you an' me, takin' flix

donger's comment on "magorium" got me thinking. if i was too hasty to position "magorium" at the top of the list, then what should go up there? i used IMDB to give me a list of g-rated films, so i wouldn't miss any obvious ones, and then compiled my top 5 g-rated movies. (interestingly, "2001- a space odyssey" is a g-rated film- had no idea.) here you go:

5. "finding nemo"- never much of an ellen degeneres fan, but you've got to agree she's perfect in this flik. the scene at the beginning with the diver is amazing. and the seagulls rock.
4. "the sound of music"- sorry donger, no asians here, but a way better rodgers and hammerstein nomination for the g-rated top 5 than "king and i". and how 'bout that liesl?
3. "mr. magorium's wonder emporium"- after a few nights to sleep on it, i've got to admit that as great as it was, there are still better, such as donger's nomination and my #2 pick...
2. "willy wonka and the chocolate factory"- not that johnny depp abomination, but gene wilder at his sans-richard pryor best. "scratch that- reverse it."
1. "toy story"- the second one was awesome and probably would fall into the top 10 if i extended the list, but the first of a series always merits special consideration. concept alone is fantastic, and the one-liners abound. "i have been chosen!!!"

honorable mention: "chicken run", "the music man"
intentionally left off the list: "babe", "the wizard of oz", "the secret of NIMH"

more top 5's in the not-too distant future. apostrophe apocalypse coming soon, i promise.

thanksgiving denoument

didn't see this until today, but still worth checking out. one last vestige of thanksgiving before the christmas machine engulfs us all. enjoy.

leftovers

wrapping up a great thanksgiving weekend here in the 302. had a great day thursday, from watching the macy's parade to feasting here at home seemingly all day long. erin and i started friday by joining the madness at 4:30am shopping for god knows what. took the kids to see "mr. magorium's wonder emporium" in the afternoon- terrific fim, possibly the best G-rated film i've ever seen, live action or animation. trekked up to longwood gardens today- an arboretum/garden not too far away with some great holiday decorations. nice way to kick off the season.

my folks were here for all the above, which was great. too often lately it seems we only see them when they're watching the kids for us. can't remember the last time we had 3 days to spend with them as a family. but that's what "the holidays" are about, right?

what i'm thankful for

besides the obvious (family, friends, health, rapidly approaching end of current administration, etc), in no particular order:

• high speed access
• comfortable shoes
• heated driver's seats
• bath and body works' orange ginger shampoo (intensely invigorating, and i'm not ashamed to admit it)
• lego star wars for playstation 2
  
• DILF (with an all-new repertoire for finkbowl XII!)
• podcasts of espn's 'PTI'
  
• directv's major league baseball extra innings package
• friendly's of middletown

have a great holiday.

give a man a fish...

a rare double-post day, but i just read this op-ed piece from today's washington post and felt that with thanksgiving just a few days away, you might want to give it a look. this nation's feast of plenty is incomplete without a side dish of social justice.

can you hear me now?

here's a tip: when a medical professional has their stethoscope in their ears, and is listening to your body, it's wise to be silent until they're done. i like to think of myself as a respectful kind of guy, and make it a practice not to start examining a patient until the conversation has ended or at least paused. it amazes me how many people will again begin talking while i'm examining them with my stethoscope, completely ignoring the facts that 1) i'm obviously intent on obtaining some practical information from listening to their body, so my undivided attention towards that point would be helpful, and 2) i have plastic tubing in my ears, making whatever they're saying sound like instructions from charlie brown's teacher.

please help stop the spread of this epidemic by reaching out to everyone you know, and while you're at it, ask them to turn off their cell phones too.

grumpy old man, signing off.

a clone army...one of the finest we've ever created

i often struggle with bioethics. as a catholic, i hold strong beliefs regarding the sanctity of life. but as a scientist, i'm seeing the definition of "life" become more and more subjective.

a report of researchers cloning monkey embryos made the front page of today's washington post. as the article states, this advancement into the cloning of primates represents a huge step towards the usefulness of cloning technology for human medicine. the proof alone that viable stem cell lines can be achieved from the use of skin cells rather than "unused embryos" should be enough to justify federal funding into this field.

it's the last line of the article, from a catholic priest in charge of some think tank, that has me wondering most today though. the priest admits that this research can benefit greatly our insight into human disease, but he warns that if it is used to advance the purpose of cloning humans, that "such a pursuit, if successful, would be one of humanity's darkest endeavors."

why? not that i want to see an army of jango fetts in the middle east instead of our marines, but why would a human clone be our "darkest endeavor"? ethical morass, to be sure, but a cataclysm? i'm not so sure anymore.

more endorsements

finally getting around to adding links to two blogs that got me into this more than any other. couldn't be more polar opposites than each other, but there's bound to be someone reading this who's got an interest in one or the other. i enjoy them both:

• donger's an old friend from high school, living the life of a single guy working an IT consulting job. hence, he has lots of disposable income to spend on things like electronics, night clubs and porn.
• amy, her husband jim (an FU stag like us) and their beautiful brood live in upstate NY. her blog, "it's a funny farm life", is about their daily lives, which means pretty much everything that donger's life is not.
  

take a peek and enjoy some funny stories from each of them.

yes, more yee-hahs!

despite the fact that i started the countdown to finkbowl XII a week ago, i just realized today that the date of the event is 2.3.08. if you once owned a 3-legged cat, luged down a staircase on a cookie sheet, or burned incense in your room thru a hollow statue of Death, those numbers might mean something to you.

so let's hear from all friends of the captain, all buddies of bong (the handyman, not the illicit paraphernalia). "2308-the blog" may have seen its last days (yes, it actually existed for a while), but "2308- the reunion" is on! finkbowl XII- now the official 2308 reunion.

with 100% of precincts reporting...

delegate steve shannon has been re-elected to serve the 35th district in the virginia house of delegates! some of you know steve from our fairfield days, others may remember his stirring version of galatians 3:4-11 from the live production of "the union of erin and john". possibly you had the chance to meet steve at finkbowl VI, aka the first 'finkless' finkbowl. whatever the case, i hope you've had the chance to meet him, because he's a great guy who's going far, and you can say "i knew him when..."

steve's a politician who's in it for the right reasons: he has a mandate from a higher power to do all he can to make our world a better place. so far, the people of northern virginia seem to understand that, and continue to decide that he's the guy to represent them in richmond. good for them.

congrats, steve. if you ever need a campaign song, i can loan you that johnny gill cd you used to borrow: "steve shannon- he'll 'rub you the right way'!!" or maybe not.

before the myriad of comments come rolling in...

thanks to donger, who insists on using things like dictionaries as his authority on the english language rather than me, i've been enlightened that indeed "myriad" can be used both as a noun and an adjective.

from dictionary.com: "Throughout most of its history in English myriad was used as a noun, as in a myriad of men. In the 19th century it began to be used in poetry as an adjective, as in myriad men. Both usages in English are acceptable, as in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Myriad myriads of lives." This poetic, adjectival use became so well entrenched generally that many people came to consider it as the only correct use."

this proves several things:
1) i have smart friends
2) people other than googs read this blog
3) i don't fact check anything i write
4) i'm just a poetic kind of guy

a myriad of misuses

i know i promised you apostrophes next, but that will take a longer post. after two misuses this weekend (one on "NPR" this morning), "myriad" jumped to the top of my peeve list.

sure, "myriad" is a cool word, but it is possibly one of the more frequently misused words with regards not to definition, but to part of speech. most know that myriad means "many", but it seems not enough know that "myriad" is an adjective, not a noun. it's commonly misused as a synonym for "plethora", which is of course a noun.

example of misuse: "there are a myriad of things wrong with this government."
correct usage: "there are myriad things wrong with this government."

there's today's lesson. apostrophes soon, i swear.

are you ready for some football?

i've always been more of a baseball guy than football, but i do enjoy sundays on the couch with a cold brew and some good games. more excited about this sunday's colts/patriots game than i've been about any non-giants game in years (super bowls included). for an interesting read on the matchup, check out last week's TMQ... a column, by the way, that you should be reading each week if you're even remotely a football fan.

getting some company to watch the game- trooper kev's got a conference here in the small wonder, and will be shacking up with us on sunday night. looking forward to it.