Ebert has added The Right Stuff to his list of “Great Movies”. I was surprised to see him almost arguing against manned space flight in his review.

The The Age ran a great interview with Dr. Atkins today entitled “Look Mum, No Carbs”. It’s an excellent introduction to the low-carb lifestyle and addresses some of the criticism that’s been written about it. It also tries to explain how the diet works, which is something that often gets lost in the usual “You can eat steaks deep-fried in butter and still lose weight!” tabloid angle.

Channel 10 just showed E.T. as counter-programming to the Cricket World Cup. Man, that movie always makes me cry. Afterwards I had to go back and read Ebert’s excellent review, which is one of my favorites. I love that he signs it “Grandpa Roger.” 🙂

Who could you take in a fight? I could take Eddie Vedder, especially since he gave such a wimpy-ass answer.

“You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.” But only slightly less well known is this: “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! AH HA HA HA! AH HA HA HA HA HA! AH HA HA HA—“

Wow! I got linked from Pop Culture Junk Mail on February 4. I can’t believe I missed that!

I’ve always been a fan of political cartoons, and I found these ones commemorating the Columbia disaster very moving and powerful. It’s interesting to see how so many different artists around the world still centered on the same themes: parents and children, the shuttle as a constellation, the flag on the moon at half-mast, and the crew going home to heaven. I especially liked how many of them included a Star of David for Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut. Definitely worth checking out…

This is a story about a girl. Her mother dies and while she’s attending the funeral she meets a man. She’s never seen him before in her life, but she feels an instant connection and falls head over heels in love with him. A few days later, this happy girl kills her own sister. What was her motive?

If you said “She was hoping the guy would appear at the funeral again”, congratulations! You’re a psychopath. The Snook, I am happy to report, is not a psychopath. My own results were inconclusive, as my manic tendency to speed read and skip ahead meant that I read the answer before I’d even finished the question. So in other words, even if I am a psychopath, I’m a crappy haphazard one. 🙂

(Yeah, yeah, I know the whole thing is crap. I did find it on Snopes. I just thought it was amusing though.)

Very interesting discussion going on at Tara D’s site. Are you a wabi-sabi person or a weltschmerz person?