Slide through the movie doldrums
Looking for something to slide through the movie doldrums? Try some “Butter” Last time I wrote here, I despaired the movie doldrums that had me wandering into an ill-advised showing of “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.” Well, I learned my lesson and decided my next movie outing would be in the comfort ...
Are you becoming a turtle?
I feel as if, day by day, inch by inch, I am turning into one of the turtle people. You know us. Our natural habitat is the landscape of six-by-six cubicles in any given office building. We sit, round-shouldered in our little enclosures, hour after hour, our necks slowly recessing ...
Don't let stress derail your diet
If we've been anywhere near a television, newspaper, radio or town crier in the past decade, most of us know at least a little bit about stress. It's that modern-day plague that can play a contributing role in everything from deadly heart disease, to insomnia, headaches, low sex drive, irritable ...
Rock and Bruce can't save the Joes
I was frankly surprised to hear that “GI Joe Retaliation” was tops at the box office last week, but I guess I shouldn't be. We are in the terrible doldrums of post-Oscars, pre-summer blockbuster season. Finding a really good movie is a quest akin to Diogenes looking for an honest ...
Let the characters tell their story and get out of the way
Many newspaper people tend to cringe a little bit at the idea of writing phenomena stories. You know the ones: psychic experiences, faith healing, extraterrestrials, Bigfoot. The unexplainable or the unproven. Whether you write for the New York Times or a small-town daily newspaper, you need to have a certain ...
Perfection isn't such a perfect idea
Expecting perfection isn't the best way to lose weight.
Return to Emerald City
When I was a young child of 5 or 6 one of the great annual television events of my life -- and those of many other children my age -- was the return of "The Wizard of Oz." It was an event with a capital "E." and why not? After ...
Nothing's missing from "A Good Day to Die Hard"
"A Good Day to Die Hard" delivers on action and Mickey Rourke on DVD as "The Wrester" is a powerful performance.
"Don't shoot, don't shoot!"
http://thedalleschronicle.www.clients.ellingtoncms.com/users/photos/2013/feb/21/2802/ I took this photo while shooting a police training exercise, one designed to teach officers how to quickly take out an "active shooter." It was in an old school building and involved a lot of noise and gunfire, with participants shooting each other with small caliber rounds of paint. ...
A football, popcorn and the remote
Stuck here at home with a cold. There will be no multiplex for me this weekend. I dislike the folks who cough and sneeze and sniffle their way through a movie, making me feel like I should be wearing a hazmat suit. I refuse to be one of them. But ...
Water, baby, or water baby?
I wrote the original version of this post Nov. 22, 2012, on sparkpeople.com. I've added a bit more for publication here: Sometimes I think I am part otter. I think I could live my entire life In the water. When I was young, i used to look forward every summer ...
"Lincoln" comes through
I may not have been the last person to see "Lincoln," but it feels like it. I finally had a chance to see why Spielberg's film reeled in a dozen Academy Award nominations to lead the field. Momentous events in world history all too often turn to dust on the ...
Don't call me a dieter
I don’t pretend to be an expert on weight loss or health care in any way, but I have interviewed a lot of people on the subject and come away with a lot of information. Couple that with the fact that I am pretty much a life-long struggling dieter — ...
