Sunday, December 22, 2002

Film Goers Return to Middle Earth. Moviegoers were in the mood to go back to Middle Earth this weekend, earning "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" $101.5 million in its first five days. By Rick Lyman. [New York Times: Business] That is a LOT of money. Not Spider-Man money, but a lot of money. Wow.
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Well, it seems ol' Trent Lott isn't culpable for his statements after all. Y'see, he was set up - trapped by his political enemies. Sure, Trent. The liberals made you say racist things. Rrrright...
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RC Car Craze: The Spam Connection [Slashdot] It was maybe two months ago when the RC car spam started showing up...it now makes up maybe 20% of my non-filtered spam - maybe a bit less, 'cos I think I just filtered away a major source of it. But still - a hefty chunk of traffic.
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Firefly Review - "Serenity" (14) [Bureau 42] Having just watched this, the two-hour pilot, I'm even more pissed that Firefly got cancelled. It's a good, good show that's nowhere near where it'll end up being. There's a slow burn going, with mysteries and plots that they seem to have written out for the whole length of th series. Of course, part of how Fox screwed it up was by showing it out of order - there's bits in the pilot that recur throughout the rest of the season , which we just now got to see...since Fox didn't think the pilot was marketable enough. Well, hopefully it'll get picked up by someone - I wouldn't be shocked if UPN brings it back next season. Here's hoping...

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Celtics put a stop to it. Boston Globe Dec 22 2002 4:24AM ET [Moreover - Boston news] I swear, Paul Pierce is going to DIE before the end of his career. It's not yet reached the violence of Allen Iverson cutting to the basket in traffic - that looks like a vicious mugging, every time. Pierce goes flying to the basket and gets HAMMERED. In a game a couple weeks ago against Phoenix (in Boston, I might add), he was taken down by Amare Stoudamire, a 20 year old rookie power forward. And he was taken down HARD - he bounced, face first, off the parquet, chipping his two front teeth and tweaking his knee. No foul was called, which is why I really worry about Pierce - he doesn't get superstar foul calls in the least. Last night, he was elbowed pretty hard, in the eye, by Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the Cavs center - scratched cornea. Ilgauskas was called for the foul, but Pierce shoved him out of his way to the bench. Ilgausaks, of course, went after Pierce, and the two were kept apart by a maybe 5'6" female referee and Tony Battie, the Celtics center - the ref was actually knocked down at one point. Both Pierce and Ilgauskas were thrown out for fighting, though I don't expect either to be suspended. But it's worrisome - Pierce is going to snap one day and just go ballistic. It could well be Christmas evening, when the Celtics go to New Jersey...I could easily see Kenyon Martin clotheslining Pierce and things getting way, way out of hand. The C's also don't have an enforcer-type, a Charles Oakley type. I think the Celtics should pull Robert Parrish out of retirement and keep him on the bench as a coach - send him onto the court when things get ugly and have him punch the crap out of anyone who messes with Pierce. This is the man who punched out Bill Laimbeer, after all...ah, good times...

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Ashcroft's pro-Confederate, white-supremacist connections questioned [The Smirking Chimp] Here's the thing: while Ashcroft has a slimy record on race, he's never said anything as stupid as Lott. To get the reaction needed to drive racist bastards like these two (or Strom, or any number of others) out of public office, you need them to have said something REALLY dumb. Trent Lott didn't step down as Majority Leader because of his support of Bob Jones Univeristy's racial discrimination, his connections to the Council of Concerned Citizens, or his Jefferosn Davis-praising interview with Southern Partisan magazine. He was forced out because he (twice!) said that the country would have been better off if Strom Thurmond had been elected in 1948. There's a bit of a difference. This is not to say we shouldn't press the point. While this seems like a kind of circular way to get Ashcroft, who, in my opinion, represents the greatest threat to American freedoms since J. Edgar Hoover, out of power, ANYTHING that diminishes his credibility, that moves him towards the door, is an inherently good thing. Let's not get distracted by Southern conservatives genuflecting towards the Confederate flag - it's more a symptom of the general repulsiveness of their politics than a disease on its own. Of course, I'm white and from Massachusetts - it's a little less significant in my day-to-day life than for others. I just want to throw these monsters out. Now.

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You know what I like? What I really, really like? Pepperidge Farm's French Toast Swirl Thick Sliced Maple Syrup & Cinnamon Bread. Oh. My. God. So tasty...I snack on it all the time. The most delicious thing ever. Unless... Y'see, I've never made it into actual french toast. If I were to do so, would it taste TOO good? That's what I fear - reaching some kind of taste nirvana and being absorbed back into the universe. Or something like that. Yeah, I just wrote about bread. I'll do it again, too. Bread is great and wonderful, be it in tasty candyesque form like Pepperidge Farm's French Toast Swirl Thick Sliced Maple Syrup & Cinnamon Bread, or a more traditional French or Italian bread with olive oil...mmm...

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I'm in a good, good mood. I'm reading a bunch, I've got some great presents for my friends and family, I've recently gotten a raise and promotion at work, and I've got a relationship going with a great, great girl. There's only one problem: I haven't been blogging near enough. Mea culpa, mea culpa...I'll work on it. Hopefully you all will forgive me - when it comes to choosing between spending time with A____ or writing, well, she wins. =)

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