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The Incredible Lament

The latest big screen version of The Incredible Hulk brought back some of the pathos I liked from the 1970s series, the unrequited love, relentless pursuits, forgetfulness, and lurking despair. The Brazilian favelas held such promise for updating what made me nostalgic as did Banner's waking up in Guatemala and wandering into Chiapis. Some compare the 70s show to "The Fugitive," but it harkens back at least to Hugo's Les Miserable. It also has shades of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, of course.

Despite it's promising start, the movie quickly veered into developing a whacky, improbably one-sided foe supposedly worthy of the Hulk. By the time the Hulk faced him, I'd lost all interest in the movie. This disappointing script saw Banner hope to channel the Hulk, while docilely abetting the military skunk-works that created his problems and the monster he faced.  Bleh!  It missed the point as far as I'm concerned. So much for the Hulk's anger being an unwitting fighter for justice.

Why do American action movies need a supposedly kickass bad guy? Why can't the Hulk's condition be enough of a conflict? The thing I liked about the show was that the Hulk's anger always manage to save his normal-seeming host no matter dire the situation. These episodes were always in quiet conflicts in back alleys involving poor people struggling to survive somehow. 

The teaser for a sequel at the end of the latest attempt sets up yet another Hulk vs. arbitrary "worthy" foe scenario. I hope the sequel, if there is one, will use a script with more integrity and show more conflicts that arise from Banner's wandering. For instance, a sequel could show more of the conflicts between rich and poor and make more of the theme of impossible love. These are timely and timeless themes.  Weapons dropped on cities from on high are not something I want to see in a movie like this, no matter how sympathetic the weapon.

Retirement plans -- the cherry stem idea

It's cherry season.  Lately, I've been eating as many of that luscious fruit as I can.

I ate cherries on my way to work this week and as I entered the campus of my employeer, a company that just announced severe cost-saving measures for at least the next two quarters, I thought about my skills as I face these uncertain times. The skill of tying a cherry stem with my toungue still eludes me.  How many hours have I practiced that already?

I should keep practicing.  I think that women who can tie cherry stems into knots using just their mouths -- no matter what age -- will never run out of places to stay.

Cherry-stem tying could be my fall back retirement plan if things go really south, or at least

Chilis bows to pressure

Earlier this year, Chilis made a fabulous showing with 3 entries in in the 20 Worst Foods in America. The 2nd worst food was the venerable Chili's "Awesome Blossom."

Now it's gone.

We tried to order on on Saturday night (May 3rd) and were told it had been discontinued on May 2nd!  Is it just missing in our market? Will we need to move to another market to find one, perhaps?

Granted, we only ever ordered it when we had more than 4 people.  Even so, we want it back.

Mundane mystery #1

So, I work in corporate headquarters of a Fortune 500 company (who'd'a' thought? It's a long way from the farm).

Not only that, I also work on the same floor of the same building as our CEO. This is more by coincidence than necessity.  I could be off in one of the new building outposts and he wouldn't miss me. But, every once in a while, I run into him as I'm heading for the restrooms and he's on his way out.  Or, he'll pass me as I'm in one of the two break rooms on our floor making myself a free cup of gourmet coffee.

Even though we have a cafeteria two buildings over and we have subsidized meals at lunch and dinner, from time to time I bring my lunch.

There are three mini-refrigerators on our floor.  The one in the break room furthest from the CEO's desk is packed with smelly foods. It's dirty. And, worst of all -- it ISN'T EVEN COOL!  I might as well keep my food at room temperature.

The two refrigerators in the break room nearest the CEO clean, cold and are nearly empty. Guess where I keep my perishables?  It puzzles me why the crappiest fridge is crammed and the two best fridges are ignored. 

Why use the crappy fridge at all?

It couldn't be the distance, could it?  From where I sit the crappy one is 107 paces away and the good ones are only 77 paces away. It has to be similarly close for half the people on our floor.

Could it be because people think the CEO will see them cooling things off?

It's a mystery.

Book processing plan -- how to manage the stacks

Each week, I buy about of two books. Each month, I manage to read about two books. My reading stack is getting huge because on average, I accumulate seven unread books per month. I felt guilty about not reading. My silent stacks of books chide me when I pass them on my way to bed after a couple hours of watching TV or DVDs, so I resolved, near the start of the new year, to do something about it.

My plan is simple: I read the introduction of the non-fiction books and the first chapter of the fiction books to decide if  I really want to invest the time in reading the book. After a couple months of trying this, the approach shows a great deal of promise.

So far, I've read the first chapter of How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman. It is definitely a keeper. It's all about language and how medical doctors use and process verbal and nonverbal cues from their patients. It also describes how doctors can err and harm patients just by not paying attention. Other books captured me in and - to be honest - have sidetracked me from reading further first chapters are Elizabeth Samet's book called Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point, Lee Siegal's book Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob, Tom Segev's book, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, and Clara Cooper Marcus's book, House as a Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home.

Not all books are winners in capturing my interest. Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, Richard Dawkins book, The Selfish Gene, Azar Nafisi's, Reading Lolita in Tehran, and Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World will be waiting in the stacks a while longer.