Mean Girls

Some parts are really very funny, in the way that very good jokes can be told ("Almost as mad as I get when I think about the fact that my sister named him Anfernee.") The ending droned on a bit and lost itself as a comedy and served as a morality tale and lesson vehicle. It's not that I'm insensitive to the benefits of exposing the subtle and humilating ways high school girls treat each other, but as a 35-year old male with no children, I'm rather out of touch. I think it was really well written by Tina Fey, whom I suspect really wanted to bring a little conversation forward, and still managed to take off her top. I don't understand why she did that last part, either. Beth insists I watched it for the T&A.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

This is a good film, but not a great film. On one level, it was wonderfully enjoyable with its heavyweight cast, Wes Anderson-feel, and slow, deliberate jokes. On the other hand there was something overbearing about the film that left me uneasy. Part of it was my high expectations not being met by Bill Murray's performance, which is nuanced for sure, but not worthy of an Oscar. My other primary concern is that the film is either too short, or too long. In other words, it was probably much longer, and poorly cut.

I'll probably see this movie again.

Reformation did wonders for the New York Times

Looks like the New York Times has handled their post-Jayson Blair issues by replacing their traditional content with crap:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/nyregion/20mitzvah.html

An except from: TODAY HE IS A DOG; ACTUALLY, HE ALWAYS WAS
By: Lily Koppel
Published: December 20, 2004

In the long walk of history between man and dog, the bark mitzvah could be seen as an unexpected pit stop. Yet it was celebrated on Saturday night in the Bronx in a traditional way, with a party for family and friends of the 13-year-old that included a chopped-liver sculpture, choruses of "mazel tov!" (or, in this case, "muzzle tov!"), a cantor and gifts.

Kids Ask Dr. Phil

My wife, Beth Osthimer, was on The Dr. Phil show on December 7th. The episode is called "Kids Ask Dr. Phil" and some information can be found here:

http://www.drphil.com/show/show.jhtml?contentId=3051_kidsask.xml

The last item about the girl named "Luz Ricardo". If you click on Luz's face, it brings up a slideshow. On the second page of the slideshow, you'll find a picture with four women sitting in the front row. My wife is second from the left in that picture.

"In the audience are some of Luz's supporters from the CDF and the Children's Law Center: Carol Biondi, Beth Osthimer, Lisa Mandel and Victoria Ramirez Ballesteros."

Beth had to spend alot of time putting together the cdfca.org website in order to prepare it for the incomiing deluge of hits. In the end, the site was "phildotted" and received 118,000 hits on the day the show aired.

This came after a long effort whereby Dr. Phil was a speaker at CDF-California's Beat The Odds awards dinner and fund raiser, where 5 kids are honored for being successful students and role models, despite very difficult odds. To make a long story short, Beth became director of Children's Defense Fund in California, which helped get Dr. Phil to be the keynote speaker at the Beat The Odds dinner. Dr. Phil was so moved by Luz's story that he wanted to do a show about her. And what he did for her... is teriffic.

Did you read the slide-show text yet?

I have attended three or four of these events so far, and they're all fantastic.

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In fairness, I wrote this posting on Dec 23, but the show was aired on Dec 7.