The Hopp Stop

It is always great to re-watch a favorite movie for the umpteenth time and still find something new. This happened to me when I was watching the Big Lebowski last month. During a scene maybe 2/3 of the way through the movie, the Dude is talking to the private investigator hired by Bunny Lebowski’s family. The PI refers to Maude Lebowski, who is interested in the Dude solely for reasons of procreation, as the Dude’s “special lady friend.” The Dude quickly corrects him, calling Maude the Dude’s “fucking lady friend.”

In all my prior viewings, I thought this was the Dude using profanity for emphasis, which would not be out of character for the Dude (see the “Fucking Short Version” of the movie, below). However, I now believe that the Dude is actually distinguishing between those lady friends that are special (relationship) and those that are just for fornication. Leave it to the Dude to finely parse language in the midst of a confrontation.

Looks pretty great:

I can’t wait for Death Race, a movie coming out on August 22. See TV ad below. It’s basically a car racing version of The Running Man, in which convicts race for their freedom, with no rules. And it’s starring Jason Statham! Awesome.

That’s the new stoner movie from Seth Rogen, in the vein of Superbad. Peter Travers in his Rolling Stone review:

“Add about seven years to the ages of the kids in Superbad, toss in bullets, bongs and assassination squads, and you get some idea of the hot box of crazy that is Pineapple Express, a buddy movie stoned on its own shitfaced silliness. You’ll go limp from laughing…”

I can’t wait! Out today.

Here’s a link for Gaelen: a Slate writer argues in favor of Andy Richter’s new show, which Conan O’Brien had a hand in.

Check out the Wikipedia entry on miniature Australian shepherds. They’re not a separate breed spec, just repeated selective breeding of smallish Aussies. While the mini Aussies in the photos on Wikipedia aren’t great, just check out this gal here and here to see how cute they can be. Average size is 25 to 40 pounds. What I find appealing about them is that the smaller size makes them more appropriate for apartment living and makes it easier for them to hit their needed exercise allotment each day (since they tire more rapidly). You can see a short video of that gal here. Hmm…

The ten-year anniversary of the McCarty-Lemiuex fight passed last week. What great memories that brings back…Thanks to the Wayne Fontes Experience for that.

Ghris shared an interesting article with Mino and I over e-mail that attempted to place the Gonzales/prosecutor firings in historical perspective, comparing it to Clinton’s summary dismissal of all prosecutors upon his entering the White House in 1993. Here’s another article that makes comparison to the Clinton years, from the Washington Post.