All cats are grey.

Last night, several of the residents were sitting around watching old Pink Panther cartoons. One of them, an autistic kid with very thick glasses, was laughing so hysterically that he could barely catch his breath. When the cackling had subsided enough for him to catch his breath I said "So you like this, huh"

He sat and stared at me, scrunching his eyes, which is what he does when he's thinking very hard about how to explain something to someone else. He finally said "That long pink cat's a jerk!" and then turned his undivided attention back to the cartoons.

It's Complicated

I've been rereading Brian Boyd's flat-out brilliant book on Pale Fire and planning a longish post on that, but haven't really been able to muster the slacker energy required to follow through.

Instead, let me just take this chance to mention that no one who values their time/sanity should see It's Complicated. I was warned off the movie, but didn't heed the advice. On some level, I think I thought "Hey, you put Jim Halpert and Alec Baldwin onscreen together and something funny is bound to happen."

The movie is off-the-charts bad. And I have a long, and distinguished history of being able to sit through, and even find some joy in, very bad films. So please please please believe me when I say this was just horrible.

To its credit, though, I found myself feeling so sorry for Alec Baldwin for having to be there at all. Up until about 30 minutes into It's Complicated I had always tacitly assumed that "sympathy for Alec Baldwin" was a feeling the chemistry set in my brain, no matter how hard it tried, would never be able to conjure up.

McNulty: The classic barnacle.

While watching season one of The Wire again, it occurred to me that McNulty is essentially a gritty, heavily armed, badass version of Larry David, right down to the fat, slightly more competent, buddy. This is probably part of why I love the show so much--it's the first cop show I can think of that explores the schliemel/schlamazel archetype and applies it to a neo-noir protagonist. McNulty's last scene in season one, in particular, when he's on the boat, is crying out for the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme music.