“Pam it.”

The Calvesgrit were in their bedroom playing nicely, when Calfgrit3 started saying this.

“Pam it. Pam it.”

I stopped what I was doing and listened. What’s he saying?

“Pam it. Pam it. Pam it.”

Calfgrit7 asked, “Why are you saying that?”

“It’s a bad word,” the little one replied.

“No it’s not,” CG7 said.

“Pam it, pam it, pam it. It’s a bad word.”

Oh jeez. I stuck my head in the door, “Then don’t say it anymore.”

“Okay.”

Obviously, Cowgrit and I need to watch our language more carefully. But this one is probably Cowgrit’s fault — such words he would get from me would be a little worse. I’ll accept blame when he says “Puck it.”

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Viewed: Theater

Contrary to what you might think from the trailer, this is not a superhero movie. At least not in the same way as the likes of Superman, whom Hancock, in the trailer, resembles (in abilities).

Contrary to what some people are saying, this is a superhero movie. At least in the same way as the likes of Hulk, whom Hancock, in the trailer, resembles (in results).

Overall, I liked the movie. But there were some parts that I didn’t like at first, when they happened, but came to accept as OK when they were later explained. I’m finding it kind of hard to say anything about this thing without giving away spoilers. Many of the things I want to comment on come in the second half of the movie after the plot twist.

Before the twist, when Hancock and Ray (the PR guy) start dealing with each other, especially when Ray’s wife and kid are in the scenes, I really felt uncomfortable for all the characters. Hancock is an asshole (get used to that word if you plan to see the movie). Ray is optimistic. Aaron is awestruck by Hancock. And Mary, Ray’s wife is noticeably unhappy. The stress level caused by these various attitudes is palpable.

I’ve got one real complaint about this movie, and it’s a cliché that far too many Hollywood movies use. As it is a major spoiler, I’ll black it out for those of you who don’t want to see it until after the movie:

I hate it when the hero or villain dies, pause, pause, pause, and then comes back to life. Stop that, Hollywood! It’s not original, it’s not clever, it’s not suspenseful. If you wait long enough after the death, it’s just an annoying trick.

There’s an extra scene about a minute after the credits start to roll, but there’s nothing at the end of the credits.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

The 24-hour national news stations were covering the Texas landfall of hurricane Dolly yesterday. The southern U.S. gets hit by hurricanes on a fairly regular basis, so I’m used to paying attention to the news reports on them — especially when I lived on the coast.

I’ve never been in a city while it was being hit by the eye of a hurricane, but I’ve been in a couple shortly after the drama: water, water, everywhere…, and debris. I’ve been in a city while it was being blown and washed by the middle-range bands of a hurricane, and I’ve seen the outer bands many times.

The thing that makes me laugh about news coverage of hurricanes is the “we’re reporters; we’re immune,” attitudes. The anchors and weather folks in the studio spend five minutes explaining the danger of wind and water and flying/floating debris, and urging folks living in the targeted areas to leave the city or seek secure shelter. Then the next 55 minutes of coverage goes from reporter to reporter actually standing out in the storm.

A couple of years ago a reporter, bracing herself from the wind, against a building, saw a “civilian” struggling across the street. The reporter went on a rant about how foolish the civilian was for being out in the storm like that. It never occurred to her or the folks back in the studio that she was an idiot for chastising someone else for doing what she was stupid for doing.

Yesterday, on CNN, the anchors gave the standard spiel about how everyone should have left the Texas coast or sought safe shelter. They showed images of the harbor, before the storm, and showed all the boats they were predicting would be strewn everywhere or sunk. Then they went live, over the phone, to a reporter in one of those boats. The reporter went into great detail about how dangerous it was, with the wind and waves threatening to capsize the boat, push the boat into other boats, into pylons, or into the docks.

You know, if a reporter is “brave” (read: “stupid”) enough to stand out in the wind and debris, someone in the news organization should tell them to not compound their obvious idiocy by telling everyone else they shouldn’t be out in the storm.

If the news agencies really want other people to be safe during events like that, they should show the potential results of being an idiot in a hurricane. Whack a reporter down with a stop sign, then push them into a raging street flood and film them washing away into a storm drain. That will illustrate the point very well.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

During an email exchange among my group of friends, one guy came up with a strange idea. I pointed out that he was nuts for the idea. His response was to say, “I’m just thinking outside the box.”

To illustrate my thoughts on that response, I quickly created this image:

All arguments should be supported with slapdash graphics. They lend logical credibility to all concepts.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com