Supreme Court

Is it just me? It seems like the path to the Supreme Court, the highest judicial office of our country, should be a less partisan one. It seems a judge should be nominated for his or her skill in upholding and interpreting the law, and in this case, mostly the Constitution. How then is it that the vote for confirming such a nominee breaks down so evenly along party lines? Am I so much of an idealist to think that judges should be above such party lines? Then again, I've never been very comfortable with the idea of voting for judges on a local level. I'm not surprised by any of today's, or recent, events, just discouraged. Is it just me?

One Act play competition

Awhile back on his blog, my friend Stix discussed the validity of doing theatre as competition. I've often thought many of the same things he said there (http://jeremiahsdad.blogspot.com/). We performed our school's one-act play today as part of our subsection competition. We came in fourth out of five plays/schools today. Given that the judging of these plays is highly subjective, I was thinking after watching all five plays before the results were announced, that we could come in anywhere from first to fourth place. First might have surprised me a bit (I figured --correctly-- what play would be in first place; I didn't really like it, mostly stylistically, but they did a good job of what they did). But second, third, or fourth would have been a toss-up any way. (I knew we wouldn't be fifth; one school was obviously in that position.) I wasn't surprised nor disappointed. The comments of the judges, which I read on the bus on the way home, reflected pretty accurately what I thought of my kids' performance.

On the plus side, I no longer have play practice to go to every night.

Confuse-a-Cat

My mom, often the purveyor of odd but strangely useful gifts, gave me a page-a-day calendar for Christmas, as she usually does. This year's calendar was a cat one. Each day contains an odd little factoid or story about cats in general (yesterday's was that cats like to lie in the sun -- duh), and a picture of a cat or cats submitted by someone. (There's even info on how and where to submit your photos.) Each cat is identified by name, location, and the name of its owners (or, as the cats like to think of them, staff). I've decided that my current feline companion, who has been called Walter since about his first birthday, should try out some different names. So each day, I've been calling him by the name on the calendar. Today, he's Harriet. In recent days, he's been Spazz, Montana, Dakota, Lucy, Ruby, and Boots. He doesn't react any differently to these names than he does when I call him Walter. But it's fun for me.

My Young Girlfriend

First of all, let me be perfectly clear: I don't have a new girlfriend, young or otherwise. I've been "single" for a long time now. Sometimes people wonder why I don't have a girlfriend. Sometimes I wonder why I don't have a girlfriend. I was thinking about ex-girlfriends the other day. There was a time in my life where I, while I was getting older, the girls I was dating stayed the same age. Some statistics: when I was 23, I married a girl who was 19. The marriage lasted only about three years. When I was 26, I was dating a woman who was 23. When I was 27, I was dating a girl who was 21. When I was 29, I was dating a girl who was 21. When I was 35, my girlfriend was 26. Now I'm not saying I want to date someone who's 21 (though I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it). My point -- if I have one -- is that as I progressed through my 20s, I kept an interest in younger women to the point where I don't now (and never really did) have much of an interest in women my own age. Unfortunately, now that I'm in my 40s, girls in their 20s just don't seem to be much interested in dating me anymore.

King Kong

I saw the new movie version of King Kong this afternoon. I have four comments.

1. Most movies require a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. Some movies require a lot of it. I think King Kong used up all my suspension of disbelief for the next four years or so.
2. About the first third of the movie details the efforts of a moviemaking crew on their quest to make a new adventure movie. Early on there's a joke about having only 15 pages of script for their movie. I found that joke very apropos. (I'm guessing there's a line in the script for Kong that goes something like "King Kong fights dinosaurs for the next, say, twenty minutes.")
3. I'm not sure I'd agree with the people who claim the film has a racist undertone or subtext. I can definitely see where their comments come from, I'm just not sure I agree with them. Though I'm not sure I don't, either. I'm of two minds about it.
4. It has inspired me to want to watch the original 1933 version, though. Sadly I must admit that, film buff though I am, I've never seen it.

Hoppy New Year!

So I slept until almost noon today (though I was awake for awhile around 6:00 or 7:00) and woke up with a headache which has necessitated the taking of some Tylenol. And I didn't go out or even have a drink last night! Yeesh. All I did was sit around the house and watch DVDs and read comics. At midnight, I was taking a short break and watched the ball fall in New York's Times Square, obviously a re-broadcast from an hour earlier, but whatever network I was watching had a big "live" banner in the upper right corner. Can't fool me. I was eating a piece of Mom's apple pie at the time. Not a bad way to end a year and begin another.

Anyway, I'd like to wish everyone a happy new year, and hope it's peaceful and prosperous for all. Bonus points to anyone who gets the reference in the title (Bro...?).