Missed by that . . . much! or . . . . if the shoe fits . . .

Maxwell Smart obviously has an influence on terrorism and political assassins more than four decades later . . .

No, I am not making this up. He missed by that . . . much!!

Interestingly enough, more than five years go, Iraqis were beating on a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein with shoes. Dubya must be mildly embarassed.

And in a late breaking development to the Iraqi-U.S. securityagreement signed after the press conference, Iraqi forces are banned from carrying the following weaponry: clogs, hard-soled dress shoes, stilettoes, platforms, pumps, sabots, flip flops with soles more than 7/16″ thick, steel-toed boots, tap shoes, Doc Martens and anything worn by Sarah Palin.

Trick or treat

One of my neighbors showed a delightful spark of non-partisanship on Halloween:

 

Guess they figured McCain had eaten enough pumpkin in Vietnam.

Raccoon, rinse, repeat

I’ve alluded to this particular photo for a few years, for the benefit of some of my readers (Does 5 count as some?).

Anyway, it’s over the jump – the rumored (rumoured to at least three of you) raccoon photo, taken in 1993 at an acquaintance’s residence.

W.

I went to see the movie ‘W.’ It was like a five-year old sachertorte. It could have been delicious, but it was five years too late.

I just finished reading ‘Hubris’ by Michael Isikoff and David Korn a few days ago, and much of the film’s 2002-2005 moments track pretty well with that book.

Scott Glenn’s broad-brush portrayal of Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Dreyfuss’s Bela Lugosi-like depiction of Dick Cheney were enjoyable in an “I-told-you-so” way, and Thandie Newman was a well-done characature of Condoleeza Rice.

Toby James as Karl Rove; What an inspired piece of casting! Rove as a malignant Truman Capote.

Josh Brolin as Shrub – it deserves an Oscar for its depth in portraying someone so intellectually shallow.

As for Oliver Stone? Stone is pretty restrained here. Given the proven outlandishness of the real-life cast of characters inspiring, Stone didn’t have to resort (much) to methods already used in ‘JFK’ to move that version of events.

Most of the people I saw in the theater were, based on their demeanor and appearance, probably Democrat. The film’s appeal probably will be partisan and may have little if any real impact on the election.

But it still would have been better for this movie to have appeared before 2004.

Everyone’s favorite ‘Salem’s Lot’ character that wasn’t included in the book

With all the hoopin’ and hollerin’ about our most favorite presidential election since, well . . . . since Nixon vs. McGovern, it’s all too easy to forget old friends like . . . .

 

 

Yep, Graf Cheney is having heart trouble again. After all, if you were nosferatu and faced having to move all those caskets of home earth after eight years . . . even with government allowances, it’s still hard to find Secret Service agents willing to ride the Borgo Pass this time of year.

 

And on other matters, I still wonder why no one has made a case for Sarah Palin being the reincarnation of Spiro T. Agnew. After all, she’s got Spiro’s winning way with selected and tamed groups of working folk (Philadelphia definitely didn’t fall in that category), and she’s got a gubernatorial pedegree much like that of Agnew’s.

 

Maybe if Cheney’s heart procedure is successful , he can help bring life to Palin’s national political aspirations. Eternal life . . . . .

Small town surreality

Blogger’s log, earth date 10-10-08.

Walking the dog in the neighborhood park. The not-so-dark Dark One exercises her normal restraint when confronted by one of the neighborhood cats, staring at it as it sits on top of a storm drain giving NSDDO a dirty look. Both creatures leave it at that.

The neighborhood Mexican restaurant’s smells drift across the main drag, a block of houses and churches and into the park. I’d eaten there not an hour earlier, and the smell of carnitas (shredded, spiced pork roast) wafts across an unusually warm October night breeze. Incidentally, my order of carnitas was excellent.

(Note to Stiletto: I can have pork and you can’t.)

The sounds of the local high school Friday night football game halftime also blare across the rail yard and the main drag. Then comes the announcement.

“The Burton Raiders Marching Band plays the music of Danny Elfman!”

And not one Oingo Boingo song in the set. One would have expected at least “Dead Man’s Party.” If the Burton Raiders Marching Band is reading this, please consider modifying the set.

Blogger’s log, out.

For Stiletto and Max

Watch your asses, Stil and Max!

Glossary of movie terms

I watched a movie Thursday. Without going into plot details (actually irrelevant for the purposes of this post), I would like to place three of the descriptive terms applied to this movie by the cable movie details subscreen:

‘Stylish’ – The director seems inspired by music videos, and not very good ones.

‘Smart’ – The director probably attended a Hitchcock film festival in college and now thinks; ‘Hey, I’ll bet no one uses odd camera angles and visual narrative like that anymore, so I’ll use it and look original!’

‘Taut’ – The film editor and producer cut 40 minutes of film to get rid of the self-indulgent and poorly executed Hitchcockian scenes, including the one where the director is walking a poodle down a crowded sidewalk.

For that maverick in all of us . . .

With apologies (and credit) to ‘Sesame Street’