Left to my own devices

As you know, I'm a bit of a movie lover. There are classic films that rate very highly and must not be missed: Gone With The Wind, Citizen Kane, Hobson's Choice, The Ten Commandments, The Manchurian Candidate , etc. But just as much a part of the fabric of movie history are the movies that are just plain fun to watch. Stuff like Silver Streak, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Some Like It Hot , the Police Academy movies and, of course the James Bond series of films. To date, there have been 23 Eon Production films in the James Bond franchise, and here we find out which ones are the best, and the worst. Ready? Here we go....

Going on a cruise is something a lot of people like to do these days. I had never partaken of that type of vacation until December 2012, via the graciousness of Ashley's dad. It was fun. We took the City of New Orleans  train down to its namesake, and that was an adventure in itself. We met a record producer and his wife who were from Memphis, and had a fascinating conversation with them about how she'd known the long-lost musician Rodriguez back in her college days. Having never been to New Orleans before, Ashley's dad -- a seasoned pro at traveling -- gave us the grand tour. We stayed downtown, walked by Canal St., stayed for a bit in the French Quarter, took a horse & buggy ride and learned some of the neighborhood's history, had some hot chocolate and beignets at Cafe Du Monde, and ate some delicious Boo Fries at Acme Oyster House . The cruise set-off the next day, for a five-day trip, and it was enjoyable. We were on the Carnival Cruise Line ship E...

Today is the 29th birthday for actor Chace Crawford, so he's our Pic of the Week. Enjoy!

Summer, that season of heat and humidity, existing in our hazy memories of family trips and vacations from school, has always been a rather perfunctory time of year for me. I travel no more or less during summer than during other months (we're doing our Florida vacation this year in October), and many summers have been pretty much the same as the last one, or the next. That's not to say that they aren't nice (they usually are), just that they don't always rank high on the special scale. One summer that was a notable exception to my rule of mundanity was the summer of 1994. I had just graduated high school (yes, we're having a 20th reunion this year), and adult life lay ahead of me. School had been stressful, as I've written about before on this blog, and so I was looking forward to relaxing a bit before deciding what to do next. 'Next' ended up being starting at Parkland College in the spring semester of 1995, and working a part-time job at Gar...

We're just a little over halfway through 2014, and I've seen 26 of the year's movies (so far). I thought that now would be a good time to rank those movies! Of course, this is just my opinion, one of many. But if you haven't seen some of the films in, say, the top ten, then try and watch them if/when you can. Ok, here we go….

A friend made me aware of TodayChristian.net 's recent column titled 10 Questions For Every Atheist . The questions are left, of course, unanswered (one presumes there are no atheists at TodayChristian ), and so I thought I'd try my hand at answering them. Full disclosure: I am not, strictly speaking, an atheist, as I admit that a full-on denial of a god is hypocritical when condemning others for their full-on belief in a god. I'm fairly comfortable with a 'don't know' philosophy. Anyhow, here we go.

Our Pic o' the Week is none other than British "newcomer" Pip Andersen, who was announced over the weekend as being added to the cast of Star Wars - Episode VII . He looks very capable of doing action sequences...

There's been a lot of talk lately about the rights of private business when it comes to the power they should (or shouldn't) have when it comes to who they serve and what sort of health care benefits they do or don't have to provide. Situations that come to mind are the laws some states have tried to pass granting businesses the right to discriminate based upon religious grounds and, of course, this week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows Hobby Lobby (and other businesses) the right to pick and choose what sort of health care it provides based upon its religious convictions (because apparently an entire corporation can have its own religion now). It used to be, decades ago, that businesses (especially in the south) could refuse service to people because of the color of their skin. The business owners would often cite religion as a defense. And, yes, racism flourished for quite some time in this country with people selectively quoting from the Bible as part ...