Nobody 709

Sunday, August 19, 2007
Nobody # 709

Nobody Asked Me But:

“The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur.” George Bush

I missed my computer terribly. It was only in the repair shop for a day and a half, but I cannot tell you how many times I turned to reach for it only to find my desk empty. But like everything else the experience had its yin and yang. I felt freed as well as trapped. However, by Tuesday afternoon, I was ready to be trapped again.

Disappointed in David:

Brooks that is. The excellent NY Times columnist went through a little birthday angst while sitting beside a career truck driver at a diner counter in Virginia the other evening. DB was so overcome with the man’s high self-esteem that he decided on the spot that, “jobs performed in front of a keyboard don’t supply a code of dignity, which explains the spiritual anxiety that plagues the service economy.”

Sorry David. This time, no sale. There is as much dignity in the labors of the mind as those of the hand. And besides, for all his self-assurance, the truck driver has gone through five wives.<<<

Other voices. In response to my comment on the hottest movie couples last week Jim suggested a pairing that might seem strange at first, but upon second thought makes perfect sense. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made dancing seem like sexual poetry.

Hugh agreed with me on John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara while Elizabeth wrote:

"I couldn't agree more about screen chemistry. Now I'm trying to think of some more modern examples...hmmm, Mr. Big and Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City. Richard Gere, George Clooney and Robert Redford with the right women in various films. Heck, I even think Goldie Hahn and Chevy Chase were a better match than DiCaprio and Winslet."<<<

Elegant movie reviews:

Vincent Canby, in 1972 on “The Godfather: “Al Pacino, is the college-educated son who takes over the family business and becomes, in the process, an actor worthy to have Brando as his father.”<<<

Manohla Dargis, of the NY Times, (How I wish she was still writing for the LA Times) on the Bourne trilogy:

“The drama of ‘Identity’ was existential (Who am I?), and the drama of ‘Supremacy’ was moral (What did I do?). I would say that the drama of ‘Ultimatum’ is redemptive: How can I escape what I am?”<<<

Thoreau wrote that the young have little to learn from the old. I think he meant they have little they want to learn from the old.

Opinions?<<<

Here’s LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke on patience and the Dodger youth movement:

“There's a reason they don't call it growing joys.”<<<

JIM’S WISDOM (a name, not a claim)

UP: Dick Cheney. That’s right, I said Dick Cheney. Only this is the 1994 edition Cheney who said that we were totally right not to invade Iraq during the Gulf War because we would end up in a quagmire.

He also added: “How many Americans is Saddam worth?” And answered – “Not many.”

I guess in Cheney’s case, older means dumber.

UP: Gilbert Arenas. Our ex-student, a virtual unknown, and Jason Gardner, a McDonald’s All-American, were best friends when they played for Arizona. Gilbert became a very rich success story in the NBA while Jason, one of the best clutch players I ever saw, was too small for the league and ended up in Europe.

Despite going different ways, the friendship lasted and now Gil is helping pay for Gardner’s wedding next week in Indianapolis.

UP: Waldo McBurney, a 104-year-old beekeeper from Kansas who was recently declared America's oldest worker.

When I reach that age, I want to be honored as America’s happiest old retiree.

UP: Ed Updegraff, for shooting a 74 last week at Forty Niner Country Club in Tucson. What’s so special about that? For one thing, it is 11 strokes under his age. For another, Updegraff, a urologist, was the top amateur golfer in Tucson and the rest of Arizona when I was a young man. Always an amateur, he qualified and played in six Master’s and finished in a tie with Gene Littler for 4th behind winner Lee Trevino in the 1969 Tucson Open.

UP: Tiger, for winning his 13th Major (the PGA) last week at 31. In an era when so many sports favorites have feet of clay, he stands tall.

DOWN: The candidate?? (see cartoon)

UP: Two meat sandwiches, which was all Rancher David George had to eat when he was recently treed for a week by crocodiles in Queensland, Australia.

DOWN: Alberto R. (Killer) Gonzales, our Atty. Gen. is about to invoke his Patriot Act power (has any law ever been more misnamed or misleading?) to shorten the time given for death row inmates to appeal.

Kill them quick, Alberto. If any were wrongly convicted, you can always say “oops.”

DOWN: Hypocrisy. When it comes to nuclear proliferation, Washington’s only real policy is to reward its friends and punish its enemies.

UP: Republican moderates – just me giving a boost to an endangered species.

DOWN: The male migration – from head to chest. It seems the newest return to macho is transplanting hair from the head to the chest. I wouldn’t do it even if I could.

SIDEWAYS: Karl Rove. Up because he is gone. Down because he was ever here.

DOWN: George Will, for thinking that a pertinent question when considering judges for a higher appointment is “whether they sided with the law.”

When it comes to appellate judges, with too few exceptions, there is no LAW except that found in their philosophy.

WAY FAR DOWN: Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) (pictured) warned last week that the presence of Rep. Keith Ellison, (D-Minnesota) the first Muslim in Congress, was creating “problems for the longevity of this country.”

Is Sali more to be pitied then censored? Nah, censor him.<<<

I loved Robert K. Tanenbaum’s books – when Michael Gruber, his cousin, was secretly writing them. The sixteen mystery novels featuring NYC District Attorney Butch Karp, his dangerous wife Marlene Clampi, their children and friends were close to the top of my list.

Then, feeling a bit dishonest and a bit exploited, Gruber quit and started writing under his own name. So Tannenbaum has written the last three books on his own, and they have become progressively worse. I just finished his latest, “Malice.”

Here is my review. It is short, if not sweet, and says it all:

“Malice” is a tall tale terribly told.

What is really weird about the whole thing is that I read a Gruber novel, “Valley Of Bones,” and didn’t like it at all. Perhaps they need each other.<<<

I recently had my Starbuck’s profile done by the all-knowing Oracle of Starbucks - http://www.buttafly.com/starbucks/index.php. Here’s the result:

Behold the Oracle's wisdom:

Personality type: Clueless

You don't go to Starbucks much; when you do you just tag along with other people since you have nothing better to do. You would like to order a Tazo Chai Crème but don't know how to pronounce it. Most people who drink triple grande extra hot mocha are strippers.

Also drinks: Wine coolers
Can also be found at: The mall

I do go a lot, I don’t tag along, only strip on occasion and dislike Chiai crème and wine coolers. But they got the clueless right. (And I added # 332 last week.)

As for other stars, here are some inside tips from the baristas on their drink of choice:

“Nicole Kidman would get a grande cup of just nonfat milk foam. Yeah...just foam. She would eat it with a spoon. Hugh Jackman gets grande soy cappuccinos. Toby [sic] Maguire gets a doppio and he kinda assembles the drink himself at the bar with some stuff that he carries around in his pocket. He's actually pretty creepy.”<<<

TIME Magazine – “Even the most stable brain operates just a millimeter from madness.”

I guess that explains why the metric system drives me nuts.<<<