Marginal Utility

by Ken Houghton

So I'm watching the remake of The End of the Affair, and I recognize the priest.

And, sure enough, Jason Isaacs was, indeed, one of the stars of Capital City (yet another show sadly missing from DVD release).

And I discover he also has another recurring role, this one in film.

But you knew that, didn't you?

Labels: Harry Potter, just life, movies

by Ken Houghton

In about 3.5 hours, Stevie Wonder will officially open the Montreal Jazz Festival with a free concert less than a klometer from where I am now sitting. Which brings us back to the question from High Fidelity: "top five musical crimes perpetrated by Stevie Wonder in the '80s and '90s":

If I had to pick, using YouTube presence as a guide:

5. "Happy Birthday" as performed at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. (Starts around 4:22 in.)

Does almost everything wrong. The original is a tribute to Martin Luther King—who then isn't mentioned at all. Just one more reminder of how the Atlanta Olympic Committee lied to the shops on Martin Luther King about all of the business they would be seeing from the Olympic visitors—who were then discouraged from going anywhere near those shops, which spent several hundred thousand dollars on improvements in anticipation that they were not being lied to by the Organizing Committee.

4. Part Time Lover

Almost musically interesting. And detectably a Stevie Wonder song, unlike what follows.

3. I Just Called to Say I Love You

The proximate cause of the question from the movie, and truly a depressing song.



2. That's What Friends are For

Friends don't let friends make songs that don't highlight your skills at all. Even "We Own the World" was careful about that. This effort isn't.

1. Used to Be (with Charlene)

Unlike the later "Gone Too Soon" with Babyface, there's virtually nothing to recommend here; rhyming is strained ("Have another Chivas Regal/Twelve years old and sex is legal") and the history is worthy of Billy Joel ("someone shot the Beatles's lead guitar").

Which abominations am I missing?

Labels: just life, pop music

by Ken Houghton

Yes, Youngest Daughter got to pick the movie for Father's Day/her birthday. Her review: "It was boring." Even worse: that was as compared to her sixth or seventh viewing of Hotel for Dogs.

So some random notes about it, and around the web:

(1) Lance Mannion did not warn me that the three cherubs are played by The Three Antichrists. Consider yourself so cautioned.*

(2) Ezra schools McMegan. Not that it will do any good.

(3) Did anyone else think Amy Adams at the end looks like a hennaed Erin O'Brien?

(4) The Hunting of the Snark did a two part post weeks ago on McMegan, bankruptcy, and health care that I'm still trying to digest. Which I mean in a good way. If rdan is reading this, yes, I think you should recruit Susan of Texas for Angry Bear; her latest post is a perfect summary of What's Wrong with Contemporary Conservative Thought. Though, as the Good Roger Ailes notes, she's developing a strong following for good reason.

(5) I assume it was the location of the theatre that got a laugh from the audience at the end of the film when Amelia Earhart leaves 77th Street and starts flying to "Canada." YMMV, but the film sorely needed laughs.

*However, since my version of H*ll would feature the "JoBros" performing "More than a Woman" and "This Song Must Drone On," their first appearance does qualify as an Adult Moment in a movie that has more of those than kid jokes.

Labels: Erin O'Brien, Health Care, just life, Mannion, movies

by Ken Houghton

Susan of Texas has an immortal post on the housing crisis, McMegan's ratiocination, and the persistence of ignorant memes.

The OnionESPN reports on a bodybuilding championship.

Brad DeLong says the problem isn't that Geithner isn't organized, it's that he doesn't organize, leaving that to his assistants.

Two things that, for some reason, made me think of Erin: this today and this (via The New Yorker's Book Bench).

Another discussion of Harlan, from Nancy Nall, probably via Lance.

For all the complaining some SF(F)WAns do about Scribd, you would think the place was Pure Evil, not a Marketplace for Sf/Fantasy writers (see the screen shot) (also via The Book Bench).

Apparently, not all men from Brussels are naturally "six foot four and full of muscles."

Labels: Erin O'Brien, just life, Mannion, pop music, sf

by Ken Houghton

The theme song to the show—at least as broadcast in the United States—was written and is sung by my favorite Christian Canadian.

So I have no idea what to make of this, spotted in Wal-Mart in La Salle yesterday:



Yes, the title as shown is Benjamin and the Green Knight.

Rosie owns, and is very fond of, this which—save for the name of the title character—appears to be the same film.

I suspect "Hey, it's Franklin/Comin' over to play" won't make as much sense if you think the character's name is Benjamin.

Labels: just life, Kids, My home not native land

by Ken Houghton

What Valerie was watching on YouTube:

Labels: just life, My home not native land

by Ken Houghton

It's a sad day when I'm thrilled about the Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) Hugo winner (and the winner HIMSELF showed up [7:52p]), and at worst indifferent to the idea that "semiprozine" will go away after next year.

Labels: just life, sf

by Ken Houghton

As Armadillocon nears, and I head for the cold, a final reminder of where life really is. Everything I know about food I learned at the County Line, which apparently served me well:

Labels: Eat Our Brains, just life, Meta

by Ken Houghton

July 2, 2008 [link fixed; thank you, Gary]:

Short of succumbing to the madness of anorexia, I doubt I am likely to experience actual starvation before I die.

Especially not when you die two days later.

(via Gary Farber, who posts a wealth of other links)

Labels: just life, sf

by Ken Houghton

Via Susan, the current Grand Rounds has an article on inverted nipples, complete with a link to an 1866 British Medical Journal piece [PDF].

Labels: Health Care, just life, Total Drek

by Ken Houghton

Via Mochi-tsuki, as I gradually return to life between multi-day medical tests.

I got an 8. Surely someone can do better.

8 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

Labels: blogging, just life, Meta

by Ken Houghton

It rained and stormed a bit yesterday.

After speaking with my insurance company, I am told the following:

1. This is considered an "Act of G-d" (clearly, the OT version of same)
   
2. Since the damage is almost all on my neighbor's property (their fence, their swing set, their garage), it's not covered under my policy.
   
3. Since my policy doesn't cover "land," that big mud puddle that used to have a tree in it is also not covered.
   
4. Since it's an AoG, there is no point in filing a "liability claim" to cover damage to my neighbor's property.

We're inclined to believe that my neighbor's insurance company will agree with this assessment.

I suspect many homeowners are about to find out that their insurance policy does not do all that they thought it would.

(Cross-posted from Angry Bear)

Labels: just life

by Ken Houghton

Spam e-mail heading that is wrong on so many levels: "Downloadable porno DVD's for free"

My Windows machine certainly doesn't have the capability of downloading DVDs. Maybe it's something to do with that new IPhone 2.0?

By the way, I can now say that a GPS allows you to drive around in a city as if you were a native. Except for those times when it waits until you're two car-lengths from the left turn and in the far right lane, at which point you just have to remember that having New Jersey plates is good for something.

Labels: just life, My home not native land, technology

by Ken Houghton

Surely a hedge fund specializing in "adult industry investments" is either a sign of a recession or a sign of the Apocalypse.

(I'll be contemplating this at youporn.com [h/t Erin] for the rest of the day.*)

*Actually, I won't, and not just because I'm on a public computer. Too much Really Cool Stuff to read (all links gated; if anyone can find free links, e-mail me or post them in comments).

Labels: hedge funds, just life, Pornography

by Ken Houghton

is a very, very, very fine house (even if it was priced by a geek).

Labels: just life

by Ken Houghton

This is by no means a comprehensive list.

1. You Not Sneaky! dropped two great posts here and here on Malthus, Economics, and Malthusian Economics, complete with a spreadsheet model available for the download (all right, this is really two weeks ago but (1) I need something that keeps this relevant to economics and [2] I really did only find them today)
   
   
2. Gary Farber is moving from Denver, CO, to Raleigh, NC. Maybe he just can't deal with Democrats. Oh, wait, there's another, much better, reason:
   

   Why Raleigh? Enter: Amygdala Woman. (Sometimes known as "Malibu Stacy.")

   
   Go hit the tip jar, those of you with revenues.*
   
   
3. There have been multiple earthquakes in Reno, but fortunately, Susan Palwick and her husband Gary are fine so far. Our best wishes to them and others, some of whom were likely not so lucky.
   
   
4. Larry Niven, who is independently wealthy to the extent of having a relative of his named in a passage blind-reffing the Teapot Dome scandal in a Heinlein novel** and was responsible for Shira's last Major Fandom Event Participation,*** has gone completely bonkers (sad h/t to Dr. Black).
   
   
5. Erin uses cold cream. My imagination runs wild, but not on a family blog.
   
   
6. Janelle of Bond Girl Fame hasn't posted an update on the injuries on the set of the latest film, but one can understand that she has other things on her mind.
   
   
7. I was expecting Rory at Eat Our Brains to respond to this post of Patrick's, but he has (instead?) decided to become a Zen Master or something, and, finally,
   
   
8. Shira can rejoin SFWA (though I still need to find out who the Canadian Regional Director is).

There's probably more.

*By the way, does this mean Obama loses a delegate? Chris Wallace should ask The Annoited One-to-Be on his regularly-scheduled Fox News appearance.
**"Since Secretary of State Fall was convicted or receiving a bribe Doheny was acquitted of paying."
***Louis Wu's Birthday Party at the 1989 WorldCon in Boston

Labels: Eat Our Brains, Erin O'Brien, just life, MakingLight, sf

by Ken Houghton

Ignore, for the moment, the presentation values that were quite acceptable fifteen years ago (i.e., that it looks as if it was prepared in MultiMate or WP 5.1 with Helvetica).

Note the boxed entry.

Users may also wish to examine how many of the presenting firms are still intact in their present form.

Labels: fragments of the past, High Finance, just life

by Ken Houghton

Unintentional Non Sequitur of the Day?

Shira: "I got some boxes from Whole Foods. Most of them held Febreze, but they smell really bad."

Labels: just life, My home not native land

by Ken Houghton

When culling the CD collection, do not leave "How Come" from D12 World on the stereo when the three-year-old comes in from playing.

Labels: just life, My home not native land, pop music

by Ken Houghton

You have three boxes. One is large, but has a very weak bottom. The other two are smaller and stable.

You pack the large, unstable box with (mostly children's) books, but are careful not to fill it to the top.

You attempt to carry the box of books down the stairs.

Do you:

1. watch in horror as the books fall from the bottom early in your journey?
   
2. make it to the turn in the stairs and end up in the hospital?
   
3. realize immediately what will happen and move the other two boxes, leaving the large one for the next victim person?

Fortunately, in this case, the answer is (1).

Labels: just life, My home not native land