Midnight Ramblings

Happy Family Day! I hope you've enjoyed the most blatantly manufactured holiday of all time.

Here's some Family Day Fun Facts:

- Family Day was invented by former Alberta Premier Don Getty as an excuse to go visit his coke-dealing son who was in prison.
- One of Premier Ralph Klein's big election promises when he was first elected was the abolishment of Family Day. Klein believed it was a blatantly manufactured holiday and that people could better spend their time working on that day and helping get the province out of debt. Klein's been in power for more than 10 years now and he ain't followed through yet.
- School boards in the province of Alberta have long fought for the abolishment of Family Day. Their logic is that teachers always have thier conventions in February, thus giving students a 4-day weekend. Families plan vacations around this 4-day weekend, so students don't really need another long weekend in February.

But enough of my cattiness. I celebrated Family Day by watching my James Bond DVDs. Now, I no longer have to wait for TBS to have their annual James Bond marathon every December. I wonder if they know how many students' lives they've ruined because of those James Bond marathons. Back in Augustana, every December, I always found myself saying something like, "OK, time to start on this paper...what? Octopussy is on? Well...it can wait another two hours."

I remember about a year ago when Die Another Day came out in Japan. Most of my middle-aged female students were swooning over Pierce Brosnan. Of course, I wound up recommending You Only Live Twice to all of them. I mean, James Bond in Japan. I figured they'd get a kick out of it.

I also sent another postcard to Trouble in China. She always says that her students get a real kick out of them. Of course, that makes me wonder what her students think about me. When another postcard comes, do they say to each other, "Dude, he sent another one? Man, he must have it bad."

Oh, and a quick tidbit of movie news. Comic book uber-artist Alex Ross has been commissioned to do some artwork for Spider-Man 2. Ross's artwork will depict scenes from the first film and be used in the opening credits sequence, for a whole "in our last exciting issue..." thing.

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