10 THOUGHTS TO PONDER

or not

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Number 10:
Life is sexually transmitted.

Number 9:
Good health is merely
the slowest possible rate at
which one can die.

Number 8:
Men have two emotions:
Hungry and Horny.
If you see him not horny,
make him a sandwich.

Number 7:
Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day,
teach a person to use the Internet and
they won't bother you for weeks.

Number 6:
Some people are like a Slinky ...
not really good for anything,
but you still can't help but smile
when you shove them down the stairs.

Number 5:
Health extremists are
going to feel stupid someday,
lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Number 4:
All of us could take a lesson from the weather.
It pays no attention to Criticism.

Number 3:
Why does a slight tax increase cost you $200.00
and a substantial tax cut saves you $30.00?

Number 2:
In the 60's,
people took acid to make the world weird.
Now the world is weird
and people take Prozac to make it normal.

And Number 1
We know exactly where one cow
with Mad-cow-disease
is located among millions
and millions of cows
in America
but we haven't got a clue as to where
millions of illegal immigrants
and terrorists are located.
Maybe we should put the
Department of Agriculture
in charge .

Richard Widmark with Marilyn Monroe
in Don't Bother to Knock

RICHARD WIDMARK

1914-2008

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Actor Richard Widmark passed away this week at the age of 93. On IMDb today, there's a vote on what his best role was. 67% of voters said they were unfamiliar with his work. That's a shame. He was a good actor. He was a performer who when playing a westerner or gangster or cop you just believed him. If he was the leader of a group of soldiers you believed his squad would follow him. Below are a few of his best movies:

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Judgment at Nuremberg

Kiss of Death

Pickup on South Street

The Alamo (above with John Wayne)

Coma

Murder on the Orient Express

Cheyenne Autumn

Madigan

BLACK & WHITE MOVIES

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The college kids I work with "love" going to the movies. Most, however, won't watch a movie flimed in black & white. They don't like them. Too old fogey, I guess. They don't know what they're missing. Below are ten of my favorite B&W movies that are in my DVD collection. Why I don't have The Third Man, Bringing Up Baby, and The Seven Samurai I don't know. I'll have to fix that. (Also I didn't include any westerns -- I could probably write a top ten with just movies directed by John Ford and Howard Hawks.)

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Casablanca -- If you only watch one b&w movie, this would be it. Bogie, Bergman, Rains, and cast are perfect in this wartime classic.

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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington -- Frank Capra directs and Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur, and Claude Rains (again) star in this comedy-drama. This is want we want in a politician.

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Roman Holiday -- Romantic comedy with Audrey Hepburn at her lovliest and Gregory Peck being too cool.

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The Maltese Falcon -- Bogie is detective Sam Spade in John Huston's filming of the classic hardboiled novel from Dashiell Hammett.

*

Young Frankenstein -- Mel Brooks' comedy with Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle is one of the funniest movies ever. Period.

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The Mark of Zorro -- My kind of swashbuckler with Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell and the great Basil Rathbone as the bad guy.

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To Kill a Mockingbird -- Gregory Peck as the American Film Institute's No. One American Hero of all time. He is. "Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing."

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Angels with Dirty Faces -- okay, this is a guilty pleasure. Warner Brothers used to grind these kind of gangster movies out by the week. But this one with Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Bogie is a favorite.

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Sahara -- Bogie again. World War Two. Bogie and his small team (a mixture of ragged Allied soldiers) protect a water well in the desert from advancing German troops.

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Psycho -- Hitchcock has made several classic movies. This one is a touchstone is the suspense genre. Over 40 years old and the shower scene still scares you.

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(Other b&w movies in my collection are: The Big Sleep, Inherit the Wind, King Kong, Teacher's Pet, Them!, and The Last Picture Show.)

Villain from my childhood has just reappeared on DVD.

Boo ... hiss...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

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May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rain fall soft upon your fields,
And, until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull HD Teaser

Too cool...

MORE PHOTOS
FROM National Geographic

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AWARD WINNING PHOTOS

FROM National Geographic

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A relative sent these to me. Thought I'd share. (Click on photo for enlargement.)

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This last one is my favorite. Because it looks like something I'd do.

3 More Films from 2007

(and One TV Series from 2006)

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Okay, between working and starting a new screenplay, I've fallen behind in my movie reviews. I've now seen three more 2007 releases.

Rendition has an intriguing storyline and some solid acting but I can't recommend it. Why? Although the movie has an "important" message to convey (and one that should be debated in the political arena), it is still a movie about torture. Shouldn't compare this film with the first Hostel but I did. Not interested in these kind of storylines for movies.

*30 Days of Night is my kind of movie usually. Creepy vampires (not the romantic kind of Bram Stroker or Anne Rice) take over an Alaskan town where the sun goes down and doesn't rise again for 30 days. Should have been fun. It wasn't. Three college students on my staff told me this movie scared them silly. As for me, it didn't. Wow, the Generation Gap is now behind me instead of in front of me. I'm now going to go cry into my pillow.

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Death at a Funeral. British dark comedy. British -- yes. Dark -- yes. Comedy -- well, I didn't laugh or even chuckle. I smiled a couple times. Does that count?

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Torchwood - Season One. British again. Science fiction TV series. I saw the first two episodes of its first season. It's a spin-off of the Doctor Who series (which I've never seen but now have in my Netflix queue). I was reminded in some ways of one of my all-time favorite series The X-Files. Did I like it? I ordered the entire DVD set and it should arrive within the week. Looking forward to it.