No, I’m not a Celtics fan. I mean, I grew up in Chicago so by default I’m a Bulls fan. But when it comes to championship games, I root for the underdog. Although that was difficult during the 2008 Stanley Cup and I’m not going to talk about that series except for maybe the third quarter of Game 5.
Anyways, it was such a treat to see Boston totally spank the Lakers last night, but the best part for me was seeing two local guys win their first championships as a head coach and player, respectively: Doc Rivers and Kevin Garnett. That was the real treat.
(OK, so Garnett actually grew up in South Carolina, but he graduated from Farragut!)
I have recently discovered that Old Navy sizes, even if the tag says it’s the same as Gap sizes are, in fact, smaller. I vote for the Gap.
by Cormac McCarthy
I was looking forward to seeing this movie, since people only had good things to say about it, but then I discovered that the book came first. And when that’s the case, I always read the book before I see the movie. Though I’d never read Cormac McCarthy’s work, I didn’t think I’d like it because I had the impression that his stories are all set in the Old West, which doesn’t interest me. But since I knew the movie is set more recently then that, I gave it a whirl and I’m glad I did!
To absorb all the nuances, I read this book twice — partly because it wasn’t until about halfway through that I was able to understand McCarthy’s narrative style. His use of dialogue reflects the speech patterns of that part of Texas, which is more extreme than say, a Houston accent, which I only know because I lived in that city for a year. McCarthy writes almost phonetically, so I had trouble understanding some of what was being said. For example, he’d write “kindly” when what the character actually means is “kind of.” In addition, McCarthy rarely, if ever, uses quotation marks throughout, so sometimes it was hard to know who was saying what until you got to know the characters. The second read helped a lot.
The narrative is sparse, yet includes so much detail. He makes your imagination work hard! Seeing the movie first would have ruined the aesthetic experience for me. Each chapter begins with a first-person narrative that reads almost like a journal entry, and is what the story is really about. It only took me about 2/3 of the way through the book to figure it out, though!
I’m very excited about seeing the movie — just bought the DVD. It’s bound to be as great as everyone says, considering it’s a Coen brothers film.
See more about No Country For Old Men
Here in Chicago, just like any major urban area in the U.S. that has Walgreens (and no, there’s no apostrophe there), there’s about one on every block, it seems. You know, like Starbucks. Anyway, Brian and I were at our local Walgreens recently. The allergy and other over-the-counter meds that kids can get high from are locked up, which is understandable. But at the one we go to, the deodorant is also locked up. We pondered this.
Brian: Maybe ’cuz they’re small and easy to steal?
Me: Yeah, but so’s a lot of other stuff, like, um . . . candy bars.
Brian: To keep people from opening ’em up and smelling ’em?
Me: Maybe . . .
It occurred to us that, like many Walgreenses in Chicago, and probably in most major urban areas in the U.S., there’s usually one, maybe two people stationed out front asking for handouts. We looked at each other.
Brian: Maybe it’s to keep people from using ’em.
Me: Yeah. Maybe.
Brian: Could you imagine buying one, getting home and opening it only to find a piece of hair on there?
Me: Eeeeewwwwww!!!!!
So I ask you. Does your local Walgreens lock up the deodorant?
