Blogsgiving

Black Friday

Missed it again! I was going to play the Steely Dan song in honor, but I couldn’t find it. Anybody die in an early bird shopping spree? Or are we all still survivors in the desperate battle we call capitalism? I sure hope so.

Thanksgiving

Spent half the day flat on my back, thanks to a wretched cold that struck out of nowhere. The Wee Bride cooked everything, bless her heart, even bringing me turkey, cranberries, stuffing, squash, and cranberries on my couch of pain. Great meal! Well done!

Then she too went down. Spent the evening watching DVR-ed PERRY MASON re-runs, and Black Friday was spent with James Bond.

She is sleeping on the couch as I write this, poor dear, in a Nyquil-induced slumber, as a Lifetime mini-series rolls on, unwatched. It’s about a very bad husband, I’m betting.

Folks

My parents are very very old, and moving very very slow. I went to visit them on Wednesday. We went out to eat at one of my favorite places in Woodland, a diner nestled in back of the bowling alley, which is always full of old folks and laborers having an after-work dinner. It took us about a half hour to walk into the place, and another half hour to walk out.

On the way to see my folks, I listened to TALK OF THE NATION for a while. The topic seemed to be whether President Obama had lost or misplaced his charisma. “The hell…?” I pondered.

Maggie Gallagher wrote a column on Wednesday that I never finished reading….

“I've been thinking a lot lately about thankfulness. Many people do not know this about me, but I used to be a libertarian….”

But did she have charisma?

David Freeman

I found a book among the many books the Child Bride and I have: US GRANT IN THE CITY, by David Freeman. It’s pretty good, in the old school new journalism mode, published in 1971. I went on-line to see if I could find out more about the guy. Apparently he moved to Hollywood, and has written several Hollywood novels, which I must track down. He may also be THE David Freeman, who is kind of a superstar in the ever-growing “How to be a successful screenwriter” crash course world. But I think that’s probably a different David Freeman. Anyway, I found this by my guy, which amused me.

“A few years ago I was sent a script…. It felt familiar in a way I couldn't quite pin down. Somewhere in the second act I realized that I had already rewritten this thing. Apparently, my rewrite had been junked. The producer who hired me had been replaced. The new guy didn't know about my version and sent me the same script I had worked on. I certainly remembered my version; what was hazy was the original, now once again in my hands. I was tempted to wait a few months and then deliver the rejected script that was surely somewhere in my files. I didn't have the nerve for that and in fact told the guy about it as I passed on the deal. He told me to keep my mouth shut about the whole thing. Then he hung up on me.”

Monopoly: The Movie

Ridley Scott is said to be developing this property. “The hell…?” I ponder. If ever a game lacks charisma, Monopoly is surely that game.

Beck Palin Ticket?

Sarah Palin, who is inexplicably fascinating to many people, recently said in an interview (she has a book out, have you heard?) that she wouldn’t rule out Glenn Beck as a running mate in 2012. She told Fox and Friends, “He’s a hoot!”

On his own program, Beck responded, in that artless way he has that has endeared him to millions:

“I don’t think things are hoots. I don’t. I don’t think it’s a hoot. I would never use the word hoot, and I respectfully ask that every time my name is brought up she would stop using the word ‘hoot.’ …. No, no I’m just saying — Beck-Palin, I’ll consider. But Palin-Beck — can you imagine, can you imagine what an administration with the two of us would be like? What? Come on! She’d be yapping or something, and I’d say, ‘I’m sorry, why am I hearing your voice? I’m not in the kitchen.’”

“The hell…?” I ponder.

Mourning the loss of my charisma, I now return to my reading, as my Poor Other dozes on. I’m reading THE THIRD REICH IN POWER, by Richard Evans. It’s very good, and very creepy. We have much to be thankful for.

Oh, before I go…

Last week, Unspeakable Bride and I watched half of EXPELLED! This is the Ben Stein-hosted “documentary” about how evolutionists are censoring proponents of intelligent design. I would suggest that proponents of intelligent design aren’t being censored so much as ignored, as much as humanly possible. The ID argument, as I understand it, goes like this: certain features of the universe are best explained as being created by an intelligent cause, not by natural selection.

Oh, and it’s not GOD intelligent designers are talking about… well, maybe it is, maybe not. It could all just be “irreducible complexity.” Or aliens.

Where does that get you, scientifically? “We can’t explain it because it’s inexplicable! So just stop it! Surrender, biology! Or teach the controversry!”

I didn’t make it to the second half, but I gather that it shows that Darwinism was responsible for Hitler. Who knew?

Lest we forget, here is what Judge Jones said re: Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, which was all about this ID versus evolution business.

“…ID’s backers have sought to avoid the scientific scrutiny which we have now determined that it cannot withstand by advocating that the controversy, but not ID itself, should be taught in science class. This tactic is at best disingenuous, and at worst a canard.”

…

“Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy. The breathtaking inanity of the Board's decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.”