Cool, Gud!

Xnera -- I hope things go as calmly as possible.

I'm wondering about this:

Scottish hunk Ewan McGregor fears he'll be blasted for appearing in upcoming Hollywood movie The Island. The 34-year-old star is convinced his decision to star in the Michael Bay thriller alongside screen siren Scarlett Johansson will ultimately rocket his career to even greater heights. And while he accepts many British film critics will attack his decision to star in a big-budget American blockbuster, he insists he needs to commit to the occasional box office smash to maintain his momentum in the tough h industry. He says, "What I like about my career so far is that it has got really broad variety. The older I get the wider my scope should be. It's funny, in Britain I'll get slagged off for doing The Island, I know I will. People will say, 'What's he doing f**king off to America doing that sh**e?' And on the other hand unless you've done a big American action movie you're not really given any credit."

Do they not get Star Wars in Britain? Can I move there?

I love how his quote=exactly what he said but the exposition=way too much interpretation of it.

So I went to bed before I saw this, but it was great. Miller was low-key, and Jon kept kind of pushing him a little, like "but don't you think people have always thought 'the good old days' were better, but really they weren't." At the end, he said something along the lines of, "I respect you as a gentleman, but basically we disagree on, well, everything. But thanks for coming!"

Saw the recording this morning. So impressed by the way Jon was so NICE to Zell. He was very respectful and deferential, even when trying to prod him a little on the whole idea of defining decency for different generations.

I love how his quote=exactly what he said but the exposition=way too much interpretation of it.

That's exactly the magic of these nuggets. Okay, except in the case of Scarlett Johannsen. Quotes are fairly innocuous, but the extrapolations ... they're fun.

Happy Teachers' Day to the appropriate persons!

Best wishes, xnera!

Good luck, xnera.

He was very respectful and deferential, even when trying to prod him a little on the whole idea of defining decency for different generations.

Yeah, exactly. I think it's great that he actually practices what he preaches -- he neither yells at people nor just lets them get away with shit.

Happy teacher day to the teacherly!

My folks are in town and we were talking about my 5 year old niece's (private) junior kindergarten, which she adores. My parents were telling me that at her school, the teacher organizes and disciplines the class by turning the lights off and on, and when the lights go off, all the kids stop what they are doing, are silent and raise their hands in the air. I've volunteered with young kids and I know that they make cat herding seem smooth, but the flickering of the lights just gave me the oog. No real reason, but it just struck me odd and creeped me out.

I've heard of that technique before, JS, so it's not just this one teacher being oogy, though. Apparently it's an attention-getting technique that works across the board, and is an easy cue for even small persons to stop talking and get ready for a change of activity.

Timelies. I am so full of gronk this AM I still haven't made coffee, though I've been up an hour. Thinking about a nap--five hours wasn't quite enough sleep.

I had a number of teachers's that would do that to get controll of the classroom without shouting. Actually, by giving the kids an expected behavior - it should work even better.

Yeah, exactly. I think it's great that he actually practices what he preaches -- he neither yells at people nor just lets them get away with shit.

They are broadcasting a piece on Fareed Zakaria on NY1 all week (not conincidentally, I dreamed about him this morning). They showed a clip from his TDS appearance and Zakaria said something like, "it's not that you're funny, it's that Jon is a witty, interesting guy who makes you seem funny."

Also, last night's chat between Colbert & Stewart had me screaming with laughter.