And There Yugo

For Yugo, a Place of Eternal Rust, er, Rest

I actually rode in one once. Up a steep hill with at least two other passengers plus the driver. It was a slow trip, but we made it.

From Derek.

Crunch Time

The mood was modestly upbeat among the kinfolk and the kind strangers who roped me into conversation, betraying little distress over the prospect that next Thanksgiving many of us may be living in rusty sheds and hunting squirrel for food, depending on how all those stimulus packages go.

I can always count James Wolcott for a sane perspective.

Silk Stalking

In case you ever doubted that: (a) some people have entirely too much free time, and/or (b) there's a Web site devoted to just about everything.

From Laura.

From Leslie.

End Times

Bush's Last Days: The Lamest Duck

That we have slightly more than one President for the moment is mostly a consequence of the extraordinary economic times. Even if George Washington were the incumbent, the markets would want to know what John Adams was planning to do after his Inauguration. And yet this final humiliation seems particularly appropriate for George W. Bush. At the end of a presidency of stupefying ineptitude, he has become the lamest of all possible ducks.

Source

Testing ... Testing ...

I aced this.*

* The second time around. Did better than the November average on my first effort, but not by much. Crappy public schools.

Thanks to Terry for adding to an already crushing sense of inadequacy.

On a tube train actor Ralph Richardson attacks comic actor Jack Hulbert.
They are being directed by Walter Forde (aka Thomas Seymour) in the
Gaumont British film Alias Bulldog Drummond (aka Bulldog Jack)
at Shepherd's Bush Studios, 1935. (William Vanderson)

From Riley.

DogBenét Ramsey

Because poodles don't look silly enough already.


From a horrified Colleen.

Pray Tell

"I don't ask why; I just ask often."



From Derek.

Dark Habit

"You see, this is my life. It always will be. There's nothing else. Just us ... and the cameras ... and those wonderful people out there in the dark."

Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard

We didn't realize at the time that we were starting a tradition.

A couple of Thanksgivings ago, sifting through a stack of videos, we picked The Silence of the Lambs. Not your typical holiday flick, but we enjoyed it thoroughly - and now we make a point of screening something inappropriate. This time we watched Sunset Boulevard before dinner and In Cold Blood* after.

* The original, of course. Did you really have to ask?

Thanks to Marty for the transcription - and for the company.