Woodlot Plod
Wednesday, Feb. 07, 2007 at 8:33 a.m.
On this day in 1991, mortar rounds are fired by the IRA at No. 10 Downing Street, the residence of British Prime Minister John Major. No injuries resulted but the door was severely dented.
Damn. Those were some lousy mortar rounds or one strong-ass door. I vote for the latter. Seriously, though, if you�re going to fire mortar rounds at a Prime Minister or otherwise Political Muck-a-muck: fire your mortar round through the window. I�ll have to share this daily tidbit with the Hubster: one of the products his company extrudes (he works for an aluminum extrusion company) are fins for mortar rounds.
Hi, kids. Miss me? Monday I plugged in The Office: Season Two and watched that for 8 hours straight. I still have more episodes to watch as I watch everything on DVDs, as I�ve mentioned before � commentaries, deleted scenes, documentaries . . . my personal favorites are blooper reels and outtakes. Also recently watched in the cubicle la Valkyrie:
Junior Bonner: Yeah, you thought I never watched anything of substance, didn�t you? This Sam Peckinpah classic stars Steve McQueen as JR Bonner, a rodeo-rider on the precipice of being a has-been, in search of his erstwhile father, played by none other than Robert Preston. The lovely Ida Lupino co-stars as Ellie, JR�s mother, with Joe Don Baker, one of my hack faves, as JR�s brother Curly, who has plans to parcel off ranch land near Prescott, AZ to build mobile home communities. . . which makes me shudder as that�s pretty much what has happened around here as long as you substitute mobile homes with poorly constructed look-alike stucco-finish frame wood huts on teeny-tiny plots that cost $250K. This was filmed in Prescott during one of their Frontier Days, America�s longest-running annual rodeo. I love Prescott. I got Michael Feldman from NPR�s Whad�ya Know? to drop his pants for me on a Prescott sidewalk after many many many drinks with him and the rest of the show after a recording in Prescott. True Story.
Cool Hand Luke: Can you believe that I had never seen this movie? Of course I was familiar with Strother Martin�s classic line: �What we have here is a failure to communicate� in that whiny-nasal voice of his. Paul Newman is the man. He just is. I�ve always thought he was a class act, and I like him even more because he and Joanne have been married for 40-odd years. Yes, Paul has made bad movie choices � who hasn�t � but at least he hasn�t made lots of poor plastic surgery choices like his counterpart Robert Redford. Have you seen that guy lately? His skin is stretched so tight you could bounce a quarter off that cheek. Anyway, treat yourself to a double feature of Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and you�ll get a treat of some classic Hollywood.
Well, kids, yes, I watched some quality, but in the pipeline I�ve got Fiend of Dope Island, so I�ll be back at the schlock soon and be giddy as beer-drinking nuns watching porn on Spice Channel:
Woot!