musing minds

It’s our fourth Blogiversary today!

TO US!

Caption Contest - click for original

Our caption contest is over and the winners are:

♫ I feel pretty… Oh, so pretty… ♫

Venomous Kate

If Cloris Leachman can do Dancing with the Stars, I can be on America’s Next Top Model!

Gayle Miller

and

Bill Clinton, off camera: “Hey! Who ate my last cherry popsicle?”

Mr. Right

Congratulations to the winners!

Is a great plugin. You can see it in action in my sidebar. It can be used in the template or as a widget. It’s highly configurable. I just love it. It’s what I’ve been looking for in a recent comments plugin for a long time.

John McCain said today that he has realized that the legislation as proposed by Hank Paulson does not appear to be able to pass congress. He’s calling on the President, Democrats, Republicans, to all come together and and work on legislation that they can actually pass.

He has called on Obama to likewise suspend his campaign, he’s called on the commission on Presidential debates to postpone Friday’s debate.

He says that this is a national crisis and it needs to be dealt with in a bipartisan manner. After 9/11 Republicans and Democrats came together for the good of the country and they need to do so again.

No prizes except kudos The Anchoress has graciously offered to send a lipstick kiss McCain/Palin button to the authors of the top three captions. Winners will be announced Friday before the family goes camping…

Caption Contest - click for original

Hat tip for the photo goes to The Anchoress who asks, “Why does Al Gore look like my mother, here?“

Just a quick note about something he said in his opening remarks. If he says anything else of note while being broadcast, I’ll note that too…

He’s thanking people…

…Your own governor, one of the best governors in the country, Jim Doyle. And two of my favorite colleagues in the United States Senate, United States Senator Herb Kohl, and and one of the strongest champions of ethics reform and finance reform and good government that we have in government today, please give it up for United States Senator Russ Feingold.

Oh my. Isn’t the finance reform bill commonly known as McCain-Feingold?

When we went to see Igor yesterday we also saw some trailers for upcoming movies. They look pretty good and we look forward to seeing them.

First up, next month, is City of Ember, with Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, Saoirse Ronan, and Mackenzie Crook. The City of Ember has been been underground for 200 years and the clock running the generators that provide light is running down. In order to survive, the denizens have to find a way out.

In December there’s Delgo and one we didn’t see a trailer for, but there’s a poster up at the theater, The Tale of Despereaux. Both are animated.

Delgo is the name of the protagonist in that movie. IMDb says: Delgo, an adventurous but naive teenager, must rally his group of friends to protect their world from conflict between the Lockni and Nohrin people. Delgo took six years to complete and stars Anne Bancroft (her final film), Val Kilmer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Chris Kattan, Kelly Ripa, Eric Idle, Michael Clarke Duncan, Louis Gosset, Jr., Malcolm McDowell, and Burt Reynolds.

Despereaux stars Emma Watson, Matthew Broderick, Sigourney Weaver, Dustin Hoffman, Christopher Lloyd, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Robbie Coltrane, Ciaran Hinds, Tracey Ullman and more. It’s the tale of a mouse, a rat, and serving girl whose fates are all tied up with the fate of the Princess.

January brings us back to live action again with Inkheart and Hotel for Dogs.

Inkheart is based on the book by Cornelia Funke, the story of a man (Brendan Fraser) who when he reads a book aloud, it starts coming to life and ends up bringing him, his daughter and her aunt into the story. They must, with the help of a storybook hero, thwart the will of a villain to destroy them all. Along with Brendan Fraser the movie stars Paul Bettany, Eliza Bennett, Andy Sirkis, Sienna Guillory, Jim Broadbent, and Helen Mirren.

Hotel for Dogs stars Emma Roberts (Eric’s daughter, Julia’s niece), Kevin Dillon, Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow, Kyla Pratt, Jake Austin, Troy Gentile and some cute dogs including an adorable little Boston Terrier. Some kids take in stray dogs in an empty house and devise clever ways to take care of them without anyone finding out. They come up with a Rube Goldberg machine to feed and clean up after the dogs when the children can’t be there. Based on the novel by Lois Duncan

We went and saw Igor this afternoon and it was so much fun.

In a world named Malaria where it storms every day, the only thing to do is to be an evil scientist. Or an evil scientist’s Igor.

Except one Igor (John Cusack) who wants to be an evil scientist too.

Igor has a couple of sidekicks/friends/inventions named Scamper (Steve Buscemi) and Brain (Sean Hayes). His scientist boss is Dr. Glickenstien (John Cleese) and their nemesis is Dr. Schadenfreude – yep, Schadenfreude – (Eddie Izzard).

Shades of Young Frankenstein were seen when the Monster goes to the orphanage for blind children and then is captivated by paper flowers.

One of the best lines: “I’ll be an environmentalist, but I’ll fly private when necessary.”

Click to go to Malaria.com to donate for mosquito nets

It be International Talk Like A Pirate Day me mateys!

Dontch ye be fertgetting it now.

Caroline Baum of Bloomberg News said teats (that’s the proper spelling of the word that’s properly pronounced “tits” – and Caroline pronounced it correctly) in relation to Sarah Palin’s breasts on Fox and Friends this morning.

Brian got embarrassed and walked off the set just prior to the end of the interview…

Brian: Seems like history but it is history whether they win or not.

Gretchen: She’s a governor that came from out of nowhere to help Republicans in November, but Democrats seem to be leveling their harshest attacks at Governor Sarah Palin rather than on McCain. Do they hate her? Or do they fear her? What is it Brian?

Brian: I’m going to ask Caroline Baum that if you don’t mind waiting here. She’s a columnist with Bloomberg News and has done an extensive study on this. What does your gut tell you Caroline? And where’s the hatred come from?

Caroline: The hatred comes from the fact that Sarah Palin for the first time has made the Democrats’ road to the White House less inevitable. You know, there was an entitlement, inevitable, this inevitability. “This is our moment. This is our time.” Obama has said. And all of a sudden, it went from the convention to the crowds at campaign rallies. And the Democrats are saying, “who is she to upset our apple cart?”

Gretchen: Because, by all accounts, the Democrats should win this election if you look at what’s been going on. You take the pulse of the American public if we’re talking about the war, now you’re talking about the economy. But the fact that that might not happen, what does that create for the future of the Democratic Party?

Caroline: It means they have to look into the mirror and perhaps accept that they are bankrupt in terms of appealing to the population in terms of ideas. I mean it has never been so good for a party out of power as you said. Unpopular president, an unpopular war, lousy economy, housing in the tank, stock market now falling off a cliff, and 80% of the public saying that the economy is on the wrong track. If they can’t win now, when can they win?

Brian: What I don’t understand is, if you’re a Democrat, are you a Democrat first or, for example, a woman first? That sees a breakthrough. I mean there’s no, there’s a huge breakthrough here that regardless of your party.

Caroline: If you’re asking me I think the idea that she would appeal to Hillary voters, you know, the pro-choice versus not seems to be a much bigger issue than, you know, she has teats, versus she, you know, she has another body part, that, you know, men have.

Gretchen: Did you just say that?

Caroline: Am I allowed to say that on air?

Gretchen: Brian has to leave on that comment. But I got the point Caroline. I definitely got the point. Alright. Well thank you so much. You are a columnist with Bloomberg News and it’s a fascinating article.