Positively Puzzled

It's been 10 months since my last confession, Father. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) The Princess and the Frog (2009) Elephant Walk (1954) True Grit (2010) Big Fish (2003) Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Amélie (Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain) (2001) Operation Mad Ball (1957) Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) Megamind (2010) The Green Hornet (2011) A Prairie Home Companion (2006) The Man in the White Suit (1951) The Getaway (1972) Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963) The Notorious Landlad y (1962) En la cama (2005) Let's Make Love (1960) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) Dr. Zhivago (1965) Rango (2011) Lady Chatterley's Lover (2006) The World is Not Enough (1999) State Fair (1945) Day for Night (La nuit américaine) (1973) Rebecca (1940) Die Another Day (2002) The Notorious Bettie Page (2005) An American Werewolf in London (1981) Cast Away (2000) Frisco Jenny (1932) Thor (2011) Almost Famous (2000) District 9 (20...

Condensed email exchange in which our hero gets feedback for a purchase report he created. Nicholas: I’ve installed the new Purchase report in the Report Test Environment folder of the Report Manager site. Let me know if it looks good, or needs changes, or if you’d like me to move it into the main production XXX Report Set . John: It looks good! I think it can be put into production, Kathleen? Kathleen: I love it and Melanie thought it was great too. Nicholas: Okay, the Purchase Report is now the newest addition to the XXX Report Set . John: I’m not so sure about the colors… Nicholas: Now you tell me! (The report writer utility created the color scheme. ) John: I don’t really care, I’m kidding… Kathleen: I like the soft green and yellow. Seems fresh and a little organic, kind of like daisies in a meadow on a warm springtime day. Nicholas: As I was saying, I took great care to craft the color scheme for maximal user-friendliness. John: You guys are both sick… Kathleen: Swee...

It's getting harder and harder to remember all the notable people who have blocked me ( @puxxled ) on Twitter. Most are understandable, people I've disagreed with stridently, but hopefully with intelligence and some humor. Others are people whose work and ideas I enjoy, and wish to engage and share ideas with for the fun of it. The frustrating thing is, one doesn't usually get an explanation when someone decides to block you with one blip of the block button; getting rid of you like a gnat on an elbow. In most cases, the exact issue that triggered it isn't clear. Often you don't find out till weeks later. I'm kind of sensitive to being blocked, it can bum me out for days. Okay, oversensitive. But in a way, it's kind of intriguing wondering why they did. I decided the best way to keep track of this rarefied group was to corral them all into a blog post, so here goes. You always remember your first. Mine was Joe Scarborough , a former Florida Repub...

A genius with his extraordinarily imaginative and creative costume designs and affable accordion playing, a Santa Cruz Busker Treasure. His face is always concealed. (short clip)

Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks from the past in support of core progressive programs under attack in his day by fringe elements of obscure parties, which are now being seriously challenged by powerful, effective, and determined members of his own party today. "Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." ─President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952 The image comes via @TheRiverWanders on Twitter.

I realize I make this connection very, very late in the game, but it occurred to me this afternoon just how uncanny it is that Aaron Sorkin*, in The West Wing , prefigured Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's portmanteau malaprop " refudiate ". In the episode titled "Disaster Relief", fictional Vice President "Bingo Bob" Russell uses the word "propulgate" at a conference at the White House in the Roosevelt Room. Gary Cole as VP Bob Russell in The West Wing From the West Wing script : VP Russell (played by Gary Cole): Excuse me, Toby, if I may. You're right, Congressman. If we lower cap gains taxes, we reward the small business owners who took a risk for the economy and I'd be the first in line to pat 'em on the back, but the thing is, the Speaker is trying to "propulgate" a tax bill onto an appropriations package. We start allowing that, we're never going to get budgets passed. [Leo, Toby, and ...

Well, I really have been neglecting my film-viewing roster, haven't I? Time to clear the slate. I've added stills for films that particularly impressed me, for various reasons. Bruce Almighty (2003) Iron Man (2008) Iron Man 2 (2010) Yes Man (2008) The Collector (1965) Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) Licence to Kill (1989) Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1948) The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953) The Wild One (1953) The Big Lebowski (1998) The Social Network (2010) City of Ember (2008) Transformers (2007) Fantastic Voyage (1966) Say Anything (1989) Inception (2010) It Happened One Night (1934) Microcosmos (1996) Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) 50 First Dates (2004) Evan Almighty (2007) Malcolm X (1992) Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989) The Wizard of Oz (1939) I Am Legend (2007) The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Co...