Sunday, November 19, 2006

Dinette/Borat/Bond

Went out with friends to Dinette on Capitol Hill last night. A wonderful new restaurant, very hip, stylish, but unassuming. One of the specialties of the owner/chef is her toasts: appetizer servings with yummy toppings such as fig and anchovy with serrano ham (amazing); roasted eggplant and goat cheese; chicken pate with red pepper. Almost a meal in themselves. Had a great time chatting over dinner and drinks. L had seen Dr. Paul Farmer (of Mountains Beyond Mountains fame) lecture at UW, and it was fascinating to hear about him, his ideas, and how the students were responding (or not responding) to him. Then we walked down to Pacific Place to see "Borat."

What a odd funny ridiculous sometimes offensive sometimes tedious sometimes laugh-out-loud movie. I have never seen anything quite like it. No group or individual is spared Sacha Cohen's quirky brand of satire. And I nearly died laughing when Borat and his traveling companion got in a naked wrestling fight in their hotel room. OMG. One image in particular is unfortunately seared on my retinas forever. You will just have to see it for yourself.

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Hope to see the new Bond movie soon. We tried to go Friday night, but it was all sold out already. Several screens each at all three theaters in our part of town. And we are way too old to stay up for an 11:15 pm showing. Even for Daniel Craig.

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Last month, carpenter Michael Cresta broke the record for most points in a single play in tournament Scrabble. He played QUIXOTRY across two triple word scores (and using an existing R on the board) for a total of 365 points. His score of 830 points for the game was also a record. Now, just use it in a sentence.
See the play by play recap of the game here.


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Question: Is the new version of blogger worth getting? It looks like you have to sign up for a google account, and perhaps read some important fine print before agreeing (for instance, you can't ever go back to the old version). Have others switched over?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Peter - I hope you get to see Casino Royale soon. Not only were the action scenes riveting, but the bantering between Daniel Craig and Eva Green was worth every line. And the plot twists! Oooh, I might need to go see it again...

Take care,
Patrice

Reginald Harris said...

Re the new Blogger: I'm hesitant to switch as some folks have had trouble/lost their blogs for a while after switching. I can wait...

Will check out Dinette next time I'm in DC

The Sublibrarian said...

I'm pretty cautious about trying new software, as well. For many things, even the first release is no more than an extension of the beta test. And I have better things to do than helping someone debug their software.

Unless, of course, I'm hired to document something. Then, it's utterly inexplicable to me why the whole world won't sign up for the beta test.

Pamela Johnson Parker said...

Peter--thanks!

(a) I loved the Scrabble play-by-play. I'm really glad each of these underdog players shattered records in a game noted for its quixotry. (Two new words to use--unsuccessfully--against my son).

(b) (for beta??? for B-WARE???)
I switched to beta and didn't lose my blog. It does make it hard to sign in and make comments or new blog posts. I wished I'd stayed old school.

Pamela

Kelli Russell Agodon - Book of Kells said...

Hi Peter,

I stay away from anything that says Beta on it. At my old software company "beta" was slang for "broken." Basically, a work in progress. I'd say unless you receive a lot of positive feedback from people using it, be wary.

Broken
Even
Though
Activated

;-)

Happy Thanksgiving!
Best,
Kelli

sam of the ten thousand things said...

I switched and didn't have a problem, and didn't lose anything-- and also set up another blog. I do like the capabilities, and, especially, posting a file is so much easier. Of course, that doesn't mean I won't regret it, but I haven't so far.