Guilt

Did you know that all alligators are crocodiles, but that not all crocodiles are alligators? Crocodiles and alligators are both part of the reptilian order Crocodylia. But they're part of different families, Crocodylidae and Alligatoridae respectively. Usually when people say "crocodile," they really mean "crocodilian." In total, there are some 23 unique species of crocodilians, including those in the lesser known family, Gavialidae. So there, Crocodilian Dundee.

Movie Notes from the Rust Belt--Youngstown, Ohio I incessantly poke fun at the SyFy channel and some of it’s programming--specifically the Ghost Hunters stuff.  Not that I’m particularly insightful with this, but they make themselves such an easy target.  I just can’t help myself.  Nevertheless, that sort of nonsense has always had a rapt audience.  Probably because people have always been frightened at things that go bump in the night. In the public domain now is that 1972, um, thriller, I guess, The Legend of Boggy Creek.  The story is pretty straight forward.  This is the Fouke, Arkansas re-telling of the Bigfoot legend, made on the cheap by using the rural folks playing themselves and done in a sort of “docu-drama” manner.  The narrator was the local weatherman at the local TV station.  Most of the rest of the cast never appeared in any other film.  The guy who made the film, Charles B. Pierce, got funding for this movie by borrowing...

Movie Notes from the Rust Belt.........Youngstown, Ohio Whilst perusing the “Crime” catagory of Pub-D-Hub on my ROKU box, I tripped across that 1944 thriller, Dark Mountain.  Truth be told, I don’t have much use for movies from the 30s.  They’re made in a completely different way, and, like so many other things, I just don’t like them.  But movies beginning in about 1942 (the war years and beyond) really turn me on. Dark Mountain was probably shot in one take and in a couple of weeks tops.  It’s got everything, all packed into less than an hour.  Love, betrayal, good guys (in this case, the U.S. Forest Service), bad gangsters, a wonderful girl, a goofy side-kick, comedy, a car chase, a cute dog, a woodie station wagon, and a happy ending. There’s not much of a story to get in the way of the beautiful mountain scenery, classic cars, and sometimes snappy dialog.  Wonderful girl marries a gangster, but she doesn’t know he’s a gangster.  She gets ca...

I recently caught up with a 1996 Straight-To-Video release starring Sam Elliott, DogWatch.  All of this courtesy of my Netflix subscription and my more than beloved ROKU box streaming the Netflix content through the 46 inch Vizio high definition wide screen.  It’s a wonderful age in which we live, no? The only stuff that keeps this movie from being a classic Noir is that it’s shot in color and doesn’t have any narration.  Everything else is in order.  Snappy dialog, lots of shadows, bad girls, a bad decision on the part of the hero which ultimately leads to his downfall and, well, death, since you asked.  You can tell the age of the movie just by watching the scenes with the strippers--NO TATTOOS.  What a pleasant surprise.  Tattoo-free nekkid women. And that’s pretty much it for the story--Oh, there’s plenty of interesting twists and turns, and Sam Elliott is always good..........and he has the world’s best mustache.  Like my grandmother use...

I sell items on eBay from time to time.  I’m not a retailer or some big store with a tried and true return policy.  I always list my items as “no returns”.  So I sold a wireless Sony media streamer to a Maryland buyer.  It works fine.  It’s like new.  The moron who bought it e-mailed me after he received it.  He said, and I quote, “wifi not work”.  I can see problems in the offing.  Wound up with me being forced to refund this idiot his purchase price in full, as well as his shipping costs.  All because he’s too stupid to figure out how to use the item.  While I was trying to “satisfy” this dude, I actually tracked down the user manual on the web and e-mailed him the link.  Also wrote out the process to set it up properly and find his wireless network in the device interface (provided, of course, that he actually had a home wireless network, which I doubt). Nevertheless, he was too stupid to figure it out.  He demanded ...

First, I think I know why old men grow idiotic white beards that catch egg yolk, and other stuff.  When I shave these days, I have to wear my reading glasses and use a magnifying mirror to be certain that I don’t miss any spots.  Having a beard, even with dried egg yolk, would simplify my life. Second, did every one see that picture of Obama skeet shooting?  Yep, I now believe that Obama is completely in favor of the Second Amendment.  Or, maybe the picture was a dandy little photoshopped item?  Shit.  Even if he really was shooting a shotgun at pieces of clay, it’s a hunting exercise, and the Second Amendment has more to do with resisting tyranny than shooting clay pigeons.  Or so I’ve been told. Next, it’s still snowing in Northeast Ohio.  Damn cold, too.  What, exactly, has happened to global warming?  Al Gore really needs to offer a reasonable explanation. Finally, pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training on February 1...

I watch one NFL game a year.  I have nothing against football--I watch local High School Football, and some college games (after all, I live in BIG TEN country and am required by law to watch college football), but the NFL has lost whatever pull it once had on me.  So, I watch only the Super Bowl on Super Sunday. The team that I really want to be a winner is the Niners, and that’s only because of The Catch, Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, and Hacksaw Reynolds.  And a few others.  I couldn't possibly tell you who their current coach is, nor any player names.  Even thus, I paid attention yesterday. I got home from work shortly after the second quarter started, and my Bride and her Little Dog were watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.  With permission, I changed the channel to The Super Bowl, and saw that the Forty-Niners were getting their lunch handed to them by something called “The Ravens”--Is Edgar Allen Poe somehow involved with the NFL the...