Read that Diana Rigg (Mrs. Peel from The Avengers) felt that this was the best performance of her career (as Lionheart's daughter)

I have always wondered if the magma outflow in the Deccan traps and the K/T impact on the Yucatan peninsula were not two parts of the same catastrophe. If you look at a globe, these two places are very nearly diametrically opposed points on the earth. I have recently read studies theorizing that the energy from the impact could have passed through the earth and focused at the opposite point on the globe - - possibly enough energy to disrupt and fracture the crust and may have caused (or greatly exacerbated already existing) volcanism in the Deccan traps area. I think that this has also been put forward as a possibility in the even larger magma outflow in Siberia which may have coincided with an impact that has been linked to the mass extinction at the end of the Permian era.

I hope this means there are spicy "hot" tomatoes in our future. I want!

I have always assumed that it was on purpose - - I read a study about eating habits recently that showed that people eat faster and eat more in a loud, distracting environment. The difference was not tiny either - - made a huge difference in both amount and speed of consumption. The authors theorized that the noise and distraction caused people to pay less attention and have less awareness of internal feedback about how hungry or how full you really are.

What continues to gall me is the relentless beer advertising you see now (but it is OK because we say "please drink responsibly" at the end of the ad!). What really pushed me over the edge was when Anheuser Bush threatened to pull advertising if the NFL did not do something about the rampant domestic abuse in the papers all of the time with NFL players. Just go ask any police officer you know just how many empty Budweiser cans they usually see when they go to a domestic abuse call. The hypocrisy is just stunning.

My favorite Rodney: Yeah, my sex life is terrible. My wife now only lets me make love to her once a month. I guess I shouldn't feel bad though - - I know a couple of guys that she cut off altogether....

I live in central Washington state and there was quite a bit of "end of the world catastrophe" type panic around here with people in bidding wars trying to buy generators. Most of our power comes from hydroelectric dams that were built in the 30's and 40's. The people in charge of the dams had to repeatedly point out that (1) water was not going to stop running downhill, and (2) all of the manual, mechanical, non-computerized controls and switches that the dams were built with still worked just fine.

My all-time favorite description of the different trends/styles of paintings is from an entertaining (but not great) movie starring James Garner called "The Wheeler Dealers" where Garner is a kind of promoter-type and has a group of rich old-codger good old boys (including the always-hilarious Phil Harris) that enjoy investing in whatever he has going on. At one point, they are considering investing in art, an Garner explains the types of art (Monet/expressionism= "fuzzy" paintings. Jackson Pollock/abstract="scratchy" paintings, etc.) and the popularity trends od what is valuable. Is a pretty awesome scene and is actually very true and funny.

When I was young, my grandparents (in the Puget Sound area) had several hummingbird feeders hanging on the railing of their deck. My grandfather showed me how, if you remained absolutely still, you could hold your hand under the feeder and the hummingbirds would eventually take advantage of the chance to rest and perch on your finger. It took a while for them to trust you, and if you even blinked your eyes, they would all scatter. I have had people absolutely refuse to believe me when I tell them I have had 5 or 6 hummingbirds perched on my finger before. They are pretty amazing to look at up close like that, and you can actually feel the heat radiating from their little high-energy bodies.

I personally think that the best thing to come from this movie was the Gone With the Wind parody on the Carol Burnett show ("Went With the Wind"). It was one of the funniest comedy sketches in television history. "I saw it in a window and I just had to have it"... Her curtain rod outfit is on display at the Smithsonian. When she came down the stairs in that outfit it was the longest sustained laugh in the 10-year history of the show.

A few months ago I had my daughter over and she wanted to bake something and I told her I had store-bought pie crust, but nothing to put in it and did not feel like a trip to the store. We rooted around in the cupboards and all we could find was a bib box of raisins. She dug through some old cookbooks I have (from the 30's and 40's - they are wonderful!) and found a recipe for raisin pie. Sounded strange but we went ahead and made it and it was absolutely amazing - - one of the best pies I have ever had.

Paul Revere & the Raiders we min and my brother's FAVORITE band when we were kids in the late 60's. We absolutely wore out our 45's of their hit records. Then years later in the late 70's, I was at a car show in Seattle wandering around and heard some familiar music. I walked over and there in the corner of the arena was Paul Revere & the Raiders. They were in full costume, listlessly playing their music while absolutely NOBODY paid attention to them. From the looks on their faces, they clearly did not want to be there, and it was pretty clear that nobody at the car show cared if they were there. Was one of the saddest things I have ever seen... Really brought home to me some truths about the fleeting nature of fame that, as a 17-year old I had never really considered.

My favorite food conspiracy theory relates to one of the ones on here but is a totally different explanation. Addresses the baffling decision Coca-Cola made to completely change the formula and taste of what was at the time the number one selling soft drink in the world. The theory I heard makes much more sense than the "stirring up interest" story they have in this article. What I heard is that they were already losing market share to Pepsi, and with it being the height of the "drug war" and public anti-drug sentiment, they were scared to death of what would happen if Pepsi (either openly or through surrogates) accused them of tacitly supporting the illegal drug trade. This accusation would have actually been true, as one of the ingredients in Coca-Cola has always been the extract from coca leaves (with the cocaine removed of course) as a flavoring. This had (and has) always supported the extensive (legal) cultivation of what was being looked at more and more as a dangerous, illegal drug by giving the coca farmers a huge market for what was only part of what they produced. I was told they were just trying to quietly get out in front of what they expected would be a firestorm of negative publicity if this became an issue, and worked to come up with a passable coca-extract free formula. Was told this story by someone who claimed (of course) that they heard it directly from someone involved in the decision-making. Do not know if it is true, but it sure seems a lot more believable than the ridiculous explanations they have always given. Would be curious to know if anyone else has heard this version of the story.

Jeff Goldblum was also in Death wish as a thug. He is listed in the credits though.