Lighter Stuff

Ah, bliss. Just got the Complete Calvin and Hobbes Collection and am happily going back and looking at the classic strips that are still just as funny and thoughtful. If you buy this set (and please use the Amazon box on the side there), you'll get all the strips, Sundays in color; you will get all the extra stories and interstitial drawings in the book collections, and you will get a new essay from Watterson. AND a picture of Sprite, the cat who inspired Hobbes. I would recommend you still go and get The Calvin and Hobbes 10th Anniversary Book as well, because that has a lot of stuff as well from Watterson, ranging from where Mrs. Wormwood got her name to how some of the stories came about to some more history about the strip - none of which appears to be in the Complete collection. Also, be ready, the Complete set is heavy - over 20 pounds. But well worth it.

Our weather has finally turned down here, and it seems like we're at my perfect time - just cool enough to feel good but not so much where the heat comes on. You know, the kind of weather you can throw open the windows and get a nice breeze in the house. This weather generally lasts about two weeks, so I'm going to enjoy it while I can.

I was watching some college football a few weeks ago, and Alabama finally did something I've always wondered about. There was a play for Alabama that looked iffy - a completion that may have been dropped - and Alabama immediately rushed to the scrimmage line and got ready for play, looking like a new play had been called the second it became apparent the completion may be reviewed. (Naturally, they backed off for some reason, and the play was reviewed in their favor anyway.) I've often wondered why teams didn't have some kind of sacrificial play made up, ready to go, for when they get a good play that may be reviewed. I mean, get to the line, snap the ball, do a quarterback sneak, that's all she wrote. Call it "Lamb" or something like that - because there are times when you HAVE to have the controversial play (for yardage in the final moments of a game, for time, whatever) and it's worth the loss of another play to keep it - yet I haven't seen any team do that until Alabama looked like they were about to. There have been hurry-ups and stuff like that, but never anything close to what happens in a two minute drill anyway.

I finally got a radio station I like. Down here, all I can get our country stations (well, new country anyway, stuff that Johnny Cash would have gagged at) and poppy stuff. We had one good alternative station for a while, but now they play pop-alternative stuff - groups that play the same old songs but dress in black. But we found The Buzz while twirling the dial, and in thirty minutes I got to hear Mudvayne, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, System of a Down...if you like louder music, give them a try.

"Good Night and Good Luck" looks like a good movie, from the clips and interviews I've seen. Of course, I do like Edward R. Murrow anyway. Also like to see Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Serenity, but those will probably be DVD purchases.