Good Movie.
Really enjoyed this movie. It's not quite Spellbound, but it's pretty good, with its fair share of much-stranger-than-fiction characters. Also, I enjoyed sitting in theatre with pasty white folks who drive old Volvos and believe everything they read in the New York Times. There was an audible affirmative "Mmmmm" when Will Shortz said he worked for the "two best news agencies in the world - NPR and the New York Times," recognizable to anyone who has ever prayed with evangelicals.
(Fine. I'm pasty white but drive a Toyota and think the editorial board of the Times should be prosecuted for treason.)
posted by PSA+ at 14:28
4 Comments:
"folks who drive old Volvos and believe everything they read in the New York Times"
I'm from the other side of the country. Are you telling me that there are people who SERIOUSLY read that self-admitted presenter of modern journalistic fiction, "The New York Times," as if it were Gospel truth!!??
I guess P.T. Barnum might have been right. And the suckers today are New Yorkers. I guess there is no limit to self-delusion, especially to the over-proud.
(But I can't get too high up on the hobby-horse: I live close by Seattle, and the Seattle papers are just about as worthless as the NYT.)
Heyyyyy... isn't BILL CLINTON in this movie? :)
Okay, I have some confessing to do.
1) I'm pasty. The facial hair somewhat masks it. But I'm overweight, so I got that going for me.
2) I drive an old Volvo. Well, an '01. But it was used and a bargain and I have to admit it's kinda nice. And really my wife drives it more than I do; I usually take the Cherokee, which really doesn't have the same stigma, right?
3) I both read the NYT (occasionally) and listen to NPR. But I do it with a lot of eye-rolling, if that is a mitigating factor.
4) I kind of have a man-crush on Will Shortz. I pick up the Nashville Scene just for his puzzle and I get up earlier than I have to on Sunday to hear him on Weekend Edition. I really need to see this movie, if I can sneak some time to do it.
Bill Clinton is indeed in this movie and - I swear - muses aloud that with proper nurture nearly everyone can be of above average intelligence. I guess it depends on what the meaning of "average" is.
I too regularly read bits of the Times, but only for free on the web or when someone leaves copy in the coffee shop. (And I do think its disclosure of the perfectly legal and effective terrorsist money tracing program was culpably irresponsible). Also my first car (aquired for $500) in 1984 was a '69 Volvo 144s.
I, of course, no longer get to hear Will Shortz on the Sunday 'Morning Edition', but when I was a youth minister, I was regularly late for the Sunday School class I taught because I was playing along with the puzzle.
Finally, ever since I got XM radio, I hardly listen to NPR anymore because there's always good music on. (Plus I get to hear the NPR-canned Bob Edwards' show every morning.).
Furthermore - Shortz comes off as every bit the swell fella you want him to be. And this is the sort of thing int the NY Times that drives me crazy: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTk3ZTMwOTc1NDc0Njk0ODBiMDQzYTYwYWZlNTE1N2E=
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