Quote

Pray with your heart, not just your words. Be always good to people. That is prayer. - paraphrase William Peter Blatty, from "Crazy"

Enuf

Yeah, I'm about done w/ this whole Tooth Fairy business. YaYa is complaining, again, that we're ignoring her recent 'loss'. 

Whoopdeedoo. 

I'm lost teeth in the last five years, and what did *I* get? A bunch of dentist bills and a hillbilly smile, thank you very much.

[seriously, give us a minute kid: we don't just put a buck under the pillow, we get an inexpensive but cool little gift. We just can't pull that out of a wallet.]

15 Authors in 15 minutes

The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who have always influenced you and will always stick with you. List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes, and they don't have to be listed in order of relevance to you.

1. Beverly Cleary

2. Louis L'Amour

3.Robert B Parker

4.Stephen King

5. Peter Straub

6.Joseph Heller

7. Rudyard Kipling

8. Mario Puzo

9. Herman Wouk

10.Robert Jordan

11. Bernard Cornwell

12. Lawrence Block

13. Bruce Catton

14. Neil Gaiman

15. Walter Lord

Honorable Mention: John Sandford, Ed McBain, Robert Crais, Steinbeck, Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, Hemingway, Heinlein (minus his piss poor characterizations of women), the author(s) behind the Three Investigator's series and Landmark's history books, along with the staff of the Britannica Young Person's Encyclopedia, Lawrence Sanders, Michael Connelly and, naturally, myself :)

Note: Other than Cleary (and my last second edit of Agatha Christie) there are no female authors on the list. That isn't intentional, but I've noted the fact on prior lists and it continues to bother me.

The Hell's Kitchen Results

I'm not sure I agree w/ choosing Nona as the winner of Hells Kitchen, but I sure as hell recognize Russell as a prison term waiting to happen. Blaming his brigade for his loss, being pissy at the celebration, getting physical on the line - c'mon dude, grow up.

A quick pic of Smiley

Smiley, wearing the Johnny Appleseed cap he made in school (~ September)

LuLu's 1st Reconciliation!

Lisa Me warming her icicle hands on Lu's oven-like back at Denny's for our after-church celebratory dinner.

The Fort by Bernard Cornwell

I finally finished 'The Fort' by Bernard Cornwell, a novel about the failed Penobscot Expedition of 1779, aka the worst naval disaster in American history prior to Pearl Harbor. 

Incompetence, cowardice, & plain stupidity cost the U.S. not only the battle, but a fleet of warships (and to a much smaller force). Hard to read, 'cuz the American characters were so less than admirable. BTW, Paul Revere was an ass.

The Possession of David O'Reilly

I thought "The Possession of David O'Reilly" was truly frightening, even tho' I would have driven the guy to County Psych long before the 3rd act. It's a low budget Brit film, 4 actors, 1 location, miniscule FX, & an intentionally ambiguous dilemma - is their houseguest completely insane, or is he being terrorized by demons he's now brought to their door? Well done.

More posts from the last third of September . . .

Sept 2oth

I just returned from a dentist appt. It turned out my dentist had broken his arm "cleaning his pool" Saturday night and wanted to reschedule. Huh. Seems to me I remember seeing him wearing a Brewers road jersey and stumbling through Pick 'N Save's parking lot drunk off his ass at 2am the night of the 'pool accident'. My bad; must have been some other Indian dentist who drunkenly waved hello to me . . .

Sept 21st

I worked last night and missed the premiere of NBC's "The Event". I've heard it's the Lost of this decade, which seems like a tall order. Did anyone see it? What's your verdict? [I still haven't seen an episode]

Old yet glorious news, and worth another look. [wipes tears of joy from his eyes] (Alex Rodriguez became the 1st player in MLB history to notch 100 RBI's in 14 different seasons)

We watched Bill Clinton on Letterman last night. Sure, it meant I had to put up with Dave's Lewinsky-worthy love for the guy [retch], but I was still expecting to be entertained; politics aside, Bill is good TV. Alas, he seems to have lost a few steps in the wake of his heart problems. It's sad, really. What was w/ the grade school tectonic plates lesson? Or his habit of quoting studies w/out referencing a source?

If Elmo doesn't want to play with you Katy, then I will. And you won't need those silly dress up clothes. Or any clothes at all, for that matter. (this was in response to Katy Perry's sexy & ultimately controversial appearance on Seasame Street. The show has now removed the video from Youtube.)

Anytime you predict failure you have an excellent chance of being right.

I'm sitting on my porch reading my Nook & enjoying the evening rain. Meanwhile the Evil Four are watching Honey I shrunk the Kids in our living rm and driving Lisa nuts. Shame i'm not inside to help, hee hee.

Sept 22nd

I was happy to see that Glee came back as strong as ever, & I can't wait to see the Britney epis. next wk.

When Taio Cruz's 'Dynamite' comes on the radio everyone starts singing along, and I've caught the kids singing the line "I told you once, now I told you twice" at home many times. The last time the song was on the radio i was distracted & didn't join in. Smiley interrupted me from the back seat by saying "This our song. Why you not singing?"

Do I contradict myself? Wel then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes. - Walt Whitman

I just finished 'Dexter by Design' (bk #4), a very good addition to the series & a welcome recovery from the debacle of bk 3.

Sept 23rd

Wed evening we watched the premiere of "The Whole Truth". We were not impressed, finding it nothing more than a cookie cutter courtroom drama. C. OTOH, Hell's Kitchen was great fun, in large part because of the fine cast of piss poor, ghetto-riffic cooks they've cobbled together this season. B+

I've finally finished watching the last of this season's Dr Who. Just this morning I voiced skepticism over the season's overall story arc (the 'cracks in time') but I'm happy to say Moffatt pulled it all together quite nicely. So, for the yr: a great new Dr, quite possibly the hottest companion ever (Amy), the first married couple/companions in the show's run, and a 1st rate writing team - I'm psyched for Season 6!

I've enjoyed reading about the 1876 Catalpa rescue of Irish prisoners from their Australian exile.

Sept 24th

There were 13 honeymoon couples on board the RMS Titanic. One couple survived. The others were lucky.

Hey!

YaYa, to her friend @ dinner, once she giggled at one of my jokes: "Please don't laugh @ his jokes Romy, it only encourages him"