Friday, January 8, 2010

Responsibility is a lost concept...

I read earlier that the young gentleman who is accused of trying to pull off a terrorist attack on an airplane (on Christmas Day of all days!) has entered a "not guilty" plea in court.

Excuse me. WHAT?!?!?

Dude! Your underwear exploded! How do you even begin to plead "not guilty?" Were they not your underwear?

The mere fact alone that this guy is currently being treated for burns in the general underwear-wearing" area should be a pretty good indication that he, in fact, did it.

I eagerly await the dog-and-pony show called his trial.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

No room at the inn, but a hot meal in the stable...

This morning, the kids had a weather-related school delay. I let the boys sleep, and settled myself onto the sofa with my new NY Times crossword-puzzle-a-day calendar (best birthday give EVER from my wonderful husband!). A little while later, Jack came downstairs and curled up next to me.
Jack; Mom? Are crossword puzzles hard to do?

Me: Mmm... sometimes. But this one seems pretty easy so far.

Jack: Can you find a clue for me to solve?

Me: Sure.

I scanned the list of clues and found one -- 31 down, "A gift of the Magi." It was five letters, beginning with "M." I knew it was "myrrh," and hoped with Christmas just two weeks ago, he'd remember the answer.

Me: OK, Jack. Here you go. (I pointed to the clue.) Remember the three Wise Men? It's one of the gifts they brought to Baby Jesus.

Jack: Gold?

Me: Well, remember... they brought gold, frankincense and....

Jack: (thinking really hard) Um... a ham?

After we both stopped laughing, Jack rationalized that after all that work of having a baby, Mary must've been hungry.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Great minds think alike

So, part of our Christmas week festivities was taking three of the kids (two 10yo and 7yo) out to see the new James Cameron epic, "Avatar."

The first thing that was noticed--by all three boys--was in the opening credits when it read "A film by James Cameron." This sparked their interest because James is Jeff's brother's name. James Cameron. They all about lost their minds at the coincidence. Very cute.

We proceeded to be impressed and dazzled by the outstanding visuals, enhanced by the 3-D glasses (which boosted our admission price by at least $5. Each.), and the only aspect of the movie that make me wince was the now-and-then swear words. The boys have all heard my classic lecture about words they hear and words they can say and knowing the difference.

Near the end of the movie, Jeff (who, I should explain, is an avid sci-fi fan) and I assessed that "Avatar" is like, "Ferngully" meets "Full Metal Jacket" (meets "Harry Potter"-with those freakin' flying dragon/birds... whatever they were; and "Alien" (as an honorable nod to Sigourney Weaver). I think we may have even thrown in "The Matrix" because of the whole cloned-alien thing they had going on, too. We laughed and thought ourselves to be oh-so-clever until a few days ago when I read this.

You have to scroll down a bit in the post, but you'll clearly see that the author and an aquaintance ALSO drew the connection between "Avatar" and "Ferngully."

Apparently Jeff and I aren't the only clever ones. And, since I just gave you such an easy link... I highly recommend checking out The Polymath Chronicles. Very funny, neat blog.