The Last Ephor

OHNOTHEYDIDNT has a two lists: 100 Most Underrated movies and 100 Worst Reviewed Films. My take (on the ones I've seen) follows: I take exception with the ones in italics. Emphatic agreement in bold Underrated 1. Miller's Crossing Brilliant film. Pitch perfect. 2. The Thin Red Line Contemplative and moving. Not your typical war movie. Borders on the existential nature of warfare. 4. Road To Perdition The best non-superhero adaptation of a comic book to date. 5. Casino 9. Fresh A little known film but very well done. Inner city noir thriller. 10. Bringing Out The Dead 15. Ronin 18. In The Company Of Men 20. Kundun Visually stunning. 24. True Romance 25. Requiem For A Dream Overdone. Not a bad film but veers off course and violate suspension of disbelief. 26. Strange Days 28. Any Given Sunday So many naked men in this movie it makes Top Gun look straight. 29. Leaving Las Vegas 30. Eyes Wide Shut 31. Men Of Honor Excellent film about one man fighting the odds and winning ...

See Moonbats in their native enviroment! Thrill to the adventures of beeswax candles and vegan stew! Imagine The Year Without Toilet Paper ! Seriously, get help. If you're going to do the Walden thing I can't imagine why you'd do it in NYC. Move to frickin' Northern Idaho or even somewhere tropical. Makes more sense to me.

Guilded Age indeed! This would make for a mighty nice corporate retreat. I've been to a few of those and the nicest one was at Hartfeld so this one is a bit beyond my frame of reference. I can only imagine who is spending the scratch to have a retreat at one of these places. Not too shabby. (h/t: Sully

Remembering Special Friend, Conservative Columnist Cathy Seipp A moving tribute to an unflinching observer of American politics. She quotes Cathy: “I’m beginning to feel a responsibility to point out that lung cancer, which kills more people annually (about 163,000) than the next four most common cancers (colon, breast, pancreatic and prostate) combined, is terribly underfunded compared to other diseases: $950 in research money per lung cancer death, compared to $8800 for breast cancer and $34,000 for AIDS. "That’s because the vast majority of lung cancer (about 85 percent) is still caused by smoking, even though the rate for lifelong nonsmoking women like me (and Christopher Reeve’s widow) has been going up for some mysterious reason, and the general attitude is that smokers deserve whatever they get." She was a great writer and commenter. I hope she's at peace.

Don't forget your phone (OK, so it's not technically YouTube but you get the idea.)

Tom Cruise is still insane: "I know reps lie all the time, but at least try to keep it believable. Tom Cruise has never encouraged anyone to adopt Scientology? He might as well have told us Tom Cruise captured a triceratops in his backyard and taught it to fly into outer space."

Hapless User: hi Duffy: Hi Hapless User: this outage that's planned for tomorrow - will it affect the processing servers/CMS? Duffy: tomorrow? That's today mate Duffy: and, yes, everything is down from 5:00 pm tonight until Sunday morning Duffy: (or whatever 5:00 is in your crazy metric time you guys use) Hapless User: whaaaaaaaaaaaaat Hapless User: total panic Duffy: I cleverly disguised the outage time in bold type in yesterday's email Hapless User: yeah I read the mail this morning - so "tomorrow" was Saturday ;) Duffy: Here in the US, Friday follows Thursday Duffy: Irrespective of when one reads their email Hapless User: so it's starting 5 pm this evening EST (that's 11 pm for us) and ending 7 am EST - that's 1 pm for us) Duffy: right

Brits Behaving Badly: As we kick back into the street, I notice a man in a kilt. For Chrissake, who moves to America and brings a kilt? Did his mother say, "Farewell, son. Make something of yourself in the New World. Have you packed your native costume, just in case?" Just in case of what? Just in case we decide to re-invade Canada? Just in case he finds a girl with a thing for men in frocks with no knickers? Just in case there's an England-versus-Scotland match on the satellite television in some fake pub? Other countries keep their quaint ethnic customs, their special days. But somehow Diwali, Panamanian Martyrs' Day, or Jewish Family Friday Dinner seem quaint and diverse, while a drunk Scots banker in a skirt in the early morning is actually pathetically annoying.

Ladder Theory is about women, men and what they want vs. what they say they want. It's rife with salty language but uproariously funny. An academic exercise by a darkly cynical and funny guy.