Coincidence? I think not.

Late night Christmas Eve, I was driving to our church to pick up Tory. I had my mp3 player plugged in and set on random play. As I was about to exit the freeway, Carry On Wayward Son came on. Merging onto the access road I saw the light up ahead was already red, of course, and so I stopped behind a car already waiting. Then I looked at the license plate of that car and saw it was from Kansas.

Crossword constructor starts a blog

Brendan Emmitt Quigley has begun a blog on crossword puzzles and construction of them. His puzzles are usually fun to work on and are full of modern references. Good insights into his process of putting puzzles together. There is a pledge to post at least 3 puzzles a week, and in pdf so as to make them easy to print.

Snow In Austin

I need to record this somewhere. Snow fell here in Austin on 12/9/8. Late in the evening around 11 PM after a bit of sleeting, flakes of snow began blowing all around the house. A bit wet, and it didn't accumulate whatsoever, except maybe on the roof of the house and cars. But it sure did look nice and peaceful, especially being illuminated by the Christmas lights on the house.

Krackers the cat escaped into the backyard, and ran under the nearby bushes getting fairly muddy. Samantha had to retrieve him.

I can't remember any snow here in Austin this time of year over the past 24 years.

The Bailout

Spencer Tracey is the Congress. Sid Caesar, Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, et al, are the auto industry, big banking, etc wanting the big cash. The big cash in the briefcase belongs to the American taxpayer of course, taken from them but that's a different analogy. The suitcase busting open and the cash being scattered into the wind is the accountability of the bureaucrats in this whole bailout mess. Finally, I liken the firetruck's attempt at the rescue to what's needed eventually get the economy back on sound footing - a few unpleasant things will have to happen and fail, but then the hospilization and curing begins. No pain, no gain.

PS How'd they get away with Rochester landing in Abe Lincoln's lap? And that's Sterling Holloway as the fireman who ascends the ladder. The briefcase full of cash is a great MacGuffin.

Long sleeves

Long sleeved shirts. Who can tolerate them? The cuffs always seem to be getting damp in some way and then feel uncomfortable.

Movie Buzz

Dinner table talk provided the following questions last night. What movies:
A. Might you never watch again and be happy about it?
B. Watch any time it comes on? Not that they are great, but that you'd watch.

There are simply too many A's to list. Any of the Tolkien movies make the list, even tho we own them.

I would watch Raiders Of The Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, Jaws, Dr Strangelove, Planet Of The Apes (with Heston of course), and Yellow Submarine, without fail. Others on the edge - 7 Faces Of Dr Lao, Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), Young Frankenstein, Sean Connery's movies as James Bond, and Rope (cool Hitchcock flick).

There is probably a lot more I couldn't turn away from.

Fred Thompson explains it

Nice going Fred. I wish he or someone had been a little louder when all the bailout mess began.