And I Forgot To Mention...

My Mom always told me I was born early on the day of the Michigan-Michigan State game and that she had me brought in to her later that day so I could watch the game with her and she also told me MSU won that game.
So, after all these years, I decided to check to see how accurate her memory was (sorry, Mom) and it turns out that, in terms of football, she was quite accurate. MSU beat Michigan the day I was born and the score was 28-0.

There have been many times that day turned out to be a curse-Friday the 13th, the day of the game that we almost always lost, it snowed on my birthday in Michigan a couple of years ago (the earliest snow ever-it set a record) but not this year. Of course, the game wasn't on my birthday this year either.
And I still don't know if it was actually on TV. Is that possible?

Yay Team!!

I haven't watched any good movies (my Fantastic Four cartoon doesn't really count) I've read some great books (more on that in a different post) but none of that matters right now. Why? Because my alma mater of MSU finally beat the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for the first time since 1990. I was at that game in 1990-I'd just been diagnosed with lupus, it was my birthday and my Dad and I went to the game. It was a beautiful fall day, we had crappy seats in the end zone and we sat all the other MSU fans-and we won the game. It's one of my fondest memories from Michigan, because when it was over and people were running on to the field, my Dad (62 at the time) looked at me and said "Let's go on the field". We went down to the edge of the field-there was a lowish brick wall separating the seats from the field, but you had to hop over it to get onto the field-and the police were there watching to make sure we didn't, but they were about 20 feet away. My Dad hopped over with great aplomb but I was a little more worried-until he said "just wait until they look away and hop over". And so I did. We high-fived the marching band, we laughed and cried will the other MSU fans-it was great. And when we drove into East Lansing, there crowds on the street and people honking their horns all in good fun-this was a few years before MSU developed it's reputation as a party school.
And now they won today. Yes, it was too long. Yes, UM has an awful team this year and MSU has a good one-although that hasn't mattered in the past, MSU usually found a way to lose. But this season is different. Games that they would have lost in the past have been won this year. And the attitude is different-they know what to do, they do and they don't get disheartened if it doesn't work-they keep trying and don't lose confidence. This rivalry has always been special, mainly because UM has always been arrogant and condescending and the Spartans have always struggled for recognition, fighting to show everyone they are better than you think. But not this year-this year they proved it.

The Stroy of Edgar Sawtelle

I bought this book two months ago, long before Oprah chose it for her book club-and I was quite dismayed when she picked it. Nonetheless, I couldn't just let it sit there and not be read because of Oprah, right? And I'm glad I didn't let my prejudices get in the way because this is a great book. Well-written (this is the one with sparkling prose and poetry as well), a wonderful story and great characters-it was amazing.
Edgar Sawtelle can't speak. It doesn't seem to have any physical reason, but he can't speak and he lives in Northern Wisconsin with his mother and father, raising dogs. The dogs are special, in more ways than one and Edgar loves them. His father breeds them checks on them after they've been sold and keeps track of all of them, so he knows which line is good and which bad, who should be bred to who and who not. The dog is an x-ray of the line that develops very slowly, he tells Edgar. You have to keep an eye on it. Into their happy family comes Edgar's' uncle, his father's brother, Claude. Considering his mom is named Trudy and his father Gar, the parallels with Hamlet are hard to miss but are very well-done. Yes, his father dies and Claude starts staying over for the night and when their local vet and family friend dies an accidental death in their barn, Edgar has to leave, and he takes the litter he raised with him.
His adventures on the road and what happens when he returns make for a compelling story. His love for the dogs, their love for him and their relationships are just as strong and real as the human relationships-maybe stronger.
Fine. Oprah picked a really good book. I'll forgive her for it.

Lee Childs

When I first started reading The Hard Way, I thought I knew what to expect. A good twisty thriller, some scares and a few truly creepy characters. And then I spoke with my sister, who said that she didn't really like Child's books (and we share much the same taste in mysteries, although not entirely. Who would have guessed that I have a higher tolerance for violence?). She said she didn't like them because "did he have to kill everyone?". I didn't think much about what she said until the last quarter of the book, when I got a little worried that people I actually liked in the book were all going to die. I became afraid it was going to be a bit like a John Sanford Lucas Davenport book-not the ones where there's a killer on the loose and Lucas has to hunt him-I mean the kind where there's a killer on the loose and Lucas has to hunt him down before he kills him and everyone he loves and really bad things happen that have consequences for the rest of the series. He hasn't written a Davenport like that in awhile, but I was a little concerned thinking that would be the case.
Not to worry. As a reviewer I just read said, the Reacher books are all revenge fantasies. The bad guys do something really bad-leaving their friends behind on a battlefield to be tortured by the enemy, throwing a guy with two broken legs out of an helicopter at 3,000 feet onto the desert floor, making crude and vicious threats against a child five years old-and eventually Reacher finds them all and kills them. Quickly and without remorse, as he seems to be missing the "remorse gene". Are they well-written? Yes, for the most part. You aren't going to find sparkling prose here and it's certainly not poetry but Childs tells a story very well. He's a bit like Jack McDevitt, the science fiction author. The writing isn't the best (although it's better than most) but he's a great storyteller-and Reacher is a great character. I wasn't sure I'd read others in this series when I was done, but I changed my mind and bought three more-we'll see how it goes.

Sarah and Joe

When the bar is set extremely low, it's pretty easy to go over. Thus is the analysis of last night's debate between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden. It started off well, with Sarah sotto voce, "May I call you Joe?", which I liked, until halfway through the debate when I realized it was merely a ploy to use her"Say it ain't so, Joe" line. I'd love to know how many people she appealed to with that line-I'm will to bet quite few people didn't get it. Did they say anything of substance? Well, I was glad to see Biden making the point that McCain would tax health benefits from your job, something that has never been done before. And I think he proved he was capable of debating a woman without being condescending-he treated her as an equal, although, intellectually speaking, she is not. As a commenter on Gawker said (was it Pope John Paul Peeps?) said, he treated her well, even though it was beneath his dignity to debate this box of cornflakes. Was she flaky? Honestly, I was switching between the debate and episode of Supernatural (which was REALLY good) and every time I flipped her on, it was "maverick this" and "maverick that", oh it was annoying. I didn't really hear her say anything, except the Say it ain't so, Joe and that she would like to expand the powers of the Vice-Presidency, which, if I'm not mistaken, is contrary to McCain's promise that he would nominate Supreme Court justices that would strictly interpret the Constitution. Can you strictly interpret the Constitution to expand the powers of the VP? Now that I think about it, you can-all you have to do is bypass the Supreme Court-but the Bush Administration has expanded the powers of the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency and while I'm sure they are very glad with all their power, it has not worked out well for the American people while they've been trampling all over the Constitution. Biden proved himself to be an intelligent, thoughtful person, while Palin proved herself to be a loyal McCain follower-one who was more than capable of following her script, which she looked at often. It will be interesting to see if this makes any difference to those who have not yet made up their minds.

The Duchess

I am NOT an historical fiction kind of woman. I had no no desire to see The Other Boleyn Girl. I don't watch The Tudors-it's just not me-I'd rather watch Iron Man or Tropic Thunder again-or a modern drama (maybe-it depends). But I went because it looked interesting and Rafe Fiennes is in it-what could I lose?

It wasn't bad, actually. The acting was good (mostly, we'll get to that), the costumes and houses were lovely and the story was interesting. The only problem was Keira Knightly. honestly, she looked like she didn't a thought running through her pretty little head, and in a story about an intelligent woman, that's a problem. On the other, was the Duchess of Devonshire smart? She drank, she gambled, she did drugs and died at 48 of liver disease. She was also greatly involved in politics and became friends with playwrights (Sheridan) and artists (Sir Joshua Reynolds). I can't decide it it was the Duchess herself that annoyed me-for someone who grew up in a wealthy family, she had no idea how to deal with it or how to get what she wanted from her husband-it was irritating. And Knightly didn't look right for the part body-wise. Every other woman in the movie looked at least a little curvy and bosomy-couldn't they have padded Keira a little? I know there's nothing to be done about those collarbones sticking out-but no wonder she couldn't hold up the heavy wigs-she looked like she hadn't had enough to eat in months.

But everyone else was good Rafe was good-scary, a bit creepy and nice only to his dogs and Haley Atwell as Bess Foster, starting off as Georgiana's best friend, only to become the Duke's mistress, were both excellent. I just wish someone else had play the Duchess. This movie reminds me a bit of Stealing Beauty, which was all about Bertolucci's love for Liv Tyler's face. She couldn't act (and still can't, not very well) but Bertolucci had his camera on her face all the time, as if to say "how lovely she is-look at her"-and Saul Dibb does the same here with Keira. The only problem is that the camera captures both her beauty and the lack of thought behind it. Looking at how pretty she was just wasn't quite enough for me.

Both movies show the director falling for his leading lady and that doesn't serve the story very well-it's a good thing there were other really good actors who could do the job.

And I got my Iron Man DVD! Yay!