Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 629

Back-to-back books

Now that my daughter is becoming more independent, she sometimes insists upon reading on your own before bed, but not before she assigns books to my wife and I as well. 

She is quite specific in her choice of material and quite demanding in terms of our focus and attention. 

The daughter of two school teachers in action, I guess.

   

I get much, much better with age

On Saturday I served as a judge for the state finals of the American Legion's Oratorical Contest. 

During the luncheon that followed the event, I learned that the mayor served as a judge for last year's contest, and forty years before that he had finished second in the same contest.

I suggested that after 40 years, the mayor might as well start telling people that he won the contest, since it was doubtful that anyone would bother to check. 

This led me to decide that my achievements will also improve as the years go by.

For example:

In 1995 and 1996, I won back-to-back state debate championships while attending Manchester Community College.

By the time I turn 65, I'll have won six in a row. 

In 1996, I was a Truman Scholarship finalist and a USA Today Academic All American, second team.

By 2030 I'll have won a Truman scholarship and a Fulbright scholarship as well, and my position on the Academic All American Team will be elevated from second team to first team.

I was named the McDonald's Manager of the Year in 1989, 1992 and 1993. 

When I turn 60, I'll have won the award from 1989-1993. 

In 2005, I was named Teacher of the Year in my school district and was one of three finalists for Connecticut Teacher of the Year. 

By the time I retire, I will have won the Connecticut Teacher of the Year award and been named one of three finalists for the national award.  And by the time I'm 90 years old, I will have won that as well.

Age has its privileges.

I cant speak Spanish even though I opted for Spanish

Whenever I use the self-checkout line at a supermarket, I opt for the Spanish form of directions, finding the additional challenge slightly exhilarating. 

Not earth shattering in terms of excitement, but a way of adding a little mental stimulation to my day.

And up until today, this choice had never caused me any real trouble.  There have been occasions when locating the correct fruit or vegetable was difficult, but that is the purpose of the exercise.

To make things a little harder. 

Another time I required the assistance of a store employee, and when asked if I needed help, I answered, "Si."

A thrilling day indeed.

Things went slightly awry today, however, when the Spanish-speaking gentleman waiting in line behind me began conversing with me in Spanish as I scanned my items. 

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said.  "I can't speak Spanish."

The man looked at me funny.

"I don't speak Spanish," I said again.

The man furrowed his eyebrows.  

"No habla español," I said, attempting a friendly smile.  "I just hit the wrong button on the machine."

The man continued to stare at me as if I was a walking, talking item from the produce section.  I quickly scanned the rest of my items, swiped my debit card, and fled the scene, feeling stupid and embarrassed.

I may switch back to English next time I'm in the supermarket. 

Be little again

I am not religious (though I am a minister), which makes this a little odd. 

And it comes from the film that was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and The National Coalition on Television Violence, with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute, which makes it odder still. 

But regardless of my personal belief and it's context, I love this prayer from the film Red Dawn:

These were good friends. Take them away from here... someplace safe... where this world's war never happened. And as we remember... please let them forget, O Lord... so they can be little again.

Take away the reference to World War III (unless it's unfortunately relevant) and it is almost perfect. 

It wasnt as good as I remembered.

Helen Slater's physical appearance clearly had a lot to do with my thirteen year old appreciation for The Legend of Billy Jean.

It just wasn't that good.   

After this evening viewing of the film, my wife said the following:

"Things like making sense didn't matter when they made this movie"

"It had a moment of Are You There God. It's Me Margaret.  And a little bit of Teen Witch.  And a lot of 80s.  It was just bad." 

In addition to her observations, I also noted that:

All gunshots in the Billy Jean universe strike the shoulder region and result in simple shoulder slings. Billy Jean's inexplicable donning of a wet suit for her prerecorded "Fair is fair" message to the media was clearly done in deference to the zipper down the front of the suit and the director's decision to leave it open.

 

Why a wet suit was available poolside remains a mystery.    

The underground railroad of short haired girls and bike dudes featured during the Pat Benatar Invincible montage could stand alone as classic camp, including its Thunderdome-like ending. What do writers and directors do without the now-defunct television store fronts filled with dozens of TVs conveniently tuned to the evening news in order for their protagonists to see themselves as misidentified fugitives and renegade outlaws?

How could one ever hope to fill such a void?

The Legend of Billie Jean: Fingers crossed its as good as I remember.

In 1985 I went to the movies and saw the film The Legend of Billie Jean.  I remember liking it a lot, but I was fourteen years old at the time, so my standards regarding the quality of a film were possibly questionable. 

The movie stars Helen Slater as a rebel teenager who gets in trouble with the law over a scooter repair.

Sort of a teenage version of Thelma and Louise. 

Except events center on a scooter repair. 

The movie's tagline was:

When you're seventeen, people think they can do anything to you. Billie Jean is about to prove them wrong.

I'll be honest.  I don't remember the scooter at all.  I'm sure it fits in seamlessly with the highly evolved plot, but it sounds a little odd without context. 

The film also stars Christian Slater (not related to Helen, though their mutual appearance in the film would lead some people to assume that they are brother and sister to this day) and a host of B-level movie stars from the 1980s, including Yeardley Smith, Dean Stockwell and Peter Coyote.

Not exactly an all-star cast, but that doesn't mean anything.

Right?

The movie comes up often in conversation because of the movie's soundtrack, which featured Pat Benetar's Invincible, a song specifically written for the film.  Whenever I hear the song, I am compelled to ask whoever is around if they ever saw the film, and I have yet to meet anyone who did.

Not one.

Based upon my wife's most recent response to this question, I suspect that I may have asked it more than once.

So I decided to purchase a copy of the film for her to watch, so the cheese would no longer stand alone. 

It wasn't easy.  The movie was never released to DVD, even though Yeardley Smith said in a recent interview that she had recorded a DVD commentary in 2008 and that the DVD was supposed to have been released that same year. In 2009, Columbia Pictures released the film to Europe, and after much finagling, I finally managed to purchase a copy.

With a bowl of ice cream in hand, we are about to watch it.

I'm a little afraid. 

I'm starting to regret tracking the film down in the first place. 

I fear that it will be terrible and all of these years of searching for someone who watched The Legend of Billie Jean will be for naught. 

Fingers crossed, I'm hitting Play now. 

Proverb 1.1

When the start time of an activity is expressed as a goal rather than a certainty, you know that the organization conducting said activity is less than finely tuned. 

Designed to ruin my day

The Coco Cola machine at Goodwin College has eight rows of Coke, six rows of Sprite, eight rows of Powerade, eight rows of orange juice and no Diet Coke. 

What the hell?

Mugging it up

My daughters isn't always so keen on posing for the camera. 

But allow her to stand atop her laptop and her attitude changes completely.

   

Not a fan of dragons

After my daughter goes to bed each night, my wife and I like to take a look at the way that she has left her toys set up in the living room.  She does a lot of pretending with her little people and their various accouterment, and the scenarios that we find are often quite amusing.

This is what we found tonight:

  

It would seem that she does not like dragons at all.

It's actually a little creepy.  Don't you think?