Movie Matchups II

DOUBLE FEATURES
Fairytales for Grownups: The Princess Bride and Enchanted
Cutie Pie Robots: Short Circuit and Wall-E
Drew Berrymore and Adam Sandler: The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates
Gender Roles in English Theatre: Shakespeare in Love and Stage Beauty
Sex Toys: Lars and the Real Girl (Clean, trust me) and Secretary (Not so clean)

TRIPLE FEATURES
Hugh Grant: Notting Hill, Bridget Jones' Diary, Two Weeks Notice
Mockumentaries: Wating for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind
Charlie Kaufman: Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Bio-fiction: Immortal Beloved, Finding Neverland, Becoming Jane
Meg Ryan and Nora Ephron: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail

MARATHONS
Dance: Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Billy Elliot, Center Stage
Spielberg: E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Amistad, Schindler's List
Superheroes: Mystery Men, Spiderman 2, The Incredibles, Batman Begins
Light Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing, 10 Things I Hate About You, A Midsummer Night's Dream, She's the Man
Food: Mystic Pizza, Chocolat, Pieces of April, Waitress

Fantasy TV Lineup

PRIMETIME
Mon - Northern Exposure, Pickett Fences, West Wing
Tue - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly
Wed - Smallville, Bones, House
Thu - Ugly Betty, Arrested Development, My Name is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock
Fri - Wonderfalls, Joan of Arcadia, Veroncia Mars
Sat - Ballykissangel, Da Ali G Show, The Office (BBC),
Six Feet Under
Sun - Grey’s Anatomy, Alias, Lost

Bedtime
The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Sex and the City, Coupling (BBC), The X-Files
Asleeptime
The Dead Zone, Wonder Years, Wings,
Designing Women, Murphy Brown
Morningtime
Clean Sweep, Mythbusters, Movie & a Makeover
Daytime
Gilmore Girls, Everwood, Felicity
Dinnertime
Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld, That 70s Show, Scrubs, Will and Grace
Wintertime
Kyle XY, Psych, Monk
Summertime
Eureka, Battlestar Galactica, Rescue Me

Giveitsometime
Samantha Who?, How I Met Your Mother, Pushing Daisies, Life

Some Favorite Books of My Youth

While making book gift baskets for some friends' children, Mark and I reminisced about our own reading as children. Our lists were pretty different, since I was a voracious reader of novels and he of baseball cards. But we both started with the same book...

The Monster at the End of the Book by Grover

• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
  
• Who hasn't ever read Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson? My husband.


• Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh


• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg


• Bridge to Terabitha by Katherine Paterson
  
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes


• Book fair gems such as Will I Ever Dance Again? and Six Months to Live by Lurlene McDaniel


• Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, especially Masque of the Red Death
  and Fall of the House of Usher


• Chain Letter and Weekend by Christopher Pike


• Misery and The Stand by Stephen King


• A contraband copy of Forever by Judy Blume


• Once in a Lifetime by Danielle Steel

Things I Learned in College

This is a list I shared with a senior class I taught on the last day of school. Afterwards, I asked them to create their own "Things I Learned in High School" lists for upcoming freshmen, which included such useful tips as "start your college applications as soon as possible" and "take easy classes with no homework."

1. SAFETY FIRST
2. Balance new and old relationships, work and play, freedom and discipline
3. Expect no leniency on policies and deadlines
4. There are absolutely no substitutes for sleep, nutrition, and exercise
5. Pick your major(s) for the right reasons
6. Avoid credit card debt like the plague
7. No one is easy to live with, not even you – be nice to your roommates
8. Study abroad
9. Take advantage of office hours
10. Save early, save often
11. Keep up with hobbies that have been important to you
12. Successful studying: keep up with reading, vary location and activities, treat yourself to new materials or music, turn off the TV, avoid junk food and sugary drinks, set an alarm, start early to prevent all-nighters

Favorite Individual TV Characters

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Top:
Josh Lyman - The West Wing
Carrie Bradshaw - Sex and the City
Spike - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
Veronica Mars - Veronica Mars
Middle:
Dr. Greg House - House, M.D.
Liz Lemon - 30 Rock
Sawyer Ford - Lost
Betty Suarez - Ugly Betty
Bottom:
Dr. Temperance Brennan - Bones
Niles Crane - Frasier
Willow Rosenberg - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Chris Stevens - Northern Exposure

If We Ever Get Another Dog...

Our dog is a 7-year-old Papillon with black butteryfly ears. We named him Dobby after the house elf from Harry Potter because he's pretty much a dead ringer. Expect he has fur. And he doesn't obey his masters at all cost. Of course, it is somewhat fitting because Dobby is eventually freed by Harry and lives the rest of his life as a free elf with no master. Since neither my husband or I had ever really had a pet before, we had no idea what we were doing when we got him. Needless to say, for most of his life he's been the master. We got some help from a dog trainer last summer to work on obedience, and it has paid off. Despite the trouble he can be, we love Dobby. He is highly entertaining. I really want him to have a doggy friend to play with, but that isn't going to happen as long as Mark has anything to do with it. But, I can dream.

• Here are the possible names: Sassy, Bones, Spike, Buffy


• Unlike the first time, we would not adopt on impulse, BEFORE puppy-proofing the house


• We would sign up for obedience school right away, rather than waiting 8 years (despite what you've been told, old dogs CAN learn new tricks, but its much harder).


• We'd know not to let the puppy sit or stand on top of us while laying down just because it's cute. Doesn't really help with the whole dominance-obedience issue.


• When buying a house, we'd know not to get a floorplan that makes it virtually impossible to gate in the kitchen or foyer.


• We wouldn't give in to the whining and make him or her sleep in the dog bed, not ours.


• We wouldn't watch a movie just because it has the same name as the breed of the dog. That's three hours of my life I'll never get back.

Movie Matchups I

DOUBLE FEATURES

Cyrano de Bergerac: Roxanne and The Truth About Cats and Dogs

Bob Dylan: Masked and Anonymous and I'm Not There

Before they were leading ladies: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Little Women

POTUS: Dave and The American President

Babs: The Way We Were and The Mirror Has Two Faces

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TRIPLE FEATURES

Nick Hornby: High Fidelity, About a Boy, Fever Pitch

Comic Capers: Trapped in Paradise, Bottle Rocket, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Baz Luhrmann: Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge

Brat Pack: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink

Young Johnny Depp: Who's Eating Glibert Grape, Edward Scissorhands, Benny and Joon

MARATHONS

Geniuses: Real Genius, Little Man Tate, Good Will Hunting, The Royal Tenenbaums

Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, The Jane Austen Book Club

Classic Musicals: The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Grease, Annie

Epic Award Winners: The Godfather, Gandhi, Braveheart, Titanic

Disney and Pixar: Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Toy Story