Movies and more

I've been on a movie watching jag lately. I just watched "Donnie Brasco" with Johnny Depp and Al Pacino, among others. Yesterday I watched "Nick of Time" with Depp and Christopher Walken. Both were quite good but after all the violence I think I'm now ready for a chick flick. My movie aficionado, Reed, had never heard of the "Nick of Time" film so I actually got one up on him. He's a true movie maven so has usually already seen everything I see. I don't know how I'd missed these two Depp films all these years.

Speaking of film, look what I found:



Looks like paradise, doesn't it. And I only live a half-dozen miles away. Meantime, just up over Mingus Mountain, maybe 15 miles away in the opposite direction is one of my favorite towns: Jerome.



As noted, Sedona and the Red Rocks are only 25 to 30 miles beyond that. Not a bad place to live, here in the heart of Arizona.

Birthday Day

David Bowie and my pal, Reed, both became 63 years old today.

But the big marker is for Elvis Presley. Were he still alive, he'd be 75 today. If you want to celebrate that milestone, you might go no further than The New York Times Dining Blog. Click on the link for a truly Elvis recipe.

Damn that Maxine!

A song for the times

Do cats have memories?

I was struck by this question this morning just after I had let Smoke out the back door. I watched as he sniffed along the deck, then leaped to the top of a fence separating our yard from our neighbor's yard.

The neighbor has an un-neutered small black male cat. While he comes into our garage and apparently sleeps there from time to time and generally seems to get along all right with Smoke, there have been a couple of instances where apparently the hormones are raging and the two of them get into a spat. A cat spat. I'll hear the howling and when I go out, they are nose to nose. Smoke, as I have often said, is a very placid cat but in these instances he seems to become the alpha cat and in a very short time chases Blackie (as I call him) out of the yard.

I'm sure neither cat relishes these encounters. At least they don't appear to enjoy them. So why, I wondered this morning, does Smoke go over into Blackie's yard as if looking for him? Is it because he has no memory of the bad encounters?

Well. I am a man of the 21st Century so I did what all good modernists do - I went to the Internets in search of an answer. And on a site called "Pawprints and Purrs, Inc." here's what I found:

Cats have a memory that can be up to 200 times more retentive than dogs. The individual feline uses his memory only for what he regards as useful functions; therefore, a cat's memory is quite selective.

Now I would think that avoiding a contretemps with another cat would be a useful function but perhaps it's not as useful as remembering where one's food dish is located. If any of you readers have a better idea or more knowledge about this than I do, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Red Meat Rock

Thanks, Tom!

Happy Birthday, Alaska!

It's Alaska's birthday today. 51 years ago, on January 3rd, 1959, President Eisenhower signed papers officially making it a state.

And you can see Russia from there.

Well, not from Anchorage. Or Wasilla. Or especially not from the state capitol in Juneau. But as you can see from this map (if you expand it by clicking on it) on a clear day you can probably see Russia from the island of Little Diomede. A little bit of it anyway.

Happy birthday, Alaska. Keep your eyes on the skies.

01-02-2010

You may not have realized this but today's date is palindromic. Yup, that means it reads the same forward to back or backward to front. Need an explanation? Click here.

Can you believe there are people who sit around thinking these things up?

It's a new year!

2010 dawned with a bright, hopeful, sunny day here in Arizona. With it came a new idea for landscape beautification. The city has just re-paved a road across town but January 1st is no time to be growing grass alongside it. So . . . solution? Paint the dirt! Presto! A green border!

So long, 2009 - Greetings 2010!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
There is a tradition in New Orleans to have a funeral parade accompanying the casket to the graveyard. A dixieland band accompanies with a slow, sad song. But once the body is in the ground and the cortege heads back to town, the music changes. To give you an idea of how it goes, here is a famous Dixieland Band from Hungary, of all places - the Benko Dixieland Band. Say goodbye to 2009 and hello to 2010!

What's the score again?

Run-up to New Year's Eve

Well, there are only three days (actually about 2-1/2) left of 2009. Soon it will be New Year's Eve. I'm trying to get into the right mood.

Christmas Eve 2009

SWMBO and I were invited to the BRD's house last night for her traditional Christmas Eve dinner.

Beautifully decorated, as usual. And dinner was superb. Mussels in garlic butter sauce, lobster tails, twice-baked potatoes, asparagus, mini-beef Wellingtons, artisanal bread, Creme Brulee. And lots of good wine.

We came home with full tummies.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Sun Day

Ah the sun is back, the skies are clear, the temperature is up, most of the snow is gone, all is right once again with the world.

The second shortest day of the year

All right. It was a day late but the snows of winter arrived today . . . first in Prescott.

Some of the houses lend themselves to Christmas card photos when the snow is falling.

As one heads down the hill, it looks slippery (and it was) but to a boy who learned to drive in North Dakota, it was no problem.

Out in Prescott Valley, it took awhile to turn from rain to snow but eventually it did, turning the countryside white.

But now that we've had our "White Christmas" . . even a few days early . . it's time to bring back the sun. And it was trying to burn through at mid-afternoon.

The weather wizards say snow will leave our area tomorrow and the high temperature on Christmas Day is forecast at 48. So by then, this will be only a memory.

The first day of Winter

No snow on our level here, though there is some on the higher peaks in the distance. But the longest day of the year was a mighty bleak one, with a possibility of rain showers tonight and tomorrow.

Oh, good grief. Friend Reed has pointed out that the first day of winter is not the longest day of the year - it's the SHORTEST! I may be getting too old for this.

Yah, well it's Christmas

After some nagging, SWMBO finally decorated for Christmas.

Joe the joke

Progeny

As one gets older, one of the joys of Christmas is getting cards with photos enclosed. Usually, it's photos of children of your relatives. Such was the case yesterday when a card arrived from one of our granddaughters, along with photos of her two sons. Our great-grandsons. That seems amazing to say but it's true. So here are two Colorado cowboys . . . Kyle and Donovan, looking ready to rope the range.