All the Pretty Horses

by Cormac McCarthy

I’m not sure why I picked this book up — it’s not my usual type of book; though I may have wondered if I should bother seeing the movie. I’m even less sure why I finished reading it. The writing style grated on my nerves the whole time. McCarthy doesn’t believe in proper punctuation (like putting quotes around what someone says), and while some (like the folks who choose the recipients of the National Book Award) might see this as an artistic choice adding to the flavor of the book, I found it distracting.

This is the story of John Grady who has been around horses on his parents’ ranch for his entire 16 years. Shortly after his grandfather dies, though, his parents split up officially, and his mother decides to sell the ranch to persue an acting career. John is not ready to leave the world of horses and ranches, so leaves with is horse and his best friend, and heads south into Mexico to see where their fortunes take them.

I had a difficult time figuring out when this story was taking place until I was about 75% finished. I did find that I cared about the characters, and wanted to know how the story ended, but I’m not sure it was worth the work it took to get there.

Ford Dealership

Andrew got this puzzle for me for Christmas. It’s an old-time Ford dealership, and there is a Model-T in the lower left corner. Have I mentioned my Model-T yet? I don’t think so…I’ll need to do an entry on that.

Red Planet

2/5 stars

I was ready to put all the bad science behind me and just enjoy a good sf movie, but there were so many other holes in the plot that I just couldn’t do it. For example, at one point, the surface navigation robot, AMEE, gets switched into “military mode” from “navigation mode,” and overhears the team members saying that they need to “kill” her to get the power they need for something (I already forget). Instead of killing them outright, she just maims one and runs off. Gallagher, Val Kilmer’s character, explains that she’s playing war games, and will come back and kill them one by one. Huh? She was clearly having no trouble with the three of them, so there would be no reason not to just kill them then and there. Come on.

So, since it was so bad in other respects, let’s chronicle the bad science that I can remember:

• Enough green algae on Mars will produce oxygen. Bloody unlikely — the green algae would die first.
• Where there is oxygen and water, life will follow. Well, maybe, but it’s highly unlikely that the life will go from green algae to insane omnivorous bugs. Way more likely to be some variation on the green algae, and a long, painful path from plant-life to animal-life.
• Mars will produce a breathable atmosphere in just a few decades (or less). Even with enough green algae alive and some kind of super bug, there ain’t going to be enough oxygen to have a viable atmosphere on Mars anytime soon.
• Astronauts could survive on the surface of Mars for a day without protective gear. Even if I could believe that Mars could have a breathable atmosphere, there is virtually no protection on Mars from the harmful radiation of the Sun. On Earth, we have the upper atmosphere to protect us from the harmful radiation of the Sun (gamma-rays, X-rays, UV) On Mars, there would not yet be a complex-enough atmosphere for such protection. Even if the astronauts did survive a day without their helmets, they would have severe radiation poisoning.

That’s all I can remember for now. I’m not going to re-watch it just to find bad science.

Perhaps I could have enjoyed this movie if there had only been plot holes and no bad science or no plot holes with bad science, but I just couldn’t look beyond both.

Rebecca

4/5 stars

A young, naive woman (we never learn her name) marries a widower in a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo. When he brings her back to the house, the memory of the former Mrs. De Winter, Rebecca, haunts the young woman at every turn, from the off-limits west wing to the creepy head housekeeper.

As with most older movies, the pace is much slower than films made today. There is much build up over the first hour and a half, and almost too much happens in the last 20 minutes. But, overall I enjoyed the movie.

Supersize Me

4/5 stars

Morgan Spurlock decided to see what would happen if he ate only McDonald’s food for a month. He decided on a few simple rules: he could neither eat nor drink anything that was not sold at a McDonald’s, he had to eat three meals a day, he had to try everything on the menu at least once, and he would only supersize the meal if asked.

Interspersed with his culinary quest, he interviews various experts on fast food — including the lawyer behind some of the McDonald’s obesity law suits. He spirls into depression and poor health in just a couple weeks. His mood is elevated each time he eats, only to crash again once he finishes his meal — a clear sign of an addiction.

This was an entertaining documentary — on par with Bowling for Columbine. Definitely worth a watch.

Note: I’m vegetarian, and so have not actually eaten McDonald’s food for over a decade. I do, however, occasionally enjoy a veggie burger from Burger King, a vegetarian burrito from Chipotle (which, sigh, is owned by McDonald’s), or a veggie sub from Subway.

Great Outdoors puzzle

Another puzzle finished. This was one of those where all the pieces are shaped the same (except the edge pieces, but all the edge pieces were shaped the same), and there’s no picture on the cover of the puzzle box. You have to assemble 60 mini-scenes using 9 pieces each, and then figure out how they go together using clues in the scenes. It was actually quite fun.

Eccentric?

I’ve had a clipping from the Minneapolis Star Tribune for years. The title is How to tell if you’re off-center. The criteria, in descending order of importance are:

1. Noncomforming
2. Creative
3. Strongly curious
4. Idealistic: Wants to make the world better
5. Happily obsessed with a hobby
6. Aware from childhood of being different
7. Intelligent
8. Opinionated, outspoken
9. Noncompetitive; doesn’t need society’s reinforcement
10. Unusual in living and eating habits
11. Not interested in the company of others
12. Possesses a mischievous sense of humor
13. Single
14. An oldest or only child
15. A bad speller

I confess that I fit the description for numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 (except a select few people), 12, and 15. At the time I clipped the article, I was also single, and had no desire to find someone — happily, that has changed 🙂

I did a search for Dr. David Weeks, the person the clipping says is responsible for this list, and it turns out that he wrote a book, Eccentrics that I might just want to look into.

Gibbon’s Decline and Fall

by Sheri S. Tepper

The Decline and Fall Club (DFC) is a tight-knit group of diverse women who met and bonded in college. They vowed to never decline nor fall (based on the title of Gibbon’s book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire). Carolyn becomes a lawyer, Agnes a nun (as she had planned before entering college), Faye a sculptor (despite her killer voice), Jessamine a biologist, and Betty a wealthy wife running several charitable foundations. Then there was Sophy. The rest of the group was never quite sure how to take Sophy. They loved her dearly, but was always a bit of a mystery. They suspected that she was a Native American, and they knew she was stunningly beautiful. However, Sophy never liked her beauty, and even just a look from a man made her feel used. She was clearly confused and confounded by the way women were treated in society. At some point, as the DFC saw it, Sophy did decline and fall.

However, a few years later, when suicide cults were on the rise and hooded men chased young women from the streets, and odd sort of resistance started. The DFC couldn’t help but wonder if Sophy was somehow involved. Perhaps they were all involved in some way.

Once again Tepper gives us a well crafted, compelling story with great, strong female characters. She gets preachy in this novel, but I don’t care because I was so carried away by the characters.

America’s Dumbest Criminals

by Daniel Butler, Alan Ray & Leland Gregory

This is a collection of 200 stories of dumb criminals. It’s a bit like reading an extended version of News of the Weird. Fun, fast, but readily forgotten.

Annie Hall

3/5 stars

I’d never seen this “classic”, and thought it was about time so I’d know what people were talking about when they mentioned it. Not sure what to say about it — it’s good Woody Allen.