Happy Birthday

You could have had your own Bday Thread,but you have to be in the Club..

haha thanks guys

I honestly wish someone would just put Rosie O'Donnell out of her misery.

Pizzaboy, we need THE ROCK!

"Rosie, SHUT YOUR MOUTH...KNOW YOUR DAMN ROLE...or I'll check you into the SMACKDOWN hotel!"

This is what I mean Ronnie. Just when I'm about to tell you to go to your room, you make me fall out of my Lazy Boy laughing.

Kid, you're an enigma.

Good, so I won't "trip down the stairs" this week then?

Nah, you're okay.

Do me a favor, give me a quick review of THE GOOD SHEPHERD. I bought it last week but haven't watched it yet.

Sure mate.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD (2006) - **1/2

Like Johnny Depp and the ever-growing Christian Bale, Matt Damon is the confident and fearless actor, who also happens to be a movie star, for our age that Dustin Hoffman and pre-smoked-out Al Pacino served in the 1970s. Unlike his buddy Ben Affleck, Damon carefully picked his projects, took his time to stardom and outright street respect. Affleck choose the quick movie star route.

Guess who's career crashed and burned hard?

I say this because Matt Damon really carries the noble shipwreck that is THE GOOD SHEPHERD on his shoulders, and really dominates the film's soul.

Its just a pity that the script and DeNiro the director failed to match up with Damon's superb work.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD has such a great drama template to work with. Tell the tale of the CIA's birth, write about a whole generation of American intelligence officers who sacrificed their morality, their families, their lives in performing quite horrible things in the faint hope that their bad deeds will be redeemed with a much better world.

Instead, we get a melodramatic written in a contrived fashion, with the piss-poor dramatic physics that just fail. Hero knocks up a girl, and he has to marry her. His daddy blew his brains out. He shot a few people up for Uncle Sam. Can't you just hear the violins by now?

You know what writer Eric Roth and director DeNiro should have done instead? They have a good idea, and a good enough narrative ringer(flashbacks intercutting inbetween the Bay of Pigs disaster of 1961), so here is what I would have done.

Keep Damon as a prominent blueblood Yale man, who happens to discover that one of his teachers is a Nazi sympathizer and possible spy(since this would be the late 1930s, when there were a substantial minority of Americans that dug what Adolph was doing) and thus he commits his own investigating, in a Hardy Boys fashion, until the government recruits him.

Thus, Damon starts down his path of doing spywork and intelligence for his beloved country. We then cut to him during WW2, where he is a OSS officer with a good record. He becomes one of the pillars of the new CIA and we witness all the damn insanity between 1945 and 1961: Guatamela, Cuba, Iran, Vietnam.

Meanwhile, he had married and had a kid, but instead of the contrived house melodrama bullshit with Jolie, he loses that family because he sacrifices them. Yet in his son, who he sees as the possible redemption for his own failures and sins, he has to save...

THE GOOD SHEPHERD isn't a bad film. Its just a wobbledy movie that really doesn't know what to say, and considering that Eric Roth's script was described as "phone book-size", then with the massive rewriting and film editing by DeNiro, we have a cool ship with a major hole in the hull.

Interesting Trivia

In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb".

Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the word GOLF entered Into the English language.

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury.

Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

CocaCola was originally green.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska

The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this...)

The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

The cost of raising a medium size dog to the age of eleven: $16,400.

The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given
hour: 61,000

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National
Monuments.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from
history:
Spades: King David
Hearts: Charlemagne
Clubs: Alexander, the Great
Diamonds: Julius Caesar

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.

If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of
natural causes.

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace

Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All were invented by women.

Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey

Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A. Father's Day

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by
ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase.........
"goodnight, sleep tight."

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his
son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer
and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old
England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at
them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down."
It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's".

Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked
into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~

At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!

Damn! I hate being predictable!!

Before reading the last line, I was going to speculate how many of us were trying to lick their elbows. I'm still trying and getting pretty darn close.

Actually, a person can lick his or her elbow...if the arm is severed.

I think that the reason I can't lick my elbow is physiological; the reason I keep trying is because I have no zinc or copper in my hair.

I just came back from spending the night in the Emergency Room. Kidney stones.

Guys, if a woman ever tells you we guys don't know pain because we don't bear children just suggest she try kidney stones.

Did you pass them yet?

Oh, SC, I am SO sorry. Mr. Babe had two procedures to remove kidney stones last year, since they got stuck. I know how horribly painful they can be. I hope that you are feeling better SOON!!!!

Sorry SC. Hopefully you're all better. I've never had kidney stones, so I can't imagine. Just try squeezing a cucumber from your nostrils to feel the pain of child birth.

The doctor thinks I did (in the hospital) but I still have to pee through a strainer for the next few days. They actually had me on morphine for the pain, but at least I have very little pain now.

Thanks SB and Beth.

I'm tired now and hope to sleep.

I remember when my father used to get a kidney stone attack. Back then they didn't have the medical technology that they have today, so he would have to wait to pass them. He used to climb the walls with pain.


Feel better my friend.

I can't even begin to IMAGINE what that was like, and don't want to.

Thanks, my most valued and trusted friend.

Has anyone at least offered to kiss your boo-boo and make it all better??

SC, if you changed your mind about driving down here and giving me rocks to put in my pocket you didn't have to take it to this extreme.

Are you volunteering?

Wow, I'm so sorry SC. I can't imagine that kind of pain. I have a cousin who I'm very close to who passed one the size of a golf ball awhile back. Ouch!!

Are you gonna keep them as a souvenir ?

Me? I'm an old, married lady. I'm sure that SC would rather have a different volunteer!

Sorry to hear about it, SC. Hope you feel better.

Ok.

SC, I'm sending this one to take care of you. She should be on her way over now.

There you go calling yourself old again. You really gotta cut that out.

Besides, compared to SC you'e a baby.

Sorry SC, you know I love ya.

And here I thought DC likened himself to Sonny. I always knew you liked Tattaglia!