More on "Snakes on a Plane"

From Hollywood Reporter:

"I want these motherfucking snakes off the motherfucking plane!" Soon, the growing legion of fans added their voices as they demanded that that phrase also appear in the movie.

Apparently, the studio got the hint. When Ellis assembled Jackson and others for the recent shoot, the filmmakers added more gore, more death, more nudity, more snakes and more death scenes. And they shot a scene where Jackson does utter the line that fans have demanded.

Awesome. I love that the filmmakers are responding to the fans.

Afghanistan

Chris has more on the great Bush success story.

That conservative blogger

from the Washington Post? He's a plaigarist.

And more.

Dialect Survey

I saw this survey a long time ago.

It breaks down pronunciation and word choice among areas of the country and uses dots on the map to show where different people say different things.

For example, the big one:

What is your generic term for a sweetened carbonated beverage?

Most people in the northeast and west say "soda," Most people in the Great Lakes region say "pop," and most people in the south say "Coke."

I say soda, as do most people in Southern Illinois, where I grew up, although both pop and coke have a little influence in the region.

I also like this one:

What do you call the activity of driving around in circles in a car?

Most people call it "doing donuts," of course, but people in Minnesota seem to call it "whipping shitties."

Speed bloging

I didn't do any bloging yesterday, so here's my speedy attempt to catch up.

Item:

Chris points us to the vice-president's tour rider. TVs must be turned to Fox News, the vice-president's wife drinks fancy French water, and my personal favorite, all lights must be turned on and the air conditioning set to 68 degrees. To paraphrase Jon Stewart from last night's show, when the vice-president is in town, you gotta waste all the energy you can!

Item:

The Dixie Chicks have a new album coming out and a song called "Not Ready to Make Nice," which is basically a big fuck you to the people that boycotted them after their comments about Bush. I love these chicks. Country music is SUPPOSED to be about being a rebel, so kudos to them for not rolling over and playing dead.

Item:

Speaking of not ready to make nice, I watched the season premiere of South Park, where Chef got killed off and Trey and Matt got some more digs in at Scientology. I liked the tone of the episode. Don't blame Isaac Hayes, blame the club he joined. It wasn't Isaac that killed Chef. It was Scientology. YOU BASTARDS!

Item:

Onion Headline --- Ichiro: 'The Best Part About Playing For My Country Was Not Playing For The Seattle Mariners'. Harsh, but funny.

Item:

Jorge Garcia, Hurley from Lost, is backing out of a chance to play Harry Knowles in a movie. It's a shame, Jorge was perfect for the part. But he's being replace by someone who will make the most of the opportunity to play Harry... Silent Bob himself. Kevin Smith.

Item:

Speaking of Harry Knowles, Ain't it Cool News has more info on Snakes on a Plane. They're reshooting part of the movie to bring it from a PG 13 movie to an R rating. This movie is going to have a huge opening weekend based on the fan frenzy already surrounding it.

Busch Stadium III

Here are some pictures of the progress.

You know what would look nice there? The 2006 World Series championship banner.

I also have my first tickets. I'm flying home to Illinois for a weekend in April and going up to St. Louis for the April 16 game vs. the Reds.

West Virginia lost

Crap! Even my revised predictions suck.

I'll stick with my prediction that the winner of the WV-Texas game beats the winner of the LSU-Duke game. Texas is going to the final four. In fact, I'll make Texas my revised-revised choice to win it all.

100 Greatest Performances of All Time

Premiere Magazine just published their list of the 100 Greatest Performance of All Time.

Some thoughts:

When I personally think of the greatest performance of all time, I think of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It's not on the list, and I'd complain about that, but:

8. James Stewart as George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. It's kind of a companion piece to Mr. Smith to me, and almost as good, so I'll accept this as compensation. Stewart makes the list once more as well:


30. James Stewart as John "Scottie" Ferguson in Vertigo. But I haven't seen it. Vertigo is very high on my list of movies I am embarrased not to have seen.

90. Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski in The Big Lebowski. The Dude makes the list! You don't know how happy this makes me. I actually think this is way too low. One of the top ten comedic performances of all time.

1. Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia Haven't seen it so I can't comment. In fact, I haven't seen any of the performances from one through six. But I have seen:

7. Dustin Hoffman as "Ratso" Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy. Great performance. It almost seems like too small a role to be this high on the list, but definitely deserves to be on the list somewhere. Dustin Hoffman is a favorite actor of mine, and makes it once more:

33. Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels in Tootsie. Entertaining movie, but I think there are other better Hoffman performances, including The Graduate, Papillon, and yes, Rain Man. And the other Hoffman makes it too:

35. Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote in Capote. Most recent performance on the list, and I haven't seen it.

9. Gene Wilder as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein. I absolutely LOVE this movie, and I LOVE Gene Wilder in it. But the ninth best performance of all time? Not exactly.

15. Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin in Big. Good call. Much better than his oscar winning performances in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. And also, much better than:

46. Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland in Cast Away. That doesn't deserve to be on the list.

17. Denzel Washington as Malcolm X in Malcolm X. I wholeheartedly agree.

22. Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands in Edward Scissorhands. Again, love the movie, and love the performance. But I think 22 is a little high. And:

79. Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Also a good performance, but I'd put his performance in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on instead.

23. Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand in The Insider. I wasn't impressed. He deserved to be on the list for A Beautiful Mind instead.

29. Peter Sellers as Chance the Gardener in Being There. Saw it, wasn't impressed.

31. Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in Ray. Maybe a little high, but I generally agree. I don't see how you put this on and leave off Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line, or, for that matter, Reese Witherspoon. Actually Reese did make the list:

45. Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick in Election. I have to admit, that was a pretty entertaining performance. The movie as a whole was kind of mediocre to me, but Reese was good.

40. Nicole Kidman as Suzanne Stone Maretto in To Die For. Am I the only one who doesn't see what was so great about that performance?

41. Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. This is a top ten performance for me.

42. Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. De Niro's best performance, could also be a top ten performance for me.

47. Jack Nicholson as Randle Patrick McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Yet another potential top ten performance.

48. Bill Murray as Phil Connors in Groundhog Day. Wow. Surprised to see that on the list. But I agree.

53. Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill "The Butcher" Cutting in Gangs of New York. Yep, that was a good one.

54. Katharine Hepburn as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story. No one was like Kate. Well, except Cate Blanchett in Aviator.

58. Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Aliens. Different kind of choice, but I approve.

70. Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Of course.

73. John Travolta as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever. The hair!

74. Madeline Kahn as Lili Von Shtupp in Blazing Saddles. Loved it.

81. Kate Winslet as Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Great, great movie, and great, great performance.

87. John Wayne as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. Don't care for the movie, or the man.

100. Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange. The movie's great, and McDowell is fine, but I give more credit to Stanley Kubrick than to McDowell.

Feel free to comment below!

Soriano

An update on the Soriano situation:

He's playing today in left field. The Nationals in general, and General Manager Jom Bowden in particular, lucked out.

Still, while Soriano had good numbers as a second baseman, are those numbers so great for a left fielder? He's no $10 million left fielder in my book.

Random Drug Tests

Seriously, this should come to as a surprise to no one.

They don't accomplish anything.

For all you Jeopardy hopefuls....

You can audition online next week.

Straw Men

There are some who think that Americans shouldn't have civil liberties. I strongly disagree.

Kevin Federline

I found this today on Salon, and apparently, according to Wikipedia, this really is Kevin Federline's Myspace profile. It's about the worst design for a webpage I've ever seen.

WARNING: If you're at work, turn down the volume before going there.

Is it just me, or is Kevin Federline the last person who should be writing a song called "Fuck the Media?" Seeing as he would have never been a celebrity WITHOUT the media?

This is where pre-emptive strikes get you

North Korea threatening to do the same.

Thank you, George W. Bush, for making us so safe.

Iraq

What Chris said. Face it, men and women. We're in Iraq forever.

Does this surprise anyone?

The Washington Post's new conservative blogger has ties to Abramoff.

Afghanistan

While all the attention is on Iraq, Afghanistan is not exactly a rousing success story. In fact, they may be about to start executing Christians.

Stop it, T.O.

Just stop it.

"When it comes to this game, I'm the best in the field, some said I was gonna sign just a one-year deal, but I got what I wanted up front, 10 mil, changed the rules of the game, so now how you feel?" Owens raps.

Owens also takes shots at the Eagles' management in the rap:

"I got a brand new team, I am a Cowboy now, no more black and green, to the haters that said I'm not going to get my money, I'm laughing in your face, ha ha, that's funny."

Owen's blowup with Philadelphia last season led to new regulations regarding punishment, which were written into the NFL's latest collective bargaining agreement.

Before his actions limited him to nine games last season, Owens had at least 75 receptions and 1,100 yards receiving in five straight seasons.

Owens raps that he is looking forward to a stellar season with the Cowboys:

"And this will probably be my best season by far, no more getting my Eagle on, you can meet me at the stars."

Alfonso Soriano

Dara posted over at PH4H the story that Alfonso Soriano is still refusing to play left field.

Sure, Soriano is being a stubborn little brat. But I put the blame for this situation on the Nationals' shoulders for making the trade for Soriano without, you know, asking if he'd be willing to play a new position.

Another South Park Twist

From IMDB:

Trey Parker and Matt Stone have filmed a last-minute episode of South Park in response to Scientologist Isaac Hayes' request to be released from his contract because the show mocked his religion. The creators are launching the tenth season of the series on US network Comedy Central on Wednesday, with an episode featuring Hayes' character Chef. Because South Park episodes only take six days to create, Stone and Parker were able to react to the current controversy soon after it happened. According to a Comedy Central press release, the show will feature, "The triumphant homecoming of school chef Jerome McElroy. While Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are thrilled to have their old friend back, they notice that something about Chef seems different. When Chef's strange behavior starts getting him in trouble, the boys pull out all stops to save him."

Dealing with spam in Gmail

I just came across this site with a helpful tip for dealing with Spam in gmail.

Say your email address is ZZZZZZZ@gmail.com, and you're signing up for something on the ProductX website. They ask for your email, but you're afraid they're going to spam you to death.

Well, gmail allows you to give "aliases" as your email. Just enter your email as ZZZZZZZ+ProductX@gmail.com. Or ZZZZZZZ+Pepsi@gmail.com, ZZZZZZZ+Coke@gmail.com, whatever you want to put after the + is fine.

The next step is to "Create a filter." In the "to" line put "ZZZZZZZ+ProductX@gmail.com." If you are certain that you won't get any email from ProdcutX that you will ever want, click the box that says "delete it," then click "Create filter," and you're done!

If you think you actually will get email you need sent to that address but don't want to see it everytime they send something to you, instead of deleting it, you can click "skip the inbox" and it will go to your archives. You can also use "apply the label," give it the label "ProductX," and later you can search for email with the label "ProductX."

Enjoy!

Things I learned on my lunch hour

1. My neighborhood Five Guys is now open!

2. On the opposite end of the health food spectrum, Slate had an interesting article about Whole Foods today. The article got my attention with the line "the dark secrets of the organic-food movement."

The article wasn't quite what I expected. I thought it would be an article about how organic food wasn't actually any better for you, which I'd maybe agree with to a degree, but not completely.

Instead, the article was about how buying organic isn't neccesarily better for the environment. And that I agree with completely.

Where does most of the pollution related to food come from? You're probably thinking pesticides, right? Well, pesticides are an issue, but MUCH more pollution comes from.... drum roll please... transportation.

Say you live in Virginia, and you have the option of buying a non-organic tomato from Virginia, or an organic tomato from South America. The South American tomato might have had a more environmentally friendly growing process, but then it was put on planes, trains, boats, cars, etc., burning fossil fuels like there's no tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Virginia tomato had a relatively clean transportation process to your Harris Teeter or Giant or Safeway or wherever you bought it.

I don't mean this as an attack on Whole Foods. I shop there myself. And I do believe, to a degree, in buying organic for health reasons. But I don't kid myself into thinking my Whole Foods shopping experience is especially "eco-friendly."

In another Slate article today, you'll find out how to survive your Trader Joe's shopping experience.

Update

Here's a little more on Life-cycle assessment: That is, accounting for all parts of a product's life cycle (raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, storing, transporting, using and disposing) when considering the environmental impact of a product.

And here's some more about buying local food. I don't pay attention to this so much at the grocery store, but it makes sense and perhaps I should start.

Ummmm....

Fox, get your footage straight.

Did Isaac Hayes really quit South Park?

If this is true, I apologize to Isaac Hayes, and I despise Scientology even more.

General Tourney Thoughts

1. My bracket is extremely busted. I only have one Final Four team left, and that's Connecticut.

2. The Missouri Valley is proving the critics wrong. They're tied with a couple other conferences, but only the Big East has more teams remaining. And the Missouri Valley has knocked off two Big East teams already, Seton Hall and Pittsburgh. And Northern Iowa hung in there with Georgetown, too. The only game in which the Big East dominated the Valley was West Virginia over Southern Illinois.

Furthermore, a CAA team, George Mason, is in the Sweet Sixteen too...

So bite me, Billy Packer.

3. And bite me, Gary Williams, too. If you're going to talk smack about small and mid-major conferences, you might want to, you know, have Maryland win its opening round NIT game against Manhattan.

4. My lord, did the Big Ten suck in this tourney. And yes, I can use the past tense, because the Big Ten is GONE.

5. So now that my bracket is Caput, who do I think is looking good? Well, not my predicted national champ, Connecticut. I think Washington might actually knock them off. Washington, come to think of it, is looking quite good in general.

On the other side of the DC bracket is the Cinderella matchup between Wichita State and George Mason. George Mason has basically a home court, and that might help them, and they beat Wichita State in the regular season. So Mason might pull it out. But the Shockers have looked REALLY GOOD in this tournament. I say Wichita State wins, and loses to Washington in the regional finals.

Florida has looked really good, and with Georgetown dismissing Ohio State so easily, that's looking like quite a matchup. I don't think Georgetown is as consistent, and I think Florida wins the game. Florida will also beat Villanova, who will have easily beaten the overrated Boston College.

Memphis, UCLA, Gonzaga, and Bradley... who cares? The winner of the Oakland Bracket is going nowhere. I guess I'd go with Memphis at this point. But a Bradley upset over Memphis would be hilarious and great.

Duke, LSU, West Virginia and Texas.... Whoever wins the WV vs. Texas game wins the bracket. I think it could be either, but West Virginia has looked surprisingly solid to me, so I'll go with WV.

That leaves a final four of West Virginia, Memphis, Washington and Florida.

WV over Memphis, Florida over Washington. WV wins the title over Florida.

Yes, I know that's crazy, picking West Virginia to win it all. But seeing as I picked Iowa to go to the championship game originally, my picks have absolutely no merit and you should know that.

But where was Angelina?

Look, I know the NCAA would like to get more women to watch, but keeping the name of a random heartthrob movie star on the screen throughout the Bradley-Pittsburgh game might have been a bit much.