Argument for serial comma (actual story description): Merle Haggard: The documentary was filmed over three years. Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall. [link]

Jo Walton offers her take on this:

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Some people may say we've seen it all before, but I thought Merle Haggard was a truly classic cowboy film.

Here we have two men riding into a small town, two very different men who have nothing in common except that each of them bears the scars of having spent a decade being married to Merle. We can see the way Merle (and Merle's aftermath) has shaped both of their lives -- and Merle, although dead before it begins, shapes the film the same way.

Duvall is a cowboy, taciturn, reclusive, and you can still see how very gorgeous he must have been when he was young. Kristofferson is a singer who won Merle away from Duvall with a song. (The chords of the song haunt the movie, but we do not hear the words until the end.) They were once rivals for Merle's love, but now that Merle has been murdered they have to work together. They come to what's first a grudging respect for each other and later an actual friendship with just a hint of romance. The final shootout is beyond tense, and the last moments brought tears to my eyes.

People will compare this with the old chestnut Brokeback Mountain, but the difference goes far deeper than just shepherds vs cowboys. Brokeback Mountain focused on the angst of being gay and a shepherd. Merle Haggard leaves the angst out -- these men are rough Westerners who just happen to love other men. And lets face it, the position of women in the Old West has always been ambiguous. The lives and loves of cowboys have always been each other -- Merle Haggard just makes explicit what so many other films from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on have left implicit. What women we do see are well done -- Kristofferson's sister-manager, Duvall's niece, and Sue, the saloon-keeper who knows everybody's secrets. The film is stronger in that nobody questions the direction of anybody's sexuality, it turns instead on who they love and how long love lasts. All right, the real Old West wasn't like that, but it wasn't like Shane either, and people always make films for a modern sensibility.

It's nonsense to call Merle Haggard a documentary, however. This is a western pure and simple. I'm glad I saw it, and I shall be buying the DVD as soon as it's available.

Oh, Jon Hamm -- don't ever change.

Whoo! I am body achey today too, but for a good reason. I finished the floor and the two wood racks for the woodshed. I posted to flickr, but am on phone internet only so can`t link, but am very pleased with myself for more minor homeowner stuff. The SO split a bunch of the oak, but we have a good bit more left. So we`ll have almost a cord. More if you count last season`s leftover cedar. Yay! And tonight there will be chili and hockey and knitting by the woodstove.

Apparently you're not supposed to light things on fire at the office. WhatEV. But it was a candle, and a birthday, and I've learnt from Dean Winchester to always have incendiary materials on me (note to self: clean out purse before air travel). Also, fire pretty.

What is wrong with me, and why am I compelled to ruin my nails? If I can just hold out five or so more days, they will be long enough to paint, finally, all ten at the same time. But they're so soft, no matter how much calcium and biotin I take, and they tear so easily, and I overcorrect all the time.

Woman Drove Around With Corpse For Close to a Year

Well dang. I don't usually associate Costa Mesa with that kind of crazy.

My television worlds are colliding. I've been watching some L&O reruns and guest stars have been Emily Prentiss, Michael Westen and Marcie (Clea Duvall from Buffy). Now I'm watching Bones and they're referencing Uriel.

Man, I am dying to be able to eat something crunchy right now. I'm ordinarily thrilled that Friday nights are full of popcorn entertainment...

I feel vomity. I probably should eat something so I can take my antibiotic.

I don't drink grapefruit juice. When people ask why, they seem to think I'm overreacting, but I'm glad Steph's post confirms that they are wrongity-wrong-wrong-WRONG.

ita, have you ever tried nail gelatin? Takes a while to work but I've got super-thin nails and it has worked for me in the past.

I may try that, Spidra. My nails are ridiculously fragile, and I can't stop fidgeting with them. They're not thin, but they're really flexible. Back when I had horrible indigestion and knocked back Tums like nobody's business, they were the toughest they'd ever been. But the calcium supplements don't seem to be emulating that.