Loud, Honking Dignity

November sweeps have started and the live 'West Wing' debate episode airs tonight. I hope it's good. I'd given up on 'The West Wing' even before Aaron Sorkin left (the multiple-sclerosis cover-up episodes were GREAT, but then the Bartlett re-election arc, with a dim-witted James Brolin as his opponent, seemed a waste of an opportunity), but somehow I caught one of the early Jimmy Smits introduction episodes, got interested, and became totally sucked into the whole Matt Santos vs. Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) drama. They even recently had a campaigning/traveling/kissing hands and shaking babies montage to Steve Miller's "Jet Airliner" that was pretty good.
(Tangent: I either knew someone or read somewhere about someone who thought the words of "Jet Airliner" were "Big Ol' Jed Had a Line-Up.")

It used to be that the campaign stuff was great and the actual White House stuff still boring, but two weeks ago they had a cool episode when they discovered that one of the regulars (SPOILER: Toby) was a White House security leak, and it had a semi-Orwellian depiction of what happens to you when you leak classified information (no matter that the cause is just). The interesting thing was, it aired right in the midst of the Scooter Libby/Valerie Plame stuff, so it felt like real life. Then LAST week's episode centered on abortion (Santos and Vinick are both pro-choice), and fit the national argument about the nomination of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court. Coincidence, or what?

Most everyone else seems to have given up on 'The West Wing,' too, because when I tell them how good the show is now, they look at me like I'm calling, say 'According to Jim' a brilliant, Noel Coward-esque comedy. But it's true! (Not about 'According to Jim,' the other thing.) That doesn't mean we still don't love making fun of the opening credits, which look like they really believe 'The Daily Show's' old claim of being "The Most Important Television Program -- Ever!"

I actually think it would be really interesting if Vinick won -- I find him a more intriguing character than Santos (same w/Alda vs. Smits) -- but I can't see it happening. How could Vinick be president without 'West Wing' firing all the Democrat regular characters?

goudabonbon pointed out the irony that with Alda on 'West Wing' and Donald Sutherland on 'Commander in Chief' (which I've never seen but I've heard is a guilty pleasure), you have both actors who played Hawkeye Pierce on network TV as formidable Republicans.

Thanks to yellowdoggrl for directing me how to make livejournal links.

WHERE THE HELL IS IT? WAR THUH HAIL IS IT AT?

After I watched some screeners for Atlanta's upcoming Out On Film Festival, we watched to see a Hollywood popcorn movie, and since goudabonbon hadn't seen 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' and we caught a little of it Thursday night, I checked it out of the library. We finished watching it Saturday night and enjoyed it (it's still surprisingly satisfying, in the league of -- but slightly better than -- Antonio Banderas' first 'Zorro' movie -- but how can they extend the droll-pirate motif for TWO sequels? It doesn't make sense). Then I took Sweetness to the library today and was going to drop of the 'Pirates' tape...

... AND IT WAS GONE! LIKE IT NEVER EXISTED!

It's not on the shelf by the VCR. It's not in the bag that took the rest of the stuff to the library. It's not visible on any surfaces. It's got a frickin' SKULL AND CROSSBONES ON THE BOX, and I don't know where it is. I've been turning the house upside down to find it (sure, I can renew it, so I've got just under two weeks to locate it) -- overdue fines are $1 a day for videos and DVDs. I can't imagine where it COULD be -- there's only so many places in the house where the tape could have landed. goudabonbon advises me to stop thinking about it and my subconscious will figure it out (or I'll just stumble across it), but it's nagging at me too much.

Because this kind of thing happens ALL THE TIME to me these days! I used to be GREAT at finding misplaced objects. It used to be that it was okay for me to be a little sloppy, because I knew where everything was. Now I'm still a little sloppy, and I DON'T know where everything is! Is it because we have a toddler? Is it because I turned 40? Our cordless phone has a little signal you can activate when you lose it -- lately I firmly believe that every frickin' thing in my house should have one -- the remote control, my wallet, our keys, Sweetness's shoes, my "good" pens, the coffee filters, whatever book I happen to be reading, EVERYTHING. Must I lo-jac my every belonging?
The Curse of the Black Pearl indeed. Arrrrr.

PS: A tip of the tricorn hat to yellowdoggrl for saving me a small version of the 'Crusader Curt' photo -- without me even asking her -- that I'm now using on my page. She gets the gold star.

Quote of the day (paraphrased):
"Do you like that 'Let's Get it Started' by the Black-Eyed Peas? It's a great song, especially if you're partying or going out drinking. It's not so great if you're an overweight hungover guy microwaving a Hot Pocket in the morning. 'Let's get WHAT started -- the crying?'"
Dave Attell, the Insomniac concert show on Comedy Central