I was born and raised in Louisiana. While my hometown is Shreveport, New Orleans was, is and probably always shall be the center of the Louisiana Universe. When I was but a lad, the state got pro-football fever, when the New Orleans Saints set up shop. I remember hearing that we’d see a Super Bowl trophy Really Soon Now – surely within the first ten years, n’est pas? Nope. Throughout most of the team history, it’s been a story of loss – sometimes snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, sometimes just being bad. Heartbreakingly, astonishingly bad. What other team could generate so much angst and ennui from their own fans that they would hide their faces in shame.
Tonight, all is forgiven.
All that faith, love, and hope has been rewarded tonight with the ultimate prize. Let us celebrate. Let there be merriment in the streets, celebration in the schools, and songs in our hearts. Let the men in black and gold be our standard-bearers, and lead the state proudly.
There is no need to make excuses any longer.
There is no need to put an asterisk beside the state’s listing.
There is no need to apologize.
Tonight the entire state rejoices.
Tonight, New Orleans looks with pride and confidence to the future.
Tonight we are as one – one state with a shared pride.
“Loser”-ania no more, indeed.
pop culture
[BLEEP] This.
I was surfing around my Dad’s satellite service last night, and stumbled on a rebroadcast of Blazing Saddles on AMC. Several years ago, I made a list of what I thought were the ten funniest movies ever made (in no particular order). As I recall, the list went something like this, give or take:
- Blazing Saddles (Brooks/Little/Wilder)
- Young Frankenstein (Brooks/Wilder/Feldman)
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Monty Python)
- Arsenic & Old Lace (Cary Grant)
- The Producers (Brooks/Mostel/Wilder)
- Animal House (Landis/Belushi)
- A Night at the Opera (Marx Brothers)
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Stoppard/Oldman/Roth)
- Airplane! (Abrams/Zucker/Abrams)
- Duck Soup (Marx Brothers)
When you watch a great movie, you’re watching a collaborative effort, but one that SOMEbody (usually the director) oversees and marks with his or her creative stamp. In comedies, more so that any other art form, timing is essential. Just one frame (a 24th of a second) can make a recognizable difference in the timing of a joke.
That brings me to the hatchet job AMC did on Blazing Saddles. [Read more…] about [BLEEP] This.
The UN-candidate.
We are all, at one level or another, creatures of habit. That’s a good thing, most of the time. I mean, if we woke up to a world everyday where we had to figure out how to feed and clothe ourselves, with no idea of what would come next, none of us would leave very productive lives. But there’s a dark side to habit – that being the phenomena whereby we attempt to pigeonhole everything that happens, so we can process it, understand it (in terms of previous experiences) and move on. This system of shorthand evaluations doesn’t work at all, however, when you run smack dab up against something new. New is…different. It doesn’t fit the mold. It doesn’t lend itself to snap analyzes, or fitting into patterns. But “new” is where innovation comes from. It’s where solutions come from. And it’s where our future lies.
Consider (soon-to-be former) Gov. Sarah Palin. [Read more…] about The UN-candidate.
A Call to Arms. And Legs.
Do you love your country? I do. What are you willing to do to save it? For it needs saving. Seriously.
Understand, this is not a Democrat versus Republican, or Liberal versus Conservative issue. It’s a Right versus Wrong issue. Our country, our values, our freedoms and our inalienable human rights are under attack. From where I sit, we each have but two choices – ignore the problem and hope it goes away, or do something about it.
So what do we do?
I think the answer are the many Tea Parties that will take place across the country on July 4th.
I am against the idea of armed insurrection. To take up arms against your own country is a contradiction of the very reason to fight – how can you protect the Constitution by violating it? (Answer: you really can’t.) Until and unless the Federal Government ignores the Constitution on a wholesale basis, taking up arms is NOT the answer. And, frankly, we’re a long way from that. Unfortunately, the American people are in the position of the proverbial “frog in the pot,” with the Progressives, Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists turning up the heat, gradually. Ignore the threats to the Constitution at your own peril. [Read more…] about A Call to Arms. And Legs.
The King of Pop Dies.
The King of Pop is Dead. I don’t know of anybody that is really surprised. Think of any other celebrity (except Amy Winehouse) and you’d at least register a blip on the emotional surprise meter. Not here.
Jackson was talented. He was also, obviously a tortured soul, regardless of the reason. From my experience in show business, being a child star is a tough road to travel. Being a child star in what has widely been reported as a dysfunctional family, then add all the pressures of superstardom, and throw in a bizarre addiction to plastic surgery, and you have formula for an unhappy life and a premature death. [Read more…] about The King of Pop Dies.
Thoughts on Farrah Fawcett.
I never met her. Although, my family has some close friends that lived next door to her, when she was growing up in Houston. They said they could get her autograph for me. I laughed…it was during her reign on Charlies’ Angels, and I could have cared less about an autograph.
What I wanted was a date.
She was out of my league. Okay…waaaaaaaaay out of my league. At the time, she was already an item with Lee “The Six Million Dollar Man” Majors, and she was 10 years older than I was. None of that stopped me, and thousands of other guys just like me, from wishing we had a shot with Farrah. [Read more…] about Thoughts on Farrah Fawcett.
Friends, Roamings, Countrymen…lend me your ear(bud)s.
I’m still finding out cool stuff about my new iPhone. This morning, I discovered that the alarms are REALLY LOUD. I mean REALLY loud. Especially when compared with my former phone, the Wagon Queen Family Truckster (a.k.a. Windoze Mobile Sprint/HTC Mogul).
Even better, no more special adapter just to use headphones. Of course, the earbuds that come with the iPhone work…but they aren’t noise-cancelling, nor do they fit in my ears well enough to really generate the best sound, say, when I’m in a car. With the top down. And doors off. Nope. I need to score myself some noise-cancelling earbuds with built-in mic, preferably ones that block wind noise on the mic side. [Read more…] about Friends, Roamings, Countrymen…lend me your ear(bud)s.
4…3…2…1…We have (iPhone) liftoff…
Believe it or not (and I’m not sure I do, yet) I’m now the proud owner of a brand-new 32GB iPhone 3G s.
Pause with me for a nanosecond, whilst I let that sink in.
In one fell swoop, I can retire my Wagon Queen Family Truckster® (a.k.a.: “Windows Mobile/Sprint HTC Mogul”) crapalicious excuse for a cell phone. Being a card-carrying propellerhead, I’m still in the process of exploring what all my new phone can do (i.e.: jacking with all the configuration options, configuring ringtones, et cetera). It may be a couple of days before I’m ready to stop jacking with it, and allowing it to become the business tool I need. But I’ll enjoy working on it in the meantime. [Read more…] about 4…3…2…1…We have (iPhone) liftoff…
Hacked!
I hate hackers.
If I were king of the world, morons that get their jollies by stealing passwords, infecting sites with malware, defacing sites, and any other kind of mischief, would get the death penalty. No appeals. No delays. We’d string ’em up, preferably in public, with mandatory coverage by the networks. (Obviously, the networks are acquainted with mandatory programming – they cover every Obama presser, so they shouldn’t have a problem with a sensational, money-maker like a public execution.)
About a week ago, a client notified me that there was a problem with one of the sites I host for them. I assumed – at first – that the malicious JavaScript code that had been added to their index page without permission was an isolated incident.
Not so fast. [Read more…] about Hacked!
A Guide to Making Apologies.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you might have heard about the current troubles of David Letterman, and his serial apologies he’s made regarding the “joke”(s) he told regarding Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin and her daughters. Last night, Letterman made yet again another attempt at contrition. Color me “unimpressed.” You see, when you apologize, there are a couple of things you must do – and at least one that you must not do:
- Say “I’m sorry.”
- Say “I was wrong.”
- Say “It’s my fault…I accept responsibility for the mistake.”
- Say “I beg your forgiveness.”
- Say “I will do my best to do better, and not make the same mistake again.”
- Do NOT say “I’m sorry, but…” and then go on to offer any excuse.
When you offer an excuse, you’re essentially saying “what I did wasn’t that bad,” “it wasn’t really my fault,” or other weasel-words that attempt to deflect responsibility. [Read more…] about A Guide to Making Apologies.