i m N s h o

I read a review of this book a while back that talked about its smart satire and stylish wit and left me thinking it might be one I'd want to check out. So when I came across a copy at the local discount bookseller, I picked it up. There's a part of me that wishes I'd read the reviews on Amazon.com first. Not that this is a bad book… more that it's one where the whole is LESS than the sum of its parts. It's set in a dystopic future where capitalism has reached its logical extreme, the American government is privatized and places like Australia (where much of the book takes place) are now "the Australian Territories of the U.S.A." People adopt their employers name as their surname, so John Nike works for Nike and Jennifer Government… well you get how it works. The police will stop a crime if it's in progress, but you must hire them to investigate that crime if you want the perpetrators charged and tried. (One of the more inspired moments in the book c...

And no, for once I'm not talking about the President… I saw Flightplan last Friday. 2 weeks at number 1, beating out Serenity in its second week, and the number two movie this week, right behind Wallace & Gromit , for a grand total of over $63 million and counting. And all I could think after seeing it was how undeserving of that kind of success this movie is. It's got the requisite Big Name stars… Jodie Foster, Sean Bean and Peter Sarsgaard are all fine and give the kind of performances you'd expect from these actors. And, while the directing might be adequate, the story is anything but. It starts out all right, but by the time you get to the second or third plot twist—assuming you're still paying attention—credibility has been strained way beyond the breaking point, even for movies like this that habitually strain your credibility. The ENTIRE set up for the "bad guys" nefarious plan is so absurd as to leave you wondering if anyone was paying attention w...