Archives for March 2007
New Indiana Jones Love Interest
Cate Blanchett is in negotiations to star opposite Harrison Ford in the long-awaited fourth installment of the “Indiana Jones” series, her publicist confirmed Saturday.
“She is in negotiations, yes,” publicist Lisa Kasteler told The Associated Press. She did not elaborate.
Filming is scheduled to begin later this year, with Steven Spielberg on board to direct. The movie is being produced by “Star Wars” creator George Lucas‘ Lucasfilm Ltd.
Click here for the full story
I am keeping my fingers crossed that this turns out to be a good movie. Raiders is still my favorite of the bunch.
It Is Only Two Bucks
This past Tuesday morning my son tried to convince me to let him skip school so that he could come to work with me. It was an intriguing offer. I love being a father. I love spending time with the kids and little Jack does nothing but help me learn more about the world around me.
As a child we spend endless hours asking “why” about anything and everything. We are still young enough that the world is consistently filled with wonder. We haven’t become worn down with worries or jaded by repeat experiences. So it really is refreshing to be around the kids. Even though it is sometimes hard to consistently be barraged with questions it is a job that I relish.
On the third shelf of my third bookcase there is a book called “The Way Things Work,” copyright 1973. My father bought it so that he could use it to help teach my siblings and I about the world. It is a book that I have always loved. It holds nothing but good memories for me and for a long time I looked forward to being able to share it with my kids.
It also helps to show me how old I am. Chapter VI discusses radios and has a large section devoted to various aspects of television including information on vacuum tubes, transistors and a discussion about black-and-white versus color television.
Chapter VII is called Handling Messages and Data. It starts out with a discussion on typewriters (I still have my old Smith-Corona) and then heads off to cover typesetting, phonograph records/players, tape recorders and punched card systems. I imagine that there must be an updated version covering a few minor details like computers, email, the Net etc. But I digress.
Little Jack’s request to play hooky was denied. I explained to him that his education is among the most important things he does and that every time we are together I try to find something to teach him. He was disappointed not to be able to hang out with me, but he understood why. Besides I promised that we’d have some time to hang out later to which he said “what will you teach me?”
I explained that it would be a surprise and we let it go at that. Truth is that I had no idea what I was going to teach him about, but I knew that something would come up. The opportunity came later in the week during a trip to a store that uses a bullseye for a logo.
We were standing at the checkout line. The cashier was ringing up our items so that we could pay and get out of dodge. As she was scanning the various items we tried to give her a couple of coupons. There was no response but I assumed that after she finished scanning the items she’d simply take and scan the coupons as well.
While I was waiting for her to do so I inserted my credit card into the machine.
(Note to the Shmata Queen. When you know that you are going to have to pay for something it is useful to take out your cash/credit card/checkbook in advance. Or the rest of us can wait while you rummage around in that enormous bag of junk.)
Soon enough the cashier finished her scanning and I tried to give her the coupons. “We don’t do double coupons,” she said. I told her that was ok. I didn’t care about that, I just wanted to get the normal benefit from using them. She snarled something at us and said that we should just pay.
I explained that I had mentioned several times that we had coupons to which she replied “I was busy doing something.” For a moment I considered asking her in the most unpleasant way possible if she needed to be skullfucked back into reality. But I figured that while it made for a pleasant image in my head it wouldn’t solve the problem and would exacerbate the situation.
So I asked her to adjust the total. She looked at me and said that I created a problem because I had already placed my credit card in the machine. Here is how the conversation went after that.’
Cashier: You need to cancel your purchase.
Me: I can’t. There is no icon, no link and no button to push. Can’t you cancel it.
Cashier: You are asking me to do more work.
Me: No, I am asking you to do your job.
Cashier: Fine. I’ll cancel it.
Me: Thank you.
Cashier: The coupons aren’t working.
Me: I am sure that you can fix that.
Cashier: It is only two bucks.
Me: Are you suggesting that I should lose two bucks because you are incompetent.
Cashier: You are holding up the line.
Me: If you don’t change your attitude and immediately refund my two dollars there will be a major problem.
Cashier: Sir, I don’t like your tone.
Me: If you don’t like it now try telling me again that this is my fault. Better yet suggest that I am at fault because you can’t figure out how to do your job.
I won’t bore you with the exchange that came after this. She told me that she didn’t know how to work the register and I asked her to get a manager. In between this another customer in line yelled at me for being cheap. I must have given him my best steely eyed glare because as soon as I looked at him he turned away and looked at the floor.
Approximately fifteen minutes after she began scanning my items I received my two dollar refund. It was an incredible waste of her time and mine, but as I explained to the children it was the principle of the matter.
It wasn’t my fault that she ignored the entreaties to take the coupons, nor was it my fault that she had trouble processing it. Had she been pleasant and apologized for the inconvenience I might have said screw it and walked away.
If you are going to work in retail you need to know how to just nod and smile.
Chest presses, not breaths, help CPR
In a different life I spent a number of years teaching CPR and First AID .
Chest compression — not mouth-to-mouth resuscitation — seems to be the key in helping someone recover from cardiac arrest, according to new research that further bolsters advice from heart experts.
A study in Japan showed that people were more likely to recover without brain damage if rescuers focused on chest compressions rather than rescue breaths, and some experts advised dropping the mouth-to-mouth part of CPR altogether. The study was published in Friday’s issue of the medical journal The Lancet.
More than a year ago, the
American Heart Association revised CPR guidelines to put more emphasis on chest presses, urging 30 instead of 15 for every two breaths given. Stopping chest compressions to blow air into the lungs of someone who is unresponsive detracts from the more important task of keeping blood moving to provide oxygen and nourishment to the brain and heart.Another big advantage to dropping the rescue breaths: It could make bystanders more willing to provide CPR in the first place. Many are unwilling to do the mouth-to-mouth part and become flummoxed and fearful of getting the ratio right in an emergency.
Sudden cardiac arrest — when the heart suddenly stops beating — can occur after a heart attack or as a result of electrocution or near-drowning. It’s most often caused by an abnormal heart rhythm. The person experiencing it collapses, is unresponsive to gentle shaking and stops normal breathing.
In the new study, researchers led by Dr Ken Nagao of Surugadai Nihon University Hospital in Tokyo analyzed 4,068 adult patients who had cardiac arrest witnessed by bystanders. Of those, 439 received chest compressions only from bystanders, and 712 received conventional CPR — compressions and breaths.
Any CPR attempt improved survival odds. However, 22 percent of those who received just chest compressions survived with good neurological function compared with only 10 percent of those who received combination CPR.
Pesach Soda/Shamrock Shake
Off the Broiler caught my eye with two different posts. The first is about Kosher for Pesach coke.
For many of us this isn’t all that much of a novelty, but it grabbed me because it reminded of a post I want to write.
Jews who observe Pesach have to adjust our regular diets to comply with the laws surrounding the holiday. In many homes the seders are well planned, elaborate meals that are a tremendous pleasure to eat. Sometimes the meals that come in between are not so well planned so one finds all sorts of culinary challenges.
Tied into this is the effort made by some in the food industry to create Pesadich food products that resemble their leavened brothers. In recent years I have noticed that they seem to be having more success. The end result is that there is less of a distinction between the two. This begs the question of whether this is a good or bad thing. But like I said that is a post for a different time.
The next post that caught my eye is about the Shamrock Shake. If you have kept Kosher your entire life this might not be of any interest to you whatsoever, but for me it is something that brings back warm memories. My grandfather ZL used to take me to get one of these fabled shakes. Here is the link:
I Love The Soundtracks to ‘Westerns’
It is a little after 9 at night and the Shack has grown quiet. All of the children are sleeping and god willing they will stay that way, safe and sound all night long. It is time to bang out a few posts and unwind.
So here I am at the keyboard, or should I say that I feel like I am out on my horse. The headphones are on and I am listening to Elmer Bernstein’s theme to The Magnificent Seven. I love it, as I do most Westerns. You can blame it on my father. I spent a few hours here and there watching Shane, Rooster Cogburn, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and The Magnificent Seven among others.
It is easy for me to close my eyes and picture myself riding across the Ponderosa. It is not hard to imagine myself walking through a set of swinging doors into the Six Gun Saloon. I’d tell the bartender to give me a shot of whiskey, shoot a steely eyed glance about the bar and wait for the first fight to break out.
Because you know that sooner or later some hombre is going to try to cheat at cards, or be confronted for rustling cattle and then all hell is going to break loose. For a moment I’ll stand back and watch but it won’t be long before someone makes me spill my drink and I enter the fray.
I am not the smash a bottle over the head type of guy. Nope. Old Jack is the pick you up and throw you through the window or over the bar kind of guy. Things will move along until some poor sod decides to break a chair over my head. That is the wrong thing to do because it will just piss me off.
I’d write more about it but I don’t want to spoil the movie by giving away the best moments in the trailer. More on this at a later time.