Recently I was in a class where, as an ice-breaking activity, the leader has us go around the room and say our name and our favorite movie. Just one. Nope. Only one. You gotta choose. I know you’ve seen hundreds – thousands – of movies over your lifetime. I know it’s like picking your favorite child. I KNOW it’s completely impossible – now CHOOSE. You’re first – go.

I picked one but I’ve been unhappy with my choice ever since. It is impossible to choose just one “favorite” movie. Even AFI is breaking them down into categories these days. So this week Friday Five goes To The Movies.

1. What movies have you watched so many times that you can practically recite the entire script?
2. What are your feel-good movies, the film equivalent to comfort food?
3. What movies make you cry every. single. time.?
4. What are your guilty-pleasure movies, the ones you know are totally cheesy but you just can’t resist watching when you find them playing on late-night cable?
5. What are your favorite old movies?

Leave your responses in the comments. My Five after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

If you watch the news, then you know that the following is imminent:

• Eating tomatoes will kill you.
• Global warming will kill us all.
• If Iran doesn’t do it first.
• If you live in the Midwest, you’re going to be washed away.
• If you live in California, you’re going to be burnt up in wildfires.
• If you live in New England, your heating bill this winter will send you into bankruptcy.
• You’re going to lose your job.
• You’re going to lose your house.
• You’re going to lose your health insurance.
• You’re not going to be able to afford food.
• You’ll have to eat poisoned tomatoes.
• The terrorists can’t be stopped.
• Obama is too inexperienced to run the country.
• And he can’t save us from the terrorists.
• McCain is too old to run the country.
• And he can’t stop the war.
• Paul Newman has cancer.
• The athletes are on steroids.
• Memphis is one giant crime-infested slum.
• Led by corrupt city and county officials.
• With failing schools.
• And a losing NBA team.
• And YOU’RE NOT SAFE ANYWHERE!!!

Did that cover everything? No? There’s more? Of course. There’s always more. Because the news makes a business of scaring us to death. The more frightened we are, the more we’ll tune in. So we’ll know what we need to be frightened about. Up go the ratings, up go our insecurities.

But I don’t need the news to tell me what to be afraid of. I have plenty of my own worries.

• I worry about my kid riding with teenage drivers.
• I worry about drugs, and smoking, and drinking, and unprotected sex.
• I worry about crazy drunk drivers hitting us on the streets of Memphis where no one really knows how to drive all that well sober.
• I worry about fraternity hazing, and my son’s only a sophomore in high school (I like to plan ahead).
• I worry about my aging in-laws.
• I worry if our retirement account is growing fast enough.
• I worry that I waited too late in life to start exercising.

What worries you?

For a person with such small feet, my carbon footprint is probably bigger than it should be.

I drive 40 miles round trip to work every day. I drink an awful lot of bottled water. We use paper plates at home and have for years. Every day I get a Starbucks coffee in a plastic cup. I use those evil plastic grocery sacks. I don’t recycle because I live in the county, and recycling costs extra. And I really can’t afford to pay extra for anything right now, which is why I haven’t yet invested in a Sigg water bottle. Or cloth grocery bags. Or that super-cute new Starbucks cup that looks like their plastic disposable cup but is actually a reusable insulated cup and costs $12.95.

I have a friend with six children who is adamant about using cloth grocery bags. She says that with a family of her size, she would easily use 60 or more plastic bags a week. And another friend of mine even uses cloth feminine products. Which you know what – I don’t even want to know. But that’s some pretty dedicated environmentalism there.

What are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint?

Headline: Gas Prices Reach Record High. Again.

A lot of people are making lifestyle changes because of the high cost of gas – trading in their big SUVs for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, cancelling summer road trips, or just trying to drive less.

In Memphis, it’s really not practical to think that we can give up our cars completely. MATA is trying like hell to use this to their advantage and I’ve even looked into that possibility but the express from downtown back out to the suburbs at the end of the day is at like 4:30! How does that work for people who work 9 to 5? MATA is going to need to increase their route options if they seriously want to market their services to people who own cars.

So unless you live AND work downtown, you’re probably married to your car the way that I am. Which got me thinking. About cars.

1. What was your first car?
2. Who taught you to drive?
3. What’s the longest road trip you’ve ever taken?
4. If money were no object, what kind of car would you drive?
5. What was your craziest/scariest/most unusual driving experience?

Leave your Friday Five in the comments. My responses after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Finally. Some good news.

I read a lot of newspapers online everyday, and the headlines have not been pretty lately. “US Diplomats Attacked in Zimbabwe” “Continental Airlines to Cut Jobs” “Boy Drowns While Napping in Carolina” Don’t even get me started on the local crime report. Or OMG! Gas prices! And then I stumbled upon this: “Risky Behavior Declines Among Teens.”

As the mother of a boy who will be 15 this summer, this comes as very welcome news. The report, which comes from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says that fewer adolescents are drinking, smoking and having sex than their counterparts did in 1991. The report actually said that TEENS ARE STARTING TO ACT MORE REPSONSIBLY. Which I’m pretty sure is one of the first signs of the apocalypse. Read the rest of this entry »