--David Lardner, on Panama Hattie

I have way too much to write about for one entry. I'm torn between wanting to at least catch up on the narrative of my life, and wanting to forget that stuff and focus on some personal issues, which I haven't done in awhile.

Well, let's get the narrative out of the way first, I guess.

Matters were complicated in that, upon arriving at the copy shop Thursday night, I was informed that the order wouldn't be ready until Saturday afternoon, which would have done me no good at all. But upon calling them first thing in the morning (at an absolutely ungodly hour that Mary Anne considers "sleeping in"), I found out that it would be done before noon on Friday after all.

The only complications then were how to pick up and distribute the paper while also making my 2 PM dental appointment, which were exacerbated by my being rendered nearly incoherent from getting only two hours of sleep. But thanks to a staffer with a car (who, it seems, will be driving me to pick up the paper from now on), all was taken care of. And it was good.

Two issues of the Camper's Paradise newspaper down, seven to go.

Two fillings down, seven to go. Not including the tooth with the root canal, which still needs to be capped.

I assume Rob Rummel-Hudson will be accusing the reviewer of plagiarism shortly.

(If you've missed the flame war du jour, it may be best to leave it at that. Rob's conveniently taken down the evidence anyway. If you haven't, I'm aware that the wording here is somewhat different, which in no way alters the fact that-- [here Shmuel forcibly represses several unkind, if mordantly accurate, remarks].)

Moving right along...

Not at first. I was favorably disposed towards the concept, when I first heard about it. Then I saw the commercials (not funny), the trailer (not funny), and the clips shown on actors' appearances on various talk shows (really quite bad), and decided that there was no way I was going to bother seeing this film.

But then I was advised to go see it. Two online friends of mine, who shall remain nameless to protect the... well, innocent or guilty; I can't quite decide which... independently told me that they'd seen the film, they'd loved the film, and that I had to go see the film.

So I did. At the local dive, earlier today, putting my reading of the fourth Harry Potter book on hold for a bit, which was okay, 'cause I was savoring the experience, making it last all day, rather than rushing through it. To be honest, I still wasn't all that optimistic, but I was hoping to like the film anyway.

The good news is that it turns out that the sixth of the six screens in the local dive is actually a bit better than the rest, owing perhaps to it being upstairs from the others. It has reclining seats, even, although there isn't quite enough leg room.

The bad news was the film.

Let me admit right off the bat that I have never seen one of the original Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. I don't have cable, and, to the best of my knowledge, they've never been rerun on broadcast TV in New York at any time that I've had access to a TV. So perhaps that has something to do with my lack of enthusiasm.

And a lot of the individual jokes worked. Lots of meta jokes, and I love metafictional stuff. But it just never quite seemed to come together. It was more of a bad framework for a lot of good jokes, and even more really bad ones. (And I don't mean the good sort of "really bad.") You could see most of the film's action coming a mile away. It's not something I'd want to see again, thanks.

On a character level, I liked Rocky, thought Karen Sympathy was okay (except for the insipid bits with the "little girl inside her"), and loathed -- loathed -- Bullwinkle. I've never had much patience for stupidity. Boris and Natasha were occasionally amusing, though.

Two and a half stars, and that's giving disproportionate weight to the good moments. I wouldn't bother, even on video.

(Sorry, guys.)

Don't worry; no spoilers here. Let's just say that I found it to be a deeply satisfying read. It really is the pivotal book in the series, and it's quite well done. And that's all I'll say. At least for now. There'll be time to pick it apart later.