Friday, April 23, 2010
Comments in English, please
It's one of those things one would think goes without saying: one should post comments to an English language blog in English. I'm tired of spam in Chinese. Any comment I see in a language other than English I will delete. Oh, and I doubt I would like spam in English either.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
That's what's going on around the world
Al Roker of the Today show is notorious for doing human interest soundbites and then turning it over to local weathermen with his trademarked catchphrase "That's what's going on around the country, here's what's happening in your neck of the woods," having said nothing whatsoever about the national weather.
For all his quick wit, Al Roker is perfectly incapable of changing his catchphrase. Lately he has actually been talking about weather in his weather segment. With the Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajokull continuing to spew ash into the air, it makes sense that Roker talks about how the jet stream is taking the ash over to Europe. Sometimes he then says something about weather in America, sometimes not. Either way, his segue to local weather is exactly the same.
For all his quick wit, Al Roker is perfectly incapable of changing his catchphrase. Lately he has actually been talking about weather in his weather segment. With the Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajokull continuing to spew ash into the air, it makes sense that Roker talks about how the jet stream is taking the ash over to Europe. Sometimes he then says something about weather in America, sometimes not. Either way, his segue to local weather is exactly the same.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Attempted suicide at the laundromat
The show: Medium
The episode: "There Will Be Blood... Type B," aired last Friday on CBS.
What happened: Allison lets Jennifer (Vanessa Marano), a homeless teenager haunted by dreams of a cold-blooded killer, stay in her house, despite objections from her husband and daughters. After a few nights, Jennifer steals money from the house and goes sleep at a laundromat. There, she dreams of the killer calmly killing a cop. She wakes up in such despair from that dream that she tries to drink an entire bottle of Clorox (or some other brand of bleach). Luckily, Allison dreams of Jennifer's suicide attempt and is able to get her to the Hospital in time to save her life.
What has me wondering: Most laundromats I've been to are practically run by Ferengi. Want two drier sheets? Pay a dollar. I seriously doubt that a laundromat owner would leave an entire bottle of Clorox just lying around for anyone to use. However, this doesn't rule out that the bottle of Clorox belonged to another customer. Also, the editing gives the impression that if Allison hadn't dreamt Jennifer chugging the Clorox, Jennifer would have died. Even if we accept there were no customers in the laundromat at the time (one of whom forgot her bottle of Clorox), where was the laundromat employee at?
The episode: "There Will Be Blood... Type B," aired last Friday on CBS.
What happened: Allison lets Jennifer (Vanessa Marano), a homeless teenager haunted by dreams of a cold-blooded killer, stay in her house, despite objections from her husband and daughters. After a few nights, Jennifer steals money from the house and goes sleep at a laundromat. There, she dreams of the killer calmly killing a cop. She wakes up in such despair from that dream that she tries to drink an entire bottle of Clorox (or some other brand of bleach). Luckily, Allison dreams of Jennifer's suicide attempt and is able to get her to the Hospital in time to save her life.
What has me wondering: Most laundromats I've been to are practically run by Ferengi. Want two drier sheets? Pay a dollar. I seriously doubt that a laundromat owner would leave an entire bottle of Clorox just lying around for anyone to use. However, this doesn't rule out that the bottle of Clorox belonged to another customer. Also, the editing gives the impression that if Allison hadn't dreamt Jennifer chugging the Clorox, Jennifer would have died. Even if we accept there were no customers in the laundromat at the time (one of whom forgot her bottle of Clorox), where was the laundromat employee at?
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Treat every weapon as if it were loaded
I've been hesitant to nitpick Army Wives because I don't know much about the Army, specifically, how it differs from the Navy in the small details, where the nits live. As I begin to watch Season 3 on DVD, I need to remind myself again that in the Army, you can salute indoors under certain circumstances. But I'm not sure Colonel Burton saying goodbye to General Holden before he went to command NATO in Brussels counts as one of those circumstances.
There might be a bigger nit in Trevor's storyline in which a soldier under his charge accidentally fires his rifle to the deck after returning from a training exercise. After finding out who the soldier is, Colonel Connors asks who the team leader is, and throws the book at him in NJP (non-judicial punishment) for failing to make sure his soldiers' rifles were cleared at the end of the exercise. Trevor explains to his wife Roxy that the Army is strict, even about negligent discharges in which no one gets hurt. However, it seems to me as if the soldier whose "gun" went off actually gets off scot-free.
I wasn't an Infantryman in the Marines (couldn't have been even if I had wanted to), but even I got it drilled into my head to "treat every weapon as if it were loaded." So even if I was completely certain my rifle was cleared, I would still have put the 'dial' in the "safe" position and I still WOULD HAVE KEPT MY FINGER OFF THE @#$%ING TRIGGER! This is not to say that no Marine has ever accidentally shot his rifle. But something tells me that the Marine whose rifle went off would bear the brunt of the punishment.
Of course Army Infantry is different from Marine combat support, but one would think they too would be trained to treat every weapon as if it were loaded. I suppose such an incident is the only reason the writers could think of for getting Trevor in trouble and making Burton jump to the conclusion that Connors was coming down hard on LeBlanc to indirectly get back at her.
There might be a bigger nit in Trevor's storyline in which a soldier under his charge accidentally fires his rifle to the deck after returning from a training exercise. After finding out who the soldier is, Colonel Connors asks who the team leader is, and throws the book at him in NJP (non-judicial punishment) for failing to make sure his soldiers' rifles were cleared at the end of the exercise. Trevor explains to his wife Roxy that the Army is strict, even about negligent discharges in which no one gets hurt. However, it seems to me as if the soldier whose "gun" went off actually gets off scot-free.
I wasn't an Infantryman in the Marines (couldn't have been even if I had wanted to), but even I got it drilled into my head to "treat every weapon as if it were loaded." So even if I was completely certain my rifle was cleared, I would still have put the 'dial' in the "safe" position and I still WOULD HAVE KEPT MY FINGER OFF THE @#$%ING TRIGGER! This is not to say that no Marine has ever accidentally shot his rifle. But something tells me that the Marine whose rifle went off would bear the brunt of the punishment.
Of course Army Infantry is different from Marine combat support, but one would think they too would be trained to treat every weapon as if it were loaded. I suppose such an incident is the only reason the writers could think of for getting Trevor in trouble and making Burton jump to the conclusion that Connors was coming down hard on LeBlanc to indirectly get back at her.
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