"You're going to need a bigger boat."

It's a line that most people know. Some might not know where it's from. Some might know that it's from a movie but not which movie. But there's no denying that it's one of the most memorable lines of all time, taken from the 1975 film "Jaws". The man who uttered that line, Roy Scheider, died today at the age of 75. No cause of death was released, but he has been treated for bone marrow cancer for a number of years now, and there is no known cure. His line will live on forever though. I know that I'm not the only one who uses that line in everyday conversation when the situation is appropriate.




While most people probably know him best from "Jaws", his most memorable performance for me was as the Bob Fosse character in "All That Jazz". This was a role that for me was quite a departure for him, and he did an amazing job.




I also loved him in "Blue Thunder" (the movie) and "2010", and he was pretty much the only reason I watched "SeaQuest DSV" and continued to watch the show until his departure.

I'll have to watch "All That Jazz" again soon. Thanks for everything, Roy. Rest well.

sometimes, it can be the parent's fault

I was listening to a top-of-the-hour news report on KROQ yesterday morning, and one particular story caught my attention. Not so much for the actual story in and of itself, but a sound bite that they played.

Here's the news article. (OK, apparently, the full story is only available on the first day of publication without having to register.)

Unfortunately, news of shootings are entirely too common nowadays, but it doesn't make them any less tragic, especially when lives are lost.


Quoted from the article: "In late January, a federal judge tossed out a lawsuit Mr. Thornton had filed against Kirkwood and its officials. He contended that they had violated his free speech rights by prohibiting him from speaking out at meetings."

OK, this is one of those things that irritates me, people who don't understand the First Amendment. In this case, at least it is actually about a government entity. Usually, people mistakenly scream violation of First Amendment rights when it comes to other private citizens. But even still, people seem to think that the First Amendment gives them the right to say ANYTHING they want, ANYWHERE they want, ANYTIME they want. NO!!!!!! That's not what it protects. If you're being disruptive or not following what's set out to happen, then they can stop you. You can't wander into any courtroom and just start talking about anything, citing your First Amendment rights, when they're in the middle of proceedings. I can't wander into my local city council meeting and expect that they're going to let me start complaining about the people at work who insist on knocking on my door to get my attention when I'm already staring right at them, waiting for them to tell me what they want.


Quoted from the article: "In an interview with a local television station, Mr. Thornton's mother said that Kirkwood officials had kept after her son, 'giving him tickets for everything they could.'"

And if he kept doing things that were violations of the law, they were perfectly within their rights to keep citing him. What, did she think that if her son committed the same infraction 2 or 3 times, they'd stop citing him because he obviously knows what he's doing, so no use in telling him again? If I know that a police officer sits at a particular location, and every day, I speed past him going 10 miles an hour faster than the speed limit, am I allowed to be pissed off if he gives me a speeding ticket EACH AND EVERY DAY?


Quoted from the article: "She said she never suspected that her son would be violent but described the events as 'an act of God, just like a storm or a tornado.'"

This is the sound bite that I heard. And it just infuriated me. A storm, a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake - those are all acts of God because they are things people have no control over. You can try to safeguard against them, but no one can do anything to stop them. In this case, her son decided to go out and kill people and managed to kill five of them. In this case, someone *could* have put a stop to it - her son. God had nothing to do with killing those five people. Her son has that responsibility all on his own. How dare she blame God for what her son did.


Here's another article about the same story, which doesn't require registration to see.


Quoted from the article: "There was the name calling, the arrests, the lawsuit. But Thornton wasn't going to back down — not when the city was telling him that he was working without the proper permits, or parking his truck and construction equipment in the wrong places.

He wasn't going to be 'treated like a slave,' a friend said."

He's working without the proper permits and parking his equipment in the wrong places, but he wasn't going to back down. And then yes, let's pull out the slave card, shall we, because that's always a convenient thing to wield, even when it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ISSUE AT HAND. There are rules for doing things, and these rules apply to EVERYONE. They weren't rules that were put in place specifically for him, but he apparently felt that he was special and should not have been subject to those rules. How dare the city have the nerve to tell him what he could and couldn't do. He was a free man, and he could do anything he damned well pleased.


Quoted from the article: "'He's not a person who truly understood the court system,' said his brother, Gerald Thornton. 'He was learning as he went along and apparently he had gotten enough.'"

Great, so he didn't understand how things worked, but before he'd learned enough, he decided to give up, and if he couldn't be bothered to be governed by the same rules that are in place for everyone else, he just decided that using a gun was a much better solution.


Quoted from the article: "He claimed his First Amendment rights had been violated with "repetitive, personal, virulent attacks" by city officials. A federal judge rejected the claim, saying that the city could restrict public comment for certain groups and topics that were on the agenda."

I've already talked about people unclear on the First Amendment concept, but I'm just quoting this section since it had more of an explanation.


Quoted from the article: "Back in 2006, city leaders became so fed up with Charles Thornton's verbal badgering that they discussed banning him from meetings. They quickly decided such an action would be inappropriate but decided to place a time restriction on all speakers."

So they could have taken action against just him, but they decided that was wrong and did not do it. Instead, they made a rule that would affect everyone. They *could* have made it personal, but they didn't.


Quoted from the article: "Anne Bell Thornton called what had happened terrible, but said her son was provoked by the city.

'No one should kill,' she said. 'But people shouldn't drive people to kill.'"

This comment infuriates me even more than the sound bite I heard. What happened wasn't "terrible", like some minor mishap. It was tragic and devastating to the families and friends of the five people that he murdered, not to mention the trauma inflicted on the people who survived his rampage. And in the end, she places all the responsibility on the city. He just couldn't help himself. It wasn't his fault. They made him do it. BULLCRAP!!!!!! He was violating the rules, and he was being called on it. He decided that he was above the law and should be able to do anything he wanted. When told otherwise, he didn't bother to actually learn how things are supposed to go. He just decided to finish it off with violence and death, and damnit, people were going to pay, and pay hard, because he didn't understand. Lots of people run into problems, even bureaucratic nightmares, but their solution is not to take out a gun and start shooting. I understand that a mother might have a hard time with the fact that her son did this horrible thing, but to actually absolve him of responsibility, twice in these two articles? I think that adults have to take responsibility for their own actions, but in this case, I'm going to put partial blame on her for what he did. Yes, he's the one who ultimately pulled out the gun and shot and killed five people, but with the attitude expressed by her in the aftermath, I would expect that this is the attitude she held and conveyed to him. If she taught him that you can't control yourself and you didn't have to follow the rules and if someone upsets you, you are perfectly justified in doing anything you want to retaliate because they've made you do it, then if that's what he learned all the while growing up, that's a difficult attitude to kick, and she's a contributor to how he chose to end the situation.

As much as her excuses infuriate me, I can't imagine how the families and friends of the five dead people would feel about them. My thoughts and prayers go out to them and those who survived his shooting spree.

return to the dark ages

My car has been acting up for a while, steadily getting worse, and the oil change and other stuff I had done to it at Jiffy Lube last week didn't seem to help any. We decided I would take it into a local dealer. Turns out that in addition to me needing brake pads (which I already knew), the transmission was totally shot, and I need a new one. No, that's not expensive at all. They have something on order, and it may arrive at the dealer's on Saturday, but if not, then Monday at the latest, so I won't get my car back until sometime next week.

So that promised tax refund the politicians keep dangling in front of us has already been spent, and then some.

In the meantime, I have a rental from Enterprise - a 2007 Ford Focus. It's actually not bad - four door, drives nicely, coincidentally about the same color as my car. But it has manual locks. And manual windows. Which are really hard to crank up and down. I had manual locks and windows on my other cars, but when I bought my present car in 2003, I went for the electric locks and windows. Love it. The electric window is especially handy (and yes, it's one of the reasons I wanted them) when I'm driving to Disneyland by myself and I get in a line where the toll booth is on the passenger side. With manual windows, it's a pain in the ass. With electric windows, it's a breeze. The other weird thing about this car is that the headlight control isn't on the stick thing on the side of the steering wheel. I actually had to hunt around for it. It's a dial thing on the dashboard to the left of the steering wheel.

I'm used to getting a new car when the previous one is pretty much on its last leg. The husband is telling me I don't need to wait that long. Since we're spending a fairly substantial sum of money to fix the car now, I'm going to keep it for a while, but maybe I'll consider getting a new car next year. I had my last car for about 11 years.

The car I've wanted since I saw "The Italian Job" is a Mini. It was just too cute as they were simulating driving it around the house. How cool would that be? So today, after telling a co-worker the drama surrounding my car, and having previously mentioned how much I like and want the Mini, we spent some minutes building me a Mini.

I had trouble deciding on a color. My current car is red, as was my last car (burgundy red and cherry red, respectively, not fire-engine, oh-Mr.-Police-Officer-please-give-me-a-ticket red), and I rather like that color. But I'm thinking it would be time for a change. I do like that you can have the side mirrors and top be black or white no matter the color of the body of the car, so I'd be going with black for those in any case.


I rather like the British Racing Green.





But I'm also partial to the Oxygen Blue.





The color I really like is Lightning Blue, but it's about the same color as the husband's truck, and I don't want two same-colored vehicles.





I guess I'd have to see them in person to decide which color I like best. Of course, that's presuming I could actually talk myself into buying a Mini. I've always had practical cars, so this would be a change. I've also gotten used to having a four-door car, which I really like for its convenience, so I'm not sure I want to go back to having a two-door. And I've never even seen the inside of a Mini. As we were building a Mini for me today, I saw pictures of the dashboard and steering wheel, and it looks a bit odd. I'd have to see it in person.


But no matter what car I eventually get, I've decided it's time for new plates. I've had a personalized license plate since I got my last car, and when I got my current car, I transferred the plates, so at this point, I've had them for about 16 years. I still like what my plates are about, but I think it would be time for a change. I checked out a few different things that would interest me. Some were taken, as I expected, given their popularity, even with slight spelling changes, and some, I couldn't figure out how to narrow down to 7 letters and still have it make sense. But there were a few that I came up with that are still available, and they're mostly obscure enough configurations that I expect they'll still be available, so I'd just have to decide on which one to get.


But for now, I'm driving the unmotorized-lock-and-window rental. Anyone have Fred Flinstone's number? Maybe he can give me tips.

Happy New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year, ringing in the year of the rat. Or is it really year of the mouse? I have no idea which one it is really supposed to be.

In any case, the picture above is from Chinese New Year at Hong Kong Disneyland from a year or two ago. I can't remember when someone alerted me to it. I love the clothes that Mickey and Minnie are wearing.

I'd love to visit Hong Kong Disneyland someday, but it's actually pretty far down my list of places I want to go.

Now, Tokyo Disney Sea on the other hand...

Gung hay fat choy!

Dockside Grill - seafood and more

"Restaurant Row" in West Covina consists of a few chain restaurants, Hooters among them, but the jewel is definitely Dockside Grill. It's a fairly non-descript place, except for the decking on the outside. It's a restaurant that could very well be situated in a much more high-rent location like Marina Del Rey or Newport Beach, but you get the same quality restaurant with much more reasonable prices and something that's unattainable in the other two cities - ample parking.

Dockside is mostly a seafood restaurant, but they also offer very nice cuts of beef for those not inclined to seafood. They also have some pasta dishes and at least one chicken dish. But their signature fare is seafood, including numerous varieties of fish. While I love sushi, I've not been particularly enamoured of cooked fish, with rare exceptions (steamed catfish at my parents' house, toaster-oven salmon or yellowtail collar at the sushi bar, and salmon at any decent restaurant), but with the abundance of choices at Dockside, I figured it was a good place to give cooked fish a try.

Dockside is a fish-lover's paradise. They have a few things on the regular menu, but they generally have a nice selection of daily fresh fish specials as well. Two of my favorites have been the swordfish (which has a much meatier consistency), the halibut (nice flavor) and blue nose sea bass (which is fairly light and quite delicious). The fish entrees can be prepared either mesquite-wood broiled, pan sauteed or blackened with cajun spices. I prefer my fish broiled.

Of the other entrees, here's what I've had:

salmon treasure - "salmon sealed in parchment and baked with shrimp, vegetables, and seasonings" - I found this dish to be a bit bland, and with the salmon being baked basically inside a bag, the texture was too soft for my liking in salmon.

seafood brochette - "shrimp, scallops, and selected cuts of fresh fish with bell pepper, onions, and bacon served over jasmine coconut rice" - With the different meats, it's a nice selection of different seafood tastes.

cioppino - "crab, scallops, shrimp, clams, mussels and fresh fish in a zesty broth with garlic bread" - This is very delicious indeed.

Alaskan King Crab Legs - These were really yummy, and it was a fairly plentiful serving as well.

You can also order a combo by picking two or three of the listed entrees. Each entree comes with two sides, and there's a list that you can choose from. I tend to prefer the sauteed vegetables and rice pilaf.

Hmmm, I don't recall having paid attention to the fact that they have pan fried calamari steak on the menu. I might have to try that sometime.


The signature entree at Dockside, though, is their Slam Fest. The Slam Fest comes in three varieties. Each includes corn on the cob, red potatoes, andouille sausage, shrimp, steamed clams and mussels. The second level adds King crab and snow crab, and the third level adds slipper lobster in addition to the two varieties of crab. When we first started going, we tried the third level once, when it just included regular lobster, and we didn't think the lobster was really worth the extra price. Since they've changed to slipper lobster, I do think it's a pretty good deal. If you're not into lobster, then getting the second level is just as good, and if you're not that into crab, even just the basic level is very tasty. The first time we ordered the Slam Fest, we had neglected to notice the part where it said they dumped all the food on the table. When they put down the butcher block paper, we figured it was just to prevent big messes. Now, they do pretty much just slam the bowl upside down on the table, which creates a fairly loud noise that has been known to startle those at neighboring tables. It's a bit messy, and the food gets colder faster, but it's a lot of fun to eat with your hands that way.

Here's the page about the Slam Fest.

The picture below from the website gives you an idea of what the Slam Fest looks like. This was the early incarnation which included regular lobster, before they replaced it with slipper lobster.




Dockside also offers an array of appetizers, and on occasion, we decide to go the "tapas" route and just order a bunch of appetizers.

Of the appetizers, here's what I've had:

Maryland Style Crab Cakes - "jerk seasoning and Creole crunch breading, served with Maryland style crab cake sauce" - There are very tasty. Sometimes, crab cakes have mostly breading and not enough crab, but these are made with a good portion of each.

Crab 'N Artichoke Dip - "snow crab meat, artichoke hearts, cream cheese, served with baguettes" - This is also very tasty, and it's a good serving size.

fried calamari - "coated in seasoned bread crumbs and deep fried, with a duo of dips: our own tartar sauce and cocktail sauce" - I love fried calamari, and they do a great job with this dish. Not too breaded, nicely flavored.

Manila Steamers - "one pound steamed Manila clams with your choice of garlic white wine sauce or tomato basil broth, fresh parsley, and garlic toast" - This is my absolute favorite. I love clams, but I really love their taste. I don't care for clams cooked in overpowering sauces that completely mask the taste of the clams themselves, so this light approach is one I really love. I prefer it made with the garlic white wine sauce.

Dockside's Homemade New England Clam Chowder - Very flavorful, lots of clams.

Dockside's Homemade Manhattan Clam Chowder - I enjoy this chowder, but it's not my favorite Manhattan version. It's a little sweeter than I usually prefer even though it's still pretty tasty.

Caesar Salad with crostini - "freshly chopped romaine lettuce and garlic crostini, with zesty Caesar dressing" - When we're having a tapas dinner, we'll order one of these to share.


And then we come to dessert. My very favorite thing on the menu is the tempura banana fritters because they come with macadamia nut ice cream. The banana fritters are ok (the husband and friends love them), but the macadamia nut ice cream is just incredible. I've not found anything like it anywhere else. Not only is the ice cream itself full of macadamia nut flavor, but there are also bits of macadamia nuts in the ice cream as well. If I'm sharing the dessert with someone, I'm usually just having the ice cream. Otherwise, I will sometimes just order a dish of the ice cream by itself.

I've also had the coconut profiteroles - "giant coconut cream puffs, filled with coconut ice cream and served with hot chocolate sauce" - and they were pretty tasty as well.


The restaurant also offers a full bar.


Dockside also offers entertainment on a nightly basis. When we first started going, their house band was called the Double Shots - and boy did we think they were awful. We started planning our dinners so that we'd be out of there when they would start their set, or if we mis-timed it, we would just be thankful when they'd take their breaks. Or we'd ask for a table in a section where you couldn't hear them as well. Our favorite server at Dockside came to realize fairly quickly how much we disliked this duo. They are apparently quite popular, though why that is escapes me completely. They're still listed on the website even though they've been gone for a couple years now. They apparently moved to Northern California, though they make occasional appearances at Dockside. We were unfortunate enough to encounter them during a return engagement at one point last year. There is apparently a list you can be put on where they will call you to let you know when they're in town for a gig at Dockside. I've considered being put on that list so I know when *not* to go to Dockside.

Luckily, the new house band, The Subs, are quite good, and I particularly enjoy the voice of the female lead singer.


Dockside Grill
3057 E. Garvey Avenue
West Covina, CA 91791
626-915-FISH


Here's the website for the restaurant.

Election Day

91 - no
92 - no
93 - no
94 - yes
95 - yes
96 - yes
97 - yes

I'm not registered with any particular political party, so I have no say in the presidential race at this time.

If I had to choose a Republican candidate, I have no clue who I'd choose. I figure I'll take a look at whoever ends up getting the party nomination.

If I had to choose a Democratic candidate, I'd been undecided as well. But since I've recently heard things about Barak Obama that I really don't like, I think I'm rooting for Hilary Clinton now - not that she doesn't also apparently have positions that I don't like. If I actually had to decide, I'd do more research to see if what I've heard is true about both of them. Whoever actually does win the Democratic party's nomination, I'll have to look into that candidate and also the Republican's nominee and decide between the two candidates.

Lesser of two evils.

Superbowl XLII - the commercials and the game

The Superbowl some years can be pretty lackluster in terms of the commercials and the game itself. This year's game contenders weren't exactly who I wanted them to be, but the New England Patriots' quest for perfection certainly lent an extra interest to the game.

We watched about half an hour of the pre-game show. Oh, I mean, the "pre-kick" show. What was up with that name? We don't like "pre-game" anymore? It's too confusing? The entire pre-show is now considered part of the game, so that's only the pre-kick section? Whatever.

Jordin Sparks came out to sing "The Star Spangled Banner". I don't watch "American Idol", so I've never heard her before, but wow, did she do an awesome job. When they first announced that she was going to be singing, I figured she was just another "American Idol" connection, like so much else about the pre-show, most of which I didn't see. But, they announced that she's actually originally from Glendale, Arizona, where Superbowl XLII was being held, and her father is also a former pro football player, so she was actually legitimately connected in two ways.


The Media Commercials

I'm going to start off with the non-regular-product commercials. By that, I mean, commercials for movies and television shows.


My favorite commercial by far was the new trailer for "Wall-E", Disney/Pixar's new animated movie that's coming out this June.

Disney Wall-E Movie Super Bowl Commercial Trailer: Vacuum Love

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I *loved* the reaction when Wall-E got scared. And the ending was just too funny. I didn't think of this so much as a Superbowl commercial because they've had other trailers for the film. I didn't care all that much for the first teaser trailer, but I had seen the second trailer before "101 Dalmatians" when we saw it at the El Capitan Theatre a couple weeks ago.

Here's the official "Wall-E" site, where you can see all three trailers. Click on "videos" to get to them.


I hadn't heard of "Wanted" before, and I'm not particularly a fan of Angelina Jolie, but she looked good in this. Morgan Freeman is also in it, who I love. The trailer looked quite good and makes me interested in seeing the film.

Universal Pictures Wanted Movie Super Bowl Ad

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I don't watch the television show "Prison Break", but I know what the basic premise of the show is about, so I enjoyed the commercial they showed that was actually related to the game itself.

Prison Break - "DIG"

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"Moment of Truth" is a new show on Fox where people agree to answer questions while connected to a lie detector, and they earn money by answering the often awkward and revealing questions honestly. I haven't seen any of the show itself, but I loved this promo, also related to the game.

Moment of Truth - Chad Johnson

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One of the things I like about watching the NFL on Fox (other than having Troy Aikman as a color commentator) is that they have this robot dude, apparently called the Foxbot, who does stuff at the side of the screen when they come back from commercials. He jumps around, runs in place and does all kinds of stuff, kinda like a football player prepping. During Christmas this past year, they put a Santa hat on him at one point, and at another point, they had snow falling on him. He's fun to watch. So I loved that they incorporated him into the promos for "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles". They had a series of three segments where the terminator fights with the Foxbot, which was a perfect match-up. The terminator's appearance in the first segment was very surprising, not just to the viewer, but to the Foxbot as well.

Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator vs Foxbot #1

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I hadn't expected a second segment to this, so it was fun when they showed that the two of them were still fighting, and the Foxbot was putting up a decent fight against the terminator.

Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator vs Foxbot #2

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And then there was the third segment, which had a terrific ending. But it made me expect a fourth segment that ended the story arc, so I was disappointed when there wasn't one.

Sarah Connor Chronicles - Terminator vs Foxbot #3

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The Regular Commercials

I'm not sure there was one stand-out commercial, but they did have some good ones. I'll mention some of them below, in chronological order as they were shown during the game. The ones I really like, I've included the commercial itself. Otherwise, I'll just talk about it.


The first Bud Light commercial was about how the beer gave people the ability to breathe fire, with the scene set during a romantic dinner in a woman's apartment. Things go south though, when a cat walks by, and it turns out the man is allergic to them.

Bud Light

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The Audi commercial incorporated the Godfather theme and the "horsehead in the bed" plot point from the movie. I was actually amazed that I recognized the theme.


The Diet Pepsi Max commercial didn't do all that much for me. People were falling asleep all over, but this new great drink which has chemicals, vitamins, No Doze, Jolt, whatever just wakes you right up. The part I did enjoy was the look on Troy's face at the end when his broadcast partner shows the affects of having consumed the drink.


FedEx had a commercial involving a supposed competitor who was using carrier pigeons to transport their packages, even using giant pigeons for bigger packages. The little helmets on the carrier pigeons were pretty funny.


Tide had a commercial that took me a while to figure out. There's a man who's apparently being interviewed for a job, and as he's talking, there's a sort of talking mouth around his breast pocket that just babbles as he's talking. At first, I thought it was some kind of translation service, or maybe something about how you sabotage yourself. I have no clue what the guy was actually saying. Then you find out that it's a commercial for Tide, and how a stain on your shirt talks louder than you. Kind of an interesting idea, but the execution was a bit odd.


Budweiser had a commercial that was reminiscent of the really great ones they've done. There are a group of Clydesdales who are up for being chosen to join the team, but one particular horse is not chosen. A dalmatian takes on the task of training the Clydesdale, set to the "Rocky" theme, which was all pretty cool, especially when you see the results of the training.

Budweiser Clydesdales Superbowl Ad: Hank the Clydesdale

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Sobe Life Water had a commercial where lizards who have consumed their liquid start dancing like in Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Who knew that in 2008, "Thriller" would still be relevant? It was really cool. Oh, and the person in the commercial was Naomi Campbell. I had no idea who she was. I'll admit that at first, I thought it was Beyonce only because I've seen Beyonce in another commercial for some phone company a little while ago, and I had no idea who she was either. OK, yeah, I've heard of both of them, but I didn't know what they actually looked like. So sue me.

Sobe Life Water Super Bowl Commercial: Naomi Campbell

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Pepsi had a commercial where Justin Timberlake was basically being dragged all over because of the power that someone was using in drinking their Pepsi through a straw. Kinda weird, kinda funny. Oh, and it took me a while to recognize him too. Feel better?


The Vitamin Water commercial with Shaquille O'Neal as a jockey was kinda funny.


Bud Light had another pretty cool commercial about a caveman who invents the wheel, but the cavemen are unclear on the concept of how to use it. I love the last line of the commercial.

Bud Light Super Bowl Commercial: Cave Man Invents Wheel

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And then I saw the commercial for a car that I'm really supposed to buy, which is being released in June. The car is called the Genesis. I so have to buy this car. Yes, I base my car-buying decisions on the name of the car, the color of the instrument panel, whether or not it has a cupholder and a myriad of other important considerations. So buying a car called the Genesis would seem to be a no-brainer, right? But it's made by Hyundai. I don't want a Hyundai. I can't buy a Hyundai. (The husband pointed out that it's a fairly large car, and I don't generally like driving larger cars. But I could probably get used to that. So that's not the stumbling block.) I don't want a Hyundai, but I have to have the Genesis. I'm so conflicted.


E-trade had a commercial with a talking baby buying stock online that was kinda funny. It wasn't as weird or creepy as other talking baby commercials, so it looks like they've got the talking trick worked out better. I can't imagine that the baby spitting up on the keyboard was good for it.


Coke had a commercial involving the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that I loved. They had giant balloon floats of Stewie from "Family Guy" and of Underdog, and they're both fighting for the giant balloon float of a Coke, but ultimately, an unlikely victor appears.

Coca Cola

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Coke had another commercial where a Democrat and a Republican were fighting during a debate but sharing a Coke made everything better. Pretty topical at this time. I only wish Coke really worked like that.


E-trade had a second commercial with the talking baby, who used the money that he saved to hire a clown, but then he made a realization. Had I not already said that?


If you missed the commercials or want to see them again, all of the commercials run during the Superbowl are available here.


OK, onto the game itself. What the heck was with the 400 people all present at the coin toss?

The Giants won the coin toss, and they had a nice drive down the field which resulted in a field goal.

OK, slight break here. I loved watching Troy Aikman in his day, and I think he does a great job with the commentary, but dude, you're driving me crazy with one thing. At one point, and I don't even know who or what he was talking about, he said someone or something was "very difficult to defense". He said something similar to this at some point during the regular season (or maybe it was a playoff game - I can't remember), and I remember staring at the TV at that point. So apparently, Troy has no idea how to use "defense" versus "defend". Troy, dude, call me, we'll talk.

At the end of the first quarter, the Giants were leading the Patriots, 3 - 0. The Patriots didn't score in the first quarter really only as a technicality, because after a Giants penalty, the Patriots were on the 1 yard line. They didn't manage to score before the quarter was over, but they did score the touchdown within the first 3 seconds of the start of the second quarter. That was all the scoring that would happen in that quarter, and at halftime, the Patriots were leading the Giants, 7 - 3.

Neither team scored in the third quarter, and then with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Giants scored a touchdown, putting them ahead of the Patriots 10 - 7. But about 8 minutes later, the Patriots answered with their own touchdown, putting them back in front by a score of 14 - 10.

And then came the play of the game, late in the fourth quarter. The Patriots defense was after New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, and it looked like they had him sacked, with at least one Patriots defense player having a hold of Manning's jersey at one point. But Manning miraculously manages to get away as well as throw a pass that gets caught and sets up the touchdown that the Giants score with 35 seconds left in the game.

The Patriots try to come back, but their efforts are shut down by the Giants' defense, who even sack Brady once on the Patriots' final drive.

The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots by a score of 17 - 14 in Superbowl XLII, fueling discussions that will last for quite some time as to the perception of the Patriots, who had a perfect 16 - 0 regular season and two playoff wins but who failed to win the biggest game of the season.

The real MVPs of the game were the New York Giants defense, but because there wasn't necessarily one standout player and they couldn't give the MVP to the entire Giants defense, the MVP ended up being awarded to Eli Manning, probably because of his spectacular fourth quarter play. Brother Peyton Manning won the MVP when his Indianapolis Colts won the Superbowl last year, so they're the first brothers to win back-to-back Superbowl games and MVP awards. But Eli Manning so needs to give seriously nice gifts to this defense.


Most people had expected the Patriots to win the game. Even those who were picking the Giants seemed to do so out of a sense of loyalty to the team, not necessarily because they really thought they were going to win. The spread was 12 points, though I would have seriously taken that bet. Given everything going on with the Patriots and Giants in the last two weeks, I still thought the Patriots would win, but I didn't think they'd beat the Giants by 12 points, so I thought that was a good bet to take.

But from the very beginning of the game, the eventual upset was being set up. The Giants got the ball first, and they managed to march down the field. They weren't able to get a touchdown but at least managed to get on the scoreboard first with a field goal. And then the Giants defense showed how amazing they were. Tom Brady's first two passes were incomplete, and the Giants defense was already getting to him. During the course of the game, Brady was sacked and knocked down quite a bit, and he never really seemed comfortable and in a groove, so completely against what we've been used to seeing with him all season.


On a side note, I'd heard this story earlier in the week that a couple weeks ago, the Patriots had already applied for a trademark of "19-0" and "19-0 The Perfect Season". That did not go over well with a lot of people, including the New York Post. I found it hysterical that the Post then proceeded to apply for a trademark of "18-1". Here's the New York Post article about that.

I've gotta get a copy of the New York Post today.


Oh, and the Boston Globe was already planning to release a book entitled "19-0: The Historic Championship Season of New England's Unbeatable Patriots". They're either going to have to scrap the book completely or rework the book and the title.





Congratulations to the champions of Superbowl XLII, the New York Giants!

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, part 2

Situation 1

We were doing some cleaning up around the house yesterday. We'd bought some nuts/dried fruit/candy about two weeks ago, and I hadn't gotten around to putting them away in the pantry, so they were still in the grocery bags on the floor of the kitchen. I had noticed that the husband had pulled out one of the dried fruit containers a couple days ago and was snacking on them when he was watching TV. So imagine my surprise as I was going through the bags and found that very same container in one of the bags. He had taken the container out, snacked on the fruit and then when it came time to put them away, instead of putting that container in the pantry where it belonged, he had just put it back in the bag, on the kitchen floor. He said that he had just not wanted to deal with finding space for it in the pantry, which was pretty full and disorganized.

I told him he was such a guy.


Situation 2

This is Porthos, Jonathan Archer's beagle dog from "Star Trek Enterprise".




This is Snoopy, from Peanuts fame, who is also purportedly a beagle.




Exactly what kinds of genetic experiments were the folks at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm doing?!?!?!?!

What kind of Doritos do seagulls like?

A friend had sent me this story some time ago, but I finally had a chance to read it recently, and it's just too funny.

A seagull in Scotland apparently engaged in his own little crime wave. He would wander into a particular store and steal ... Doritos! He would then go outside and tear open the bag and eat the chips. He's been caught on video at least twice doing this, and local residents apparently have found this so amusing that they've started to pay for the stolen chips.

Oh, and the answer to the question in the title is nacho cheese, since those were the only ones he ever stole.

Here's more information about the story.

"Cloverfield" - movie review

Like a whole lot of other people, my first exposure to "Cloverfield" was seeing the trailer in front of "Transformers", a trailer that didn't say much, something exploding in New York City, no title, just a release date. Definitely an intriguing trailer.

I began to hear more about the movie, but I could never get a handle on what exactly happens in New York. Is it a monster? Is it an alien attack? Is it just a plain ol' terrorist? Eventually, I found out that it was indeed a monster movie, inspired partly by J.J. Abrams' interest in Godzilla. And then I saw the longer trailer and started hearing more about the film, which was going to be from the point of view of people who experienced the events. It was going to be a hand-held camera, but not even just in the sense of Woody Allen a la "Shadows and Fog" during his "I'm going to ignore that God invented steadicams for a reason" phase. It was going to be more along the lines of "The Blair Witch Project", which I never saw both because of its subject matter as well as its home movie quality. Being severely prone to motion sickness, I don't do well with shaky cameras. I thought about whether or not to see "Cloverfield", but eventually, my curiosity about the film got the better of me as the release date approached.

Unlike Ralph Garman of KROQ, I'm not in the habit of reviewing movies I've not seen. Technically, I probably saw a grand total of about 10 - 15 minutes of the film. I spent most of the film just listening to it, looking at a spot to the right of the screen, enough that I could see with my peripheral vision but not enough to watch dead on. That was the compromise I had decided upon because of the shaky camera. I knew going in that I probably wasn't going to be able to watch very much of the movie. At times when there wasn't as much camera movement, I caught looks. At other times when I thought something major was going to happen, I would also steal looks. The shaky camera still made me feel quite nauseated and ill, even with as little of the footage as I saw.

Aside from my problems with the shaky camera, I did think it was an intriguing idea. You found out very little about what the monster was or why it was there because you never got an overall view. You only knew what a small group of people knew as you followed them during this disaster.

Oh, by the way, if you haven't seen this movie yet, then you're lame, and you should stop reading because spoilers galore lurk ahead.


The premise of the story is that it's a recovered video now in government possession. The main story is that there is a going away party being thrown for someone - Rob. Among the numerous people at the party are Rob's brother Jason, Jason's girlfriend Lily, and Rob's friend Hud, who is also the primary cameraman. We also meet Beth, a friend with whom Rob had a short relationship, and Marlena, who Hud has a crush on. The video is being made to document the party for Rob, so that he can take it with him and so partygoers can give their well wishes to Rob on camera. The initial drama centers around the now-awkward relationship between Rob and Beth, but a much bigger drama erupts, literally, when the building is rocked. The partygoers head up to the roof for a look, only to discover that part of Manhattan is on fire from explosions. As the drama develops, it's no longer about documenting a party to send off with Rob - it's about documenting a once-in-a-lifetime event as the group encounters more explosions and destruction and try to head to safety. We occasionally get glimpses of a creature among the tall buildings, but it's much like the shark in "Jaws" - we only get bits and pieces at first. The group are eventually heading to safety across the Brooklyn Bridge. Was I the only one who thought being on a bridge at a time like this was a bad idea? When the bridge starts to rock and crumble, Jason is killed. Already devastated by his brother's death, Rob is further rocked when he gets a voicemail message from Beth - who had left the party early after an argument with Rob. She is trapped in her apartment, pinned and unable to escape. Rob insists on going back to rescue her, and his group of friends decide to go with him. After having gotten caught in a massive firefight as armed forces are attacking the creature, the group goes underground, literally, and follows the subway system to get to where Beth's apartment is. Along the way, however, they encounter creatures that the monster has deposited, and Marlena gets the brunt of the attack. She gets ripped to shreds but curiously shows no sign of pain or discomfort. However, we find out later that she is not in fact fine, and the aftermath of her attack comes to a shocking conclusion.

The threesome eventually reach Beth, who has been impaled by some concrete, and it's a nice composition when the camera is set down so they can lift her off the rebar - which is all done without being seen on-screen, but you can still feel the pain of what Beth must be feeling. However, I was a little surprised that she was able to recover quickly enough to be able to run around New York after that.

The group race to get to the pre-appointed location where the last helicopter rescues will take place before all of Manhattan will be leveled, the only solution that would seem to work against the unstoppable monster. Lily manages to make it onto a helicopter but the door is closed behind her because the copter is full. There is an explosion in the air shortly thereafter, and there's some debate about whether or not it was Lily's copter that was shot down, so Lily's fate is a bit uncertain. Rob, Beth and Hud are put in another copter, and they lift off. This gives them (and us) the first overall view of the situation and monster. They see the monster winding around the tall buildings, and when the armed forces launch a devastating assault on the monster, it appears it has been killed. But in true horror movie fashion, the monster rises out of the debris and leaps at the copter, knocking it out of control and into a downward spiral. The copter crash lands in Central Park, with Rob, Lily and Hud all surviving. However, Hud is then confronted by the monster. I had been wondering whether we'd get a good look at it or whether it would just be blurry glances, which is why I had watched some of the more jarring footage. However, again like in "Jaws", the payoff comes and you get a good long look at the monster as Hud trains the camera on it, just before the monster attacks Hud. He eventually drops the camera, which lands on the ground, and Hud's lifeless body lands just behind it.

Rob comes back to say goodbye to his friend and to pick up the camera to continue the documenting. He and Beth take refuge under a bridge, and Rob makes a final speech into the camera. We then hear an explosion and the camera is covered and then it goes dark.

Throughout the course of the film, interspersed during the events of the night, is footage taken from about a month prior. During one of Rob and Beth's outings, they had captured their happy day on video, and the video for the party was taped over that, but some glitches appeared where parts of the underlying video broke through. After the camera goes dark, there is a final scene, from that happy day a month prior, which adds a bittersweet end to the story.

In general, I thought it was a very good film. The shaky camera problem isn't something that would affect everyone, but I think the film is worth seeing even if that's a concern. I was definitely engaged in the events of the story, and I thought the events were laid out nicely. I was seriously irritated when cameraman Hud was constantly yelling Rob's name, with Rob as the unanimously-appointed unspoken leader of the group. I *loved* that Rob was leaving to go to Japan, a nice nod to the film's Godzilla inspiration. I also really enjoyed the backstory of Rob and Beth's fun day interspersed with all the death and destruction. I've heard that some people were really confused by the juxtaposed footage, and the confusion makes zero sense to me. You would have had to not pay attention to several significant portions of the film not to have gotten that it was new footage recorded over a previously-used tape. Abrams also made a smart move in casting mostly unknowns in the film. Given the documentary nature of the film, having any kind of recognizable actor would have destroyed the illusion.

One thing that I have to mention: it's been 6 years since the terrible events of September 11, 2001. At times, it's still been hard to see some stories set in New York, which is now obviously missing the familiar outline of the World Trade Center on the New York skyline, but as time passes, it's gotten easier, enough so that I could watch this film without triggering back to all the footage I saw of the towers crumbling and the devastation, fear and grief etched on the faces of survivors. However, some of the footage from the film is so reminiscent of the real footage from 2001 that I would imagine anyone who actually lived through that horrible day might have a difficult time watching this film. I haven't seen any reports about that yet though.

For those who didn't sit through the entire credits (and if you didn't, why didn't you?), you know that at the very end, there is a voice that says two words, though I couldn't make out what the two words were. Apparently, it's supposed to be Rob, and he says, "help us", giving the impression that they survived. However, apparently, if you play it backwards, it then says "it's alive", giving the impression that the creature has survived. Much has also been made of the final scene of the movie. Eagle-eyed viewers have noted that around the time of Beth's line that it's the best day ever, you can see something splash into the water in the background, presumably the monster's arrival on earth.

I'm figuring that once we have the movie on DVD, I'll watch 10 or 20 minute segments, which is probably about as much as I can handle at one time of the shaky camera. The movie is fairly short, only about 85 minutes long in total, but that includes 12 minutes of credits at the end. I'm hoping that with the knowledge of a DVD release, they will have thought about the kinds of extras they could put on there. I would love if they had shot the film from wider angles as well, coverage shots, and if they had edited another movie out of using that footage. I'd love to see that.

After seeing the film, I discussed with a friend that the only way they could really make a sequel is by showing the same events of the night but from the perspective of other people. And then the next day, I found this tidbit. So we were apparently dead on given fact five.

We saw the film on opening night, and a lot of people saw the film opening weekend. The film grossed $40 from Friday through Sunday on its opening weekend (with an amazing per-screen average of over $11,500), $46 million if you count the four-day weekend because of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. However, while interest ran high when the film opened, it seemed to decrease rapidly. On its second weekend, the film made $12 million, a whopping 68% drop, and ended up fourth on the weekend box office list, behind new openers "Meet the Spartans" and "Rambo" as well as "27 Dresses", which had opened the same day as "Cloverfield". Given the film's hefty opening, a significant drop on its second weekend was expected, but the drop was even more than customary for this type of film.

However, Paramount Pictures, the studio who released the film, apparently feels that audiences are open to seeing more, as Daily Variety has recently reported that they're in early talks with "Cloverfield" director Matt Reeves to make a sequel to the film.

Hasbro is apparently counting on fans' interest in the film to last for quite some time. You can pre-order a high-end collectible of the monster from the film that Hasbro will be releasing in early October. I'm a little surprised that no picture of the collectible is available. Now that the film is out, it's no longer a mystery of what the monster looks like. The two interchangeable heads are apparently a non-threatening version and a "I'm going to eat you" version of the monster. I'm assuming that the parasites are the spider-like things that dropped from the monster, one of which attacked Marlena. The Statue of Liberty head accessory is pretty funny.