Leaning Towards the Dark Side

Making their list of the Best Moms ever:

They are quite right, she was an ideal mother.

More quickies, as I spent most of the morning caulking along the kitchen floor in an attempt to prevent any more incursions from Tetramorium caespitum. Even before the caulking, it appears that the chemical warfare campaign I waged against them was successful. This blog recommends Terro brand products.

Hannibal, by Thomas Harris

I’m sorry, I just don’t buy the ending. I still enjoyed the book greatly, especially the section in Florence, but the ending rings false.

Home Front: U.S.A., by Ronald Bailey

More Time-Life World War II. Worth it for the pictures alone.

The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony

I absolutely love John Scalzi’s work, and rereading The Ghost Brigades after reading The Last Colony puts Charles Boutin’s argument against the Colonial Union in a whole new light. Sure, his plan is still fucked up, but you do look at it differently.

A very nice thank you card from the owners of Mr. Black. I’m glad to hear he’s doing all right.

Max Hastings at the Pritzker Military Library, discussing his latest book Retribution: The Battle for Japan, which I’m sure is a must read.

On the Waterfront

I loved it, especially Karl Malden’s performance and character, a true example of someone using religious lore to achieve a positive result. Rod Steiger was tremendous as well, as were Brando and Cobb. Terry goes through this movie being manipulated, by his brother, by Johnny, Father Barry and even Edie. He’s not particularly bright, and I think Brando does a great job conveying this.

This film is widely said to be an act of atonement or explanation for Kazan’s HUAC testimony. I personally don’t buy the parallel between the two stories. Lionel Stander, for example, wasn’t tossing anyone off of rooftops; and if John Garfield ever dropped a pallet of Irish whisky on anyone’s head, it has escaped the notice of history. If Kazan was trying to draw a parallel between himself Terry, I think he’s way off base. None of this has anything to do with his prodigious talent as a filmmaker, or his richly deserved (though not universally applauded) achievement award. As an aside, I remember hearing Harlan Ellison criticize the Academy for giving “that cocksucker Elia Kazan” an award.

Christie says 7 out of 10, I’ll it a 9 out of 10. I think she just doesn’t like these old movies as much as I do.

Cars

[yawn]

I almost fell asleep, and tried increasing my scotch intake in a vain attempt to make this movie interesting. Not nearly as good as any of the other Pixar movies, neither of us liked it. She said 4 out of 10 and that’s good enough for me.

Woman finds nude intruder in her bed

While not in my development, it’s in the same neighborhood. I’m glad we live on the second floor, but I think I still need to show Christie how to use the pistol in the nightstand. At present, she’s so afraid of the thing that she can’t draw the slide back to chamber a round.

Nixon-Kennedy, of course

Yep, Nixon really blew it when he claimed a man could only eat 40 eggs.

Some quickies, I’m too lazy for full reviews.

One Square Mile of Hell: The Battle of Tarawa, by John Wukovits

Wukovits recounts the battle from the points of view of several Americans and a pair of Japanese. A nice telling of the three day long fight over a dot in the Pacific.

Pearl Harbor, by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen

This is an interesting bit of alternate history. In most works in the genre, there is a discernible change in the first few chapters of the book (such as the courier not misplacing Lee’s orders in Turtledove’s How Few Remain). But in Pearl Harbor, nothing changes until page 256. Everything before that is merely establishing the authors’ original characters and their relationship to Commander Fuchida, and Genda’s relationship with Yamamoto. Until that change, you just have their original characters (Watson and Stanford) being in places like the USS Panay or Nanking during the Rape and finally in Pearl Harbor and Malaya on December 7th. It is well written and entertaining, but the whole work feels like setup for the sequel novel…with Halsey combining Enterprise and Lexington going hunting for the Striking Force, which is lingering in Hawaiian waters looking for them.

Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris

Good read, but if you’ve seen the movie, you pretty much know the whole story.

Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

Umm…I don’t think I grokked it. Though I might like some of the rituals of the Church of All Worlds. Water, anyone?

The cast and crew of Fox & Friends:

Are you guys retarded?

Clemens had ten year fling with country star Mindy McCready

“Star” gets tossed around so lightly these days, she had three singles in the Top 10 (one #1), the most recent was 11 years ago. Perhaps “musician” would be more appropriate than “star”.