The Princess

A piece on Grace Kelly in the New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/01/04/100104crbo_books_lane?currentPage=all. Apparently, she liked to screw a lot. Good for her. Anyway, she was a good looking broad and Hitchcock got the most out of her looks and attitude in To Catch a Thief. Of course, Cary Grant made your life easier if you were in the same movie and no one has been able to touch what he brought to the table since. Clooney is probably the closest though not nearly as skilled.

Going to see "Invictus" with the missus this afternoon and maybe a report will follow. Don't get your hopes up, though as I intend to lay on my ass a lot over the next few days--have to get the new year started off right.

Not a Pretty Sight

Most assuredly, this will some day be us.

Anyway, I'm probably related to this guy. Or, his love interest.

Bottoms Up

EDSBS suggests a most excellent drinking game:
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2009/12/30/the-holiday-bowl-drinking-game-a-holiday-tradition-from-hell/. I say (channeling Warren Oates), "Why the hell not?" Speaking of The Wild Bunch, has there ever been a more excellent character name than Ben Johnson's Tector Gorch? I knew a guy once named, Horton Waller and I've always thought it outstanding. These days, it seems the most colorful names come via our brothers and sisters in the African American/Black/Negro/Colored community of which there seems to be no end to some highly creative titles. Scan a college football roster if you doubt me.

In and around Austin right now, they're birthing a lot of male babies to be named, Colt. If I was in that bidness right now, I'd name my son, Remington or maybe Smith Wesson Bulba or just go with, Glock.

Are you tired of me using italics? Thought so. I'll shut up and extend the common courtesy of a pleasant photograph to contemplate. Bottom included.

Fishing News

Another viewpoint:
http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/what_kind_of_sick_fuck_would. We report, you decide.

Going Down

Fascinating article about Sullenberger's ditch into the Hudson, as well as other crashes:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23533.

When I fly, I always hope that the guy on the stick knows what he's doing. I've read some stuff about the low pay rate to pilots on some regional airlines--something around $30 or $35k a year and that gets my attention. Anyway, I take comfort in that the vast majority of pilots have a great sense of professionalism. I tell myself that, anyway.

As the piece also points out, flying is no longer a pleasurable thing. I agree and avoid it if at all possible. When I do fly, I prefer Southwest simply because they tend to do better at getting you where you need to go when you need to get there and they do it with a mostly polite, customer oriented attitude. Contrast that with some of the bitter, angry, hostile, miserable wretches that occupy the aisles of the major carriers and their cohorts in their respective "service" capacities and I have concluded that there is a big difference. Maybe that's just me.

I took my first flight when I was about ten years old. The old man decided to splurge, so he booked us on a Texas Trans Airlines (TTA) flight that made a milk run from Houston to Laredo (I think we hit Corpus and Brownsville on the way down). Oh, the glamor.

Facebook Fun

This was linked over at SnS:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZeU7jQ5wUA7cxSE_sAQOZ5fpTRJdaePR-ewz7Mq8hyphenhyphenSlGUH09yJYhcx7nDfpaa-e5L_YvyKK534HnqUKQtDl8WRLunLmhvN2zum0BdIRHjqIQO-g5mJtOuG4tpBAwNniOsDpQQOEc5lU/s1600-h/58kXI.jpg. Just marvelous.

Jack Was Not a Dull Boy

TMZ has a pic apparently showing then Senator John Kennedy chillin' on a yacht with some nubile female types:
http://www.tmz.com/. Allegedly, brother Ted was also aboard for some fun. Additionally, it appears at this precise time, the future president's wife, Jackie, was severely pregnant. Is this the Camelot that the Kennedy fawners speak about? Just checking.

Another Christmas come and gone. No major incidents to report and everyone seemed pleased with their holiday loot. I got the standard: golf shit, socks, books, useless trinket that I don't need, etc. Just thankful that I did not have to enter a store on the day after Xmas. Instead, played golf and sucked. It was a small time money game involving five foursomes and the "captain" of our team whined the entire way about the impending loss of money at the conclusion of yet another less than stellar hole--none of us were playing very well. I guess maybe his wife stands at the door when he comes home for him to hand over his winnings. Hope she didn't use the genital restraint cuff on him.

Saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie and I give it an okay. Not great, but fairly entertaining. I would have enjoyed a less action hero take on Holmes and a little more sleuthing but filmmakers take a real hard look at who is going to movies and most of 'em ain't fifty something year old men. I like Robert Downey a lot as an actor, though I saw him interviewed by that awful Actor's Studio guy and Downey came off as someone who appears to be fairly insufferable in person. The thing they get right about the movie is that Watson is not played as a bumbling ass but more faithful to Doyle's portrait of him as a competent former military man who Holmes can count on in crunch time. Anyway, go see it but not during the holiday idiocy like I did. Huge crowds at the theater and a maddening fifteen minutes in line for popcorn. Had I been armed, I would have fired a shot into the ceiling to thin the cue out a little.