Assorted stuff...

Beginning with this bit of inspired blarney which brother in law (LB) sent my way and gets my Gold medal for best Olympic Games commentary...ever. 

From Paula Poundstone:

"I think adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they're looking for ideas."

"Remember when environmentalists were the people who didn’t throw garbage out the car window?"

“When you see an adverb, kill it.” 

--Mark Twain

 Unless of course,  you're writing  Tom Swifties: 

“There's no air in the tire,” Tom said flatly.

“I unclogged the drain with a vacuum cleaner,” said Tom succinctly.

“Go to the back of the ship,” said Tom sternly.

“I lost the toothpaste,” said Tom, crestfallen.

The Agra Vation. It's actually a very non-aggravating beetle, just one of over 40,000 species found in the family Carabidae--famous for being able to shoot hot, poisonous chemicals from its backside when annoyed. It is found in the Peruvian Amazon,near the borders with Brazil and Colombia. 

Farting on a crowded elevator is wrong…on so many levels.

What a six year old has probably never heard…

Roll-up your window

Put on side two of that album

I ran out of film

I’ll look at the map

tick-tock, tick-tock

I’ll just white it out.

He Keeps banker’s hours

Let the ink dry

Untangle the phone cord

I’ll call when I get to a phone

The picture tube is shot

 Things that years from now  I hope a six year old will hear:

I grew up in Guatamala, but  now I'm a US citizen. 

We prefer the Public School

Let's  take the Train

I'll have tap water

We're union members.

He was democratically elected. 

I read it in the Newspaper

Now that's good Journalism.

Want some Tuna for lunch?

Aha ha  is a species of Australian wasp. It was named by the entomologist Arnold Menke in 1977 who exclaimed those words upon receipt of a long awaited delivery of a package of specimens 

Considered sharing some thoughts about the movie Beasts of The Southern Wild that Ellen and I saw recently.  But I have to recuse myself since both of us suffered from severe seasickness throughout the entire flick. Ellen in fact felt so ill from the effects of the award winning cinematography that I had to physically support her just to make it out of the theater and back to the car.  We had dinner plans with her cousin after the movie and the moment the credits began to roll at the end, I heard Ellen moan " I'm sick, we have to go home".   

The hand-held (I did some research and discovered that the DP used an Easy-Rig from the hip for the entire shoot--which is like the opposite of a Steadi-cam  and pretty much guarantees a lot of excess motion)  approach to shooting with a deliberately "shaky" effect is often (too often) employed to create a "real" cinema verite look--which to some enhances the sense of "authenticity", while to others (like me and Ellen) only serves to enhance the sense that we're in a rowboat rolling over swell after swell in a  storm tossed sea.   Funny thing is that neither of us complained to the other during the movie because: 
1. I thought she was enjoying it and didn't want to be a grouch.
2. I went in and out of consciousness so it didn't really matter. 
3. She was actually feeling too sick to talk.

We both thought the movie was worthy of discussion and certainly provocative in many ways--but the lingering  effects of the visually induced nausea has kept us from speaking a single word about it ever since. 

Personal note to the Director:  I understand the limitations of small budget independent filmmaking, so I would be proud and honored to donate one sturdy and dependable tripod for use on your next project. 

Just another way of saying "count your blessings" with a bit of support data.