Thursday, April 01, 2004

Celebrity endorsements

During past presidential elections I’ve had a habit of keeping track of celebrity endorsements. This year I plan to keep a running list on my blog which I will update as new information becomes available. My rule for listing celebrity endorsements is that I have to see a reliable news source listing their support for the current campaign year in some shape or fashion - they attended a fund raiser, gave cash, signed a petition, peformed at a support function, or simply said “I support so-and-so.” If they supported a different candidate in the primary, I do not assume that they have transferred their support to the winner until I see some confirmation.

So without further ado, here is the list as it stands to date:

George W. Bush:
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Bruce Willis
Tom Selleck

John Kerry:
Meg Ryan
Leonardo DiCaprio
Jennifer Aniston
Kevin Costner
Barbara Streisand
James Taylor
Larry David
Carole King
Dennis Hopper
Kathleen Turner
Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds
Moby
Aaron Sorkin
Quincy Jones
Penny Marshall
Bette Midler
Jerry Seinfeld
Uma Thurman
Stephen Stills
Chevy Chase
Kevin Bacon
Paul Newman
Kate Hudson
Russell Crowe
Harvey Weinstein
Jennifer Garner
Robert DeNiro
Michael J. Fox
Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul & Mary)

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Aunt Pearl turns 90!

My Great-Aunt Pearl turned 90 over the weekend. Here is a picture of her at her party. I'd say she doesn't look a day over 75. Seriously, though, I think she looks terrific and I hope she makes it to 100-plus. I don't want to be the only family member who is going to live to be 100.

My mom attended the celebration along with my Uncle Kenneth and Aunt Sarah. You can see my mom in this picture facing the camera with my Uncle Kenneth to her right.

And here is a picture of the surviving sisters: Aunt Pearl, Aunt Iris and Aunt Vesta. Their sister Erna Mae, my father's mother, passed away in about 1986, I think.

Kudos to whichever family member posted all of these pictures online!

Late night watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I've lately become a big fan of the cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I know that I am a little late to the party since the series ended its 7-year run last year.
I got hooked on Buffy lately because I wind up staying up two to three hours every night with my seven month old son. I've found that I can rock him back to sleep while sitting on the living room couch and watching the TV with the sound muted. Fortunately, now that I have Tivo (or at least the cable equivalent) I can record shows to watch at these odd hours. One night when I had nothing else to watch, I stumbled upon a Buffy episode on the FX network which just happened to be showing two episodes a night beginning with the first season. Since the shows are close captioned I can watch them without sound with no problem.
I'm up to about the third season now and I have to say it is one of the best written and most enjoyable TV shows I've ever seen. It's right up there with Star Trek among my all-time favorites. I also like the spin-off series Angel too. The best comparison I can make is that it is like a cross between Beverly Hills 90210 and the X-Files. But it is even better than that.
Unfortunately, my wife is usually getting some badly needed sleep while I'm watching the show and putting Nathan to sleep, so she is not a fan of the series like I am. That means she probably would not consider spending $200 or more dollars buying all the episodes on DVD to be a good investment at this point. So I will just have to continue watching them in random order at odd hours of the night.