Poor Chester Arthur, all alone in the White House, talking to himself.

"Anyone found bipedal in five wears his ass for a hat!"

fire truck drives by, ice cream truck drives by, tractor drives by

Indeed! http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

Many years ago at a swap meet, I bought an old VHS of a documentary called Cover Up: Behind the Iran Contra Affair. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be narrated by none other than Ms. Montgomery! She also narrated The Panama Deception, which won an Oscar. I'm sure the stories of her activism are quite…

I spent a rather surreal day in Branson a couple years ago on business and, as part of my job mind you, sat through not one, but two Tony Orlando shows.

This isn't quite what you mean, but I often like to think about films I've seen in which an actor gives a performance so good, so moving, so completely effective that it's clear that no one else could possibly have played the part as well. There's something rather breathtaking and swoon-worthy in that level of…

Yeah, exactly. I figured there was no way it could actually be as good as everyone said it was. Turns out it was even better.

Eternal Sunshine? I definitely got a rather melancholy feeling from the ending - the notion that things for these two particular star-crossed lovers would inevitably end the same way as they did before, as much as they might want to change their circumstances, and change each other.

Every line of Raising Arizona, I mean every single line, is completely perfect and totally indelible. I'd say that's a unique distinction, but then I remember that the same is also true of Miller's Crossing and Fargo and A Serious Man and so on. Gotta love those Coen Brothers. Pair of wordsmiths, those two!

I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for the first time yesterday. I liked it very much. Very much indeed.

Poor Harry has already made up business cards with the company name "Crane & Associates."

In hindsight, perhaps I shouldn't have hid the loot in bags with giant dollar signs on the side.

I've never pretended to be anything but the middle-brow dork I've always been.

I ran a 10K this morning, which for context is something that a couple years ago I probably never could have imagined myself doing. Indeed, for me, this was a Gordo Cooper type of experience: I went farther and faster than I ever have before. At first I thought I wouldn't have musical accompaniment, but then I…

More trivia: The first Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was called, was proclaimed in 1868 by General John Logan in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Civil War Northern veterans' group.

THANK YOU for these! They're remarkable.

I'll go to bat for Erin Brockovich - great score by Thomas Newman, great cinematography Ed Lachman, great performance by Albert Finney, and Julia Roberts really is quite excellent in the title role.

Good news, @avclub-5775013d543e57c65394c34439e7fbaa:disqus!

That's a great answer - who doesn't want Sandy Cohen for a dad?