If You Don't Know Where You Are Going

"If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." - Yogi Berra

Walk The Line

We watched the DVD "Walk The Line." It was very good. I never realized he toured with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and was friends with Waylon Jennings.

Synopsis

In 1955 a tough, skinny guitar-slinger who called himself J.R. Cash walked into the soon-to-be-famous Sun Studios in Memphis. It was a moment that would have an indelible effect on American culture. With his driving freight-train chords, steel-eyed intensity and a voice as deep and black as night, Cash sang blistering songs of heartache and survival that were gutsy, full of real life and unlike anything heard before. That day kicked off the electrifying early career of Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix). As he pioneered a fiercely original sound that blazed a trail for rock, country, punk, folk and rap stars to come, Cash began a rough-and-tumble journey of personal transformation. In the most volatile period of his life, he evolved from a self-destructive pop star into the iconic "Man in Black" facing down his demons, fighting for the love that would raise him up, and learning how to walk the razor-thin line between destruction and redemption. As his music changed the world, Cash’s own world was rocked by the woman who became the love of his life: June Carter (Reese Witherspoon).

You Are

"You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." -Christopher Robin to Pooh

The House Of D

I watched the DVD "The House of D" written and directed by David Duchovny. Robin Williams was a "retard" in the movie.

Synopsis

By working through problems stemming from his past, Tom Warshaw (David Duchovny), an American artist living in Paris, begins to discover who he really is, and returns to his home to reconcile with his family and friends.

Life's Most Urgent Question

"Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Show Feeling

"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth." - Benjamin Disraeli

Love Oneself

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." - Oscar Wilde

The Graduate

I watched the DVD "The Graduate" with Dustin Hoffman. After watching "Rumor Has It" it made me want to see it again. I remembered most of it. I think I was 10 or 11 years old when I first saw it.

Synopsis

The action is mainly seen through the eyes of Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), a confused twenty-one year old, who is worried about his future but who does not simply want to follow the commercial path of his affluent family and their friends. His life becomes complicated when he is embroiled in an affair with an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the wife of his father's business partner. It becomes impossible when he falls in love with Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross).

Blogiversary

Today is my two year blogiversary. Amazing. Two years of somewhat regular posting. It's a nice archive to see what I was interested in at certain times. My internet filing cabinet. I have loads of stuff I want to post, it's just finding the time. I look at it as my written legacy to my family and my two boys. I still haven't figured out how to post pictures. In the past two years I've found a whole bunch of interesting blogs. Some of the names are very creative. It's incredible what's out there. My little link to the cyber universe. It's just like learning and reading the more you do the more you want to do. It's not only expanded my mind it's got my creative juices flowing. It's always something to look forward to and to reminisce with.

Here's to another post-filled year of blogging!

Nobody

"Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it." - George "Papa Bear" Halas

Most Of Us

"Most of us spend our lives as if we have another one in the bank." - Ben Irwin

Like A Parachute

"The mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work unless it's open." - Unknown

Tough Loss

My youngest son's football team had a tough loss to St. Michael's. The final score was 30 to 15. It was 30 to 0 at the half and we came back offensively in the second half. The defense couldn't stop their running backs in the first half. We gave up the ball a couple times on interceptions and fumbles. The weather was beautiful. Grandma, Papa, Uncle Steve and cousin Elsie came to watch. I worked the chain gang again. IT's the best place to watch a football game, right in line with all the action. The boys restarted their guitar lessons again today

Joy

"Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are." - Marianne Williamson

Hinsdale South Game

My oldest son and me went to the varsity football game Downers Grove South versus Hinsdale South at Hinsdale South. The Downers Grove South Mustangs shut them out. The final score was 28 to 0. They scored all 28 points in the first half. It was a nice night and my oldest son saw a lot of his friends. We got home before 10:00 p.m.

Life Was A Lot Simpler

"Life was a lot simpler when what we honored was father and mother rather than all major credit cards." - Robert Orben

Spiderman 2

I watched the DVD "Spiderman 2"

Synopsis

Two years have passed since the mild-mannered Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) walked away from his longtime love Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and decided to take the road to responsibility as Spider-Man. Peter must face new challenges as he struggles with "the gift and the curse" of his powers while balancing his dual identities as the elusive superhero Spider-Man and life as a college student. Peter's life-long yearning for M.J. becomes even stronger as he fights the impulse to abandon his secret life and declare his love. In the meantime, M.J. has moved on with her life. She has embarked on an acting career and has a new man in her life. Peter's relationship with his best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) has been overshadowed by Harry's growing vendetta against Spider-Man, whom he holds responsible for his father's death. The relationships Peter holds most dear are now in danger of unraveling as he clashes with the powerful, multi-tentacled villain Doctor Octopus aka "Doc Ock" (Alfred Molina). Peter must now learn to accept his fate and harness all his superhero talents in order to stop this diabolical madman in his octagonal tracks.

Thursday Game

My oldest son's freshman team played an afternoon game against York in Elmhurst. The played a good game and he played the whole game at quarterback. Grandma and Papa came to watch.

No Matter What

"No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you." - Althea Gibson

Do The Thing You Think You Cannot Do

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Rumor Has It

I watched the DVD "Rumor Has It" with Jennifer Aniston.

Synopsis

Sarah Huttington (Jennifer Aniston), recently engaged, goes home to Pasadena with fiancé Jeff (Mark Ruffalo) for her sister's wedding. Whlie at home she hears a rumor that book and movie "The Graduate" are based on her family. Did her grandmother and her mom have flings with the same man just before her parents married? Is she a strange man's child; does this explain why she doesn't fit in? Was her mother happy? Is she too facing a loveless marriage? Where can she seek answers? Her mother is dead. Ask her salty grandma (Shirley MacLaine)? Better to ask the man in the triangle, the real Benjamin Braddock (Kevin Costner). With Jeff's blessing, Sarah heads for San Francisco, looking for the key to her past and to her future.

Lift Yourself Up

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." - Booker T. Washington

Monday Game

My oldest son's freshman team played an afternoon game at Lyons Township High School. They lost. He started and played most of the game at quarterback. He completed a few passes and moved the team down the field.

Too Many People

"Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like." - Will Rogers

Next Best Thing

"I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it." - Frank A. Clark

Never Quit

"The way to succeed is never quit. That's it. But really be humble about it." - Alex Haley

Today

"Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday." - Dale Carnegie

Chicago

I watched the DVD "Chicago."

Synopsis

Fame hungry Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) dreams of a life on the vaudville stage, and spends her nights jazzing it up in the bright lights of Chicago, continually hoping that she'll find her lucky break, and be shot into 1920's stardom, able to flee her boring husband Amos. In awe of seductive club singer Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) (who is arrested for the murder of her husband and sister after discovering their affair), Roxie meets Fred Cassely a man who convinces her he can 'make her showbiz career take off'. However after Roxie has undergone the 'casting couch' treatment, and Fred has had his way with her, he reveals that he has no more connections in showbusiness than she does. This is the final straw for Roxie, and her constant anger at rejection explodes. She shoots Fred Cassely and kills him. Upon discovering her infidelity, Roxie's husband Amos (John Reilly) refuses to take the blame for the murder and Roxie is sent to jail, pending hanging. In jail she meets tabloid darling Velma Kelly, currently receiving huge media attention for the double murder she committed earlier in the tale. Sharing the clink with Velma are a collection of other sly females all awaiting trial for the murders of their own partners. Velma is aloof to Roxie, however the prison Warden Mrs Morton (Queen Latifah) offers Roxie the opportunity of representation by slick Chicago lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). Billy is more a showbiz P. R agent than a legal lawyer and manipulates the tabloids into thinking Roxie is no more than an innocent 'good time girl' who took the wrong path than a scheming murderess. The tabloids go crazy for the new girl on the cell block and Roxie finally becomes a star. However due to Roxie's new found fame Velma is forgotten about. She is forced to approach Roxie with an offer of a part in her Vaudville act (filling the gap left by her murdered sister), but Roxie turns down her offer thinking she needs no support in topping the bill. Just as Velma's star fell, so does Roxie's, when Go-to-hell Kitty arrives at the jail on a multiple murder charge, the press forget Roxie and now she and Velma are in the same boat. With one more trick up her sleave Roxie manages to bring the media attention back to her and her day in court arrives. Billy is now ready to play the ultimate showman!

Let Me See Something Tomorrow

"The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before." -Samuel Johnson

Decide

"Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide." - Napoleon Bonaparte

Pollock

I watched the DVD "Pollock."

Synopsis

At the end of the 1940's, abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock (Ed Harris) (1912-1956) is featured in Life magazine. Flashback to 1941, he's living with his brother in a tiny apartment in New York City, drinking too much, and exhibiting an occasional painting in group shows. That's when he meets artist Lee Krasner (Marcia Gay Harden), who puts her career on hold to be his companion, lover, champion, wife, and, in essence, caretaker. To get him away from booze, insecurity, and the stress of city life, they move to the Hamptons where nature and sobriety help Pollock achieve a breakthrough in style: a critic praises, then Life magazine calls. But so do old demons: the end is nasty, brutish, and short.

Reason To Paint

"If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint." - Edward Hopper

Happiness

"The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself." - Benjamin Franklin

Forgiveness

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Mahatma Gandhi

Choices

"Choices are the hinges of destiny." - Edwin Markham

Novels That Changed Their Lives

The novel that means most to men is about indifference, alienation and lack of emotional responses. That which means most to women is about deeply held feelings, a struggle to overcome circumstances and passion, research by the University of London has found.

Professor Lisa Jardine and Annie Watkins of Queen Mary College interviewed 500 men, many of whom had some professional connection with literature, about the novels that had changed their lives.

The most frequently named book was Albert Camus's The Outsider, followed by JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.

The project, called Men's Milestone Fiction, commissioned by the Orange prize for fiction and the Guardian, followed on from similar research into women's favourite novels undertaken by the same team last year.

The results are strikingly different, with almost no overlap between men's and women's taste. On the whole, men preferred books by dead white men: only one book by a woman, Harper Lee, appears in the list of the top 20 novels with which men most identify.

Women, by contrast, most frequently cited works by Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Margaret Atwood, George Eliot and Jane Austen. They also named a "much richer and more diverse" set of novels than men, according to Professor Jardine. There was a much broader mix between contemporary and classic works and between male and female authors.

"We found that men do not regard books as a constant companion to their life's journey, as consolers or guides, as women do," said Professor Jardine. "They read novels a bit like they read photography manuals." Women readers used much-loved books to support them through difficult times and emotional turbulence, and tended to employ them as metaphorical guides to behaviour, or as support and inspiration.

"The men's list was all angst and Orwell. Sort of puberty reading," she said. Ideas touching on isolation and "aloneness" were strong among the men's "milestone" books.

The researchers also found that women preferred old, well-thumbed paperbacks, whereas men had a slight fixation with the stiff covers of hardback books.

"We were completely taken aback by the results," said Professor Jardine, who admitted that they revealed a pattern verging on a gender cliche, with women citing emotional, more domestic works, and men novels about social dislocation and solitary struggle.

She was also surprised she said, "by the firmness with which many men said that fiction didn't speak to them". In addition, some men cited works of non-fiction as their "watershed" books, even though they were explicitly asked about fiction. Most of the men cited books they had read as teenagers, and many of them stopped reading fiction while young adults, only returning to it in late middle age.

Professor Jardine said that the research suggested that the literary world was run by the wrong people. "What I find extraordinary is the hold the male cultural establishment has over book prizes like the Booker, for instance, and in deciding what is the best. This is completely at odds with their lack of interest in fiction. On the other hand, the Orange prize for fiction [which honours women authors] is still regarded as ephemeral." She noted that when Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson had started writing novels in the 18th century, the new literary genre was regarded as strictly for women.

"On the whole, men between the ages of 20 and 50 do not read fiction. This should have some impact on the book trade. There was a moment when car manufacturers realized that it was women who bought the family car, and the whole industry changed. We need fiction publishers - many of whom are women - to go through the same kind of recognition," Professor Jardine said.

The list in full

The Outsider by Albert Camus
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Ulysses by James Joyce
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
1984 by George Orwell
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

- Charlotte Higgins, Guardian arts correspondent Thursday April 6, 2006

I can only remember reading 5 of these.

One book I can think of that changed my life was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

Everything Will Be Okay

"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." - Unknown

First Victory

My youngest son's team won their first game against the St. Joseph Crusaders 31 to 6. They played on the Montini High School field and had an announcer. They got off to a great start with 4 quick touchdowns in the first half. The players all got nice and muddy and it was drizzly for the first part of the game.

Close Game

My oldest son's team lost a close game against Willowbrook 8 to 6. They gave up a safety and a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Our touchdown was on a long pass play. It was another beautiful cool night for football. Uncle Art, Uncle Steve and Aunt Leann, Aunt Nancy and Kelly and Grandma and Papa all came to watch.

You Take Care Of Every Day

"You take care of every day... and let the calendar take care of the years." - Ed Wynn

Varsity Loss

I took my oldest son to the sophomore and varsity games at Downers Grove South versus Willowbrook. The sophomores did great and won 47 to 22. There were a couple of great long runs. Willowbrook had a kick-off return for 91 yards and Downers Grove South had an 80 yard run right after. I left just before the varsity game started to pick up my youngest son from his football practice. After he showered we went back to the high school to watch the second half of the game. When we arrived the score was tied 3 to 3 in the third quarter. Willowbrook marched the ball down the field and ended up winning the game 10 to 3. Downers Grove South made a couple of good attempts to get the ball into the end zone. Their last offensive play was an interception and then Willowbrook ran down the clock.

No Time

"What may be done at any time will be done at no time." - Scottish Proverb

Open House

At 6:15 p.m. we went to the open house at my oldest son's high school. The had a short presentation in the small gym. The principal, athletic director, activities director and a counselor spoke and then we followed his school schedule and got to meet all of his teachers. He has some great teachers and should have a great year. It was hectic getting from one class to another. I don't know how they do it during the day with 3,000 kids in the hallways. It ended about 9:30 p.m. Getting out of the parking lot was crazy it was jammed.

Rushed Through Life

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." - Will Rogers

The Human Stain

I watched the DVD "The Human Stain."

Synopsis

Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins) is a distinguised professor at a prestigious New England college whose professional life is shattered by allegations of racism and whose personal life is infected with the cancer of a lie he has been living for fifty years. His career and reputation in ruin, Silk begins a dynamic resurrection through two new relationships; one, a friendship with writer Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise), whom he intrigues with his story, the other a scandalous affair with a young woman (Nicole Kidman).

I thought Ed Harris did a great job as the crazy ex-husband. I barely recognized him. I read the book over the summer and thought the movie was true to it.

The Right Time

"The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have... Live!" - Henry James

Trial and Error

I watched the DVD "Trial and Error." Michael Richards was great and Charlize Theron was great looking.

Synopsis

A contempt-of-court comedy about an actor (Michael Richards) who poses as an attorney to defend a man (Rip Torn) on trial for fraud for selling pennies as $17.99 engravings of Abraham Lincoln. When a bachelor party leaves Charlie Tuttle (Jeff Daniels) a babbling mess on the morning of a career-making-or-breaking legal appearance, his best friend, an out-of-work actor named Richard Rietti, takes the law into his own hands. Charlie falls in love with Billie Tyler (Charlize Theron).

I would fall in love with her too.

Time Wishing

"Many of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half of our time wishing." - Alexander Woollcott

Through Work

"Through work... "

"man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to elevating unceasingly the cultural and moral level of the society within which he lives in community with those who belong to the same family."

And work means any activity by man, whether manual or intellectual, whatever its nature or circumstances;

"it means any human activity that can and must be recognized as work, in the midst of all the many activities of which man is capable and to which he is predisposed by his very nature, by virtue of humanity itself."

Man is made to be in the visible universe an image and likeness of God himself, and he is placed in it in order to subdue the earth.

"From the beginning therefore he is called to work."

Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work.

"Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth."

Thus work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons.

"And this mark decides its interior characteristics; in a sense it constitutes its very nature."

The beginning of the great Pope John Paul II's encyclical Laborem Exercens

Happy Labor Day!

Away Game

My youngest son's football team played at 1:00 p.m. against St. Francis Xavier at St. Joseph High School's field in Westchester. It was a beautiful warm day. He played the whole game on the line and made some good tackles. The team they played was a good team with a loy of players and they lost 32 to 6. We came home for a while and then he went to the movies with some school friends.

The Crime Of Procrastination

"There is nothing that steal's a man's time, his talents, his vigor, his energy ... in a greater degree than the crime of procrastination. Procrastination means making an appointment with opportunity and then asking her to come around some future time." - Reed Smoot

Home Game

My oldest son's freshman team played the Oak Park-River Forest Huskies on the varsity field at 5:00 p.m. They lost a close one 14 to 8. Their defense played a good game. He started again at quarterback and made three complete passes and made the hand-off for the extra point. Their team got some lucky breaks as a couple of the other team's touchdowns were called back. Grandma and Papa and Uncle Steve and Aunt Leann came to watch. We stayed afterwards to watch the other freshman team's game. It was a beautiful night for football.

Time

"Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend." - Diogenes

Varsity Home Game

I took my oldest son to the varsity home game at his high school. He hung out with his friends while I watched the Downers Grove South Mustangs www.dgsfootball.org beat the Oak Park-River Forest Huskies 23 to 6. They have a great defense and they draw a good crowd. The game started at 7:30 p.m. and we got home around 11:00 p.m. It was a beautiful night for football.

Sesame Street Characters

By order of debut:

1969 (Season 1)
* Bert and Ernie
* Big Bird - debuted in season premiere
* Fat Blue
* Fuzzy-Face, Grover's predecessor
* Kermit the Frog
* Lefty the Salesman
* Little Bird
* Lulu (Not to be confused with the Lulu from Hooper's Store and The Monster Daycare, this Lulu is Mr. Otis's Girlfriend, From Season 1.)
* Mr. Otis
* Oscar the Grouch, orange fur - debuted in season premiere
* Sam Hastings from Grove

1970 (Season 2)
* Grover
* Guy Smiley
* Harvey Kneeslapper
* Herbert Birdsfoot
* Herry Monster
* Oscar the Grouch, green fur - debuted in season premiere
* Professor Hastings
* Roosevelt Franklin
* Sherlock Hemlock

1971
* Aloysius Snuffleupagus - debuted in season premiere
* Frazzle
* Gladys the Cow
* Granny Fanny Nesselrode
* Simon the Soundman
* Twiddlebugs1972
* Count von Count
* Sam the Robot - debuted in season premiere
* Yip-Yips

1973
* Biff and Sully
* Don Music

1974
* Rodeo Rosie

1978
* The Two-Headed Monster

1979
* Elmo (introduced as minor character)
* Telly Monster
* Honkers

1982
* Dingers

1983
* Deena Monster
* Grungetta Grunge
* Pearl Monster

1985
* Hoots the Owl

1986
* Placido Flamingo

1990
* Baby Bear
* Rosita

1992
* Monty
* Zoe

2000 (Season 31)
* Lulu

2002 (Season 33)
* Googel (Monster's Clubhouse)
* Mel (Monster's Clubhouse)
* Narf (Monster's Clubhouse)
* Phoebe (Monster's Clubhouse)

2003 (Season 34)
* Curly Bear
* Barbara the Chicken
* Leonard the Wolf

2006 (Season 37) * Abby Cadabby

Solve It

"The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it." - Alan Saporta