HOME AND QUIET

A winter storm blew through Arizona yesterday and last night, leaving us with just a frosting of snow today.  The horrendous winds have finally calmed down somewhat but with the skies a leaden overcast it looks cold out there.  Better to stay inside if I can.  However I checked the weather forecast and saw a sudden warming trend on Sunday when the mercury is forecast to rise to 66 degrees.  I'm ready for that.

In the meantime, I've kept a cursory glance on Mitt "Richy Rich" Romney and Rick "I LIKE the 14th Century" Santorum as they careen madly around Michigan.  Arizona has its Republican primary today but virtually everyone including the candidates are ignoring it.  Most folks who were inclined to pick among the yahoos voted weeks ago, thanks to early voting.  I caught a glimpse of CNN today and their anchor/reporter was reduced to walking around with Joe Arpaio.  He's self-billed as the toughest sheriff around.  Locals think of him as either the most loved or most loathed public official.  There is no middle ground on Sheriff Joe.

SWMBO must have foreseen this political season and its affect on me as she gave me this book for Christmas.

She knew of my past affection for the good doctor so it couldn't have been a more perfect gift.  I'm reading it slowly so as to extract maximum satisfaction from it.  He was a joy.

Oh, on another front, I was nominated by my "brother", Tom, for a singular award the other day.  I accept.

In return for this honor I am instructed to tell you seven things about myself.  All right, here goes.

1.  I began life as a child.  Growing up in snowbound North Dakota made me a man by the age of six, when I was turned out (on ice skates) to make something of myself.

2.  My first writing triumph came in the first grade when we were assigned to write a (very) short story.  Mine concerned a rabbit escaping from a coyote and exclaiming "Whew!  What a relief!"  My teacher was impressed.

3.  In high school I discovered the dramatic arts and acted in two class plays.  This I carried into my abbreviated college career where I was in several plays, including "Hedda Gabler" and, less classicly, playing the lead in "The Gazebo".  In the latter theatrical gem, one of my fellow players was a young man named Dick Armey.  I am appalled to say he later went on to politics and became Majority Leader of Newt Gingrich's Republican House of Representatives.

4.  My interest in politics came when I was working at a radio and television station in Bismarck, North Dakota.  My boss had sent me to cover a tax conference.  I understood nothing but I came back and wrote a story for him to read.  He asked a couple of questions, to which I gave wavering and uncertain answers before exploding, "Damn it, Taylor, you're a good crime reporter but you don't know (expletive deleted) about politics!"  I figured my job was lost but later my boss took me for drinks and explained that I would just have to learn politics since our station was in the state capitol and the bulk of our news would be politics and government.  I learned.

5.  During my career, I attended (as a reporter or producer) six national political conventions and one mid-term national convention, as well as the 1969 inauguration of Richard Nixon.  Other than the first two - the 1968 Republican meeting in Miami Beach and the Democratic gathering in Chicago - the rest were all just long hours, a lot of work and exhaustion.

6.  I interviewed many politicians in my career, including a number of presidential candidates.  I believe I shook hands with all three of the Kennedy brothers (John, Robert, Ted) but my favorite interview of all was with an actor, John Wayne.  We went to his waterside home in southern California and he couldn't have been nicer to us, even allowing us to hold his Oscar for "True Grit."  He was dressed in seersucker trousers and a camelhair jacket but the thing that stood out the most to me?  He sounded exactly like John Wayne.

7.  I have been married to SWMBO (Judy) for about six weeks shy of 41 years now and, with some bumps in the road, it's been great.

Now, I am supposed to name several people to pass this award onto.

And so, after careful thought, I name:

Warren at Touch the Wind 

Jerry at Gently Said and

Dana (Bug) at Bug's Eye View

And with that, I'm going to join my pal, Jazz, for a little rest.



UPDATE ON DANICA

Danica Patrick was involved in a five car crash on the second lap of the rain-delayed Daytona 500 auto race last night.  Her car was damaged enough that she had to return to the garage.  She got back into the race on the 66th lap but by then she had no chance to compete.  She finished 38th, becoming only the third woman in history to run in the race.

THE OSCARS

Well, it's over for another year.  The Academy Awards.  The Oscars.  The glitz.  The glamour.  The guys in basic black tuxedos.  The gals in gorgeous gowns.  I thought every woman looked fabulous this year.  The designers worked overtime and did a great job.  SWMBO and I disagreed on Meryl Streep's costume.  I thought she looked great, she and her friends (more about that later) thought she looked terrible.

Well, she won the Oscar so na-na-na-na-na-na.

But the absolute best costume and most beautiful woman at the Oscars was . . . ta-da-da-dah!



The incredible Gwyneth Paltrow.  All I could say was "wow!"

Lots of commentators were snarky about the choice of the emcee for the night.



Yes, as Billy Crystal himself displayed, this is his ninth time hosting the Oscars.  And his routine opening the show was typical, putting himself in each of the nominated movies.  But I think he's very funny and excellent for the show.  Maybe I'm getting old.

As for the awards, I was amazed to see Meryl Streep win because I had believed all of the hype about Viola Davis having it wrapped up for "The Help."  And just to turn it around, I had picked Janet McTeer for her supporting role in "Albert Nobbs" and Octavia Spencer won for "The Help."

Now here's the hooker.  Of the movies and roles nominated, I have seen "Midnight in Paris", (which won best Original Screenplay for Woody Allen), "The Descendants", (which won for Adapted Screenplay), and "Beginners", which got the Oscar for Christopher Plummer as Best Supporting Actor.

So I'm hardly a good judge.

But I know what I like.

Oh, I almost forgot.  SWMBO abandoned me, as is her wont.  Our friend, DK, has a ladies-only Oscar party every year at her home in Flagstaff.  SWMBO had declined it, I think, last year for some reason or another.  But this year she went.  She reports it was a great party, nine ladies making snide comments about all those Hollywood ladies while eating copiously and drinking perhaps even more copiously of wine.  Ahhh . . . . vino and movies.  How much better can it get?

DANICA

For those of you who are not into auto racing, you may not recognize the name Danica Patrick  Or you may.

She was an Indy car driver, a veteran of some 150 races.  She won an Indy car race in Japan in 2008.  She finished third in the Indy 500 in 2009.  But last August she announced she was leaving Indy car racing to drive in NASCAR. 

Thursday in practice for the season's first race she survived a tremendous crash into the wall, climbed out of her car and walked away.

One day later, driving her backup car, she won the pole.

Sunday the race gets underway at Daytona International Speedway.

Along with her racing career, she's been a model and is a spokeswoman for Go Daddy. com.

As one of my friends said today "she's got a great bod."

Here's the proof.

One way or another, this gal has a career in front of her.

Steve is right.  (see Comments)  She was on the pole for Saturday's race but crashed again and finished 38th.  But she'll be out there again today at the Daytona 500.

MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES

I don't know if it's because the Academy Awards are coming up or just coincidence but I've been watching more movies lately.  Herewith, my amateur reviews.

"The Kids Are All Right".  I thought this one was kind of ehhhh.  Annette Benning was great as one half of a lesbian couple with two teenagers.  And Mark Rufalo was handsome and appealing.  But otherwise it kind of left me cold.

Next, a documentary on "Sacco and Vanzetti".  I was curious about this one because SWMBO, many years ago, got so intrigued with their case that she read the entire trial transcript.  It was pretty well done and left me feeling a bit outraged at the racism that I feel led to their executions.

"The Rum Diary", with Johnny Depp playing a drunken Hunter S. Thompson character in Puerto Rico . . . which of course was based entirely on Thompson was fairly good because I like both Depp and Hunter.

"The Village Barbershop" with John Ratzenberger as a cantankerous beer drinking barber whose partner has just died was a delight.  He is forced into hiring Shelly Cole to save his dying barbershop.  It's very funny, melancholy at times but well worth seeing.

And then I charged into our DVR'd collection of movies.  I started with "The Maiden Heist" today.  Christopher Walken, Morgan Freeman and William H. Macy are all hilarious as they play against their strengths.  Marcia Gay Harden is equally funny as Walken's wife.  The three guys are all security guards at an art museum.  Each one is in love with a different piece of art.  When they are sold to a museum in Denmark they conspire to steal them during the move.

And finally, I finished today with an oldie but a goodie "12 Angry Men" with an incredible cast of Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E.G. Marshall, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Jack Klugman, and Robert Webber and others are fantastic in this 1957 movie that was Sidney Lumet's film directing debut.  The 12 are jurors in a murder trial that seems open and shut as the first vote is 11 to 1 for conviction.  But Fonda works his magic and the final verdict is aquittal.  Highly, highly recommended.

And that's where we are right now.  Some goodies in there but some stinkers, too.  The next thing coming from Netflix is the second season of "Treme."  I can't wait.

THE 20TH . . . AND LAST!!!

The apparently last debate of the Republican presidential nomination process took place last night in Mesa, Arizona.  The gang of thieves held 20 of them.  TWENTY of them.  They are probably, as Barry Goldwater was wont to say, "sick and tired of being sick and tired."  As are we, the poor television viewers of this sad and ugly saga.

So a quick review.  Virtually everyone I've read this morning mentions the four candidates sitting at desks that appeared to be too small for them, leaving them squirming like little boys.  Frankly I didn't notice that.  I did notice the professor on the far right . . . (hmm, I wonder if I was referring to the television screen or the political spectrum) . . . Uncle Newt seeming to have a difficult time holding his arms over his h-u-g-e midsection.  Calista must have already read the will if she keeps feeding him the Georgia diet!

Unlike his earlier debate styles, Newt seemed to be sharing an amused conversation with Romney (the dog abuser) most of the night.  Asked to describe himself in one word, Newt chose "cheerful."

At the other side of the stage was that groovy guy, Ron Paul.  He seemed to begin each of his answers with a chuckle or two.  I think everyone got a chuckle out of his reply to a question about why he had called Rick Santorum in a t.v. ad "a fake".  Paul looked momentarily surprised at the question and then said "because he's a fake!"  I can't really figure out what Paul's game is considering his dismal performance so far.  But he does provide some comic relief.

Then the two guys in the middle, who didn't provide any comic relief last night, Rick Santorum, the former Senator from the 14th Century, and Cousin Willard, Mitt Romney.  What the hell kind of a name is Mitt, anyway.

Since Santorum has risen to the top of the leaderboard as this week's "not Romney", he got much of the vitriol last night, from the other candidates and from the crowd, which may have been packed by Romney.  As Romney was introducing himself at the beginning, he was interrupted by applause.  Rather than continue his introduction, he quipped "as George Costanza says, when they're applauding, stop talking."

Santorum heard the unfriendly sound of booing several times as he told the crowd things like "I voted for it but I didn't believe in it" and "when you're on a team sometimes you have to take one for the boss."  The booing probably came from Tea Partiers in the room.  We should all remember this debate was held in Mesa, Arizona . . the once and possibly future fiefdom of Russell Pearce, who was the president of the Arizona Senate until he was successfully recalled not too long ago.

And Mitt, who still seems likely to win the nomination eventually.  Not that it will be worth much by August.  He was a little snappish, telling Santorum at one point "don't look at me, look in the mirror."

I'm sorry, folks.  I seem to have lost my sense of humor about this bunch of bull-goose loonies.  Thankfully, we'll have no more debates.  At least not until the Republican nominee demands to debate President Barack Obama.  But I'm not worried about that.  The Prez can just sing 'em to sleep.

SINGER IN CHIEF

He's been at it again.  Last night was Blues Night at the White House and you-know-who was dragged into the act.

C'mon, Mr. President, express yourself!