It's a glow-in-the-dark compass ring. So you don't get lost. -Big (1988)

1. What did Colonel Jack D. Ripper mix with his pure grain alcohol?

2. Who Oscared as Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire?

3. Who won an Oscar nomination for best actress for her role as Margo Channing in All About Eve?

4. What Tracy-Hepburn film was billed as the hilarious answer to "who wears the pants"?

5. What was Woody Allen's reply in Sleeper to the question: "You mean you haven't had sex in 200 years?"?

ETA: Answers in comments.

Everybody's born knowing all the Beatles lyrics instinctively.

They're passed into the fetus subconsciously along with all the amniotic stuff. Fact, they should be called "The Fetals". -Sliding Doors (1998)

Apparently the last great frontier of digital music is The Beatles.

"The Beatles are really the holy grail for digital music, said Aram Sinnreich, a professor at New York University's department of media culture and communications and managing partner of Radar Research LLC, a media consulting firm. "They have not been available legally from any digital music service to date. Once they are, I think it confers the sense that digital music has finally arrived in the mainstream."

Sure, I'll agree with that. This pronouncement, not so much:

"There's no question that there is a massive demand for the Beatles through a digital channel," Sinnreich said, "not only from baby boomers, who would replace the CDs they used to replace their LPs, but also from today's college students, who demonstrate continued interest in the band despite the fact that it's their grandparents' music."

The first thing is how absurd it would be to replace your CDs with digital downloads: 1. It's expensive, 2. CDs are higher quality/bitrate, 3. Apple makes it insanely easy to copy the CDs you have if you only stick them in the CD drive and hit a button.

The second thing, I wonder if they'll restrict certain groupings of songs to album only purchases. Like the first two songs of Sgt. Pepper, or the last half of Abbey Road. Time will tell, but as you might guess, I won't be buying my Beatles digitally.

Paul McCartney seems resigned to the idea of digital music though. When interviewed on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic:

To me, it doesn't really matter, it's however people want to take the music--to me it's the music that matters. You know, it's probably better if they listen to the vinyl, but how many people are going to do that these days? It's kind of inconvenient. It probably is the best sound, if you're going to be a hi-fi nut. That's actually probably the best way to do it. I don't care though, however people want to do it.

You can listen to the whole live show and interview here, it's well worth it.

There is no spoon. -The Matrix (1999)

1. Who portrayed The Ugly in The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly?

2. What was Gene Kelly's occupation in the 1951 classic An American In Paris?

3. What 1957 film had the line: "Easy enough to talk of soul and spirit and essential worth, but not when you're three feet tall"?

4. What co-star of Shane died at 30 when he slammed his van into the side of a truck in Lakewood, Colorado, in 1972?

5. What was Brian's last name in Monty Python's Life Of Brian?

ETA: answers in the comments.

Don't Panic.

#20: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.

I've known that 42 is the ultimate answer since I was seven, along with the every line from Monty Python And The Holy Grail, because I lived in the same house with my middle brother. So it was about time I actually got around to reading the book--my middle childhood makes so much more sense now. The 2005 movie was pretty good, but the book is comic genius. What P.G. Wodehouse novels are to the English novel, Douglas Adams is to the science fiction novel. Science fiction is normally not a genre I gravitate to, but I would recommend this, only because if you like sci-fi then this is up your alley and if you don't you can view the whole book as a satire of the classic sci-fi novel, so you can't lose. On that note, so long and thanks for all the fish.

You have another question? Sure, I got one question for you. It's CAN YOU DEAL WITH THAT? -Meet The Parents (2000)

Now that the internet problems at chez 57 have been resolved 1001 Movies trivia can post on schedule:

1. What did the blind flower girl throw in The Little Tramp's face in City Lights?

2. Who played gay desparado Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon?

3. What did Harold Chasen convert his Jaguar into in Harold And Maude?

4. What 1974 Jack Nicholson film was set in 1937?

5. What famed Paris restaurant was Vincente Minnelli's 1958 musical Gigi partly set in?

ETA: Answers in the comments.

Sprechen Sie Daytshish?

When I took German in college, little did I know it would come in handy for reading a murder-mystery set in a fictional Jewish refugee colony in Alaska. That's right, it's book update time once again. I'm pretty far behind on posting about my reading progress, but I'll try to get it under control over the next few weeks.

#19: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.
This is the first book I've read by Michael Chabon (I know, I'm apparently the only one who hasn't read The Amazing Adventure's of Kavelier And Clay). Coming off a Dashiell Hammett's complete novels this book was a little bit flat for me as a genre book. It came really close to working for me, but was a little bit short in a few areas. I really liked the Yiddish for the first third of the book, after that it started to seem a little gimmicky. I also really liked the plot for the first third and the last third of the book, the middle was slow and not helped by my sudden irritation with the unblent Yiddish. That being said, knowing German added another layer to the characterizations for me. Since a good bit of Yiddish is the phonetic spelling of the German word (how you can be more phonetic than German I don't know), or just the German word, I was amused to find that the main character's ex-wife has the last name Gelbfish, or yellow fish. My favorite Yiddish transformation is familiar to most bagel-eaters of the northeast: lox = lachs = salmon. You can translate from Yiddish to English as much as you want here.

Ray. If someone asks if you are a god, you say, "yes!" -Ghostbusters (1984)

Movie trivia time...

1. What film had Sugar claiming she always got "the fuzzy end of the lollipop"?

2. What was the theme song for The Grapes Of Wrath?

3. What 1936 Charlie Chaplin film ended with the title card: "Buck up. Never say die. WE'LL GET ALONG"?

4. Who played teenage hooker Iris in Taxi Driver?

5. Where did Cary Grant meet Deborah Kerr in An Affair To Remember?

ETA: Answers in the comments.

Baby needs a blog name

I was doing so well with my plan to post on a regular basis, and then life intervened. My excuse for last week: Had to study for a professional test at work (pretty good, huh?). My excuse for every day after last Friday? Life really did intervene, new life that is. My first niece was born on Friday, and well, she's cuter than you are. We can already tell she's gonna be a heart-breaker. She will be affectionately known as niece57 in these parts, and she started owning that name when she was born at 8:57 a.m. I am looking forward to my new role as 'the cool aunt' and the ability/excuse to buy children's toys , clothing, and books. (Look, a whole outfit for just 9.95!) I can now buy this for my own fridge...I'll just tell everyone my niece was over.

Hey, wasn't I just there...?

I saw The Bourne Ultimatum tonight, which was a great, great end(?) to the trilogy. I saw the second installment in the trilogy (The Bourne Supremacy) in the week between my summer living in Germany and returning to graduate school. As you may recall, much of the film took place in Berlin. I had spent several days in Berlin while in Germany and it was pretty awesome to recognize so many of the locations on the big screen. A true 'Hey, wasn't I just there' moment. The same held true for parts of the third film tonight. Without giving away any major plot points, parts of the film take place in Tangier, Morocco and on a ferry going over from Spain. Once again I thought, 'Hey, wasn't I just there'?

This is one of the few action series where I hope they make another one, but only if they can get Matt Damon to play the lead. People probably felt the same way when Bond switched from Connery to Lazenby (I blame the ruffled shirts for the how bad the film is) and then from Connery to Moore, but Bond seems to me to be more about the position than the person (007 number, high-tech gadgets, and hot women). Bourne rarely uses technology outside of what he comes across, gets by on hand to hand contact and evasive speed, and doesn't have a woman in every...location. So I'm not sure that the series can work if the actor is changed. We'll see what I happens I guess.

Your first concert in years and you wear odd shoes. -Shine(1996)

1. Who did a 14-year-old Andy Williams dub [parts of] the singing for in To Have And To Have Not?

2. What 1934 Dashiell Hammett inspired film was shot in 16 days by director W.S. Van Dyke, known as One-Take Woody?

3. Who played Rufus T. Firefly in Duck Soup?

4. What was the baby in Bringing up Baby?

5. What was the last line of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers?

ETA: Answers in the comments.