WANTED!!! -- For stealing these movies ... UPDATED 24 JUL 2019

There are cases where a movie is absolutely loaded with top-notch talent, working at or near their peak, and a lower-level character actor or relative newcomer comes in and makes it his own.

I'm going to give you three examples; ALL of which are worth seeking out and renting.

First up, in our rogues gallery of thieves...

    Wilford Brimley as James J. Wells - Photo from MovieActors.com

Absence of Malice (1981)

Paul Newman, Sally Field, Bob Balaban, Melinda Dillon, Wilford Brimley.

A local prosecutor (played as a real weasel by Bob Balaban) is getting nowhere in his investigation of the disappearance of a union leader. He decides to put pressure on Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman), the son of a long-dead bootlegger and gang boss from Prohibition days.

Michael is straight, and has had nothing at all to do with his father's activities, but the prosecutor reasons that "He either knows something, or he can find out. We're going to make him want to find out."

To accomplish this, he leaks a false story, about an investigation of Michael, to reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field) to cast a shadow over him and compel him to cooperate.

As a result, some very private information about a close friend of Michael is made public, with tragic results.

Michael learns of this prosecutor and decides to exact some justice by turning the wolves on each other, resulting in a major scandal that becomes front-page news.

This can be considered the flip side of All the President's Men (1976), and was written by former Detroit Free Press reporter Kurt Luedtke, about the unbridled power of the press to be able to destroy anyone with near impunity.

There's a wonderful scene in there, after the blow-up, when Megan's editor is doing damage control, telling her "Davidek filled me in.  We're not gonna retract anything, but we've got a lot of explaining to do.  Sarah's going to write the story, and we'll handle it the best way we can."

Sarah is a reporter that Megan has been mentoring, and when Megan looks around to her, Sarah raises her head and looks back, and for a brief second you get the feeling that a shark has just noticed that you and it are in the same body of water.

All of the people in this movie are first-rate, but then Brimley shows up in the last twenty minutes of the movie and completely steals it.

"Well now. Let the record show that I'm James J. Wells, Assistant Attorney General for the Organized Crime Division of the United States Department of Justice.
    ...
This is the damnedest story you ever read.
    ...
Tell you what we're gonna do.  We're gonna sit right here and talk about it.

Now, if you get tired of talkin' here, Mr. Marshall Elving Patrick there will hand you one of them subpoenas he's got stuck down in his pocket and we'll go downstairs and talk in front of the grand jury.

We'll talk all day, if you want.

But come sundown, there's gonna be two things true that ain't true now.

One is that the United States Department of Justice will know what in the good Christ -- excuse me, Angie -- is going on around here.

And the other is I'm gonna have somebody's ass in my briefcase."

He's one of those guys who easily manages to be believable as whatever he's playing.  On his role in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), both Carpenter and Kurt Russell remark (in the DVD commentary) that he's "just the real deal; nothing phony about him at all". "He sure ain't selling oatmeal there!", one of them laughs when Brimley goes on a tear in that movie (In reference to the commercials he's been known for lately.)

24 JUL 2019 - He is STILL with us (will be 85 on Sep 27) and STILL working. Trivia: Was a bodyguard to Howard Hughes.
-

Next up, we have...

Dennis Farina as Ray Bones - Photo from Aveley.com

   Get Shorty (1995)

John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito, Dennis Farina

Miami loan shark Ernest "Chili" Palmer (John Travolta) goes to Hollywood to collect a gambling debt from a runner who has collected a large amount of money in an insurance scam. From a person who helped point the way to the runner, he also takes on collecting another debt from Hollywood producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman).

Being a movie-lover himself, Chili decides to use the money he will collect from the runner to invest in one of Harry's films, IF he can get yet another set of loan sharks off of Harry's back.  He offers to do so, being something of an expert in that field.

To make Harry's project feasible, he needs to get movie star Martin Weir (Danny DeVito) on board.

ALL of this is dependent on getting hold of the runner's money; making a career change possible from loan shark to movie producer (if that is a change).

Complicating things is the fact that Chili now has a new boss, Ray "Bones" Barboni (Dennis Farina), who is very old-school about collecting gambling debts and is just not the connoisseur of films that Chili is.  All he wants is his money, and he's totally ruthless about getting it.

Here you have a cast of veteran talent doing their best work in ages, and ex-Chicago-cop turned actor Farina is mixing it up with them and totally holding his own.

He can be funny as Hell, and then scary as Hell, within a heartbeat, telling a surviving witness of a shootout (surviving only because he would be getting money that Ray wanted)...
"I was not here.
 I was never here.
 And if you say otherwise, I'll come back and throw you right through that window."

The thing about Farina is that he is so believable when he says something like that. I don't recall ever seeing him in a movie where I didn't totally believe the character he was playing; he has this authenticity about him.

He got started when director Michael Mann made his first feature movie, Thief (1981), using "retired" jewel thief John Santucci as a technical advisor.  For some of the police procedures, Santucci suggested to Mann that he bring on board Farina (who may have helped to "retire" him).

Farina wound up with a small part in the movie, as a gunman working for the chief bad guy, and apparently decided that this work beat Hell out of freezing his ass off in stakeouts, nourishing himself with cold pizza slices and lukewarm coffee.

Most people know of Hannibal Lector from Anthony Hopkins' portrayal in Silence of the Lambs, but he actually appeared five years earlier (played by Brian Cox) in Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986), the first film version of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon.

In it, Farina plays the character of Jack Crawford (played by Scott Glenn in Silence) and has a very nice moment when his underling has requested that an FBI fingerprint specialist check the bodies of a family that had been slaughtered, over the protests of the local examiner ("We've already checked and there's nothing!"). When he (in the presence of that examiner) gets a call from the specialist, telling him of recovering a partial thumbprint from the eye of one of the victims, he looks at the examiner for a second with a very quiet smile that almost seems to be saying, "This is what the grown-ups can do."

Finding Farina to be a natural actor, Mann cast him as Lt. Mike Torello in Crime Story , running for two seasons (1986-1988).  Since then, he's been in countless movies (never boring) and has yet another TV series in the works.  Stay tuned.

24 JUL 2019 - He left us on Jul 22, 2013 (pulmonary embolism, at age 69).  He will be missed.
-

And, finally ...

Karl Urban, as William Cooper - Photo from Newsarama.com

RED (2010)

Bruce Willis,     Mary Louise-Parker,     Morgan Freeman,     John Malkovich,

Hellen Mirren, Brian Cox, Ernest Borgnine (YES! You read that correctly. That

man is ninety years old now, and doing just fine), Richard Dreyfuss, Karl Urban

Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA "black ops" operative (flagged RED -- Retired;  Extremely Dangerous) making his lonely way through the tedium of life on the shelf.

He's engaged in what amounts to a telephone romance with Sarah Ross (Mary Louise-Parker), a lady at the department responsible for his pension checks, using any excuse he can find just to be able to talk to her.

One night, his home is invaded by a team of professional assassins intent on taking him out.

After dealing with that, he realizes that he must have been under surveillance, his phone monitored, and that his calls to Sarah have probably put her in danger as well. He handles that problem in typical Frank Moses fashion; kidnapping her to get her out of the line-of-fire while he sorts out who is after him and why.

Figuring that he could use a little help with this, he calls on old colleagues Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman) -- now in a retirement home, and Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich; as crazy as ever, but this time his character is paranoid for very good reasons.)

They also enlist the help of Russian spy and former adversary Ivan Simonov (Brian Cox - "I haven't killed anybody in years!", he sighs sadly) and that of retired British SIS operative and sharpshooter Victoria (Helen Mirren - You have got to see that lady work a .50 caliber machine gun).

With the help of Marvin's files, they determine that Frank had been involved in the cleanup after a massacre in South America, brought on by a panicked young officer that was the son of a powerful Senator. Years later, that officer is running for a very high political office, and anyone knowing of his past has been marked for elimination.

That politician has a powerful friend, Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss), who had helped to spirit him away from the massacre. Dunning has the resources to hire the hit teams, and to manipulate a corrupt CIA officer, who tasks operative William Cooper (Karl Urban) with the job of eliminating Frank.

Cooper has been told that Frank is a traitor and a threat, but Cooper (sort of a modern day version of Frank) has this disturbing habit of thinking for himself, and is getting very leery about the particulars of this operation.

Unlike the previous two, Karl Urban is already becoming a major star. He's a (relative) newcomer compared to the rest of the cast, but just look at that cast.

Not one of them has to apologize for his/her work here, but whenever this Kiwi shows up you cannot take your eyes off of him. He's one of the most amazing imports from New Zealand since Russell Crowe.

Although he's been around longer than that, I think most of us first noticed him as Eomer, in the 2nd and 3rd installments of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He was the assassin Kirill in The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and in Star Trek (2009) he played Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy as if he were channeling the late DeForest Kelly (who was the original McCoy).

In Presence ... I took a shot at defining what presence is in a movie actor. Urban is a terrific example; it's what makes him dominate whatever scenes he's in.  I doubt that he needs any selling by me;  he has the ability to do anything that Harrison Ford has ever done, and the potential of becoming an even bigger star.

24 JUL 2019 - At 47, he's just getting STARTED.  I stand by EVERYTHING in the paragraph above! :-)
-

Well, so much for past and recent history.

Is there anything at all worth a damn currently (Wed, 27 Apr 2011) showing?

I highly recommend The Lincoln Lawyer (2011 - So named for the Lincoln Town Car within which he sometimes does business). In it, Matthew McConaughey has decided to try acting again (instead of merely showing up as he has done in all too many of his later films), giving us the guy who was so damned good in Lone Star (1996) and Frailty (2001).

It's still on a few screens now. and might (or might not) be there the coming week.
-

Of all the reasons to FIRE "The One"...

... the Birth Certificate crap ain't one of them.

It is a trap, and Donald Trump seems Hell-bent on walking right into it.

AJStrata  has just posted the last word on this, My Final Post On Birther Madness.

The "money" quote (emphasis mine)...

The point about Obama’s citizenship has been and will always be about who his mother was, not where she was. She is an undisputed American. Therefore her children are natural born Americans (location has nothing to do with it, just ask any American born in international waters, international air space or in foreign countries). Obama is an American because of his mother – end of story.

And, as I see nothing to add, end of post.
-

Rebuttal...

My previous post, Oh, Great!!! :(, concerned an article on Yahoo that suggested that my latest obsession (blogging) was greatly increasing my risk of a heart attack (because of too much sitting).

I contend that the increased risk comes from actually reading some of the stuff one discovers when surfing the web.

Let me offer a beneficial side effect to my obsession.

In one of my earlier whines, Dark Night of the Soul... Indeed!, a commenter (who signed herself as Rachel in Atlanta), asked

  "Do you have anyone at all to talk to?"

Well, of course I do.

You!

And the dozen or so others who will eventually read this.

It is a tremendous release to be able to share things with you and, on occasion, to vent as well.  Much better than just keeping it bottled up inside. (A hell of a lot cheaper than therapy, too. :-)

In this particular instance, the Yahoo article mentioned in the previous post inspired that post, and then this rebuttal. That is fun!

If I have succeeded in connecting with any of you, without boring you to death (and while my site-meter wont tell me who you are (although I can sometimes infer it from other data), it will tell me if someone has such curiosity), then know that you are helping to keep my very soul alive. If that goes, how long would the heart last anyways?

Contrary to the title of the article, I truly believe the most dangerous thing I could possibly do would be to stop. Whilst dealing with getting by in an utterly soul-killing job and existence, you readers have helped so much to keep me (relatively) sane.

So, Thank you.

(And, YES! I know I could benefit from some of the tips in the article without giving up blogging. I think you get the drift.)
-

Oh, Great!!! :(

Now that I have a new obsession in life (for 18 months now), I'm informed that it's probably killing me.

Shouldn't be that big a surprise. Isn't it an immutable law of the universe that if you like it, it's bad for you?

The latest "rain on my parade"...
  The Most Dangerous Thing You'll Do All Day

I suppose the next thing will be the EPA calling for the outlawing of chairs.
  ("OMG Paul!!!  Don't give them ideas!  Ok?")

Will it ever  end?!!!
  (Well, in truth, the article suggests that it will. :-)

"No matter how I struggle and strive,
  I'll never get out of this world alive."
   (~Hank Williams, "I'll never get out of this world alive")

Addendum 1/2 hour later - Now that I've vented (couldn't resist) I have to admit that the article actually makes sense and contains some rather decent advice. That honest enough for ya? :-)
-

"My name is Boyd Crowder...

You can come after me if you want, but it will be the last thing you ever do. I promise you that."

Walton Goggins, as Boyd Crowder

(Photo by Robert Zuckerman, from Los Angeles Times, March 2010)

(Updated at end - now on Tuesday nights, instead of Wednesday)

Thusly does one of the most interesting characters, in the absolute best TV show currently on the air (Justified , Wednesday nights on the FX channel introduce himself to one of a bunch of miscreants who, after being relieved of excess cash, threatens, "We will find you, a**hole!"

During that intro, he was holding a revolver instead of that Bible, but his delivery was very quiet and soft, which somehow made it even more menacing.

The show is actually supposed to be about this guy...

Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens

(Photo from Eonline.com )

... Deputy U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens, reassigned from Miami back to rural Kentucky (from whence he came, hoping he had left it forever), after a "justified" shooting of the lieutenant of a Miami drug kingpin.

First thing he runs into is his old friend/rival/whatever Boyd, who's often been rather casual about which side of the law he was on (he had an earlier hobby of using smuggled in RPG's to bust armored trucks).

Boyd is still what he is, a very multi-layered character, of whom it's difficult to believe that he was originally meant to be killed off in the very first episode.

But, Walton Goggins was so amazing with what he was doing with the character of Boyd, that that idea was quickly scuttled, and he will most likely endure as long as the series (which has already been renewed for a third season).

Is Goggins' Boyd Crowder up to the level of Ian McShane's Al Swearengen (Olyphant's nemesis on his previous hit series, Deadwood )? Well, no -- but who the Hell could be? That dude was Shakespearean.

But Goggins will get there someday. He reminds me of a young Bruce Dern, with the same crazy edge to him, making his characters seem capable of almost anything.

Seemingly doing nothing special at all, he manages to come across as dangerous as a rattlesnake, giving off a vibe of, "Son, you do not want to mess with me!" (as I said of actor John Hawkes in another post).

Somewhere near the top, I described Justified  as the absolute best TV series currently on the air.  I'm saying that again.

If it's not on your "must see" list, put it there!

Olyphant and Goggins are just the icing on a very wonderful cake. There are numerous other fine actors and characters in this series, and if you don't get hooked, well I'm going to wonder, "What's WRONG with you?!!!"

Update - Tuesday 31 Jan 2012 - The opening 3rd season episode "The Gunfighter" was broadcast Tuesday, the 17th at 10e/9c on the FX Channel. Tuesday will be its regular night this season.

That episode was a doozy.

Some fascinating  new characters.  Ava demonstrating that you do not want to mess with her any more than you would with Boyd ...
   Arlo: "You didn't have to do that".
    Ava: "Of course I did.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have done it."

After dealing with a particular problem almost as neatly as The Joker's "Disappearing Pencil" trick in "The Dark Knight" ...
   Raylan: "Sorry about your tablecloth."

This opener suggests that the third season will be every bit as good as the first two.  If you don't become a regular watcher, well;  your loss.  I tried.

Update - 1840 CST, Friday, 04 Jan 2013 - The fourth season begins Tuesday night, 08 Jan 2013, on the FX Channel. What more needs saying?
-

Well, THAT was interesting...

On Wednesday, 30 Mar 2011, about 09:35 AM, my soul-killing part-time job as a grocery cashier was enlivened by an armed robbery at the Wells Fargo branch within the store, about 40 feet away from me.

I heard a commotion and shouting behind me, turned to look, and saw a tall guy in a ski-mask waving what appeared to be an AK-47 clone, shouting at everyone to get their hands up while his two buddies went about collecting from the bank.

He was the only one that appeared armed and what I did was to try not to get his attention in any way while trying to note and memorize what details I could.

I suspect that some of those details weren't all that consistent, because much later on, I seemed to remember things I had denied seeing when questioned by a Houston Robbery Division detective ("Did you recall seeing any caps on anyone?" I didn't at that time. Later I thought they did have caps, but I distrust that memory; sometimes your mind fills in things that you thought you should have seen.)

Fortunately nobody (including the gunman) did anything stupid and it was over in just a few moments.

In the aftermath, they set up counseling for those who were too affected by this. I got some extra hours filling in for one of the cashiers who just had to leave.

It didn't bother me all that much. Not being macho at all; it was just the fact that the weapon was never pointed at me (and I tried my level best not to invite that attention).

I have had that experience, a long time ago.

In 1977 1975, when my car was laid up for a bit, I was walking home late one night when a car pulled up alongside me. I thought it was someone asking for directions until I saw a guy in the back seat pointing an old war-surplus rifle at me while another guy in the front passenger seat just said "Hand it over".

And, that was all there was to it; they took the wallet (with the magnificent sum of $20.00 in it) and left.

BUT, this was 1977 1975!.

In Texas, at that time, there was a moratorium on executions and standard operating procedure in a robbery was to shoot the victim (because, "What more were they going to do to you?").

You don't get over that very quickly (I can still see that old green Pontiac with the crescent-shaped tail-lights, and the guy in back with what appeared to be a Mauser rifle), and I truly feel for the bank personnel involved.

Nobody was hurt, at least physically, but some of them are going to be scarred inside for a very long time.

Correction - 01 Oct 2011 - When I first wrote about the long-ago incident, I thought it had happened in 1977.  But I've had several periods when I had to go without a car for a while.  The time span of the Texas moratorium on executions (which was in force at the time of that robbery) makes it much more likely to have occurred in mid-1975, during the time of the blown-engine episode I mentioned in $446.99.
-

Dark Night of the Soul... Indeed!

- Where things stand...

For now, the worst parts of Psychosomatica reign over all.

I am just so exhausted, and see only darkness ahead. I'm making it one day at a time, and just don't know how I can go on.

You know; like most of you. :-)
-

Punch line

When I put up the previous post (that's supposed to be a zero as the title, and I had considered the Omega symbol instead; I'll let armchair psychiatrists speculate on that), I was in a pretty dark space in my soul.

A couple of hours later, I came across And The Moral of The Story Is... (on Webutante's blog), and that lifted me up a bit.

It has a two-word punch line near the end that, if you value your keyboard, you don't want to be sipping anything when you read it.

Thanks Web. :-)

Update - 13 Jul 2011 - 15:18 CDT - A couple of hours ago (according to my site-meter), someone checked out this post and didn't even have enough curiosity to click on the link above to find out what the story and the punch line was.  How can one so utterly devoid of curiosity even be on the internet in the first place? That's barely one step above being dead.
-

Ø

So, how good is computer translation?

In an earlier post ( What does my site look like in Spanish? ) I had noted that a person in Spain had visited my site, in Spanish, via Google Translate.

As this had to be a machine (computer) translation, I wondered just how good this kind of translation could be.

To test it, I decided to feed English into the translator, to be rendered as Spanish, and then take that result to be translated back into English, in this format...

   The original text in English,

   the Spanish translation of it,

   and that Spanish turned back into English.

Two prose examples:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Perfect Storm (1997) - Sebastian Junger...
   (Capturing the flavor of the place) ...
"The plate glass window in front is said to be the biggest barroom window in town. That's quite a distinction in a town where barroom windows are made small so that patrons don't get thrown through them."
  ...
"If Gloucester is the delinquent kid who's had a few scrapes with the law, New Bedford is the truly mean older brother who's going to kill someone one day."

La tormenta perfecta (1997) - Sebastian Junger ...

   (La captura el sabor del lugar) ...

"La ventana de cristal en frente se dice que es la ventana más grande cantina de la ciudad. Esa es una distinción en un pueblo donde las ventanas bar se hace pequeño por lo que los clientes no se produce a través de ellos."

  ...

"Si Gloucester es el joven delincuente que ha tenido una raspa pocos con la ley, de New Bedford es la verdad significa hermano mayor que va a matar a alguien un día."

The Perfect Storm (1997) - Sebastian Junger ...
   (capture the flavor of the place) ...
"The glass window in front is said to be the largest window bar in the city. That is a distinction in a town where the windows bar is small so that customers do not occur through them."
  ...
"If Gloucester is the young person who has had a few scrapes with the law, of New Bedford is the older brother really means that he will kill someone one day."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1969) - Jimmy Breslin
   (On the demise of gang leader Raymond the Wolf)...
"Raymond the Wolf passed away in his sleep one night from natural causes; his heart stopped beating when the three men who slipped into his bedroom stuck knives in it."

La banda que no podía disparar recto (1969) - Jimmy Breslin

   (en la desaparición del líder de la banda Raymond el lobo) ...

"Raymond el Lobo falleció en su sueño de una noche por causas naturales, su corazón dejó de latir cuando los tres hombres que se metió en su dormitorio cuchillos pegados en él."

The gang that could not shoot straight (1969) - Jimmy Breslin

   (in the disappearance of band leader Raymond wolf) ...

"Raymond Wolf died in his sleep of a night of natural causes, his heart stopped beating when the three men went into his bedroom knives stuck in him. "

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Handling prose doesn't appear to be one of its strengths.

For a real acid test, I'm going take one of my posts, and see what happens. This could get really messy...

A Boy and his Vampire
(This post is mostly about remakes)

  Owen: "How old are you, -- really?"  
   Abby: "Twelve, -- but I've been twelve for a really long time."

Let Me In is the story of 12-year old Owen, lonely and tormented by bullies at school, and of Abby; a very unusual girl of the same apparent age, with whom he becomes acquainted when she and her guardian move into the apartment next to his.

Based on the Swedish thriller Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In), from the novel of the same name, it is the latest in the long-standing Hollywood tradition of taking an absolutely superb foreign film and remaking it for those who "don't want to read their movies".

What is not in that tradition is the fact that this remake stands in the same league as the original, to a degree I haven't seen since Gore Verbinski's The Ring.

The Swedes have been cranking out some interesting work lately, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, already scheduled for an American remake with Daniel Craig.  For the role of Lisbeth Salander (the girl of the title), for a short while Emma Watson (Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films) was briefly considered for the remake, before being ultimately passed over for someone else. Lisbeth would have been one Hell of a change for Watson; very edgy and as big a step as Kurt Russell going from the nerdy kids he played in Disney movies to putting on the eye patch and becoming "Snake" Plissken  in John Carpenter's Escape From New York. (Believe it or not, even that one has a remake in the works.)

Before that, I'd have to rate Insomnia (with Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hillary Swank) as maybe one of the most successful re-dos of a first-rate Swedish movie. That particular remake was directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception) and that may have had much to do with it turning out so well.

Of course, Hollywood doesn't have to go overseas to mine something already done (and done very well) before. (They never seem interested in taking something that should have been good but was botched, and giving it another shot.)

Even the Coen Brothers are going down this path. After couple of decades of some of the most original work seen on the screen, they confessed to being inspired by The Odyssey for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they adapted Cormac McCarthy's novel for No Country for Old Men, and now they are going as mainstream Hollywood as one can possibly get; they are remaking True Grit.

Scheduled for this Christmas, this is one remake that does not fill me with dread. I've not seen any of the trailers now available online (watching videos on a dial-up connection is an exercise in masochism), but some of the stills I've seen give me a very good feeling about this.

Jeff Bridges steps into John Wayne's role as Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn, and looks absolutely perfect for it.

Matt Damon is the Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, and while Damon can make me want to throw things at him when he opens his mouth politically, as an actor he has a lot more going for him than did singer Glen Campbell in the original.

Likewise, I have no problem with Josh Brolin taking over from Jeff Corey as Tom Chaney, the object of the manhunt the story is about.

Who I'll be most curious about is Barry Pepper (the sniper, in Saving Private Ryan, who would cross himself before blowing out the brains of some poor German soldier). He will be essaying the role of the outlaw "Lucky" Ned Pepper, a role that was filled by Robert Duvall in the original.

Now, that will be a challenge on a par with Steven Weber following in Jack Nicholson's footsteps in the TV remake of The Shining. I think Weber did a fine job of meeting that challenge. We'll just have to see how well Barry does.

As of now, the "True Grit" remake is scheduled for Christmas Day, 2010.

December 25th this year occurs on a Saturday. New movies are usually released on a Friday, with an occasional Wednesday or Thursday thrown in. I don't ever recall a Saturday being used before, BUT, this is the Coen Brothers we are talking about. So, anything can be on the plate where they are concerned.

But, WHY does Hollywood depend so much on remakes and sequels? Are they really that devoid of imagination?

I seriously doubt it. I believe some of the most imaginative people on the planet are in that industry, but, you must never forget that there are two words in "show business". Millions (lately hundreds of millions) are at stake in modern movies, and that is a powerful incentive to play it safe by remaking, or making sequels to movies that made money. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

As for sequels; there have been some good ones. But as far as most of them go, consider Robert Rodriguez's violent, over-the-top live action cartoon spoof of late 60's exploitation movies Machete.

As the end credits start, they announce...

Machete will return in

"MACHETE KILLS"

             and

"MACHETE KILLS AGAIN"

Right there, Mr. Rodriguez says it all about most sequels.

-

Un niño y su vampiro
(Este artículo es sobre todo acerca de remakes)

  Owen: "¿Cuántos años tienes, - en realidad?"
  Abby: "Doce, - pero he estado doce por un tiempo muy largo."

Let Me In es la historia de Owen de edad de 12 años, solo y atormentado por los matones en la escuela, y de Abby, una chica muy inusual de la misma edad aparente, con quien se conoció cuando ella y su tutor se mueven en el apartamento de al lado a la suya.

Basado en el thriller sueco Komma ratte Lat den en (Let the Right One In), de la novela del mismo nombre, que es el último de la tradición de Hollywood desde hace mucho tiempo de tomar una película extranjera absolutamente magnífico y rehacer que para los que "No quiero leer sus películas".

Lo que no está en que la tradición es el hecho de que esta nueva versión se encuentra en la misma liga que el original, en un grado que no he visto desde que Gore Verbinski, The Ring.

Los suecos se han arranque a cabo algunos trabajos interesantes últimamente, incluyendo La chica con el tatuaje del dragón, ya programadas para un remake americano con Daniel Craig. Para el papel de Lisbeth Salander (la chica del título), por un corto tiempo Emma Watson (Hermione Granger en las películas de Harry Potter) se examinó brevemente para la nueva versión, en última instancia, antes de ser pasado por alto a alguien más. Lisbeth habría sido un infierno de un cambio de Watson, muy nervioso y como gran paso uno como Kurt Russell, al pasar de los niños nerd que desempeñó en las películas de Disney a poner en el parche en el ojo y convertirse en "Snake" Plissken en Escape de John Carpenter de Nueva York. (Lo creas o no, incluso que uno tiene una nueva versión de las obras.)

Antes de eso, tendría que tipo de insomnio (con Al Pacino, Robin Williams y Hillary Swank), como tal vez uno de los más exitosos de re-dos de una película sueca de primer nivel. Esa nueva versión en particular fue dirigida por Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inicial) y que puede haber tenido mucho que ver con que saliendo tan bien.

Por supuesto, Hollywood no tiene que ir al extranjero a algo mío ha hecho (y hacen muy bien) antes. (Ellos no parecen estar interesados en tomar algo que debería haber sido bueno, pero fue fallido, y darle otra oportunidad.)

Incluso los hermanos Coen van por este camino. Después de un par de décadas de algunos de los trabajos más originales vistos en la pantalla, que confesó haber sido inspirado en La Odisea de O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Que adapta la novela de Cormac McCarthy por No es país para viejos, y ahora van son como la corriente principal de Hollywood como uno puede conseguir posiblemente, están rehaciendo True Grit.

Prevista para esta Navidad, esta es una nueva versión que no me llenan de temor. No he visto a ninguno de los trailers ahora disponible en línea (ver videos en una conexión de acceso telefónico es un ejercicio de masoquismo), pero algunos de los fotogramas que he visto me da una sensación muy buena al respecto.

Jeff Bridges en el papel de los pasos de John Wayne como Rubén J. "Gallo" Cogburn, y se ve absolutamente perfecto para ello.

Matt Damon es el Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, y mientras que Damon se me dan ganas de tirar las cosas de él cuando abre la boca políticamente, como un actor que tiene mucho más a su favor que hizo el cantante Glen Campbell en el original.

Del mismo modo, no tengo ningún problema con Josh Brolin tomando el relevo de Jeff Corey como Tom Chaney, el objeto de la persecución de la historia está a punto.

¿Quién voy a ser más curioso es Barry Pepper (el francotirador, en Salvar al soldado Ryan, a quien le persignarse antes de soplar los sesos de algún soldado alemán pobres). Estará ensayando el papel de la margen de la ley "Lucky" Pepper Ned, un papel que estaba lleno de Robert Duvall en el original.

Ahora, eso será un desafío a la par con Steven Weber siguiente en los pasos de Jack Nicholson en la nueva versión televisiva de El resplandor. Creo que Weber hizo un buen trabajo de la reunión de ese desafío. Tendremos que ver qué tan bien se Barry.

A partir de ahora, el "True Grit" remake está prevista para el día de Navidad de 2010.

25 de diciembre de este año se produce en un sábado. Las nuevas películas suelen ser puesto en libertad el viernes, con un ocasional miércoles o jueves arrojados pulg No recuerdo nunca un sábado siendo utilizado antes, pero, se trata de los hermanos Coen que estamos hablando. Por lo tanto, cualquier cosa puede estar en la placa donde se refiere.

Pero, ¿por qué Hollywood depende tanto de remakes y secuelas? ¿Son realmente tan carente de imaginación?

Lo dudo seriamente. Creo que algunas de las personas más imaginativas en el planeta se encuentran en esa industria, pero, nunca hay que olvidar que hay dos palabras en el "show business". Millones (últimamente cientos de millones) están en juego en las películas modernas, y que es un poderoso incentivo para jugar sobre seguro por rehacer o hacer secuelas de películas que hicieron dinero. No hay nada más simple que eso.

En cuanto a secuelas, ha habido algunas buenas. Pero por lo que la mayoría de ellos van, considere violenta de Robert Rodriguez, el exceso de la parte superior-parodia de la historieta de acción en vivo de películas de explotación finales de los 60 Machete.

En los créditos finales de inicio, que anuncian ...

Machete regresará en

"MACHETE MATA"

    y

"Machete mata de nuevo"

Allí mismo, el Sr. Rodríguez lo dice todo acerca de las secuelas más.

-

A boy and his vampire
(This article is mostly about remakes)

  Owen: "How old are you - really?"
  Abby: "Twelve, - but I've been twelve for a very long time."

Let Me In is the story of Owen age 12, alone and tormented by bullies at school, and Abby, a very unusual girl's apparent age, whom he met when she and her tutor move in the apartment next to yours.

Based on the Swedish thriller Lat den ratte Komma in (Let the Right One In), the novel of the same name, which is the last of the Hollywood tradition for a long time for a foreign film absolutely gorgeous and redo that for "No I want to read his films."

What is that tradition is the fact that this new version is in the same league as the original, to an extent not seen since Gore Verbinski, The Ring.

The Swedes are starting out some interesting work lately, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, already scheduled for an American remake with Daniel Craig. For the role of Lisbeth Salander (the girl of the title), for a short time Emma Watson (Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films) was briefly considered for the new version, before ultimately being passed over to someone else . Lisbeth would have a hell of a change of Watson, very nervous and as a major step as Kurt Russell, from the nerdy kids who played in the Disney movies to put in the eye patch and become "Snake" Plissken in John Carpenter's Escape from New York. (Believe it or not, even that one has a new version of the works.)

Before that, he would have that type of insomnia (with Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hillary Swank), as perhaps one of the most successful re-two of a Swedish film class. This particular remake was directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, MI) and may have had a lot to do with going so well.

Of course, Hollywood does not have to go abroad to something of mine has done (and done very well) before. (They do not seem interested in taking something that should have been good but was unsuccessful, and give him another chance.)

Even the Coen brothers are going down this path. After two decades of some of the most original seen on screen, who confessed to having been inspired by the Odyssey in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Who adapted the novel by Cormac McCarthy No Country for Old Men, and now they are as mainstream Hollywood as one can possibly get, are remaking True Grit.

Scheduled for this Christmas, this is a new version that does not fill me with fear. I have not seen any of the trailers now available online (see videos on a dial-up connection is an exercise in masochism), but some of the frames I've seen gives me a good feeling about it.

Jeff Bridges in the role of the steps of John Wayne as J. Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn, and is absolutely perfect for it.

Matt Damon is the Texas Ranger LaBeouf, and while Damon makes me want to throw things at him when he opens his mouth politically, as an actor who has much more going for it that made the singer Glen Campbell in the original.

Similarly, I have no problem with Josh Brolin taking over from Jeff Corey as Tom Chaney, the object of persecution of the story is about.

Who'll be most interesting is Barry Pepper (the sniper in Saving Private Ryan, who was crossing himself before blowing the brains of a poor German soldier). Will be rehearsing the role of outlaw "Lucky" Ned Pepper, a role that was filled with Robert Duvall in the original.

Now, that will be a challenge on par with Steven Weber follows in the footsteps of Jack Nicholson in the new television version of The Shining. I think that Weber did a good job of meeting that challenge. We have to see how well Barry.

From now on, the "True Grit" remake is scheduled for Christmas Day 2010.

December 25 this year occurs on a Saturday. New movies are usually released on Friday, with an occasional thrown in. Wednesday or Thursday on a Saturday do not remember ever being used before, but these are the Coen brothers are talking about. Therefore, anything can be on the plate where it relates.

But why Hollywood remakes and depends both sequels? Are they really so lacking in imagination?

I seriously doubt it. I think some of the most imaginative people on the planet are in this industry, but never forget that there are two words in show business. Million (ultimately hundreds of millions) are at play in modern movies, and is a powerful incentive to play it safe by remaking or making sequels of movies that made money. Nothing is more simple than that.

As for sequels, there have been some good ones. But what most of them go, consider Robert Rodriguez's violent, over-the-top parody of the live-action cartoon movie late 60's exploitation Machete.

In the end credits start, announcing ...

Machete return in

"MATA MACHETE"

    and

"Machete kills again"

There, Mr. Rodriguez says all about the sequels.

-

And, there you have it.

As G. Wolfe commented on the earlier article, you can generally get the gist of it, but formatting, capitalization and punctuation sometimes goes straight to Hell.

As for the prose you've labored hard to express in a particular way, it can be absolutely heartbreaking.

-

ADDENEDUM - 11 Feb 2011 - For those who may want to experiment with Google Translate

A gent in the UK noted...
"For example, I used Google Translate to translate the idiom 'out of the blue'
into Italian. The Italian translation is nonsense. However, if I translate
back to English, I get 'out of the blue'."

Be warned, the translated text on the right side of Google Translate's page overlays or links to the original text in some way, so if you cut and paste it back into the translation box, I expect it will invariably render it back into the original text.

What I had to do was to cut and past the translated text into a plain-text editor
(Notepad in my case) and then cut and paste from that, back into the translation box. (This act may will account for the loss of formatting, but the punctuation and capitalization problems remain.)

Doing that with his example gets...

   out of the blue
   di punto in bianco
   point blank

FYI
-

Psychosomatica

- They say it's all in your head.  So?

"Tell me one last thing," said Harry. "Is this real?  Or has this been happening inside my head?"

Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and clear in Harry's ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure.

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?"

    (~J. K. Rowling - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows")

Being beaten before I even start is a special talent of mine, in that I am often the one supplying the beating.  (Updated below - 06 Feb 2011) (Addendum - 14 Feb 2011)

On Jan 7, I posted Carpal Tunnel Self-Treatment, in which I expressed "Hope to update this, with useful info, in a couple of weeks".

Well, somewhat more than a couple of weeks have gone by and what have I accomplished so far?  Nothing!  Nada!  Zip!

Far worse, ever since the debacle described in Airshow  (back in October), after months of a successful walking regimen I have managed to even fail to keep that up. Like an alcoholic falling off the wagon, I am a mess and back to square one.

I can find plenty of excuses;  I believe that I could qualify for a PhD in excuses and rationalization. (Is there a career opportunity here?  Nah.  I think the post of Presidential Press Secretary has already been filled.  Besides, I still  place some value on my soul.)

While I believe that I have genuine physical problems, I have to face the fact there are probably serious issues upstairs, in my head, that contribute to all this.

Example on how attitude can affect you physically...

In 1971, I hadn't even reached 30 and was having back pains that almost literally crippled me.  I could barely even walk and my doctor told me that I had a degenerative disc in my lower spine that would eventually need surgery to fix.  At that time, I was in severe financial straits and under a lot of stress.

A few months later, a raise came through and relieved some of the financial pressure and, milagro!, the pains went away ("Mein Fuhrer --- I can WAAALK!!!").

That was almost 40 years ago.  While not a medical expert, I've never heard of a degenerative disc fixing itself (and I'll bet you never have either), so I must actually consider the possibility of my doctor being mistaken in his diagnosis (Yeah, that is a shock to me as well).

Around that same period, I had wild mood swings that would make me react impulsively and extremely to problems, eventually getting me fired for a short while;  getting re-hired only after promising to get some help.

The help I got, from a recommended shrink, was damn near useless (not exactly reinforcing my faith in doctors), but I came across a book on the evils of sugar and its effect on mood swings. So, I tried my best to purge (or at least, greatly reduce) sugar from my diet. It really did  help, by controlling my mood swings (it had no effect on my problems, of course, but it did change my perception of them, so that something that had seemed overwhelming and hopeless was now seen as only the damned nuisance it really was).

So, I actually have a lot of experience with the damage that can come from my own depression and despair.

What's the history of this round of feeling sorry about myself?

It's been building up a while, synergetically, probably ever since my IT job was outsourced and I went into early retirement.  When, a few years later, I desperately needed a supplemental source of income, the only thing I could get at my age was part-time work as a grocery cashier.

The manager who hired me was worried about only having that for a person with my engineering and computer background, but I promised him that he would not be getting some disgruntled guy showing up every day with an attitude.  So far, I've done my level best to keep that promise, but the plain truth is, that if asked to conjure up a short phrase to describe this work, "soul killing" would probably cover it.

In response to my post on Carpal Tunnel, a writer emailed to me that he had managed to spend a fairly large portion of his life on keyboards without being afflicted with it.  I've used them since 1981, and when did I start having problems?  About a year and a half into the cashier job.

I suspect there is a limit to how long one can be dead inside before problems surface.

So getting back on track is gonna be a major effort, starting with the restoration of the walking regime.

To get anywhere on the self-treatment program, I think I'm going to have to find and consult a Licensed Massage Therapist, specializing in Trigger-Point Therapy, for help in finding those points in the scalenes that have eluded me.

There is no way on earth I can afford repeated visits, but perhaps a single consulting visit that I can pay for will point me in the right direction (unless of course this licensed professional declares, "Paul. This is B*LLSH*T!  You're wasting your time and money with this").

Having had experience with "licensed professionals" before, I cannot predict how I would take that.

Bottom line:  Back to square one.

Is there a hopeful note on which to end this post?

Well, how about this? ...

I have hit absolute rock-bottom several times before, in 1962, 1986 and 1999, coming damned close to suicide each time.

So, this ain't the first time, and it probably wont be the last.  Why is that  hopeful?  I'd have to be dead  for it to be the last. That I'm writing this is a fairly strong clue that I'm still here (Go easy with the "ghost writer" jokes -- Ok? :-).  Whatever weaknesses I have (and Lord knows they're plenty), my survival instincts appear to still be working.

Putting myself back together is likely to take a while, so I'll try to cease being so damned stupid as to make any promises as to when I'll report whatever results I achieve (That would absolutely guarantee more failure and excuses).

Such reports will come when they come.  That's all I'm saying for now.

Update - 06 Feb 2011 - "Dark Night of the Soul"...
That was the album the therapist was playing when we had our session. The piece she was playing was actually quite soothing and peaceful (dare I say healing?) but the title of that album perfectly captures the mood I was in when I first wrote this post; in my head, I was in a very dark place indeed.

I had done some searching on Google, for licensed massage therapists, specializing in "trigger-point" therapy, and found one close by.

By Friday, Feb 4, I was already six days back into the walking and was now actually going to see someone who could give me the straight dope (at least, as how she saw it) on whether this was a worthwhile course of action, or a waste of time and resources.

Instead of declaring what I feared above, she actually thought it had great promise, and that I was on the right track. She also had a lot of other tips to help me, so we'll see how that goes.

To prep her for what I was going to ask about, I gave her the links to both of my carpal tunnel posts, and to this one. I fear I have fallen hopelessly in love with someone probably not even half my age, because she didn't just read them; she READ them, as I could tell during our conversations.

Smart as Hell, curious, great sense of humor, and apparently absolutely loves reading.

Sigh...

A looong way to go, but I feel better and more hopeful about this than I have in a long while.  Just having someone to talk to about it was an indescribable help.

Maybe I'm emerging from that dark night. :-)

Addendum - 14 Feb 2001 - If the title of the music intrigues you, and you wish to check it out,  look for Dark Night of the Soul by Phillip Wesley.  A Google search just for the title will turn up a lot of hits on the same title by Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse.  Other than the title, there is not even a trace of similarity

-

What does my site look like in Spanish?

A check of my site meter this morning revealed that a person in Spain had visited Paul_En_Houston,  which turned out to be my site as shown through Google's translator.

I'm pretty certain this is machine (computer) translation; HAS to be.

To those who know both English and Spanish, does this appear to be a good translation?

Just curious.
-

Carpal Tunnel Self-Treatment

This is a work-in progress that will be updated periodically, and is a follow-up to Help! - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome???, which should be read first.

(Updated below - 06 Feb 2011)

At the end that post (in the update of 05 Dec 2010), I had just ordered the The Julstro Self-Treatment System© and was awaiting its arrival.

When I got the kit (on 13 Dec 2010), it was missing the accompanying book I had ordered with it.  An email to them got a prompt apology for the screw-up and a promise to ship it right away. That was followed by another email, with a USPS tracking number, showing that it was indeed in route. The book arrived on the 21st.  So, apparently not a run-around.  (You want to see run-around?!!   Check out Anatomy of an eBay Transaction...  that's what a run-around looks like. )

If you've been reading carefully, you'll have noticed that I had everything by Dec 21st;" seventeen days ago, and I'm only just now writing about it?!!!

DAFT PUNK

-Say WHAT?!  Huh?!!!

I've watched TRON: Legacy twice now.

I saw the original TRON when it first came out in 1982, and in 2002 I added the 20th Anniversary Collectors edition to my DVD collection.  It somehow survived the many purges and sell offs I had gone through over the years.

With the new movie sequel coming up, I was very surprised to not see the original all over the place; Disney has absolutely no peer when it comes to milking something for all it's worth.  It's been out of print for years now, and I've learned that my copy truly is  a collectors item; prices starting at $130.00 on Amazon.com for new copies still in the original factory wrap.

A relook at my copy of the original verified my memory of it; it was fairly good, but not all that fantastic.  I suspect the suits at Disney took a look and decided that it would not compel people to put the sequel on their "must see" list.

Which is a shame, as they did something truly amazing with the sequel, elevating it into one Hell of a fine movie, with a simple (deceptively simple) storyline that has a lot more going on than at first appears.

(Jeff Bridges also has had an amazing year, appearing in this, and  in True Grit ; THE best movie of 2010, so far. He deserves a post of his own, so I'm not going to cover him here.)

The first thing that grabbed me (really grabbed me) was the music; seemingly a marriage of Phillip Glass and Tangerine Dream (with bits of John Carpenter and John Barry thrown in). The music is mostly for motion (and there is a lot of motion here) and it puts the movie into overdrive.

I had to wait until the end credits to learn that DAFT PUNK (an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter) did this score.

I had never heard of them before, and this appears to be their very first film score, but they've been around for awhile.  I can see now that my next bankruptcy may well be engendered by seeking out what else they have done.

Hunt up the CD soundtrack of TRON: Legacy and give it a listen.

If it doesn't move you, and make you want to check out the movie, you might as well pack it in;  you're already dead!.
-

Dr. Sanity's already been here.

I had thought (in my post  Dr. Sanity nails it! ) that she had said it all about nanny-statism.

That clearly shows my lack of imagination. 
Check out one of AJStrata's latest:  Dumbest Lawsuit Evah ...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The left truly is insane. Who else would champion a lawsuit that basically cries out: “Mom has no damn backbone“:

"The lawsuit alleges that “McDonald’s exploits very young California children
...
said she was bringing the case because of the constant requests for McDonald’s Happy Meals."

Good lord, what a moron.  Her kids want Happy Meals and so she is suing McDonalds to shut them up.  Just let that one settle in for a bit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

There appears to be truly no limit to this urge to place restrictions on absolutely everything we do in life. In total contradiction to everything I've ever believed in and advocated, she makes me feel that, in her case at least, some people really shouldn't be allowed to run around loose. :(
-

"What is THAT for?"

-
I'd love to post the whole Strategy Page  article that answers the question, but that might strain their patience on copyright, so look for "What is THAT for?" on this page...  http://www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic324b.asp

(Somehow, this brings to mind Jerry Van Meter's "Glooshmaker" joke.  No, you probably wont find it on Google; it's peculiar to his sense of humor.  If any of my Air Force buddies see this, they will know it.  I could tell you, but then... :-)

Bureaucracy forever.
-

HOW do spambots evade my site meter?

-
I occasionally get anonymous comments of the type that neo-neocon has posted about as "Spambot of The Day", when a new or somewhat original example came through her spam filters.

Often whimsical, with wonderfully loose language, and sometimes no other apparent purpose than to show that it could  be done.
(Updated - With an answer)

December 7

My calendar shows today as...
   1) Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
and...
   2) First of Muharram (First day of the first month in the Islamic calendar;
       making it the Islamic equivalent of New Years Day)

Any bets on which one will most likely be honored (or even mentioned) by The One?
-

ADDENDUM - After that vent, I remembered this...

Today (Dec 7) is also the 38th anniversary of the Apollo 17 launch;
the very last manned lunar exploration mission.

This is very personal to me, as described in...
  Adventure of a Lifetime
and
  The Adventure - Continued

(Yeah, I'm blowing my own horn here.
 Well -- So What? :-)
-

Help! - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome???

That's a term I've heard for a long time, and always thought of as some kind of arthritis-like pain in hands and fingers.  (Updated below) 
(Updated again 05 Dec 2010 below)

For months now (since my 68th birthday on May 25) I've had problems with my fingers and thumbs feeling numb and thought it to be a circulation problem; hence the walking regimen I've forced upon myself since the end of May. While good for other things, it may turn out to have been an exercise in futility for this particular problem.

You see, a number of people where I work, observing my problems, have raised the possibility of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). While that sounded just plain wrong to me, I finally decided to look it up on the internet.

So, what did I find?

Thanksgiving pizza...

...will have to wait 'til Friday.

You see, Pizza Hut will be closed on Thanksgiving day (the one convenient to me at least).   For some time now, I've favored them over others; having long considered grease an essential ingredient of a good pizza. :-)

Wasn't always so; when I first came to Houston in the mid '60s, the absolute best pizzas, bar none, were served by Shakey's, but they became history here when Hunt International bought them out in the mid '70s and closed the local restaurants (Domino's taking over most of them).

A lot of other buyouts followed, with the results that an outfit once having hundreds of locations all over the country has now been reduced to a few dozen, mostly in their home state of California.

Second best (also now history) was the Post Oak Drive-In Theater.  Instead of pulling out a frozen pizza and shoving it into the oven, they made theirs from scratch, just like a real pizzeria.

One of their toppings  was chili.  When washed down with the beer I had snuck into the the drive-in, it was fantastic. (Just had to be sure to also bring along a trash bag, a roll of paper towels, and some wipes; messy doesn't even begin to describe it. :-)

Once in a while I try to duplicate that experience by adding chili to a frozen one.  Close, but somehow just ain't the same.

By now, instead of asking "What about turkey?!!!", you've probably deduced that I'm not a big turkey fan.  Give me pizza and beer, and throw in a DVD to watch (there'll probably be nothing but football on TV that day), and I'm all set.

Did I just commit blasphemy with that "there'll probably be nothing but football on TV that day" above?

Well, I've never been much of a football fan either, except for a brief shining moment in the late '70s when coach O. A. "Bum" Phillips raised what was then the Houston Oilers to superbowl material, twice actually making it to the playoffs (only to run into that steel wall called Pittsburgh).

Something I'll always remember was the wonderful welcome the team got from cheering crowds that greeted them when they came home. They had to be feeling pretty low from those defeats, and for those fans to give that kind of "Welcome Home" made me proud beyond description.

(For a while, before those playoffs, I'd considered the Oilers as mostly just their two prima donnas (Dan Pastorini and Earl Campbell). But, while on vacation with friends in New Mexico, I saw a game (don't remember who they were playing), where both of them were benched and the remaining players went out there, just like a real team, and WON!)

Unfortunately, Phillips was getting more publicity than team owner Bud Adams (worthy of his own story) and many of us felt his days were numbered.

Sure, enough, Phillips was eventually fired and went to New Orleans to coach the New Orleans Saints (at that time owned by River Oaks native (and neighbor of Bud Adams) John Mecom.  I think there was a rivalry between them worthy of a TV movie, if it hasn't already been done.)

So many Oilers' players (Campbell, Pastorini, others) followed him there, our secretary began referring to the team as the Houston Saints.

Well, I've managed to wander all over the map this time, even including one of my least favorite subjects. So, I think it's time to close this one.

Hope you have a really wonderful thanksgiving. I'm gonna give it a shot. :-)

-