Best Thing Disney Has Ever Done

I saw "Coco" tonight. It made a huge impression. Best thing Disney has ever done.

The Saga of T-Rex

Jessica Crouch Makes Sacramento Proud

Carolyn brought a Radio City Music Hall program back with her from NYC, and I was pleased to see Jessica Crouch is dancing with the Rockettes this season (and last too, apparently). She's the pride of Sacramento! (I was in 'Carnival' with her in 2002 at DMTC).




And Omigod, Last Midnight!

Vivid Dreams of Late

Fell asleep. Had a scary horror dream about trying to fall asleep as my car vanished into thin air. I writhed and watched lightning flash reflections in a CD case. Afraid to fall asleep now. I’d count sheep, but like the Cowardly Lion, I fear them.

The next night, I awoke from a dream where I was shouting personal insults at a ghost named Carol. Now that I’m awake, I’d like to apologize. No use antagonizing the ectoplasm.

Prepared Second Draft of College Days Memoirs

I've been working on memoirs. I've prepared a second draft of a memoir of my college years, working title: "A Window of Opportunity: A Sojourn through the Academic West of the Seventies and Eighties." My hope is to finish it up before Christmas.

Dance Scene From "Metropolis" (1921)

World Disco Finals of 1980

Nightfall: November 24th to January 22nd

"In Barrow, Alaska, the sun set yesterday (Nov. 24th) at 1:38 PM. The next time the sun rises will be on January 22nd at 1:26 PM."

You Don't Have To Decide

Deciding on a college major can be difficult. There are many things to consider. The process is even harder for graduate study. Bad decisions can be hard to unwind.

I knew Dennis at UNM in Albuquerque in 1979/80. He was already unusually-old for a graduate student. Here is an article about Dennis in 2010. He was still in graduate school! He had changed specialties, but was considering changing fields yet again.

Don't let anyone say you have to decide on a college major. Scorn commitment. Indecisiveness is a decision:

Dennis Cohen is a man of many trades. Working toward a Ph.D. in atmospheric physics at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, the last place you might think to find the amicable yet curious scholar is accepting an award at an international film festival.

But the gifted academic is also an avid author whose latest screenplay, “Caroline and Johann: A Love Story,” garnished a prestigious award from the Alaska International Film Awards (AIFA) in July, an honor that Cohen said is attracting celebrities like Marisa Tomei.

A resident of Queens, N.Y., Cohen spends much of his time in Steven’s Life and Light Laboratory, a space filled with chaotic cubicles and paper-jammed desks.

“We’re doing at lot of atmospheric stuff,” Cohen said last week. “The field has applications in global warming.”

Cohen holds two master’s degrees from accredited universities – the University of Wyoming and University of New Mexico – but said he is still unsure which field he will eventually pursue.

“I might switch to another area after I graduate,” the amateur playwright said. “[Atmospheric physics] is very interesting, but too much computer work, which can really get on your nerves. I’d rather use a pencil and paper.”

Conservatives Get Creative

James O'Keeffe again:

But on Monday morning, Post reporters saw her walking into the New York offices of Project Veritas, an organization that targets the mainstream news media and left-leaning groups. The organization sets up undercover “stings” that involve using false cover stories and covert video recordings meant to expose what the group says is media bias.

James O’Keefe, the Project Veritas founder who was convicted of a misdemeanor in 2010 for using a fake identity to enter a federal building during a previous sting, declined to answer questions about the woman outside the organization’s offices on Monday morning shortly after the woman walked inside.

First Rule of Thesaurus Club

"Lady Bird": Best-Reviewed Movie of All Time

This is astonishing. Everyone likes Greta Gerwig's "Lady Bird." How is that even possible?:

Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age story, Lady Bird, has officially become the best-reviewed movie ever on Rotten Tomatoes, beating out the beloved classic Toy Story 2.

The Oscar contender starring Saoirse Ronan was “certified fresh” with a 100 percent score earlier this month, but now officially reigns over all other films on the website with 165 reviews (Toy Story 2 has a score of 100 percent, with 163 reviews). Since it was released on Nov. 3, the film has made more than $10 million with only having played in under 800 theaters nationwide.

Misplaced Keys

I misplaced my keys earlier today. I had to locate backup keys and arrived late to see "Frog and Toad" at DMTC this afternoon. I was worried sick. When I returned home, I turned over a 55-gallon recycling bin to paw through the debris, attracting unwanted attention as the neighborhood's best-dressed but most-obnoxious homeless person. I was so disturbed by the keys' disappearance I even folded laundry, in the hope the keys would magically reappear. Hours later, suddenly there they were, on the edge of the bathtub, where only a blind person could miss them. I should be on a Congressional investigative committee.

Poppin' Videos

Such control!

Latest Update on the Republicans Trashing the Village

Mystery of the Decapitated Rat

Hmmm.... A decapitated rat showed up in my back yard. Something went down, it appears.

The next morning, the decapitated rat in my back yard vanished. My back yard is a happening place.

Flies More Germ-Laden Than Suspected

Another blow to their reputation:

The house fly and the blowfly together harbour more than 600 different bacteria, according to a DNA analysis.

Many are linked with human infections, including stomach bugs, blood poisoning and pneumonia.

Flies can spread bacteria from place-to-place on their legs, feet and wings, experiments show. In fact, every step taken by a fly can transfer live bacteria, researchers said.

''People had some notion that there were pathogens that were carried by flies but had no idea of the extent to which this is true and the extent to which they are transferred," Prof Donald Bryant of Penn State University, a co-researcher on the study, told BBC News.

“Insomnia Identity”

“Insomnia Identity” sounds a bit like a cult:

In those studies, he found that 37 percent of participants who identified themselves as having insomnia were actually "normal" sleepers as defined by the respective study researchers.

That has consequences: he writes that "perceived sleep disturbance poses a health risk, even when accompanied by good sleep." And according to Lichstein, those people are at a greater risk of things like fatigue, hypertension, self-stigma, depression, suicidal ideation and anxiety -- all because they think they're bad sleepers.

Or as Alex Fradera writes in a piece about the findings in the British Psychological Society research digest, "these 'complaining good sleepers' can have as high impairment in terms of daily fatigue, anxiety and depression as those suffering under a clinical deficit of sleep."

Expert: Debris in Waterways Funneling to Sacramento's Rivers at 'Emergency' Levels

All the homeless camping crap: