SayWA?

By the way, I'm going to start using our state's tourist slogan SayWA to express incredulity and surprise on this blog. Because I'm clearly supporting Washington State tourism by mocking their slogan endlessly.

Security Measures

I tried to open a PO Box today for the Grand. They need two forms of ID. But a Social Security card and a Birth Certificate are not allowed. SayWA?

So if you don't have a passport or aren't military, you can't have a PO Box? Is there another kind of ID I'm forgetting about?

$26 million

That's how much the Archdiocese of Western Washington has paid in settlements for abuse since 1987. $8 million was last year. 53 priests in the Archdiocese have had 202 allegations made against them with charges going back to 1950. Here's the Tribune's report.
This is killer quote from the spokesman for the Archdiocese:

“As long as we continue to make settlements for fair and reasonable amounts, which we have for the past 18 years,” Magnoni said, “there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to cover the costs associated with sexual abuse.”

Is there a budget you have for this? Like it's a cost of doing business? "Fair and reasonable amounts... ?" "As long as we continue ... ?"

How about not continuing abuse? And then fair and reasonable is $0.00.

The Portland and Spoke archdioceses have already filed for bankrupt. How far are we? This makes me angry.

Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you

My parents are embarking on a 10 day road trip to Arizona and back today. Have fun! Drive safely! Be wary of the formidable cactususes (more fun to write that way).

For everyone else, party! My parents place, 2:00 am. BYOBlowtorch and other implements of destruction. RSVP Regrets only.

What's with all the ferries?

They keep sinking. And all over the world, too. Bahrain, Vancouver, BC, Egypt ... it's freaking me out.

Big Kudos

Big congratulations to Mrs. Erin Riggio, who landed a smoking cool job working for a PR firm representing cool restaurants and wineries. Fun night at E9 celebrating!

"Question, what is Spring?

Growth in Everything."

... That's Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ. Here's a much better springtime poem from Ms. Dickinson.

Who has not found the heaven below
Will fail of it above.
God's residence is next to mine,
His furniture is love.

So it's not exactly spring-related. But picture a cherry tree in bloom and some birds chirping and it fits very nicely. Hat tip, Andrew Sullivan.

Forgot to mention ...

... that the centrist party in Israel took the plurality in the election. Good for them.

Sir Sex Bomb

That's right. Tom Jones, who sings "Sex Bomb," was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his "service to music." You can read more at the IMDb news page. In case you are wondering if Britain has anyone left to try and knight, here is a refreshing list from Wikipedia: People who have turned downed knighthood or other British honors. Any list that has Kenneth Branaugh, John Lennon, John Cleese, John Le Carre, Joseph Conrad, Aldous Huxley, and T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) has got to be a good one.

Would I accept a knighthood? Probably. But I'm vain and insecure and this would be a perfect way to--literally--lord something over my friends (groan!). Kudos to those who have turned it down. I tip my hat.

That show

I never would have believed it, but Lost is just as good of a show in its second season as it was in its first. And that means it's really really really good. Last night's show, Lockdown, was freaking incredible!

Pittsburgh-Seattle still looms

The NFL officials and Mike Holmgren are still talking about the Superbowl and the hard calls. In fact, the NFL refs just issued a statement that basically says, "We did ok." More in the Tribune.

I'm being followed by a moon-shadow

Just like Cat Stevens. You can see a picture of today's solar eclipse as taken from the International Space Station on Wikipedia. Now that's cool!

Ms. Johansson

Scarlett Johansson was voted the sexiest woman by FHM Magazine. the IMDB did a poll and asked, "Who really is the sexiest woman" and Scarlett won that, too. I think her voice probably put her over the top. What she should win is the Most Extraneous Letters in Her Name Award. I mean Awwardd.

The Request

Another grant application interview this morning. These are actually kind of fun because I just get to talk about the Grand for awhile and see if people give me money for it. :) So that's a little over-simplified, but it's still good fun.

Lost Horizon

I forgot to mention that this was a pretty darn good read. Even though most people know that in Shangri-la you can live hundreds of years (now you know, too!) the book still has some weight and the surprises are good. It's not just a historical novelty: the first paperback ever published. It's got some good stuff, too.

1 in 750,000

Or 4 in 3 million. That's how many people correctly guessed the Final Four. More here at the NYTimes. Hat Tip, hordesofkreuser.

Some good news in Afghanistan

Big kudos to the release of Abdul Rahman. He faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity. Here's the incredible history:

Rahman, 41, was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible. He was put on trial last week for converting 16 years ago while he was a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He had faced the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws.

On the downside, he was released because ''he was mentally unfit to stand trial" according to the prosecutor.

Political Preview

As I go to bed, there's still no news out of Israel. I recommend visiting www.nytimes.com a lot tomorrow, cause their vote is going to be very interesting.

Ocean's 13?

Say it ain't so, Mr. Soderbergh! Well, I acquiesce. But it better be twice as good as Ocean's 11, just to make up for how back Ocean's 12 was.

Sad news today

Unexpectedly, Fay Prendergast died over the weekend. She was the woman in Torino that put Phil and I up on her futon last month for our Olympics trip. She was 62, though she was much more youthful than that, it seemed. Last month she seemed to be doing just great, but it was her heart or possibly a case of asthma; they still don't know.

She was pretty great to put us up for five nights, sight unseen, and she welcomed us like we were Nina's kids instead of Nina's employee and his friend. As I said, sad news today.

Odd bits of news

I found this article incredibly interesting on why Microsoft had to delay their new windows product. The biggest reason is that they are unwilling to make the move Apple did with OS X and entirely switch to a new operating system. Each Micrsoft operating system should be able to run the old programs, which apparently makes an incredibly complex system. But it certainly explains pretty well why there's crashes so frequently on PCs while my little Apple has tuttled along like it never needs a break.

Another bit of interesting news: Graceland is now a National Historic Landmark. It turns out it wasn't because of Paul Simon's song about it either, but another singer used to live there. Elvis Presley. Apparently he had a few hits, too.

Thanks to the New York Times awesome website for keeping me informed all day long.

And now ...

I am so very tired. I don't know if you know this, but the line everyone always says to justify going to bed early is something like "early to bed, early to rise ... " and then they just trail off as if that is enough. But the actual advice is from Ben Franklin: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

Things are making more sense now. It's 11:20, so it's not that early, and I doubt I'll be getting up early, either, but this seems to be a good start.

Until the morrow.

The Bellarmine Night

I was at the Bellarmine auction last night with the fam, Phil and his girlfriend Emily, as well as the Kleins and Shapiros. First, we had a rocking good fun table. Second, I was told a few months in advance that my dad was going to get some award so I've spent a lot of time talking my parents into going. It was a good surprise for him, which made for a lot of fun.

I also contributed to the Cam Brown technology fund, since I got outbid on everything I tried to win. It was thanks to Mr. Brown that I got a 5 on the AP Calculus test. I know that, because when I took Calc III in college, I got a C. So clearly it was Mr. Brown and not me. He passed away last year and was one of my best teachers. Saw a few familar faces from our class and the years behind and in front of us.

Good times were had by all.

18 Holes

I have a goal for the year: 20 rounds of golf before October. I don't know if I can get it in, but I'm ready to try. I wasn't very good today at all and ended with an awful score, but I had some great moments, and even won a hole or two.

Who loves the sun?

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace. (They Might Be Giants ... anyone?)

Anyway. Some scientists figured out a way to see the far side of the sun (it rotates, too) so that we could see if any big storms were brewing and prepare for their effects ahead of time. Solar flares and storms disrupt power grids, take out satellites, etc, so any warnings we get will be very helpful. More here.

More space news

A private company tried to launch a rocket yesterday. The owner of the company has deep pockets through, since he sold two companies (one of them PayPal) and he's going to keep going. I say, three cheers, and keep trying! More here.

And tomorrow!

A triumphant return to Bellarmine for their auction. I'll be bringing lots of business cards and wearing my secret cape and mask, thus making me Networking Man.

Bummer, Dude

Lost. That makes the Zags and the Huskies back to back losers. And each were up for most of the game against their enemy. I mean opponent. Opponent.

Microsoft and Star Trek

I just saw Gates McFadden in a Microsoft commercial. Because Dr. Crusher can really sell Microsoft Office?

The Hot Rock

An old heist movie with Robert Redford and George Segal. Sooooo 70s. But fun to see again. The best part is when the hypnotize a bank vault guard with the key words "Afghanistan Bananistan." And Robert Redford can say "Afghanistan Bananistan" like nobody's business. It takes a good actor to pull that kind of line off.

Zags

If you didn't see the last three minutes of the Gonzaga UCLA game, you missed about the most depressing three minutes after. Right now UW is up over UConn by 2. But it's early.

Live sports blogging is awesome.

8 Simple Rules

Here's a very cool article about 8 worlds in the solar system that scientists think might be capable of supporting life. Hint: Earth is high on the list. So is Mars, Venus, and a whole bunch of moons around Saturn and Jupiter.

Oops

So that last post somehow ended up on there three times. My mom had to tell me. "Your blog article on females and college is printed 3 times. Females deserve that much attention, but you may have only meant to post once!"

To all the girls I've rejected

That's actually the headline of the New York Times op-ed article I'm linking to ... But you thought it was something else, didn't you?

The Dean of Admissions at Kenyon College, Jennifer Delahunty Britz, writes about how colleges are rejecting more and more women. Women who are much better than the male students applying. Apparently colleges work very hard to keep the percentage of female students somewhere below 55% because if you get any high male students don't want to come (are they stupid?) and it actually makes female students less likely to select the campus as well.

Therefore the caliber of the accepted women goes up because, frankly, they rock. But that means stellar and incredible women are rejected while mediocre half-baked men are accepted. Here's how she ends her piece:

I admire the brilliant successes of our daughters. To parents and the students getting thin envelopes, I apologize for the demographic realities.

It's one of the most interesting things I've read in a long time.

30 Pages of Brokeback Mountain

That's all the longer it is. But it's a really good story. The movie is where the emotional punch is, but the story is helped by its brevity.

Ladri di biciclette

The Bicycle Thief is supposed to be one of the best films of all time. And it was good, certainly. But one of the best films of all time? Not my vote. It's ending packs a punch and Bruno, a young boy of about 7, is a great actor. And a lot more charming and fun than the Jerry Macguire kid.

I did like the film, certainly. But I got it from Netflix in December, and I just watched it, so you can tell it wasn't all that tempting.

Temporada de patos

Duck Season was odd. Very odd, although I would recommend it to the Grand Cinema audience. Good photography and some wonderful moments, but painfully slow at times. But the scenes with Moko and Rita making cake in the kitchen were priceless.

Welcome Back, Mr. Kreuser ...

May your trip to Switzerland have been full of chocolates and watches.

I do appreciate that the first thing you did when you came back was post about a movie called "Snakes on a Plane." No trip recap or thoughts on travel.

Just snakes. On a plane.

Which, by the way, looks really really odd.

The Beard

The New York Times ran an article today about the comeback of the beard. Clearly I was on the cutting edge when I grew mine in 2003, because it's become the in-thing.

Andrew Sullivan linked to the article and writes:

Just keep an eye on the homos, see? We were pioneering the big facial hair a few years' back, and finally the straight guys are getting into it. Of course, the heteros have to get past women and Gillette, but some women like beards, and Gillette's already jumped the shark with its seventeen-blade razor.

Funny. Although that might create questions about my sexual orientation, since I was also one of the pioneers. But I think Sullivan is forgetting about the Minnesotans. I lived as the beard-less wonder my senior year surrounded by bearded folk: Caleb Bartley, Joe Kreuser, Andrew Eppig, and Peter Strickland from time to time when he wasn't swimming. So I give lots of credit to anyone from Minnesota, too. Of course, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention and in Minnesota a beard is a pretty reliable alternative to frostbite.

Duck Season

Will be there tonight. It's black and white, and in Spanish, but man it looks funny. Best tagline for a movie with a title like Duck Season: "Adulthood is a moving target."

19

The Simpsons have been renewed through at least season 19. Their 400th episode will be in May of 2007. That is crazy talk.

But good for them. That leaves me 12 more seasons of DVDs to buy.

Helicopter Parents

On the Carleton alumni e-mail list is an interesting discussion about "Helicopter Parents" so named because they hover. It started with an article in the Carleton alumni magazine, which suggests Carleton has mostly escaped the phenomenon (I didn't see much of it).

But some schools have formed parent relations offices to stop parents from calling professors, checking in on dorm life and complaining about cafeteria food.

I actually experienced a helicopter parent last year, when we let go of our 25 year-old volunteer coordinator and I had to deal with his mom afterwards. Unexpected, to say the least.

Hitting the Links ...

... with my dad. It will be good to get outside for awhile.

Umbridge

The British actress Imelda Staunton may play Professor Umbridge in the next Harry Potter movie (released next year). I think she might be a very fine choice.

The Overlooked Film Festival

Roger Ebert hosts this every year. This year some highlighs include:

• a restored "My Fair Lady"
• Duane Hopwood (with David Schwimmer in an incredible performance apparently)
• Ripley's Game, with John Malkovic as Ripley
• Spartan (which was released by Warner Brothers but the co-president of Sony Pictures Classics will speak about the film because he liked it so much)
• Millions (a great family film)
• Junebug (the Grand played it for a few weeks this last fall)
• and Bad Santa

Congratulations to all those who live in Chicago who get to see this. My man Ebert ... is there anything he can't do?

The Whip

So I wrote before about the guy on the Daily Show who wrote a book called "Misquoting Jesus." It turns out he might be full of it. This blog has a pretty good skewering of the guy cited from the review done by the Center for the Study of the New Testament Manuscripts.

The blogger writes this, which rings true for me:

Over 90% of the NT is rather well established in regard to its original text, and none of the remaining 10% provides us with data that could lead to any shocking revisions of the Christian credo or doctrine. It is at the very least disingenuous to suggest it does, if not deliberately provocative to say otherwise.

The guy on the show, Ehrman, did have the fishy smell of a fish story. I'm not saying that the guy is not a scholar or that a good deal of his facts wouldn't check out. I'm just saying he seems more showman than scholar. Which is fine, I suppose, but a big title like "Misquoting Jesus" is probably a stretch.

So it would appear, in fact, that John's account is as he wrote it: he had a whip. A whip, by the way, is the first human invention to break the speed of sound (hence, the crack).

Jesus really was ahead of his time.

Real Life Simpsons

A British TV station re-created the Simpson's classic opening with real life people. It is very cool to watch. Highly recommended from this Simpsons fan.

Good Morning from Mason Lake

Who would ever want to go to work on a morning like this?

Lots of movies, once again

I have a sneaking suspicion that readers must assume I don't do much other than watch movies. Not to dissuade, here's what I watched this weekend:

• V for Vendetta--just as good, if not a little better the second time
• After the Thin Man--just as good as the first, I'd say, with a very young Jimmy Stewart to boot!
• Garden State--watched it with my dad tonight. Natalie Portman is getting better as she gets older. She is too young still even in 2004. The second half of the film is better than the first, which is always a plus. And I still carry the soundtrack around in my car.
• Enigma--the 2001 movie about code-breaking during World War II in England. Kate Winslet was very good.

Not a bad list, I'd say.

Wikipedia knows all

As I checked this out, I also discovered that Christopher Robin has been replaced in all of Disney's future Winnie the Pooh cartoons by a tomboyish 6-year old girl because of a lawsuit against them by Christopher Robin's daughter.

Random History Note for the Day

Winnie-the-pooh is a Canuck.

A Canadian captain during World War I took a black bear to England as a 'mascot' for the troops. They called him Winnie after Winnipeg. But they left him in London at the Zoo, and A.A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin Milne visited Winnie frequently. Christopher liked him so much he named his own stuffed bear Winnie. And thus, Winnie-the-pooh was born.

(Pooh was the name of a swan they met on vacation. Not that this explains anything, but that's where the full name comes from).

I'm Spent

I can't think of a single thing to blog about. Nada. Zip. I've bored myself into submission.

Death and Taxes

Struggling through at least one today. Though it might increase the likelyhood of the other.

Two Thumbs Up for V

Ebert and Roeper really liked V for Vendetta. Here's Ebert's review. I rather liked his ending. He "found an audacious confusion of ideas in "V for Vendetta" and enjoyed their manic disorganization." I like that.

US No Longer A Presence in World Affairs

Oh. That was a typo. I meant the World Baseball Classic. They lost.

Tom Cruise gets to South Park

Apparently Mr. Cruise successfully blackmailed Comedy Central and Viacom. He would pull advertisements for "Mission Impossible III" from Viacom if they ran the re-run of South Park's lampoon of Scientology. Talk about caving.

SayWA?

That's Washington State's new tourism slogan. SayWA. I would have said, SayStickWithTheOldSlogan. "Experience Washington." Not that catchy, but not annoying either.

Big new website for the Grand!

Check it out. I'm very happy. www.grandcinema.com

Also finished the Grand's grant application for the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation. Good day all around.

Indiana Jesus and the Reason for the Crusade

Speaking of the Bible, recently I was inspired by a friend to read each evangelist's version of Jesus cleansing the temple. He drives out the dove-sellers, etc, so that he can teach. He flips over tables and it's pretty cool.

I was a little surprised, though, because in my Bible (the New American Bible for Catholics) the Book of John says that to drive them out Jesus used a whip. Say, whaaaa? Is he a super hero?

If a writer really did amend the gospels as he transcribed it, maybe one tried to imagine how Jesus did it, and--voila--suddenly he had a whip. Just like Indiana Jones. But in sandals.

Or maybe John thought, "This'll show them he's the Messiah." Because in the Beginning there was the word, and that word was whip.

The Gospels as it relates to the game of telephone

There was a guest on the Daily Show last night who had written a book about how during transcription of the Gospels in the early centuries he believed that the Gospels were amended and added to as they went. He claimed that the popular story about Jesus intervening to stop the woman from being stoned is not in all the earliest copies of the gospels we have but only showed up later.

He thought this was a good thing--people adding their interpretations to different stories and creating their own parables, if you will. Jon Stewart suggested that he felt the Bible changing as it went through each person had a certain holy quality. And I would add--though none of them did on the show--that the Gospels can still be divinely inspired even if they were slightly changed or added to over three centuries. Interesting if true.

Transa What Now?

Saw "Transamerica" tonight. First, Felicity Huffman was robbed. Totally. Second, the movie itself was robbed. It deserved a nomination for Best Picture over "Munich" any day and maybe even over "Good Night and Good Luck."

The movie was quite good. Very good really. And funny like you wouldn't believe. But true. And sad. But then hopeful. 4 Stars. Out of 4.

So much for my reviewing skills.

Pumped

I am very excited because tomorrow the new Grand Cinema website will go live!!! You can check out the monstrosity we call a website at www.grandcinema.com. It is really bad. You can't see what movies are coming on Friday. It is ugly as sin. And sin is really really fugly.

Tomorrow it'll be so much better!

Current Selection

Speaking of reading, I'm checking out a slice of history. "Lost Horizon." The first paperback novel ever published. And the birthplace of Shangri-la. Since everyone's heard of Shangri-la, you have to figure that James Hilton did a pretty good job coming up with it. The only other truly literary conceit that can match it is Joseph Heller's Catch-22, which he must also be proud for coming up with, since everyone today talks about catch-22 situations. Oddly, Heller first wrote a story called Catch 18, which would have been the title of book had another World War II novel not just come out, Mila 18, by Leon Uris. So Catch 18 became Catch 22, which sounds so much better because of the alliteration.

Lost Goes Literary

So the creators of Lost think a TV show can be more than just a TV show. In an early episode of Season 2 a character is seen packing a book called "The Third Policeman" which was published 40 or 50 years ago. The producers of the show say that anyone who reads the book will be better equipped to deal with the mysteries on the Island. Say what?

And then last episode Hurley found a manuscript called "Bad Twin" written by one of the plane crash victims. Hyperion Books is going to publish "Bad Twin" in May. What? Now I have to read?

Say it ain't so, Chef

Isaac Hayes quit South Park because he didn't like them making fun of Scientology (his religion). But he couched it in terms of "their take on religion" and "civil rights." But he didn't quit after their episode about Catholics who pray to a giant spider. Or any of their jokes about Jews which occur about once an episode.

Kudos to Matt Stone and Trey Parker for telling it like it is. And for making fun of everything very very well. Including Scientology. Including Catholicism. And including Satan-worshipping woodland critters (their Christmas episode two years ago).

Red Star Over Hollywood

I met the author of "Red Star Over Hollywood" and "Commies" at a Library thing earlier tonight. Ron Radosh is a former communist turned hard-right and now bashes his former beliefs. He was in town for the Tacoma Reads project, which this year is The Crucible. Apparently Mr. Radosh thinks Arthur Miller and those who fought the blacklists (including Ms. Lauren Bacall) were in the wrong.

I haven't read any of Radosh's arguments, but there is little doubt that there were communists working in the state department who wanted to overthrow the government. And there were likely communists in Hollywood as well.

I guess I question whether communists in Hollywood is that big of a deal. Even buying the premise that they thought the USSR should kick the US's butt, were they in a place to do anything about it? And what business was it of the Senate?

My financial blog would look like this.

Erik's Finances:

He's always trying to spend more than he makes. It's very simple, really.

And my European vacation cut in to me deep. So March is unofficially designated Erik's Frugal Month. Think free movies at the Grand. Think stop buying books and previously-viewed DVDs. Think not paying my mortgage or my phone bill (that's be sure to save up my expenses).

And that's my finances.