I was playing Scrabble yesterday and I began to wonder if they televised the Scrabble championships. They have them, you know, because I've read about them. But do they televise them? Do they provide play-by-play with color commentary?
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Scrabble on TV
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Movie Review: Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Spider-man 1 didn't trip my trigger and Spider-man 2 slightly redeemed the series. But Spider-man 3 was the gayest of all three. With such cheap tricks as an unexplained meteorite, short-term amnesia and hullaballoo science via a particle accelerator ... Spiderman 3 dips deep into Hollywood's wastebasket. Add to that a cobbled-together plot with three (count'em-three!) villains and a love quadrangle, and you have the big-budget movie that just couldn't.
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Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The Yard Art Phenomenon
An epidemic has swept the South, one of epic proportions that threatens the very underpinnings of good taste. We've all seen it and we've all commented on it, it's the phenomenon of yard art and it's a plague that seems to have set in for te long haul.
Yard art takes on many forms, from your traditional gnomes (made popular by a certain internet travel site) to your pink flamingos to your garden variety ceramic rabbits. There's yard art to match every whim and mood you might need.
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Friday, January 4, 2008
The Lyric Mangler
It's a complete mystery to me. How my five year old nephew can remember the words to every song he hears. How he can recite entire passages from movies verbatim. I don't understand, he must have a gene I don't. I can't even sing a Christmas song completely through without substituting words that sound the same.
I'm what's called a Lyric Mangler. I'm the guy who sings to every song he hears, and gets only 80% of the words correct. I can hit the notes (most the time), but I can never remember the words. Never. Give me any song, from any era, and I guarantee I will screw it up.
I don't understand why I have such trouble. I remember telephone numbers I haven't called in a decade. I can recite Pi up to 12 digits (3.141592653589...), a number I learned in high school almost 20 years ago. I can recognize faces of people I met over all times of my life, and place them in the exact moment I met them.
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Monday, December 17, 2007
Rudolph Sends Wrong Message
The song of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dates from 1939, when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company asked one of their copywriters to come up with a Christmas story they could give away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. Robert L. May rejected a few names for the story (Rollo, Reginald) before landing upon Rudolph as the star of his short booklet. It wasn't until later when May's brother-in-law and songwriter, Johnny Marks, developed the lyrics and melody for the song we all know and love, that the phenomenon really took off. Gene Autry recorded the song in 1949, sold two million copies in that same year, and propelled it to an American Christmas standard.
The original story written by May was substantially different than the song later concocted by Marks. Rudolph originally lived with his parents in a non-descript reindeer village and was discovered by Santa when doing his rounds on a particularly foggy Christmas Eve. Santa noticed the red glow coming from Rudolph's room and asked him to lead his team to ensure a safe and happy Christmas for all. The song written by Marks could have been a story written by Hollywood; a downtrodden underdog is discovered for his secret talent which, until that moment, has been his reason for being outcast from society. In the original version, Rudolph's nose wasn't a hindrance to his social life.
If you truly analyze the song's lyrics, is it a message we want conveyed to our kids?
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Monday, December 10, 2007
The Hating of Duke
Every year about this time, legions of ACC fans begin to tingle with excitement. The hardwoods have opened up and college basketball is well underway. Power teams are playing their share of cupcakes and contenders in an effort to hone their squads into shape for conference play.
Mid-majors are salivating at their chance to sneak in an upset or two over quality teams. Gardner-Webb's romp over Kentucky, UNCG's testy victory over Georgia Tech, and Davidson's near-miss over Carolina. Just to name a few.
The ACC's fans see these contests as merely warm-up games, basketball fodder till the real season gets here. ACC season. For teams like Carolina and Duke, a trip to the NCAA for a chance at the national title is all but guaranteed. It's part of the recruiting process. It's almost a given while Roy and Mike are at the helms.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Thanks For Giving
It's that time of the year again. The leaves have turned from brilliant oranges and yellows to shades of brown. The time had changed and temperatures have cooled and most importantly, Turkey Day is here!
Officially, in America, November 22 is Thanksgiving Day this year (always the 4th Thursday in November). A national holiday where the government shuts down and most everyone gathers with family to over-eat and nap and watch football. It's the day we recognize for giving thanks.
So personally, I'd like to give a shout-out to all the Native Americans (read: Indians) and thank them for sacrificing their way of life, their land and their lives so our great country could be born to police the world.
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