Calvin & the Snowmen, part 9

Jack Bauer vs. the evil Republican

“24” almost lost me last night.

We’ve known for some time that presidential aide Walt Cummings was a bad guy, complicit in the assassination of former President David Palmer, the attacks on the others at CTU that knew Jack Bauer was still alive and the murder of several civilians during the hostage crisis at the airport. And that was all just before lunch!

But last night we finally learned his motivation. It was all a plot to plant false evidence of weapons of mass destruction to justify further U.S. troop deployments to secure the flow of foreign oil!

Oh, brother. As soon as I heard “weapons of mass destruction” and “oil” I had to groan. The evil Republicans strike again.

I love “24” and will keep watching, but that was a bit much.

'Tell me where the campaign finance reform is!'

Aaron sent me this "24" tidbit from USA Today:

McCain has a role in '24' — but just for a 'blink'

Viewers will be able to spot a real government figure on the Feb. 6 episode of 24 (Fox, 9 p.m. ET/PT). Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a fan, was visiting the set in the fall when producers asked if he was interested in doing "a little Alfred Hitchcock star turn," executive producer Howard Gordon says. "We had a scene in which Audrey Raines (Kim Raver) needs to get a file folder from someone, and Sen. McCain delivered it."

McCain's non-speaking cameo as an unidentified bureaucrat is so brief it seems like a "Where's Waldo?" moment, Gordon says. "If you blink, you'll miss it."

Before the scene, producers talked politics with McCain. "He was more interested in talking about scenes from 24," Gordon says. "He was able to cite chapter and verse from the seasons."

'Raiders' rides again

I went with Aaron tonight to see my all time favorite movie at the Palace Theatre in Albany: “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

You have to understand, seeing this movie—especially on the big screen—is like a religious experience for me. When I hear the familiar John Williams music I get chills. And several times during the movie I became consciously aware that I was staring at the screen with a big smile on my face. For me, “Raiders” is simply everything that’s great about the movies!

“Raiders” will mark its 25th anniversary later this year. The print we watched was scratchy in parts, but all-in-all in pretty good shape.

Yes, I own the Indiana Jones DVDs, but you know what? Give me a scratchy print at a movie theater any day! There is something about the shared experience of watching your favorite film in a theater full of people who ooh and ah, and laugh and cheer in all the right places.

There’s another reason I prefer the old scratchy print to the DVDs. As much as I love this movie, I’ll be the first to admit it’s far from a perfect film. It has its share of flaws, some of which, through the magic of digital technology, were cleaned up for the DVD. Perhaps the most obvious example is the famous reflection of the cobra in the Plexiglas separating Harrison Ford from the deadly snake. I miss the reflection! To me, it’s part of the charm of the movie. When we were kids and we discovered that reflection, we felt like we were in on some big secret.

By my count this was about the 40th time I’ve watched this movie (and the fifth time on the big screen—three times when I was kid and another screening the old Madison theater seven or eight years ago). Even after seeing it all those times, tonight I still noticed some details hadn’t spotted before—giving me reason to watch it a few more times.

It’s one thing to enjoy a movie. But no other film makes me feel happy like “Raiders” does.

Bawdy B-and-B

Boy…you drive past a place a million times and you never realize what’s going on inside.

If memory serves, this building—located in an area filled with doctor’s offices and private homes—used to be some sort of nursing home. But not anymore!

I think the AP article about the Union Street Bed and Breakfast put it best:

There's more than R-and-R going on at a B-and-B in Schenectady. There's also some S-and-M, and neighbors say that's not O-K.

There was an article about the B-and-B on the front page of the Times Union today. WNYT also has a story with video.

Among the amenities offered at the Union Street Bed and Breakfast are the “dungeon room,” the “examination table” and a selection of adult toys. All of which you can see pictures of on their site. I’m a little hesitant to offer a link here. But Albany Eye has the link, so go check his site out.

Some of the questions being asked around the water cooler this morning: Does the Union Street Bed and Breakfast get any Metroplex money? Are they offering any cross-promotions with “Phantom of the Opera” at Proctors? What can we buy there for $18.70?

Multi-million dollar makeover

All the buildings in the Niskayuna Central School District will be getting a major facelift. The $94.5 million bond proposal passed 2,712 to 1,553.

Construction will begin in the spring of 2007 and will be completed in phases, with some completed in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Alumni should come back and visit their schools soon. Before long they won’t look a thing like you remember (and that’s a good thing for our kids).

While the cat's away...

Is it time already to set limits on having girls in their rooms?

Kris took this picture last week while Thomas’ friend Stephanie was over visiting. While Kris was putting Nolan on the bus, they took the opportunity to jump in bed and pretend to be taking a nap.

Day of decision for Nisky schools

Today is the big day for the Niskayuna Central School District. Voters are going to the polls to decide if a $94.5 million bond issue gets approved.

The district wants to make extensive renovations to all eight of its buildings, including new classrooms, building repairs, updated heating/cooling systems and technology upgrades.

The state will kick in enough aid to cover 67 percent of the total bill. That means we taxpayers would have to cough up $31 million over the next 20 years.

The big sticking point for me was a plan to relocate the media center in the high school—the one was just expanded and remodeled only 15 years ago. The plan is to move it to center of the building and turn the former media center into classroom space.

The district claims the current media center is not big enough anymore and that they get more aid from the state this way than if they tried to expand it again. That’s also why they aren’t building a whole new high school, as was once considered. Apparently the state gives more for renovating than building new.

There is also the added convenience of having it centrally located, instead of being at the back of the school where it is now.

I wasn’t completely convinced this was necessary. However, I voted “yes” anyway because so much of the work is needed.

You can get detailed descriptions of what’s planned for each school on the district’s site.

Network merger

Perennial fifth and sixth placed TV networks UPN and the WB are going to merge into one network.

CBS Corp., owners of UPN, and Warner Bros., owners of the WB, will be partners in the new network, which will be called the CW.

The CW will be broadcast on Tribune-owned stations, which locally includes WEWB (WB 45).

It will be interesting to see what this means for WNYA (UPN Capital Region).

I don’t care which channel it’s on, as long as they keep “Everybody Hates Chris” on the air!

Actually, the CW will be run by execs from both UPN and the WB who say UPN shows “Chris,” “Veronica Mars” and “America’s Next Top Model” along with WB shows “Gilmore Girls” and “Smallville” will be among the programs on the new network next fall.

Calvin & the Snowmen, part 8

You're fired

NBC is making a bunch of changes to its schedule. Among them, Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice” is moving to Monday at 9 p.m.

That means I’m done with the Donald, since that move puts the show opposite my favorite show, “24.”

I’ve always enjoyed “The Apprentice,” but I don’t like it so much that I’m willing to tape it every week while the vastly superior “24” is on. So that’s the end of that.

Meanwhile, “The West Wing” has also been officially cancelled. I don’t think this surprised anyone. A lot of people expected this to be the last year for that show.

I stopped being a regular viewer somewhere during season four. But lately I’ve been checking the show out more often. I thought last night’s episode was very good. It’s ironic they turned out such a good episode the same weekend they announced the show’s cancellation.

Life with the Rooneys

Remember a month or so ago when I mentioned school was canceled even though we only got two or three inches of snow? We had the opposite problem today. School remained open despite some pretty sloppy roads.

It usually takes me 30 minutes to get to work. Today it took over an hour with traffic barely moving on Route 7 heading towards Latham.

We checked this morning and saw that school was open. So Kris put Nolan on the bus. But it turns out that a late decision was made to cancel p.m. kindergarten. Neither we nor the bus driver knew this. So the bus had to eventually turn around and bring him back home.

Things were moving slow today, but we had an action-packed weekend. We recently became members at the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology—a very cool place—and took the kids there again Saturday morning. Among other things, we checked out their nifty Molecularium show.

Then later that night we attended a pot luck dinner held on the Siena College campus for families of adopted Asian kids.

But of course, a high point of the weekend for any kid is always a trip to McDonald’s. Yesterday we went to one of the ones with a giant play area and met our friends the Price family there. Nolan was excited because he and Thomas got two toys in their Happy Meals (I think they’re just trying to unload surplus toys from past promotions)!

We rounded the weekend out with dinner at my mom’s house.

Now you’re caught up with us. Kris has some cute photos she’s taken recently that I haven’t posted yet. Hopefully I’ll get those up soon.

Osama's book club

What does this say about Americans?

In his taped message yesterday, Osama bin Laden suggested Americans go out and read a book called “Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower” by William Blum.

It’s been noted on The Daily Nightly that yesterday that book was ranked 209,572 on Amazon.com's book list.

Now that it’s on Osama’s must-read list—it’s jumped to 43rd!

More reasons to dislike Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise is apparently unhappy with the depiction of him in a recent “South Park” episode—and is using his clout to keep it from airing again.

I wouldn’t say I watch “South Park” regularly, but when I do more often than not I wind up laughing out loud.

The funniest episode I saw from the recent season was a hysterical spoof of Scientology, in which Scientologists believed Stan was the second coming of L. Ron Hubbard.

The same episode, entitled “Trapped in the Closet,” featured a subplot in which a cartoon version of Cruise locked himself in a closet and refused to come out.

Cartoon versions of ex-wife Nicole Kidman and fellow Scientologist John Travolta try to coax Cruise out.

“Don't you think this has gone on long enough? It's time for you to come out of the closet. You're not fooling anyone,” the cartoon Kidman says.

Cruise has convinced Paramount to keep the episode off the air in the United Kingdom, and apparently they’ve agreed not rerun it in the United States either. Although the Comedy Central site says it’s scheduled to air Monday night (or is that this past Monday?).

Paramount released Cruise’s “War of the Worlds” last year and will release his “Mission: Impossible 3” this summer. Apparently they don’t want to risk angering their big shot star.

This is unbelievable. As if I wasn’t already sick enough of Tom Cruise. If he’s going to live his life in the public eye—with his couch jumping and berating of Brooke Shields—then he needs to learn to lighten up.

At least the “South Park” folks are lucky he didn’t unleash the Dark Side of the Force on them.

Welcome to the Blogosphere

My oldest buddy, Aaron Hull, has launched his own blog--The World of the Hulls.

Aaron is a frequent commenter here, never missing an opportunity to jump into a fiery debate about politics or baseball.

Aaron and I go way back to Little League baseball in the 2nd grade. We both played for Goldstock's Sporting Goods. His dad was our coach.

He plans to use his blog to show off pictures of Baby Hull, who is due to arrive in the next few weeks.

Death of a Soulman

The news just crossed that soul legend Wilson Pickett has died of a heart attack at age 64.

Pickett’s “Mustang Sally” was always a favorite of mine—especially after seeing the movie “The Commitments.”

You could always tell I’d reached sloppy-drunk status at a party in college when I could be found laying on the floor somewhere belligerently insisting that I get to hear “Mustang Sally.” In fact, I can remember one end-of-the-year PSTV party where I spent several minutes annoying many people as I slumped in a bean bag chair outdoors yelling, “Play ‘Mustang Sally!’”

Perhaps I’ve said too much…

Anyway, RIP Wilson.

Lift off!

The New Horizons space probe just launched on its nine-year trek to Pluto.

Here’s an amazing fact: NBC’s Jay Barbree just reported that the spacecraft is traveling so fast it will pass the moon in nine hours. It took the Apollo astronauts three days to get to the moon!

So how fast is New Horizons? Barbree just said it’s moving at 36,000 mph.

Hopefully in 2015 New Horizons will reach its destination and we can learn all about Pluto, the ninth planet in our solar system.

Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam

Here’s how much of a geek I am: upon hearing that Clarence Ray Allen’s last words before being executed in California were “It’s a good day to die,” the first thing I thought of was, “Hey! That’s a Klingon phrase!”

I’m such a loser. It’s like the Taunton Dam all over again.

NOTE: No, I did not know that translation off the top of my head. I had to google it. I'm not that much of a geek that I speak fluent Klingon!

'23:50'

I was running late getting to the TV Sunday night for the start of “24.” We had dinner at my sister’s house. By the time we got home and got the kids to bed, it was past 8 p.m.

You just can’t start watching a “24” episode in the middle of the show. I already had the VCR set up to tape it just in case and I figured I’d wait to watch the two-hour season premiere at 10 p.m.

But I lucked out. I turned the TV on just to make sure it was taping properly and to my surprise, “24” hadn’t started yet. Football ran late on Fox.

Unfortunately, fans of the Jack Bauer Power Hour in Columbia, S.C. were not so lucky. They were outraged when their Fox affiliate’s 10 p.m. newscast started on time, cutting off the last 10 minutes of the show.

Bad move. “24” viewers are fanatical when it comes to their favorite show. Like this guy:

Paul Teeple, 43, of Columbia, hadn’t missed a second of “24” from the start — even from 2001 to 2003, while working in Nicaragua for his employer, an international development nonprofit organization. He had friends record it for him.

“I’m mad, I’m upset, and I’m having a hard time rationalizing this,” he said. “This is the one TV show you wait for and wait for, and there’s always a cliffhanger — but this is too much.

Another fan put it best:

“Somebody has lost their mind,” said Steve Arnold, a fan who was watching the show at his Irmo home.

I know all too well that it doesn’t take much to get the phone ringing off the hook at a TV station with calls from irate, crazy viewers. I’m sure the folks WACH got an earful.

Christmas II

We finally capped off the holidays this weekend with a visit from Kris’ patents. The way the timing of things worked out, we weren’t able to get together closer to Christmas.

We had a very nice visit. The kids always love seeing grandma & grandpa. Plus this time there was the added bonus of…more presents!