Potluck Quote of the Day (4 of 10): Jimmy Carter

Today's Quote of the Day is from former President Jimmy Carter, who is now 91 years old; last night, Carter's time in the White House was the basis for a PBS documentary on "The American Experience."

We are indeed quoting Carter because it's an election year. In 1976, the year Carter ran for president against Republican Gerald Ford, the Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck also ran for office. Coincidentally, Mr. Duck was from Cleveland, Ohio, where this year's Republican convention took place. We gather no one there was dressed like Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie in the new film "Suicide Squad", and the ever-gorgeous actress Anne Hathaway was not there either!

Here is today's quote from Carter:

"If you're totally illiterate and living on one dollar a day, the benefits of globalization will never come to you."

http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/

http://marvel.com/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/

Our Oscar Predictions....

Here are our Oscar forecasts, there are some major upsets that we are projecting:

Original Screenplay: Mark Boal "Zero Dark Thirty"

Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio "Argo"

Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones "Lincoln" (pictured)

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway "Les Misreables"

Best Actor: Bradley Cooper "Silver Linings Playbook"

Best Actress: Jessica Chastain "Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Director: Steven Spielberg  "Lincoln"

Best Picture: "Argo"

Quote of the Day/Week- Werner Herzog

Today, we quip one of our favorite German film directors Werner Herzog as we conclude a month-long series-within-a-series dedicated to quotes from famous Germans.

While researching this, we found out that Herzog is the first film director to make a film on every continent, including Antartica!

The 69-year-old director has just completed work on a documentary called "Death Row" about death row inmates in America. The subject should be a unique one from Herzog's vantage point as many Europeans find the fact that America executes inmates extremely unsettling, while more than 50 percent of Americans seem to support capital punishment in spite of conclusive proof of wrongful executions.

(Full disclosure: I am highly opposed to capital punishment, and I am a long-time supporter of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty).

We get today's quote from the Les Blank documentary "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe," which was made in 1980 and originated from a bet that Herzog made with a then-unknown documentary filmmaker named Errol Morris, who has since become an Academy-Award winner. Morris's latest documentary "Tabloid" was an art-house hit earlier this year:

"If you want to do a film, then steal a camera, steal raw stock, sneak into a lab and just do it."


SIDEBAR ONE: We found out yesterday that actress Anne Hathaway, whom I have admired since she made the 2005 independent film "Havoc" and has since made box office successes, such as "The Devil Wears Prada," is getting engaged. We should wish the actress, who turned 29 earlier in the month well, but frankly we are as jealous as Daffy Duck! Assuredly, anyone wanting more info on Hathaway's personal life can watch "TMZ" as we are moving on to other things.

SIDEBAR TWO: This might seem like a headline from the fake news publication "The Onion," but it is in fact an actual headline from the current issue of "Seattle Weekly:" "The gay softball team that wasn't gay enough has reached a settlement."

Indeed, in 2008, the San Francisco-based gay softball team D2, which finished second at the Gay Softball World Series in Seattle, was disqualified because they allegedly had two or three bisexual or heterosexual players. We first heard about this from the same publication, and blogged about it last year (search our 'gay politics' tag to learn more).

Apparently, the matter went to court, and it has reached a binding resolution. We can imagine that this story may actually be a topic of discussion for both gay rights activist/sex advice columnist Dan Savage and a right-wing talking head,like Rush Limbaugh, who may use this as an example of extreme political correctness (but, I guess rebel-flag waving Confederate apologists in 2011 is ok?!),.......only in America!

60 Words or Less- The Freaks and Geeks Fiasco

We have been trying to figure out ways to make blogging 'more productive' and less time-consuming, so we have come up with our '60 Words or Less' series.

Today, I am going to mention my Netflix nightmare which I am dubbing 'The Freaks and Geeks Fiasco.' A few weeks ago, I got a dvd with the first three episodes of the cult tv show "Freaks and Geeks" which only last for less than a season on NBC. The 1999 show, which depicts life at a suburban Detroit high school in the early 1980s, featured several actors who have been succesful 'in life after high school,' including James Franco, Seth Rogen and Martin Starr.

Well, the first dvd didn't work. So, I ordered a second dvd. It didn't work either. Hence, I ordered a third dvd which I put in my dvd player last night, and AAAUUUGHHH, it didn't work either!

I have been able to see dics 2, 3 and 4, and hopefully one day, I will somehow see the first three episodes of the series.

Hmmm... that was well over 60 words. I guess like Leo Tolstoy brevity is not one of my strengths.

SIDEBAR: I was hoping to name all the 43 men who have been president of the United States in a "Mental Floss" magazine. Of course, this is a bit confusing because Barack Obama is the 44th president of the USA. This is because Grover Cleveland, one of the four presidents whose name I forgot, had two non-consecutive terms way back when. And, I did indeed forget three other presidents: James K. Polk, Franklin Pierce and Calvin Coolidge. But, somehow I don't think acing the quiz would have landed me a date with Anne Hathaway!

Happy Oscar Hangover Day

In case you were wondering, especially those of you who might still be behind a desk in Portland, Oregon, at this hour, we are featuring the Hindu love goddess Parvati because a short film called "God of Love" won the Oscar last night. Parvati happens to be the wife of Shiva, but this is not World Religions 101 (though I did get a 'B' in that class at Radford University in Virginia).

This deity should not be confused with Parvati Melton, the extremely gorgeous 22-year-old Bollywood star (who grew up in California!) who may very well have her very own Uma Thurman stalker from Mumbai (well, for her sake, we certainly hope that's not the case!).

Another very attractive young woman Natalie Portman, who is alas engaged to be married to a man who impregnated her (insert whinning here), won a well-deserved Best Actress last night for her amazing performance in "The Black Swan." The dark movie about a struggling ballet dancer was the subject of a recent nasty piece in "The New Republic" which almost made me cancel my subcription. But, we love their columnist Jonathan Chait, who always puts right-wingers in their place (give that man a raise!).

As for some other winners, we mentioned the short live action film "Gods of Love" which won last night. The film by Luke Matheny is about a love-struck lounge-sining teenage boy. It was one of the ten picks we missed last night though we did choose 13 right, including our pick for Portman.

"Strangers No More," a film about a school in Tel Aviv, Israel, with children from 48 countries, won a Best Documentary Short Oscar.

And, finally, "The Lost Thing" a short animated film about a boy who finds a strange creature on the beach and adopts it for himself was the winner in its category.

The very last thing I want to mention is that I thought one dress worn by Anne Hathaway (it should be pointed I know nothing about fashion and if I were to even have a Starbucks frappucino with Hathaway, I would get down on my knees and thank
Shiva) actually looked like something that the '80s punk band Devo would wear. Ok, well, I wasn't going to have a frap with Anne Hathaway anyway!