Websnark introduced to me the theory that the comic strip Garfield would be vastly improved simply by removing all of the fat one's own dialogue. It's an interesting thought. In the world of the strip, Jon apparently can't hear his cat's thoughts (an illusion that is broken on occasion). Most of the time Jon is just the pathetic target of Garfield's droll remarks. Remove those comments, though, and the strip takes on a slightly darker tone. Jon's antics seem crazier when observed by a truly mute cat.

While many others have already proven the mute Garfield hypothesis, I couldn't resist trying out a few of my own. For most of them the jokes about Jon's behavior are mostly preserved. They're merely rendered more subtly funny by the removal of Garfield's superfluous comments:

My favorite, though, is the following:

In the original, the joke is entirely in Garfield's lines, and Jon reacts to it. Without Garfield's dialogue in the revised version, though, Jon's reaction IS the joke. His change hints at a more internal realization of how pathetic he is, which is much funnier. If you don't believe me, go read Peanuts.

The nominated best foreign film selection from South Africa, Tsotsi is named for its main character, who has given himself that name because it means "Thug." He is, indeed, a thug, and we spend our first several scenes watching him lead his little gang of thugs in a murder, beat one of his friends senseless, and shoot a woman while stealing her car, only to find out that he also stole her baby.

I just watched Tokyo Godfathers a couple months ago, which is also a movie about misfits whose lives are changed when they find an abandoned baby and try to take care of it and return it to its parents. Tsotsi moves emotionally on a similar level to Tokyo Godfathers, although its main character is a lot less likeable. I found it hard to empathize with him because the movie starts with showing his bad side and gives him little to no dialogue to explain what he's thinking. As the story unfolds, we find out more about Tsotsi's past, and Tsotsi learns about himself and what he wants to do with his life because taking care of this baby has brought a new dimension to his world.

Personally, I think I prefer Tokyo Godfathers, but Tsotsi did get my blood moving in some very tense segments toward the end. By the last scene, I was very emotionally involved, and Tsotsi's tears seemed like the first real emotions I had seeen from him in the entire movie. I won't forget that face.

A good movie with moments of greatness (the scenes with the local woman are wonderful too), not for all audiences, and not one you need to seek out on the big screen. But good.

This semester, Spring Break for Kelly and I happened to be the same week, so we took a trip to Chicago. We have as a goal to visit the ten largest cities in the U.S. together, but we made the goal before realizing Detroit is on that list. Anyway, we've now covered NYC, LA, Dallas, and Chicago. Click the photo of Chicago to see a Flickr set of some photos we took.

I learned at least two things on the trip:

1. Children are rude because their parents are rude
2. Air travel is rarely pleasant.

Honestly, you would think that parents would have some semblance of control over their kids at museums. I know mine probably did. Kids are running in front, around, up, and down everyone. Leaning, sitting, and climbing on signs about the exhibits. And it's not the kids faults, their parents never told them better, and still aren't.

And point two, airplane seats should not recline. No seat on a vehicle of public transit should recline. They only do so that people can let everyone else know that they are a jerk. And cell phone usage upon landing is ludicrous. "Hello, I've just landed! I'll see you in 3 minutes! Ahahaha, I have a cell phone!" I got to listen to one lady plan her evening dinner get together in the minutes after landing. So did the entire plane, because she talked in the concert/jet engine level of the decibel chart. On top of that, she tried to roll me over with her luggage. Lady, just carry your stinking luggage through the cabin. The aisle wasn't made to roll your stupid luggage around.

Aside from that, we really did have a great time. We figure that we walked 15-20 miles, at least. In all, we took in the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, Hancock Center, Chicago Institute of Art, Sear's Tower, Navy Pier, Magnificent Mile, the el, the restaraunt that invented Chicago style pizza, Millenium Park, Howl at the Moon dueling piano bar, and our favorite big city chain bakery - Au Bon Pain.

Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein