lauriemann's Comments (50)

“It's an amazing novel, but it's a very quiet apocalypsel The focus is on just these two characters; the rest of the world has fallen away,. So if you're looking for 2012, you won't find it in this book or movie, thank goodness!”

“Sounds like the same men who believe they can't get breast cancer.

My great grandfather died a few weeks after falling and breaking his hip.

There's much more openness about prostate problems than there used to be. I'm not going to tell me to not discuss it because I don't have a prostate.”

“Definitely read the book. It's an amazing piece of work. And it's hard to imagine anyone other than Mortenson playing Father in the movie.”

“I have to agree that the first Burton Batman movie was better than the latest crop. The first Nolan Batman wasn't too bad, but The Dark Knight was horribly edited and very much overdone.

I'm in general agreement with Mendelson's points, but one thing I particularly remember about Jaws was its saturation advertising on TV. I don't think either Stars Wars or the Burton Batman had as much advertising. And there was an awful lot of Star Wars merchandising out when the movie first came out.”

“I don't go to movies in the theater as often as I used to, mostly because the screens are loaded with complete crap like Hangover and Terminator III. I hope to go see My Life in Ruins as it looked like fun. I'm looking for good comedies or dramas. Frankly, TV has been better than the movies over the last three years, which really isn't saying much.”

“It's such a sad story. You were lucky to have had a fine doctor with the courage to help you out.”

“You do comprehend that ANYONE can modify Wikipedia articles? Sounds like the "pro-life" people have pulled a Scientology action on Wikipedia articles they don't like. In real life, abortion after 3 months of pregnancy for reasons other than fetal defect or health of the mother is pretty rare. Read actual statistics rather than Wikipedia propaganda.”

“No, intelligent people know better. The intelligent people are not the problem. It's the clueless extremists, most of whom don't understand why calling themselves "pro-life" is such an oxymoron.”

“While I agree that Susan had kind of a rocky start, she recovered pretty quickly. Also, Memory is best sung by a second soprano, or someone with an excellent range; Susan has a great low voice, and she hit the high notes later in the song pretty well. If she needs to sing a standard, "Climb Every Mountain" would be an excellent choice.”

“I agree with joyfreedom.

It's not necessarily a woman thing - it's the sadness of a fine person cut down in their prime. I felt the same way about Christopher Reeve and John Ritter and Princess Diana. All of these people could have gone on to do more good.”

“Didn't Karl Rove write a similar article in about 2005 about the "permanent Republican majority?"

Hubris, pure and simple.

Political parties in a democracy are like the economy - they will rise and fall. Only countries like Cuba and North Korea have a "permanent party majority." See how well that's worked out

In most democracies, a party controls for a time, either screws or pisses off the electorate. The people vote them out. The Republicans have screwed this country for a long time. I hope the Democrats won't do the same, but, eventually, they too will be voted out of power.

If the Republican party finally disintegrates into the "neo-con" and the "Christian" parties, all bets are be off. Some Republicans are trying to try to avoid this, while others seem to be wanting it to happen. And other Republicans, like Arlen Specter, are talking about running as Independents in their next election.

I was usually an Independent, but registered as a Democrat just after the 2004 election and can't imagine ever registering as a Republican again. They have made it clear that they don't want people like me (feminists, gay-supporters, strong believers in the separation of church and state and in government oversight of business) in their party. And, that's fine. I don't want to be in the same party as people like Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Ann Coulter or any of the other people who so proudly call themselves Republicans.”

“One of the problems with the Richardson case was that friends of family and at least one person from transport team who brought her back to New York made what turned out to be accurate comments about the case which led others to declare her death over a day before she actually died. In a tragic case like this, particularly where her children were involved, it was a shame it became such a media circus.”

“The other funny thing about those comments is that the Internet and most of the other networks were INVENTED BY YOUR PARENTS' PEERS (assuming you're a 20-something). True, many fewer people used computer networks in those days. Networked communications are now much more ubiquitous. I showed my daughter how to use AOL when she was about 13. Nowadays, she's very active on many gaming sites. The Internet is big enough that you can find "public" and "less public" areas to hang out in. But Facebook is one of those very public areas, so you need to use it wisely.”

“"What Internet?"

The Internet is basically "the superset" of networks, so that's an odd question. That's like asking "What Earth?" when you mean to ask "Where on the Earth do you live?"

I've active on USENET since 1988 and been building Web pages since 1994. Was also on AOL and GEnie from time to time. I never did like Compuserve.”

“Facebook is for all intents and purposes a public space. You don't want to do or say anything on Facebook you wouldn't do or say in public.

My father (who's retired but worked for a college) and husband were both on Facebook before I was. My daughter has been online for years. While she's very active in online gaming, she has no interest in Facebook. I've been active on Facebook for about three months, and generally accept all friends. Yes, I've blocked a few people, but none of them are relatives.

I'd be happy if my mother was on Facebook; in fact, I'm a little surprised that she isn't.

I've been active online for over 20 years now. One of the things I really like about Facebook is that most people are using their own names and are communicating about their own lives. Sure, there's some sock-puppetry, vedettas and game-playing that has made other parts of the online world very unpleasant. But it's generally not as bad on Facebook now that more people are involved.”

“Rush doesn't really have that much support - they're just much louder and more obnoxious than average radio listeners.

Like many of us have been saying for many, many years: FLUSH RUSH!”

“I think it would be a fine idea for people to win the awards for the projects that they actually deserved them for. So it was great to see wins by Wilkinson, Giamatti, Linney, Dern and Winslet (for The Reader). It seemed oddly out-of-place for Winslet to also win for Revolutionary Road. Anne Hathaway was amazing in Rachel Getting Married. Likewise, while Heath Ledger deserved every award he was nominated for (and didn't win!) for Brokeback Mountain, his performance for The Dark Knight continues to be very overrated.”

“I've had high cholesterol since my 20s, and finally went on Lipitor when I was 49. I only regret not having done it years ago. It seems like every time I turn around, it's helping prevent some other disease beyond heart disease and stroke like Alzheimer's. It's becoming the aspirin of the new millennium.

My doctor once gave me a sample pack of Provigil because I have long term insomnia which makes my concentration awful. While my reaction to it wasn't as strong as Johan's, it definitely helped. However, it turned out my health insurance doesn't cover it, and it would have cost something like $120 a month so I never filled the prescription. Still, if it was a more affordable drug, I would research it a bit more and would likely take it.”

“Milk was the best movie I saw from 2008 (and I've seen most of the awards fodder). I liked that much of it was very playful, even as Milk became an important political figure.

I've seen and enjoyed most of these movies. Gods and Monsters is extremely underappreciated; it was a magnificent movie. While McKellen's performance was not surprising (many of us already knew what a fine actor he was), Condon actually coaxed a very good performance out of Brendan Fraser, who typically isn't a good actor. Compare/contrast McKellen in Gods and Monsters, and his performance a few years earlier as Bill Kraus in And the Band Played On.

One of the great moments in Victor/Victoria was when Robert Preston flirts with Alex Karras and forces him to come crashing out of the closet.

Would be nice to see a few movies about women in here - Desert Hearts is good but a bit dated.”

“You've been NetNannied!

That said, if you are a professional writer, consider getting an account from home. Sorry, that's the way the real world is - censorship happens. It happens all the time.”

“And they can afford the help having six kids entails.

But having 18 is nuts. Women who work for pay outside the home are still getting the "how can you give your children any attention?" attitude from some. How can a mother or father with that many kids in the house give each child adequate parenting?”

“My husband suggested that a more effective protest might have been for gay folks and supporters to do all their holiday shopping on the same day...”

“Absolutely.

Caroline and I are the same age, so I've watched her my whole life. She's written a number of books (without a ghostwriter, something her father did not accomplish), she's been a fundraiser all over New York City for years, and I think she'd be a terrific senator.

Yes, it would be better if she was open about her desire to be senator; I don't think people should be cute about politics. Still, she's been close to her Uncle Teddy for most of her life, so she understands the inner workings of the Senate.”

“Once upon a time (in about 2000 or so), Web 2.0 meant the semantic Web. No more!

Facebook and MySpace are both remarkably content-free sites for the post-literate age.

Yeah, I have accounts there, but I hardly ever spend time there. OTOH, I'm much older than their typical demographic.

I pay for my Web site hosting (about $100 a year), IMDB*Pro ($100 a year) and LiveJournal ($24 a year). I'd probably be willing to pay between $20 and $50 to subscribe to HuffPo. But most of the mega-socia­l-networki­ng sites are aimed at 13-year-olds. I want content and commentary, not constant yammering on Twilight.”

“Yet another reason to avoid shopping at Wal*MART.

I've worked retail, and while you certainly want to try to stop shoplifters, you shouldn't try to kill them. And you should plan well enough that you don't kill your employees or contractors either.”