Questionable Cover Art -- #2 In A Series -- Full Metal Jellystone

Apparently Yogi Bear is suffering some moral misgivings from General Westmoreland's decision to attack the Viet Cong with Africanized killer bees.  By the foofy arch of the wrist, one can only assume that Yogi will avoid potential apiarian war crimes by fully exploiting the dishonorable discharge option, commonly enforced these days through "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."  Definitely broadcasting his sexual preference better than the average bear.

I was a bit surprised, though, by Boo-Boo's two-page drug-induced meltdown where he yells:  "I say we waste the whole f---ing village!"

Happy New Year's from Flimsy Rationales!  See you in 2010.

Man Rant -- This Week's Exercise -- Vanity Plates

1 in 6.18.

Those are the odds that a registered vehicle in Virginia has vanity plates. The Old Dominion is the leader in U.S. states by far for vanity plates per capita.  Overall, there are an estimated 9.3 million registered vehicles in the United States with vanity plates.  Considering that the average cost of a vanity plate is probably about $30 or so, that's at least $270 million dollars spent on a combination of six or seven letters or numbers screwed to the bottom of a car or truck.

Terrorist Lottery: You Can't Win if You Don't Play!

Nate Silver, over at the consistently interesting and informative FiveThirtyEight blog (a daily stop for me during the 2008 presidential election) lays out the realistic by-the-numbers odds of a terrorist attack on a domestic United States flight:

Best Movies and Television of 2009

Not a bad year for movies overall.  Another Pixar film, some excellent scifi, a couple of really great kid's movies.  No "There Will Be Blood," but enough entertaining fare across multiple genres to keep me satisfied.  

CINEMA

1. Inglorious Basterds
2. District 9
3. The Hurt Locker
4. Coraline
5. Star Trek
6. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
7. Anvil:  The Story of Anvil
8. Zombieland
9. Up
10. Ponyo

Haven't seen yet, but want to:  Fantastic Mr. Fox, A Serious Man, Big Fan, In the Loop, Hump Day, The Informant!, Drag Me to Hell, Food, Inc.

Overrated:  Funny People

Underrated:  Watchmen

Worst Movie of the Year:  (Tie) Transformers 2, Wolverine

TELEVISION

A fantastic year for TV comedy.  After the writer's strike of last year, it's clear that writing staffs came back to work motivated, ambitious and creatively energized, because the dialogue and story concepts were fresh and smart. 

1. Parks & Recreation
2. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
3. Curb Your Enthusiasm
4. Modern Family
5. Community
6. Friday Night Lights
7. Venture Brothers
8. Flight of the Conchords
9. Hung
10. The Office

Most Consistent Effort:  The Daily Show

Most Underrated:  American Dad

Most Overrated:  30 Rock

Guilty Pleasures:  Kitchen Nightmares, The Soup, NFL Red Zone, Yo Gabba Gabba

Star Wars: Pop Culture Herpes?

Spike, the basic cable network that specializes in car chases and crashes, mixed martial arts, ninja and armchair jock reality shows, wrestling, and all-ages tits and ass (i.e., what if Maxim magazine was videotaped and broadcast 20 hours a day), ran Star Wars movies all around the Christmas holiday, including all the sequels, prequels, and special editions. With heavy commercial interruption, of course. Having first seen Star Wars (screw the Episode IV nomenclature nonsense) at the impressionable age of ten or so, and probably dozens of times since, there are certain scenes, lines and images that fire up the memory circuits like an old-school Bally pinball machine. There was probably a point in the early eighties when I could have broken down parts of Star Wars like Kevin Costner's character in JFK reviewing the Zapruder film. "See how the lightsaber pops out of frame here, and then comes back in to catch Obi-Wan across the shoulder? Back and to the left. Back and to the left."