Wildlife: FIVE Rooster Pheasants were chowing down in our front yard yesterday!

Charity Alert: The Rain Forest Site -- One click helps preserve the lungs of the world.

Weather: The snow melted under a Chinook wind on Saturday, then the clouds blew away, and it got pretty damn COLD -- not an Arctic blast by any means, but wintery for sure.

Media Watch: NFL Football -- Frank from Mad TV is funnier than Jimmy Kimmel, Jillian Barbarie hasn't been as outrageous as she could be lately. The Philadelphia Eagles had a very hard time with the lowly Washington Redskins. However, the stats say Washington has the not-so-lowly #2 Defense in the NFL, and Pittsburgh had the #1 Defense -- hmmm -- Philly looks vulnerable to a strong, physical defensive team.
Buster Keaton's The General was on TCM last night -- now THERE is a great silent film!
Keaton's talkie What -- No Beer? was terrible -- Jimmy Durante's actually billed as co-star, and the mismatch between his style and Buster's is unbearable, not to mention the ravages of alcoholism on Keaton.
I notice that the late Howard Hughes is all over the entertainment spectrum -- we watched The Carpetbaggers, even though it was LOUSY and mean-spirited. The Howard Hughes story, as I saw on the History Channel, is a clear and present warning that money itself doesn't buy happiness -- it can invite several incurable mental illnesses via social isolation. (Michael Jackson is only one contemporary example.)
I've met Melvin Dumars of Melvin and Howard fame, through my friend Trent Harris, the filmmaker. I actually believe the gist of his tale about meeting Mr. Hughes, although the "Mormon Will" was an obvious forgery. It's really too bad that such a gifted man could also be such a pathetic crank.