Harry's Ruminations

Too long for a tweet, to short for proper blog. Here goes: On Gillespie Yes, you woke up the next day, and Billy Clyde Gillespie is really gone. He's trying to "win" the breakup, showing the world his smiling public face, but make no mistake--you hurt him. You took him right off the turnip truck, threw him in front of the most rabid fan base this side of Notre Dame football, and now he'll be laughing all the way to the bank as he deposits $6 million. I'm no lawyer, but I think that's what that "Memorandum of Understanding" implies. I hate this state sometimes. We generate illiterate sheeple via our public education system, we're closing down higher education programs left and right, and we have to pay someone $6 million TO LEAVE. Brilliant! * * * On Corporate Jargon My wife hates corporate jargon. And general wordiness. And fuzzy-logical things. I laid this gem on her last night: Plans are useless, planning is essential -- Dwight D. Ei...

It was a hot Friday evening, the pavement sizzling though the sun was just about to clock out for the day. Work stank today, in that "Where else you gonna get a job, loser?" sort of way. Fear and loathing in Lexington, yup. But, she waited. She was hundreds of horsepower, rear wheel drive, and leather interior. She didn't run, she purred. Red--I've NEVER had a red car, but nothing else seemed to fit. Those 4 50-series tMIGHT last 10,000 miles, if I never drove hard. Tonight was for driving hard. Slide in, flip the ignition to 'run' just to hear the fuel pump engage. Six individual throttle bodies need lots of pressure, after all. Grind the starter. Yeah, baby...I know it's been a whole week. Sorry. Clutch in, left and up for reverse, ease her out. Idle lopes along...cams, cams, cammmmms.... Lights on. It's twilight, but I don't want anyone missing me on the windy road as I speed by. Coolant temp's coming up, but it'll be awhile...

Ah, Revolution. Romantic thought, isn't it? Taking an untenable social and political situation and hitting the big 'Reset' button on the old Nintendo. Start fresh. Start clean. Do it RIGHT this time. Certainly, it worked for our Founding Fathers. You see, I've been hearing the 'R' word bandied about quite a bit in the last few weeks. Casually, as if people were trying it on for size, or as a rhetorical caper: "Do __________, and you'll have revolution in the streets, Mr. Chairman!" As Peter Griffin would say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa....whoa....whoa!" Take a step back and THINK for a moment what revolution would mean in modern America. We are no longer a decoupled society of self-sufficient frontiersmen, able to handle the gamut from Native American attack through plague through famine in stride. We're 300 million "entitlement" people without basic survival skills other than driving to Kroger to buy fuel. Glen Beck said it...

As I sit here at 5:15 am, drinking coffee and eating Raisin Bran, this is pretty much the first time in 2 weeks I've felt like myself. A head cold turned into bronchitis, then back into a severe head cold. I had fever & chills 3 out of 4 days last week. Finally, the doctor prescribed a course of antibiotics and two days later I couldn't hear out of my right ear. Fun times. So, Dr. Whitney prescribed strict rest--don't do anything unessential. Weld my butt to the couch, drink lots of fluids, stay warm--all good advice. Nearly drove me batty, but at least we started a RedBox-fueled movie marathon. Reviews below: Bolt : Amazing this pointless, self-important, slow 3-D animation came out of the same people who brought us The Incredibles . It's a very small movie, essentially a rip-off of Homeward Bound , starring vocal talents (!) of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus. Like the title character in "The Truman Show", bolt is a TV superstar who has no idea ...

Once you have been tagged, you are supposed to write down 25 movies you cannot live without. You know, the ones you can watch over and over and never get tired of. They don't have to be in any particular order. These are the movies that make you laugh, cry, think of an old friend, whatever the reason. Please note that these are not in any particular order, these are just the 25 films I feel are my favorites, and ones I return to often. 1. Airplane! 2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 3. 30 Seconds over Tokyo 4. WALL-E 5. Empire Strikes Back 6. Top Secret 7. The Godfather, Part II 8. The Godfather 9. Bridge over the River Kwai 10. Patton 11. Risky Business 12. The Secretary :-) 13. Top Gun 14. Grand Prix 15. The Italian Job (original w/Michael Caine) 16. Ferris Bueller's Day Off 17. The Ten Commandments 18. National Lampoon's Vacation 19. Dr. Strangelove 20. War Games 21. The Last Starfighter 22. Major League 23. Die Hard 24. Elf 25. American Pie

Linky City of Ember is a gripping, family-friendly tale of perserverence and survival. It stars some no-name child actors amid a cast of recognizable adult faces (Bill Murray, Tim Robbins) as the residents of an underground city called "Ember". As the story opens, we see a group of scientists in a "doomsday" scenario: Huddled around a time capsule device, they discern that 200 years is "enough" time to wait for...something. Life to be sustainable on Earth again? The planet to give itself an enema? Memories of "Hannah Montana" to fade? Who knows. Anyways, as FerFAL would say, the SHTF--globally--and it's time to hunker down and preserve English speaking society, dangit! So, 200 years pass, and somehow, this city hundreds of feet below ground persists, despite running short of food, sanitation, spare parts, and any ability to do more than gaze at its own navel. It's ILLEGAL in Ember to try to go outside. Oh, and by the way, the b...