Friday, December 18, 2015

Morning Adventure

The plan was simple: Take the truck to work today. The freezer for the in laws is already in the truck and I can go to their house at lunch to drop it off.

But...

My wife needs to take a whole bunch of girls to a dance tonight--I don't remember how many but it is more than five, so only the truck will do.

So...

I unloaded the freezer from the truck and moved it to the Subaru, in which it just fit. With the back seats down, it filled the Japanese car. In the Yukon, it fit behind the 3rd row of seats.

Unfortunately...

A mile from home, I got the low tire pressure light in the Subaru. I pulled over and one of the tires was really low. Full enough to get back home but not full enough to risk going the rest of the way to work. Especially when one considers that the freezer would have to come out and sit on the side of the road while I deployed the spare.

So...

I went back home and: 1. Moved the freezer back to the Yukon. 2. Filled the Subaru tire so that when I come back home at lunch, I can see how it is holding. Drove to work only 10 minutes late.

Next...

I will fill the truck up with gas since it is on empty. Drop off the freezer. Go home to switch cars. Stop on the way back to work for some McDonalds--for which I have coupons. (Buy one, get one free.)

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The cleverness of "Scream Queens"

It is my daughter's favorite show, so naturally she gives it a glowing review in The Odyssey online

One example: Jamie Lee Curtis. She plays the dean of the college where the show takes place.

1. Her mom Janet Leigh was the original scream queen:



2. Jamie Lee became famous for her roles in "slasher films" starting with John Carpenter's Halloween. Followed by many more horror films.

3. That is all history and not really cleverness by the show--except that it was clever to cast her in the role. But, they also named her dean Munsch. There is a painter with the same sounding, but differently spelled name famous for this delightful painting:


The painting is known as "The Scream". It is officially, Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature). Linguistically, I would say "shriek" is probably a closer literal translation. Shriek Queens does not really roll off the tongue and besides, "scream" was how schrei was translated--for whatever reason.