The Weekly Poll
Results
The Holiday Movie Season Edition
Are you planning to go to the cinema and see one of the new 'Holiday Season' movies?
A. Yes! I avidly want to go see___________ with___________ (unless I go alone, that is, cuz I need some space or my partner hates what I want to see)...
Adam the sound pro writes...
Yes! I avidly want to go see 'Milk' & 'Quantum of Solace' with my
Husband...
(I'm a "Bond, James Bond" kinda guy myself. I write about 'Milk' in my closing)
Sally P(al) says...
Yes, I avidly want to go see "Milk" with my SIL. (Unless I go alone, that is, cuz I need some space or my partner hates what I want to see) does not apply here, you see, I have no car and would not be able to drive to a theater anyway due to my poor eyesight. My daughter is not a good choice to nab for chauffeur duties, because she is strictly a, "fluff" movie person. My SIL, however, is pretty cool, and we share common taste in flicks. If this doesn't work out for me, I will stay home and re-watch, "Elf" with Will Farrell and Bob Newhart - the precious g/kids and I LOVE that film!... (I love Bob Newhart Remind me to tell you about a 'drinking game' we Coastguardsman played in the 80s based on his sitcom. We called the game 'Hi, Bob'. Hoo ha, good times were had by all!... urp...)
B. No! I'd rather stay home and watch holiday classic movies and/or college football bowl games on TV. Besides, I'd rather wait until the movies come out on DVD than sit in a jammed packed theater listening to people's stupid cell phone ring tones and their inane conversations (or something like that, haha)...
Dick McD is short and sweet with...
I will go with (b) for some of the reasons you mentioned. Also I love using Netflix.
(I've been meaning to try that service. My daughter loves it)
Joe (with the big J) answers with a list...
My answer is closer to B than the others. I don't go to movies for several reasons:
1, Admission is too high.
2, Popcorn is way to high
3, Rude patrons
4, Uncomfortable seats
5, Most movies are crap
6, There's no movie theater in our town.
And I don't watch Holiday movies on TV either, the new ones are crap and I've seen the old ones 72 times. Minimum. I can recite the dialog right along with the actors...
(Well, when I do go, which is infrequently, I go to a matinee for the cheaper ticket price and less rude people. Popcorn is still too high, but I love it too much to forgo the pleasure. I ignore the seats and avoid films I figure are 'crap'. Having no theater is a bummer. I've lived in 'Bugscuffle', too, so I know how it is. I agree with you about the TV holiday movies. I will watch the college football bowl games and make no apologies for it. Go Spartans! Go Chippewas! Go Broncos! rah! rah!! rah!)
C. Maybe... It depends on whether the whole 'holiday season' thing starts driving me crazy and I need to escape for a few hours, dagnabbit!... I might go see__________...(but, then again, I might just go to the bar)
joe (with the little j) is kinda particular writing...
I'm going with C, I will say I will go to a movie and get lazy and not go. Unless Mike Moore makes a movie or another W comes out...
(I am not a Michael Moore fan. I find his work fallacious. He pretends to be a 'man of the people' while he lives in a million dollar plus home in an affluent Michigan resort area on Torch Lake near Traverse City and has a fabulous apartment in NYC. His baseball caps, scruffy beard and 'blue collar' attire do not fool me. I was born in Flint, too, and have lived in Michigan UAW towns my entire life other than my 16 years in the military. I've read reports that he holds stocks in companies that he rails against. I do not disagree with the points he tries to make, necessarily, only how he endeavors to make them. He brings out the cynical side of me)...
And, mj commented...
We'll probably take in a move or two. What we see will depend on what shows
have mid-week mantinees, since we want to be out of the house when the
cleaning woman shows up.
Well, I am a 'Maybe', too. I'm not sure what I'd see. I can be rather impulsive when it comes to movies, so it would depend on my mood. 'Quantum' is possible as I adore Dame Judi Dench. Perhaps 'Valkyrie' and not because of Tom Cruise (even though he looks remarkably like Count Von Stauffenberg, the erstwhile Hitler assassin) but because I consider myself an amateur military historian and the reviews I've read are positive. I'd like to see 'Milk', but not now. I think I'd rather see it in my home because I'm afraid it would depress me. Ya know what I mean?
So, there it is... Thanks to all you Poll-Pals that responded and to all you Poll-Fans that are reading this... As I always say... Yer the Best!
BadToTheBoneBob
The New Question
The Obama 'So far' Edition
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Carolyn Foster Segal: The Department of Complaints (irascibleprofessor.com)
Students need encouragement to complain? With or without such a questionable 1984-like policy and a coach like David Horowitz, who "worked with the Penn State students in shaping their complaints," students need no invitation to complain.
Bruce Bartlett: What Would Keynes Do? (forbes.com)
The government should spend on stuff, not on bad assets.
Arianna Huffington: Americans Are Crazy Workaholics -- It's Time We Brought More Balance to Our Lives (Huffington Post; Posted on AlterNet.org)
"No life," "no family" and "can devote, literally, 19-20 hours a day" to work. Sound familiar? That's our future Homeland Security chief talking.
Susan Estrich: Where is John Edwards? (creators.com)
Doris Kearns Goodwin could not have asked for more. The author of "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," published in 2006, is making headlines once again for her foresight, as well as her knowledge of history, in light of President-elect Barack Obama's decision to surround himself with his former rivals, including Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, and now Secretary of Commerce-designate Bill Richardson.
Froma Harrop: Booze or Drugs, Prohibition Makes No Sense (creators.com)
America ended Prohibition 75 years ago this week. The ban on the sale of alcohol unleashed a crime wave, as gangsters fought over the illicit booze trade. It sure didn't stop drinking. People turned to speakeasies and bathtub gin for their daily cocktail.
Turning the air blue (news.bbc.co.uk)
The odd expletive escapes most people's mouths in times of stress, but when we fall back on swear words just for effect have we really just run out of ideas, asks Clive James.
Michael Silk: Satirists thick and thin (timesonline.co.uk)
From Juvenal to Armando Iannucci, satire is an ancient and necessary art.
Michael Schaffer: Only Yesterday (obit-mag.com)
In 1931, two years after the great stock market crash and around the time Americans were realizing the economic troubles weren't just another cyclical downturn, the historian Frederick Lewis Allen released a surprising hit: Only Yesterday, a history of the dance crazes, speculative bubbles, technological innovations, social changes, and political gyrations of the prosperous age that so spectacularly ended on Oct. 29, 1929. The book was an unlikely candidate for the Depression decade's bestseller list.
Jeff Dawson: "Sigourney Weaver: first action heroine" (timesonline.co.uk)
She was the first action heroine, but just as vivid in serious fare. Now she's mixing it up again in Cameron's "Avatar."
Lesley White: "Robert De Niro: Ageing bull" (timesonline.co.uk)
Known for his intensity, be the role hitman or clown, is Robert De Niro revealing a new, mellower method in his madness?
Roger Ebert: Answer Man
Ridiculous, the people they let write movie reviews these days.
Davis Bruce: "Nicholas Sparks' 'A Walk to Remember': A Discussion Guide" (lulu.com)
Free Download.
was first, and correct, with:
4 prizes in all - 3 first-prizes:
Reader Suggestions
Links
You can probably tell I'm cleaning up my "fave" files. heehee
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Guess you've noticed I've been posting the page at different times the past few days.
Just trying to get back on schedule.
Auctioning MLK Papers
Harry Belafonte
An original handwritten outline for Martin Luther King Jr.'s first speech condemning the Vietnam War owned by his friend Harry Belafonte is going on the auction block this week.
Sotheby's will offer the document for sale Thursday along with two others: the scribbled notes for a speech King planned to deliver in Memphis, Tenn., three days after he was assassinated and a letter of condolence from President Lyndon B. Johnson to King's widow.
The auction house put the overall pre-sale estimate for the three documents at $750,000 to $1.13 million, with the Vietnam speech valued at $500,000 to $800,000.
In a telephone interview, Belafonte said he was putting his documents up for sale because "I am at the end of my life - I will be 82 shortly - and there are a lot of causes I believe in for which resources are not available, and there is a need to redistribute those resources."
Harry Belafonte
Stanley Kramer Prize
`Milk'
Sean Penn's film biography "Milk" is receiving the Producers Guild of America's Stanley Kramer Award, which honors pictures taking on provocative social issues.
The prize, announced Monday, will be presented at the guild's awards show Jan. 24.
The Kramer Award is named after the legendary filmmaker whose works include "The Defiant Ones," "Judgment at Nuremberg" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."
`Milk'
Lead Writers Guild TV Nominations
"The Simpsons"
"The Simpsons," television's longest-running comedy, led the nominations announced on Monday for the Writers Guild of America's annual broadcasting awards.
The edgy cartoon series, airing on the News Corp.-owned Fox network for 19 seasons, was one of five nominees for best comedy series, along with two previous winners from NBC, "30 Rock" and "The Office," and two cable shows, HBO's "Entourage" and Showtime's "Weeds."
The most recognized drama in the WGA sweepstakes this year is the AMC cable series "Breaking Bad," starring Bryan Cranston in his Emmy-winning role as a terminally ill high school teacher who cooks crystal methamphetamine for quick cash.
"Breaking Bad" drew three nominations, one for best new series and two in the drama episode contest. It will vie for best new series against "Fringe" (Fox), "In Treatment" (HBO), "Life on Mars" (ABC) and "True Blood" (HBO).
"The Simpsons"
Holiday Gift Idea
Species Name Auction
Searching for a truly original holiday gift, one that could bestow a bit of immortality on a loved one or a friend?
If so, Purdue University has the goods: The school is auctioning the naming rights to seven newly discovered bats and two turtles. Winning bidders will be able to link a relative, friend or themselves to an animal's scientific name for the ages.
The first of the nine auctions began Monday, when the school put up for grabs the naming rights to a tiny gold and black insect-munching bat found in Central America.
The winning bidder will be announced just before Christmas, said John Bickham, a Purdue professor of forestry and natural resources who discovered or co-discovered the nine species.
Species Name Auction
Leslie Gets To Sleep In
John King
CNN's "Late Edition" is about to get a makeover, with John King taking over from Wolf Blitzer, the Sunday newscast's anchor for 10 years.
The first hour of the four-hour block will focus on politics, followed by national and world affairs, the network says. It also will include "Reliable Sources," the media-oriented discussion program hosted by Howard Kurtz.
With the broadcast's January debut, King will retain his title as chief national correspondent.
Blitzer, CNN's lead anchor for political coverage, will continue anchoring the three-hour "Situation Room" each weekday. Both he and King have extended their contracts through 2012.
John King
Family Fears Foreclosure
'Extreme Makeover'
Four years ago, millions of television viewers watched as a deaf couple marveled at the renovations to their home that would help them better accommodate their blind, autistic son.
But now the couple, Judy and Larry Vardon, worry that the home could face foreclosure. They were featured in a two-hour episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" that set a ratings record for the show when broadcast Nov. 6, 2004.
Weighed down by a mortgage payment that has almost doubled since the makeover and medical insurance that doesn't cover autism treatment for 16-year-old Lance, the Vardons are clinging to the hope that Larry will keep his job at Chrysler LLC's Sterling Heights stamping plant. The company is on the brink of bankruptcy as it and the other Detroit automakers appeal to Congress for emergency loans.
"We didn't have bad spending habits," Judy Vardon said. "My husband got laid off for a time, and insurance wouldn't cover Lance's autism therapy and some other things like his vision and special dental work."
'Extreme Makeover'
Ready For Prime-Time?
Leno
NBC reportedly has signed its late-night star Jay Leno to a contract that will keep him at the network and move him to prime time.
Under the new deal, Leno, whose "Tonight" show hosting job will go to Conan O'Brien next June, would have a new show airing 10 p.m. Eastern every weeknight, according to The New York Times.
The arrangement would enable NBC to hold on to Leno, who might have jumped to a competing network, and even been on the air as a rival to O'Brien.
It also stands to significantly reduce programming costs for the struggling network, which has long been No. 4 in the ratings and last week laid off 500 employees. Leno's five-a-week talk-variety format would be considerably cheaper to produce than most scripted dramatic series.
Leno
Stepping Down As Playboy CEO
Christie Hefner
Playboy announced Monday that Christie Hefner is stepping down as chairman and chief executive of the adult magazine company founded by her father more than five decades ago.
"Last month marked my 20th anniversary as CEO," Hefner said in a statement. "Just as this country is embracing change in the form of new leadership, I have decided that now is the time to make changes in my own life as well."
Playboy said Hefner, 56, would remain as CEO of Playboy Enterprises Inc. until January 31, 2009, while the board of directors searches for a replacement.
It said media executive Jerome Kern would serve as interim non-executive chairman.
Christie Hefner
Australia Gives Posthumous Award
Heath Ledger
The Australian Film Institute has posthumously given a best-actor award to Heath Ledger for his performance as the Joker in "The Dark Knight."
Ledger's father, Kim; mother, Sally; and sister Kate accepted the award in ceremonies held Saturday night in Melbourne.
The Australian Film Institute said: "It was this swaggering, psychopathic clown that turned his career into a legacy and the name Heath Ledger into an ongoing inspiration for actors everywhere."
Heath Ledger
Allowing Online-Only Publications
Pulitzer Prizes
The Pulitzer Prizes, the most prestigious US journalism awards, announced Monday they were expanding to include online-only publications.
The Pulitzer Prize Board that oversees the awards said the 2009 prizes, which will be announced in April, had been broadened to include "text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet."
In a statement, the Board said it had "decided to allow entries made up entirely of online content to be submitted in all 14 Pulitzer journalism categories."
The Board said that online or print entries should come from US newspapers or news organizations that publish at least weekly and are "primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing stories."
Pulitzer Prizes
In Memory
Dennis Yost
Dennis Yost, lead singer of the 1960s group the Classics IV, has died in an Ohio hospital. He was 65.
The Classics IV's hits included "Spooky," "Stormy" and "Traces of Love."
Yost had been in nursing homes since suffering a brain injury sustained in a 2005 fall, said the singer's friend and biographer Joe Glickman.
The Classics IV got their start in Jacksonville, Fla., where Yost, a native of Detroit, was raised, Glickman said. Their hit recordings were produced in Atlanta under the supervision of producer Buddy Buie and Bill Lowery, founder of Lowery Music Inc.
The group performed together for about five years.
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, a vocalist with the former rock and comedy group Sha Na Na, held a benefit concert last year to help with Yost's increasing medical costs, Glickman said.
"He was a tremendous talent who did an enormous amount of the work for that group," said Bauman, who works against copycat performers as chairman of Truth in Music, based at the Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation in Sharon, Pa.
"Paradoxically, I came to know Dennis better in the later years, in which he was involved in a massive struggle to retain his own musical identity, which was one of the saddest and most difficult cases of someone losing the name of their own group, when he had pretty much been the group," Bauman said.
Yost is survived by his wife, Linda Yost, of suburban Hamilton. A message seeking comment was left at her home Monday.
Dennis Yost
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