Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Into The Desert
Really? Ultimate fighter isn't the correct term? What is it called? Cage Fighter? MMA fighter?— September 20, 2008 1:29 a.m.
Octogenarian -- No, it's not a Bond film.
Good point, noodle. It reminds me of a movie I saw recently. I think it may have been Batman Returns...it was a few years ago. The villian was a young man, and his grandfather or father was dying...and he burst in as the family was grieving. He had a new will for the dying man to sign. The guy died with pen in hand, before signing. So, the bad guy takes his hand and moves it along the document. Of course, the family got nothing. He got it all. Yet I then started wondering...obviously, you can't forge a name when they're holding the pen, and make it look legible. But when someone is old, their signature might look completely different (I have a signature of Billy Wilder from when he was in his late 80s...and I'm sure it looks shakier and different than when he was 25). But I wondered how often that actually happens. Oh wait...you need a witness to sign them too, right?— September 20, 2008 1:28 a.m.
Using Guns....and O.J. Simpson
Yeah, honesty doesn't work in the ol' courthouse, does it? I did a blog on why the DMV has forms that they hand you that are also written in Spanish. My main complaint was...those were the ONLY forms they handed me. I had to go back to the window (with a person sighing, because they thought I was "cutting in line"). And, it sounds so cliche, and so racist, to say "learn english if you want to be in this country." Because, truth be told, I have no problem if you don't want to learn english to be in this country. But, to get a drivers license, you can obviously guess on what a "stop" sign says. But...a sign that reads "slow traffic...construction ahead" wouldn't be read by someone that can't read English. And that's unsafe. So, right there on the spot, the court should've said "Regardless of what the jury finds you in this case, we're revoking your license, until you can read/speak english." At the very least, for an officer that might pull him over. Tax money shouldn't go to having a variety of officers trying to figure out what he is saying. (and how many job listings to you see where bilingual is "prefered"?)— September 20, 2008 1:24 a.m.
Chargers and Referees
Well, lucky for you, the Raiders have sucked for a few years now. Yeah, the chop block thing bothered me. But, I don't hold that against Denver the way I do other things to other teams. For example, Denver had a few jerks in that time. I forget his name...Bill Romanowski or something. He and a few others (even spit on people, poked eyes, etc). Yet, a team like the Raiders...they have losers and thugs each year. And, I'm not just talking about the players. The fans often act this way, too. Although, I do root for Kirk Morrison, a former SDSU player. And, you don't need to worry about the Patriots this year. They were looking old near the end of last season, and now with Brady out, it's only a matter of time before Randy Moss stops trying to even run the routes (remember him doing that in Oakland?)— September 20, 2008 1:20 a.m.
San Diego Marine -- No Medal of Honor
There has to be some kind of training for grenades. They have you get shots for the possibility of Anthrax attacks. And, I imagine, every scenario is run by for combat soldiers. I just can't imagine that rolling on top of one is a good instinctive move to use. What if you are laying there for 30 seconds, while everyone else jumps out of the fox hole. And, you would've had time to climb out, too...had you just done that instead of rolling over on the grenade.— September 20, 2008 1:17 a.m.
San Diego Marine -- No Medal of Honor
Hey....thanks for all that information. Very interesting. I don't buy the "racial bias", though. It's just like when they say there's a difference between men and women and their wages, in the work place. When you look further into it...there really isn't. The women that are making less at the law firm, took time off to have kids, or didn't put in the time their male coworkers did. They admitted this, too. So, if statistics showed that more Caucasians received the medal of honor, even though the numbers of Caucasians in the military doesn't seem to make that stat make sense, that, to me, doesn't prove anything. But bluenwhitegokart....do you know anything about what proper training is, when a grenade lands in the fox hole? I'm curious about that. Because, just like the firefighters that were told NOT to go into the World Trade Center right before it collapsed...it's brave, and it's a wonderful thing they did. But, it was also stupid. They were told not to go inside. And, at the end of the day, aren't you supposed to follow the orders of your superiors? What if them dying, kept them from doing other jobs that would've helped more people escape? Obviously, they lost their lives trying to save others. There isn't a more brave, unselfish thing in the world. But, it's the reason you have training, and follow your instructions, instead of going on emotion.— September 19, 2008 9:49 a.m.
Cut Locks, Big Bucks
Somebody should donate something to Sondre Lock. When she dated Clint Eastwood, she got to star in all his films, even though she wasn't the best actress. Now what does she do? The Clarence comment was funny...although, there probably wouldn't be a big demand for that. Usually people like movie stars and singers. Not court justices. Monica Lewinski saved her famous "blue dress". I'm sure in 10 years, when she runs out of cash, we'll see that up on eBay. I wonder if, when Mean Joe Green did those commercials in the 70s, where he drinks the boys Coke, if people asked him to autograph bottles and cans of Coke.— September 19, 2008 2 a.m.
The Most Recognizable Man in Movies Dies
Hey, great idea anti. Now I'm thinking of ways to "stir things up" when I die. And to think, all this time, all I ever thought about regarding my death, was what cool song to play. Would it be "The End" by the Doors? (this is the end/beautiful friend) Would I copy The Big Chill and play the Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Nope. I'm done with all those thoughts. Now I'm on to plotting out the chaos. And a2....I did mention the commercials in the first or second paragraph of my write up. I just didn't say the company name.— September 19, 2008 1:57 a.m.
Got Smart
I agree, that the final de-briefing is an amazing scene. The "what did we learn?" line, with what it's followed by, took whatever bad tastes I had in my mouth, and cleaned them outta there. To me, this movie and the critics, reminds me of No Country. Both were good, but did not deserve the praise heaped on them. I found this movie to be a good dark comedy. And, it's probably the best movie at the theatres right now. So it deserves good reviews. Just not overly praised. And, as for direction, I'm not sure why they didn't tell Pitt to take it down a notch. His lines worked perfectly with Malkovich....correcting him on the bike brand, or mispronouncing "rapport" (no 'spoiler alert' necessary...they showed you this stuff in the trailors). But, with his constantly going over the top with the character, it loses something. It becomes a character that is hard to believe is real. I mean, look at his co-worker. We know she's dumb. For numerous reasons. Yet, she occasionally does smart things. And other than her stupid smile/giggle at the doctors office in the very first glimpse we get of her, she doesn't overdo the "stupid".— September 19, 2008 1:53 a.m.
Yo Ho, a Pirate's Hat for Me
Well, four people left messages at the Reader offices, letting me know that the John Cusak movie is called "Better Off Dead."— September 19, 2008 1:46 a.m.