this really is an official logo from the CIA counter-terrorist unit.  

Spidermen of the world unite...

I'm not exactly sure what I just watched:



And on a somewhat related note, Spiderman was seen rescuing babies in Brazil:

A five-year-old boy dressed as Spider-Man became a real life hero when he saved a baby girl from a burning house in Brazil.

Pint-sized superhero Riquelme Maciel stepped into the house to pull the one-year-old to safety after he saw her mother crying. The boy had been playing with a friend in his back yard when they spotted smoke coming from the window of a wooden house. Using his Spidey senses he ran to tell the baby's mother Lucilene dos Santos, but she was too afraid to enter the blazing house.

Without hesitating, the tiny masked crusader decided he would brave the flames to save baby Andrieli from her cradle. Mrs Santos told reporters: "He said, 'don't cry, don't scream because I'm going to save Andrielle'.

"Then I began shouting for him not to go because I was scared he would die in the fire."

But Riquelme did not think twice. After the rescue the Spider-Boy simply said: "I decided to go inside the house and save her."

There's a reason why we were called band geeks...

I guess I read the newspaper online, so why not comic books?

I saw this on Pop Candy and figured it was cool enough to mention again on this blog.

Marvel Comics is putting up 2,500 back issues of their comic books online. Now, instead of having to worry about putting creases, fingerprints, and undo ultraviolet light exposure on your near-mint condition copy of The Incredible Hulk #180 featuring the first appearance of Wolverine (which I, of course, don't own), you can find it online and read it to your heart's content. You can read through the entire Phoenix saga in The Uncanny X-Men without having to buy a trade paperback or pilfer through the dusty back issue bins at your local comic store while some creepy smelly guy in a black trench coat stares at you with condescending eyes.

I have long since ditched my fanboy misconceptions that comic book collecting is a great investment vehicle that will someday make me rich, but I still enjoy reading comics for the stories and the artwork. Considering I used to spend a lot more than $9.99/month, getting an online subscription almost seems worth it so I don't have to hassle with the problems of storing a bunch of books in space I don't have. Too bad the majority of what I read these days is from DC and other publishers. X-Men hasn't been all that great in a few years.

Anywho, head over to Marvel Digital Comics, and give it a try. They've got 250 issues you can view for free, and the the "Smart Panel" feature actually makes reading a comic book online not so bad.

Not Sure I would want to wrap it in a bun and eat it now ...

HT: michiganzone.blogspot.com

Super Mario Bros. - The greatest video game ever?

Apparently, the existence of Super Mario Bros. 2 is the stuff of legend. After the success of Nintendo's break out game for the NES gaming console, the designer of Super Mario Bros., Shigeru Miyamoto, came up with a sequel much harder than the first. His sequel, however, either looked too much like the original game or was too difficult, and an alternate sequel game was eventually released for the American market instead. The American version is generally forgotten, but the legend of the real sequel game lived on.

Recently, this mythic version was released for play in the United States on the Nintendo Wii 20 years after the original game was released. Entitled Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, it almost seems to solidfy Miyamoto's stature as a true artist based on this review by Slate:

In most games, you trust that the designer is guiding you, through the usual signposts and landmarks, in the direction that you ought to go. In the Real Super Mario Bros. 2, you have no such faith. Here, Miyamoto is not God but the devil. Maybe he really was depressed while making it—I kept wanting to ask him, Why have you forsaken me? The online reviewer who sizes up the game as "a giant puzzle and practical joke" isn't far off.

That sadistic torment, however, is central to the game's appeal. Unlike most game designers, who make sequels that are identical to their predecessors, only with better graphics, Miyamoto used the Real Super Mario Bros. 2 to do something new and dangerous, turning his original and beloved game on its head. Once you accept that mushrooms and warp zones can be punishments rather than rewards, you start to question the nature of the game and to ponder strategic gambits you would never have considered while playing the original Super Mario Bros. Upon discovering the Warp Zone to World 1, I contemplated letting the clock on Level 3-1 expire—a tactic that would have caused Mario to lose a life but would have allowed him to stay on the third level.

Perhaps there is some reason to all of that Japanese quirkiness after all.

I now submit Exhibit B as evidence that I truly am back in Texas...

"Yeah. I said to him, 'I want to take you out for chicken-fried steak.' But he didn't know what a chicken-fried steak was. And I went. 'Kid, you know about hookers, but you don't know about chicken-fried steak?' That relaxed him and put him on a higher plane. He was going to become somebody else, you know. He was going to be made a man that night." - Bill Murray, commenting about the first time he worked with then newcomer Jason Schwartzman on the set of Rushmore

Nothing truly quite says Texas cuisine more so than a chicken fried steak. It's a man's man kind of meal. A cheap cut of meat, with some seasoned flour, fried up in a skillet of hot oil, smothered in a peppered milk gravy--it seems so simple, but tastes so good. Yet outside of the great state of Texas, the chicken fried steak seems almost as rare as finding water in the desert. During my time in Missouri, I searched far and wide for any acceptable version. Up there (and in just about any other place outside of Texas), they call it "country" fried steak. Blasphemy. About the only edible version I could stomach was from a chain restaurant coincidentally named Texas Roadhouse (although even more interestingly, the original restaurant was started in Indiana, of all places).

It was torture for the past few years not having a reliable supplier of my favorite comfort food. Of course, I'm back in Texas now, where you can't walk ten feet without running into a place with a decent chicken fried steak. So I went through a major chicken fried steak binge this weekend to make up for all those lost nights that I yearned for one for dinner, with the last place I went to today pictured above. Along with the staple sides of green beans, mashed potatoes, and rolls, it's a match made in heaven. About all I needed to make this perfect was a chicken fried corn on the cob. Yeah, I'm flirting with major arteriosclerosis, but you only live once, right? And how can you possibly go wrong getting all of this at a place called Bubba's?

Yup, it's good to be back in Texas.

Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta...

I was trying to remember a movie Denzel Washington starred in that I didn't like. Considering his resume, that's kind of a hard task. Same goes for Russell Crowe. Both are well known to be two of the more consistently good actors in the business. So it came as a surprise when the film that I disliked for each of them happened to be the one they both starred in--Virtuosity. A lot changes in 12 years, though, and mediocre films like that tend to get buried when you cover it up with a pile of quality movies like these two guys have. Would a reprisal of this team-up yield the same results? With Ridley Scott directing them, of course not. Still, it wasn't as great as I thought it could be.

American Gangster tells the story of Frank Lucas, a driver and right-hand man to a powerful crime boss in Harlem. When his boss suddenly dies, Lucas finds an opportunity to make a name for himself by using good ol' American entrepreneurship to sell a quality product at a competitive price by cutting out the middle man. With discipline and smarts, he finds himself at the top of the New York heroin trade while cleverly alluding the law. Meanwhile, Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), a by-the-book New Jersey police detective, is put in charge of a task force to bring down the drug trade which eventually puts him in an intersecting path to Lucas.

It's no surprise that Washington and Crowe give strong acting performances. At this point, I wouldn't be shocked if this was just second nature to them. Ridley Scott puts together a solid film, visually on par with any of his great work, and engrossing from start to finish. Unfortunately, all of that put together was just good. Going into the theater, I was expecting something on the scale of The Godfather. Instead, this was just an entertaining movie that I'll probably forget by next year. The problem, perhaps, was trying to make this a great film. Movies that focus on both sides of the law tend to show the similarities that both good and evil men inherently share. We're all capable of good deeds and terrible deeds, but it's the choices we make in life that define who we are. In the case of Lucas, his evil is depicted in his ruthless actions to prove himself to other mobsters trying to move in on his territory, going so far as to shoot a crime lord in the head in broad daylight on a crowded Harlem sidewalk. The inherent badness of his profession and the endless lives that the drug trade is destroying almost seems to be lost on him as he enjoys the spoils of his riches. At the same time, he remembers to take care of his mother and family, and tries to help out some of the poor in his neighborhood. Richie Roberts, too, has his duality. Rather than keeping a stash of unmarked cash for himself that no one will notice is gone, he turns it in at the scorn of the rest of the police division. However, his home life is a wreck with his womanizing ways and the neglect of his son.

Michael Mann's Heat was perhaps one of the better films to capture this and move a film into a true climactic satisfying clash between it's two leads, Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. A lot was said about these two greats finally meeting up in the same scene together for the first time in both of their illustrious careers. The buildup to the sit-down between them in a generic coffee shop and their eventual showdown along the runways of LAX seemed to truly capture two men on opposite sides of the law that were really the same in many ways. The Earth didn't shake and lightning didn't strike when Pacino and DeNiro were finally on-screen together, but it was a truly memorable moment in its own way. I think American Gangster was trying to achieve the same thing, but the final intersection between Washington and Crowe was completely anticlimactic, and almost made me wish they had scrapped most of the Richie Roberts story, even despite Crowe's great acting work. The real meat of this film is the rise and fall of Frank Lucas, and Scott should have focused on that 100%.

Still, I enjoyed watching this movie. It just had the potential to be so much more, I think. Don't expect it to garner too many nominations come awards season.

Love will tear us apart...

I'm only a casual New Order fan, and truth be told, I haven't listened to all that much of their earlier work as Joy Division. So I was more than surprised to have enjoyed Control as much as I did, a tragic biopic film of the late Ian Curtis.

As the lead singer of a band emerging from the Manchester music scene that followed the influences of David Bowie, Lou Reed, and The Sex Pistols, life for Ian Curtis seemed to be coming together. But internally, he felt his life was falling apart. Trapped in a life married to a woman he cared for but didn't passionately love, Curtis struggled with his desires to pursue true love in the form of a beautiful Belgian journalist while still trying to figure out how not to hurt his own wife and child in the process. His struggles epilepsy and the pressures of fame attached to the rising success of his band Joy Division only add to his troubles, leading to the eventual tragic end when he hangs himself in his kitchen only a day before his band was to embark on their first American tour.

This is the debut film for Anton Corbijn, previously known for his music videos and photography work. Pull out the album cover for U2's The Joshua Tree, and you'll know what imagery he can capture on film. It is said that the gritty industrial surroundings of Manchester, UK were essential to the musical underpinnings that born bands such as Joy Division, Buzz Cocks, and The Smiths as well as their contemporaries Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses. Perhaps to capture this bleak environment Curtis' grew up and lived in, Control is shot in black and white. The cinematography that results is moody and spectacular, adding a whole new dimension to the depression and conflicts Curtis was trapped in. This is expected from a director whose background is in photography. However, Corbijn's treatment with the camera is additive to the overall product, and never overwhelms or distracts from the story. Sam Riley, playing the title role, is good in his role, although I'm not quite sure how much he truly embodies Ian Curtis given my lack of knowledge about the late singer. Samantha Morton, as his wife Deborah, probably gives the strongest performance, though, and you feel all sorts of sympathy for the situation she's left with. The formation of Joy Division plays a minor background part to the movie, and you almost want to learn a bit more about the other members of the band Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris.

Ian Curtis seems to have an almost cult following by fans of the post-punk Manchester music scene that may rival those for Jim Morrison or Kurt Cobain. The interesting approach Corbijn takes to Curtis in this film, though, is not to idolize his life and add to the mythology, but instead to paint a grim picture of a man with tangible struggles that we might all perhaps relate. It probably goes without saying that Wander and any other Joy Division/New Order fanatic would have loved this movie, and earned the highest rating possible on this blog. I'm not sure I'm ready to call it "Dangerously Cheesy," but it's pretty close in my book.

Any M.C. Escher fans out there?

I stumbled across these videos for the same song, "Golden Cage" by The Whitest Boy Alive. Both are pretty cool, and the music isn't half bad either:

Daaaaaaaamn, Jamaal...

(Photo: AP/Eric Gay)

If I ever said bad things about Jamaal Charles, I may take them back (or I'll have to thank the trainer on the sideline putting Super Glue on his gloves). 290 yards against Nebraska, 180 against OSU--quite impressive. Then the 174 yards he ran up on Tech yesterday. Not exactly defensive powerhouses, but still, only one minor flub with the ball this weekend helping to a 59-43 win over the Red Raiders and their cry-baby coach.

And what's up with Colt McCoy? If I looked at the stats alone for the last three games, I'd guess Vince Young was back playing for the Horns with all the rushing yards he's accumulating (55, 106, and 51 yards over the past three games).

This is one wacky season. The only unbeatens are Kansas and Hawaii? Notre Dame has only had one win all year? I'm almost tempted to predict Air Force will be the break out team next season.

Maybe I should just convert my money into gold bullions...

Rappers tend to know what the finer things in life are based on the bling they flash in their videos. So it seems to be a sign of the times and a clear signal that the United States may be losing its "top dog" status in the world when even Jay-Z is forgoing the American dollar and using Euros instead as his money of choice in his latest rap video "Blue Magic":

I guy once told me, if you're going to do something bold, remember to wear your brown pants...

You can probably just skip to the middle of the video:


Always Dump Before You Jump - Watch more free videos

Why I had to Chuck Norris kick the Kool-Aid Man out cold...

Boys becoming men, men becoming wolves...

A clip of this song was on 30 Rock a few weeks ago. If you're still not watching this show, you should be. Don't bother watching the visuals. Just listen. Kind of late, but still funny enough for me to post:

A few extra calories never hurt anyone, and maybe it will give you an extra year or two on your life...

Sometime in the past couple of years or so, my Body Mass Index (BMI) edged into the obese range, prompting me to get in the pool and back in the gym over the summer. I had grand plans to somehow get myself back to my svelte college BMI that was in the normal range, but alas, I think age, the accompanying decreases in metabolism getting older brings, and my lack of inhibition when it comes to fatty food, is preventing me from getting there. A new study that will be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, however, may make me feel a bit more satisfied about my overweight frame. From The New York Times:

Linking, for the first time, causes of death to specific weights, they report that overweight people have a lower death rate because they are much less likely to die from a grab bag of diseases that includes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, infections and lung disease. And that lower risk is not counteracted by increased risks of dying from any other disease, including cancer, diabetes or heart disease.

As a consequence, the group from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute reports, there were more than 100,000 fewer deaths among the overweight in 2004, the most recent year for which data were available, than would have expected if those people had been of normal weight.

Now there's probably more to this study than meets the eye, and I don't think the purpose of this report is to give us all carte blanche to get crazy with cupcakes. Still, I kind of like having a reason to not feel so guilty about that extra slice of pizza I eat every so often.

You don't know where that lime has been...

I know Wander is a big fan of kicking back with a bottle of Corona with lime. I can't say I actually know where the addition of lime got started in the history of Corona Extra consumption, but I guess it does add that little bit of flavor that makes Mexican beers in general pretty darn good.

I never put any thought to the cleanliness of that citrus garnish to my beer, and it looks like no one in New York City did either, until now. The New York Times has a entertaining story about a local saloon that got dinged for a bartender barehandedly inserting a lime into a bottle of Corona. Instead, they suggested servers wear rubber gloves, use tongs, or serve up the slice of lime on a plate and leave the patron to put it in himself. Seems a bit over the top and silly to me. If you're drinking Corona, are you really the type of guy that's going to be that much of a germ-a-phobe? I guess others in NYC agree:

His friend Tom Carney, 67, who retired last month from Elaine’s, the Upper East Side grand dame of bars, heard about the lime tongs and said, “You’re kidding me. That’s asinine.”

“Pair of tongs to put a lime on top of a beer bottle?” he said, and went on to perhaps date himself. “It’s got a skin on the back of it that takes scurvy off parts of your body. It’s what they use on ships.”

When pigs fly...

Three teams from the Big 12 in the top ten of the latest BCS poll?  Oklahoma, fifth--that's not so surprising.  But Mizzou at number six?  Kansas is number four in the nation?  That's just nuts!  I kind of thought Mark Mangino looked more like someone that could do the "Fat Guy in Little Coat" gag really well, but he must be one heck of a coach to have brought KU to this level.  I mean, c'mon.  I know the Jayhawks rock chalk the hell out of everyone in basketball every year, but who knew they were capable of this level of play in the football realm?  And 76 points this weekend on a hallowed football program like Nebraska?   Nuts!

And we don't call it "pop"...

As I pondered my drink selection at Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse BBQ today, it occurred to me that this was a somewhat subtle sign that I've truly moved back to Texas.  Can you see why?

This makes my testicles shrivel up into my chest just watching this...

Some company called Rip Curl developed a heated wetsuit warm enough to withstand the cold waters of the Arctic.  I guess with the Arctic Circle melting and all, there's even more you could do up there than just look around for polar bears.  

Something funny that was in my e-mail today...

"Even when you're having a really bad day, someone will still screw you."

I'm interested in how far up the scale goes.

The best I could manage at this level where semi-educated guesses. It really helps to have an interest in etymology, as I do, to help you choose the right word. Words as they are meant today often have unexpected origins. The best example I can think of off hand is the word 'sincere.' It comes from Latin and means 'without wax.' As the story goes, marble sellers would often hide blemishes or cutting mistakes in marble by filling them with wax. If a piece of marble was without wax, it was sincere, and this label probably made it's way to the seller from there, and then to people in general afterwards.

And oh yeah, dig it: