Dogs, small and large

Last night

On the street outside our house: a noisy and prolonged dog fight, punctuated by people shouting and doors slamming. It sounded like our neighbor's two detestable small yappy dogs got outside and tangled with one or more large dogs. This probably makes me a terrible person, but I wasn't exactly wishing the small dogs well. (As far as I know they survived, though.)



Today

En route to Wawa for lunch: a woman walking three pit bulls and a Great Dane. I pity the fool who tries to break into her house...

Fun with manic-depression

In this week's Onion: Manic-Depressive Friend A Blast While Manic. It's funny because it's true.



Well, sort of funny.



Being manic felt absolutely amazing; unfortunately, it nearly completely ruined my life. There are a lot of bipolars who don't take their meds because they like the manias, and I know the feeling; but the risks are just too great.

AFI's "Heroes and Villains"

(First, a spelling question: Is it "heroes" or "heros"? Merriam-Webster's 10th Collegiate Dictionary, the publishing industry standard, says "heroes" for people, "heros" for sandwiches; I just think "heroes" looks funny. But anyway...)



Watched the entire three hours of AFI's "Heroes and Villains" top 100 list. As usual, I called the top two: Hannibal Lecter and Atticus Finch. I don't know if it's my knowledge of film, or my knowledge of the film industry, but I always guess the #1 pick on these lists. (For the original Top 100 Films list, I wasn't quite sure if it would be Citizen Kane or Casablanca; Kane was #1, Casablanca #2.)



Links:

• AFI's page announcing the special
• List of 400 nominees (Word document)
• List of 100 selections

Oddly, the list of nominees doesn't specify whether the character is supposed to be a hero or a villain. I guess you're just supposed to figure it out from context; but if you haven't watched, say, the 1935 version of Tale of Two Cities, you probably can't vote for the Marquis St. Evremonde. (I guess you can if you've read Tale of Two Cities and remember the names of the characters, but I think that's about as likely, in Hollywood, as having seen the 1935 movie.)



I was rather surprised at some of the movies that qualified as "American" films—Lawrence of Arabia? Goldfinger? Dr. No? Clockwork Orange? The Third Man? But those are all British, and as we all know British film is just American film with accents...

Pronunciation

I realize this just means I'm very easily amused, but the high point of the morning so far is that the local TV morning show anchor announced an upcoming performance by the "Mormon Nabertwacle Choir."

Isn't it ironic?

Fred Phelps—the "God hates fags" guy who picketed Matthew Shepard's funeral—was, naturally, there to picket at the graduation of a student who received a college scholarship honoring Shepard. Unbeknowst to Phelps, a gay men's group "organized a fund-raising counterprotest, in which contributors pledged an amount for every minute the Phelps group demonstrated." The group raised $10,000, which will fund future scholarships. And I suppose Phelps will picket them, and so the cycle of life will continue...



Update: Yes, there is indeed an anti-Phelps Web site: www.godhatesphelps.com. Best news I've heard all day.

Where have all the copyeditors gone?

Today is not a good day in the history of news proofreading. On the front page of Philly.com:

• "FCC votes to ease media wwnership rules"
• "I don't 'really' want to me mayor"

And the BBC's proofreaders were clearly out to lunch, either literally or figuratively, when this article on Mars came across their desks. It's full of grammatical infelicities; I'll only cite the most egregious:

• "We already know a great deal about the Martian landscape. Images of its desolate and rocky surface having been beamed back to Earth decades ago."

Yeesh. Any copyeditors looking for a job in Britain?

Futility

Things that don't work:

• Honking at the car in front of you in a traffic jam.
• Standing at the edge of a subway platform looking down the track for the train.
• Pushing an elevator button more than once.
• Telepathically willing the phone to ring.
• Opening the refrigerator door after you've already determined there's nothing you want to eat.
• Opening the TV Guide after you've already determined there's nothing you want to watch.
• Yelling "Shut up!" at a car alarm or your neighbor's dog.

Just a random list that occured to me while standing on a subway platform looking down the track for the train...