"I'm never, ever sick at sea."

For my money, there are few three minute movie scenes I have seen in the past couple years that beat this one. Hoffman is beyond awesome, and he should be hired for additional Sorkin projects.

If these two had a drummer and sang different jingles on each commercial...

I came across this book on the library shelf today:


I haven't read it, but I'm going to guess one of the tips isn't "Don't pointlessly pay for something you can get free anyway just because some famous schmuck tells you to."

Cheap shot of the day (courtesy of Don Imus)!

So Brit Hume tries to "save" Tiger Woods by explaining to him that forgiveness and redemption lie only in Christianity, not in Tiger's Buddhism. Don Imus, of all, people does a little fact checking:

IMUS: "Well, we checked this morning and unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately if you are a Buddhist, there is a path to recovery and redemption. Right? Well yes there is. The idea of redemption — nirvana under Buddhism — is achieving the state of being freed from greed, hate, and delusion."

Hmmm. "The state of being freed from greed, hate and delusion". Well, that pretty much excludes all of FOX News right there.

Samuel L. Jackson Quote of the Month: January 2010

One of my goals in doing this "Quote of the Month" series was to, in the process of researching quotes, get myself exposed to new films. Well, with the arrival of little C.C., I'm finding myself with less time to do so. In light of this, I've decided to choose an actor for 2010 that will make my job easier.

Well, I suppose it's hardly a surprise when the guy's name is in the post title.

But even though I'm choosing someone who has entire websites dedicated to his quotes (I haven't checked, but I'm sure there are some), I'm going to attempt to choose some less obvious films and quotes. In other words, don't expect anything that combines snakes and planes.

So, in that vein, let's start with one of his early films that some people are surprised to hear that he was even in: Jurassic Park. Yes, indeed. It was Samuel L. Jackson and Wayne "Newman" Knight who played Ray and Dennis, who worked behind the scenes at the park. And you can bet that Knight (who rarely plays anything but "Newman") is irritating enough to raise that superb Jackson ire:

Ray Arnold: [trying to bring the system back on-line] "Access main program. Access main security. Access main program grid."

Dennis Nedry: [on computer] "Uh uh uh! You didn't say the magic word! Uh uh uh!"

Ray Arnold: "Please! God damn it! I hate this hacker crap!"

Gene and Brak

Back in July, I confessed that one of the first songs I sang for little C.C. was a beer jingle. I've moved on to a greater variety of tunes since those earlier days, though they are just as pop-cultured as the first and far, far sillier:

Kenny Wayne Shepherd better look out.

After the recent attempted terrorist strike over the holidays, the usual gang of GOP idiots are calling once again for the use of racial profiling at airports.

Believe it or not, I can see both sides of issues and understand where the right is coming from on most of them even. For instance, when it comes to the whole wiretapping thing, they see the process as a genuine good that could help prevent terrorist attacks. And aside from the conflict with our inherent right to privacy, it's hard for me to argue against that.

But then we have something like racial profiling thing where we get suggestions like this:

"Radio host Mike Gallagher recently said, 'There should be a separate line to scrutinize anybody with the name Abdul or Ahmed or Mohammed,' and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) raised the idea of profiling people based on their religions."

These proposals I cannot see the motivation for because any rational human being can see that such things will not work. They make these statements to stir up the base and the deep seated hatreds that lie within the GOP. And that, my friends, is not constructive. It's purely malevolent.

My final word on this is courtesy of the News of the Weird syndicated column. They have a feature called "The Classic Middle Name" which would seem to make an effective case for restricting anyone with the middle name "Wayne" from both alcohol and firearms.

I'm sure Newt Gingrich would agree.