Hanukkah Leftovers

-        The 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder has sparked a lot of memories in folks as they remember where they were on that fateful night.  Me?  I was watching Monday Night Football as another John, John Smith, not the Jamestown colonialist but the New England Patriots placekicker, was preparing to kick the go ahead field goal against the Miami Dolphins.  Howard Cosell then shared with the millions watching the sad news about the ex-Beatle.  And as was the case every time the Pats visited Miami, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory as the field goal was blocked and the Dolphins went on to win in OT.
-        Long flights give you an opportunity to watch several movies.  Unfortunately quantity doesn’t equate to quality.  Wall Street sequel came up flat, and will Hollywood stop casting Shia Labeouf? With each film he makes, one could argue that maybe Megan Fox wasn’t the worst thing in “Transformers”.  “Grown Ups” with Sandler and his buddies was only watchable because of the 4 vodkas I had imbibed.  Did they have a script?  Jokes were flatter than our nation’s job growth numbers.  “Switch” starring Justin Bateman doing his best Michael Bluth impersonation and Jennifer Aniston.  I know it is bad form to dump on poor Jennifer, please Chelsea Handler don’t hurt me, but is it me or does she play the same character in every movie?  She has jumped the shark and landed right on Meg Ryan.  This brings me to “Salt”, another poor attempt to cash in on the Bourne Identity formula.  Bad movie, but I have to admit Angelina Jolie is sexy, very sexy.
-        Speaking of AJ, she appears in “The Tourist” with Johnny Depp opening this weekend.  Good casting, AJ for me and Johnny for Mrs. Diggapedia…something for everyone.   Can I be the first to call the pair Jangelina?
-        Went for a nice run the other morning from the hotel to the old city of Jaffa.  I have come to the conclusion that my endorphins are orphans.
-        Big news this week in Israel was the horrific wildfire that claimed 42 people.  Independent commission filed a report yesterday and pretty much blamed everyone including the Prime Minister, Interior Minister, Defense Minister, Finance Minister, and many non-cabinet officials.  No word if there is a “heckuva job brownie” sound bite out there.
-        Baltimore Orioles baseball player Luke Scott has joined the Orly Taitz birther bandwagon claiming President Obama is not a US citizen.  Only explanation is that Scott is channeling Cheers’ Ernie ‘Coach’ Pantusso who was beaned 34 times during a fictional season with the BoSox.  Get that man a functional MRI stat.
-        Brazil joined the increasing list of nations recognizing Palestine as a sovereign nation defined by the pre-1967 war borders.  Nice symbolic gesture to recognize something that doesn’t exist, suffers from corruption on par with banana republics, and can’t even establish a single identity: Hamas, Fatah, secular?  It is easy to blame Israel and the US, but don’t you need to wonder why from the time of the Balfour Declaration and the UN partition Plan for the land referred to as Palestine that the Jewish inhabitants were able to carve out a sovereign successful democratic state while the indigenous Arab people have been stagnant?  
-        George W. Bush is out in the valley at Barnes and Nobles for his book tour.  Hopefully this goes better than the 7 minute silence during his reading of “The Pet Goat” on 9/11.

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