URLs du Jour

2007-12-19

  • Iowahawk on Iowa:
    Every four years, America kicks off its time-honored democratic ritual of selecting the next president of the United States. As always this process begins with the Iowa Caucuses, which will have an important say in determining the final nominees. And, as always, this process is marked by another time-honored ritual: millions of angry non-Iowans asking, "who died and made that stupid state God?"
    He goes on to explain who died and made that stupid state God.

  • Official Pun Salad Hero Ken Jennings writes on Mormonism and politics. He addresses himself to Huckabee's publicized query about the brotherhood of Satan and Jesus:
    The truth, Huck, is that Mormons believe that God is the Father of us all, which does, I guess, in some sense, make Jesus and Satan brothers. And by the same logic, we also believe that Moses and Orville Redenbacher and Attila the Hun and Neil Diamond are brothers. Happy now?
    Good stuff. My brother Jennings for President!

  • Ex-astronaut Jay Buckey is running for the United States Senate here in New Hampshire. If you give him even a teentsy bit of money before the end of the month, you will receive a Jay Buckey For Senate Memorial Squeeze Toy And Stress Reliever Space Shuttle Collectible:

    [Jay's Shuttle]

    Jay is running for the Democratic nomination against Jeanne Shaheen. If Jeanne wants to get in the swag game, I'd suggest offering a foot-shaped chew toy.

  • One of our New Hampshire residents, Mark Steyn, is in a heap of trouble in Canada for a Maclean's article based on his recent book America Alone. Muslim groups complained to Canadian "human rights commissions", and it appears that—this is First-Amendment-free Canada here, remember—Steyn may be called on the carpet for thoughtcrime.

    The book is coming out in paperback next month, and civil libertarians who'd like to offer Mark some support can pre-order it right here. Or you can shop the Steyn Mall.

  • Programmers tell us how they really feel in comments. (Warning: very bad language at link, which is via BBSpot.)


Last Modified 2012-10-15 3:30 PM EDT

The American Dream

As near as I remember, it goes like this:

Somehow, you are in a small group of people that includes Tina Fey. She tells a joke. You are the only one who even notices, let alone laughs. She appreciates this.

In amazingly short order, you are made the guest host of this week's Saturday Night Live. (I know that Ms. Fey doesn't work there any more. Remember, this is the American dream.)

Unfortunately, you are expected to write your own opening monologue. It's not clear whether this is due to the writers' strike. But anyway, the clock is ticking down to 11:30pm, and you've got nada, save for a few inchoate ideas that somehow all revolve around Tina Fey.

Soon enough, you're walking through those doors in front of the studio audience and millions of home viewers. And then you notice that you forgot to put on pants.

You look around, and it appears that Tina Fey is not amused. Neither is Maya Rudolph. Or the audience.

People talk a lot about the American Dream, but personally, I think it could use some work.

Hot Rod

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)
[2.0
stars] [IMDb Link]

Why yes, I did watch two Isla Fisher movies in a row. Good catch.

I like Andy Samberg just fine on Saturday Night Live. Here, he plays Rod Kimble, a very stupid kid who wants to become a famous daredevil stuntman, following, he believes, in the footsteps of his father. Fortunately, he appears to have a near-indestructible body. Unfortunately, we find this out because he's also clumsy, accident-prone, and woefully ignorant of basic kinematics or structural engineering.

There are bits and pieces of funniness here, but most of the time the movie settles for being pointlessly goofy. That's not my cup of tea. Sissy Spacek gives a pretty good deadpan performance as Rod's mom, and Ian McShane gives a pretty good deranged performance as Rod's over-the-top abusive stepfather. But it's just basically stringing together a bunch of short gag scenes to pad the whole thing out to movie-length.

I kept falling asleep the first time I tried to watch it; the second time went better, but I fell asleep again near the end. Not a good sign, although I don't mind a nap now and then.


Last Modified 2024-02-02 4:12 AM EDT