Pun Salad

• I didn't watch the debate last night, Mrs. Salad and I opting for Lars and the Real Girl instead. Everything I've read tells me that this was a good call. However, news reports say that John McCain made a valiant effort to cheer me up. In the sense that I will now feel much better about his defeat:
  Scrambling to repair his image on economic issues, Senator John McCain proposed during Tuesday night’s debate a $300 billion plan authorizing the treasury secretary to buy the mortgages of homeowners in financial trouble and replace them with more affordable loans.

  It's the New York Times, so one has to engage automatic rewrite: for "repair his image" replace with "remind people why he can't be trusted."

• So I won't be disappointed so much about McCain losing, but Thomas Sowell reminds me why I wish that didn't involve Obama winning.
  The old phrase, “a man of high ideals but no principles,” is one that applies all too painfully to Barack Obama today. His words expressing lofty ideals may appeal to the gullible but his long history of having no principles makes him a danger of the first magnitude in the White House.

• The Saturday Night Live skit that dared to mention Democrats' involvement in the Fannie/Freddie meltdown has been "edited" and put back up at Hulu. Official NBC spokesweasels claimed "elements" of the original "didn't meet our standards." Betsy Newmark provides more details, which do not reflect well on Lorne Michaels.

  The edited version no longer refers to Herb and Marion Sandler (who sold their S&L to Wachovia for $24 billion-with-a-b) as "people who should be shot." The Sandlers apparently raised a fuss. Ironically, NBC's self-censorship will probably give the Sandlers much more unwanted publicity than if they'd simply let things slide. (They can certainly afford to let things slide.)

  There's now (however) a SNL Bailout C-Span Video Skit website where you can see the original as it played on the show, plus plenty of links to news stories that cover the controversy. The website appends a "Fair Use Notice" which, although I am not a lawyer, is almost certainly laughable. But, below that, this might give an NBC lawyer pause:

  Legal Threats

  WARNING: ALL COMMUNICTIONS [sic] WILL BE POSTED ON THIS WEBSITE!

  Please call +1 206 456 1414 or email snlbailout@spamarrest.com to make legal threats, I'm very interested in deposing Lorne Michaels, the Sandlers, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and George Soros.

Why, yes. This was my second Patricia Clarkson movie in a row. Good catch.

Lars (Ryan Gosling) has serious psychological problems, living alone in a converted detached garage, next to the family house currently occupied by his brother and sister-in-law. He's become withdrawn, gravely afraid of interaction with other people, including physical contact. So he goes ahead and buys this sex doll off the Internet, and …

I know. This doesn't sound like a very good movie. But the critics liked it, and so I decided to check it out. It's very good! The actors are uniformly excellent. The (Oscar-nominated) script is clever, taking several unexpected twists with ease.

Credulity is strained somewhat. The inhabitants of Lars's small, apparently Midwestern, town are uniformly decent and supportive, which might be just a tad romanticized. Lars's mental illness is only slightly more debilitating than that of Elwood P. Dowd's in Harvey. (Which, come to think of it, would make a pretty good double feature with this movie.)

[Note: the Pun Salad commercial sellout continues. The DVD box is now an "Amazon Associates" link, which will cut me in if you click on it and buy the DVD. Sorry.]

I've put a Google ad strip over there on the right.

(No, your right.)

If you see something that interests you, click away. In theory, they'll send me money if you do.

But that reminds me of an old Simpsons quote:

Marge: I really think this is a bad idea.

Homer: Marge, I agree with you -- in theory. In theory, communism works. In theory.