Odds on

This list is from Amazon, with sources and all, odds that...

Your letter to The New York Times will be published 20 to 1
You'll get hemorrhoids 25 to 1
You'll hunt small game next year 54 to 1
You'll seek hypnotic therapy 79 to 1
You'll get Botox next year 102 to 1
Your tax return will be audited by the IRS 175 to 1
The person you're dating is a millionaire 215 to 1
Your book will be a New York Times bestseller 220 to 1
You go to a tractor pull or mud racing every month 311 to 1
You'll catch a baseball at a Major League Baseball game 563 to 1
You'll get botulism next year 2,300 to 1
You happen to be a private investigator 3,700 to 1
You'll pick a four-leaf clover on the first try 10,000 to 1
You'll die as a result of a major asteroid hitting Earth 20,000 to 1
You'll ever be a pro athlete 22,000 to 1
You'll ever date a supermodel (if you're a man) 88,000 to 1
Despite your efforts to avoid it, you'll actually get the plague next year 299,999 to 1
You'll be hit by lightning 576,000 to 1
You'll get bit by a shark 6,000,000 to 1
You'll win a Power Ball lottery with just one ticket 105,938,000 to 1

This the season...

The Young Conservatives of Texas - University of Texas Chapter showed tremendous initiative and put up an ACLU Alternative Nativity Scene on campus earlier this month:
"Solstice barn" is very clever, baby Jesus is of course offered up for stem cell research, Gary and Joseph are quite touching, but my favorite is the terrorist shepherd - reminding us how all encompassing Christmas really is supposed to be...

On a separate, yet connected, note the BBC reports that smart children become vegetarians, which is all well and good (but they don't make more money than their carnivore counterparts, must be the altruism...), just a shame they run the risk of being gay too...

Cecilieisms for today

Cheerfully kissing Lars goodnight: "Night night Lars, and make sure you don't throw up in the night!"

After a hectic weekend that ended up with Cecilie feeling a bit 'tired & emotional', I promised her at bedtime that tomorrow we would have a quiet day, just going to school, having lunch, the usual. She listened carefully, and then just before she nodded off, she mumbled "Are we going to have to whisper tomorrow?"

Even with a sugar overload and a sleep deficit, she's a special one.

Christmas prep and St Lucia

Cousin Jack and auntie Chichin came over for some baking
Food coloring is declicious
Starboy
St Lucia, with matching Kirsten doll, sweet sweetness...

Christmas prep

The crazy gang ready for baking
Lars, the explorer, at the mall - the day Santa was rejected (for emotional reasons)
Cecilie in a thoughtful moment
The family at the train displays at the local firestaion

Lists galore

So yes, Atlantic Monthly has tried the impossible: OK, top ten only below, but check it out on their website about the Top 100 most influential Americans of all time...

Enough or too many contemporaries, abolitionists, women (why isn't Oprah there...?), philosophers and authors (where is Jack Kerouac or T.S. Elliott)? Did they miss someone out completely: Joseph Smith (and Brigham Young...) and Mary Baker Eddy made it, but where is E.G. White?

I would of course be interested in your reading of this list (they are a bunch of liberals at the mag, but Reagan made it pretty high up...); they are happy to take your feedback too.


1 Abraham Lincoln
He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s second founding.

2 George Washington
He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but by declining to become one himself.

3 Thomas Jefferson
The author of the five most important words in American history: “All men are created equal.”

4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
He said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and then he proved it.

5 Alexander Hamilton
Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian nation’s transformation into an industrial power.

6 Benjamin Franklin
The Founder-of-all-trades— scientist, printer, writer, diplomat, inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.

7 John Marshall
The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the equal of the other two federal branches.

8 Martin Luther King Jr.
His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to make it real.

9 Thomas Edison
It wasn’t just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most prolific inventor in American history.

10 Woodrow Wilson
He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy.

More movies than you can shake a stick at...

I realize it is a little bit risky, but you can see my ratings of most of the movies I have ever seen here.

Risky for a number of reasons, like:
1. How much time did he spend putting this list together? (try more than 10 years, I have been a member longer at IMDB than at Amazon or Hotmail)
2. How much time has he spent watching these movies? (someone else needs to figure THAT out)
3. His top rated movies suck! (well, that one has been up for discussion a number of times, so maybe not that risky, but 1118 movies -that's like bearing your soul completely...)

As always I am up for corrections, both taking into consideration my change in taste over time and user error, it has been a while since I have reviewed the whole list, so your input would be appreciated!

My only beef with IMDB is that it shows a movie's original title, which makes foreign titles hard to give a quick once over (but I have come to accept that this is the best way to do it); apart from that I find it an invaluable resource for movie watching past and future.

The last of the Nilsen Pettersen pictures

The only picture we got of Thomas and Lady Cecilie together (with August taking the picture)

Cecilie and August in that pile of leafs Captain VictorMexican Thanksgiving
What happens to your fingers when you eat too many olives

Didn't make the Christmas Card, but cute non the less...