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August 15, 2006
"When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life."
Fun trivia for Groundhog Day on IMDB:
# On the DVD, Harold Ramis states that the original idea was for him to live February 2nd for about 10,000 years. Later he says that Phil probably lived the same day for about 10 years.
# In the original version of the script by Danny Rubin, Phil Connors was already trapped inside Groundhog Day at the start of the story. We joined him on a typical day, with the audience wondering how he knew everything that was going to happen. Harold Ramis promised not to change this aspect of the script, but ultimately decided to do so.
# According to director Ramis, most of the times when he tried to explain a scene to Murray, he would interrupt and respond, "Just tell me - good Phil or bad Phil?"
Terabyte hard drives are coming.
Dark matter's been proven, and the fine structure constant is lower than we thought it was.
A new solar cycle has possibly begun.
Fun Ask Metafilter question: "Literally is its own antonym?" via
Here's what you need to know (and believe me, this has been a hobbyhorse of mine since I first had the misfortune of being exposed to the execrable excuse for a dictionary that is Merriam-Webster): Merriam-Webster is an EXECRABLE excuse for a dictionary. The main reason it is an execrable excuse for a dictionary is that it positively delights in exactly this sort of blurring and denaturing of the English language. It thinks that the misuse of "momentarily" to mean "soon" is now acceptable, for example. It is riddled with this sort of thing. It embraces errors and ambiguities and seeks to make them valid in a way that reminds me of the empty-headed hippy English teacher: "Hey man, if the kidz are talkin' that way now, that's cool. Language evolves, maaan."
Yeah. Language evolves. But when it evolves into a three-headed torso-child it should DIE.
I hate Merriam-Webster with a passion that transcends all human understanding, and anyone who truly loves the English language should do so too. Don't let these fuckers win. Start by using Chambers.
posted by Decani at 4:34 PM PST on March 28
Posted by Jon Rubin at August 15, 2006 11:08 PM
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