The Red Bud pond.

Captcha of the Day.

IN THE COMMENTS: Lou Minatti says "Hey!"

"Mrs. Ann, do you have (or could you produce) a list of 'DVD's you deem essential?'"

C Black sees a phrase I used and makes a request. I'm here to answer your questions, so, based on a quick scan of the shelf and probably leaving a few things out, here's my list (in alphabetical order) of 40 DVDs I'd try to get you to watch if you lived with me:

32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
American Movie
Aguirre the Wrath of God
Clockwork Orange
Coffee and Cigarettes
Crumb
Divorce Italian Style
Don't Look Back
Dr. Strangelove
Election
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
Fight Club
Grave of the Fireflies
Grey Gardens
Grizzy Man
Heathers
It's a Gift
Lolita
Memento
Modern Times
My Dinner With Andre
Nights of Cabiria
Pecker
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Room with a View
Rosemary's Baby
Royal Tenenbaums
Salesman
Serial Mom
Slacker
Spirited Away
Streetcar Named Desire
Stroszek
The Blood of a Poet
The Shining
The War Room
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl
Wisconsin Death Trip
Wuthering Heights

Now, you may wonder which of these movies Meade had already seen and which ones have I succeeded in getting him to watch. You may wonder which ones, once watched, produced a negative reaction and about which ones did we see eye to eye. I'll leave that for Meade to say in the comments if he wants. The rest of you are welcome to guess, to produce your own lists, or to opine about mine.

At the Koi Café...

... you can surface.

"The Tea Party is a Frankenstein movement — an odd collection of factions, loosely stitched together, where the head, to the extent that it exists, fails to control the body."

Says Charles M. Blow, apparently longing for political parties with powerful leaders who tell all the little people what to do. Grassroots democracy is a monstrous thing... to Blow.

Oh, and also, per Blow, you're a big bunch of racists.

Did Coyote ever catch Road Runner?

Yes!



I think this works as a political allegory, by the way. But for what?

"If we just told parents, 'No, this is wrong,' ... they may take their daughters back to their home countries, where the procedure may be more extensive cutting..."

"... and may even be done without anesthesia, with unsterilized knives or even glass. A just-say-no policy may end up alienating these families, who are going to then find an alternative that will do more harm than good."

And so the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on bioethics has issued a policy statement recommending an exception to the criminal law against "any nonmedical procedure performed on the genitals" of a girl. A small cut of some kind... for the greater good. A ritual nick is that's "supposed to be as benign as getting a girl's ears pierced. It’s taking a pin and creating a drop of blood."

Creating a drop of blood.

Things singers sing that they do that they actually never do.

I'm starting a list:

1. Hop a train.
2. ...
3. ...

I need some help with this one. I don't want fantasies, but real things that are intended to make the singers sound gritty and deeply in touch with life, but you know damned well they don't do.

(Here's the song that was playing....)

"A thousand years ago, popular birth control methods in the Western world included spitting into the mouth of a frog, eating bees and wearing the testicles of a weasel."

Actually, all those things work.

"The Strategic Imperative Not to Hire Anybody."

"[CEOs have] decided that we've touched bottom, or they wouldn't be talking to me... They're starting to think about growing their businesses again.... But boy, I don't see employment coming back, not for years. My clients were amazed by how much productivity they could squeeze out of their people in the downturn. They're not going to start hiring again — well, maybe temps or contract workers, but not regular, full-time employees... In fact, the CEOs are mad at their middle managers for not having eliminated more jobs earlier."

Brandon Hardesty plays "Goodfellas" as Jimmy Stewart and Stephen Hawking.

It's #2 in a series that is up to #56. Why haven't I noticed this YouTube channel before? This adorable reenactment is quite brilliant (with the familiar "Goodfellas" language):



The video that got my attention is Hardesty's reenactment of the famous bunker scene from the movie "Downfall." This was embedded at BoingBoing a few days ago and linked in the NYT last night. There's that annoying German production company that got YouTube to take down all the "Downfall" parodies that used the original footage from their movie. I hope they don't come after this use of the script.

I'm not going to watch the other 54 videos all at once, but I'm going to get to all of them. I was going to watch the "Fight Club" one, but I see that it's the scene that reveals the key secret, and I can't play it while Meade is in the room. He's never watched "Fight Club," though we've started the DVD a couple times.

(How long is it supposed to take to get your new lover/spouse to get through all of the DVDs you deem essential? I don't think we're going to live that long.)

"It doesn’t happen very often, but you’re obviously not attached to the principles of the Constitution if you’re being trained in bomb-making in Waziristan when you take the oath."

Bomb-fizzler Faisal Shahzad got to become a U.S. citizen, despite the requirement that he swear to "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies." Imagine that!

"If Twitter is the new CNN, then @annalthouse is the new Oprah!"

I just retweeted that and then had to admit that I don't really know what it means.

"A nice" or "an ice"?

Think you can hear the difference?

I hope so, because I need people to hear the difference between "Ann Althouse" and "an Althouse." I feel so indeterminate sometimes.

"So, there's a Japanese artistic concept called a Thomasson."

"In short, they are 'defunct and useless objects, attached to someone's property and aesthetically maintained.'"

***

"You see these in every city; how many apartments, like ours in Hell's Kitchen, had a fireplace mantlepiece but no fireplace? Semi-blocked doors, walled-off terraces, connecting passageways of an old large house blocked off to make two smaller houses, staircases deprived of their entryways, all common sights. And while I enjoy all the mystical connotations of these, they also kind of make me sad; poor abandoned things. And also a little annoyed at what, most of the time, is just poorly-done renovation work."

ADDED: Wisconsin Law School old-timers remember — before the renovation — there was a short stairway near the library that ended in a bit of floorspace just big enough for the old sofa someone put there. Above it was a sign that read "Reality Checkpoint."

"Some humans are 4% Neanderthal."

Okay.

Would it trouble you to learn that you are part Neanderthal?
	Yes! I'd be upset to know that I am not entirely human.
	Not at all! It would be thrilling. I'd be proud and fascinated.
	I am whatever I am and have always been. It would make no difference.
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