the more things change

Tonight's entry comes from a very special guest blogger, my father. How is that possible, you ask, considering that he's been dead for twenty-five years? My mother recently gave me copies of some letters he wrote during the mid to late 1970s. He's no Ted L. Nancy but I was amused nevertheless. I am as much interested in his style of writing as I am in the content of the letters. I plan to eventually share three with you. Look for a missive to a member of the New York Giants this fall and a baseball related letter later this spring.

We'll start with a thirty-year-old message to Jimmy Carter's press secretary, Jody Powell. I don't have the clipping that was originally enclosed. We'll have to guess what it was about.

March 16, 1978

Mr. Jody Powell
Press Secretary
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr.Powell:

I know you are overwhelmed with problems, and I hesitate to send you "just another clipping," but I thought this letter to The New York Times is particularly significant in light of the many issues that confront our society today.

I have not attempted to target on any specific piece of legislation or advance any similar cause, but I do wish to direct your attention to the increasing burden that the middle class -- that is, the producer group -- is being asked to carry for those others in our society who are solely consumers.

If the size of the middle class continues to diminish, if its ability to function and educate its children is further inhibited by ever increasing tax burdens and government programs, the ability of our economy to create sufficient wealth to take care of the needs of all will be critically undermined.

I seriously do not think I overstate the case.

Sincerely,

thirty-nine and counting

Three guys from Utah are in the middle of their Great American Road Trip this week. They will pass through all 48 contiguous states in only five days. I also want to visit all the states but not the way these guys are doing it. In many cases, they are only driving across a state line, taking a picture of their GPS unit as proof, and turning around.

After I went to Alaska, I set a personal goal of visiting all 50 states. I want to do more than just drive through them. I want to see an historical location, a tourist attraction or the world's largest something. Last summer I knocked another four states off my to do list. I only have eleven to go.



This summer I may be able to tackle either Arkansas or Iowa. The decision depends on what type of fun destinations I can find on Roadside America or other tourism sites. And on gas prices.

This week "Good Morning America" is revealing their 7 Wonders of America. So far they've picked the National Mall and the ANWR. I wonder if the rest of the list will have obvious choices like the Grand Canyon or a quirky choice like the World's Largest Ball of Twine. I also wonder how many of the Wonders I will have visited or can still visit before I die.

At first the well-publicized list of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" didn't appeal to me. Too many of the locations were in far off corners of the globe that are well beyond my budget. Over the weekend I saw a book for sale at a Cracker Barrel that has now shot to the top of my wish list. "1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. and Canada Before You Die" is a lot more realistic for me. If author Patricia Schultz happens to be available for a podcast interview, I might be able to get a free review copy out of the deal. Hint, hint.

final sixty-four

The George Mason Patriots earned their way back to the NCAA men's basketball tournament with a 68-59 victory over the William and Mary Tribe tonight. The win came in the championship game of the CAA Tournament in Richmond. This means that I will now be interested in the Selection Sunday seeds and that I will be watching GMU play in the tournament. Not that I'm superstitious but I think I will wear the same GMU sweatshirt that I wore to watch the CAA tournament during that first round NCAA game. Since I have three different ones, let me remind myself that it was the green one with the gold stitched lettering. I'm not the only one in eager anticipation. One of the fans in the stands at tonight's game held up a sign that read: "George Mason is this year's George Mason!"

Near the beginning of the game, our home phone rang. Of course, not everyone reads my blog and would know that I was watching the game. Since the DirecTV box is connected to a phone line, they can offer a caller ID feature. The name and number of incoming callers is displayed on my TV screen. As we watched Mason take an early lead, the caller ID said "incoming call from Geo Mason Univ." and gave a (703) number. Huh? The voice on the phone said they were calling from the university's Phonathon. I remember volunteering for the annual fundraiser when I was a GMU student myself, calling unsuspecting alumni at their homes. I told the young lady that I was trying to watch the basketball game. She asked who was winning. I told her that Mason had scored the first two baskets. At that point she said her good-byes and hung up. It was the most painless solicitation call ever. We didn't even get to the part where I have to say no.

beware the Ides of March

The hat worn by the Wicked Witch and the whip used by Indiana Jones are getting most of the publicity of all the items in next week's huge pop culture auction in Vegas. In my opinion, any memorabilia collection worth its salt must include some "Batman" props. This one does. It didn't take too many clicks to find one of the ultimate collectibles from the show. If I had as much money as Bruce Wayne, I would take $50,000 to $100,000 and buy the William Shakespeare bust that held the hidden switch to access the Batcave. If you don't know where the switch is, you'll never get past the front page of the great website The Bat Pages.

thank the academy

The Oscars are always must-see TV at our house even though I've seen hardly any of the nominated movies this year. In the past, my wife and I have made an effort to see the films nominated for the major awards. With the price of gas and everything else going up and money getting tight, I am reluctant to shell out cash for movie tickets, much less the concessions.

Lately some movies I had wanted to see in the theater have been showing on a plethora of HD channels. In the past month I've seen "Children of Men," "Pride" and "The Astronaut Farmer." None of them won any Oscars but I enjoyed them nevertheless.

I won't attempt to live-blog the awards like they're doing at Best Week Ever and elsewhere. However, I noticed a few things worth mentioning. Did Steve Carell actually curse when pretending to be upset that he was presenting the animation award instead of the documentary award? One of his "shoots" sounded like the real deal to me.

During the dead celebrity tribute, I always feel embarrassed for the people who don't get applause. Some of the deceased get carryover applause by having their name announced right after a popular actor or actress. Shouldn't they mute the microphones during the annual montage?

I thought I saw Knoxville Catholic High School alumnus Cormac McCarthy in the audience when the Coen brothers won the adapted screenplay award. Yes, it was him. They pointed him out when "No Country For Old Men" won Best Picture.

All night long I've been trying to catch a glimpse of Diablo Cody's shoes. I read that she was going to wear the million dollar pair from Stuart Weitzman. Why do I care? One year, Stuart's publicist hired me to help out during Oscar week. According to her blog, Diablo has mixed feelings about wearing them. Oh yeah, she won an Oscar for "Juno," one of the few nominated movies that I saw.

Hey, the "I Drink Your Milkshake" guy won! I look forward to seeing that movie next year when it's on HBO or Showtime.

alpha and omega man

Is it possible for me to boycott a movie I was never going to see? The Catholic League and other Christian groups are urging supporters to avoid "The Golden Compass." Okay. Nothing about the story interested me anyway. They're saying that the controversy did put a dent in the box office returns.

As movie ticket prices rise, I've gotten pickier about which films I pay to see. I did pay a little extra to see "Beowulf" in 3D and I might pay a little extra to see "I Am Legend" on the new IMAX screen that opens this week at the Regal Pinnacle Stadium 18. If you want to see the new theater and save some money, you can catch a $2 IMAX screening of "Spider-Man 3" or "300" on Wednesday and Thursday. The money goes to the Empty Stocking Fund.

whose whine is it anyway?

Todd Covert was surprised to hear that he wouldn't be seeing me at the Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood show. The famous improvisers performed in Knoxville last night. Even with the five dollar online discount offered to Einstein Simplified fans, the tickets were too expensive for me. With service charges It would have been about $100 for a pair. Before you get mad, yes I know that I'm spoiled by the free concert tickets I sometimes get. I freely admit it.

I thought there might be a slim chance of getting two of those free tickets by doing a phone interview with one of the stars and posting it on my blog. I sent in a request to record a podcast with Brad last week but didn't hear back. The Daily Beacon talked with Colin while the News Sentinel interviewed Brad. I had to chuckle when Doug Mason misidentified Wayne Brady in the sixth paragraph. He called him Greg Brady.

After the high school swim meet yesterday, one of the other parents approached me. "I heard you'd like to go to the show tonight," she said. My wife was sitting next to me as I replied, "Are you asking me out on a date?" "No," said the other woman, "I'm trying to sell you my extra ticket!" She had purchased tickets to the show and then ended up getting another pair in a silent auction at the Turkey Trot 5K. I asked if the spare was a $45 or $55 ticket. She wanted to sell it for the $45 face value. I declined her kind offer. On the way home, I briefly considered driving down to the Tennessee Theatre at showtime to see if any scalpers were selling tickets for half price or less.

Since I was too cheap to go to the show, I looked online today for any reviews by bloggers who may have been there. The only thing I have found so far are the fan reactions posted on the Colin & Brad site. Apparently Ooltewah was one of the suggestions in a guessing game. If you did get to the show, please tell me about it in the comments.

one more schmear

On Andy Rooney's last birthday, I was complaining about the way my Gillette antiperspirant gel dispenser makes it impossible to get the last bit out. I took a picture so I could write about it after I threw away the container. A thoughtful blog reader posted a comment suggesting that I should have busted the thing open to get the last dollop. That's exactly what I did with the next one.

the price of fame

$209 plus $23 for shipping and handling. Is a nice souvenir worth that much? Or should I keep saving for that HD DVR I still want? Let me explain.

I got an email today with the subject line "News Sentinel article 03/15/07." It obviously refers to the article about my makeover that was published that day. The email was from a guy in Tampa who said he wanted to talk with me for two minutes about the article. Instead of calling, I looked up his company on the Internet. He works for In The News, Inc., a firm that laminates newspaper and magazine articles and mounts them on plaques. Their website says they have a highly sophisticated sales organization. I would say so. Apparently the News Sentinel is one of the 6,000 publications they receive. They saw the article, and found my work email address. This sentence from their site says it best:

If you are In The News, we know it and we make it our business to offer you our custom lamination service. Our sales staff contacts over 8,000 prospective clients each day and last year we produced over 65,000 custom laminated wall hangings, with approximate gross sales of over 10 million dollars.

I wrote back to the guy asking for a price quote. He replied saying that they wanted to go ahead and make the plaque. As a first time customer, I could return it within ten days if I didn't like it or if I can't come up with the $232. Plus tax probably.

beware of chainsaw

There were several movies released this summer that sounded good but may not have been worth a full price admission. Last night my wife and I went to the discount theatre to see one such film, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend." I loved it. Eddie Izzard was really funny as the villain and Anna Faris was adorable as the other woman. Rainn Wilson was great as the best friend. I got the feeling that they toned it down slightly to get a PG-13. Maybe the DVD will be unrated.

Our son had gone to a high school football game with one of his friends. A movie would be a nice way for the two of us to spend the evening. Unfortunately my nap ran long and we were just finishing dinner at 7:30. Nevertheless we headed out to the theatre knowing that we would be a little late for the 7:45 showtime and would miss the previews.

As the end credits rolled, my wife said that she liked the movie but that it seemed so short. Maybe we missed more of the movie than I had realized. When we walked in, Luke Wilson was bringing a red rose to Uma Thurman on what looked to be their first date. Without giving away the ending, can you tell me what happened at the beginning? And why is Uma called G-Girl? What does the G stand for?

Do they even show previews at the discount theatre? I had assumed they would. I might find out tonight. We're thinking about going back to see "Click" but it starts in half an hour and we haven't had dinner yet. Out front they have a poster for one of the coming attractions. I will be back to plunk down my $1.50 for "Snakes on a Plane."

tragedy plus time

My son is taking a personal finance class in high school. On Tuesday his class watched a video by Dave Ramsey. In the video, Dave was preaching about the danger of borrowing money. At one point Ramsey says that the Crocodile Hunter "is going to get it" someday because he is always working with deadly animals. The class was shocked. The teacher paused the video in disbelief.

Every year for Halloween, my friend Charlie dresses as a recently deceased celebrity. I will always remember his Payne Stewart costume. He should buy a khaki shirt and shorts soon. I think they'll be sold out by October.