Shirley, you can't be serious

In an entirely non-sequitur poll taken among my upper-level students (with 10 left to vote), in response to the question "Who is sexier?" I am currently ahead of Shirley Temple.

For some reason, I'm still behind Rita Hayworth. I may have to put the blame on Mame in a black dress during tomorrow's class.

This, my friends, is love

The following is a recounting of an actual phone conversation held this morning. The implied people involved have not been altered in any way in order to implicate the guilty.

"Hello?"

"Hi! I'm just checking on my boys to see how they are doing."

"Oh, we're doing fabulously. We just got dressed and we're about to head out the door."

"Great!"

"Although I just experienced something a little weird."

"Oh?"

"Well, this is going to sound a little crazy perhaps, but... um... did you use my film textbook to squish a bug or something in the basement?"

"...yes."

"Oh my God. You're kidding."

"Jeff, it was a huge spider. I couldn't even step on it."

"So you used my textbook??!!"

"Well, it was right there. And it's large."

"And then you didn't clean it up?!"

"No."

"OK, well, let me tell you what I did. I hadn't turned on the light yet when I picked up my book and I felt something squishy and wet underneath and thought, 'My goodness, do we have a leak? Did the cat throw up? What happened?' I brought the mass that had by now wiped off onto my hand and brought it to my nose to sniff it. To my nose!! And then, because it didn't smell bad, I started to roll it around in my fingers, hearing it crackle and squish. And only then did I turn on the light and saw it was a mass of squished giant bug. And then, I scremed."

"I just wanted to leave you a little present! Kind of like the cat."

"Oh yeah, speaking of which -- happy anniversary."

Mmmm, meme-a-licious

Guilt	What is yours?	Explain yourself
Culinary:	Egg rolls	Actually, any deep-fried food from a Chinese take-out, so that includes chicken fingers, General Tso's [fill in the blank], etc. But because the egg roll sometimes comes free with the lunch special, it's that much more of a special treat.
Literary:	Entertainment Weekly	I'm actually proud of whatever I read in book-form. The fact that I devour EW upon receipt, however, makes it a guilty pleasure in my book.
Audiovisual:	A Different World	I can no longer find it on daytime syndication -- but that's probably a good thing, because having not caught this when it actually aired on NBC, I was REALLY caught up in the lives of Whitley, Dwayne and especially Freddy.
Musical:	Switchfoot	Not that I own an album, but I find virtually all their songs on the radio catchy. Close runner-up: that new James Blunt song, "You're Beautiful," which I just love.
Celebrity:	Emily Watson	OK, not the biggest celebrity. But I did tell my class the other day that I would give an A with no questions asked to anyone who could arrange a private dinner with her for me.

Now I tag (which means, for the uninitiated, now you do it and post the results at your blog, although the html may take some modification for blogspot since this is supposed to be for livejournal users): base2wave, Rusty @ DCLush, McNastabator, Holly-in-NOLA/Lima, and karamale.


To complete this same Quiz, it's HERE.

It had to happen eventually

I spent most of today on campus. Which means I couldn't spend Valentine's Day with my wife.

As such, she spent most of today having a really good time with another guy. And there's no way I can compete because he's younger, doesn't say much, is exceptionally cute and has even better eyes than I have. Not to mention, he goes to bed early.

Ah well.

Mayday mayday! Send coherent plotline... soon.... fading... fast........ *ack*

While Xan is napping right now, I'm prepping for a conference presentation I'm going to give on Roger Corman exploitation films made in Peru in the 80s. After already having gone through Hour of the Assassin (starring Erik Estrada, the most interesting of the bunch) and Crime Zone (which is the best of the bunch, perhaps because I auditioned for it when I was 15?), I am currently watching Ultra Warrior.

I'm afraid I only have a few more brain cells left to give to this cause. This movie, accurately detailed here, is possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen -- so unintentionally funny, it stings.

This coes after having watched Forbidden City Cop over the weekend, which friends of ours from down the street lent us. Done by Hong Kong fun-time master Stephen Chow in a similar style to Kung-Fu Hustle, I remember remarking to Angela, "I don't know whether this is a really good movie or a really horrible movie -- but I'm enjoying it immensely."

Now having watched Ultra Warrior -- currently on screen: stock footage of random sex acts obviously taken form other movies, offered as an indication that all the women should sleep with the protagonist for some reason or another -- I know what "really horrible" is.

Oh thank goodness. Xan just woke up.

Well, la-dee-dah

This evening, I heard segments from today's funeral for Corretta Scott King. The eulogies were very powerful or interesting, depending on who was talking. Then, at some point, a choir started singing the song "Ain't Got Time to Die."

And I was taken back to high school, to my freshman year, the one year I was in New York. I had been in the Concert Choir, Baldwin oddly enough having one of the best high school choirs in all of Long Island. (This is a good point to give a shout out to Melinda Edwards -- Doc Ed -- who taught me everything I know about singing, especially to love it.) When the song came on the radio, I remembered that I had sung this -- or had to have learned it back then, because the only part I remembered was the tenor part (and I haven't been a tenor for years. I now heard the song in a completely different context and thought, Wow, what a great song to praise Mrs. King.

And yes, only then did I actually tear up a little.

Zoom zoom!

As you can see, Xan is currently eagerly awaiting his first ride with Mom's new bicycle -- accompanied in a brand-new baby bike trailer. Never let it said that we are not safe in this house, and fashionable at that.