Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, May 29, 2018

  • WifeGeeding and I were talking about playing a prank on a friend, nothing we thought was mean-spirited but DaughterGeeding interjected, “Mom, don’t! It’s called being a role model.”
  • WifeGeeding took DaughterGeeding to watch a local production of “Pollyanna” so I took BoyGeeding to watch the Solo: A Star Wars Story, which he loved. Here are some spoiler-free thoughts:
    • Going into it, I didn’t think Alden Ehrenreich could pull off a convincing Han Solo, but he won me over.
    • I don’t think anyone should compare it to The Last Jedi. Disney is doing two different things with the backstory films and the new stuff with the new characters. With The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, they are capturing the attention of a new generation and taking chances with cannon. With Rouge One and Solo, they glorify the older films and give us that old school grit. While The Last Jedi had all of the ingredients of a Star Wars movie, I feel like it trampled on canon and took characters in questionable directions. Solo, on the other hand, seems to honor canon in a way that was noticeable, but not in your face. Sure, The Last Jedi was a movie of epic scale and visual achievement and took some brave or controversial steps, but the story and character behaviors didn’t mesh within the Star Wars universe for me. Solo, on the other hand, was an underdog film which exceeded my expectations and impressed me with the way it handled some key character moments. I don’t think it deserves the negativity surrounding it. Ron Howard, from what I heard, rescued it and rewrote or reshot 80% of it when he took over, so bravo to him.
    • It hasn’t been reported anywhere, but I swear I spotted the back of Harrison Ford’s head in one scene and I think it’s a cameo.
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is my favorite of the Indy movies, and it just happened to come on television the other day and I started to watch it from the start. To my surprise, it caught the kids’ attention right away and they were hooked and watched the whole thing. A lot of times I’ll turn on something hoping it they will watch it with me and usually they end up going to another room to play or start focusing on something else like a book or toy. That’s a high compliment to Stephen Speilberg and George Lucus, especially when you consider all the current slate of movies and their special effects to keep our attention.
    • Since I watched The Last Crusade immediately after Solo I was able to spot some a few key connections between the two films. One, in particular, was an opening chase scene in Solo and the Venice boat chase scene and the in The Last Crusade.
    • The Last Crusade starts with a younger version of Harrison Ford in a train chase scene. In Solo, a younger version of Harrison Ford is in a train chase scene.
  • Why does Indiana Jones wear a leather jacket in the jungle and the dessert?
  • On Sunday, NRA president Lt. Col. Oliver North spoke at Ed Young’s Fellowship Church in Grapevine.
  • GIF – Two dogs playing tetherball
  • The CBS Evening News had a story by Michelle Miller about RFK Jr. wanting to reopen the investigation of his father’s death. I found that interesting because Miller’s father was the first doctor to attend to RFK at the site of the assassination, though that fact and connection wasn’t mentioned in this new story.
  • I had no intention of watching Netflix’s The Crown but after watching one episode with WifeGeeding, I’m hooked. It also caused me to look up an item or two about the Queen and the Royal Family and I got stuck in a research wormhole. One of which was this tidbit with President Ronald Reagan.
    • Another 1982 visit began a little awkwardly however, when Mr. Reagan insisted his wife, Nancy, walk in front of him. Royal protocol required that she walk behind, next to the queen’s spouse. Finally, they all walked in line together.
  • Last night one of the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ puzzles was “WKRP in Cincinnati”. It wasn’t college night, but all the contestants were born in the Nineties and didn’t have a clue what it was referencing. The look on some of their faces trying to understand what “WKRP” was hilarious.
  • I really enjoyed HBO’s documentary on Senator John McCain. It’s not a criticism, but I always thought it was a bit ironic of him representing Arizona, a landlocked state known for being a desert. Afterall, he comes from a strong Naval family, his father and grandfather were Admirals. There’s nothing wrong with a man adopting his wife’s home state.
  • It’s about time for us to replace the over-the-range microwave. Any suggestions? I’m used to the most basic function of setting a time and not using any features. But now, I see some have sensor cooking controls and a steam cooking feature.
  • We took the kids to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and found a cool wooden mirror installation which uses a camera sensor and different shades of small wooden blocks.

 

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12 Responses to Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, May 29, 2018

  1. Terry b says:

    I watched the wof episode as well and do not understand why the two teachers buzzed before all the letters were revealed. They just had to wait. That team also used “Uranus “ as a wrong guess. Giggle snort.

  2. AndreaJN says:

    I’ve had wonderful tours of art museums by docents. Even though I am not a big follower of art, having someone who is knowledgeable and passionate about a subject show you around is wonderful!

  3. Bizarro Big Tex says:

    Good luck on the microwave replacement project. May I suggest you consider a countertop model if your kitchen area permits. Never been a fan of the over-the-range models. I am suspicious that the constant heating and cooling of the cabinet from use of the stove leads to condensation in the microwave, which leads to failure of electronic parts sooner. No empirical research to back up that belief, just life experience. Plus always felt the only thing appropriate above a range/stove/flat-top grill was a super-duper vent-a-hood that is ducted through the roof. Not those fake ventilation setups that just dump the air back in the kitchen. You can never have too much kitchen ventilation.

  4. RPM says:

    I threw out a WKRP reference at a graduation dinner the other night. It landed flat as a pancake. I thanked everyone for reminding me I was the oldest person there.

    • Triple Fake says:

      Would it be safe to say your WKRP reference ended up “hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement”?

      Triple Fake Les Nessman
      Five-time winner of the Buckeye Newshawk Award, the Silver Sow Award, and the Copper Cob Award!

      • Bryan B says:

        We somehow got on the subject of the WKRP turkey drop at work last Thanksgiving and it was hard to get the young’uns in the office to appreciate it.

  5. Rob says:

    I like the one eye open/one closed reflection of one-eyed WifeGeeding.

  6. Bryan B says:

    I added my “B” initial to the end of my name because it would appear there’s another “Bryan” commenting here. I don’t want to get confused for this imposter. (Kidding, but seriously, what are the odds?)

    I really enjoyed Solo, but I fully expected to and I have thoroughly enjoyed the other 3 recent Star Wars releases. Are all of them flawed in some way or another? Sure, but I’ve found them all to be very entertaining. Maybe I’ve been lying to myself all along and I’m more of a shallow Star Wars fan than I think. My entertainment threshold is pretty easy to overcome: “Was this better than 2 hours at work?” is my barometer for success and this movie far exceeded. My one and only minor beef is that this was always sold as a Han Solo focused movie and, for the most part, it was, but it also felt more like he was just one in a great ensemble cast of a really good heist movie. That’s really just semantics, so take that with the grain of salt with which it was issued.

    Last Crusade is also my favorite of the Indiana Jones series. It’s just a really fun, visually spectacular movie and I will stop down and watch it if given the opportunity. The Harrison Ford-Sean Connery combo works on a number of levels. “Son, I’m sorry. They got us.” is one of my favorite movie lines of all time. It’s a shame they couldn’t get them back together again for another sequel, but I suppose that makes Last Crusade that much more special.

    • Geeding says:

      My barometer for success is somewhat similar to yours and I can trace it back to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. When it first came out I was stoked and I asked a friend about it and he didn’t want to ruin my excitement and he simply said, “Well, I was entertained.” When I watched it, I was let down, but then realized I was entertained and nothing will live up to movies in my formative years.

      Good thoughts on Solo btw. In many ways the heist took away from the main subject.

      • Bryan B says:

        I have to confess that I’ve never seen Crystal Skull. I’ve just never taken the time to watch it since it was so widely panned.

  7. Suzi says:

    I guess I live a sheltered life, but I was shocked recently when I read an article about McCain. I admire his behavior now – his honesty in calling out his mistakes and what he sees as the mistakes of others, but it sounds like the first 9/10 of his life were spent being churlish. I’ve never been around someone who used the “c” word, and to use that term in front of others to refer to his wife…I found that shocking.

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