...of 2020.
Did I scare you there for a minute?
No, I do not plan to leave the blogging world anytime soon. One never knows, of course. One could get hit by a truck on the way to the grocery store.
But unless that or something worse happens, I hope to be around for quite some time yet.
I have surprised myself by publishing more posts on this blog in 2020 than in any year since 2013.
It's true.
This blog saw the light of day in the last week of September in 2007. By the end of the year I had written 43 posts. Annualizing the rate, had I started the blog at the beginning of the year there might have been 172 posts in 2007.
In 2008, there were 228.
In 2009, there were 206.
In 2010, there were 184.
In 2011, there were 219.
In 2012, there were 220.
In 2013, there were 194.
Beginning in 2014, I began to blog less frequently.
In 2014, I wrote 100 posts.
In 2015, I wrote 91 posts.
In 2016, I wrote 77 posts.
In 2017, I wrote 71 posts.
In 2018, I wrote 86 posts.
And in 2019, I wrote 79 posts.
which brings us to 2020, which in a few more hours will be gone forever. For some unknown reason my blogging output increased this year. This is my 126th post of the year, a significant increase over each of the last six years, but nowhere near the heady days of 2008 through 2013.
When I started this blog in September 2007, I was 66 years old. In about two and a half months, if I am still alive and kicking, I shall turn 80. No wonder I have slowed down.
Unless I am picking up again.
Only time will tell, and I apologize for boring you with all the statistics.
The way I figure it, there have been some high points and some low points in all these years, and I have no way of knowing which are which. I'm pretty sure I have offended some along the way, and again, with very few exceptions, I have no way of knowing which are which, or perhaps that should be who are who or whom are whom or whatever the heck it should be.
So as a sort of end-of-year mea culpa (my fault, my most grievous fault), I want to reach way back into my childhood into the Cokesbury Hymnal from the Methodist Church in which I grew up and give to everyone an end-of-year apology in the form of the words of the 1911 hymn, "An Evening Prayer" by C.M. Battersby. The music was by Charles H. Gabriel, but you will have to imagine that.
Since 2020 has been too much like one long nightmare from which we all hope to wake very soon, I think it is fitting to turn an evening prayer into an end-of-year request for forgiveness.
It may not help, but it couldn't hurt.
An Evening Prayer
by C.M. Battersby
If I have wounded any soul today,
If I have caused one foot to go astray,
If I have walked in my own willful way,
Dear Lord, forgive!
If I have uttered idle words or vain,
If I have turned aside from want or pain,
Lest I myself should suffer through the strain,
Dear Lord, forgive!
If I have been perverse or hard, or cold,
If I have longed for shelter in Thy fold,
When Thou hast given me some fort to hold,
Dear Lord, forgive!
Forgive the sins I have confessed to Thee;
Forgive the secret sins I do not see;
O guide me, love me and my keeper be,
Dear Lord, Amen.
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Monday, December 28, 2020
U.S. History lesson and a most unusual photo
Today, class, before 2020 passes into history, let's take a glimpse back in time to the America of a hundred years ago, to the year 1920.
I can hear some of you saying "Let's not" but I am going to forge ahead anyhow. Stick with me. You may learn something.
World War I had ended with the armistice in November 1918. American women had just received the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and everyone was looking forward to the election in the fall of 1920. The deadly Spanish flu had lasted from February 1918 to April 1920, infecting 500 million people – about a third of the world's population at the time – in four successive waves. The death toll worldwide is estimated to have been somewhere between 17 million and 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million.
On the American political scene, President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, wanted to serve a third term but his failing health made that unlikely. In the Republican Party, former president Theodore Roosevelt had been the favorite for another run at the presidency, but that hope ended when he died in January 1919. Whom to pick, whom to pick? Both parties were in a quandary.
At the Democratic Party's National Convention in San Francisco, on the 44th ballot (repeat, 44th ballot -- Donald Trump would have been apoplectic), James M. Cox, the governor of Ohio, was chosen to head the ticket and he picked the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, as his Vice-Presidential running mate. Here they are at a campaign stop in Washington D.C. in 1920:
Do you notice anything unusual or surprising about that photo? The answer is revealed before the end of this post.
The Republicans chose Senator Warren G. Harding, also of Ohio, to be their candidate. He became the 29th president of the United States. His Vice-Presidential running mate, Calvin Coolidge, then became the 30th president when Harding died in office in 1923.
Here is what the electoral map ended up looking like in 1920:
The "big three" states in electoral votes that year were New York (45), Pennsylvania (38), and Illinois(29). Not California, Not Texas. Not Florida. The North and West voted Republican and there was an almost solidly Democratic south except for the state of Tennessee. The nation's political map has changed a great desl in the last hundred years, mainly because the political stances of the Democrats and Republicans have changed as well.
About that photograph, it is the only one I have ever seen of Franklin D. Roosevelt standing tall and erect, unassisted by crutches or canes, or not sitting in a wheelchair. It made me wonder just when he contracted polio, and I have learned that it happened the very next year, in 1921. He became very ill while his family was on vacation at Campobello in Maine. He became permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Although he was diagnosed with poliomyelitis at the time, some now think his symptoms were more consistent with Guillain–Barré syndrome.
The Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age, the Stock Market Crash, the Great Depression, World War II were all yet to come.
Roosevelt probably thought his career was ended and that his life was ruined.
He could not have been more wrong.
He went on to become Governor of New York, and then the longest-serving president of the United States, from 1933 until 1945.
I can hear some of you saying "Let's not" but I am going to forge ahead anyhow. Stick with me. You may learn something.
World War I had ended with the armistice in November 1918. American women had just received the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and everyone was looking forward to the election in the fall of 1920. The deadly Spanish flu had lasted from February 1918 to April 1920, infecting 500 million people – about a third of the world's population at the time – in four successive waves. The death toll worldwide is estimated to have been somewhere between 17 million and 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million.
On the American political scene, President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, wanted to serve a third term but his failing health made that unlikely. In the Republican Party, former president Theodore Roosevelt had been the favorite for another run at the presidency, but that hope ended when he died in January 1919. Whom to pick, whom to pick? Both parties were in a quandary.
At the Democratic Party's National Convention in San Francisco, on the 44th ballot (repeat, 44th ballot -- Donald Trump would have been apoplectic), James M. Cox, the governor of Ohio, was chosen to head the ticket and he picked the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, as his Vice-Presidential running mate. Here they are at a campaign stop in Washington D.C. in 1920:
The Republicans chose Senator Warren G. Harding, also of Ohio, to be their candidate. He became the 29th president of the United States. His Vice-Presidential running mate, Calvin Coolidge, then became the 30th president when Harding died in office in 1923.
Here is what the electoral map ended up looking like in 1920:
About that photograph, it is the only one I have ever seen of Franklin D. Roosevelt standing tall and erect, unassisted by crutches or canes, or not sitting in a wheelchair. It made me wonder just when he contracted polio, and I have learned that it happened the very next year, in 1921. He became very ill while his family was on vacation at Campobello in Maine. He became permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Although he was diagnosed with poliomyelitis at the time, some now think his symptoms were more consistent with Guillain–Barré syndrome.
The Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age, the Stock Market Crash, the Great Depression, World War II were all yet to come.
Roosevelt probably thought his career was ended and that his life was ruined.
He could not have been more wrong.
He went on to become Governor of New York, and then the longest-serving president of the United States, from 1933 until 1945.
Sunday, December 27, 2020
Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen
...which was prepared and served by our Alabama son-in-law....
Le menu du 26 décembre:
tranche de jambon avec quartier d'ananas
haricots verts
patate douce hasselback
macaroni et fromage cheddar
rouler avec du beurre
thé glacé
and the pièce de resistance (not shown):
cordonnier pêche à la cannelle
Translation for non-Alabamians:
ham slice with pineapple wedge
green beans
hasselback sweet potato
macaroni and cheese
roll with butter
iced tea
cinnamon peach cobbler
Le menu du 26 décembre:
tranche de jambon avec quartier d'ananas
haricots verts
patate douce hasselback
macaroni et fromage cheddar
rouler avec du beurre
thé glacé
and the pièce de resistance (not shown):
cordonnier pêche à la cannelle
Translation for non-Alabamians:
ham slice with pineapple wedge
green beans
hasselback sweet potato
macaroni and cheese
roll with butter
iced tea
cinnamon peach cobbler
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
The best one hour, thirteen minutes, and fifty-three seconds you could spend this Christmas season
...musically, at least, would be to watch and listen to:
This youtube video of "Carols From King's" from 2006.
"King's" refers to Kings College, Cambridge, in England, where every Christmas Eve a similar event is broadcast live around the world by the BBC. It is carried in the U.S. on National Public Radio. In my time zone it occurs from 10 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. on December 24th, but in the U.K. it is mid-afternoon.
This is definitely not the Trans-Siberian Orchestra or Lady Gaga or the Beatles.
What it is is beautiful.
You might find yourself listening to it more than once.
This youtube video of "Carols From King's" from 2006.
"King's" refers to Kings College, Cambridge, in England, where every Christmas Eve a similar event is broadcast live around the world by the BBC. It is carried in the U.S. on National Public Radio. In my time zone it occurs from 10 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. on December 24th, but in the U.K. it is mid-afternoon.
This is definitely not the Trans-Siberian Orchestra or Lady Gaga or the Beatles.
What it is is beautiful.
You might find yourself listening to it more than once.
Monday, December 21, 2020
Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars, let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and...
...Saturn?
Fear not, Jupiter and Saturn are not going to collide today. It just looks like it to the naked eye.
Your roving reporter (that would be moi) just looked it all up so you wouldn't have to. Jupiter is 886,736,536 kilometers or 532,041,921 miles or 5.927468 astronomical units (AU) from Earth today. Saturn, on the other hand, is 1,619,972,917 kilometers or 971,983,750 miles or 10.828849 astronomical units (AU) from Earth today.
So it's a simple matter of subtraction. Saturn is 733,235,981 kilometers or 439,941,588 miles or 4.901385 astronomical units (AU) farther away from us than Jupiter is. They will not collide as they seem to the naked eye to be doing. No, friends, they will be merely like ships passing in the night, one closer to us and one farther away from us. Very large ships, to be sure, and not really within hailing distance of each other.
You can rest easy. You can breathe now. It's all an optical illusion to us, the viewers.
FYI, class, an astronomical unit or AU is a unit of length, roughly the distance from Earth to the Sun and equal to about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles) or 499 light-seconds (8.3167 minutes). The actual distance varies as Earth orbits the Sun, from a maximum (aphelion) to a minimum (perihelion) and back again once each year. The AU was originally conceived as the average of Earth's aphelion and perihelion. (Thank you, Wikipedia.)
For your further enlightenment, it takes light 49 minutes, 17.7347 seconds for the sunlight reflected from Jupiter's surface to reach us here on Earth, and it takes 1 hour, 30 minutes, 3.6473 seconds for the sunlight reflected from Saturn's surface to reach us here on Earth.
We ain't just playing backyard beanbag toss here.
In other news, today is the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year in our Northern Hemisphere and the longest day and shortest night of the year in our Southern Hemisphere.
Your head can now stop spinning and you are free to return to your normally scheduled activities.
Fear not, Jupiter and Saturn are not going to collide today. It just looks like it to the naked eye.
Your roving reporter (that would be moi) just looked it all up so you wouldn't have to. Jupiter is 886,736,536 kilometers or 532,041,921 miles or 5.927468 astronomical units (AU) from Earth today. Saturn, on the other hand, is 1,619,972,917 kilometers or 971,983,750 miles or 10.828849 astronomical units (AU) from Earth today.
So it's a simple matter of subtraction. Saturn is 733,235,981 kilometers or 439,941,588 miles or 4.901385 astronomical units (AU) farther away from us than Jupiter is. They will not collide as they seem to the naked eye to be doing. No, friends, they will be merely like ships passing in the night, one closer to us and one farther away from us. Very large ships, to be sure, and not really within hailing distance of each other.
You can rest easy. You can breathe now. It's all an optical illusion to us, the viewers.
FYI, class, an astronomical unit or AU is a unit of length, roughly the distance from Earth to the Sun and equal to about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles) or 499 light-seconds (8.3167 minutes). The actual distance varies as Earth orbits the Sun, from a maximum (aphelion) to a minimum (perihelion) and back again once each year. The AU was originally conceived as the average of Earth's aphelion and perihelion. (Thank you, Wikipedia.)
For your further enlightenment, it takes light 49 minutes, 17.7347 seconds for the sunlight reflected from Jupiter's surface to reach us here on Earth, and it takes 1 hour, 30 minutes, 3.6473 seconds for the sunlight reflected from Saturn's surface to reach us here on Earth.
We ain't just playing backyard beanbag toss here.
In other news, today is the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year in our Northern Hemisphere and the longest day and shortest night of the year in our Southern Hemisphere.
Your head can now stop spinning and you are free to return to your normally scheduled activities.
Friday, December 18, 2020
Would a rose by any other name really smell as sweet?
William Shakespeare famously said that it would. In Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2, Juliet says, "What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet." (lines 46-47).
But would it really? Somehow, I doubt it. I'm thinking of various English versions of the Bible, where the same verse seems to say different things depending on which version you happen to be reading.
For example, in the story of Elijah hiding in a cave in the book of First Kings, chapter 19, the King James Version (KJV) of 1611 reads:
"And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice" [emphasis mine].
However, in the New International Version (NIV) a late-20th-century translation, the same couple of verses read as follows:
"Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper" [emphasis mine].
Okay, "shattered" and "brake (broke) in pieces" mean essentially the same thing, as do "rent and "tore apart", but is a gentle whisper the same thing as a still, small voice? Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure.
Here's another example. Proverbs 24:6 says in the KJV, "in multitude of counselors there is safety" but in the New American Standard Bible (NASB) the same verse says, "in an abundance of counselors there is victory."
Again, are victory and safety the same thing? I think not.
So what's a person to believe?
It may depend on whether your Bible was produced by Roman Catholics or Protestants. In the KJV (Protestant), Matthew 11:12 reads "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" but in the Douay-Rheims version (1899, Roman Catholic) it reads "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away". So if you know that Flannery O'Connor's second novel is entitled The Violent Bear It Away you also have a pretty good idea which Bible she was reading.
Wait a minute. Suffereth? Suffereth? Another thing about words is that their meanings can change over time. Believe it or not, suffer used to mean permit or allow, which clarifies what Jesus meant when he said "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
There is also First Thessalonians 4:15 where the word "prevent" in the KJV can be confusing unless you know that in 1611 it meant "precede".
I don't know if any of this is of interest to you, but it interests me. However, since the quality of mercy is not strained (Shakespeare wrote that too), I will show some mercy and stop for now.
I reserve the right to bring up the subject again sometime.
Tonight's blank stares on Jeopardy!: What is Foreigner? (band that had a hit with "I Want To Know What Love Is")
But would it really? Somehow, I doubt it. I'm thinking of various English versions of the Bible, where the same verse seems to say different things depending on which version you happen to be reading.
For example, in the story of Elijah hiding in a cave in the book of First Kings, chapter 19, the King James Version (KJV) of 1611 reads:
"And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice" [emphasis mine].
However, in the New International Version (NIV) a late-20th-century translation, the same couple of verses read as follows:
"Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper" [emphasis mine].
Okay, "shattered" and "brake (broke) in pieces" mean essentially the same thing, as do "rent and "tore apart", but is a gentle whisper the same thing as a still, small voice? Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure.
Here's another example. Proverbs 24:6 says in the KJV, "in multitude of counselors there is safety" but in the New American Standard Bible (NASB) the same verse says, "in an abundance of counselors there is victory."
Again, are victory and safety the same thing? I think not.
So what's a person to believe?
It may depend on whether your Bible was produced by Roman Catholics or Protestants. In the KJV (Protestant), Matthew 11:12 reads "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" but in the Douay-Rheims version (1899, Roman Catholic) it reads "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away". So if you know that Flannery O'Connor's second novel is entitled The Violent Bear It Away you also have a pretty good idea which Bible she was reading.
Wait a minute. Suffereth? Suffereth? Another thing about words is that their meanings can change over time. Believe it or not, suffer used to mean permit or allow, which clarifies what Jesus meant when he said "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."
There is also First Thessalonians 4:15 where the word "prevent" in the KJV can be confusing unless you know that in 1611 it meant "precede".
I don't know if any of this is of interest to you, but it interests me. However, since the quality of mercy is not strained (Shakespeare wrote that too), I will show some mercy and stop for now.
I reserve the right to bring up the subject again sometime.
Tonight's blank stares on Jeopardy!: What is Foreigner? (band that had a hit with "I Want To Know What Love Is")
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Two more Jeopardy answers no one knew
...but me:
1. What is Fort Worth?
2. What is the Mongol Empire?
You probably are tired of hearing me tell you these things, but I just can't help myself.
I didn't think we would be doing any Chrustmas shopping this year, but yesterday we went to a local department store and did some, plus we ordered a few things online last week that have now been delivered to our home by FedEx (Federal Express courier service, for readers not in the U.S.). We still need to buy gifts for some of our grandchildren, and then our shopping will be finished.
There will still be all the gift-wrapping to do, but Mrs. RWP likes to do that. She really does, and she is very good at it. If it depended on me, it might never get done.
We didn't put up a Christmas tree this year (second year in a row) and our nativity set is still sitting in its box on a shelf in the garage. I need to pull out the ladder and put in a new light bulb over the garage door. It's also time to replace the HVAC filter in the furnace in the attic.
Perhaps I should watch less Jeopardy and do a little more work around the house?
Don't answer that.
In case anyone cares, today is Beethoven's birthday.
1. What is Fort Worth?
2. What is the Mongol Empire?
You probably are tired of hearing me tell you these things, but I just can't help myself.
I didn't think we would be doing any Chrustmas shopping this year, but yesterday we went to a local department store and did some, plus we ordered a few things online last week that have now been delivered to our home by FedEx (Federal Express courier service, for readers not in the U.S.). We still need to buy gifts for some of our grandchildren, and then our shopping will be finished.
There will still be all the gift-wrapping to do, but Mrs. RWP likes to do that. She really does, and she is very good at it. If it depended on me, it might never get done.
We didn't put up a Christmas tree this year (second year in a row) and our nativity set is still sitting in its box on a shelf in the garage. I need to pull out the ladder and put in a new light bulb over the garage door. It's also time to replace the HVAC filter in the furnace in the attic.
Perhaps I should watch less Jeopardy and do a little more work around the house?
Don't answer that.
In case anyone cares, today is Beethoven's birthday.
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Hodgepodge
...describes (according to Wikipedia) a confused or disorderly mass or collection of things; a "mess" or a "jumble".
That's what today's post will be, because I have several things floating arround in my cranial stew and I have neither the time nor the inclination to sort them all out.
Read on at your own risk. You have been warned.
Topic 1 - Writers On Writing
In a 1984 interview with The Paris Review, the American writer James Baldwin (1924-1987) made several remarkable statements about writing:
For more on writing from a successful writer, I recommend you read the book Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott.
Topic 2 - Recent questions on Jeopardy! that no one knew but me
I'll give you the answer first, putting it, as always, in the form of a question. Pertinent information from the clue will follow in parentheses:
That's what today's post will be, because I have several things floating arround in my cranial stew and I have neither the time nor the inclination to sort them all out.
Read on at your own risk. You have been warned.
Topic 1 - Writers On Writing
In a 1984 interview with The Paris Review, the American writer James Baldwin (1924-1987) made several remarkable statements about writing:
- I find writing gets harder as time goes on. I’m speaking of the working process, which demands a certain amount of energy and courage (though I dislike using the word), and a certain amount of recklessness.
- You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.
- Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.
- I don’t try to be prophetic, as I don’t sit down to write literature. It is simply this: a writer has to take all the risks of putting down what he sees. No one can tell him about that. No one can control that reality. It reminds me of something Pablo Picasso was supposed to have said to Gertrude Stein while he was painting her portrait. Gertrude said, “I don’t look like that.” And Picasso replied, “You will.” And he was right.
- Write. Find a way to keep alive and write. There is nothing else to say. If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; if you’re not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real.
- [My first drafts] are overwritten. Most of the rewrite, then, is cleaning. Don’t describe it, show it. That’s what I try to teach all young writers—take it out! Don’t describe a purple sunset, make me see that it is purple.
For more on writing from a successful writer, I recommend you read the book Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott.
Topic 2 - Recent questions on Jeopardy! that no one knew but me
I'll give you the answer first, putting it, as always, in the form of a question. Pertinent information from the clue will follow in parentheses:
- Who is Sequoyah? (inventor of the Cherokee syllabary around 1820)
- Who is Josephine? (wife of Emperor Napoleon)
- Who are Lerner and Loewe? (writers of My Fair Lady)
- What is a unicorn? (mythical horned beast, along with behemoth, mentioned nine times in the King James Version of the Bible)
- What is void? (in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, Earth is described as being without form and this. The category was Empty Words.)
That last one astounded me more than usual that no one could come up with the answer.
Topic 3 - Midwinter Holidays
Hanukkah begins tonight at sunset and ends eight days from now on December 18th. Between then and Christmas, do not wish your Jewish friends a "Happy Hanukkah" or they will know you are not paying attention.
I hope this post was hodgepodgy enough for you. I may elaborate on some of these topics at a later date.
Don't hold your breath.
Thursday, December 3, 2020
I used to think that I was fairly well informed
...but friends, those days are fading fast. There are more and more subjects regarding which I would fail miserably if they were categories on a certain television program that shall remain nameless.
For example, yesterday I ran across (not literally) an article from The New York TImes entitled "The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century (So Far)". I am not going to give you a link to it. You are capable of finding it yourself if you wish to. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, and other annoying expressions.
Glowing descriptions of the 25, their roles, and the films in which they appeared were provided by A.O. Scott, Marjane Satrapi, Manohla Dargis, Julian Schnabel, Ryan Coogler, James Gray (about all of whom I know nothing), and Denzel Washington (about whom I know a little bit).
I have omitted the glowing descriptions (I might also have called them breathlessly gushy) to spare you such memorable sentences as the following:
"She’s flat-out glorious in “The Paperboy” (2012), a delectably vulgar whatsit in which she outshines a showboating male cohort, alternately urinating on Zac Efron and tearing her pantyhose in an orgiastic frenzy over John Cusack."
You can thank me later.
Moving right along....
Of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century (so far) themselves, I had never heard of about half of them. I say "about half" because I had heard of 12 of them. I had never heard of the other 13. It would have been impossible for me to have heard of exactly half of them because that would be, let's see, multiple by 4, carry the 3, um, 12 and a half, and that would be impossible.
Here's the list. You can tell me how well you did in the comments:
25 - Gael García Bernal
24 - Sônia Braga
23 - Mahershala Ali
22 - Melissa McCarthy
21 - Catherine Deneuve
20 - Rob Morgan
19 - Wes Studi
18 - Willem Dafoe
17 - Alfre Woodard
16 - Kim Min-hee
15 - Michael B. Jordan
14 - Oscar Isaac
13 - Tilda Swinton
12 - Joaquin Phoenix
11 - Julianne Moore
10 - Saorise Ronan
9 - Viola Davis
8 - Zhao Tao
7 - Toni Servillo
6 - Song Kang Ho
5 - Nicole Kidman
4 - Keanu Reeves
3 - Daniel Day-Lewis
2 - Isabelle Huppert
1 - Denzel Washington
I grow more out of touch with every passing day. All in all, however, it is not a bad thing to be.
What names are missing from the list that you would have included? What names are on the list that you would have omitted? How many have you never heard of?
For example, yesterday I ran across (not literally) an article from The New York TImes entitled "The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century (So Far)". I am not going to give you a link to it. You are capable of finding it yourself if you wish to. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, and other annoying expressions.
Glowing descriptions of the 25, their roles, and the films in which they appeared were provided by A.O. Scott, Marjane Satrapi, Manohla Dargis, Julian Schnabel, Ryan Coogler, James Gray (about all of whom I know nothing), and Denzel Washington (about whom I know a little bit).
I have omitted the glowing descriptions (I might also have called them breathlessly gushy) to spare you such memorable sentences as the following:
"She’s flat-out glorious in “The Paperboy” (2012), a delectably vulgar whatsit in which she outshines a showboating male cohort, alternately urinating on Zac Efron and tearing her pantyhose in an orgiastic frenzy over John Cusack."
You can thank me later.
Moving right along....
Of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century (so far) themselves, I had never heard of about half of them. I say "about half" because I had heard of 12 of them. I had never heard of the other 13. It would have been impossible for me to have heard of exactly half of them because that would be, let's see, multiple by 4, carry the 3, um, 12 and a half, and that would be impossible.
Here's the list. You can tell me how well you did in the comments:
25 - Gael García Bernal
24 - Sônia Braga
23 - Mahershala Ali
22 - Melissa McCarthy
21 - Catherine Deneuve
20 - Rob Morgan
19 - Wes Studi
18 - Willem Dafoe
17 - Alfre Woodard
16 - Kim Min-hee
15 - Michael B. Jordan
14 - Oscar Isaac
13 - Tilda Swinton
12 - Joaquin Phoenix
11 - Julianne Moore
10 - Saorise Ronan
9 - Viola Davis
8 - Zhao Tao
7 - Toni Servillo
6 - Song Kang Ho
5 - Nicole Kidman
4 - Keanu Reeves
3 - Daniel Day-Lewis
2 - Isabelle Huppert
1 - Denzel Washington
I grow more out of touch with every passing day. All in all, however, it is not a bad thing to be.
What names are missing from the list that you would have included? What names are on the list that you would have omitted? How many have you never heard of?
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