RickMcCharles.com

As I predicted Game 1 of the Battle of Alberta rivalry last Fall, the Calgary Flames just completed a PERFECT SEASON for the first time, sweeping the Edmonton Oilers 6 games this season.

To their credit, I understand Edmonton fans will now throw their support behind Calgary in the fight for an Alberta team to make the playoffs. The Oilers will forfeit the rest of their games, and start training camp for next season. Good idea.

… Never mind this is the first game in 10 won by the Flames. The NHL stats are secondary to pounding Yadmonchuk.

The airlines are back peddling on regulations requiring obese passengers to purchase two seats.

The backlash was:

That’s so UNFAIR. They are PREJUDICED against fat chicks!

Here’s how Air France reacted to the bad press:

… Overweight passengers can already buy an extra one with a 25% discount, but from 1 February, this will be refunded if their flight is not full.

It also confirmed that, in common with other airlines, an obese traveller could be prevented from flying.

This was to ensure a flight can be evacuated within 90 seconds …

BBC

Highlights video.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via BluePeak)

When we were kids we called 3-hole-punched, lined paper “foolscap”.

But I never knew why.

Foolscap folio (commonly contracted to foolscap or folio) is paper cut to the size of 8.5 by 13 inches (215.9 mm × 330.2 mm). This was a traditional paper size used in Europe and the Commonwealth, before the adoption of the international standard A4 paper (the most common standard size outside the United States and Canada). Foolscap is a common size for ring binders/lever arch files used to hold A4 paper as it is slightly larger than A4 and offers greater protection to the edge of the pages.

A full foolscap paper sheet is 17 by 13.5 inches (431.8 mm × 342.9 mm) in size, and a folio sheet of any type is half the standard sheet size. Foolscap was named after the fool’s caps and bells watermark commonly used from the fifteenth century onwards on paper of these dimensions] or a subdivision of this into halves, quarters and so on. The earliest example of such paper that is firmly dated was made in Germany in 1479.

Answers.com

kinds of foolscap

On Wednesday two major news stories dropped the same day:

1) the unveiling of the Apple iPad and
2) President Obama’s State of the Union speech

We wondered: what would people talk about more? Was the announcement of Apple’s Tablet Steve Jobs potentially more captivating than Obama’s first State of the Union speech?

Mashable – Steve Jobs vs. Obama: Who Got the Bigger Buzz?

Few would argue that Meryl Streep is not the greatest actress of all time.

The only other choice could be Katharine Hepburn.

While beautiful, I’d say Meryl was not at all the typical Hollywood starlet nor bombshell. Perhaps because she wasn’t simply eye candy, she had a chance to get some meaningful roles.

Cover girl at 60

Hollywood is no place for older women—or is it? In the cover profile of Vanity Fair’s upcoming January 2010 issue, Leslie Bennetts investigates the mystery of how, at age 60, Meryl Streep has become the industry’s “new box-office queen.”

The evidence is indisputable:

• Her 2008 screen musical Mamma Mia!, Bennetts writes,“has grossed $601 million worldwide, despite some cringe-worthy reviews (for the movie, not its much-lauded heroine).”

• The Devil Wears Prada, also from 2008, in which Streep played a demanding fashion-magazine editrix, has raked in $324 million around the world.

• And Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, released earlier this year, has earned $121 million and counting.

To read more of the interview visit Vanity Fair.

I’ve been a huge fan since Out of Africa. In fact, as a young man I recall organizing my own Meryl film festival, renting one of her movies each night for a week over Christmas.

She was brilliant, recently, as Julia Child.

I’ve not seen It’s Complicated. But I love Alec Baldwin. And the trailer looks amusing.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The next question is … what male actor is greater?

When I said to a teenager from yuppity New York that all young women get lower back tattoos, she informed me they are OUT of fashion.

Say it ain’t so?

P.S.

I understand Aussie’s consider the term “Tramp Stamp” to be derogatory. They call them … “arse antlers.”

Dune, by Frank Herbert, is considered by many to be the greatest Science Fiction novel of all time.

I loved Dune but found each of the five sequels to be weaker than the last.

When Dave Adlard recommended yet more books set in the Dune Universe, I was dubious.

Prelude to Dune is a “a prequel trilogy of novels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.”

Brian is Frank’s son. The prequels were written after Frank’s death, based on original notes.

Dune: House Atreides chronicles the early life of Leto Atreides, prince of a minor House in the galactic Imperium. The novel begins on the planet of Arrakis, 35 years before the events of the original novel Dune.

We meet Duncan Idaho, only 7yrs-old. And learn more about the history of houses Atreides and Harkonnen, their bitter feud.

So far as I’m concerned, this prequel is as good or better than Dune itself. An impressive feat.

Thanks Dave.

The first film of Dune was adapted by David Lynch (1984). Frank Herbert liked it. As did I.

There’s another film version in the works. No date of release has yet been announced.

A few hours after the announcement of the God tablet, the nay sayers have had time to weigh in.

… To be fair, it would have been almost impossible for the actual iPad device announced today to live up to the insanely hyped idea of an Apple Tablet that consumed the Internet’s attention in the weeks (if not months) leading up to today’s event. There are also many positives that are hard to deny about the iPad, not the least of which is its characteristically drop-dead gorgeous design aesthetic.

Nevertheless, before this thing wins your hard-earned dough, make sure you know what its limitations are. …

I still think it will be a huge hit. But I’m not sure I personally need one if I’m willing to haul around my much superior laptop.

Mashable – What’s Missing from the Apple iPad?

Mashable – The Anti-Hype: Why Apple’s iPad Disappoints