Saturday, June 10, 2006

Question of the day

What ever happened to sizes A and B batteries?

Plat du jour










A volleyballer?

Friday, June 09, 2006

Is this better than being Bert?

I can't seem to eliminate this blank space. Please scroll down.



































After finding out that the Sesame Street character I most resemble is Bert, I now find the most Star Trek character I'm most like is Geordi LaForge. But I'm equally like a Redshirt--an expendable character who gets killed in an early encounter with whatever enemy the main characters happen to be battling. In neither case do I resemble them that much though--only 55%.


I think I prefer being Bert.

Your results:
You are Geordi LaForge
You work well with others and often
fix problems quickly. Your romantic
relationships are often bungled.

Geordi LaForge 55%
An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 55%
Jean-Luc Picard 50%
Deanna Troi 50%
Data 47%
Uhura 40%
Spock 37%
Chekov 30%
Leonard McCoy (Bones) 25%
Beverly Crusher 25%
James T. Kirk (Captain) 20%
Mr. Sulu 20%
Mr. Scott 15%
Will Riker 15%
Worf 15%

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

Thursday, June 08, 2006

I got promoted!

Well, my prediction in February, when I was chosen to be assistant treasurer of the NY LGBT Lawyers Assn. Foundation became true a lot sooner than I anticipated. The treasurer resigned a couple weeks ago, and last night the board made me treasurer. Now I'll really have some work to do.

Ugh!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Gap advertising

I bought some everyday pants from the Gap, just regular black khakis. Whenever mine wear out I order a couple more pairs. I have to do this online, because they seldom carry my size (28" inseam) in the stores. This time what arrived had their label sewn on the outside, over the right rear pocket. It's pretty small, gray and fairly unobtrusive, but I'm still walking around advertising the Gap.

I didn't volunteer to be a walking billboard. I haven't noticed them decreasing the price any to compensate me for doing their advertising. I suppose I could try to cut the label off, but that might look worse. Grump, grump, grump.

Monday, June 05, 2006

Mindboggling statistic of the day

Barbie doll unlikely to grill steak: Canada court
Mattel Inc. relies on Barbie dolls for about a third of its global sales, with the average young Canadian girl receiving two a year.

I guess his name wasn't Daniel

Lion Kills Man Who Went Into Kiev Zoo Cage
Jun 5, 10:38 AM (ET)
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - A lion killed a man who climbed into its enclosure at the Kiev zoo, police said Monday.

The lion attacked the 45-year-old Ukrainian late Sunday after he used a rope to climb down into an enclosure with four lions, said police spokesman Volodymyr Polishchuk.

Ukrainian TV channel NTN broadcast interviews with witnesses who said the man told them that he believed God would not allow the lions to hurt him.

Polishchuk said the man, who was not identified, was acting aggressively and one of the lions seized him by the throat. The man died at the scene.

Zoo officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Plat du jour















.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

I've been busy III

Someday I'll catch up.

5/24: After another great dinner at Marseille, we went with a friend to see Faith Healer. I liked playwright Brian Friel 's Dancing at Lughnasa, when I saw it 15 years ago, and this had a super cast: Ralph Fiennes, Cherry Jones and Ian McDiarmid. What I didn't realize was that this was a revival--a revival of a play that lasted only 20 performances after it opened on Broadway in 1979. I found out why it lasted only 20 performances. It was simply one of the worst dramas I ever had the misfortune to see. No matter how good the performers (and they were all excellent), when you start with a bunch of unsympathetic characters just reciting their memories of past events, slowly, teasingly, adding a little fact here and there, everything out of sequence, so the audience doesn't really know what happened until after 2+ hours, it does not make for good theatre. I should have known that having Lord Voldemort and Emperor Palpatine on the same stage would produce something very evil.

5/26: Mission Impossible III--not bad, really. Since I agreed 100% with Michael Phillips' review in the Chicago Tribune, you can go there for a more detailed opinion.

5/27: New York Philharmonic Music Director Lorin Maazel conducting. The concert started with Hector Berlioz' Harold in Italy, Symphony in Four Parts for Orchestra with Solo Viola, after Byron (that's quite a title). Philharmonic Principal Violist Cynthia Phelps did the solo part. I like Berlioz' music a lot, but this one doesn't generate as much excitement as some of his other work. This was a good performance both by the orchestra and soloist--though I suspect Pinchas Zukerman might get something more out of this piece than Phelps, who seemed a bit restrained. She did wear a great dress, though, an unusual one for a soloist--most usually wear solids, but this was a print. Phelps (who would have no trouble convincing anyone that she was a cheerleader in her California high school days--which she was), however, could pull it off. After intermission it was Gustav Mahler's First Symphony--with its Frère Jacques third movement theme. Maazel's conducting kept everything flowing nicely.

5/28: The Da Vinci Code. I haven't read the book, and I did my best not to learn anything about the plot beforehand. About the only thing I did read about the film was the difficulties they encountered filming in the Louvre. So everything was pretty new to me--which I suppose is the reason why I wasn't totally bored by this mess (well, that and looking at Audrey Tautou). Since I don't happen to believe in the divinity of Jesus, the plot had some plausibility to me, but the gaps of logic were too many. All of the characters were more characatures--Tom Hanks playing the semi-befuddled American professor sucked into this thing, Paul Bettany playing the evil monk, and everyone else having at least two motives for doing anything. Ian McKellen did stand out as the most convincing character. I found Alfred Molina's bishop even less convincing than his Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway. I did like the cinematography--they shot Paris well. But, I really have to wonder about one thing though--are French detectives prohibited from shaving?