I love the movie “Groundhog Day.” One of my favorite scenes comes when Phil Connors, the irascible weatherman played by Bill Murray, tries to explain his predicament to his producer. “It’s the only possible explanation. I’m a supernatural being.”
He was talking about living the same day over again. I don’t have that problem, but I know exactly how we felt when he came to grips with his power.
It’s my fault we haven’t had rain for so long.
Sometimes when you spend money, don’t you feel like just throwing it down the sewer? I mean, aren’t there purchases or investment decisions that you know will go wrong even before you hand over your money?
That’s exactly how I felt when I turned in my NCAA basketball brackets a little more than a week ago.
Apparently, the people in charge in the Netherlands have the funny feeling that new immigrants to the country have a little bit of trouble adapting to their liberal ways. They have developed a new immigration test that will try and make sure people entering the country have a grip on how things work in Holland. Oh, then there’s the video.
The government gives all new candidates for immigration a two-hour movie that sheds light on things that are normal to Dutch citizens, but not so much to those entering the country, particularly from Muslim countries.
I don’t want to use this space to argue the values of showing a video with a woman sunbathing topless or two men kissing. That’s for the freaky, deaky Dutch to decide.
We need to make our immigration test better.
I fear for my sanity. Can anyone tell me what I have gotten myself into? I signed up to coach my daughter’s soccer team.
I entered into this fray willingly. I actually ticked off several boxes for volunteer options when I signed Bridget up to play a month or so ago. But it all hit me as I stood at the front of the room with the other coaches earlier this week.
Do you know how some years, film experts talk about the lack of good candidates for The Oscars? Well, it’s that kind of year for The Brians, now celebrating their fourth year. Actually, the quality of the films eligible remains very high. The number of films, not so much.
In fact, I have had to expand the rules beyond the original concept, which was movies I saw in the theatre. This year, all movies released in 2005 that I saw in any form were eligible.
I only saw three movies released in 2005, however. Pretty sad, huh? “The Wedding Crashers” (we ordered that on the TV while on vacation), “Hitch” (cable) and “40-Year-Old Virgin” (we actually saw that in the theatre) will battle for honors.
People sometimes develop unhealthy obsessions with entertainment figures and fictional characters. I have never really understood it, but I don’t let it bother me. Well, I didn’t until recently when this hero worship hit a little too close to home. I don’t really care if people spend their days obsessing about James Bond, but they don’t have to insult me in the process.
Now that the Olympics have started, Americans can put on display the thing they do better than anyone else in the world. Whining.
I love a good chance to complain as much as the next guy, maybe even more, but we really ramp it up as a nation when the Olympics roll around.
It seems as if we have to make fun of a sport or complain about its foreign nature if we’re not good at it. Where’s the American spirit in that?
We don’t always get a chance to confront our childhood fears. Thanks to two of my crazy sisters, I will get that opportunity later this year. I’m going to Disney World.
Well, all of us are as part of a small-scale Shea invasion. This is nothing new for my siblings, some of whom go once or twice a year and have planned this particular family jaunt.
I haven’t been to Disney since one summer in the early 1970s when I celebrated a birthday – I either turned 5 or 6, I forget – at the happiest place on earth. My memories are far from happy.
I don’t know what to do today. Well, I’ll naturally go to a Super Bowl party and eat too much. That’s a given. But I don’t know what to do during the game.
I might actually have to root for the Steelers.
I know. Things are that bad.
I had to send an e-mail to a co-worker the other day. I needed to include a funny comment, but worried that she might not get the joke. I started at my computer screen for a few seconds. She has a great sense of humor, so she would have to get the gag, but she’s also higher on the food chain than I am. I didn’t want to rock the boat.
So I did something I don’t like to do in everyday communication. I used an emoticon in a work-related e-mail.