Archive for February, 2008
Roy Scheider Dies at Age 75
Actor Roy Scheider died over the weekend at age 75.
I grew up watching Jaws 2 and 2010 over and over and over again, and so Roy
Scheider almost by default became one of my favorite actors. Now you might
just remember Scheider from Jaws and its follow-up, but the man was a very acclaimed actor and gathered up two Academy Award nominations along the way. He appeared in such high profile films as Klute, The French Connection, Marathon Man, Sorcerer, All That Jazz, Blue Thunder, 52 Pick Up, Naked Lunch and Romeo is Bleeding.
He even hosted Saturday Night Live back in 1985.
The A-list roles sadly dried up around the late 80s, but Scheider continued to work wherever he could. He played the lead in the first two seasons of Seaquest DSV, and appeared in just about every direct to video Michael Madsen/Eric Roberts/Michael Biehn movie made, almost always playing either the President of the United States or a military man of some kind. Just in the last eight years he performed in over 20 films!
The New York Times has an excellent write up here. RIP Chief Brody.
The Single White Odd Couple
Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple remains one of my top 10 favorite films of all time, and one of my top 2 or 3 favorite comedies. Recently it looks as though Turner Classic Movies got into the trailer remixing game and came up with this very well done promo for their airing of the film. Quality stuff.
From the Duh! Files: Annoying Marriages Get Even More Annoying Over Time
This was an actual scientific survey? What’s next? Testing people who drink beer to see if they urinate more? Studying dogs to see if they get happy when you give them a treat?
Marriage: It’s Only Going to Get Worse
Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.comIf your spouse already bugs you now, the future is bleak. New research suggests couples view one another as even more irritating and demanding the longer they are together.
The same trend was not found for relationships with children or friends.
The study results could be a consequence of accumulated contact with a spouse, such that the nitpicking or frequent demands that once triggered just a mild chafe develops into a major pain. But accumulated irritation has its silver lining."As we age and become closer and more comfortable with one another, it could be that we’re more able to express ourselves to each other," said lead study author Kira Birditt, a research fellow at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. "In other words, it’s possible that negativity is a normal aspect of close relationships that include a great deal of daily contact."
Rather than breeding unhappy couples and ill health, the increase in negativity could be a normal part of relationships.
"Because we found that pattern was overall among the participants, it appears to be normative. It’s not something unusual that happens," Birditt said.
Relationship report
Birditt and U-M colleagues Lisa Jackey and Toni Antonucci looked at how negative views of spouses, friends and children changed over time and among different age groups, including young adults (ages 20 to 39), middle-aged adults (40 to 59) and older adults (60 and over).
The researchers analyzed responses collected in 1992 and 2005 as part of the Social Relations and Health Over the Life Course study, a regionally representative sample of people from the greater Detroit metropolitan area.
More than 800 individuals indicated the level of negativity in relationships with their spouses or partners, children and best friends. Participants also noted whether or not their responses referred to the same spouse, child and friend during the 2005 interviews.
Each participant rated how strongly they agreed or disagreed with two statements:
"My (spouse/partner, child, friend) gets on my nerves." "My (spouse/partner, child, friend) makes too many demands on me."Irksome partners
In all age groups, individuals reported viewing their spouse as the most negative compared with children and friends. The negative view of spouses tended to increase over time.
"We were surprised because in the gerontological research, it suggests that as people age they get better at regulating their emotions and experience less negative relationships," Birditt told LiveScience. "But we found that it depends on which relationship you’re looking at."
As relationships with spouses became more negative, relationships with children and friends seemed to become less demanding and irritating over time. Negativity toward friends decreases over time partially because we can continuously choose and weed our friends, ditching those pals who are irritating, according to the researchers.
"Relationships with children may become less negative because of role changes as children move through adolescence and young adulthood, grow and mature, usually becoming more stable and independent," Birditt explained. Kids moving out didn’t seem to impact spousal negativity, however, as the researchers found the same trend for spouses irrespective of the age group.
Participants in their 20s and 30s reported having the most negative relationships overall. Older adults had the least negative relationships with spouses, children and friends. Past research by Birditt and others has shown that older adults are more likely to report less conflict in their relationships compared with younger adults.
"Older adults are more likely than younger people to report that they try to deal with conflict by avoiding confrontations, rather than by discussing problems," Birditt said.
In general, the longer partners stay together, the more they have to deal with the other’s idiosyncrasies, for instance. "When you’re living together, it’s a lot harder to avoid each other," Birditt said.
The research was presented in November at an annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, and it has also been submitted to a journal for publication.
No More Weiner Poopie or the Jesus Gets It
I just don’t know how the reporter managed to read the long, rambling, one sentence "ransom" note. I can’t imagine he got through it on the first take.
I want a T-shirt made with the entire contents of the ransom note written on it.
The Return of Pee Wee Herman
Paul Reubens aka Pee Wee Herman was arrested on July 26, 1991 for indecent exposure in a adult movie theater. He quickly became a punchline for late night talk show hosts and seemingly disappeared from
the spotlight.
On September 5, 1991 he made his first public appearance since the arrest at the MTV Video Music Awards, to thunderous applause.
Vitamin Water > Life Water
Hippie juice makers Sobe recently entered the lucrative "enhanced bottled water" arena, looking to get a piece of Glaceau’s mighty Vitamin Water empire.
Last night for the Super Bowl they spent a ton of money for a long, pointless commercial spot featuring Naomi Campbell and a bunch of CGI lizards dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Sobe also sponsored the halftime show report.
They should have used that money on making a better product.
I’ve seen Sobe’s Life Water in stores but never bought any until just recently when Target was practically giving it away at 50 cents per bottle. The colors and flavors are similar to what Vitamin Water offers, but looking at the labels I noticed two distinct differences. The first is that Life Water contains slightly less sugar than Vitamin Water does, which can be good news for those of you counting calories or watching your sugar intake. The second is that Life Water contains sodium (Vitamin Water is sodium-free).
And even though it might be a negligable amount of sodium, Life Water has a bit of a salty taste to me. Other than that, it tastes like watered down Kool-Aid that wasn’t mixed with enough sugar. Some of the flavors are tolerable, but none are particularly enjoyable. I’ll be sticking with Glaceau’s product. Sorry hippies.