Post-Christmas Greetings

-Our family's Christmas celebrations were warm and wonderful. I hope yours were too. Now, back to real life...and nutritional reality. I'll have about ten pounds to remind me of the season for a while.

-We took in Sweeney Todd during a few free holiday hours and found it enjoyable as well as disturbing....just what you'd expect from a Tim Burton movie. Johnny Depp was absolutely perfect as The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. His singing, altered or not, was much better than you'd expect from an actor who claims to have never sung before. Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and the rest of the cast were outstanding as well. If you have a problem with viewing geysers of bright red blood spouting from the necks of multiple men laid back in barber chairs, then I'd think twice about going. But if you remember it's only a movie you'll be fine. Burton presents the story intertwined with the music so well that much of the time I found myself forgetting that people were singing. For many people who struggle with the notion of musical theatre, that's a strong selling point.

-The Blues and Red Wings hook up two more times before the end of the calendar year. With the Blues being the only team to have beaten the Wings more than once this year, these next few games should be interesting. The Wings are not a "beat you up" kind of squad any more, but they have the depth of talent to make you look foolish if you're not on your game...especially when their minds are on the mission. Should be interesting to see how these couple of games go.

-Strange that a tiger could get loose and kill someone at a major American zoo. The people at the San Francisco zoo have some 'splainin' to do after their big cat killed a guy, mauled two others, and had to be shot by police. Too bad for man and beast.

-2008 is almost here. Leap year and election year. Both designed to confuse the masses.

-The Patriots almost have a free pass to 16-0. Their final regular season opponent, the NY Giants, have no reason to want to play their top players in the game. The New Yorkers have already clinched the playoffs...and have no reason, other than pride, to actully win the game. Resting everybody for the sake of health makes all the sense in the world.

-When I do a commentary on this blog, I also allow those who come here the opportunity to agree or disagree by adding their own comments. Lately, for some reason known only to that person, I have been receiving comments that are not responses to my opinions, but more opportunistic swings at me personally. To whomever it is that is taking some dark pleasure in this, be it known that every comment to this blog is moderated by me. Most, in agreement with me or not, I allow to be viewed as comments at the bottom of the post. But don't be expecting to see any ugly swings at me to be viewable by others, especially if they're made anonymously.