Drive-Bys

I'm all jazzed up because my favorite book of all time...

...has been made into a movie by Ang Lee, and will be released in November!

No trailer available yet, but the official website is gorgeous and this teaser looks awesome:



(Not sure I'm crazy about the casting of Tobey McGuire, though -- but that's just me.)
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Apparently there's an app for everything:

The cell phone came in handy again when they used an app that produces a strobe light to help rescue workers locate them.

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For those that despair of kids these days, here's some more good news:

If there's a Disney writer looking for a movie idea that'll make kids pump their fists with joy and leave parents teary-eyed, look no further than the real story of a San Clemente Little League team coached this year by kids. 

The team that couldn't find a coach, finally getting permission from the league to bring in two San Clemente High School freshmen to lead it, concluded an improbable season Saturday by winning the District 68 Tournament of Champions in improbable fashion. 

Coaches Chris Puckett, 15, and Cameron Shelley, 14, guided their crew of 12- to 14-year-olds to three straight victories in the tournament at Beebe Park in Mission Viejo, finishing with a 10-9 victory. 

This was a team that at the outset of the season drew smirks from some opponents because of its youthful coaches who look like they could be playing on the field. The team started with skeptical parents and an 0-2 record. But the players took the two teens' baseball tutelage to heart, improving to 6-4 by midseason before going on a 10-2 tear in the second half.

Well done, gentlemen!
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Ear Worm of the Day:




(This has been firmly embedded in my noggin since about 8:00 last night, and there is no sign of shaking it any time soon!)

Precipitation Ahead

If you can watch this entire video without your eyes moistening, you don't have a beating heart:



Matt W. -- my new hero!
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Update:  Another hero?  You bet.

Drive-Bys

My friend with the farookin' fabulous heada hair gets freaked out by alligators and crocodiles. Me?

Authorities in a state in Brazil's northeast are scrambling to take the fright and the bite off the beach after piranhas sunk their teeth into about 100 beachgoers, UOL Noticias reported.

The problem -- rather fearsome given piranhas' horror-movie teeth and ability to sink them into human flesh -- has been the biggest at the main beach area in Piaui state; authorities said they need to act fast to reduce a piranha overpopulation situation.

Last weekend, at least 100 bathers were treated at the hospital in Jose de Freitas not far from Terezina, Piaui's capital, after being bitten on the heels or toes at the local beach.

Ay caramba!
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When I heard they'd signed Katherine Heigl to play Stephanie Plum, I knew One for the Money was going to be bad... but I had no idea it was going to be this bad:



Seriously, that's some of the worst casting since The Bridges of Madison County, which I also predicted would be awful, given the horrible miscasting of Eastwood and Streep.

Don't bother with the movie, but do get the book, which is hilarious.
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Get your hankies out for the winners of the American Humane Association's Hero Dog Awards.
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Looks like TOTUS has been dragged out of mothballs and plugged back in. Huzzah!

In Memoriam

Another amazing hero of World War II has passed away:

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifA World War II heroine spy who topped the Gestapo’s wanted list after her daring exploits behind enemy lines helped pave the way for the D-Day landings has died aged 98.

Nancy Wake, who inspired the film Charlotte Gray after becoming one the Allies' most decorated servicewomen for her role in the French resistance, passed away in a nursing home in London yesterday.

After reading Beyond Silk and Cyanide several years, I've always had tremendous respect for the spies, British and American, who risked their lives under incredibly difficult circumstances. Very, very few made it home again.

God speed, Mrs. Wake.

Drive-Bys

Giggle of the Day:

A punk rock nine course tasting menu would be a case of Old Style missing three cans that were thrown at the band.

Priceless!
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Looking to adopt a really special pet? Why not consider a retired Military Working Dog?
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Hero of the Day: Elizabeth Smart

"I know exactly what you did. I know you know what you did was wrong. You you did it with full knowledge," Smart said, looking directly at Mitchell, 57, and speaking forcefully during brief remarks in federal court in Salt Lake City.

"I also want you to know that I have a wonderful life now, that no matter what you do you will never affect me again," Smart told Mitchell. "You took away nine months of my life that can never be replaced. "In this life or the next, you will be held responsible for your actions and I hope you're ready for that when the time comes." (Emphasis mine.)

Young lady, I take my hat off to you and your incredible inner strength.
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Ear Worm of the Day:



I'm going to have to get their album. Fabulous stuff.
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Oh, puh-leeze:

But consider this: It's not that Obama can't speak clearly. It's that he employs the intellectual stammer. Not to be confused with a stutter, which the president decidedly does not have, the intellectual stammer signals a brain that is moving so fast that the mouth can't keep up. The stammer is commonly found among university professors, characters in Woody Allen movies and public thinkers of the sort that might appear on C-SPAN but not CNN.

And it may just be that if he hasn't thought it out beforehand, he's not quick enough on his feet to formulate an answer readily.
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Reading and doing crossword puzzles can block your ability to hear? Hah! The Princess Mom, were she still alive, would be assuring my readers that in my case, reading blocks not only the ability to hear, but also to smell.

Back in my youth I once read my way through a chicken burning so badly that it welded itself to the pan, which had to be tossed. I was so wrapped up in my book that I didn't see or smell the smoke that had filled the entire first level of the house. (So it's no wonder that i can read in the middle of a very busy and noisy sports bar and not be distracted.)

I can now validly claim limited brain capacity...
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Head-Scratcher of the Day:

Drive-Bys

My Magic Cheezburger and I have awesome predictive powers when I comes to Carol Mosley Braun's chances of landing her butt in the Mayor's chair here in the Windy City.

I'm giving her style points for her latest blooper:

At a debate on Sunday at Trinity United Church of Christ, Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins said Braun was returning to Chicago politics after having been “missing in action and lost somewhere” — and Braun responded by saying, “Patricia, the reason you didn’t know who I was for the last 20 years is because you were strung out on crack. I was not strung out on crack. I don’t have a record.”

Watkins, who has acknowledged using pot and coke as a teenager, says she’s been sober for 25 years and has demanded an apology.More comments from around the town on Braun's

“This says a lot about her character,” Watkins said.

Or lack thereof.

More comments from around the town on Mosely Braun and her big mouth:

• Approximately 20 percent of Chicago voters say they’re planning to vote for Braun. She’s still a huge long shot to upset Rahm Emanuel, but the fact that one of five of my fellow voting citizens believe she’s the best person for the job is more daunting than the Storm of the Century looming over us.
  
• The question, you said Jan. 14, is one of temperament. Thanks for displaying yours now, when voters see it implode.
  
• [T]here was nothing to be gained for Braun by responding with an attack on Van Pelt-Watkins, a minor candidate in all the polling so far. Braun's dwindling hopes depend on softening up and prying away Van Pelt-Watkins supporters, and are further eroded by antagonizing them.
  
• Is it too late to coin the terms "crackusation?"

P.S. -- I asked my Magic Cheezburger what were Mosley Braun's chances of beating out Emanuel and Chico in the mayoral race. Cheezburger sez, "SRY. I EATED IT." (I'll bet you the leaders of the black community that pushed so hard for her to be the "unity" candidate wish they had a Magic Cheezburger of their own and had consulted it a long time ago.)

Update: Ms. Mosley Braun offers up an apology to everyone but the one person she owes it to."

I want to apologize to her, to the congregations and members of Trinity United Church and of New Pilgrim Missionary Baptist church and all of the families and friends of those who are or who have been caught up in the tragedy of drug use. I meant no disrespect of the sanctuaries in which campaign tensions spilled over.

She gives the word "ungracious" a whole new face.
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One hundred and eighty degrees in the opposite direction of black women in Illinois politics is Toni Preckwinkle, on whom I am developing a tremendous girl crush:

“The proposed budget represents the first step of a restructuring of county finances for a long-term plan that will address the structural deficit and lay the groundwork for the rollback of the sales-tax increase,” Preckwinkle said. “We must break the habits that got us here. We must build a new foundation to stabilize our finances.”

You go, girl! (Can we clone her a couple of times and send one to Springfield and the other to the White House???)
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While this news is not good, it does not in the least take away from the fact that a toddler would not be dead if his mother hadn't left him alone to play in the hallway of a hotel while she fooled around with her boyfriend:

A switch used by a 2-year-old boy to open an elevator door before he fell down the shaft last week should have been locked up, Joliet’s chief building inspector said Monday.

David Mackley said the exposed switch in the Plaza Hotel elevator car was a code violation. He told a city council committee that the switch either should have been in a shielded case or the device should have required a key to operate.

This whole mess saddens and enrages me in equal parts.
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Cool Quotes of the Day:

• Roethlisberger is to role model what Snooki Polizzi is to classy.
  
• Sheriff’s Police are ruling out a phone malfunction for the disconnection.
  
• They’ve even narrowed down names for their twins. “They won’t be crazy names like Carburetor or something,” he says. “But they’re definitely unique.”
  
• What the hell is Whoopi wearing? It looks like a Snuggie.

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The last living WWI veteran, Frank Woodruff Buckles, turns 110 today. God bless him!
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In the middle of the biggest recession in a long time, Caterpillar's workers take this brilliant step:

Union members at Caterpillar Inc. facilities in Illinois and three other states have authorized the United Auto Workers to strike if necessary.

This is why it took my father-in-law 30 years to get fully vested in a 20 year pension/retirement benefit.
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I'm heading home. Wish me luck.

More later!
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Update: Strike that heading home thingie. I'm on the reception desk until 5:30 p.m. Yahoo.
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Anyone who thinks having the Muslim Brotherhood in charge in Egypt seriously needs to rearrange their thinking:

A leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt told the Arabic-language Iranian news network Al-Alam on Monday that he would like to see the Egyptian people prepare for war against Israel, according to the Hebrew-language business newspaper Calcalist.

There's your religion of peace for you.

And, by the way...

If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighborhood and President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame, Israeli pundits said on Monday.

This is unbelievably awful foreign policy on the part of the U.S.
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