Here is the News

I check the Irish news website at least once a week to see what's happening back in the old country. If you're interested, it's here.
It's very different to the news here. For example, about 12 minutes in to the Nine o Clock news for Thursday, as part of a piece on Police breathalyser checkpoints, they listed the 25 people who died on the roads in November. Can't imagine that happening here. It was an odd thing to see.
There is also a tab there for Nuacht. That's the news in Irish.
My Irish was never very good in school, my spoken-Irish exam was embarrassing.
I have to say, if it wasn't for the pictures to go along with the story and the occassional word in English, I wouldn't have had a clue what the newsreader was talking about. I understood maybe one word in four, which maybe doesn't sound too bad until I tell you that those words I did get were the like of -'and', 'good', 'now' and 'again'.
I dare you all to have a listen.

Q.

Can anyone explain to me why the- number of posts on the main 'Dashboard' page
- and the number of posts on the list of posts
are not the same?
dashboard has the number as four less than the other one.
I don't have any drafts waiting to be published.
Where are these invisible posts?

Uh, what was your name again?

This week's Monday Movie Quiz is all about characters and the actors who played the part.
For some of these I've left out the most famous character as being too much of a giveaway, or maybe the name was a part of the movie title.
Each list is in roughly chronological order, so the first one is the oldest one.
Looks more difficult than it is, not helped by my rubbish explanation.
Give it a go and it will start to make sense.
Name the actor.
Update-

clues
1. This actor was:____ taffy got -John Turturro
Herbie Stempel
Jesus Quintana
Pete
Emilio Lopez
Chuck
John Shooter

2. She was:____ taffy got- Holly Hunter
Edwina 'Ed' McDunnough
Jane Craig
Ada McGrath
Tammy Hemphill
O'Reilly
Melanie 'Mel' Freeland

3. He was: ____FlyingRodent and ninquelosse got - Danny DeVito

Ralph
Sam Stone
Ernest Tilley
Vincent Benedict
Oswald Cobblepot
Sid Hudgens in L.A. Confidential
Amos Calloway in Big Fish

4. She was: __taffy and aunty helpful dictator got- Catherine Zeta Jones
Virginia Baker
Theo
Helena Ayala
Velma Kelly
Marylin Rexroth
Amelia Warren
Isabel Lahiri

5. He was: ___Kav got-Brad Pitt
J.D.
Paul Maclean
Early Grayce
Detective David Mills
Michael Sullivan
Jerry Welbach
Bachelor #1
John Smith

6. He was:____ E got- Steve Buscemi
Buddy Holly
Mister Shhh
Carl Showalter
Garland 'The Marietta Mangler' Greene
Theodore Donald 'Donny' Kerabatsos
A.R. Hosspack
Seymour
McCord

7. She was: ____aunty helpful dictator got- Scarlett Johansson
Grace MacLean
Birdy Abundas
Rebecca
Ashley Parker
Charlotte
Griet
Alex Foreman
Nola Rice

8. He was:___ roxyhart got- Vince Vaughan

Cheering Soldier in crowd
Nick Van Owen
FBI Agent Peter Novak
Reese Feldman
Peter La Fleur
Wes Mantooth
Raji
Eddie
Jeremy Grey

9. She was:____ taffy, aunty helpful and cristin got- Gwyneth Paltrow
Young Wendy
Tracy Mills
Helen Quilley
Viola De Lesseps
Marge Sherwood
Rosemary Shanahan
Donna Jensen
Polly Perkins

10. He was: ____aunty helpful dictator got -Gene Hackman
Rev. Frank Scott
Harry Caul
Defense Secretary David Brice
Agent Rupert Anderson
Jedediah Tucker Ward
Avery Tolar
Capt. Frank Ramsey
Edward 'Brill' Lyle
William B. Tensy
Rankin Fitch

11. He was:____ Kav got- Denzel Washington
Don Pedro of Aragon
Lt. Commander Ron Hunter
Lt. Colonel Nathaniel Serling
Lincoln Rhyme
Coach Herman Boone
Alonzo
Ben Marco
Detective Keith Frazier

12. She was:___ roxyhart got- Meg Ryan
Donna Caldwell
Sally Albright
Captain Karen Emma Walden
Dr. Maggie Rice
Eve Mozell Marks
Alice Bowman
Frannie

13. He was: woozie got - Cary Grant
Jerry Warriner
Dr. David Huxley in Bringing up Baby
Walter Burns
C. K. Dexter Haven
Mortimer Brewster
John Robie
Nickie Ferrante
Roger O. Thornhill
Peter Joshua

14. He was:____ aunty helpful dictator got- Jake Gyllenhaal
Danny Robbins
Homer Hickam
Jimmy Livingston
Holden Worther
Sam Hall
Jack Twist
Anthony Swofford

15. She was:____ cristin got -Jodie Foster
Becky Thatcher
Iris Steensma
Tallulah
Sarah Tobias
Annabelle Bransford
Eleanor Arroway
Anna Leonowens
Meg Altman
Madeleine White

All info from the gospel according to IMDb.

I'll give it a 5/10

The film was Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet. What do you mean, you've never heard of it? Count yourself lucky. 254 people have voted for it, here. I started watching by accident and got interested when I saw the command centre, run by 'Marsha'. Marsha and her beehive had an impressive array of buttons and lights in front of her. Some of the dials were just painted on, but she didn't let that get in her way. It was shaping up to be a great film, perfect for the 2.30am connoisseur. Even the metal robot was not the most wooden actor. The hopping lizard creatures, brontosauruses, man-eating plants, and flying reptiles all deserve an honourable mention. I was loving the hover car, which was slower than walking and only just cleared the jagged rocks by this much.
The volcano erupting was wonderful/woeful. Stock footage of volcano, lava, the usual stuff, but the scientist guy is collected a sample and his friend points out that the lava level is rising so they need to get to higher ground. Good idea, as it's running past their feet. So they step back, I kid you not, 2 feet.
My favourite quote? when they think something else has gone wrong (I won't spoil it for you) and one of them says "This is a mess now".
The only bad thing about this fine entertainment was it was being shown as part of something called Off Beat Cinema and this pretentious bunch would sit around in their berets and sunglasses and discuss NOTHING for 9 minutes at a time, (yes I timed it) interupting the film with their excessive use of the words- far out, dig it and man and reading Allen Ginsberg poetry.
I almost lost my temper at the glove puppet doing a poetry reading. Then another 25 minutes of film followed by the beatniks reading mail. A whole email was read and discussed from someone who used to intern for them and had broken his mug.
Give me patience.

That's why they put 'mute' buttons on remote controls.

Avenger Penguins - Opening Titles

Avenger Penguins - Opening Titles

YouTube won't let me combine this with the other post....

GRRRRRR
I'm rapidly going off YouTube.

Video was 'disappeared.'

F.A.O. Mr. S. Claus

-

To Mr. S. Claus
North Pole.


From Amanda
Toronto, Canada

Re: your series of names or other items written or printed together in a meaningful grouping or sequence so as to constitute a record.

Dear Mr. Claus,
No doubt you can currently involved in a duplicate examination of your lexicon and at this time I would like to state for the record that I belong in the decorous category rather than the recalcitrant classification.

Please find below a list of items I would like to find under my tree.
Thanks in advance,
AJ


First up, took me ages to find anything about the AvengerPenguins on t'internet, and now that I know there is a DVD available.....

Of course, it is only available in European region format and my DVD player(which we got for free with our phone package) only plays North American region, so it looks like you will have to include a DVD player with this one. Sorry about that, it's out of my hands I'm afraid.

Tickets to this.

Mr. Clooney's film is due to open everywhere in the US on December 22nd. I'm unsure which cities get the limited release on the 15th, however LA is very nice this time of year so I'll go there, thanks.

Well, I'm not greedy so that will do on the pressie front.

Apart from a job, of course.

And see what you can do about global warming. I would say world peace too, but Canadian- Will Ferguson says thats not too great.

thanks again, and wrap up warm is freezing out there.

thanks

Thanksgiving in America, it was a month ago here in Canada. You'll need to ask someone else why.

I'm thankful for him.
Not only has he put up with me for the last 16ish years put he even buys me magazines with pictures of George in them for me.
Our marriage has always been a 50-50 proposition - with the possible exception of closet space. ~Gene Perret

things you'd rather not know

I was watching my other George and this was one of the stories featured.
I'm ok with the ban on spitting, just the other day I berated a 'dude' for spitting. Really, I did.
I said 'oh, nice' very sarcastically to him. He and his 3 friends were quaking in their 4-sizes-too-big-tshirts and shoes about to fall off cos they are too cool to tie the laces.
Fines for public defecation, loitering or carrying a visible knife, fighting, peeing and spitting all seem logical if a little idealistic.
The bit that made me go 'huh?' is a fine for putting your feet up on a public bench.
Maybe it's because the streets are ankle deep in poo, spit and urine.

Anyway, maybe I'll take a photograph to remind myself, get another freaky tattoo.

This weeks Monday Movie Quiz is inspired by the People magazine article about George. There were 2 pages of old photos of him, a couple of which were alarming. Like this one

















All finished laughing?
and some older ones too, of him as a kid.So, that's this weeks theme.

When They Were Young.
Not very original, but hey, I don't get paid for this stuff.

Most of the images are from Google but I got a bit carried away and didn't keep a note of all of them. Some are easy, one is obvious and a couple are a bit harder.

Update:

1.

no, not Jason Lee
clue: he's hard to break
C146 got -Bruce Willis


2.


Sandra and E got-
do I really need to say?

3.

no, not Keanu Reeves


clue: don't let this little Romeo near your boat

ninquelosse got Leonardo DiCaprio







4.





E got - Tim Robbins

5.

scooterdeb and E got -Drew Barrymore











6.


clue: he turned up the heat at the casino
ninquelosse got - Robert De Niro


7.





E got - Christian Bale

8.

scooterdeb got - Tom Cruise













9.




clue: blue pill or red pill
C146 got - Keanu Reeves





10.





clue:- rush to Shanghai

C146 got - Jackie Chan






11.


scooterdeb got- Tom Hanks



12.

no, not Cameron Diaz
clue: isn't she pretty?
s got - Julia Roberts


13.






Sandra got- Halle Berry











14.






E got -Woddy Allen









15.






E got - Kevin Spacey









16.






E- got Jack Nicholson









17.





E got -Gene Wilder










18.


clue: spent hours on a chilly hill
s got- Nicole Kidman



19.





Sandra got- Harrison Ford








20.







Sandra got- Angelina Jolie

Rocky II

I mentioned our neighbourhood raccoon before. The green bin is for organic waste like vegetable peelings, food, cardboard tubes from kitchen paper, coffee grounds and filters, that sort of stuff.

Well ole Rocky (he had a name change) decided to play a little game with me at 2 am yesterday(today?).

For the past few months his favourite games have been - how-far-can-I-spread-these-teabags, -foodscraps-and vegetable-peelings and what-will-they-try-next-to-stop-me.

We tried putting the green bin in different locations and the latest thing was a large, heavy piece of concrete on the top.

That was working up until 1.58 am.

Rocky has now figured out a way to knock over the bin, concrete and all.

I heard the racket and went to investigate. I deliberately made some noise opening the door thinking that would scare him away.

He just sat on the deck, no more that 2 feet away from me staring at me, looking through the contents of the bin for his dinner. I tried shoo-ing him. He just looked at me like I was the kid who made a silly face and it stayed that way and Stevie Wonder picks out my clothes.

I grabbed the torch that is on the floor just inside the door and shone it directly in his eyes and eventually he verrrrry slowly wandered off. I picked up the bin, turned it the other way and put the rock back on top.

About a minute later, loud racket from the back deck.

Same look on his face.

I managed to chase him off again and picked the bin up and brought it in to the kitchen.

any reasonable offer accepted

my life is worth:

Your Life Is Worth...

$636,000

How Much Is Your Life Worth?

Friday distractions

Someone else having a worse time getting a job than me.

This, from CBC news cheered me up though-
George Clooney is back on top after People magazine named the Oscar winner the "sexiest man alive" for the second time.
Clooney, who won his first Academy Award this year for his supporting role in Syriana, will be on the cover of the magazine on newsstands Friday.
Actor/director George Clooney won a best supporting Oscar earlier this year for his role in Syriana. (Canadian Press)
The 45-year-old actor, director and film producer was previously dubbed the "sexiest man" in 1997. He joins friend Brad Pitt as the only multiple winner of the celebrity magazine's honour.
"Brad's been working out a lot," he said. "After Troy, he thought he'd be named it a third time — pull the hat trick, as we called it. But for me, I'll tell him this is my last hurrah."

Clooney joked it was "going to be hard for Brad" now that his distinction has been taken away. The two actors recently completed shooting of the film Oceans 13.
Patrick Dempsey, who plays Dr. Derek Shepherd — also known as "Dr. McDreamy" — on the television drama Grey's Anatomy, came second. Actor Ashton Kutcher placed third.

The honour was first handed out in 1985 to actor Mel Gibson.
Clooney's status as the celebrity alpha male had already been trumpeted by online publication AskMen.com, which named him the No. 1 "ambassador of male-kind" in October, ahead of former U.S. president Bill Clinton, rapper Jay-Z and Apple computers founder Steve Jobs.

Wednesday's child is full of woe

According to the plan Wednesday is when I update on my progress(!) in the job hunt.
The reason I have not updated on this is because there has been damn-all progress.
My local Subway sandwich shop had a help wanted sign in the window. Nobody wants to give me a lab job so I thought I'd try something casual just to bring in some cash.
I asked in the shop if they had application forms or wanted resumes.
A resume highlighting my basic food hygiene certificate and food science/microbiology background was handed over the next day.
I waited.
Two weeks later and a couple of visits to the shop I finally speak to the manager again. It's taken a couple of visits because none of the staff speak English as a first language.
Me: Hello, I gave you a copy of my resume a couple of weeks ago, to apply for the job.
The manager: Yes....
Me: and I haven't heard anything.
The manager: I sent all the resumes to the owner last Friday.
Me: I see.
The manager: so if he has not contacted you, he must not be wanting you.
Me: ok, thanks anyway.

Not qualified to make sandwiches.
Bit depressing, I can tell you.

tag, you're it

Ninquelosse at Cineism (and Emma too) tagged me to do this movie related meme. Yay!

Of course they both already came up with all the cool answers so I've been trying to think of something different.

Anyway here goes

1. Popcorn or candy?

Popcorn and it has to be salted popcorn, not the sticky sweet stuff. The best popcorn is at Grauman's Chinese Theatre which is this one here. Because, being Hollywood, LaLa land they don't dare put the salt on for you and instead supply packets of 2 different types of salt for you to use and melted butter and various other additions on a red velvet covered table.

2. Name a movie you've been meaning to see forever.

Paths of Glory. The main reason being it's the only film in the top 50 of the IMdB top 250 that I have not seen. Don't know why. I don't have a problem with war-theme films or Kubrick, so why have I never seen this one?

3. You are given the power to recall one Oscar: Who loses theirs and to whom?

Ninquelosse picked Titanic to lose to L.A. Confidential and Emma took Tom Hanks Forest Gumps and gave it to Morgan Freeman for Shawshank. Both spot on, and while we are correcting history the one that springs to mind for me is A Beautiful Mind. Not the Best Picture of that year, which was this.

4. Steal one costume from a movie for your wardrobe. Which will it be?

Well, the question doesn't say I have to wear it, so....I'll have anything George wore, please.

Especially anything from Solaris










or O Brother Where Art Thou?

If it has to be something for me to wear I'll have Ziyi Zhangs's green outfit from House of Flying Daggers (and the figure to go with it)













5. Your favorite film franchise is...

Might have been Star Wars if he hadn't ruined it with the 3 new ones.

Would have been The Matrix except the first one is genius and the other two, well, aren't.

So I'll have to agree with ninquelosse and say The Lord of The Rings.
I'm not a fan of the books but the films were, and are, great. And will still be seen as such in years to come.

6. Invite five movie people over for dinner. Who are they? Why'd you invite them? What do you feed them?
Well, no hestitation as to the first guest! Mr. Clooney. Owen Wilson, Johnny Depp, Frances McDormand and Ewan McGregor round out the rest of the guest list because they all either have something to say and/or say it with great voices or accents so I could just listen to them all night while we eat:
Aromatic spiced chick peas to start. With rocket and sour cream.
Then my Mushroom Stroganoff with white and wild rice and
everyone brings their own favourite dessert.
lots of wine and champagne.

7. What is the appropriate punishment for people who answer cell phones in the movie theatre?
Lifetime ban from all cinemas.

When I Have My Own Cinema (a little daydream of mine) there will be a small keypad for regulars. This keypad will activate an electrical shock current in the seat of cell-phone users, talkers and people too stupid to follow the film on their own and feel the need to discuss every LITTLE THING.


8. Choose a female bodyguard: Ripley from Aliens. Mystique from X-Men. Sarah Connor from Terminator 2. The Bride from Kill Bill. Mace from Strange Days.

Hmm. Mystique from X-Men could change to look like anyone so....

no, it would have to be The Bride

9. What's the scariest thing you've ever seen in a movie?

I do tend to get very involved so there have been many scary moments. The Blair Witch Project really got to me. Not helped by some people I know standing in the corner facing the wall when I walked into a room for days after.

Scariest scene, when James Can gets his ankles smashed in Misery, or THAT bit in Ring, with the television, or Danny on his trike in The Shining, or saying Candyman five times in the mirror, or the red coat in Don't Look Now, because on the way home, in the rain, from watching it there was a woman in a red coat in front of me, or most of Eraserhead.
I think that about covers it.

10. Your favorite genre (excluding comedy and drama) is?
Apart from my two favourites which have been excluded, I do love the whole interconnecting story thing. Not really a genre I know but some great films like Amores perros, Crash and I'll include Twelve Monkeys in there too.

11. You are given the power to greenlight movies at a major studio for one year. How do you wield this power?

Mwahhahh*evil power crazed laugh*.

Only one year, so I'll have to work fast.

First off the following people can no longer make films, they can't even make the coffee on a film set:

Kirsten Dunst.

Hayden Christensen.

Tom Green. Just because of this

Jennifer Lopez.

Any singer(so that includes Britney, Madonna and technically Hasselhoff), rapper or Paris Hilton.
Then, Tarantino, Christopher Guest and the Coen brothers can have what ever they want.
Music is to be supplied by E from the eels, David Holmes, Beck and anything suggested by Quentin.
I get to do a Hitchcock-type cameo in any film I like.
All my favourites in one film, George, Johnny Depp, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Owen Wilson, Pacino.
But, no film can have a budget of more than 150 Million dollars.

12. Bonnie or Clyde?
Bonnie. Even though Warren Beatty looked get had some great lines, Bonnie did it all with style.


13. Who are you tagging to answer this survey?
There are a few people whose answers I'd love to see, but they either don't have blogs or probably wouldn't do it....
I like to see Taffy's answers.
and Steve's.
maybe Scooterdeb too?

and anyone else, even if it's not the whole thing.

It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.

This week's Monday Movie Quiz is all about cars. Himself spent most of last week doing battle with Insurance scum trying to get a realistic quote for someone who has been driving for over 20 years. It was not to be. So, our plans to get a horseless carriage are no more, at least for the forseeable future.
Your mission should you chose to accept it, is to identify the films which featured the following cars.
Update:

1.


Taffy got- The Great Escape



2.


Taffy got- Annie Hall



3.


E got-Kill Bill Vol 1



4.


Taffy got- Starsky & Hutch



5.


Taffy got- O Brother, Where Art Thou



6.


Will got- Austin Powers, Goldmember



7.


E got- Tomb Raider



8.


Taffy got- Three Kings



9.


E got- The Birds



10.


E got- Bullit



11.


Steve got- The Bourne Identity



12.


E got- From Dusk Till Dawn









all images from Internet Movie Database.

Challenge: get Einstein and George W. Bush in the same post.

Everyone know about Google Earth, right? Just last week I say an interview with Dubya and he said he has "used the Google Earth".

But did you know you could do this?

send someone a greeting.

p.s. go here to make your own Einstein pic.

testing, testing. Is this thing on?

Sheesh, but Blogger has really been acting the maggot the past couple of days.
Telling me that it 'cannot complete my request at this time' then going ahead and posting the same thing 4 times anyway, when I wasn't looking.
It's because Blogger hates me and wants me to look stupid. Ha! I win that one 'cos I don't need it's help with that.

the interwebs

You are 97% Canuck!

You rock, you are an almighty Canadian through and through. You have proven your worthiness and have won the elite prize of living in a country as awesome as Canada. Yes I know other countries think they are better, but we let them have that cuz we know better than they do, eh?

How Canadian Are You?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

When Sandra did this test over on her blog she was 89% Canuck.
I find this 97% very alarming. Scary, I tell ya.
I did another one too

You Are 81% Strange!

You are pretty darn strange. You're quirky and odd, and definitely not normal. But that's great--it makes you an interesting person. You aren't exactly as strange as they come, but congratulations on being quite unique!

How Strange Are You?
Quizzes for MySpace

Your BBFC rating is:



What does this mean?

Suitable for 15 years or older. Films in this category can be about anything, say ‘fuck’ a lot, probably get to see all sorts of guns and shooting, but no open heart surgery with a knife. Most ‘R’ rated films in America fit into this category.

Are the 3 in any way connected?

A prediction

The last two posts have both been '10' things. I didn't notice this until after.
I predict that it will take 10 seconds for everyone else to spot this.
And about 10 seconds to read this rubbish post.

10 things

10 things you didn't know*


1. The number 1 song the week I was born was I'm a Beliver by The Monkees.

2. Min igelkot e inte dum is Swedish for - my hedgehog isn't stupid.

3. The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.

4. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.


















5. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

6. Space is only 62 miles away. That's 100 kilometres.


7. It's 30 years since the world's first barcode was used. It was on a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit at a supermarket in Ohio. The gum is now an exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.









8. The Sex Pistols were banned almost in every part of the UK, so they started touring under the name SPOT (Sex Pistols On Tour).


9. An adult bedbug can survive up to one year without feeding.

10. No American has died of old age since 1951.
That was the year the government eliminated that classification on death certificates.


* and probably didn't really need to know....

10 closing scenes

Today's movie quiz is final scenes. The closing shots of films. Again some old, some not so and one predictable one.
Update: solved so far

Update on the update:All solved this week, gold stars all round.
1.


Scooterdeb got - Citizen Kane

2.

Woozie got -Finding Nemo

3.



Scooterdeb and Sandra got - Oceans Eleven



4.


Scooterdeb and Sandra got - Gone With the Wind




5.



Woozie sort of got it and then E did- Frida



6.



the citizen got- Monty Python and the Meaning of Life



7.


Scooterdeb got- Moulin Rouge




8.



E got - A Life Less Ordinary



9.



Woozie got - I, Robot



10.




Steve got - Romancing the Stone