Saturday, September 21, 2002

September 20, 2002: Went to see The Four Feathers yesterday and was mildly disappointed. I guess I'd been expecting a rousing adventure movie, in the vein of the original. But maybe nobody knows how to make adventure movies these days. For whatever reason, the movie wasn't rousing (at least to me), and why, oh, why does everyone these days seem afraid of color? Even the scenes filmed in the full sun of the desert looked as if they'd been shot inside a curtained room. What's up with that? Are people afraid of real color? I know they don't shoot in Technicolor any more, but surely they can find some film stock that will present something resembling actuality. Sure they can. The Scorpion King had real color. Maybe "serious" directors are the ones who don't want to use vibrant colors. They'd detract from the film's high motives. Gimme a break.

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

September 18, 2002: Obviously I do this blogging for my own entertainment. Which explains why it doesn't exactly have any focal point. It's just sort of a rambling experssion of what I'm thinking about. And today, I'm thinking about fingernail clippers.

When I went off to college in 1959, my mother gave me a fingernail clipper. It was in a leather case, and it had been a gift from Red Arrow Freight Lines. The Red Arrow logo was on the case. My father worked for Red Arrow, managing the Mexia, Texas, office for many years. That's why we had the clippers in the first place. And I still have them. The leather case is worn out, and you can't see the logo very well. In fact, I took the clippers out of the case and put it aside some years ago. But I use the clippers all the time, just as I've been doing for the last 43 years. What kind of person uses the same pair of fingernail clippers for 43 years? I don't know, but that's the kind of person I am.

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

September 17, 2002: The birthday party for Judy's mother was a big success. Probably 100 people showed up, and we got some good photos. I managed to catch a cold, so I'm not feeling too well. Should be OK by tomorrow thought.

The geniuses who gave us the 55 mph speed limit in Harris and surrounding counties have finally figured out that they Wrong. Now they're proposing that the speed limits be raised to 65 mph. It really won't matter. When we came back yesterday, there was no one on the highway driving less than 70, and most were going a lot faster than that. So 65 or 55, the real average speed will be around 75.