Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year

Another year gone and it's left me with a few things that ought to be said.

Firstly, Gov. Sarah Palin can shoot and field dress a moose. This was an object of derision in the media.
That's a survival skill and a damned good one. My guess is she can probably cook some nice moose steaks afterward. So, to everyone who made fun of her, would you rather be lost in the bush with a companion whose idea of survival is to have a full set of charge cards?

Secondly, it is said that a man will say anything to get laid. I say a politician will say anything to get elected. I am unsure of the difference.

Thirdly, a young Chinese girl lip-synched the words to a song during the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.
Christopher Plummer did not sing* during The Sound of Music. No one cared. Audrey Hepburn did not sing in My Fair Lady. No one cared.
Lip-synching during an opening ceremonies? No one should care.

Fourthly, Keira Knightley, please eat something. I worry.

Fifthly, Majel Barret died recently. It was a sad, sad day. If you have to look up who she is, you don't care.

Sixthly, when will Dubya be charged with war crimes?

Seventhly, a Holocaust survivor has written a fake memoir due to be published in February. Eventually enough doubt was cast for it to be pulled before its publication. He really was a survivior, but his tale of a nine-year old girl throwing apples over the fence to him every day while he was in a concentration camp was not questioned by anyone at Penguin. Seriously, does no one care?

Eighthly, near the end of a recent afternoon drive I spotted some people and was trying to tell my husband. I wanted to say humanoids, and I wanted to say hominids. What I said was, "Gaahhhhh! Homonyms!"

And finally, the "new age" refers to the precession of the equinoxes. The world does not end in 2012, the current Piscean age ends. The sun will rise in constellation of Aquarius on the morning of the vernal equinox instead of Pisces as it has for the past 2000+ years. The symbol of Aquarius is water. Invest in drinking water.

Thanks. I feel better.

Happy New Year, Homonyms! See you in '09.


*I heard this once when he was a guest celeb on a Canadian game show called "Definition" hosted by Jim Perry. Perry made some mention that Plummer didn't sing a note during the film and Plummer nodded or somesuch in agreement. It was the early 70s and I'm going by memory.

45 comments:

the Bag Lady said...

Oh, great list! And yes, I've heard that too about Christopher Plummer not actually singing in the movie.

And although Sarah Palin may have great survival skills in the bush, I'm not sure she was qualified to be the Vice President of a powerful nation. (I mean, really, how many moose do you see on the White House lawn?)

Happy New Year, dear cousin!

Leah J. Utas said...

df Bag lady, thanks. Oh I agree. Palin was singularily unqualified for high public office, but she has some useful skills.

Missicat said...

I didn't realize that wasn't Christopher Plummer. I think on a whole, we make way too much of such little things.
Yes, I know Majel Barret was! Mrs. Star Trek! Very sad.
Happy New Year!!

Leah J. Utas said...

Missicat, Happy New Year. It was tough losing Mrs. Star Trek. As each cast member from the original series goes so goes a part of my childhood.

Unknown said...

Leah,
You have made me laugh out loud this morning. Now as for #2, not all politicians are men. That's the difference.

I don't care about lip sync issues, skinny actresses or Alaska politics.

I do care about putting very young men in harm’s way for what seems like no real reason other than personal for Bush.

As for 2009, I hope that the homonyms of the world will sound more human this year.

Leah J. Utas said...

Thanks, Tom. I echo your wish for the homonyms.

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Fun list! And yes, if Sarah Palin had been running for Survival Group Leader, she'd have gotten my vote!

I'm totally with you on the lip-synching thing. As for the Holocaust "memoir," why couldn't the guy have just submitted it as fiction? Duh. It sounds like a neat story that would be an uplifting read, so why make it into what it's not? Grrr.

And thanks for clearing up the 2012 thing. I sure wasn't expecting the world to end, but I was curious what the Mayans had seen in their calendar. Quinto Sol, peeps!

Leah J. Utas said...

Bunnygirl, glad you enjoyed it. If he could have said it was a work of fiction based on his story, then all would be well.

Reb said...

Great list. If I had to be stuck in the woods, does it have to be her, or can it be someone with her skill set AND a personality and that doesn't have that grating voice?

Very sad that Mrs. Star Trek has died.

As for lip-syncing - Julie Andrews would have had to go back afterwards and dub in most of her own singing too...same difference.

Have a great 2009 cousin dear.

Leah J. Utas said...

Reb, good point. Singing is commonly dubbed never mind whose voice it is.
You can be lost in the woods with any charming hunter-gatherer you chose.
All the best in 2009 to you cousin dear.

Barbara Martin said...

My survival skills in the bush will get me out alive.

Your second point is all too true.

The third is I never cared one way or the other because others do it, as you stated.

I didn't know Kiera was trying to starve herself, but then I don't follow the star tabloids anymore.

Five is an unfair statement, because I really didn't know who she was.

Sixth, when there are those who can carry the claim forward safely.

Seven, the book has been pulled and it's all over in the publishing news.

Eight, correct on both counts, and we'll go for the third as it's cute.

Of course the world isn't going to end...it will only go through a change and that may or may not happen in 2012. The only thing we might have to concern ourselves with is which nefarious individual is going to do something drastic to bring attention to this date. Then say "it was foretold".

Happy New Year, Leah, and may you do well with your writing.

Leah J. Utas said...

Hello Barbara, thanks for the thoughtful response.

I'll take your point on Majel Barrett, but I was only trying to suss out the Star Trek fans who take these deaths quite personally.
(Me, for example.)
And I'm pleased to learn you have bush survival skills.

As for "Angel at the Fence," Penguin worked with the author for at least a year and never questioned, never fact-checked. It makes it so much harder for memoirist and biographers now.

Yup, all we need is one powerful and charismatic leader who reads prophecies.

Happy New Year to you, Barbara. Best to you in '09.

the Bag Lady said...

Well now, wait just a durned moment. The world IS going to end at some point, just not necessarily in 2012!! And most likely not in our lifetimes (hopefully...)

And now I shall out myself as a non-paying-attention-semi-Star Trek fan. I had no idea who that was. I don't remember a Mrs. Star Trek.
*I'm so ashamed.....*

Leah J. Utas said...

df Bag Lady, Majel Barrett was married to Gene Roddenberry. That's how she got the "Mrs. Star Trek" moniker.
Nurse Chapel (later Doctor Chapel), Luwaxanna (sp??) Troi, voice of the computer, and Number One in the original pilot.

Anonymous said...

Happy new Year!

Clare2e said...

I love your list, too!

I deeply admire survival skills and singing talent and the wonderful speaking voice of Majel Barrett. Fortunately, I believe they did get her taped as the computer for the upcoming Star Trek prequel. Movie singing and most outdoor scene dialog gets dubbed later. And if the voice is actually yours, so much the better, but I like to see credits given for the actual voices and bodies doing the work- unlike happened in Flashdance, for example.

Making up a Holocaust-love story that couldn't have occurred in that circumstance is another memoir-yuck, and people in publishing keep falling for them, and leave it to readers to say, "Hey! Wait a minute..."

Thanks for clearing up the 2012 thing. People need to untwist the knickers and have a glass of water!

Happy New Year, and keep the observations coming!

Leah J. Utas said...

Clare, thanks. I believe you're right about Barrett getting the voicing done for the next Star Trek movie. I'm glad.
I didn't know that about outdoor dialogue. Interesting.
I swear, I don't know why publishers buy into these hoax memoirs. The child (age four??) who was escorted by wolves from the Warsaw ghetto to Italy and back and also managed to kill a Nazi all by her lonesome should have given someone one pause.

Leah J. Utas said...

Mark, thanks. Happy New Year.

Thomma Lyn said...

I love your list, all of it! :) Specific comments:

Charge cards, *snork*! I love it! I'm no fan of Sarah Palin, but having survival skills is always a plus in my book (I have 'em myself).

Ugh, that fake memoir thing -- so irritating. I suspect this keeps coming up because supposedly memoirs are "easier" to sell than fiction. So then, unscrupulous people think it's okeydokey to lie... feh.

And yes, so sad about Majel Barrett. I'm a Trekkie, and my very favorite Trek is The Next Generation. Majel did a wonderful job playing Luxwanna Troi.

Happy New Year to you and your husband! :)

Hilary said...

Great list of thoughts for the year. I suppose that from a survival standpoint, I'd feel safer with Sarah Palin than with Dick Cheney.

Happy New Year. :)

Leah J. Utas said...

Hello Thomma Lyn, thanks. I suspect a big part of the reason is most of us are reluctant to question Holocaust survivors. Couple it with a magnificent story of love and survival and the money will roll in.
I'm an original series fan myself, but I loved the Luwaxanna (sp??) character.

Happy New Year to you and yours.

Hilary, oh, me too!
Happy New Year.

Anonymous said...

Im so sad I am late to this party!
(da** inlaws here for an extended visit)
GREAT POST.
and all us Austinites agree with your Dubya remark completely.

Leah J. Utas said...

Better late than never, MizFit.
Thanks, sorry to hear about the inlaws, and umm, his own "home" state, hunh? Innnnteresting.

Anonymous said...

How awful that the Rosenblats lied about their story and that the publishers and movie makers fell for it. Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which was a great book and now movie, never pretended to be true. The Rosenblats, like Madoff, are harming the good Jewish name and it's terrible.

I read a New York Times article about Stan Lee and Neal Adams the comic book artists supporting another TRUE Holocaust love story. There was a beautiful young artist, Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, who painted Snow White and the Seven Dwarves on the children's barracks at Auschwitz to cheer them up. Dina's art became the reason she and her Mother survived Auschwitz.

Painting the mural for the children caused Dina to be taken in front of Dr. Mengele, the Angel of Death. She thought she was going to be gassed, but bravely she stood up to Mengele and he decided to make her his portrait painter, saving herself and her mother from the gas chamber as long as she was doing painting for him.

Dina's story is true because some of the paintings she did for Mengele in Auschwitz survived the war and are at the Auschwitz Birkenau Museum. Also, the story of her painting the mural of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the children's barrack has been corroborated by many other Auschwitz prisoners, and of course her love and marriage to the animator of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the Disney movie after the war in Paris is also a fact.

I wish Oprah would do a story about Dina and her art not about the Rosenblats who were pulling the wool over all our eyes.

Leah J. Utas said...

Hello Constance, thanks for stopping by. Dina Gottliebova Babbitt's story sounds wonderful, uplifting, and best of all, true. I'd never heard of it. How is it that you know?
I agree, something like that should be a book and movie and on Oprah, and not this too good to be true nonsense.

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