Neocon Food Fight

Just a second, Joel, there's some old business to do before we do this kit.

The best movies? Top movie of all time: Casablanca

Next tier, in no particular order: the Godfather Trilogy (if you don’t accept it as a trilogy, then Godfather II), Mister Roberts, Shakespeare in Love,The Searchers, The Seventh Seal, Usual Suspects, From Here to Eternity, Rashomon, Saving Private Ryan, Shane, Dr. Strangelove, Seven Samurai.

Next tier, in no particular order: Citizen Kane, The Third Man, On the Waterfront, Chinatown, Henry V (Branagh version), South Pacific, Bull Durham, Anatomy of a Murder, Diabolique (old one), Annie Hall, Zorba the Greek, To Catch a Thief, The Thin Man, Spartacus, Harvey, Dial M for Murder, Charade, High Noon, Butch Cassidy, Maltese Falcon, Tom Jones, On the Beach, The Man Who Knew Too Much (Jimmy Stewart version), Almost Famous, Smiles of a Summer Night, Tunes of Glory, The Apartment, Patton, 12 O’Clock High, Bullitt, French Connection, American Graffitti, The Deer Hunter, Romeo and Juliet (Zefferelli), A Man and a Woman, To Kill a Mockinbird, Dr. Zhivago, West Side Story.

The above list is definitive and beyond comment or criticism. In this I am as infallible as Weingarten or Kurosawaguy. I have spoken.

OK, now what were we talking about here?

Wow! 200 consecutive postings yesterday on TV shows and DVD reruns, and now this. Funny stuff.

And I've never seen Scarface, but that's not on the AFI list, so...

I get it! Joel is making fun of Krauthammer because it's gobbledygook, right? "Eyes of the Arab supplicants upon us", and so on. I dunno. Still it doesn't actually seem that humorous, given what's happening in the world. I guess its possible they've already replaced Joel with a bobblehead and they're just keeping the brand-name.

OK, I think I have now finished piling stuff onto the kit: Krauthammer, Solaris, Citizen Kane.

Mister Badger, I'm not spoofing Krauthammer at all. I think his speech speaks for itself -- it's a gung-ho pro-Iraq-War address, and anyone who reads it can make up his or her mind as to whether he was right about it then and is right about it now.

Mudge, that's a pretty good list, but I'd add Wizard of Oz just for starters.

I'd have suggested "Observed" with a capital "O".

But that's just me.

Mudge, that's a good list. Glad to see you had Branagh's Henry V in there (I'm a sucker for Shakespeare), cripes, Kenneth had me welling up when he delivered the "band of brothers" speech.

Waitaiminute: Where's "Pulp Fiction"?

(bc ducks and runs)

bc

Sorry I missed many previous mentions in previous boodle of Wizard-o-Oz.

Touch of Evil, anyone?

LA Confidential?

Diamonds Are Forever?

Sunset Boulevard is surely on everyone's list, and Grand Hotel.

Mudge, you must take The Deerhunter off your list! One of my movie pet peeves of all time - they used the North Cascades (Washington state) for the hunting scenes - completely ruins the authenticity, which up till then is wonderful. So from western PA to the Alps! Ai-yi-yi...

Omni, what was that link supposed to be?

Britian and other western nations did not search just because they must, because they wanted to see what else was there. They were searching for trade routes to the east. They were searching for gold. They were searching for wealth. Without these things no one, no king, no country would have paid for the expeditions. Global exploration was all about money. Imperialism just means that when they got there, they figured they were superior to the people who already lived there.

Imperialism today is pretty much the same thing, a search for wealth and we western looking nations all beleive our ideology is better than any other ideology.

Krauthammer may want to revisit the history.

A joke, the page is blank, nothing but a white gif.

12:32 was me.

On Shakespeare, the updated Richard III is also great. On Romeo and Juliet, my vote is for Luhrman's. Absolutely inspired.

I recently found The Searchers. It makes Mudge's list, and is considered to be a classic western, and more thought provoking than the usual western of that time. I can't say I was greatly impressed, although I haven't watched a lot of the five zillion stock westerns that were produced around that time.

I skimmed Krauthhammer's take on Fukuyama, and all of a sudden, I'm thinking of Robert McNamara.

Hmm. I see Cap Weinberger just passed away.

Coincidence?

bc

Yet more evidence of why I only made it through Linguistics 101, even though I find this strangely fascinating:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mood_(linguistics)

OK, Joel just said in his Kit extension what I was trying to say about Citizen Kane - only much, much better...

ok joel - i get it - citizen kane is an experience - it's about way more than just the movie - i'll re-watch it with that in mind...

Rome in its heyday had all, and all came to it, with their riches and their thirst for glory, wanted to be a part of that heyday in Rome. Is Krath saying that the USA is the Rome of today? An empire of "excess"?

I don't read Krauthammer (or Moore, or Franken, or Coulter, or any of the other political columnists for that matter). I did read each of them once, and now I know what they'll say on any topic. Nothing to learn there. Nothing to make me reflect: why didn't I think of that? OTOH, I learn something new on Achenblog every day. Some times, my head hurts.

Rhetorical question of the day - why is it that we cannot just admit a mistake and move on? Doesn't matter - government, where we work, in our families - we continue to try and PROVE WE ARE RIGHT even when the known facts change. We invaded Iraq because we (and by that I mean a lot of us, including myself) thought that country had WMD that could threaten us. Even Saddam tried to maintain the illusion of his possesion (of WMSD).

OK, we were wrong. Sorry - sue us and let's move on. (And specifically, lets get the troops home because there is nothing else in that country worth one more American boy's life). I - we - made a mistake. That happens. All. The. Time. The only real question left is, what do we do about it now? Going back and fighting over who was against it first and the timing of their conversion - what an enormous waste of time.

I give Fukuyama a lot of credit for admitting a mistake (and think he's a bit of an idiot for trying to pre-date his conversion). I wish there were (at least a few) people in government who would, when the known facts change, had the guts to admit they were wrong. We would all be better off.

Can I just say, without committing to either side in the food fight that in my opinion, Krauthammer is the nastiest, bitterest, most miserable person in public life. That's all I've got.

hurrah steve!
btw - there are american girls over there too...

Joel, tell the folks here all about "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia." It's wonderful fun for the whole family!

Speaking of Sam Peckinpah movies, "The Getaway" is by far the greatest movie in the history of humanity, "Citizen Kane" be damned. Damned damned damned. Poor Harold, that's what I have to say...

BTW, has Fukuyama ever admitted that history didn't end in 1991 after all? I mean, how can anyone take a guy seriously who ended history before the internet was even invented (beyond the Al Gore internet used by 3 guys with pocket-protectors in some science building somewhere), not to mention WWIII (or whatever historians will call this mess we're in)? He's got some serious 'splaining to do.

I like Citizen Kane, but to really fully appreciate it, you need to understand the context. Welles really smashed the paradigm of movies as filmed theater. So much of what might seem ordinary today was blindingly new when the movie came out. Simply the notion of making the camera an additional character through motion was revolutionary. Orson also did a lot of amazing things with sound. He conveyed the vast emptiness of Xanadu through echoes in a way that is still eerily effective. It is hard to appreciate the depth and complexity of the sound in Kane unless you listen to movies that were made before.

SonofCarl: Branaugh & Shakespeare! Love's Labors Lost! Etc!

Branaugh's Hamlet is on my favorites list--I thought it was well done and I saw it in its entirety at the theater, all four+ hours of it. I went alone, thinking I would surely be among "my people"--fellow Shakespeare fans and/or movie afficionados. At intermission, I overheard a wisecrack that was in reference to a topic in the news at the time. A guy, who had probably been persuaded to attend by his wife/girlfriend, stood up, stretched, and said, "whew, and I thought EBONICS was bad..."

And Joel, L.A. Confidential. For sure. If for no other reason than it lost the Academy Award to Titanic (!) And also because I've watched it about 8 times and I'm still not absolutely sure what happened, but I'm positive all the information is there and someday it will all become clear.

1:02 pm was I.

Cur--I love Mr. Roberts, if only because we (the junior officers at least) would quote it incessently on my ship. Whenever someone in the command got a little testy, we'd all be wispering "There'll be no liberty in this port!" as soon as the offender left the room.

OK, I just double checked that AFI list and notice that Crossroads isn't on it. I guess it must be AFI's 101st greatest movie of all time.

I came within a quarter-inch of putting L.A. Confidential and Touch of Evil on the list, and in retrospect I think I will add them, as Joel correctly suggests. And I will accept Wizard of Oz into the canon, though I'm not such a great fan personally. Still, I recognize all the things it has that require its inclusion, and I bow to those qualities.

Pulp Fiction is a pretty good flick, but it does not rise to the level of the above. It has many, many individual moments and scenes of greatness, but is often over-the-top and self-indulgent, and too self-aware. And at its heart it has no heart. So its very good, but not great. And not on the list.

Beg to differ about The Deerhunter, mostly lurking. That may be the cascades, but they aren't all that different from some areas of the Poconos (though they looked more like the Smokies to me). But even if you are right, that isn't sufficient to disqualify it. The steel town itself, the bar where they hang out, the wedding, etc., are also so briliantly correct and "accurate" that they override any objection to a couple of mountains. The movie isn't about mountains or terrain features--and it captures exactly those elements it IS about. (All that being said, I still can't watch the last 10 minutes of it.) Also, John Savage is an absolute dead ringer for my cousin, whose entire family are deer hunters (whereas mine is not, though I grew up not too far from there).

I suspect Joel threw in Diamonds Are Forever with his tongue in his cheek. Joel, you naughty boy.

SonofCarl, there is a hugh irony in "The Searchers," which is that when it was made, John Wade had no clue (and as I understand it, remained clueless to his death) that he was the villain in the story, not the hero. Also, there is a great raging debate whether the film is racist, or is about racism (and therefore anti-racist). Wayne had no clue about any of this, either--but the flick is pretty clearly about racism (Wayne's character). I suspect if anyone had explained it to him, he'd never have made it.

SCC: John Wade? Jeez, I'm typing like I have a cold. John Wayne, of course.

Joel, I viodeo-taped Touch of Evil off TCM months ago but haven't watched it yet. Despite my affection for almost all things Latino, Janet Leigh and black and white photography, about 5 minutes into the film, my personal distaste for Charlton Heston's opposition to reasonable gun control gets me upset and I turn it off.

How 'bout "The Evil Dead."

I'd just like to toss in Little Big Man again, for the list o' great movies.

I think Joel ought to get Hal the Schemer to remove Tom Canick's 12:41. That's out of bounds.

Rock on, Helen Montana!

George Stephanopoulos points out in his book "All too Human" that his orthodoxy regarding Clinton became more intense as his doubts grew, and I suspect something like that is going on with many conservative commentators such as Krauthammer. Many seem to be enduring a crisis of faith.

jw, I almost tossed out "Evil Dead" in the previous Boodle.

I did toss "Pulp Fiction" into this one in a baldfaced attempt to pander to folks under the age of 40.

bc

Although certainly not a clasic in any conventional sense, the movie that was most personally influential to me was "Silent Running." Not sure why.

First question on Fukuyama's chat was obviously about the Krauthammer piece, and here's the reply:

Francis Fukuyama: I never said his speech was about Iraq; it was about US foreign policy and it treated the US exercise of power in Iraq and elsewhere as a success, without mentioning issues like how the failure to find WMD had undermined our credibiilty, how the transition to democracy was being held up by an unexpected insurgency, and how globally the world had not chosen to legitimate our actions but to oppose them. Krauthammer also keeps insisting that I changed my mind only after the fact. I shifted on the war in the summer of 2002 in the course of a Pentagon study I had been asked to lead. You might want to check out pieces I wrote for the Washington Post on Sept. 11, 2002, and the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 24, 2002

kb, I didn't know that Branagh had done "Love's Labour Lost". I will definitely look for it. Our local Shakespeare festival did it last year in the style of a 50s musical. Hilarious.

Mudge and jw: Haven't seen Mr. Roberts. My Navy friends said The Cruel Sea was their oft-quoted classic. Das Boot could certainly be on the list as well.

I will have to give The Searchers another view.

Anyone else think The Graduate is over-rated by Baby Boomer nostalgia?

In a subsequent attempt to pander to younger folks, I'd wonder if any of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies would qualify as any of the best made in this century.

Granted, my perception of these films is colored by my affection for Tolkien's books, but my kids are *awed* by these films.

I feel compelled to add here that Soderbergh's "Solaris" is *not* on many people's top movies list. "2001" is probably on more...

bc

All these lists...

"'Scuse me while I whip this out..."

I'm not sure whether or not my having to be the one to bring up "Blazing Saddles" is an honor or not...

And let's not forget "Young Frankenstein"...

"That's FRAHNK-en-steen!"

AFI's 100 greatest movie list isf from 1998 --- nothing since.

bc;

LOTR might need a few years' aging to know for sure, but I'd give a provisional spot based solely on the fact that the triolgy is the only non-comdey entry among the movies I've felt worthy of getting on DVD.

I'm not sure if Blazing Saddles is one of the greatest movies of all time, but I do know that it is, for me, in a league with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Blues Brothers and Animal House — movies that if I get to watchin' for any length of time, I'll surely end up watching the rest of, no matter how many times I've seen them.

I first read Krauthammer when he was "discovered" by The New Republic. They were looking for a contributing editor that had a non-traditional (for an opinion magazine) background that could bring a different perspective. Chuck is a psychiatrist by trade and it takes some smarts to get through med school. From Harvard no less, which I hear is nearly as tough as Princeton.

At first he was a breath of fresh air, but then he got co-opted and started hewing more and more to conventional wisdom and the party line. I've ridiculed him here in the boodle several times for using a Will column as jumping off point to prove he's even more conservative. The two are in lockstep so often, they must go trick-or-treating as Scalia and Thomas.

That said, his past two columns have actually made sense, maybe because he's getting over the over-arching Palestinian fixation he's had for awhile. It's good to see cons, neo-, paleo-, and even the just plain greedy ones, looking at the tar baby we've been sold and start to wonder how we got where we are.

Mudge, we'll have to disagree about The Deerhunter (or Deer Hunter - I don't know which is correct). It just ruins the movie for me - and having grown up in western PA, at that time, the Poconos were about as far away as the Cascades. The first day of deer season was a school holiday, for Pete's sake. It just seems to me that if the mountains of western PA were as breathtakingly gorgeous as the Cascades, or the Alps, the whole feel of western PA would be different - there would be a vibrant economy, perhaps. The woods of western PA are beautiful, but no snow-capped mountains - I just have never understood why that wasn't good enough.

SCC - excessive use of "just" - a thousand apologies.

Of course Krauthammer is wrong in that his speech was precisely the kind of clueless ode to American power at a time when the limits of that power were being made clear that would justify Fukuyama's conversion.
But beyond the gobblygook nature of the quote Achenback provides, the sentiment behind it is so bizarrely ill informed. The British didn't build an empire because they were interested in the exotic. They carefully built little British outposts wherever they went and changed on the homefront as little as possible. The US has more of an interest in the exotic than did the British during their Empire days (that may no longer be true today where Britain has done a better job of incorporating people from their former colonies than have the countries on the continent).
The serious point, if there is one, is that interest in the exotic has never been the point of empire. The successful empires have generally taken something of value from the places they control while keeping the cultural exchanges to a minimum. The evidence that Krauthammer gives that we are not an empire has nothing to do with being an empire. (I don't think we are an empire in the traditional sense, but even when he is write Krauthammer's reasons for right conclusions tend to be nonsense.)

Backtracking to Kreskin ...

March 27, 2006, 8:01PM
Nebraska Man Nails Final Four
By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer

— Russell Pleasant has some explaining to do.

Such is life when you're one of four out of 3 million contest entrants to pick all the teams in this year's Final Four: LSU, Florida, UCLA and ... George Mason?

George Mason?

Yep, he called it.

And how 'bout this: The software test engineer wasn't blindfolded, throwing darts or picking out of a hat when he made his selections and put the 11th-seeded Patriots, winners of zero NCAA tournament games before this season, on the last line in the Washington bracket.

He insists there was a method to his March Madness.

Well, sort of.

"I got them confused with George Washington," Pleasant conceded Monday, after he'd been identified as one of the final four in an ESPN.com contest.

The 46-year-old, who lives in Bellevue, Neb., said he had watched George Washington in a couple of games earlier this season and liked what he saw. The Colonials, not the Patriots, were going to be his long shot pick. Confusion reigned.

"I was filling in my bracket on the job and trying to do it pretty quick," he said. "When I got done, I said, `Was that George Mason or George Washington?'"

Turns out, it was George Mason, the first 11th seed to make the Final Four since 1986.

George Mason, the Colonial Athletic Association commuter school in Fairfax, Va.

George Mason, the mid-major team that beat the big boys _ Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut _ to shock the college basketball world and show that, yes, there's still a place for the most unlikely of underdogs on the grandest stage in a sport that has become a multimillion-dollar business.

"I thought, for sure, some Cinderella team would be in it," Pleasant said. "So why not them?"

For the record, after he realized his George Mason "mistake," he filled another bracket out with George Washington making it all the way through the Atlanta Regional.

That one got crumpled up long ago.

The one with George Mason is worth framing. It is, almost literally, a one-in-a-million.

"To my wife, it seems like I'm always picking winners, so she said, `Why don't you go pick a real bracket?'" Pleasant said.

So, he did.

A lifelong sports fan who loves Nebraska football and has always rooted for "the old teams" in basketball _ Georgetown, UCLA and the like _ Pleasant said he never figured he'd have a chance to win the thing.

In fact, after the first weekend of the tournament, he was tied "for something like 250,000th place."

But his Final Four teams kept advancing and the favorites kept bowing out _ this is the first Final Four since 1980 that does not include a No. 1 seed.

On Saturday, fourth-seeded LSU and second-seeded UCLA punched their tickets.

On Sunday, third-seeded Florida won. And, of course, George Mason played top-seeded UConn.

"I wasn't sure George Mason could beat Connecticut," Pleasant said. "I was worried about that. But I figured everyone would have UConn in their pool, so I separated myself there."

According to statistics provided by ESPN, 1,854 of the 3 million brackets had George Mason making the Final Four.

Of those, 284 picked the Patriots to win the national title. Most of those brackets were presumably filled out by alumni, people whose favorite colors are the Patriots' green and yellow, or maybe American history buffs (George Mason was a key player in the establishment of the new nation, but refused to endorse the Constitution because, initially, it didn't include a Bill of Rights).

Pleasant was not, however, one of those 284.

His predicted champion is Florida and, because of that, this is where his great little underdog story ends.

With a $10,000 grand prize at stake in the ESPN pool and with only a scant 10-point lead against the three others who forecast their Final Fours perfectly, Pleasant will be rooting _ heavily _ for the Florida Gators on Saturday night.

Their opponent in the national semifinals: George Mason.

"I've always liked Florida," he said. "But now, I kind of wish I'd picked George Mason to go all the way."

It's always hard to appreciate a movie if you've only seen it after it's become a caricature of itself. That includes Citizen Kane or any Godfather movie.

Someone who sees Brokeback Mountain 40 or 50 years from now will only see a cowboy movie and won't know what the fuss was about (well... we can only hope).

We used to belong to a film club at the local independent "art" theatre. I loved seeing movies that I had never heard of or seen the hype about. Sometimes, in the case of foreign films, I wouldn't even know who the central character was at the beginning of the movie because I didn't know who the feature actor was. I felt like I was seeing the Director's idea, rather than the studio marketing department's idea of what the movie was about.

RDP: Silent Running was a movie that haunted me for years--it was very powerful. But it's not the kind of movie you can recommend to somebody, is it? Huey, Dewey and Louie, ha! In the category of "Bruce Dern movies" I vote this one #1.

There are so many flaws, problems, errors and misapprehensions in Krauthammer's original speech, starting with the second paragraph, that it isn't even funny. And so of course he must "take umbrage" (in true Achenblog fashion) when somebody like Fukuyama suddenly realizes Krauthammer and his ilk are fanatics, and then says so.

What Krauthammer doesn't know about empires can (and does) fill a book.

mostlylurking, my reaction to Deerhunter was exactly like yours. As a central Pa. college student, I spent weekends in the lcoal mountains (what else was there to do?). It was extremely jarring to see these guys drive around the corner into the North Cascades (not the less spectacular Ordinary Cascades). Sort of as if they'd jumped into C.S. Lewis's Wardrobe. If the movie were made today, I'm sure there would have been some dragons and Bigfoots running around the mountains.

The Deer Hunter is a darn good movie, but just a bit short of being a truly great movie. If it had been just a little bit longer, that would've done the trick.

RD, I'll admit that I found Trumbull's "Silent Running" pretty powerful when I was young.

Particularly the droid tending the dome at the end.

I'd add that movie has some of Joan Baez' *worst* music.

bc

bc

But Dave and mostlylurking, how many viewers of the Deerhunter knew the terrain was wrong? You two knew it, but who else (who didn't live in middle or western Pennsyltucky)? I'll bet darn few. And it's only a few minutes in a long flick mostly set elsewhere (in a Vietnam that may not look like that; I've never been there so wouldn't know). Hell, that's like saying M*A*S*H terrain doesn't look like Korea. Well, of course it doesn't. And Lost is shot in Hawaii. Ya gotta get past all that.

RD, kbertocci, I might just have to give "Silent Running" another watch.

In these days of Global Warming, it might have a degree of relevance I didn't pick up on 25 years ago.

bc

A quick public service announcement in response to "...and count me as one who does not know what he means when he refers to a "'mood.'" "Mood" is a convenient way for verbs to distinguish between reality and potentiality/possibility/etc. The two most common moods in Indo-European languages are indicative ("I'm going home")and subjunctive ("I might go home"/"should I go home?"/etc.).

I'm sure Charles Krauthammer does relish the fact that Americans don't like "exotic languages." What better way to maintain control of a country's ideas than through the willful ignorance of its people?

Lon,

You're exactly right. The quote that Joel provides is gobbledygook, partly for the reasons you explain very well. But this was background music. This was a speech to justify war, but unfortunately Joel left out the gung-ho pro-war part, presenting Krauthammer as a very "informative" intellectual with four concepts of foreign policy and all the dipsy-doodle, and as someone now "having some fun" with Fukuyama who said some words were in his speech that weren't in the speech. And we are supposed to get quite interested and excited, thinking of it as a "food fight," with an online chat and the whole thing. Krauthammer was touting the war as a legitimate enterprise. Joel was touting his colleague Krauthammer as a legitimate thinker. We're supposed to lap this up. That's where we fit in. (If you'll notice, people are mostly sticking to discussion of their favorite-movie lists today). This blog used to have its moments, and that's why some of us are here, but it's getting embarrassing and I'm packing my things.

Gee Joel, you go and quote from the middle of CBA and I'm not there yet. Didn't warn people about spoilers? Now I'll never find out if we found the aliens.

Whenever there is a silly movie list I just try to figure out what order they are going to put "Citizen Kane", "Gone With The Wind", "Casablanca", and "The Godfather" in. It gets a little tired.

For recent movies, I like "Clerks". My wife can't watch "Pretty Woman" enough.

How about some new blood. Here are some great sf genre films that critics like to ignore:

Aliens
Terminator 2
The Empire Stikes Back

Coincidentally, these are all sequels. For some reason, the second pass gets fleshed out a little better than the first.

Entertainment Weekly did a "Bad Sequels" issue recently and named a few better than the original movies, but I can't recall the entire list.

for current movies i'd like to add "life is beautiful"... (with subtitles not the voice over)

yello - it's not a "silly" movie list! it's AFI's movie list! THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE garshdurnit! hehehe... yeah, sometimes those lists kinda bug me - i mean, they may have been great films, but i'm sorry, some just don't appeal to me... and where is anyone gonna get a copy of 1927 version of the jazz singer??

I felt that Krauthammer was committing himself to what he had said in the past, rightly or wrongly. That is, whether he was right or not, he is making it a matter of public record that he embraced the Iraq War from the git-go, and he is claiming to reiterate the reasons for his support. I got the feeling from his column, which never clearly stated a present opinion on Iraq, that he is not so sanguine about it now. However, he had the guts not to retroactively alter his opinion, which is what Fukuyama appears to be doing (despite his protestations and citations). I don't think I agree with Krauthammer on pretty much any matter of public policy, but he has character.

I have to concur with Krauthammer on his implied criticism about the lunacy of Fukuyama daring to offer us his sage advice on how to carry forward U.S. policy from here. Fukuyama has developed a record of boldly wrong predictions.

Switching to my ScienceHat, as an analogy for the making of policy pronouncements: in science, we often make bold, controversial, predictions which turn out to be wrong. Far from being a failure, that is the pinnacle of success in science, to form a prediction that is wrong in spectacular fashion. In the punditry industry, in which it appears that a prediction is assumed based on gut instinct or preference and then underpinnings must be found, failure is simply failure. It has no instructive value, except to show us the pundits who deserve none of our time. Like Fukuyama.

In science, our bold predictions are based on certain specific assumptions that we spell out in advance and use as the logical basis to deduce a conclusion. The failure of the prediction therefore invalidates the assumption, meaning that we have actually learned something about the world, by learning that certain of our assumptions are wrong. Mr. Fukuyama does not appear to be doing the same thing. In his attempt to rehabilitate his credentials for punditry, he tells us about his change of heart (I heard him on Diane Rehm on Monday, doing this). But he does not lead by telling us "I reasoned from certain assumptions. I now know that those assumptions were wrong." Krauthammer appears to be attaching his conclusions to assumptions, meaning that his logic (such as it is) remains arguably valid, because it allows you to deduce from a failure of his predictions what was wrong with his assumptions.

I think that Lord of the Rings should "age" a little before making the list - On the other hand, the acheivement of taking that dense detailed series of books to the screen and making it true to Tolkien's vision makes it a prime contender. It's gotta be considered in a very short while.

Lots of other organizations other than AFI make silly lists and they all rely on the same usual suspects, so to speak. AFI has gotten a little desperate for annual themes. In upcoming years, I predict 100 Best Sports Movies, 100 Best Trailers, 100 Best Explosions, et al, etc, ad nauseum.

I was an AFI member in college over 20 years ago because I liked their magazine, but they had a running joke that being on the cover was the kiss of death for a movie, like the SI curse.

My wife and I went to AFI Silver once to see "Chocolat" with Johnny Depp, but ten minutes into it, the manager realized the distributer had sent him a bad French movie with the same name. We took our refund and went and rented the Depp one and watched it at home.

Fukuyama's problem is that he declared that history was over which left him little room for a sequel. Hence, the villians had to come back from the grave.

Yellowjkt: do you mean bad, or BAD?

"That's because we are not an imperial power. We are a commercial republic. We don't take food; we trade for it. Which makes us something unique in history, an anomaly, a hybrid: a commercial republic with overwhelming global power. A commercial republic that, by pure accident of history, has been designated custodian of the international system. The eyes of every supplicant from East Timor to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Liberia; Arab and Israeli, Irish and British, North and South Korean are upon us."

An anomaly?

Athens. Delian League. This has happened before. We are not unique.

Hubris.

Perhaps the good Doctor should pay attention to what happens at the end of that story.

From the ten minutes I saw, it wasn't good. Some woman stranded on the road in post colonial Africa that kept having flashbacks to her childhood.

Here's the IMDB entry. I don't think I missed anything.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094868/

I'm sure glad we have that tough-minded Bush, Cheyney, Chertoff crowd handling our national security. Which is why this headline and tagline on the home page right now are so sick/funny: "GAO Tests U.S. Port Security" and the tag: "Congressional investigators say they smuggled enough radioactive material to make 2 dirty bombs."

If it had been those wimpy Dems, why, it might have been 3 or 4 dirty bombs. I feel so much better now.

I liked LOTR a whole lot, except for two things, both elf-related:

(1) Garfinckel, or Blorphindel or whats-his-name, who shows up with the Wood Elves to defend Helm's Deep. He ain't a beautiful guy. He doesn't seem mysterious, just by existing. He's just a pompous guy with pointy ears. I always had the impression that elves should be sufficiently beautiful to make you (momentarily!) question the firmness of your sexual orientation. Orlando Bloom managed that as Legolas (momentarily!).

(2) Hugo Weaving, as Elrond (have I remembered the name right? It's too close to Elron, as in L. Ron Hubbard; it's scrambled my memory). He's not bad-looking, although he's no Orlando Bloom (*sigh*). However, there should be an ethereal fierceness to him, as an ancient warrior and current leader in war; he should be peaceful, but ready to kill, befitting an immortal but killable warrior. He just seems too thuggish, too brutal in aspect.

Something weird that my wife and I noticed on the DVD extras: Liv Tyler is a beautiful Arwen, but seems kind of stupid and boring as herself. Cate Blanchett (sp?) seems not so special as Galadriel, but is spectacularly attractive as herself.

In the immortal words of yellojkt: I am such a dork.

The merchant states of Venice? 17th century Holland? I think there have been a lot of non-empire commercial states. But a lot of neo-cons think that since we won the Cold War we should get the spoils. It doesn't work that way.

And we don't send the Marines for takeout, but we do for a fill-up to the gas tank.

These neocons are a rotten bunch. Krauthammer is the shrink from hell who should return to Buenos Aires where he can do more good. Bill Kristol is the most arrogant fellow you'd want to meet -- thinks he is the leading intellectual of the late 20th century. The Wolfowitzes, Pearles, Feiths et al. are simply Zionists looking out for Israel, part of the Israel Lobby which Mearsheimer and Walt have exposed expertly. But it is hard to understand why those hard-nosed gosyishe fellows like Cheney and Rumsfeld bought thie kosher garbage. Perhaps Zionism has nothing really to do with it. There are after all just plain stupid Jews. Read Isaac Bashevis Singer's stories.

yellojkt, I taped that movie (Chocolat) - watched it when my sister was visiting - we suffered through a rather sad, incomprehensible (to us) movie - only to find I didn't tape long enough to get the ending!

On the other hand, the more recent Chocolat with Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche is good. Oh, and I love the English Patient and anything Ralph Fiennes is in...And yeah, LOTR deserves to be at or near the top of the list now...As does Brokeback Mountain (which while filmed in Alberta, evokes Wyoming and Montana very well)...

Tim - your reference to Orlando Bloom reminded me of the movie Elizabethtown. His character defines a fiasco as being far worse than a failure. You can be a failure by doing nothing. To create a fiasco requires a lot more work.

Best part of the movie. That and looking at Kirsten Dunst.

Mr. Singer is rather good, in my opinion. I am trying to refrain from remarking on the rest of candide's opinion.

Getting beat up on at MyDD, so I posted a reply:

http://mydd.com/story/2006/3/28/94615/0434#17

I wrote a lengthy response to candide but deleted it. Some things are better left unsaid.

*Tim, I have to admit I was a little disappointed in Galadriel and Elrond too. I chalked it up to the Elvish kingdom on the decline...I could look at Orlando Bloom all day, especially as a long-haired blonde...

I am skeptical of anyone who thinks that America is "unique." Different, probably; unique, not likely. More importantly, I am skeptical of anyone who talks about Iraq in terms of "we, we, we." Krauthammer is over here talking about how great we are. Our soldiers are over there, dodging IED's.

Joel.. Did you notice that they took the heading off your blog about it being humorous? There's nothing to show anyone who reads your blog that you're being anything but serious all the time.

Well, nothing except your writing. But some folks just take everything at face value.

Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solyaris" is one of the great films, I think Soderbergh would be embarrassed if someone tried to argue for his re-make, instead of the original. I had seen it years and years ago, but it was never shown and never available on DVD until I finally came across a link to some company that distributed Russian Cinema greats, including Solyaris. I ordered right over the Internet, but the DVD came a few weeks later right from Moscow! I had been endlessly touting the film to a co-worker, and after watching it myself, I finally lent it to him. The next day he came into my office and was almost angry about it. He said by the time the film gets to the part where Kris Kelvin (sp) is driving toward his destination, with its very, very long and wordless scenes of driving through a Russian urban setting, going into and out of tunnels, overpasses, he was ready to scream!

Dr. Snaut: We don't want to conquer space at all. We want to expand Earth endlessly. We don't want other worlds; we want a mirror. We seek contact and will never achieve it. We are in the foolish position of a man striving for a goal he fears and doesn't want. Man needs man!

I just read that Josh Bolten will be the highest Jew in the Bush Administration. You would think that Bush would be sensitive to the perception that the Jews are controlling him too much.

Yes Joel, but as that Oscar guy once said, "The only thing worse than being talked is to be not talked about."

yellojkt:

I saw the French "Chocolat" in TULSA, in 1989. It's not easy to find foreign films in Tulsa, and we thought we had done all right that evening. Context is important, I guess.

The "Johnny Depp" Chocolat was actually more of a disappointment to me, because, well, Johnny Depp is hardly even IN it, and he was the main reason I wanted to see it.

And the name "Singer" above reminded me, one of my other ALL TIME FAVORITE movies, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" starring one of my all time favorite actors, Alan Arkin. A good book becomes a classic movie.

...and I apologize to those who feel all this movie talk is lowering the quality of the Achenblog. I will go on record as saying I believe political discussion is more important than movies.

Joel, you should have added: "Makes a lot more sense taken in context, doesn't it! Take that evil Satan, bwahahahaha."

Ok, well, maybe not. But you should have done something to spin up the Doomsday Machine and create a -Storm of your own.

Padouk, Tim, don't do it. You know what I mean. I wanna do it, too, but I'm not going to. But's it ain't easy being this good this long.

jw, I'm constantly tempted to write something GUARANTEED to start another Rovestorm, then realize I prefer the lazy-summer-day quality of the blog, and I hold fire.

Oh, and I think we can just ignore the antisemitic ravings -- agreed? Or do I need to get out the zapper?

kb, given the turn the political talk has taken I'm just as happy with movies.

kbertoccci, I don't think you need to denigrate movies by saying "I will go on record as saying I believe political discussion is more important than movies."

There certainly is political speech that is important. Mr. Lincoln had a thing or two to say. Dislike him, or hate him, but Mr. Hitler's speech was important. Too bad more people didn't listen to it, to hear what he really was saying, when there was still time to prevent it from going into action. A lot of political speech, however, is simply an effort to replace space heaters with warm air.

A discussion of movies is a discussion about art. A discussion about the central effort of humanity to express the wordless character of the internal experience in the form of symbols. Even bad art (e.g., Bachelor Party, Plan IX from Outer Space, Thomas "The Painter of Light" Kinkade) is art, and therefore worthy of discussion. Good art helps us experience the world more richly. Bad art helps us to appreciate the failure of technique that distinguishes it from good art, alerting us to the character of those techniques.

'Mudge, pleeeeeeeze don' get me started on the GAO report. Be happy to discuss at the BPH.

There are posts here about candy? What??? :-)

TBG, by the way, I JUST got that book. Sorry I'm so slow. It's the mailroom: It never occurs to me to go in there. I check the mailroom maybe once a month. And then it's a nightmare.

Not to pick on Matt Stoller specifically, but boy is he dense...

'mudge - trust me - reign it in... it IS hard being good this long huh? i'm. chomping. at. the. bit.

has anyone ever seen "les enfants du paradis"? (please forgive the butchered french - i speak spanish!)

Tim, I totally agree with you--art is important and discussing it is important, too. Could we discuss WHY Kinkade is bad art? Because I have trouble defining that. It's like pornography, in that I know it when I see it but I can't define it.

I've dedicated my life to art, as much as a non-artist can, and yet the most important contribution I have made to art was POLITICAL, that is, I worked with other people to create a space for art in a community, and to defend the rights of artists.

Art is essential to the human experience, but politics is the way that we define our social structure, and that has life-or-death consequences and I still say political discussion is more important than movies.

I would argue that you don't need to get out the zapper. So long as the language remains family-friendly. Poisonous thinking is redoubled by marinating in its own private world, convinced that the world-at-large isn't ready to handle its "truths." Let it come right out here in all its embarrassing, repulsive, digitally-archived-for-eternity, glory.

Can't imagine what made me think of the particular examples of political speech I mentioned in my posting above.

Does Krauthammer really believe the Iraq war made dictators "think twice" about acquiring nuclear weapons?

And, more to the point, has someone told North Korea about this?

No, if anything, Bush and his silly "Axis of Evil" speech made countries like North Korea and Iran rush toward a nuclear deterrent, lest they suffer the same fate as Saddam.

I mean, think about it: The one guy who didn't have a nuclear program was the one who got whacked. If I were Iran or N. Korea I'd sure as hell be reving up the centrifuge.

As for Khaddaffi. Everyone knows he made nice in an effort to rebuild his country and avoid a certain death at the hands of the growing ranks of Islamicists in his country.

If anyone deserves credit for Khaddaffi disarming, it isn't Bush. It's Bin Laden.

Mudge, just saw your note from earlier, yes I'll get the zapper right on it.

Does this mean neoconservatism is in its last throes?

Is it me, or did the DD folks take most of a week to find Joel's 3/22 Kit?

(slow golf clap)

I wonder if they know that George Mason made it to the Final Four yet, or that Ben Domensch resigned?

Joel, I gotta give ya credit for bothering to go over there and *not* pointing out how much time and energy they've spent dissecting a humorous blog item of 411 words.

411...hmmm.

bc

Zap, zap, zap, they call him the zapper.

That was a great ol' song.

yeah, I agree about the 12:41 (that will be mysteriously nonexistent by the time anyone sees this on the Post archives).

Commenting on this is reminsicent of Purim, where we shout and make loud noises in order to drown out the name of Haman. Except that there's a central irony in that everyone is attentively waiting to hear the name so that they know when to boo and hiss and shake them noise thangs.

Ugh. Thanks for mentioning the GAO Report, Mudge. Guess I'll have to go read it now.

I guess the silver lining is that maybe the Coast Guard will get a few table scraps this appropriation season, and Congress will decide that it's probably a good idea to continue funding the domestic port security assessment program.

tim - you make a very good point (i can now take off the bit)

kb - there's always room for kitchz art - it's like the cheesy pop song you don't admit to anyone that you listen to over and over and over... we are multi-faceted beings - with, admittedly, short attention spans - we need all kinds of stimulation to get those neurons popping - yes, even porn has it's place... if you've never seen anything "bad" (i use that word loosely - one's mans trash is anothers treasure) than how do you know if you've seen anything "good"?

*sigh* i've just realized that everything outta my mouth today is a cliche!... oi vey

Oh, well, mo... That's the way the cookie crumbles!

Mike, from Chicago said: "Does Krauthammer really believe the Iraq war made dictators "think twice" about acquiring nuclear weapons?"

I'm sure it worked extremely well. I imagine the following internal monologue in the head of Joe Dictator (would-be autocrat of Tennessee):

"Should I get me one a'them nuculer weppins? Nah, they's expensive, ya gotta git missiles and spit ta do ennythin' with 'em. And 'sides, the onlyest folks I wants to bomb are right next door, and I don't want me none a'that fallout.

"Wait a sec. Them Iraqis din't have spit and the U.S. done smashed 'em flat. Them North Ko-reens got bombs, or purt-near to got 'em, and ain't nobody givin' them trubble. I better go git me some."

If that isn't thinking twice, what is?

My favorite humorous scene of all time is in Heavenly Creatures when Pauline puts on her record of Mario Lanza singing Be My Love and her dad comes into the room lipsyncing the song with a limp fish, waving his arms about in operatic fashion. Cracks me up every time!

Curmudgeon is a false poseur. Vertigo clearly belongs in Tier II; far superior to To Catch A Thief or even the excellent remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much. Que sera, sera.

I grew up in Clairton, PA and worked in the US Steel Coke Works there for several summers while in college. This was the town the boys were from in The Deerhunter. Only a few scenes were filmed there, and the mountain scenes were inaccurate, but the feel for the town and its inhabitants was dead on accurate. These were the guys with whom I shared a few Iron Cities. It is a great movie.

Stanislaw Lem: The best place to start is with The Cyberiad, which is a bunch of short stories. I was hooked on Lem through them. The stories are funny and subversive, and provide a good gateway for the novels.

Oh, fer cryin' out loud. Now the Washington Nationals brass (since they don't have an owner, how can they have brass? oh well) are complaining that due to the Abramoff scandal/crackdown on lobbyists, it'll hurt ticket sales, mainly about a hundred prime seats.

Gimme a break.

Can we move porching hour up to about six minutes from now? 'Cause I need a *&#@&$# drink.

Tenleytown, ya wanna move Vertigo to the second tier, I'm amenable. I'd agree it's better than To Catch a Thief.

And people think I'm such a Curmudgeon.

I might be free, Mudge. Where?

bc

But I got an email yesterday saying my season tickets are in the mail. Weeeeee!

(Don't get excited--just a 20-game upper-deck package. I'm not made of money, you know.)

One of the greatest films of all time, "The Producers" (NOT THE MUSICAL)might have been even greater if the leads were Krauthammer and Fukuyama. I think Krauthammer could make better use of the blue blanket, though.

I love the scene in Young Frankenstein with the Hermit (Gene Hackman) and the Monster. Who knew Hackman could do comedy? The first time I saw it, I tried to laugh out and breathe in at the same time, causing a painful spasm. It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, and remains so.

steve, that image will have me laughing all day. Thanks!

Q: wouldn't a "false poseur" by definition be a "non poseur"?

I could be talked into both Young Frankenstein and The Producers.

bc, the ol' watering hole? (McCormick and Schmick's)?

Hold on, SonofCarl, I'm still looking up "poseur."

And isn't "false poseur" redundant?

I'm so confused.

No no no no no. Vertigo was terrible. Terrible. Terrible. And I'm not just saying that because I'm not crazy about Jimmy Stewart and also hate heights. Bad bad movie: implausible, unnecessarily vague, Kim Novak can't act.

To Catch a Thief is good; North by Northwest is better. Saboteur is excellent. And I think the other one is maybe the best -- what's its name, Rope? The one about the boys who kill someone and Jimmy Stewart plays their professor...?

RD, it's nice to see we're not the only rogue BPH'ers.

Mudge & bc.. have fun and hoist one for me (while I recuperate from my root canal).

back to "les enfants du paradis" - if you like french films i HIGHLY recommend it - it was voted as the #1 french film of all time at the cannes (lindalooooooo). it was made in 1945 by Marcel Carne - good review here:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020106/REVIEWS08/201060301/1023
it was filmed in paris and nice during the nazi occupation!
*note - it is 190 minutes - without a single frame wasted!

*Tim, Hackman was pretty funny in "The Posideon Adventure", "Superman (*), "Get Shorty", "The Birdcage", and "The Royal Tennenbaums", just to name a couple off the cuff.

And IIRC he starred in "The Conversation", a really good underappreciated film IMO.

bc

Yeah, but bc, I don't think The Poseidon Adventure role was supposed to be funny, was it?

bc, thanks for pointing out just how badly I had maligned Hackman. I am ashamed.

Stand by, Mudge, I have a couple of phone calls to make, then I'll know if I can free up or not.

bc

Snarkster, you raise the interesting point that the entire body of Hitchcok's work might well be lifted en masse into The Canon. (However, you remain in serious error about Vertigo, but we'll let that pass.)

BTW, folks, I'm willing to sublet "False Poseur" as a possible boodle handle for anyone interested. Contact my business manager, bc, who is the boodle's official handle registrar. Terms are reasonable, and I can do short-term or long term leases.

I never really got To Catch a Thief. First, I had a pretty good idea who the thief was, because it's so cliche (but was it then?). Second, I don't get why Cary Grant is suddenly on the lamb--it's not like he was really framed or anything. If anything, he frames himself by trying to catch the real thief with his bizarrely complicated plot with the insurance guy.

Is it "on the lamb" or "on the lam"? For some reason I think it's the latter.

I think it *was* supposed to be humorous, Snarky. Anyway, if it wasn't it would fall into the category of unintentionally hilarious, like Arnold's turn as "Conan the Barbarian".

Aw, Mudge, I'd caught onto that False Poseur bit earlier, I was going to keep my mouth shut about it.

Stand by.

bc

Bringing the discussion of film and politics together, an interesting film to watch is the French film "The Battle of Algiers": the grim story of the counter-insurgency in Algeria in the 60s.

On the lam: in flight, especially from the police.

On the lamb: a fun-filled weekend in Saskatchewan (sorry dr)

I think it's "lam", jw.

Mudge, the runway's clear. When do ya wanna meet at Mc&Schmicks?

bc

Well, Curmudgeon, we'll just agree to disagree. Perhaps I can make a BPH over the summer, and we can debate the finer points in person.

And, if I may respectfully inquire, o wise arbiter of The Canon: Why no Lawrence of Arabia? And what about Kind Hearts and Coronets? One of the most evilly funny movies ever.

lam. See http://www.plateaupress.com.au/wfw/onthelam.htm

I thought a lot about Lawrence of Arabia when we were talking about cinematography in the last Kit.

Great cinematography, story was good, but not great.

Then there's the whole pitchin' tents in the wilderness thing goin' on out there...not that there's anything wrong with that.

bc

Who else wants to admit that another great (well.. good) movie is Uncle Buck?

one of the Tims writes:

"A discussion about movies is a discussion about the central effort of humanity to express the wordless character of the internal experience in the form of symbols. Even bad art (Bachelor Party...) is art and therefore worthy of discussion. Good art helps us experience the world more richly. Bad art helps us to appreciate the failure of technique that distinguishes it from good art, alerting us to the character of those techniques".

I can't believe he just made that up as he went along. No spelling mistakes or anything. He makes a war less "worthy of discussion" than a bad movie. Unless it becomes a Krauthammer-Fukuyama food-fight, in which case it becomes bad art, and therefore necessarily worthy of discussion, calling attention to the failures of technique... I probably haven't plumbed the depths of this, but definitely it is leading-edge stuff.

5:15? 5:30? Anybody else?

Achenfan, I know you can't make it, but would if you could. We'll hoist one in your honor.

Snark, I'll accept both into the Canon.

TBG- well, it may be the best John Candy movie, anyway.

bc

5:15? Dude, I was thinkin' like 4:30. I can be there in about 20 minutes...

If 5:15 works for you, I'll see you there.

bc

Would if I could, gents, but definitely next week...

bc, I think unintentionally hilarious is right for Hackman in Poseidon. Remember, that was the era of those mega-serious big budget disaster flicks -- I don't think they had any intentional humor at all. The only time I saw Dean Martin smile in the original "Airport" was when he called Burt Lancaster, his brother-in-law, a "penguin-butt." They just don't write quality dialogue like that anymore...

And you've got me convulsed with glee over the tents in the desert thing.

bc, theoretically I'm stuck here 'til 5:30, but, uh, I feel a terrible headache coming on. Or maybe its the flu. Or dengue fever. Or perhaps Munchausen's syndrome by proxy. I believe it may require immediate medical attention. At my age, you can't be too careful with your health.

last one, rotten egg, so forth...

Snarky Squirrel, you don't like Jimmy Stewart?!? InconCEIVable (which brings to mind another movie I can watch anytime, The Princess Bride). Jimmy was from my hometown...But I'd agree about Vertigo - Jimmy's character is creepy...I like Notorious much better - Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant...Good triumphs over evil...

TBG and bc, any discussion on John Candy's ouevre must surely include Stripes and Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

I for one am glad to see that Mister Badger did not 'pack his things'. Hopefully the discussion waxes serious often enough for him to stay and post (seriously).

hey, i could bph but i can't leave till 6 - you think you'll still be around?

Nah, Mr. Badger, I sweat and strain over each of these dang things before I let 'em go, that's why my spelling and punctuation are usually pretty good.

My central thesis is that art is worthy of our attention even though it's not life-or-death, since as some dang economist opined, in the end, we are all dead. There is no "or." The only lasting validity is in how we live the life that we are given before it is taken away. We die, but art may survive us. I conclude that the relative importance of art vs. politics is arguable, since both leave residues that may survive us to enrich the lives of others. By arguable, I mean, "you can feel your way, and I can feel my way; there is no objective standard." The Mona Lisa is as valid a product of human genius as the U.S. Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. Based on the cost of production and the number of persons it has reached, one might claim that the Mona Lisa has provided more bang for the buck.

There is a Jewish folkloric story on this very topic, on the virtues and the failings of living a life of hedonistic enjoyment vs. a life of endless self-abnegation on behalf of others. But I'll spare you.

You mentioned wax, SoC???

"Karate Kid?"

:-)

Art is certainly a necessity to my well-being. My sis was a starving artist. Literally. Often on the edge of homelessness. Art supplies are costly. She barely made do from her straight gig, playing piano nights at supper clubs and restaurants. People didn't understand her. "Why don't you get a job?" they'd ask. Well, hello, her art was her job. I'd frequently help out monetarily. One day she called me to tell of a magnificent stroke of good luck. She was broke, refrig was empty, rent due, and didn't want to ask me for money. She had a fairly nice room size oriental rug she'd purchased second hand and decided to see if she could get maybe $25. So off she goes on her bike through heavy traffic to a rug dealer she'd heard about, balancing the rolled up rug half tied to her waist and the back fender. Some drivers passsing by honked as they came up behind her and thought it quite funny that she almost fell. She just kept pedaling. Rug dealer takes a lenghty look, then another and finally says "Well miss, I can give you 500". "Dollars?" she croaks trying to appear nochalant. Barely able to control herself, she calmly accepted the check, departed, mounted her bike and when out of sight, pedaled at breakneck speed to the bank to cash it before he changed his mind.

Ah, a *challenge*, sir 'Mudge?

Fair and fairly cast!

Loser buys first! Away with me! I fly!

SonofCarl, I agree on your other picks for Candyland. Though some might place "Spaceballs" in there...not me, though.

bc

Have on minute, and one minute only. Busy day.

Nani, another exceptional story. Thank you.

mo, you have email.

bc

Nani, is this your perfect older sister? The one who happily embraced spring cleaning?

FAScinating!

I saw Spaceballs. For $0.50 (my girlfriend worked at the theater). I felt I should ask for my money back, but I resisted.

Ah, mostlylurking, thanks muchly -- I totally forgot about Notorious. A really really excellent movie. And I know that not liking Jimmy Stewart is inconceivable. I really can't explain it -- I think I just don't care for that aw-shucks thing he had going on. But in my defense, one of my top Hitch picks was one in which he plays a starring (and very non-aw shucks) role.

everyone should check this out with sound

http://s158645047.onlinehome.us/video_5290_10558.html?sid=5290&aid=10558%3e

I have a request for the Boodle: Can people spend maybe 5 minutes thinking of their favorite boodle comment of recent weeks/months (and it can be more than 1 comment) and email it to me? Send it to achenbachj@washpost.com....I'm going to do a kit that's all about the boodle. THANKS.

So did she get a real job after that selling rugs or what? Somebody posted on the previous window about hearing aids and how they don't pick up radio sound very well. I've just invested a lot of $ in a Phonak top of the line hearing aid. Is it worth big buck$? Yes and No! Having worked with audio long before I got into making pictures that talk, I was aware of what goes into good audio. The hearing aid biz is a mixed bag of letting you hear pretty well but for a gosh-awful high price. I still have less than 60 days to fiddle with it. So far, I would be $ ahead to rent a hearing aid, if there is such a thing. Or make a hearing aid by simply taking a Radio Shack utility amplifier, one or two earplugs (one is really enough) and a small mic. The frequency response of the little RS amp is 100 to 10kHz, which is more than enough to recover what I've been missing. Even then, most of my day is either spent with nearfield monitors, which tell me what I need to know for sound, or with headphones on location. And when I'm not doing that, I sit at a word processor by myself. No hearing aid needed. The only time I really need a hearing aid is when I'm in a meeting or at some seminar. Here, the Phonaks are pretty much undetectable, behind the ear. And now hear this!!! Since I've been using he hearing aids MY HEARING WITHOUT THEM HAS IMPROVED! Oh yes, I wear them at suppertime so I can hear my wife when she mumbles 30 feet away. And HEY, last night I had the HAs off and I DID hear her 20 feet away. Not as good as when I had my good ears or the HAs on, but good enough so I could reply to her! So I don't know! I will probably buy them. They cost over $5,000! Now then, in reply to why the radio sounds bad. Although I haven't got the tech specs on my HAs, I would be they are certainlyl less than 16 bits. 16 bits as you all is sort of the lowest but still good speech sound quality. Sure 24 bits is better and up the bit trail you go. I would say from the modulated shhhhhh digital static, these may be 12 bit. So now, the lower the bit rate, the more artifacts you will hear. That danged digital distortion that sounds like a very scratchy record playing back. Music playback is a strain on a hearing aid because it has to synthesize the music. Do hearing aids have MPEG? I don't know. But I'm looking into it. Mainly, they're good for speech. That's all I can say. Whew!

I'd pick North by Northwest over Vertigo. For starters, it has the important finishing scene, where the train goes through a tunnel as an obvious reference to sex.

Didn't Rebecca win an Oscar? What about The Birds? Where do the dyed in the wool Hitchcockians stand on those?

Left loonies are so funny. LIke a drunk dog chasing its tail. Consistently, they say "I don't read Charles Krauthammer, but he stinks." He is mean, but Al Franken is a literary genius. Ted Kennedy is nice and a good driver. Froomkin is unbias, even tempered and doesn't really worship AL Gore's clothes on Saturday nights when his doll deflates. I hate Bush, waaaaah. Consistent liberal whines. It is amazing that the republicans, as disorganized as they are, will wipe the floor with these nutjobs.

Thank you for your thoughful and respectful comment, Karen. When you calm down, we'd like to hear more.

Wish I could make a BPH, but I'm not in DC enough. I did have to make a delivery downtown and played hooky long enough to take some cherry blossom pictures and panda shots (not at the same time). Butterstick was napping in the top of a tree, but mom was pretty active.

SonofCarl, Rebecca was a great movie, but I think I liked the book so much that I don't really embrace the movie wholeheartedly. It doesn't match the elaborate picture I built up in my mind of what Manderley looked like.

The Birds is just plain scary. And creepy. Did I mention scary? ...hiding in closet now...

[poking head out of closet]: Karen, I believe Valium in the giant economy size is on special at the RiteAid this week...

Okay fine.

That's all very good. But what he have here is something different:

Joel hands out the popcorn and says, Today I'm going to show you the K-F foodfight, and you each can make up your own mind who won. Won't that be fun? Meanwhile there is a war going on, and there is the nightmare of race in America and there is the filth perpetrated by the Ben Domenechs and so on, and that all goes on. And people quite rightly ignore Joel on this, because they recognize he's just promoting his colleague Krauthammer, and they recognize something is happening politically at the Post, so they take the popcorn and switch the channel. Fine. But you're not going to tell me there's anything grand and spiritual about that. From the Post's point of view we're the couch-potato demographic, midway between the reds and the blues. That's the vision. I say that's the bad art, worthy of discussion.

the above 5:27 is a reply to Tim, forgot to mention

About the request for favorite Boodle comments: Don't be modest. Say, yo, Joey, this is one I was kinda proud of. The way you know I am proud of all my crab-grass kits and my carbucks kits and so on.

karen:
just curious, what are "consistent liberal whines?" do you mean whiners? did you mispell a fermented beverage made from grapes? perhaps, "complaints" would work?
and if "wiping the floor" consists of two very close elections and a slim congresional majority...

Badger, I will resist the urge to engage in a debate on your point -- partly because I don't really understand what you're saying -- but twice now you've mentioned my "colleague" Krauthammer and you say I'm just "promoting" him, and I just hope everyone knows that Mr. Krauthammer is not my colleague any more than George Will is my colleague or any of those other syndicated columnists of the Washington Post Writers Group. They don't work in the building, I've never seen them here once in 15 years, and I doubt they consider themselves "Washington Post" employees. I posted the Krauthammer piece because (drum roll)....I thought it was interesting. I am not clear on why you think there is some grander agenda here. This is what we do here. It's like, "Hey, did you see the piece about the ..." You seem to think that by posting a piece about Krauthammer having a dispute with Fukuyama I am somehow distracting people from the more important issues of the day, such as ... um, the war. Even though that's what they were arguing about. So I'm hopelessly confused. Which is a good sign that I should skeedaddle from the Boodle for now.

Good info on the hearing aids. They are expensive, and I've only got the really inexpensive one. I can only use a certain kind, the loudest one they make, and still the sound is not the best. But I'm happy to have it, and thank the good people of my church for buying it for me.

Is the porching hour today?

Nani, another great story, you need to write a book. It's the end of the month, and I can understand what your sister was going through. Here the cupboards are bare, and no money to buy any food. Times can get desperate, and for me, that seems to be my life story. It was that way when my children were small, and now that there is only me, the same story. I can understand now what my mother went through trying to raise my sisters and me. I can imagine so much of her illness was due to stress and lack, high blood pressure and heart disease. Hunger in the richest country in the world. I hope your sister has seen some improvement in her life.

Movies That Belong In A Best Of List Somewhere: Repo Man; Diva; Das Boot (subtitled, b/c the English overdubbed version is like watching Gamera);Return of the Mushroom People...

After that extremely long post, Joel, I know you're going to stick around for the response? I can never write a long post without sticking around to see if someone comments on it. And I get kinda upset if no one does. Does that happen to you?

If the porching hour is today, have a good time and enjoy yourselves, and I'll have the coffee with cream and sugar, thank you.

Boston Blackie, I didn't think that hearing aids were digitized. I had assumed that if they were equipped with any sort of noise reduction, it would be done in analog. However, I have no technical expertise, I'm just saying that this is what I would have expected. You wouldn't want to just amplify ambient sound with a cheapo device unless you have a low-pass filter of some sort.

My grandfather was a hearing-aid salesman, yonks ago. I won't malign the particular brand of hearing aid, but a former girlfriend/audiology student (the one who worked in the movie theater) had no kind words for his brand.

I can't really email but I would like to state that I really liked Achenfan's rant:

Posted by: Achenfan | March 25, 2006 07:12 PM

I'm also kinda fond of the lady submariner picture EF posted, but that's probably not what you had in mind...

SonofCarl is right that Navy men, at least British and Canadian ones, generally rate the Cruel Sea as the greatest navy movie, ahead of even Das Boot.

I presume these are in your list:
Seven Samurai
Dr Strangelove

The recent German movie about Hitler's last days, Downfall (Der Untergang), went straight into my own top ten. Brilliant and super-accurate.

The Shawshank Redemption was one of the best US films I've seen in a longish while.

The Tolkein movies are great, but I pity kids for whom the books will be forever spoiled. Instead of using their own imaginations as they read, their mind's eye will inevitably see scenes from the movie.
I plan to make sure my son gets the chance to read the books BEFORE seeing the movies.

There is some truly remarkable digital hearing aid work being done. One technique involves creating a sensor based upon the hinged ear of an insect. This sensor gives amazing results in a tiny package. (A "high-gain fractional wavelength receiver.") Also, there is work on a model which exploits both ears ("dipole array processing") although that technique requires the two hearing aids to communicate with each other. Anyway, it is a rapidly advancing field, so those of you who took David Bowie's advice on the "Ziggy Stardust" album have some hope.

A "mood" when applied to grammar is usually a verb form, I think. I only know this because as an editor and occasional compostion teacher, I usually had a lecture to give about the "subjunctive mood," which is often misused -- reserved for describing hypothetical situations, somestimes involves "would...," etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive_mood

W

double entered boot...geek of the week

It's one thing to watch Citizen Kane - but to truly appreciate it, you need to study it. Buying the DVD helps and then doing some research online. Mine has two feature-length audio commentaries and an extra DVD entitled: "The Battle Over Citizen Kane". There were so many amazing innovations in that movie - with the lighting, and the camera angles and the types of lenses used and the microphones, etc.

Here's one surprise: In C-Kane you actually see the CEILINGS in the rooms. That was extremely rare back then - and probably even more so today. Orson covered the sound stages with a thin cloth (perhaps painted?) to resemble a natural ceiling. And then he put the microphones above the "fake" ceilings - and often used very low camera angles.

Anyway - it's a great movie. Buy the DVD with all the extras...

(I also think "12 Angry Men" was an amazing movie.)

As one of the Post's more obnoxious pundits, I think Krauthammer is a decent subject for a blog among Post readers, but I would not limit it to what he said about Fukuyama. Who cares about Fukuyama? The best way to respond to lightweights who take themselves as seriously as Fukuyama does is to ignore them.

I, for one, take umbrage at the simple fact that Joel won't up and admit that his real agenda is to use the name Fukuyama as many times as possible.

RD, thanks for bringing up the picture linked by EF again. See my haiku (apparently actually a senryu) of Mar 27, 4:40.

Since I won't be here to rant about Springing Ahead, let me say how much I hate the time change, forward especially...For this one I'll be jet-lagged and geographically disoriented anyway, so maybe I won't even notice it much...

Have a good boodling time - see y'all next week!

Mostlylurking, that a society which semiannually issues a legislative fiat with no discernable goal but to disrupt the circadian rhythm of its populace dares to call itself civilized will eternally amaze me. Somewhere I recall reading that this whole thing was Benjamin Franklin’s idea. Doubtless arrived at soon after that kite and lightening-bolt incident.

If you can't email me you can just state right here in the Boodle what comment deserves some extra glory. THANKS.

Cassandra, I do peek to see if someone is responding to my comment, but then I slap myself and realize that that's being boodle-obsessive. In today's society we have to guard against having too many disparate conversational threads going at once, including those on blogs. There is serenity in unplugging. But yeah, of course I look. Can't help it.

>RD, thanks for bringing up the picture linked by EF again.

heh, the poor guy who runs that ufoseries.com site is probably spending his rent money on bandwidth charges by now.

I can forget about waking up in the dark the first time I walk out of the office and it's bright outside! I love to Spring forward. Bring it on!

Oh, and Joel.. anything I've ever posted is most definitely worthy of a "Best of.." don't you think?

Don't you?

Joel, just as long as you have never felt the desire to check out your Amazon ranking in the middle of the night. Then we might be worried.

Hope I have noticed all the replies. Cassandra. Glad your church has helped you. Yes, hearing is a great gift. Tim: The biggest selling tout now in hearing aids is digital. There have been a huge flurry of HA ads for digital. Indeed, they are digital. However I inferred that digital is not the entire answer. Analog HA, if there is such a thing made nowadays, would not be a choice. Digital does null out background noise. However the quality of the sound depends on the bit rate and processing. And I went into that already. Having said all that, that little Radio Shack analog amplifier has very low noise. And it would be a cheap option, if a person didn't mind calling attention to himself with a dangling earphone. Then again, lots of people walk around with earphones connected to all kinds of media nowadays. I'd estimate the do-in-yourself hearing aid using RS components would run you about $50. And when you don't have it sticking in your ear, you can use the power amplifier to boost most any audio source.

Joel, You'd have to calm down and read that in the context of the discussion I was having with Storyteller Tim. I won't go over the whole thing here. He thought bad art is just as worthy of discussion as good art, but for different reasons. Just because its art. (That point too arose in the context of an earlier comment by someone else, who said politics is more important than movies, but that's neither here nor there). And I said, Well why why couldn't you consider a trivial show like the K-F foodfight bad art and thus just as worthy of discussion ? Or the Brady "balance and buzz" media strategy which puts everyone in red or a blue box, or some other box. If I had known you would be critiquing, I would have spelled this out more. Promoting the K-F foodfight is trivializing the war, and putting intelligent readers in a red or blue box, or some other box, and then going for the buzz--that is also a trivializing: of your readers. I guess it was a little too clever by half for me to put this to Storyteller Tim in the context of that art-politics discussion, but there you are. I guess what set you off was "colleague", by which I only meant that both of you contribute to the Washington Post Co bottom line, and I guess there is only one entity by that name? And I guess your other point is the one about me suggesting "some grand strategy". That's a pretty good debater's phrase, but I'm with you, I can't imagine what you mean by it.

I will not abide any further comments of neocons having a crisis of confidence. Sean Hannity is holding the line, and unburdened by introspection. Perhaps we will be treated tonight to more footage of him on horseback, patrolling the border in search of future felons. It's your chance to watch two horses rear ends going away.

JA, I nominate 'Mudge's magnum opus about the British sonic disruption device that caused the New Madrid earthquake.

Joel, I don't think there's any question but that bc's Harriet Miers letter to George Bush was the single best/funniest piece in the history of the boodle (no offense to anyone else, but the best any of the rest of us can do is 2nd place).

I will immediately accept "The Cruel Sea" into the Canon. Several people have suggested Das Boot, which is undeniably a very good flick, but I wonder if it isn't just too long (and god knows, for me to suggest something is too long is highly ironic). But I think it goes on too long, and could be cut by at least half an hour. Also, it's such a downer. Probably neither "flaw" (if that's what they are) should automatically disqualify it. Lemme mull it over.

Before I read today's topic, some belated offerings on yesterday's Basque/Bakersfield thread -- Mudge asked, What's Basque food?

The quintessential Basque dish is lamb stew, from the tougher, tastier cuts at the front of the animal. Leg of lamb is certainly in Basque food, but at Bakersfield it's more like the shoemaker's kids going barefoot, with the shepherd getting the cheapest cuts.

LL must have mistyped when she wrote Basque food in Bakersfield is expensive. The word is *IN*expensive.

CowTown obviously ate at Noriega Hotel, with benches and family style whether you're with a group of by yourself. Wool Growers has that, but also booths and tables for individuals and smaller groups.

Back to regularly scheduled programming.

Still catching up. Moods. Back in jr & high school, I learned French. Still know the grammar, although the vocabulary is long gone. At the time I thought grammar meant what's the subject, object, etc. Diagramming a sentence. Duh. Really stupid stuff, and no wonder nobody wanted to learn (or teach) it. Then I encountered this wonderland of ways of looking at reality -- is something that happened in the past, that might have happened in the past, that will happen in the future, that is happening now, that might happen in the future, that might be happening now....? This was all called Grammar, but to me it was a new way of lookin at reality, like one's first acid trip. Much more than a detail of learning a language. I usually use subjunctive in ordinary speech, and get some looks of recognition, more blank looks.

I would second the nomination of Mudge's treatise on the Sonic Disrupter. The April NatGeo arrived in the snail mail this p.m.. Kudos to you , Joel, for a job well done. Perhaps mucus could be the subject of the next science kit; that piece was the silver lining to the darker articles in the aforementioned issue.

[Science]Tim makes a good comparison of opinionaters like Krauthammer and Fukiyama, to scientists. When the scientist predicts the apple will fall from the tree, and then it goes sideways instead, clearly his models of apples, trees, and gravity all should be questioned. However, the scientist is likely to have used a "standard" tree and apple, which enables focusing on the remaining assumptions. When the neo-con blowhards' predictions don't pan out, there's no way to know what needs to be re-examined, because they were totally dreaming, and the whole world history they thought they were analyzing and predicting happened entirely inside their head, with almost no correspondence to the real world.

Figments of their own imaginations,jg...Doesn't that circle tend toward creating their own reality? Maybe they don't know what defines mood.

Whaddya think about Krauthammer's view of American culture?

"We like our McDonald's. We like our football. We like our rock-and-roll. We've got the Grand Canyon and Graceland. We've got Silicon Valley and South Beach. We've got everything. And if that's not enough, we've got Vegas--which is a facsimile of everything. What could we possibly need anywhere else?...."

Is this possibly because so many Americans have found Jesus, Mohammed or Mammon, and therefore have so few other needs that kitsch like that is enough?

My grandfather was poor (night watchman), in Chicago, but would spend his entertainment budget on Wagner at the Lyric Opera twice a year. If he had been raised with TV (which we didn't have until I was 14), would he have ever heard of Wagner? I think a lot of the current decline of civilization results from having a population where nearly everybody was raised with TV, the major part of the advertising industry.

Has anyone else read about the earthquake-stopping machine? Although I don't have the source with me right now, the article quoted extensively from a book by two scientists. They claim, from lab experiments, to have stopped earthquake movements before they became earthquakes. It was fascinating. You see, earthquakes move slowly at a very low frequency before they erupt and tear apart the earth's surface. By taking the same low frequency as the earthquake and adjacent frequencies, which are aimed at the earthquake, its movement is stopped. Something like a laser, except a laser is at a very high frequency and the laser would cause damage in itself. Fascinating! Can't recall the names of the scientists however. Something like Jarvis and Holter comes to mind. (BB)

I've been on the lam recently doing taxes for people so I'm way behind in lurking. I read this kit and boodle just to catch up and I'm glad to say things are "cooking" as normal.

I read that New Yorker piece that MyDD was crucifying your comments on, Joel, (have to check the 3/22 kit) and liked your remarks. Thought you nailed it. Those commentors just don't get it as someone else observed. Obviously they are not kit/boodlelurkers. They need to get a sense of humor.

I agree with your comments on DST, RD Padouk.

Back after April 17th. I haven't been keeping up so can't nominate a best of boodle comments but will have to search out Mudge's earthquake comments (New Madrid fault within 600 miles) and also Archenfan's rant. I did like bc's Harriet Miers letter.

bdl

Tea update for RD Padouk:

I still haven't tried pantyhose tea, RD, but today I visited the Museum of Tea Ware in Hong Kong Park. (I'd also hoped to visit the aviary there, but it's closed until further notice as a safety precaution because of the avian flu. I could hear the inmates trilling away, totally oblivious to bird flu concerns, and I could spot the odd individual flitting around in the distance, but I couldn't Observe them up-close. So frustrating!)

Anyway, there was a teahouse in an annex to the museum, so I decided to stop in for a spot of elevenses. They offered an extensive menu of green, black, red, white, and floral teas as well as a more modest selection of vegetarian dim sum items. Not wanting to end up with anything too strong or bitter, I chose a peach jasmine tea from the floral list.

[Do stop me if you've heard this one already, but it was new to me.]

A stemmed glass was set in front of me, and a tin-foil packet was brought to my table in a basket. The packet was ceremoniously cut and its contents -- a single brown object that looked like a cross between an acorn and a rosebud [Citizen Kane tie-in] -- were deposited in the glass. I thought, Oh dear, this is going to be bl**dy awful, I'm not going to be able to drink it, and I'll feel rude and embarrassed. I tried to stay calm, reminding myself that I could hardly have expected a diet peach Snapple.

When the water was poured into the glass, I almost didn't want to look, but then I noticed a couple of large bubbles emerging from the bud. A bright crimson flower peeked out of the top of the bud, like a small raspberry, while the bottom expanded and began to resemble an olive-green-colored sea anemone. The thing continued to bloom before my eyes, underwater in my glass. The end product looked a bit like a Waratah flower [the state flower of New South Wales, Australia].

RD, this was the most visually stunning beverage I've ever had that wasn't a cocktail. I thought, I don't care how bad it tastes -- it's so pretty! (Is that tea-ist?) When the liquid in the glass darkened a little, I tentatively sniffed it and sipped. (I wasn't actually 100 percent sure I was *supposed* to drink it, as opposed to just admire it -- I kept thinking someone was going to rush over to tell me to stop drinking the water from the centerpiece.)

I was relieved to taste nothing but a subtle, refreshing jasmine flavor. Such contentment. There were individual electric hotplates at each table to ensure a bottomless supply of hot water for topping up one's tea. I could have sat there all day appreciating that tea and reading quietly by the window, which looked out on to some of the park's tropical plants.

Oh, and the dim sum: I had two steamed vegetable dumplings, which, of course, were delicious -- semi-transparent spearmint-green colored crescents filled with juicy but firm chopped vegetables. I thought, this is my reward for having fish fingers for dinner last night. Yin and yang, or something.

[I don't think I've ever spent so long raving on about a cup of tea. But this one was literally worth writing home about. Or 'boodling about -- same diff.]

[And as I said, although this experience was new to me, I realize it's possible that everyone else already knows about this special flower tea -- maybe it's been available at Starbucks for the past five years, served with pink sugar crystals on top. Conceivable?]

[I probably should start looking for a job soon, eh?]

Oops, forgot one element of the story:

I'm guessing that thing that sprouted in my glass was a peach blossom. (D'ya think?)

I'm going to have to do some research to figure out how it was able to bloom and color like that despite coming out of its packet looking so old and dry and brown.

[Or did I just dream the whole thing?]

Also a beer update, in honor of bc's and 'mudge's Rogue Porching Hour (RPH):

Recently at a Chinese restaurant I was served a Tsing-Tao beer not in a glass but in a ceramic *bowl*, identical to the bowls the soup and rice were served in. (InconCE--- bah; it's conceivable.) At first I felt a little weird drinking beer out of a bowl (had to keep reminding myself to keep my pinky finger tucked in), but I think I could get used to it. Perhaps the Achenbro could be inspired to come up with a recipe for beer-bowl chicken? I know it wouldn't be as special as the beer-butt variety, but it might do for a quick Sunday night dinner when he didn't want to go to quite as much trouble.

I might have accidentally eaten pig's intestine whilst at the restaurant. I thought it was cabbage, but when I bit into it, it felt kind of rubbery. (Actually, the beer was the best part of *that* particular meal.)

(The Chinese have a reputation for not wasting any part of the animal. Hard to argue with that, although when I saw ducks' heads for sale at a local fast food joint, I thought that was going a bit far. And they were creepy: Although the eyes had been removed, there were still these small black dots in the eye sockets, so it seemed as thought the body-less duck was looking at you.)

SCC:
As though the body-less duck were looking, not as thought the body-less duck was looking.

[Do I win a prize for most macabre SCC entry ever?]

OK, so I didn't dream that tea.
Here's something I found on the Internet [and it turns out that pink flower is *dyed*!]:

Peach Blossom Green with Jasmine

Peach Blossom Green with Jasmine is a "display" tea. It is meant to be enjoyed not only for its taste, but for its appearance as well. This tea is made from quality spring-picked leaves, then hand-tied into beautiful blossoms surrounding a central pink-dyed chrysanthemum flower and scented with jasmine. It is a fool-proof tea to prepare. Simply place an entire blossom in a glass, add hot water and enjoy. An 8-12 oz. wineglass will show the tea at its best, and is ideal for savoring its delicate taste. Peach Blossom Green with Jasmine can be enjoyed throughout a meal, simply adding additional hot water as needed. It won't become bitter from over-steeping, even after several hours of infusion.

jg,
Thanks for the correction about Basque food. Basque food is *in*expensive. I shouldn't have posted anything yesterday, given how I felt. This morning, I 'm beginnig to suspect strep throat.

I saw yesterday where Washington Post assisstant managing editor Robert Kaiser conducted another online chat--yesterday's topic about the resignation of White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. During the chat, Kaiser recognized another "cousin" from Michigan (I believe it was).

Why can't Kaiser share whether or not we're related? I called Kaiser's office at the Washington Post, left a message on his answering machine, with both my home phone and e-mail address--and the question of whether Kaiser is a Loomis descendant of simply attended Loomis Chaffee? Would it somehow lessen Kaiser to share or divulge that info, which ever of the two possible answers is correct? (Although calling me today would be a bad idea, as I can barely speak above a squawk or a whisper.)

I understand that NYT op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman will speak at Loomis Chaffee on April 6. I wonder what he will say to those kids of affluence, given that annual tuition is about $30,000? How will Friedman tell those children how best to prepare for the future? (Two kids at the school are there for the year, with all tuition paid, because they are from New Orleans and were caught in Katrina's fury.)

Interesting the MYdd.com exchange. The founder of Mydd.com as well as the founder of DailyKos.com were on the Diane Rehm NPR radio show Monday talking about blogging in general and Ben Domenech at wapo.com in particular.

From the peripheral point-of-view:
Can I stick in Brazil for consideration? Of course you have to take in the state of movies at the time. Don't throw things at me...
A case could, perhaps, be made for Bladerunner as well. It was among the first Phillip K. Dick to make the mainstream.
Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
I guess it's most amazing at all that there ARE great movies. How could that happen?

I'm also trying to figure out a post from March 16 around 5:20 p.m.--basically a recipe for a roux, but signed "en treatemente foix graux." It's been in the back of my mind, like fingers drumming on a tabletop.

Can anyone translate the French? Does the "foix graux" have anything to do with Joel's book about "Aliens"? If it doesn't relate to Joel's writings, the case certainly could be made that it has much has much to do with old European bloodlines.

Who would give a simple recipe and then sign it with a myterious French handle? Mudge? Shiloh? A Boodle mystery...

Best Movie (they come as a pair):
Jean de Florette
Manon of the Spring

I'd like to offer the Observation that Achenfan's Peach Blossom Green with Jasmine tea was possibly rather more caffeinated than would be expected...

:-)

Thank you so much for the info about the tea. Periodically in my life I become interested in new topics to the point of obsession. This list has included Australian wine, succulents and cacti, Russian Dwarf Hamsters, digital signal processing, stained glass, hand wood working, tropical fish, home-made lava lamps, sea monkeys, and lasers. I plan on adding tea.

ScienceTim, yes this was my older sister. I was the one everyone thought would be a beatnik, bohemian or eccentric "loser", while Claudia was prim, proper, practical and perfect. (Some Saturdays, she didn't even need to go to Confession she explained because she hadn't committed any sins.) She never read books, didn't care one way or another about film and except for the fact that she (and I) played piano, never exhibited an artistic bone in her body until her late twenties. Then all hell broke loose, something sparked her imagination, she quit her job, left her husband (and married and divorced 2 more times)started painting and it was beautiful. Please indulge me long enough to tell another story about her. Growing up, we simply didn't like each other. We had absolutely nothing in common, fought about everything, never played together, we hardly knew each other. Late one summer night, rather the wee hours of the morning, I awoke to hear her down in the parlor playing Schubert's Serenade oh so softly on the old upright piano Grandmother left us. It was so quiet, everyone sleeping, just the night sounds and that beautiful beautiful music. I lay still, listening, wanting it never to stop. At that moment I loved her with all my heart and soul. The next morning things were back to normal, she called me a little creep, I called her Miss Perfect. I never told her about that night, didn't want to invade what was obviously a private moment, but often wondered what compelled her. My wonderfully strange sister Claudia died 10 years ago of an inoperable brain tumor.

Achenfan - I really enjoy your letters from Hong Kong. I hope that you are keeping track of them. I enjoy reading them in the morning while I sip my coffee. (Although I am considering a switch to Irish Breakfast Tea.)

Linda, "en treatemente foix graux" is butchered French, maybe somebody is having us on, or just spelling off the top of his head.

"foie gras" means "fat liver" in French, as in "pâté de foie gras"--a paste made with goose liver, prized for its high fat content.

Oh Nani, such a heartbreaking story. As someone with three siblings who often fought, I know that beneath the deepest sibling acrimony there is love. I hope that you always hold on to that beautiful memory.

Oh Nani, how can you make me cry so early in the morning?

I hope you and your sister became friends later in life. My sisters are three of the most important people in my life. My best friends, my strongest allies, my partners in taking care of ailing parents.

Did you end up with any of your sister's paintings?

Ah, siblings! Being the child of my father's second marriage, I had been carefully told that my two older siblings were my half-brothers. My mother was surprised when I, at age 7, asked her for a whole brother. She told me to ask God, and I suppose I did, because the next spring, he was born. She told me later that it wasn't because they were trying...Being 8 years apart, we never fought much because we were in such different places, but he's a great guy and we've always been good friends. The moral of this story is to be careful what you pray for, you might get it!

TBG, no we never became friends. I became her mother figure (our mother passed away when we were teens). It's real complicated. I just have one of her paintings that she created at my request. A moonlit night scene at my Aunt Dora and Uncle Claude's farm, barn, windmill, shadows, sky, lots of blues and grays.

Someone mentioned Notorious. Mother sketched a pattern, copied and sewed the same ensemble Ingrid Bergman wore in the opening scenes of Notorious for one of Claudia's prom dresses. Of course, she was the belle of the ball.

nani, condolences on the loss of your sister.

I had an "opposite sister" too--looking back I think we didn't speak to each other for years at a time. Now, however, whenever we spend time together we continually surprise each other with how similar we are.

I'm sure your sister knew that you loved her, even when there was name calling and bickering.

Boston Blackie: you didn't, by any chance, read that article about the earthquake disruptor in the most recent (i.e. April) issue of an otherwise reputable science magazine, did you?

Nowhere on anyone's list did I see "Who'll Stop the Rain?", "La Nuit Americaine,(Day for Night)" or Roman Polanski's "Macbeth," to name the first few that come to mind. African Queen, anyone? "Nature, Mister Allnut, is what we are here to rise above..."

koromo-gae: clothes-changing [day] (Apr 1)
furu-kitsune deta old badger departed
Sayo-u-nara ! Farewell !

Achenfan, I'm a tad jealous of your experiences in HK, and I appreciate how well you write of them. I've tried growing peach trees, and imagining a dry old bud blossoming in your teaglass. Peach blossoms are quite pretty, IMO.

Glad you hoisted a bowl of Tsing-Tao, as far as drinking it out of a bowl, who 'mongst us hasn't drank the sticky-sweet milk from our Captian Crunch in this manner?

'Mudge, I'll admit that I felt pretty good about the Meiers and Bush Faux Letters, but wow, I'm a bit embarassed here. I think that everyone in this here Boodle has contributed something worthwhile to it.

Your Zelig-esque Curmudgeonly Really True Histories are great, even if I get to help tee you up sometimes...

Hmm. Searching through the Boodle for the past couple of months is going to take me more than 5 minutes, Joel, but I will endeavour to do so.

bc

Ah Nani.

I feel compelled to add that I've eaten Duck's feet at a Chinese resturant.

Little webbed feet, fried, with brown sauce. Really.

Tasted like chicken.

bc

Nani, I'm going to call both of my brothers today.

Thanks.

bc

Achenfan, it sounds so lovely. Are you sure there is not a way to make your continued personal travelogue of Hong Kong a job? You write so well, and its initmate moments like this that make a place come alive.

kbertocci,
Thanks for the explanation of "foix graux," for "fois gras."

Foix is a town in the Languedoc area of southwestern France, due east of Rennes-le-Chateau, which plays such a role in Knights Templar lore, and north of the Pyrennes.

Rennes-le-Chateau starts Baigent/Leigh's book, 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail" and figures prominently in Steve Berry's very recent book, "Templar Legacy," a work of fiction rising quickly on the best-seller lists.

King Ferdinand of Spain (of Isabella/Ferdinand, a union of the houses of Castile and Aragon, and Columbus fame) married as his second wife Germaine, daughter of John de Foix.

Isabella of Spain was the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, through his first marriage to Constance of Castile. I descend through John of Gaunt's third marriage.

Graux is another name for the le Gros bloodline, which figures in the history of early Norman/Plantagenet England.

This poster either inadvertently made a cute mistake or is far better versed in the history of the bloodlines of Europe than most. Hmmmm?

LindaLoo, so you're descended from Catherine Swinford? Now there was a girl who made the best of a bad situation...and came way, way up in the world. At least that's what I remember from the novel.

Oh, Nani, I am so sorry about your sister, and even though you fought a lot, you still have good memories. My sister smoked like a chimney, and died a couple of years ago. I still miss her, and we fought a lot too. My baby sister called me this morning, and we talked, God is good.

Joel, I believe the story Nani wrote about her and Mr. Nani is good,the one where they're playing chess, and the post by Mudge describing Democrats and Republicans is excellent. Don't remember the dates, sorry. Thanks for getting back, Joel.

And to the poster that mentioned Jesus, I believe in Jesus, and it is my hope that all of you do too. Christ is my portion in this life, and the life to come, and He can be yours too. Have a great day everyone, and may God bless you more than you can imagine, through His Son, Jesus.

Slyness,
Yes--Katherine de Roet Swynford (various spellings)

What novel (fictional work) I might ask? Again, I'm relying on you as I did for Jonathan Edwards' wife's biography...

Achenfan: I agree with dr. There's a freelance writer who submits a column called "Postcard from Paris" to the LA Times about once a week. It's facinating, and particularly fun for readers who have visited Paris at some time in their lives. Perhaps you could get the WP to sponsor "Postcards from Hong Kong." I look forward to your posts.

Nani: In my mind is a long soliloquy about how your life experiences have enriched your life, but my prose just comes out forced and callow. Let me just say, sincerely: Thank you for sharing with us.

Nani writes on March 27:
If it's not too naive of me, Lindaloo, could you possibly get an audience with Archbishop Gomez and tell him of your quest and seek his guidance? Could you federal express him a letter? (I used to work at Koehler's BBQ, close to downtown and we had a Bishop visit us once. The cafe was buffet style and he stood in line like everyone else until one of line ladies, Theresa, recognized him and blew his cover. Of course, he wasn't on the level of an archbishop, but.....)

Nani:
I know you're trying to be helpful to me and I appreciate that ever so much.

But my take on the Holy Roman Catholic Church is thus:

Men created the institution of the church.
Men governed the institution of the church.
Also man's creation is whatever more is made of that institution.
I think of the Roman Catholic Church as evil incarnate--one need only think of the none Crusades to the Holy Land, the Albigensian Crusade, the Spanish Inquisition.

There are many other versions of the Christ tale besides the synoptic gospels--the Carpocratians, the Essenes, the Naassenes, the Gnostic, along with a hundred or more emerging sects a millenium or so after Christ's death.

I never seek guidance from men, Nani, their advice having been so bad in the past. It is the extremely rare occasion when I even seek my own husband's opinion, so Archbishop Gomez, locally, is very nmuch out of the question. Do you know how much Opus Dei is protesting the release of the movie made from Dan Brown's book?

Religion is sort of like a lift in your shoes. If it makes you feel better, fine. Just don't ask me to wear your shoes.--George Carlin

Omigosh, it was a looong novel my mother had...I think the name was Katherine...it was a popular work in the 40's, maybe. I don't recall who wrote it, but it was a fun read. Try looking at used books, because I bet it's out of print.

You know, of course, that Katherine's sister Philippa married Geoffrey Chaucer. In the short-term, Katherine did better by being John of Gaunt's mistress and then his third wife, but Philippa's husband is now regarded as one of the greatest poets in English...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155652532X/ref=sib_rdr_dp/002-5746919-4184002?%5Fencoding=UTF8&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&no=283155&st=books&n=283155

Slyness, I think I found the book at amazon.com, the title being "Katherine." I Boodled on Valentine's Day about Chaucer being my distant great-uncle by marraige and introducing St. Valentine, in a romantic, rather than Catholic context, into the English language.

That's it, Linda! Wish my memory recall was better. Now that I see it, I remember the author and now that you mention it, I remember that you talked about your relationship to Chaucer...

Lindaloo, I didn't ask you to walk in my shoes. We are all entitled to our own beliefs, and I respect yours.

Joel, just off the top of my head, I nominate Mudge's hilarious parody of Hoagie Carmichael's "Stardust". (Wanted to post it here but couldn't find it. If anyone has time and the inclination to help, if you can find it and post it, I'd be grateful).

You think Loomis had a relationship with Chaucer? It was ME who was the one who had to sharpen his *&^%$# quills for him, back when I was a young copy desk clerk on the Canterbury Intelligencer-Bee. The garrolous old fool kept calling me "Boy" and sending me out for mead all the time (I have to admit he could work pretty well with half a bag on).

"Roman Catholic Church as evil incarnate?" A little harsh. Not into Candide territory, but still a little cold.

Mudge, you must write your recollections of going on to work with him again at the Customs Office. I'm sure historians are waiting with bated breath for that account!

Seriously, RD. My future bro-in-law's a priest, and although he swears when I kick his butt in Trivial Pursuit, I've never noticed a tail.

'Mudge;

Must have been some pretty chewy mead if he was taking it straight out of the bag...

And at least you didn't have to harvest the octopi for the ink.

To say that evil people have belonged to a given group, therefore that group is evil is wrong. This is the false logic of hate mongering. We can do better.

CowTown offered up some creative stories back in the day. More, please!

I cranked out a fair to middlin' item once involving coffee and meeting a source in a parking garage. Prof. CowTown gave me an A for it, although it was probably, at best, a B+.

I enjoyed some of Curmudgeon's political rants last week. I think it was last week. Time flies, you know.

And I may be getting a bit sentimental and all weepy, and goin' Oprah on y'all with "feelings" and "moods" and such, but I miss The Lonewolf.

Nani,
You didn't ask me to walk in your shoes, but you suggested I talk to someone who represents--perhaps obliquely, your faith. I find Archbishop Gomez ridiculous--as I would find any archbishop, regardless of last name. The power he pretends to assume, the costuming, the idolatry in the church, the golden excess of most altars, all the rituals--large and small.

In my opinion, if one has a god, then bricks and mortar are unnecessary. If one has a god, then prescribed rituals of behavior are unnecessary. Real relion should be liberating, and should allow men and women to think for themselves and find their own divinity within.

I think Paul Tillich comes close to how I think and feel about religion: "Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to recive answers, even if the answers hurt."

I promise to stop bloghogging and get busy with my work. Want to say thanks to everyone who said nice things about my comments. (I have trouble accepting compliments and usually don't even say "thank you") And Cassandra, sister of my heart, it took weeks of daily postings here in this amazing blog before anyone responded to me. And when I win the lottery, I'm gonna get you one of those hearing aids Boston Blackie writes about. Wow $5000.00! Someone's making a killing at hearing impaired folks'expense).

>And I may be getting a bit sentimental and all weepy... but I miss The Lonewolf.

I'll second that. And add Shiloh, Eurotrash and K-guy.

Perhaps I am being a bit defensive. I have been told that I work for an organization that is evil and for a government thet is evil. I have been informed that my gender, race, and income level make me evil. Now I am told that the religion of my youth and of many of my friends and family is evil.
Good golly, clearly I am a Beast.
I like to think it is how a person acts that defines goodness. Clearly it has more to do with checking the right boxes on your census form.

That was me at 10:47, of course. Gonna go calm down now. Maybe go score some swag for TBG.

Padouk writes:
"Roman Catholic Church as evil incarnate?" A little harsh. Not into Candide territory, but still a little cold.

Padouk, are you not thinking of the millions who were slaughtered in the name of the risen Christ? During the Albigensian Crusade alone, 15,000 men, women and children were burned to death for simply denying the the teachings of the crucifixion. The Inquisition murdered millions more. The Holy Land Crusades costs hundreds of thousands of lives. All for the so-called risen Christ. My ancestors had roles in the various Crusades.

Slyness, I think you're tripping up Mudge by mentioning the Customs office. *laughing, quite hard*

It's probably late in the 'Boodle, so here's something from comedian Andy Borowitz ...

March 28, 2006
BARRY BONDS DEMANDS DRUG TESTS FOR JOURNALISTS

Claims Latest Steroids Books Were Written On Steroids

San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who has been resolutely silent while allegations of
steroid use have swirled around him, broke his silence today by demanding drug tests for all
baseball journalists.

At a press conference at the Giants' spring training facility, Mr. Bonds claimed that such tests
were necessary because most of the recent books about steroid use in baseball were written by
journalists on steroids.

"In the 1970's there were no books about steroid use, and now a new one comes out every week,"
Mr. Bonds said. "The only way to explain such an extreme increase in production is that these
writers are obviously juiced."

Mr. Bonds' charges drew an immediate rebuttal from Carol Foyler, a spokesperson for the Baseball
Writers Association of America, who denied that baseball journalists were on steroids and
instead attributed their increased production to advancements in nutrition and training.

"Having said that, it is not unusual for writers to use dietary supplements to complete
manuscripts when they are under a writing deadline," Ms. Foyler said. "If some of those
supplements turned out to be steroids, then journalists could have been taking steroids without
even knowing it."

For his part, Mr. Bonds said that if any writers break sales records with their books while on
steroids, those records should not stand.

"If any of these books make the New York Times bestseller list, they should have an asterisk
after them," he said.

Elsewhere, President Bush urged legal status for 11 million illegal aliens in the hopes that
some of them will approve of the job he is doing as President.

Padouk writes:
To say that evil people have belonged to a given group, therefore that group is evil is wrong. This is the false logic of hate mongering. We can do better.

I myself was rather happy when Henry VIII came along. Let the historical record stand.

Joel, when you mention The Lonemule in your Boodle Kit, please remember that STINKS is typed in all caps.

I don't think you can include the best of the Boodle without him (her?).

My husband's hearing aids cost as much. He is pretty much deaf without them.

I know I should let this go...

Mr. Badger, you mention that perhaps you were too subtle for Joel. Perhaps I, too, was too obscure. Let me spell it out. Politics is about negotiating the incompatible needs, wants, and desires of persons. There can be no society of more than one person without some form of politics. Politics always will be with us. I acknowledge all that. That said, there can be no meaningful politics without some apprehension of what our needs, wants, and desires are. Without a personal appreciation of what it means to be human, politics is arbitrary, nothing but meaningless noise. More importantly, polticial decisions made in an absence of personal humanity cannot be for the greater good of anyone, because they are decisions made for reasons divorced from the character of humanity and without recognizing its influence on human character.

Yes, I concur that politics is serious stuff. Yes, I know that there are people fighting and dying in Iraq, and elsewhere; that has not escaped me. I'm hardly indifferent to it. That doesn't make it evil to appreciate the ironies and idiocies that are involved in the political discussions about war. The Krauthammer-Fukuyama food fight is funny and ironic and sad precisely because it has descended to the level of petty bickering among persons whose bold and confident pronouncements were part of the drumbeat that led us to this wretched war. It is wretched precisely because the basis for engaging in war was an inhumane conception of how things "should be" with expectations that the world would be our obedient servant. The theorists of this war lost the connection to the reality of human lives as they are lived. They forgot that a conquered people do not necessarily take defeat lying down, and that people are willing to fight against overwhelming power rather than give up their cherished conception of themselves and of the world.

Art, and the discussion of art, even bad art, is one way in which we come to terms with our own existence in this world. It's not the only way, but it's a legitimate way. Ultimately, appreciating our own humanity and its relation to the humanity of others is the only basis for any kind of just politics.

So there. Whew!

Peace, Linda, peace! Surely God is not responsible for the evil that human institutions have wreaked on people. The atrocities you mention are the first reason I believe in God: that humans are innately imperfect and cannot do right on their own volition.

TBG - Good point.

And now, from the war on semicolons ...

“They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing.” - Kurt Vonnegut, from his new book, A Man Without a Country

(And to think I knew him back when he was "Jr.")

I love Vonnegut. No, I **LOVE** Vonnegut. But he is not my authority for punctuation. What does E.B. White say about semicolons?

I went to Amazon.com to search the Elements of Style, but got the following message:

=====
You have reached a page-viewing limit. For security purposes, we are not able to provide further information about the specific limit reached.
====

I'm kinda proud of this; I have used Amazon's Search Inside feature TO THE MAX!

That semicolon was intentional; I'm being a rebel.

Anyway, I could see enough to know that Strunk and White do not abhor the lowly semicolon. I'm sure it can generally be replaced with a period, but I think it is quite elegant in its proper place. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Elipses, however, are evil incarnate.

I look at religion as the rules by which we define our service or sometimes diservice to God. Much good, and much evil has been done in the name of relgion. The important thing, no matter how a person chooses to express it, is faith.

Beyond that, beyond religion, beyond faith, is how a person lives each day. I don't much care how religious a person might be, or how deep their faith is. What really matters is how a person chooses to treat their fellow man.

from //grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar

I have grown fond of semicolons in recent years. . . . It is almost always a greater pleasure to come across a semicolon than a period. The period tells you that that is that; if you didn't get all the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with a semicolon there you get a pleasant little feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer.

__ Lewis Thomas

O.M.G. I spelled ellipses wrong!! How can you be a smart-a** if you aren't even smart? Answer, can't. Back to the self-loathing corner for me.

Thank you so much, nellie!

By the way, anybody here who hasn't read Lewis Thomas's book Lives of A Cell, or any other book of essays he wrote (I can't remember the other titles)--highly recommended!!

Tim, thanks for not letting it go and making your wise and thoughtful comments on politics.

Do not malign the ellipses. They are important, particularly when quoting material where you want to skip the dull or irrelevant parts.

"I love my dog, hey, there's a squirrel, because he once saved my life."

"I love my dog ... because he once saved my life."

They're also useful for showing a dramatic ... pause.

“They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing.”

I swear I have read something like this before--expressed a little more eloquently. Something Victorian about how semicolons are a little "limp."

>Peace, Linda, peace! Surely God is not responsible for the evil that human institutions have wreaked on people.

Well that's where it gets confusing, because so many people tell us God is responsible for everything, and so many organizations purport to speak for Him. My observations lead me to believe if there is a "God" it's closer to the Vonnegut's "Church of The Utterly Indifferent God" than one who cares who you vote for, but that's just me.

It seems to me there's an even distribution of evil in all organizations, and people use the cover of their respective ancient writings or current authority figures to justify whatever they want, whether it's killing infidels in Afghanistan or drowning their babies in Texas. The difference between the organizations might as well be what side of the head you wear your baseball hat on.

I'm no fan of the Roman Catholic Church, (having escaped after 5 years of Catholic school) but I don't know how you measure the effect to the good or bad of something that affects individuals' behavior over centuries. How many lives were saved or bettered by the organization and authority the church brought to small villages? We can't know.

What we do know is maintaining it's own power is the central driving force of all of them. But that doesn't necessarily involve most or even many of their members to also be "evil".

Oh, and not to be an apologist for the Inquisition, but according to Wikipedia the "millions" killed was off by an order of magnitude. It was bad enough at that.

Here's something Bartleby.com spat out:

"Sometimes you get a glimpse of a semicolon coming, a few lines farther on, and it is like climbing a steep path through woods and seeing a wooden bench just at a bend in the road ahead, a place where you can expect to sit for a moment, catching your breath." _Lewis Thomas (He REALLY likes semicolons, apparently)

As for myself, I am a big fan of the semicolon, as well; they're like commas with something extra. And you know that I'm a fan of commas... ellipses, too. It's because I read The Phantom in the 70's and 80's. In recent years, you get less of that feeling that his thoughts have just sort of ... trailed off...

Where would William Shatner be without ellipses?

Obviously, Lewis Thomas was just warming up when he wrote the quote I found --- the second one is better.

As to semicolons, in one of the greatest 'Boodle posts ever, one that makes most others shrink to insignificance, to nothingness, to littleness (okay, now I'm trying to making up words, but a quick check shows that "littleness" is in the dictionary), to a semicolon-like general lack of utility and helpfulness ... (ellipses to show dramatic pause) I pointed out where semicolons hang out at a bar. In fact, they aren't at the bar. They're over there, by themselves, with that potted plant. At the bar, the commas and periods and, what the hell, umlauts and circumflexes and tildes, are all telling stories and having a veritable Porching Hour.

That's because the semicolons don't know who they are. They don't know if they're a period or a comma. They think they're too good to have to be one or the other. They say "oh, pause a bit, but not just a little bit like a comma where you catch your breath, but just enough more than that to get hung up on pondering my semicolon-ness."

They're troublemakers is what they are.

I don't know how the heck Joel is going to filter through the voluminous boodle to look for comments on favourite posts. (BTW: voluminous boodle would make a good handle)

My vote is for Mudge's sonic disruption as well. I would like to be noted as the Jari Kurri to Mudge's Wayne Gretzky (that's a reference to the One True Sport, for any hockey infidels or agnostics out there since we're on a religious bent today). I think we also received a hint earlier on a post we may see on Mudge's reminiscence of his time with Chaucer.

I also add Nani's chess story, and anything by the various Tims. Honourable mention once again to EF for the UFO series link.

Bayou, semicolons are important so that people such as yourself and Lewis Thomas can wax poetic on them. Surely we should add this into the mix when considering the semicolon?

JA, I hope you check the lists we did in the dark times after Christmas. There were some very good boodle references there.

Semicolons. The damn freaks.

Here's a list of (most of) Chaucer's occupations:
esquire of the king's household
member of diplomatic missions
controller of customs
justice of the peace
member of Parliament
clerk of the king's works in charge of building and repair at ten royal residences
forest official
travel editor of the Canterbury Intelligencer-Bee

I also found this: "The name Chaucer, from the French, meant maker of shoes or hose; but none of Chaucer's ancestors were, so far as is known, shoemakers or hosiers."

Based on this, is is quite possible when I asserted that it was William Henry Harrison who coined the phrase, "Hey, Baby, Hoosier Daddy?" It now appears possible that one of Harrison's speechwriters (a young punk named Ben something) plagarized that expression from Chaucer, who wrote (in The Lecher's Tale), "Forsoothe, yon faire maiden, hosier swete fathere, prayeth telle?"

So semicolons are the elitist hipsters who think they're better than everyone else because they're wearing a Captain Kangaroo t-shirt underneath their blazer and pretend that wearing Converse All-Stars is all of a sudden a really edgy wardrobe mood? I WORE CHUCK TAYLORS IN 8TH GRADE AND NO ONE THOUGHT *I* WAS COOL!

I'm not bitter, really. I just think hipsters who make ironic wardrobe choices are the evil incarnate.

*wardroom move*

*WARDROBE*

Ugh.

ScienceKid #2 purchased a pair of camo Chucks just yesterday, from personal funds.

I never even heard the term "Chucks" until I was in grad school. I always just called them sneakers. Or maybe high-tops. I am not fashionable.

I'll tell you where all the semicolons are: they've been rounded them up in law firms and are kept like a harem for propagation of functional yet drab wordiness. Example:

1. semicolons are indispensible in the creation of lists. Lawyers LOVE lists;

2. semicolons allow for the conjunction of similar thoughts without excessive pondering of how to best split the sentences; lawyers are expensive enough as it is; and

3. semicolons are also necessary on occasion in email and blog correspondence to try and capture a bit of the pace and cadence of natural writing or speaking. Thus it will be until we can employ italics, bold and underline.

Wise Old Badger...
One question, isn't Kitsune "fox-spirit?" I rather enjoy reading world mythology and I picked up that word from my japanese readings.
So... furu-kitsune is old fox or badger? :)

Wiki is kind of lengthy on mood. Here are two easy examples of mood.

"Was I king, I would cut their heads off."
Subjunctive- "if... then..."

"Were I king, I'd cut their heads off."
This comes close to the hypothetical mood-- the implication is that the speaker is unlikely to become a king. The distinction between moods has been lost as English verbs homogenize so one verb form does triple duty for various moods and tenses.
I.E.
"I will if I can."
"I would if I could."

I liked the mention of the optative mood. A rabbi said that the bible is often written in optative mood--
"The Lord protects me against my enemies, etc." more as an invocation of hope/wishes than reality.

I cannot help thinking Krauthammer often writes in optative mood when he talks about America, whether he knows it or not.

"We don't like exotic climates. We don't like exotic languages--lots of declensions and moods. We don't even know what a mood is. We like Iowa corn and New York hot dogs, and if we want Chinese or Indian or Italian, we go to the food court. We don't send the Marines for takeout."

I'm an trueblooded American and I am willing to dsiagree with every last of this statement, I've even sent a Marine out for takeout. Okay, so he was ex, but still, even Marines have to eat.

...And didn't you see the newclip in Iraq of Marines ordering takeout from a local vendor because they couldn't cook enough for their troops? Who do you think the Marines sent for the takeout, eh?

Since the boodling took a turn to religion, I recommend this article in Today's Style scetion:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032802162.html

>Honourable mention once again to EF for the UFO series link.

SonofCarl, thanks but I think it was bc who actually turned us onto that site. I just, eh, did some more legwork, so to speak.

And I would like to confess that in private email I am a promiscuous user of ellipses...

And starting sentences with "And".

SCC: delete "them"

Also; if you haven't checked out the video link I recommended yesterday afternoon you really should do so (you need sound). It is the most spectacular Juggling performance I have ever seen. EVER!

http://s158645047.onlinehome.us/video_5290_10558.html?sid=5290&aid=10558%3e

why is everyone picking on me. waaaaahhhhh

My age is going to show here, but we used to be able to get sneakers at Jim Chow's store and cafe for 1.99. No one ever called them high tops and only boys wore them. Fie on whoever decides fashion trends.

this blog STINKs

I hated converse hightops when I was a kid. Actually I still do.

jw;

Please don't move the wardroom... The ship or submersible will leak, an entirely intolerable situation.

Thank you.

SofC - Free the italics!

Yes, those snooty semicolons do have a place in making lists. In a previous life, I helped put together a voting guide. Each candidate had a bio-box filled with info. Semicolons breeded there like cockroaches, but out of necessity.

And yes, jw, semicolons are all about themselves. In olden days, they'd wear corduroy coats with elbow patches, and they'd stand near a fireplace with a pipe in one hand and a book in the other. They'd act all high-falutin and writerly and literary. That was to mask the fact that, usually, they get in the way of clear writing.

>Since the boodling took a turn to religion, I recommend this article in Today's Style scetion:

Very interesting article. I came to the same conclusions when I was ten.

Omni, a very link link to the style section. Yet another book for the growing list!

testing.... testing...

free the italics

I'm starting to think that my 'best of posts' are only the ones where I provide links to somewhere else. Everything else I write is pure drivel. Hey, wait, isn't that what Joel writes. In that case I submit ALL my posts...

My friends and I think Boondock Saints should be included on all the "greatest movie" lists. The subject matter is excellent fodder for in-depth discussions and the manner of storytelling and editing is unique. I could go on for a while about it but I am curious to what your opinions are since this is a knowledgeable group.

That's not to say my friends and I aren't knowledgeable, but we lack outside opinions.

I never heard of Boondock Saints before.

I have quickly perused my office copy of "The Elements of Style" and here is the mention of semi-colons that I could find (Item 5 of Chapter 1, for those following along at home):

"If two or more clauses grammatically complete and not joined by a conjuntion to form a single compound sentence, the proper mark of puncuation is a semicolon."

He then praises semicolons by saying "Indeed, this simple method of indicating relationship between statements is one of the most useful devices of compostion."

He does allow the substitution of a semicolon with a comma under certain circumstances such as the statement "Man proposes, God disposes."

I [heart] semicolons.

Thanks for the link, omni. I may have to try this new book. I didn't get through The History of God; I had to give up at medieval Jewish cabbalism.

Oh, and the juggling is amazing...

Strunk and White also warn against constructing awkward adverbs; they are silent on using them promiscuously. Although, the admonition against using unnecessary words may apply.

"That's not to say my friends and I aren't knowledgeable, but we lack outside opinions."

Hey, Rumsfeld just joined us!

that's not a shot at you, spob. I just found that sentence to be funny.

Relevant to the Karen Armstrong book, I recall Bertrand Russell in "A History of Western Philosophy" noting that the Maccabean Revolt, which was during the time frame covered by her book, was instrumental in the spreading of monotheism. If the revolt had failed, Hellenistic polytheism would have been ascendent in the Middle East.

There's a great Pivot Point for the author of some alternate history novel.

SCC: All spelling errors in my transcription of TEoS are my responsibility alone. Finding them is left to the readers as an exercise.

wilbrod,

I think he slipped up. He meant "tanuki" not "kitsune". Kitsune got his tongue. He could improve the second line, too. Where he uses the verb "deta", it is too abrupt and ambiguous. (Could mean "has come out or emerged", in addition to "has left") He could lose the "furu" at the beginning of the line, and say:

Tanuki nige-deta
(badger has fled)

Which gives more information and a better weight on the act of leaving.

So we would have:

Koromo-gae:
Tanuki nige-deta
Sayo-u-nara !

Time for a change of clothing
Badger has gone
Farewell !

Koromo-gae:
Tanuki nige-deta
Sayo-u-nara !

(We always say it twice).

By the way, to Storyteller, I am sure he would have appreciated your expanded remarks, and perhaps, to show he understood, called your attention to this artistic way of coming to terms with "letting go": "Koromo-gae" refers to the day in each of the four seasons when you change into the new set of clothes. Of course its a cliche, but there you are.

I have a dog-eared copy of Strunk and white from the late 1960s. When the ambiguities and confusion of life overwhelm me, I turn to it. The eternal truths that fill the book are inspiring. I try to live by its precepts, but often fail. I am but human.

Interesting three grafs from the Karen Armstrong piece:

"People are always astonished when I tell them how religious Americans are," she says. She is very admiring of American religiosity, except for the religious right. "Like most fundamentalists, they have a pernicious, horrible, paranoid view of the 'other,' " she says. "It used to be that the Soviet Union was the enemy described in the book of Revelation that would bring about the last days. Now, they've switched to Islam. They had to regroup. But you can't equate true religion with hatred."

"She mentions the "Left Behind" series about the world ending. "It's a strange thing in this country that people have this view of the world. If these people went to a psychiatrist, they would be diagnosed with a psychological disorder. The fact that so many people subscribe to this shows a profound unease, fear, a feeling of impotence, rage and pent-up fury."

"Here in America," she says, "religious people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate. They've lost the Axial Age vision of concern for everybody."

Mudge,I certainly concur with that third graf as a description of the religious right. I hope it doesn't describe the rest of us.

Kill a Christian, Save America!

Well, I'm sure glad we've finally decended into bigotry. There's been a lot of things about the Unitarians that I've been holding back; now I can tell everyone exactly what I think...

I think we need to help JA make his selections so we can have a new Kit...

Think I may need to nit-pick here a little, yellojkt, about the Bertrand Riussell thing and the Maccabees. The Axial Age is defined in the Style article as:

"Her new book is about the Axial Age, from 900 to 200 B.C., a time of ferment when four different philosophies took shape in four distinct cultures -- Confucianism and Taoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in the vicinity of Israel and philosophical rationalism in Greece."

(Although there are other time frame definitions besides Armstrong's.)

The Maccabean Revolt started in 167 BCE, and their dynasty lasted until 63 BCE. So this was just a tad later than the Axial Age, although I may be nit-picking and in fact it may be close enough for Russell's point (though I don't agree with the point, notwithstanding the time issue).

So yeah, the Maccabean revolt maybe came at the tippy-tippy end of the Axial Age, sort of, if you stretch it a bit.

I've posted a new kit, glorifying the Boodle.

Maccabees sounds like a good name for a chain restaurant.

O come, O come, a new kit from Jo-el
And ransom captive bloggerel
That mourn in lonely exile here
Until a new discussion appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! a new kit from Jo-el
Shall come to thee, O bloggerel.

I got work to do, but I wanted to make the following self-evident and maudlin point.

Evil is not contained withing the blood of a people like some genetic defect to be passed from generation to generation. Evil is not embedded in the walls of an institution like the toxic renmnants from some ancient sin. Evil, like goodness, is manifested in the actions of individuals.

slyness, I tend to stay away from these religious discussions when they pop up (except for the occasional historical note), in part because I don't like any of the terms and definitions people are using. Many people either don't know the actual meanings and distinctions of the words they are using, or are just careless in how they use them (I find many "religious" people especially ignorant about their own terminology; how many people can define "presbyter" or know what the Method is that gave Methodiswm its name?)

It seems to me that "religion" per se is a large philosophical construct. In my view it is IN NO WAY the same as the word "faith," yet people use them interchangeably (and in my view wildly incorrectly all the time). "Faith" is NOT synonymous with "religion"; it may be a part of it, or in some/many cases it is not. But this distinction (which I view as quite important) is virtually lost on most "religious" people in this country.

Next, I think one has to distinguish between a "religion" as a hilosopical construct and body of thought, and the "church" that claims to espouse it, because the church is simply a particular institution run not by God but by people, who pretty much (in my view) screw the whole thing up royally. The upshot is, you have "Christianity" in general and its subset, Catholicism, as a branch of it, and then you have the Catholic Church as a human institution, which is the gang that brought you the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Albigensian thing, papal dispensations, crazy popes, fish on Fridays, and priests who like to fondle little boys. Sometimes there is a close corollary between the "religion" as a philosophy, and the (deeply flawed) insttiution that represents it, and sometimes there isn't.

Likewise, a lot of the discussion of Islam is similarly full of crap. As a "religion" and as an overall philosophy, Islam is remarkably similar to Christianity--which is why I find it ironic (and a pox on both your houses) that at the present time, these two religions seem to be at war with each other. (In fact, they aren't; it is the a---hole fundamentalists running various human institutions who are at war with each other. The "enemy" isn't the religion; the enemy is fundamentalism.)

I was pretty close to being "spoiled" against religion by the time I got to college, but be that as it may, I was totally ruined by the time I left. I enjoy the study of religion from a philosophical and secular/history point of view, and find it fascinating. But after you've read Buber, Tillich, John A.T. Robinson, Teillhard du Chardin, Reinhold Neibuhr, Bonhoeffer, and that crowd (which I did), then people like Jerry Effing Falwell, Pat Effing Robertson, the Tim LaHaye/Rapture crowd, Jimmy Swaggert, Jim and Tammy Baker and all their followers and fellow travelers (Bush, and all those "Born-Again" alleged "Christians," et al.) are just beneath contempt. How anyone can hold up Paul Tillich on the one hand and Jerry Falwell on the other, and then pick Falwell is just inconceivable to me. Pat Robertson isn't fit to carry Dietrich Bonhoeffer's lunchbox.

So yeah, people like Bonhoeffer, Tillich, Robinson, Buber, Neibuhr, Maimonides, Karl Barth, Thomas Merton, Robert Gordis (whom I met and had autograph four of his books for me), etc., have utterly ruined "religion" for me. And it goes to show what a dangerous institution college is.There's nothing more dangerous than teaching people to think.

To voice in the wilderness:
Love the song.

To Achenblog:
Love the blog. That's some good writin', is what that is. Some of it I didn't quite understand, but when I got it, it was fabulous.

Vicki is right: This is a well-written blog.

But I am not sure about Curmudgeon. Teilhard de Chardin? Tillich? Buber? Bishop Robinson? You're kidding, right? Flyweights, really, and tedious all.

Odd that Curmudgeon finds these men more interesting than Jesus himself, who not only wrote nothing (that we know), he did not synthesize the monotheistic scarificial system with the needs of existential man; he said nothing about the Omega Point or the rather daft I and Thou or that our religious language and conceptualizations are too "vertical". And yet, Jesus not only moved the discussion, he shaped the questions that continue to be asked nearly 2000 years later.

There seems to be some hyperbole in Curmudgeon's claim that the war before us is a battle not between religions but fundamentalists of Christianity and Islam. This hyperbole only sheds light not on the similarities but the dissimilarities between Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism: the former carries King James bibles, the latter carries AK-47s and C4. Christian fundies hold prayer meetings; Islamic fundies behead prisoners in front of video cameras, with microphones on.

Peace.

Just as The Deerhunter" is dead-on in capturing a time and place in small-town Pennsylvania, so Chocolat resonates with astonishing accuracy for those of us who grew up in colonial sub-Saharan Africa. A catalogue of its exactness would include the background drone of a generator on a hot tropical night, the way ants on buttered bread can not feel bizarre at all, the tension underlying seemingly benign interchanges between a privileged young white girl and her parents' servant. Like "Deerhunter", I believe "Chocolat" can be enjoyed by those not possessing the historical context, but that context and history make these movies sparkle.

Delete the unattached town.

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