Trivial Tuesday

In 2006, illness forced Cuban leader Fidel Castro to transfer power for the first time in his lengthy tenure. Castro first took power after the Cuban Revolution which ended when Batista fled the country in what year?

More from the phone

The movie's over. It's time to go get a haircut.

Having a day off of work is exciting. Maybe I should do it more often.

Don't worry, I'm not going to keep updating like this all day.

Posting from the phone

It's just before noon on Friday. I am at the theater waiting for The Simpsons Movie to start.



That is all.

The Way Back Machine: Ain't Nothin' Changed*

We haven't done an episode of The Way Back Machine in a long time. Here's a brief one until I have something more interesting to tell you.

Do any of the rest of you remember the Mr. Men and Little Miss books? In case you don't, they were a set of children's books in which each book was about a character with a specific trait, which was also the source of the name of the character and book (e.g. Mr. Happy, Mr. Clumsy, Little Miss Late).

When I was in elementary school, I had a teacher who at the end of the year gave out Mr. Men and Little Miss books to all the kids based on their personalities throughout the year. It's always interesting to see just exactly what your teacher thinks of you. My book?


Mr. Chatterbox.

I guess things haven't really changed that much.

^*Bonus points for knowing the group and album for the 1990 song used in title of this edition of The Way Back Machine.

Trivial Tuesday

How about science as our category today? In fact, let's make it food science.

Chocolate is enjoyable for humans and toxic to some animals like dogs. The chemical responsible for this toxicity is an alkaloid similar in structure to caffeine. What is this compound, with a name that comes from the Greek words for food of the gods?

Congrats to Itchy who was only off by a letter in remembering that it is theobromine.

Indiana Jones and the Unannounced Title

As pretty much everyone knows by now, Harrison Ford is working on the fourth and, one would assume, final Indiana Jones film. There has been much speculation on how he will handle the role at the age of 65, as well as what the eventual title of the film will be. With that in mind, I have a few suggestions that Steven Spielberg is welcome to use.^*

• Indiana Jones and the Nostalgic Fanboys

• Indiana Jones and the Enlarged Prostate**

• Indiana Jones and the Money-hungry Studio

• Indiana Jones and the Bad Idea Earring

• Indiana Jones and the Ubiquitous Man

• Indiana Jones and the Very, Very Last Crusade...No, Really. We Mean It This Time. We Promise. Cross Our Heart and Hope to Die. Well, Not Really. I Mean, No One Hopes to Die, Do They? Anyway, We're Serious. It Really Is The Last One.^***

• Indiana Jones and the Superfluity of Sequels

• Indiana Jones and the Lessons Not Learned from the Star Wars Prequels^****

^*All joking aside, who cares if he's 65. I know I'll be at the theater as soon as they release it.
^**Even if I will happily go see it right away, I couldn't do this without at least one "Indy is old" joke.
^***This title might be a little too "To Wong Foo" for most people, so they'd probably have to shorten it.
^****My personal favorite.

Running Diary: World Series of Pop Culture Finale

I did this last year, so why not do it again this year. I promise, no more griping about certain really bad decisions that were made by the judges last night. (Ok, I don't promise no more griping. I promise to try to avoid griping too much.)

9:00 - "This time it's war!" Isn't that really a bit of a stretch for a tagline for this show?

9:01 - We've managed to get to this point without VH1 spoiling who makes it to the final match. Perhaps we've learned since last year.

9:01 - They really are pushing Twisted Misters as the bad guys on the show.

9:02 - "Thank you for being a friend." Everybody loves a good Golden Girls joke.


9:03 - Yeah, the missed high five from Almost Perfect Strangers is getting a little old.


9:04 - The first category is Dirty Dancing. It's all about the movie and we hear that at least one of the members of APS has never seen it.

9:06 - D'oh what is Baby's name. Melissa pipes up with "Frances" and on the TV, Rachel echoes her answer and gets the point.

9:07 - Well, if Lucien didn't know that Wayne Knight was the answer, Rachel's "Newman" comment may have helped.

9:08 - Rachel wins the category 4-2 and Lucien is out. That may hurt since he was almost solely responsible for the last win for APS.

9:14 - New Category: Two Hit Wonders. Are they more or less memorable than one hit wonders?

9:16 - Come on...You've got to know Whitesnake. And she does, it just takes a few seconds.

9:17 - I can honestly say I haven't thought about the Fine Young Cannibals in many, many years.

9:17 - We go to a tie breaker and it is Madonna's studio albums.

9:18 - "Confessions on a Dance Floor" How did Robert remember that one?

9:19 - Robert wins yet another tie breaker and there is only one Almost Perfect Stranger remaining.

9:20 - The category is The Pitch. (Pat gives a pitch for a TV show, and they have to name it.)

9:21 - Come on, Kelly. Say Small Wonder. Oh, she misses it and Tod steals. He goes on to get the next one and win the category. Unfortunately, he's the only player left for his team, so he has two more rounds to win.

9:26 - Scorsese film quotes. That could be tough. It's Robert vs. Tod. The best players I have seen this year are going head to head.

9:27 - I thought Todd wasn't going to get Casino for just a second there.

9:27 - Todd misses Gangs of New York and Robert steals. That might really cost him.

9:28 - Both of them miss a quote from The Aviator and it sends Wocka Wocka to the finals. I feel bad for Almost Perfect Strangers, but I really like Wocka Wocka and I'm glad to see them move on.

9:31 - We're previewing the final and once again Twisted Misters is obnoxious. If they aren't actually the world's biggest jerks, they really need to have harsh words with whoever is editing.

9:33 - Robert very politely tries to divert some of the praise from himself to his teammates.

9:34 - A Simpsons category! Have I mentioned that I love this show. It's Victor vs. Kelly in a Springfield battle royale.

9:36 - Something tells me we're headed for a tiebreaker.

9:37 - Who shot Mr. Burns? Of course, it's Maggie. No charges were filed, because, in the words of Clancy Wiggum, "No jury in the world's going to convict a baby. Um...maybe Texas." We're going to a tiebreaker after the really long break.

9:42 - Tie Breaker: Emmy Winners for Best Drama Series

9:43 - These guys are unbelievable at this, but Kelly fails to get the last one and is eliminated, while Victor does an annoying victory dance.

9:44 - Now Pat is spoiling movies. (Here, I'll spoil one that won't be out until November of 2008: Snape kills Dumbledore)

9:46 - It sucks to get home improvement shows mixed up with Eddie Murphy movies (not that it matters since Kelly added 2 anyway).

9:47 - Twisted Misters is now up 3-1 and only Robert is left. If you'll forgive me for going all Han Solo on you, I have a bad feeling about this.

9:52 - Pat jinxes Robert by pointing out that he's never lost a category. (Not that it isn't obvious that he'll lose just based on the fact that there's less than 10 minutes left and 3 people left on Twisted Misters)

9:54 - Ruth! Ruth! Baby! Ruth!

9:55 - Keep hope alive Robert. Say The Great Outdoors. Yes, going to a tie breaker (again, not that it matters)

9:56 - Now to break the tie, they have to list the cast members of Little Miss Sunshine. Unfortunately, Robert doesn't have the final answer.

9:57 - Twisted Misters wins and is obnoxious AGAIN. I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that I cannot stand those guys.

9:58 - Seeing the interviews at the end, only reinforces the thought that Wocka Wocka is made up of a group of good people, and Twisted Misters...well, they aren't.

That's it for this year. Hopefully, next year there will be someone to make them shut up and put them in their place. With that, I will end and the only thing left to say is...

Go home, smell you later. Oh, I wasn't going to mention that. Oops.

More Rambling About The World Series of Pop Culture

Ok, a little bit more on the World Series of Pop Culture. If you haven't watched last night's episode an you don't want to know what happens, you should stop now.

We're down to three, and at this point I don't care who wins the second semi-final match (Wocka Wocka or Almost Perfect Strangers) as long as they shut the Twisted Misters up. Those guys are obnoxious and arrogant.

As if that wasn't enough to make me dislike them, they caught two huge breaks in judging last night. First, on a question about what Will Smith yells to the cab driver who drops him at Uncle Phil's house in Bel Air, one of the members of Twisted Misters answered, "Smell ya later." When prompted for more information, he elaborated "Go home, smell you later." I rewound multiple times to confirm that he really did say "go home" as opposed to the correct "Yo, homes!" Unfortunately, the judges obviously thought he said something different than I did, because his answer was accepted. Later, during a tie-breaker, the players were alternating listing James Bond movies, when the member of 3 Men and a Little Lazy gave the answer "Her Majesty's Secret Service." Rather than prompting for more information (i.e. say the word "On") or just accepting it because it is certainly close enough, the answer was deemed incorrect, in essence ending the game.

I'm not sure if they are trying to make these guys into the villains of the show, but if so, they are certainly doing a great job of it.

Still Around

It's starting to look like I'm deserting all of you, isn't it. It's not intentional; it's just how things are at the moment. I'm busy enough at work that when I do finally get home, I feel like I've just finished running a marathon⁽¹⁾, making it where I really don't have the energy to do anything about posting on here. In fact, anything I have posted in the past few weeks was actually written long before. So, what else has been going on with me recently? Let's see what I would have told you all about if I actually bothered to post:


Ratatouille - Saw it, loved it and highly recommend that you go see it.


Harry Potter - If you like all the other HP movies, you'll like this one. It's a little darker, and a lot more condensed, but I liked it better than #'s 2 and 4.


World Series of Pop Culture - Of course I'm watching the World Series of Pop Culture. How could I not? I love the show. I love playing along. I love laughing at Pat Kiernan, especially when he's reading lyrics. Unfortunately, the teams I want to win aren't always winning, but I'm still enjoying it.


Eureka - The second season of Eureka is on Sci Fi now, and we're watching again. It's a great summer show. It's light, clever, amusing, nothing requiring lots of thought, just fun.


Doctor Who - The third season just started on Sci Fi recently. I absolutely love that show, but I'm missing Rose this year. We're only a couple episodes in, so maybe Martha will start growing on me.

Made Butter - It's kind of a long story...you know what? This one really deserves it's own post. And it will get one. Until I bother to actually write it, here are pictures that Melissa posted over at her site. (oops, forgot the link)


Glass Studio - We went to the grand opening of a glass studio not too far from here. Actually, this needs t be its own post, too. I promise, these will actually be posted relatively soon.⁽²⁾


I won candy at work - I was in a training session recently where the trainer stopped a couple of times during the presentation to allow breaks. The breaks were first "stretch breaks", where everyone could stand and make sure that they did still have circulation in their legs. Following the stretch break was a mental break where we were asked to perform an activity completely unrelated to the training. During our second break, the activity was to write down as many Tom Hanks films as possible in 30 seconds. Getting 8 of them won me a mini Mr. Goodbar. Sadly, this may have been the highlight of my week.

⁽¹⁾ Obviously, this is an exaggeration. I would never run a marathon, but if I did what I would feel would be nothing, because I would have died long before mile 26.

⁽²⁾ Not that you really care.

Separated at Birth v. 7

X-13D Doritos

Burger King Whopper with Cheese

Ok, this may not make sense to many of you, but if you've tried these new Doritos you probably know exactly what I mean.



(For those of you not familiar with the X-13D Doritos, it is a new promotion where the name of the flavor has not been decided yet and you can enter a contest to name the flavor.)

They Found Me, I Don't Know How, But They Found Me

I was talking with a fellow blogger about weird searches that find our respective blogs recently and decided it had been a while since I last checked on my own stats. Every now and then, I look to see who's stopping by and how they are getting here. Sometimes, I don't really want to know the answers. For example, it's a little disturbing that someone was searching for the words coprophagia and geisha on Google (I've tried to block all thoughts of why they might be doing that from my mind). Even more disturbing, I was the first result.

Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest

Noon on the 4th of July? It must be time for the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. This year the competition for the Mustard Yellow Belt has really heated up. Joey Chestnut, who came in second last year, recently set a new world record with 59.5 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Kobayashi, the champion for the past 6 years and world record holder until Chestnut's qualifying effort last month, is back but is suffering from jaw pain and no one is sure yet whether he will be able to compete.

We are currently only about 15 minutes into the hour long show and the food related puns are already overwhelming. We've had "meat" the competitors, the "buntenders", been told that Kobayashi is a "lunchtime decision" and a half dozen others. That's the problem with this show, it's an hour long while the contest itself is only 12 minutes long.


The broadcasters are trying very hard to convince everyone that Chestnut winning the Mustard Yellow Belt is a matter of national pride. First, it's shoving hot dogs into your mouth. I'm much more concerned about things like quality of life, education and how we treat people than whether my country wins this or any other sporting event. Second, considering Chestnut's recent comments about Kobayashi's injury ("I don't want to call anyone a coward, but..."), I don't think I particularly want to root for him regardless of country of origin.

We're now being introduced to the competitors and just saw one competitor who is a vegetarian except during competitions and another who is 63. As we reach the end of these intros, it's time for a prediction. Kobayashi always has another gear and seems to have something left in the tank at the end of the competition. I don't what's going to happen, and it's probably going out on a limb with the injury hanging over him, but I think that Kobayashi will not only compete, but win, and set a new world record with at least 60 hot dogs.

-The contest is underway and Kobayashi seems to be going as fast as always.

-At 10:30, Kobayashi has 14 and Chestnut has 16. The idea of eating that many makes me a little sick.

-With 8 minutes to go, Chestnut has a 5 dog lead.

-6 minutes as the gap has closed to 2 dogs.

-Someone needs to shut the announcer up about how Chestnut will be an American Hero if he wins. A great competitor, but not a hero.

-These guys are going to shatter the record if they don't really slow down.

-The closest competitors are 10 hot dogs behind Chestnut and Kobayashi.

-There is less than half a hot dog between them at 2:30.

-"The Spray Zone?" That's just nasty.

-15 second and tied at 62.

-The unofficial numbers are 66 for Chestnut and 63 for Kobayashi.

-The numbers are now official and Chestnut has the new world record and the Mustard Yellow belt.

It was an unbelievable performance by the injured Kobayashi and an amazing performance by Chestnut. The world record was completely destroyed and the competition was truly disgusting. Two guys constantly pushing each other to get better and work harder. That's what a good rivalry should be. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm feeling a little sick.

On The Lot Again, Just Can't Wait To Get On The Lot Again

Since On the Lot is not yet at a halfway point but at least far enough along to take stock, I figured I'd take a minute to think about where things are on the show so far.

Mostly, the films have been mediocre at best, while the highlight has often been Carrie Fisher trying desperately not to insult someone who just turned in a horrible film. The best moment of the show came a couple weeks ago when Carrie responded to a film which was horrible and horribly boring by telling the contestant that it was her "least favorite thing after adolescence and getting left by a man for a man." Tonight's episode is supposedly horror but unless the quality improves, so is every other week.

Recently, they also held a log line competition on the show's website. The deadline for entries passed and as the date for finalists to be revealed approached the date kept moving farther and farther back. Eventually, about two or three weeks after the original date, the finalists were revealed. Looking over the list, it's no wonder people complain about Hollywood being unoriginal¹. I have not yet decided which story to I'll vote for, but I have discovered a very fun game where I read the list and try to identify the TV show or movie whose plot is being described. For example, one entry describes three teenagers wandering in the woods in search of an urban legend. The entries must have all been pretty bad if the plot of The Blair Witch Project made it into the top 40.

There have also been a lot of rumblings recently about how the show has been run, cutting production cost by using films submitted earlier instead of making new films for recent rounds, choosing contestants based on making good reality TV instead of good films (wow, they missed out on both counts, didn't they). I have no idea how much of that is true, but it sounds like things are more interesting behind the scenes than on screen. Of course, even though I watch the show, I'm of the opinion that it is the perfect example of something that should be watched on TiVo where you can fast forward through 90% of the show which is just filler.

After watching tonight's episode, the quality did improve, but only one film (Eternal Waters by Jason) really stood out. The others were ok, but not great. For Kenny, this week was a triumph because it was not as appalling as his previous films (to quote Carrie Fisher, "Compared to your other stuff, that was Gone with the Wind."), and his film included one excellent shot of one of his monsters approaching as seen in the side mirror of the car. Mateen showed promise and originality, but needed to focus a little more, while Shira-Lee's film was relatively derivative, but well-made. Andrew combined comedy with his horror film and made a good, but not great attempt at both. Sam, on the other hand, went strictly with horror and broke out the B-movie puppets for a monster. Unfortunately, the downfall of his movie was not the puppet, but all the exposition in his intro. Overall, I suppose it was better than last week, and much better than 2 weeks ago, but none of these people are making films that make me feel like I would want to pay to go see their work.

¹ Full disclosure here: I did enter a few into the competition and am not among the finalists. No, that doesn't bother me, because I never really expected to be. I figured with all the people online who might be submitting things, there would be plenty of good entries. Just thought that I should let you know that I am actually complaining about a contest I entered.

Trivial Tuesday

The 1986 film Stand By Me tells the story of four young friends who go looking for the body of child who was hit by a train. Wil Wheaton played Gordie, while Chris and Teddy were played by River Phoenix and Corey Feldman, respectively. Who played Vern, the fourth in their group of friends?

I'm Such an Idiom!

Idioms are interesting things, especially when you are dealing with a language that is not your primary one. For example, we were at a Mexican restaurant the other day, and the restaurant had several signs up explaining changes that had recently occurred. The signs all explained that they could not sell alcohol and said "thank you for your comprehension." I imagine that they were meaning thank you for your understanding and simply used another word that in most contexts would mean the same thing. Unfortunately, in this case it changed the meaning of the signs from "Thank you for supporting us despite this" to "Thank you for being able to wrap your puny mind around this. I know it's difficult to figure out such a complicated concept."