Olympic pride: Thank you, Kobe, and Michael

Crossposted at http://faustasblog.com, where this blog is now

With the exception of the men's swimming relay (for which I stayed up last night in spite of not getting much sleep the night before), I haven't been watching the Olympics, so I missed this:

Kobe Bryant Schools Liberal NBC Announcer On Patriotism (my bold print)

Chris Collinsworth: Tell the story when you first got your USA uniform.

Kobe Bryant: Well I had goosebumps and I actually just looked at it for awhile. I just held it there and I laid it across my bed and I just stared at it for a few minutes; just because as a kid growing up this is the ultimate, ultimate in basketball.

Collinsworth: Where does the patriotism come from inside of you? Historically, what is it?

Kobe: Well, you know it’s just our country, it’s... we believe is the greatest country in the world. It has given us so many great opportunities, and it’s just a sense of pride that you have; that you say "You know what? Our country is the best!"

Collinsworth: Is that a ‘cool’ thing to say, in this day and age? That you love your country, and that you’re fighting for the red, white and blue? It seems sort of like a day gone by(?)

Kobe: No, it’s a cool thing for me to say. I feel great about it, and I’m not ashamed to say it. I mean, this is a tremendous honor.

Video at Ms Underestimated has the video, which is also on YouTube, editorial bubbles and all:



However, Q&O sees Collingworth's differently,

To me it seemed like Collinsworth was simply trying to set Kobe up to say how awesome patriotism is, and how much he loves America. If you've watched any Olympics coverage ever, then this is exactly the kind of saccharine backstory pablum fed to the viewers, regardless of who the interviewer is, or which network is providing the coverage. It's a part of the basic formula: controversy, hard luck, sick/dead relative, USA! USA! USA! So I don't think the question was Collinsworth's opinion, but instead a softball for Kobe to tee off on.

Either way, thank you Kobe.

And Chris.
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The WSJ has a terrific slideshow of Michael Phelps winning his 8th gold medal.

All of us middle aged and older remember being excited when Mark Spitz won his seven golds.
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This week's WSJ's Five Best books on historical conquest, selected by David Day:

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This week's shoes:
Merrell Encore

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"WWBCD?", Olympic version

Remeber that this is my back-up blog. Please go to Fausta's blog for regular posts
Blue Star Chronicles is keeping an Olympic eye on things, and sent this:
Pres. Bush declines to slap Misty May-Treanor's bikinied butt

Today, as the busy crowd over at our Olympics blog notes, after an hour's brisk bit of mountain-biking himself, Bush paid another visit to the American athletes, watching the women warm up for softball, regretting the disappearance of that sport from the next Olympics ("It's good for the world to have girls playing softball and these women are going to show young girls how to win") and trying his hand, so to speak, at volleyball.

Bush knuckled off a couple of lobs, but defending gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh gave the chief executive some pointers. Then after a good play, in the tradition of female volleyballers, May-Treanor turned, bent over slightly and offered her bikinied rear-end for the 43rd president to slap.

"Mr. President," she said, "want to?"

Want to has nothing to do with it in public life.

As the son of a president, a husband of nearly 37 years, the father of two daughters, the subject of some attempted tabloid exposes and a seasoned political veteran, who is not a female athlete but knows that every camera for a half-mile is trained on him, Bush wisely chose instead to brush his hand across the small of May-Treanor's back. (See photo.)

Darn!

Reuters had to redo their captions.

Now ask yourselves, "What would Bill Clinton do?"

Fortunately for everybody, George W Bush is not Bill Clinton.

And Laura Bush is not Hillary.
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In the Olympic spirit, today's books and shoes:

First, the books:
The WSJ's Five Best Books on the Olympics, selected by ESPN's Jeremy Schaap:

And now the shoes,
Puma Espera, in silver/white/blue.

My experience with the Puma brand is that they run slightly small, so order a 1/2 size larger.

Crossposted

Sunday books and shoes

This week's WSJ's Five best books on Afghanistan, selected by Ann Marlowe:



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This week's shoes, Lifestride's Spree peep-toe pummps in tan fabric and black trim.

I just bought a pair yesterday.

The Pope doesn't wear Prada...

... says The Manolo, who found it at Times on Line:

According to Vatican sources the Pope's shoes are made by a cobbler from Novara called Adriano Stefanelli, who makes them from calf or kid for the winter and nappa leather for the summer. Papal shoe repairs are carried out by Antonio Arellano, a Peruvian shoemaker in the Borgo, the medieval quarter next to St Peter's. The article, on "Ratzinger's Liturgical Vestments", was written by Juan Manuel de Prada, the noted Spanish writer and author of The Tempest, who is not related to the fashion company. De Prada said that the image of the German-born Pope as concerned with "frivolity" was at odds with the truth, which was that he was a "simple and sober" man. Suggestions to the contrary were "stupid and banal".

And here I thought Shakespeare wrote The Tempest.

In one of life's coincidences, Novara is the town I was referring to when I wrote this post four years ago.
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I'm still on vacation so instead of the WSj's 5 best books links, please buy Steve's cookbook:

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Not Prada, and definitely not Papal, today's shoes, perfect for the beach:

Things I probably shouldn't be reading early on Sunday morning

Last night I went with some friends to see Mongol, which turned out to be excellent. "The untold story of Genghis Kahn", as the title tells us, is a Hollywood-type epic spoken entirely in Mongolian (or at least I assume it's Mongolian - it was some language I don't recognize at all) with English subtitles. It borrows at times from Lord of the Rings for the battle scenes, and from Kurasawa for the central character's development. Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano gives an extraordinary performance as the man who brought the thundering hordes to half the world. Asano has been compared to Toshiro Mifume, for good reason.

Please be warned that there's a lot of violence (as you can expect), and blood spurts wildly as if Sam Peckinpah himself had been doing the battle scene choreography.

Here's the trailer,


After the movie we had something to eat outdoors at Panera. It was a lovely summer night with an indigo blue sky, and lots of people were walking about. Unfortunately if I have dinner late in the evening I don't sleep well, so this morning I was totally awake by 6AM.

So I got up and checked Memeorandum, where the top story,
Inside a 9/11 Mastermind's Interrogation, tells us that the NYT has revealed the full name of the CIA man who managed to get Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to talk. Funny how the Times and other media were full of outrage when Valerie Plame, who used to drive into the CIA parking lot every morning with the top down of her Mercedes, was "outed", but they have no problem in outing anyone else employed by the CIA.

I agree with Macsmind,

The identity of CIA employee is classified, and although illegal under the Intelligence Identities Protections ACT, the CIA did ask that his name not be published. Therefore the Ny Times is in legal jeopardy for publishing his name.

The CIA should immidately ask the DOJ to look into it.

By the way, I wonder if these clowns who rallied in defense of Plame will speak up now?

More at Pirates' Cove

After that one needs something lighter, so of course I went to Denny's, who always has wonderful music, and came across (language probably NSFW) Mashuk-Akva Term spa story:

Hey honey, let's go to the spa and have a few enemas. What a vacation!

Denny managed to beat Charles to an enema.

I checked my email and found that Maria, who spent many years in Russia, had sent me pictures of toilet signs from around the world. I like this one:


This is the second day in a row that I have posted on scatological items. I blame the lack of sleep.

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The WSJ's Five Best Books on sailing, selected by Sir Robin Knox-Johnson, the first person to sail solo and nonstop around the world:




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Today's shoes: Coach Josie Signature Ballet Flat Shoes in black.



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Marvelous Myrna

Early this morning Turner Classic Movies was playing Love Crazy, with Myrna Loy and William Powell playing a married couple, not Nick and Nora Charles. As you can see from the plot, Powell ends up in drag, looking like someone's mother-in-law, and there's a happy ending.

You can actually watch Love Crazy on YouTube if you follow the links from this one, but TCM also did a tribute to Myrna Loy, which you can watch right now:


Myrna Loy was the epitome of Art Deco style and grace.
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Today's WSJ's Five Best books on Hollywood, selected by filmmaker Whit Stillman:



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Today's shoes: Cole Haan's Carma Air pumps. Classic, perfect... and also available in red.



Myrna probably wore something like them.



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Saudi Arabia: He who pays the piper calls the tune

In today's Australian, Saudis' secret agenda doesn't reveal anything we haven't heard before, but it illustrates well how it's done:

It was a donation, a gift, a part payment to subsidise the construction of a building that would become Sydney's Muslim heartbeat: Lakemba mosque. More than 35 years after Sydney cleric Khalil Shami received the cheque, he insists it came with no strings attached. But while the cheque had no tangible conditions in the form of written instructions or binding contracts, the cleric received a message from his donors several months after depositing it.
"They said: 'Please, can you mention the tragedy of the Palestinian people and what's happened to them in your sermon?"' Shami tells Inquirer. "Which is really a very noble cause, a very noble cause, I couldn't see a negative in their request."

The message Shami received from Riyadh brings into question the influence petro-dollars can have on their recipients, whether the money is bankrolling a religious centre, a clerical allowance or Queensland's Griffith University, which was exposed by The Australian last month for seeking a $1.37million Saudi grant, of which $100,000 was received, and offering to keep elements of the deal a secret.

The Saudi Government - largely through its embassy - is believed to have funnelled at least $120 million into Australia since the 1970s to propagate hardline Islam, bankroll radical clerics and build mosques, schools and charitable orgnisations.

But the Saudi cash that has flowed into Australia, that also allegedly has paid the allowance of hardline Canberra cleric Mohammed Swaiti, who has publicly praised jihadists, is dwarfed by the $90 billion Riyadh is believed to have pumped into promoting Islamic fundamentalism internationally.

Of course all of this funding for their point of view doesn't allow a cultural interchange.: To paraphrase what Siggy said in last Friday's podcast: the reason the fundamentalists are supported by the regime is that they are a means for the regime to control society.

And then there's the mysogyny, which subjugates totally one half of the population:

While Saudi Arabia exports its Wahhabi version of Islam to the world, Saudi society groans under the weight of its internal contradictions. The first class of female law students will graduate from King Abdul Aziz University this year, but the Saudi Ministry of Justice prohibits female lawyers from practising. Judges consider women to be lacking in reason and faith, and have refused to allow them to speak in the courtroom because their voices are shameful

Think about that: women's voices are shameful to the Saudis.

Yes, I know, this is not my typical Sunday post, but it had to be said.
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Speaking of last Friday's podcast, Pamela has a post on the latest glamorizing of institutionalized mysogyny on an American magazine: W Cultural Clitorectomy: CAIRO

Of course, why be bothered by things such when there's plant dignity to worry about?
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The Carnival of the Insanities is up. Go check it out.
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This week's WSJ's Five Best Books, on baseball, selected by Nicholas Dawidoff:



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Today's shoes, Aerosoles Women's Soul Mate Thong in silver:

Extra traffic

TCM was playing Captain Kidd and it's been a while since I did an old movie post so I thought I'd look the Captain on the Internet Movie Database and post on it.

I was reading the IMDB information when suddenly I read a sponsor link that filled me with dread: Wanted: Movie Extras in Princeton.

I've lived in Princeton since 1989 and during that time two movies have been filmed on location here in town: the dreadful IQ and the very good A Beautiful Mind. (No, House isn't.)

Both movies had open casting calls in town.

I didn't go to the IQ casting call since I'm not interested in becoming an extra, but it was held at the Westminster Conservatory. That was memeorable because the day of the casting call I didn't know that's what was happening and ended up spending a long time stuck in traffic gridlock less than a mile away from my own house.

After the movie started filming on locations all in or near Princeton traffic was backed up for days to no end. It didn't matter where I had to go, IQ was there to tie up traffic, or so it seemed.

Streets were blocked, traffic was detoured all over the place - sometimes without directing us which way to get back to where we wanted - and one time I ended up having to stop and change the baby on someone's lawn because traffic was stuck and the baby needed changing.

It was a disaster.

A friend insisted that I go with her to the casting call for A Beautiful Mind, which was on the Princeton University campus at McCosh Hall. We went on a very cold day, and traffic was backed up, of course. Hundreds of people were standing in line in the cold. Fortunately by the time we got there the line was moving and we went in right away.

The gentleman who was in charge of the casting that day (and whose name doesn't show in the IMDB credits) had the uncanny ability of picking out of a large crowd people who are the same types.

Much to my surprise, I ended up on the podium with five other women. We looked more alike to each other than what my sister and I look alike: same height (give or take two inches), same coloring, same build, probably the same age (give or take five years), and even the same type of clothing (and shoes!).

One of the ladies and I were wearing glasses and we had the same taste in eyeglass frames, too. All of us wore variations of the same hairstyle.

Anyone who harbors any fantasies about their own uniqueness should go stand on a casting call stage for five or ten minutes with five other strangers who not only look like you but even dress like you.

A week or so later I did get called for a job as an extra but turned them down.

By then I was fully prepared for any traffic delays that might come from the Beautiful Mind filming around town. Surprisingly, they managed to film everything on and around campus without having to block any streets. One time I was waiting for a traffic light in the Borough and watched the real-life John Nash cross the street from where Russel Crowe was playing the fictional John Nash. That was the longest I had to wait in traffic because of their filming on location.

But back to this morning's ad on the IMDB, I breathed easy when I saw that it was just an ad.

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Today's WSJ Five Best Books, on essential books to keep in mind for Holocaust Remembrance Day on May 2, selected by Robert Rozett,





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Today's shoes: Delman Women's Manda-P Ballet Flat in coral berry.

Nobody does flats like Delman's.


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It's Sunday, so Pat has the Carnival.



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Why Beautiful Women Marry Less Attractive Men, and a really expensive photo

James asks, Why Beautiful Women Marry Less Attractive Men?
UPDATE
Why women live longer than men: a photo essay

Obi's Sister has unkind things to say about Nancy, too

I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at
this time.

A fool and his money... A nude photograph of France's first lady, Carla Bruni, has been auctioned for $91,000. Related: The Sarkozy effect.

Age rage!

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi: Only "Retards" Would Vote For Italy's Left

Why people donate to bloggers.

All in good time, my dear

Real 911 calls

"Teenage" America says "yeah, whatever."

Bonus
The very rich don't dress well, via The Baron. Don't they have a Neiman Marcus or a Bergdorf's in SF?
Via Alcibiades, Barack Obama, jedi master



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Shoes and matching handbags

It is one of the mysteries of blogging that one can write a well thought-out, carefully worded post on a serious subject that may have serious repercussions and get 0 - 5 comments, while sometimes one writes a post on girl stuff and get dozens, maybe even hundreds of comments.

Almost two years ago I asked Should tall women wear platform shoes?, which generated twelve comments and at least a couple of dozen emails.

(Yes, I bought those shoes and still wear them. They do make your legs look very nice.)

Now the hot topic is should women carry handbags?.

As a Coach stockholder, my answer is unabashedly, yes. Please carry a handbag.

Another cosmic question, Why don't women clothes carry pockets? Women clothes don't carry pockets because pockets are place on strategic parts of the body and if a woman carries anything in her pockets

a. it makes her chest look lumpy and asymmetrical
b. it makes her hips or derriere look big, lumpy and asymmetrical.

It's not a feminist issue, it's a wanting-to-look-shapely issue.

Moving on the other cosmic questions, this morning's podcast started as an April Fool's fun podcast but we ended up talking about parenting. You must listen to it, here, and if you enjoy it, please rate it. Siggy read from a wonderful post he wrote about his daughter's birth. I'll link to it later. You can read it here.

Siggy, Little Miss Attila and Mamacita of Scheiss Weekly were wonderful and we're going to continue the conversation on the same subject next Tuesday.

Siggy, always a deep thinker, posted today another cosmic question, Why Did The Pullet Cross The Road?. Little Miss Attila asks Is the city of L.A. suffering from ADD?, while Mamacita wonders why is it next-to-impossible to find Concord grapes in a supermarket or even a farmer's market in her area

And I thank them all for today's podcast.



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The seventy-five percenters

It's that magical time of the year again, when tyrants make a show of "democracy" to the world at large. Today's turn: Robert Mugabe
Vote count under way in Zimbabwe

Vote counting is under way in Zimbabwe, with the main opposition MDC claiming it is winning the battle to oust President Robert Mugabe.

The MDC said it was ahead in most constituencies but continues to fear the vote will be rigged.

Results may not be finalised for some days and the government warned the MDC not to declare an early victory.

Forgive me if I sound cynical, but what are the chances of anyone defeating a megalomaniacal murderous thug through an election?

The BBC is also not helping: Look how they make it sound as if it was Mugabe who was battling the odds, instead of the other way around:

Mr Mugabe is battling the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai and independent Simba Makoni for president.

I hope I'm wrong and that the MDC can win, but from here it looks very unlikely indeed (h/t Instapundit).

Nowadays fashionable tyrants win by 75% of the vote. It's only the old-style, crassly out of fashion tyrants like the Chinese Communist Party who still win by 98%.

The modern fashionable tyrant soothes what passes for conscience at the UN by holding an election, calling in international observers (a dozen observers to stay at carefully-selected, scrupulously-guarded locations in countries at least as large as California, because you know that a dozen people staying for a day or two really can get a good idea of what's going on in a country) IF they decide to call observers in the first place, making a show of the polling process, and then winning with a 3:1 margin over the opposition. If they really want to make a point, then they win 4:1.

Then Jimmy Carter flies back to Georgia to celebrate Rosalyn's birthday, the UN goes back to condemning Israel, and we all tune in to E! for the latest in celebrity gossip.

In Caracas, the honeymoon is over with the media: Chavez 'stifles Venezuelan media'

Private media companies from across the Americas have accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of stifling press freedom in his country.

Delegates at a meeting of the Inter- American Press Association in Caracas said Mr Chavez was using intimidation to curb criticism of his government.

I expect that Jimmy will be whispering sweet nothings in Hugo's ear to calm down Hugo's frazzled nerves.

But not to worry, there's free healthcare in Venezuela.

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This morning's old movie at TCM is Boom Town, about oil wildcatters. In spite of a burning oil rig, it has absolutely nothing in common with There Will Be Blood, especially when it showcases Clark Gable's impeccably attired profile holding the impossibly glamorous Claudette Colbert or Heddy Lammar in his arms.

They don't make them the way the used to, and I'd like to know who would wear a sequined negligee outside of a Hollywood movie.

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Today's WSJ's Five-Best books about the search of Eden, selected by Jonathan Rosen:




Paradise Lost is also available on line

Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
Mov'd our Grand Parents in that happy State,
Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off [ 30 ]
From thir Creator, and transgress his Will
For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?

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Today's shoes, John Fluevog's Renata, with a moderate heel and casual/dressy style.

You all know I love red shoes, and these are lovely. The Manolo has another Fluevog style.

You can never have enough red shoes.

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Pat has the Carnival of the Insanities.

In the meantime, mark your calendars, pay your reservation, and come to Saturday's party!





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Resurrection and Baptism

Happy Easter to all friends and visitors of this blog.

Today we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On this holy day, Pope Benedict makes a highly significant and symbollic gesture:

At an Easter vigil mass in St Peter's Basilica on Saturday night the Pope baptized Magdi Allam, 55, a Muslim-born convert who is one of Italy's most outspoken journalists.

Allam, a fierce critic of Islamic extremism and a strong supporter of Israel, is protected by a police escort because of threats he has received.

WELL-KEPT SECRET

His conversion to Christianity was a well-kept secret, disclosed by the Vatican in a statement less than an hour before the Easter eve service started on Saturday night.

"For the Catholic Church, each person who asks to receive baptism after a deep personal search, a fully free choice and adequate preparation, has a right to receive it," it said.

Allam defended the pope in 2006 when the pontiff made a speech in Regensburg, Germany, that many Muslims perceived as depicting Islam as a violent faith.

The Vatican statement announcing Allam was joining Catholicism said all newcomers were "equally important before God's love and welcome in the community of the Church".

Allam, who has been living in Italy for 35 years, has said he was never a very devout Muslim. Still, his conversion to Christianity came as a surprise.

"What amazes me is the high profile the Vatican has given this conversion," Yaha Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community, told Reuters.

Gateway Pundit links to the photos

As this article reminds us,

The role of Christian theology is not to reconcile the diversity of 'creeds,' to find in Islam 'Christian seeds' and 'biblical seeds,' to engage in dialogue, but to proclaim the Christian message

The Pope has reaffirmed this role.
(h/t The Baron)

UPDATE
Muslim Converted by Pope Says
Life in More Danger

ROME - An outspoken muslim author and critic of Islamic fundamentalism who converted to Christianity at the hands of Pope Benedict said on Sunday he realised he was in greater danger but he has no regrets.

"I realise what I am going up against but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith", said Magdi Allam.
...
Writing in Sunday's edition of the leading Corriere della Sera, the newspaper of which he is a deputy director, Allam said: "... the root of evil is innate in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual". Allam, who is a strong supporter of Israel and who an Israeli newspaper once called a "Muslim Zionist," has lived under police protection following threats against him, particularly after he criticised Iran's position on Israel.

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This week's WSJ's Five Best Books, selected by Gabriel Schoenfeld:


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This week's shoes: the very pretty Geox Sarah sandal, perfect for showing off a pedicure . . . once the temperatures allow it:

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Pat has the Easter Carnival of the Insanities





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The missing top models, and other Sunday items

The other day Matt was posting about the disappearance of Waris Dirie, who had launched a campaign against female genital mutilation in 1996. The Waris Dirie Foundation website has more information on her campaign.

Dirie was later found on Friday and the police are investigating the disappearance:

Dirie's manager, Walter Lutschinger, said she had been involved in an altercation in a hotel reception area after a taxi driver took her to the wrong branch of the Sofitel hotel chain. The police were called and drove Dirie around Brussels looking for the correct hotel because she had apparently forgotten where she was staying.

UPDATE
Model Dirie apologizes for 3-day disappearance
'A little misunderstanding,' she says of absence from women's conference.

Earler last week the police had found the body of another model who had spoken against FGM:

News of Dirie's disappearance came a week after French police said they had found the body of another former model of African origin who had campaigned against female genital mutilation. Guinean-born Katoucha Niane was discovered floating in the River Seine in Paris.

The French police said an autopsy showed no signs of foul play, raising the possibility that she may have fallen accidentally into the river. However, Katoucha's family members say they suspect homicide.

French police

initially said an autopsy showed no signs of foul play, pointing to the possibility that the could have fallen accidentally into the river.

The ex- model and mother of three died from "rapid submersion with no traces of violence," said a source close to the investigation. "She fell into the water and went straight to the bottom," he added.

Her family insists that a homicide investigation continue, and have requested a second autopsy.

France2 did a report on Katoucha's campaign against FGM which you can watch on YouTube (in French)

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The WSJ's Five Best books on gambling, selected by Richard Hoffer:



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Pat has the Carnival of the Insanities
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Today's shoes, looking forward to warm(er) days, the Clarks Hydrangea in bronze.

Exodus on TCM

Turner Classic Movies is playing Exodus, and as I write this post Barak Ben Canaan (played by L. J. Cobb) is imploring the Arabs to remain in their homes and work together.

The British mandate ended on May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was proclaimed on the same day, and the following day five Arab states - Egypt, TransJordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq - invaded Israel.

Fast-forward sixty years later, and what have we got?

Arab Ideological Doctrine Syndrome: A Crippling Plague (h/t Larwyn)

If the central issue is pride, not material benefit, and if battling the West and Israel are the prime directives, whether this policy leads to defeat, bankruptcy, tyranny, and general disaster is irrelevant. And despite the existence of courageous dissenters from this doctrine, it still rules the Arab world, something every Arab but few in the West understands. This is why peace, moderation, and pragmatism still cannot win there.

Indeed, PA president Mahmoud Abbas is saying he's opposed to an armed struggle against Israel - for the time being - "because we cannot succeed in it" (h/t Gringo)

but maybe in the future things will be different," he said.

Somebody ought to tell King Abdullah when he's in town talking about how "moderates" are ready to "negotiate".

In the meantime, the UN is criticizing Israel for defending itself, with a mild chiding to the Palestinians for attacking Israel.

Peace process? Only if the Hamas thinks it'll wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.

UPDATE
Attacks Widen: Netivot, Psagot and Jerusalem Under Fire (hat tip Pamela, via Larwyn)
Thinly-veiled fiction at Siggy's.
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For more insanities, Pat has the Carnival
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This week's WSJ 5-best books, on composers' lives, selected by James Penrose


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This week's shoes:




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The Turn of the Screw, and other Sunday items

The Fox Movie Channel is playing The Innocents, with Deborah Kerr, the film adaptation Henry James's The Turn of the Screw.

The Turn of the Screw kept you wondering if you were reading a ghost story or a tale of insanity.

Deborah Kerr is always an excellent actress and she was particularly good at portraying women tottering at the edge of insanity (in Black Narcissus she not only tottered but fell in head first). In The Innocents she makes perfect sense at the same time as the back of your mind tells you she's totally nuts.

The Innocents is an enthralling movie showcasing a tour de force performance by one of the best film actresses of the 20th Century.


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This week's WSJ's 5-Best Books, on psychology, chosen by Steven Pinker:




I read The Nurture Assumption several years ago and found it fascinating.
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Today's shoes:
Merrell" Relay Tour. Very comfortable, sporty, and look great. They tend to run small, so order a 1/2 larger just in case.


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Pat has the Carnival of the Insanities, complete with the dancing fidel

Happy Valentine's Day to all my visitors and friends

And stright from the guru, a note of advice: High heels 'may improve sex life'

Wearing higher heels - although perhaps not stilettos - may improve your pelvic floor muscles and in doing so boost your sex life, a study suggests.

An Italian urologist and self-professed lover of the sexy shoe set out to prove that high heels were not as bad for women's health as some suggest.

Here's the important part,

She said her study of 66 women under 50 found that those who held their foot at a 15 degree angle to the ground - the equivalent of a two inch heel - had as good posture as those who wore flat shoes, and crucially showed less electrical activity in their pelvic muscles.

This suggested the muscles were at an optimum position, which could well improve their strength and ability to contract.

The pelvic floor muscles are an essential component of the female body. As well as assisting sexual performance and satisfaction, they provide vital support to the pelvic organs, which include the bladder, bowels and uterus.

I'm particularly fond of these:


Perfect for walking out the House floor.

And on a totally unrelated subject, the new Indiana Jones movie trailer:



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Potatohead politics and other Sunday items

UPDATED
Links probably not really safe for work

Via Gerard, the Potatohead caucus is causing quite a stir in political circles:
The Washignton Post took notice, As the Iowa Caucuses Near, This Guy Is A Hot Potato, and so did others: Mr. Potato Head Photos 'Capture Personalities' Of Presidential Candidates, complete with slideshow.

Don Surber's also blogging about it, too.

But the Potatoheads are becoming more prominent in other areas:
Some have quietly left their mark in the art world: A Very Brief History of Art, Featuring Mr. Potato Head

Others have ventured where no Potatohead had gone before, Mr Potato Head makes octopus pal, which Blue Crab Boulevard marks as a tragedy.

Like any large clan, the Potatoheads have their black sheep, too: One got busted in Australia

SYDNEY, Australia - Customs officers discovered nearly 10.5 ounces of ecstasy tablets hidden inside a Mr. Potato Head toy sent to Australia from Ireland, the agency said Thursday.

Upon opening the parcel, the officers were greeted with the smiling face of the popular children's toy, which features a potato-like head and removable facial features. But when they removed a panel from the back of the toy, the officers found 10.34 ounces of ecstasy in a plastic bag.

Blue Crab Boulevard remembers the days (before my time) when you had to use a real potato for Mr. Potatohead.

The Princeton Potatoheads, Paco and baby Pete, live quieter lives,

Recently they had their distant cousin Paul come visit from Japan, where he's a famous Sumo wrestler:


UPDATE
Potato Heads on stage!
Potato Head scandals!
Compromising Potato Head photo!

Say what you may of the octopus-spud love affair, at least he's not a green penis that sings and dances.
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HillBilly photoshop fun
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This week's WSJ's Five Best, selected by Thomas W. Evans, on the role of the commander in chief:




I recently received an email asking why I feature the WSJ's 5 Best instead of NYT bestsellers. The reason is that the WSJ selections consistently have very good books that I find interesting, unlike a lot of the NYT bestsellers.
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This week's shoes:

A low boot with a low heel that looks good with jeans, dress slacks and knee-length skirts.
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It's Sunday, so it's time to visit Pat who has the Carnival of the Insanities




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Happy Feast of the Epiphany Day!

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Epiphany. People of Spanish ancestry call it El dia de Reyes (Three King's Day), and when I was a little kid in Puerto Rico we used to get presents on Christmas Day and on Three King's Day, which was a pretty good deal. My son gets presents on both days, too.

The English used to celebrate the Epiphany. Shakespeare himself wrote Twelfth Night for Queen Elizabeth's celebration. Jane Austen wrote about going to dances on the evening. It wasn't until late Victorian times that the emphasis shifted to Christmas.

Considering how retailers start the Christmas merchandising season in October, I'm rather surprised that they don't extend it until January 6. However, standard accounting practices require a year's end inventory, so we can get to purchase our Three King's Day gifts on sale, rather than at regular price.

Thank goodness for that.

I went to Banana Republic yesterday to check out the sales (but not because of Three King's Day). BR is one of the few stores whose regular sizes fit me without alterations (except for the slacks). Most other stores' sizes are made for women three or four inches shorter than I. Shirts sleeves are too short, and torso lengths are way too high, but most of BR's are the right proportion. However, even at Banana Republic the slacks are too short, so I usually try their regular size at the store and order the tall size on line. Yesterday I also brought along my son (who hates shopping, of course) to see if they had jeans on sale in his size (they didn't have any men's jeans on sale).

While my son wore an expression of tired resignation, I found this shirt on sale for $15 (on line it's $30) in red, and a jacket. The shirt fits perfectly right off the rack, and so does the jacket.

I'm wearing them today to celebrate Three Kings' Day.

Happy Three King's Day to all of you!

UPDATE
Francis Porretto writes about Zoroastrianism, and the Feast of the Epiphany,

The Magi of the Incarnation story were three esteemed nobles of Persia, wealthy in gold, wisdom, and the admiration of their societies. In contrast to the pattern prevalent among the nobilities of later times, these three, whose names have come down to us as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, were deeply religious men whose involvement in the investigation of the Zoroastrian prophecies was sincere. When they spied the famous "star in the east" -- quite possibly a nova in Draco now known to have occurred at about that time -- they resolved to follow its trail, to find the divine infant and pay him homage.

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A month ago I mentioned that I strongly believe that if a married couple has children under the age of 18, I am against divorce except in cases of abuse.

Considering the high number of divorces nowadays, I expected to receive feedback from people who thought the opposite - that children are better off with divorced parents.

That was not the case at all.

I received a dozen or so emails from people who agree with me. I've been corresponding with several of them, and, while I won't publish their emails, their feeling is that grownups who can remain civilized to each other in non-abusive marriages for the sake of the children are doing the right thing. Once the children are adults then most of my correspondents (except for one who doesn't believe in divorce at all) see no reason not to divorce.

This week's Wall Street Journal's 5-best books are on marriage, selected by Edward Mendelson:



I concur with their opinion of The Prime Minister,

The fifth and best of Anthony Trollope's six "Palliser" novels is also his subtlest portrait of a marriage. Plantagenet Palliser and his wife, Lady Glencora, who have recently become the Duke and Duchess of Omnium, never resolve the conflict between her unscrupulous ambition and his belief that their marriage so thoroughly unites them that her actions are also his own, even if he disapproves of them. Without making any final judgments, Trollope explores the ways in which a marriage is not just a relation between two persons but also a relation between the married couple and the world around them.

Trollope is a superb author, and this is one of his best.

Twenty-five years ago Alan Bates starred in an adaptation of The Return of the Soldier. As always, he was wonderful.

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After all the holiday excitement, it's time for a sporty pair of shoes: The Privo Women's Oso Skimmer in gold.

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Not only is it Three King's Day, it's also time for Pat's Carnival of the Insanities.



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The MSM channels Mad Magazine on Fred, and Sunday's items

When I was a kid I loved Mad Magazine. One of my favorite features was how they used to truncate really bad reviews of movies and books to make them sound glorious. Well, Fred's getting the same treatment from the MSM, only in reverse.

CNN and USA Today are taking a few select words from Fred:

"I'm not particularly interested in running for president," the former senator said at a campaign event in Burlington when challenged by a voter over his desire to be commander-in-chief.

"But I think I'd make a good president," Thompson continued. "I have the background, capability, and concern to do this and I'm doing it for the right reasons."

Here's the full transcript of what Fred actually said, which his people posted at Fred file:

[THIS IS A BEST-EFFORT TRANSCRIPT OF THE SPECIFIC QUESTION AND ANSWER]
Q: My only problem with you and why I haven't thrown all my support behind you is that I don't know if you have the desire to be President. If I caucus for you next week, are you still going to be there two months from now?

...In the first place I got in the race about the time people normally get into it historically. The fact of the matter is that others started the process a lot earlier this time than they normally do. I think it was for some of them when they were juniors in high school.

APPLAUSE

That is a very good question, not because it's difficult to answer, because, but I'm gonna answer it in a little different way than what you might expect.

In the first place, I wouldn't be here if I didn't. I wouldn't be doing this if i didn't. I grew up very modest circumstances. I left government, I and my family have made sacrifices for me to be sitting here today. I haven't had any income for a long time because I'm doing this. I figure that to be clean you've got to cut everything off. And I was doing speaking engagements and I had a contract to do a tv show, I had a contract with abc radio like I was talking about earlier and so forth. I guess a man would have to be a total fool to do all those things and to be leaving his family which is not a joyful thing at all if he didn't want to do it.

But I am not consumed by personal ambition. I will not be devastated if I don't do it. I want the people to have the best president that they can have.

When this talk first started, it didn't originate with me. There were a lot of people around the country both directly and through polls, liked the idea of me stepping up. And of course, you always look better at a distance, I guess.

But most of those people are still there and think its a good idea. But I approached it from the standpoint of a deal. A kind of a marriage. If one side of a marriage has to be really talked into the marriage, it probably ain't going to be a very good deal for either one of them. But if you mutually think that this is a good thing. In this case, if you think this is a good thing for the country, then you have an opportunity to do some wonderful things together.

I'm offering myself up. I'm saying that I have the background, the capability, and the concern to do this and I'm doing it for the right reasons. But I'm not particularly interested in running for president, but I think I'd make a good president.

Nowadays, the process has become much more important than it used to be.

I don't know that they ever asked George Washington a question like this. I don't know that they ever asked Dwight D. Eisenhower a question like this. But nowadays, it's all about fire in the belly. I'm not sure in the world we live in today it's a terribly good thing if a president has too much fire in the belly. I approach life differently than a lot of people. People, I guess, wonder how I've been as successful as I've been in everything I've done. I won two races in TN by 20 point margins, a state that Bill Clinton carried twice. I'd never run for office before. I've never had an acting lesson and I guess that's obvious by people who've watched me. But when they made a movie about a case that I had when I took on a corrupt state administration as a lawyer and beat them before a jury. They made a movie about it and I wound up playing myself in the movie and yeah I can do that.

And when I did it, I did it. Wasn't just a lark. Anything that's worth doing is worth doing well. But I've always been a little bit more laid back than most. I like to say that I'm only consumed by very, very few things and politics is not one of them. The welfare of our country and our kids and grandkids is one of them.

If people really want in their president a super type-a personality, someone who has gotten up every morning and gone to bed every night and been thinking about for years how they could achieve the Presidency of the United States, someone who can look you straight in the eye and say they enjoy every minute of campaigning, I ain't that guy. So I hope I've discussed that and hope I haven't talked you out of anything. I honestly want - I can't imagine a worse set of circumstances than achieving the presidency under false pretenses. I go out of my way to be myself because I do't want anybody to think they are getting something they are not getting. I'm not consumed by this process I'm not consumed with the notion of being President. I'm simply saying I'm willing to do what's necessary to achieve it if I'm in sync with the people and if the people want me or somebody like me. I'll do what I've always done in the rest of my life and I will take it on and do a good job and you'll have the disadvantage of having someone who probably can't jump up and click their heels three times but will tell you the truth and you'll know where the President stands at all times.

Maybe once USA Today and CNN graduate from Mad Magazine Journalism School they'll start reporting on candidates who actually answer questions, instead of those who don't take any questions at all.

That is, if their reporters actually get to the venue where the words were spoken. As Fred noticed,

Incidentally, the audience in Burlington broke into applause in the middle of my answer. The reporter wouldn't know that because she wasn't even there.

BTW, I'm undecided on which candidate to support.

UPDATE
The Mad Magaizine School Of Journalism
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This week's WSJ's Five best: "Cold War classics for an age of a resurgent Russia" chosen by Ernest Lefever:



and "The True Believer" by Erich Hoffer (Harper & Row, 1951).

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Today's shoes:
Steve Madden Women's Deedrah D'Orsay Pump in silver, to ring in the New Year:

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Pat's got Carnival of the Insanities.



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