The Forecast

Radio today said the overnight forecast was a strong north wind and a low in the mid-20s. What a coincidence, I too seem to be experiencing a low in the mid-20s.

Some names that caught my eye recently: Carlos Ibietatorremen, Iliganoa Matau, and Sonia Treubevan. I really like the sound and mouth feel of the last one. Any Spanish speakers have a translation for the apellido of the first name?

I'm out.

Newport, Meet Pershing. Pershing, Newport

I may be forty years late, but I'm really pissed off that Bob Dylan went electric. You see, he is performing at Pershing Auditorium tomorrow. Kings of Leon is opening for him. But as I was driving back on 16th street this evening at 10:30, their semi-truck was backing up and blocking all three lanes to unload their equipment. It was also raining, so one couldn't see clearly that they were trying to cone off all three lanes. So I was stopped mostly in the intersection before the crosswalk. Annoying. My point is that if Dylan had stayed acoustic, he probably wouldn't need a semi-truck to carry around his equipment and block my way.

Gound. I was so happy I got to use it when playing Scrabble this evening.

They ARE Who We THOUGHT They Were!

And we let'em off the hook!

Those are Denny Green's words after my favorite team the Chicago Bears came back from 20 points down to win the game with 15 minutes and 3 seconds left. The Bears had 6 turnovers in the game and managed only three points from the offense, yet they still won the game. The comeback was keyed by two forced fumbles returned for touchdowns, by the defense, and, with less than three minutes left, a punt return for a touchdown.

I was watching the postgame press conference live on ESPN News when seemingly with no build up, Green exploded. Here is the video. Here is an article about the game with the best quote of Green's comments.

In other news, Wendy mentioned that my city-league flag football team is playing the other SDA team on Sunday. I find this great because October 22nd is the anniversary of the Great Disappointment. Going by our previous games against other teams in the league, the other team will be experiencing the disappointment.

The TV shows that have made my schedule this season are Amazing Race 10, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Friday Night Lights, South Park, Freakshow, Top Chef 2, My Name Is Earl, The Office, and Grey's Anatomy. These are on top of the football. Grey's is on ABC; Amazing Race is on CBS, but most of the others are on NBC, with Top Chef on Bravo, an NBC affiliate.

The Infernal Departed

In anticipation of The Departed, I rented Infernal Affairs from Netflix. I liked Infernal Affairs quite a bit. I thought the story and acting were great. I was really curious to see what Scorsese would do with the story. The answer is good things. He kept all the essentials, two undercover moles, one in the police force--one in organized crime, and made a wonderful American film. He changes the motivation of the main characters unveiling that rugged individualism that has been a hallmark of our culture for a long, long time.

While there was a tinge of dark comedy in the original (really a natural defense reaction to the violence), Scorsese embraces fully his wonderful characters that deliver their comedic lines so well. Alec Baldwin, Jack Nicholson, and especially Mark Wahlberg add a very entertaining dimension to the film, that fleshes out 150 minutes of film nicely.

My Antonio or Across the Wide Missouri

We, my mother, sister and I, arrived at Dulles International Airport, outside of Washington D.C., around 8:30 pm EST. Because of some difficulties my Uncle Jim and his girlfriend Kym, or Kymie, or Kymberly, (author's note: I don't like any of those spellings, particularly the second.) had getting all of their luggage we left Hertz Rental in our Lincoln Navigator around 1:30 am EST. This put us in Waynesboro, VA sometime after 4 in the morning. Long day.

On my flight from MSP to IAD, I had the aisle and Lisa from Minneapolis had the window. One quirk of my trip to and fro was that I was on a fifty passenger plane on my longer flights and 130ish on my shortest. The 50-seater was also short and narrow; this made our flight attendant Lynn, Texan accent, even larger as she manoeuvered up and down the aisle. In response to a complaining passenger, she let them know, "I tell it like it is." I don't want my stewardess (weren't they first instituted to calm the male business travelers on the new uncertain form of transportation?) telling me like it is. I want her telling me how it could be, or how I want it to be, or about how I get to feed the rabbits. Her "telling me like it is" is the last thing I want to hear.

This is going to be a series about my trip to Virginia. I don't want to bog you poor readers down.

Leon Battista Alberti

I read once that a Renaissance man was such a man in every way. It was said that he could, with feet together, jump over a standing man (something like that). I was trying to relate this to someone tonight on the sideline of our flag football game. I thought maybe it was Descartes, but wasn't sure. So I came home and Googled it. Eventually, I came up with Leon Battista Alberti. I realize I was way off on Descartes. Do you know what Moliere had to do with commedia dell'arte?* [you would if you saw Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (which happens to be one of two shows NBC is basing on the behind-the-scenes of a sketch comedy show; I guess this is a slow death for SNL, satired by your parent network) tonight] Here's the salient quote from the preceding link:

He is credited with inventing the cypher wheel, and it was said that from a standing position, with his feet together, Leon Battista Alberti could jump over a man's head.

I don't know if this is true. Obviously it could be; these are 15th century men we are talking about (John Smith was big at 5' two hundred years later--granted the Italians probably had better sanitation/nutrition than the English) they could be short. And the quote says over a man's head. I know the Medici's had big noses, but how big can a head be? This might be a fun exercise, get a friend to lay on the ground and stand next to their head. Then, with your feet together from a standing position, jump over their head. Sounds like a full evening of fun if you ask me. What I really like about the great jumping Alberti is that six hundred years after he was born, I'm web logging about this incredible physical feat. What feat would you like to be remembered for?

*nothing.

Daniel Xisto