Sunday, March 16, 2003 - Last December, I had high hopes for the trilogy of artsy films that had Oscar buzzing. “The Hours” I viewed first, and though Meryl Streep and Ed Harris worked screen magic together, I felt the rest of the film to be pretentious. “About Schmidt” plumbed new depths of pretentiousness with Jack Nicholson trying desperately not to act like Jack Nicholson. And “Adaptation,” oh please, is pretension incarnate. Screening, this evening, “The Quiet American” with Michael Caine soothed all wounds. Superb performances all around, engaging cinematography, and a riveting story about humanity struggling to be human. Ahhh.
Monday, March 17, 2003 - Peter writes “I played Fool’s Errand on a Mac Plus over 10 years ago and I have never played anything better since. Although by today’s standards, the game is pretty simple using B&W Quickdraw, but the game is still massively fun. Today’s games have a lot of technology behind them, but they lack substance. I hope you release another fun game soon.” (Hey, I’m trying, man, I’m trying!) My reply: “I don’t let technology dictate my art direction. My storybook silhouettes remain the proper backdrop for what I wish to accomplish. I don’t foresee any need or desire for 3-D ballyhoo in my lifetime.” The next, perhaps.
Tuesday, March 18, 2003 - I find myself singing, over and over, the Tom Lehrer tune “We will all go together when we go, what a comforting fact that is to know, when the air becomes uranious, we will all go simultaneous, yes, we will all go together when we go.” Okay, sure, I spliced some lyrics together for both effect and affect. I wrote to Dave/id “maybe George W. is Greg Stillson!” to which he replied “Maybe Stephen King was more prophetic than he knew... maybe there’s a very fatalistic reason [he’s] wrapping up and winding down his writing career!” For those unfamiliar with the book, motion picture, or television series, well, I’m done.
Wednesday, March 19, 2003 - I received a bug report that random white lines were appearing on my website. One of my tech gurus experienced the same phenomenon on a computer that, in his opinion, was sorely in need of a new graphics card. Anyone else experience this? Or have any clue what it might be? All eMail is welcome. Other problems can crop up if your browser needs an upgrade to Internet Explorer 6.0 or Netscape 7.0. The latest AOL browser, I’m lead to believe, uses IE as its “man behind the curtain.” Also, if the animations act weirdly (not the content, that is expected, but the functionality), be sure to upgrade to Flash 6.

Thursday, March 20, 2003 - In February of 1708, the satirist Jonathan Swift published a prediction that the famous astrologer John Partridge would die on March 29nd; then on March 30th, Swift published Partridge’s obituary; and on April 1st, Swift had Partridge (who was still very much alive and well) woken by a sexton who asked if there were any orders for his funeral sermon. Swift’s prank worked so well that Partridge was forced to stop publishing his own astrological predictions because nobody believed he was still alive and that an obvious imposer was writing in his stead. (#10, thanks to Alex Boese & his book The Museum of Hoaxes.)

Friday, March 21, 2003 - On April 1st, 1933, the Madison Capital-Times solemnly announced that the Wisconsin state capitol building lay in ruins following a series of mysterious explosions. The explosions were attributed to “large quantities of gas, generated through many weeks of verbose debate in the Senate and Assembly chambers.” Accompanying the article was a picture showing the capitol building collapsing. Readers in 1933 were fooled and then outraged, declaring that the hoax “was not only tactless and void of humor, but also a hideous jest.” (#9, thanks to Alex Boese & his book The Museum of Hoaxes.) Feel pranked? Check the calendar.

Saturday, March 22, 2003 - The April 1998 issue of New Mexicans for Science and Reason published an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the ‘Biblical value’ of 3.0, and for weeks thereafter, the Alabama legislature received hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The author of the article, Mark Boslough, was a physicist, slyly expressing his disapproval of the legislature’s attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution. (#8, thanks to Alex Boese & his book The Museum of Hoaxes.) My number 3 was especially insulted by this hoax.