Journal of a Sabbatical

July 4, 2000

bad air day

Today's Reading: Summer: From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake, The Herring Gull's World by Niko Tinbergen

Today's Starting Pitcher:
Tim Wakefield

So which of the summer blockbuster flicks should we see today? Why Rocky and Bullwinkle of course! Actually, anything air conditioned would suffice as long as it doesn't feature George Clooney.

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Movie gets our old friends from 1964 out of reruns to save the country from and evil plot by Fearless Leader to turn everyone in the USA into zombies by hypnotizing them with really bad television (RBTV). Robert DeNiro is fun as Fearless Leader. Renee Russo and Jason Alexander try hard as Natasha and Boris, but I long for the animated Boris and Natasha.

Unlike The Perfect Storm, this movie has some great writing. The bad puns are forgivable. There are too many good one liners to list, but my favorite line occurs when Bullwinkle is trying to get President Signoff to replant the trees in the Frostbite Falls forest: "The birds have no place to put their stuff!"

I wonder what kids, or even younger adults, will make of some of the references. I had a little trouble grasping why Kenan and Kel were called Martin and Lewis. Guess my "way back machine" was on the blink for a second.

The sky was still a pale sickly gray and the ozone alert still on when we left the movie theater. Yuck.