Slapinions

Monday, March 11, 2013

The family walks home from school and Junie is almost hit by as car

Today a treat: Lisa joined me in walking the kids home from school today, which the kids loved. The walk went smooth until until a block from home when Junie inexplicably darted into the road and came within three feet of being hit by a car. Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln reports the play went well.

Truman's Memoirs

I'm more than a 100 pages into the first volume of Harry Truman's memoirs, and so far I'm not impressed. To date, he seems woefully miscast in the Oval Office, full of blind hero worship of FDR and insistent on the status quo at a time when the situation in the field was changing by the hour. The worst thing, IMO, is that even at the time of the writing (1955) he seems perfectly content with first being briefed about the atom bomb thirteen days (!) after assuming the Presidency. I also have difficulty liking a guy who calls the Foiles Bergere "disgusting". It's early, and there's much of history and memoir to digest, but my whatever the outcome on the job he did I have a feeling I wouldn't have liked him very much in everyday life.

edit from 2022: I actually remember liking the two volume memoir, even if I thought his politics were bunky. It must have picked up the pace a bit after this post LOL

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Oz the Great and Powerful

Team Slap, along with most of Entourage and co., went and saw "Oz the Great and Powerful" today. Beautiful visuals (bringing out several "cools!" from LK and PD) and an engaging story. Yes, there were some anachronisms in the film,, at time Franco seems painfully aware that he's an "Actor" with a capital A, and as plots go it isn't up there with a Charles Kaufman script - but so what? It's about witches and munchkins and a man finding himself and it does all of that well. I grade it a happy A.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

The Wizard of Oz

The lil' ones are watching Wizard of Oz for the first time, and after some annoyance at the sepia scenes they were spellbound by the cyclone. Then, when Dorothy opened the front door and saw Oz for the first time, Junie broke out into a huge, heartfelt grin and said: "Cooooool". Well done Victor Fleming, well done sir.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Not that there's anything wrong with that

On a recent snow day we braved the snow and took the kids out to eat. Afterwards I stopped at a nearby bookstore to browse. To keep the kids happy during that time I gave them each a buck to spend at the Dollar store with Lisa.

Fifteen minutes later I collected the family. To my chagrin Smiley had spent his dollar on an elaborate Chinese folding fan decked out in black laquer and gold accents. Not only did he buy it, he was zealously protective of it, cradling it in the car on the way home.

" What the -," I asked Lisa.

"I know," she said,"I kept trying to talk him out of it but he wouldn't even consider something else. Just let it go, it's only a fan."

Yeah, a very girly fan. But she was right, it didn't matter, and we went on with our day. Later Smiley came up to me in the kitchen beaming with pride.

"Dad,wanna see what I got?" he asked.

"Sure," I said with a measure of reluctance.

He took out the fan, opened it, and promptly whipped it at one of his sisters.

"I bought a boomerang!" he said.

I burst out laughing.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

So far in 2013: 12 books, 56 movies. Waaaayyy behind the curve here. Damn those work/family/homeowner obligations!

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