My wife has been prone to hot flashes for 2 or 3 years now, but she's only this year accepted them for what they are -- i.e. , a sign of menopause -- instead of trying to rationalize them away as being due to fevers, allergies, weird fluctuations in a building's heating system, etc. She's also grudgingly come to realize that she tends to get a hot flash within 5 or 10 minutes of talking on the phone...

OK, I don't understand this: I like spinach. I like artichokes. I like (warm) spinach and artichoke dip. I like Philadelphia Cream Cheese. But I don't like Philadelphia's spinach and artichoke cream cheese (a "NEW!" flavor). At. All. Wonder what the fly in the ointment is?

The missus finally weighed in on one of the weightier topics of the day: the attractiveness and desirability of Megan Fox. Megan Fox was the female lead in the two Transformers movies, and is rumored to be sought by Marvel Comics' film division to play She-Hulk in an upcoming movie . My better half doesn't think that Megan Fox is all that and a bag of chips. * Pause * I wish her luck in...

I wonder: if some paranormal entity plunked its magic twanger and let everyone on Earth eliminate each other on the slightest whim with the same ease that members of online communities can leave in a huff or banish one another, how long it would take for the Earth to become wholly depopulated? I'd give it three days, tops. Time for a "Button, Button v. 2.0," methinks.

Finally watched Michael Antonioni's first English language film the other day, the VASTLY over-rated Blowup (1966; also rendered as "Blow-Up," but apparently "Blowup" is the correct title ); this is the one starring David Hemmings as a douchebag photographer in Swinging London of the 1960s who accidentally photographs a murder and almost feels something/does something about it. As one might...

I finally watched the 1936 Frank Capra-directed screwball comedy (for which he won a Best Director Oscar) Mr. Deeds Goes to Town late last night/early this morning; I was surprised at how much I liked it and even more surprised at how much the missus liked it. (She hates It's a Wonderful Life and barely tolerates It Happened One Night -- this from a woman who never saw a show on Oxygen or Lifetime...

I've been a sports widower during the Stanley Cup playoffs in the NHL, so I'm pleased that the bloody thing has ended, one way or another. While the Detroit Red Wings didn't repeat this season -- they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Detroit last night (Friday, 12 June) in Game 7 -- their suspiciously poor showing against the Pens in the last two games has touched off a bit of conspiracy theorizing...

Just read something in Richard Price's Clockers (NY: Avon Books [a division of The Hearst Corporation], 1995 [movie tie-in mass market paperback]; copyright 1992; ISBN: 0-380-72081-7; 630 pps.) that brought me up short: "He carefully scissored out the drawing of Aquaman, then taped it to his desk light as a reminder to himself that at forty-three you don't make plans to dabble in different lives...

Just realized that most of the book reviews I've posted thus far this year have been for graphic novels; here are a couple of shortish reviews of books without any pick-chures*, to try to class the joint up a tad: The Death and Life of Bobby Z by Don Winslow (NY: Ivy Books [published by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.], 1998; originally published in...

So much for my wonderful, long-lasting, dual purpose boots ( i.e. , winter footwear and hiking boots) from Red Wing. I went for an 8-mile hike yesterday (Saturday, 6 June), and sprouted blisters on my right foot before I'd even gone 2 miles. My left foot was fine, but my right foot damn near killed me. When I finally got home and gingerly pulled off my boot and sock, I discovered a two-inch-long...