CrabAppleLane Sunday - July 15, 2007

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Dave from Fish Fear Me, The Great White Shank from Goodboys Nation, and Dan Brekke from Infospigot for filling in here at CrabAppleLane Blog this past week. They did a great job and upgraded the content here. I encourage all of you to check in on them at their own places. There's more where that came from.

I watched Syriana earlier this week. It has intrigued me for some time but I never got around to seeing it for one reason or another. Roger Ebert and Kem White also saw this movie and I couldn't quite get over how similar their views were on it although I think Kem got to the point a little sooner. I had no illusions going in that I would get what they didn't. It is my guess that the film was flawless in its execution, that the film makers showed us exactly what they wanted to show us. If its intent was to show how idealism in that part of the world is beaten down relentlessly by the forces of oil, money, corruption, and religious extremism, I suppose it succeeded but there were so many other elements in this that maybe there was more to it. The opening scene shows a beautiful woman in western dress changing into more traditional Iranian clothing. The film never explained. There's a scene where a superior explains to the CIA man that no one cares about a missing missile. Why not? I can't say I was frustrated by the film. My reaction was more like "OK, next?".

Two other tidbits I caught during the past week:

I hate when the guests arrive early.

I haven't checked my own but I suspect most insurance companies won't cover "gored by a bull".

I'd like to say I had a restful week but it really hasn't been. Didn't have too much to do. Just haven't slept well. I offer a couple or three from the CrabAppleLane yard, where it's been raining all day. These were taken this afternoon.

Trumpet vine at CrabAppleLaneMy favorite part of this photo is the little droplet of water that fell as I snapped the shutter. It's just below where the vine ends and the flower begins. Click here for the enlarged version.


Spring rabbit at CrabAppleLaneHe/she came out in the rain to sample the fresh greens in the yard and the whole corn Patsy throws out. Stopped to pose for me.


Mushrooms appear overnight

53 days until football season ...

Quote of the Day

But what do you need a financial advisor for? Twenty years ago you had the highest Gross National Product in the world, now you're tied with Albania. Your second largest export is secondhand goods, closely followed by dates which you're losing five cents a pound on... You know what the business community thinks of you? They think that a hundred years ago you were living in tents out here in the desert chopping each other's heads off and that's where you'll be in another hundred years, so on behalf of my firm I accept your offer.

Bryan Woodman, Syriana

Blog of the day here.

Quote from said blog: "As I watched a particularly gruesome scene of George Clooney’s character getting his fingernails pulled out, I breifly considered if it might be worth my time to trade places with him."