20-Word Fiction: A Real-Life John Hughes Movie

Greetings to our blog readers in Spain, Brazil and Japan............

Today's second 20-word fiction story imagines what a real-life Ferris Bueller would do on his day off if he lived in Roanoke, Va., as opposed to Chicago. This year marks the 30th anniversary of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," a film from the late John Hughes which stars Matthew Broderick.

Originally this story had Ferris going to the Mill Mountain Zoo where he fed a pygmy goat, but with a mere 20 words that part had to be omitted, though we feature a photo of that kind of goat here.

We also support the Sleepy Goat farm in Pelham, NC, just over the state line from Danville, Va., their goat cheese is awesome! In the We Caught It department, we originally said the goat farm was in Yanceville, NC, another town in Caswell Country (not that it matters as we are not "Atlantic" magazine!):

"Ferris decided to skip class on Thursday, but he quickly realized Roanoke is not an exciting place during the week."

http://www.mmzoo.org/

http://www.sleepygoatfarm.com/

http://www.theatlantic.com/

Highlight from the Things To Do List: Go to the Local Art Museum

As I try to do every month, I put together a list of 100 Things To Do. It should be pointed out that while I respect religious people and Elvis Presley fans, I am posting this image to be ironic. Hopefully, our followers in the Czech Republic get the joke.

Here we go:

1. Visit the local art museum (yeah, that's another reason for the velvet Jesus and Elvis painting)

2. Looking into getting a Facebook page for the family business

3. Read "The Atlantic"

4. Read "Rolling Stone"

5. Read "The Week"

6. Cancel some magazine subscriptions

7. Read "The Nation" at the Salt Lake City* Library

8. Read "The National Review" at the local library to get into the right-wing mindset.

9. Do the laundry

10. Recycle

Olympic Cities Distance Quiz (3 of 6)- Barcelona to Beijing

Today, we head from Barcelona, Spain, where they are likely still in jubilation after defeating Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 Soccer Cup, to Beijing, China, where James Fallows of "The Atlantic" seems to spend a lot of time (forgive the frequent magazine reader humor).

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics were the ones which featured the Dream Team which represented the United States. The team which featured Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan beat the African nation of Angola 116-48 in one preliminary game, but hopefully the Angolans got some autographs afterwards.

In women's gymnastics in Barcelona, Tatiana Gutsu of Romania edged American gymnast Shannon Miller for all-around individual gold; Russian swimmers Alexander Popov (pictured) and Yevgeny Sadovyi won five gold medals between them.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, American gymnast Nastia Liukin (pictured here) edged out teammate Shawn Johnson for all-around individual gold; American swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals?!


So, today we ask how far a part are these cities; is the answer?:

A) 5,180 miles

B) 5,480 miles

C) 5,680 miles

D) 5,980 miles

UPDATE: The answer is B

Ten Films to Look for on DVD

I have combed through the last two issues of "Film Comment" and there is some great stuff that is coming out. Alas, Netflix made a highly unpopular decision yesterday to arbitrarily raise prices considerably. 72 percent of those surveyed said they disagreed with the company's move in an AOL survey. An exceptional article by Jonathan A. Knee in the current issue of "The Atlantic" illustrated how the company has grown massively, thanks largely to online streaming. According to Knee, the company now has 23 million subsribers, up from nine million in 2008, and Netflix is projected to make $3 billion this year.

Among the films I've chosen here are teh ultra-violent cult film "Hobo with a Shotgun" and the very depressing film "Another Year." I went with the image of anti-depressants for Mike Leigh films because I had technical problems with an image of a very big tree in Bursa, Turkey, that I was intending to use for the film (the poster for "Another Year" featured a big tree).

We also recommend the disturbing, but brilliant documentary "Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story" that I saw on the Sundance Channel a few years ago; a tank features prominently in the film.

And, since Morgan Spurloc's new film "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" is a documentary that examines product-placements in films, we just had to post an image of a Mars bar.

1. "Marwencol" (2010. doc. dir- Jeff Malmberg)

2. "Another Year" (2010. dir- Mike Leigh)

3. "Somewhere" (2010. dir- Sofia Coppola)

4. "Hobo with a Shotgun" (2010. dir-Jason Eisener)

5. "Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story" (2002. doc. dir-Garrett Scott).

6. "How I Ended the Summer" (2010. Russia. dir-Alexie Popogrebsky)- Sarah Mankoff highly recommended this film in the May/June issue of "Film Comment."

7. "David Holzman's Diary" (1967. dir- Jim McBride)_ This is a brilliant experimental art film, which is perhaps in my top 100.

8. "Police Adjective" (2009. Romania. dir-Corneilu Porumbaiu). Romania has been making some surprsingly exceptional films, including this one, lately.

9. "Damnation Alley" (1977. dir-Jack Smight).

10. "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" (2011. doc. dir-Morgan Spurlock).

My World Cup Final Four Picks

Before I reveal my picks here, I want to applaud David Zirin of "The Nation" for rightfully putting "Washington Times" sports reporter Thom Loverro in his place.

On a sports talk show in reference to Team America's win over Algeria in the qualifying round last week (before the U.S. team lost to Ghana in the round of 16), Loverro said the following about Algeria: "When I think of Algeria, all I think about are terrorists and Abbott and Costello movies."

Like Zirin, I am sickened by such comments and they certainly don't reflect the views of all Americans. Similarly, Andrew Sullivan of "The Atlantic" reported that some demented person hacked the Wikipedia page for Ghana after they defeated Team America 2-1 in extra time on Saturday and used an epithet against the west African country.

There is absolutely no place for this sort of thing in today's world whatsoever.

As for my picks, like Zirin who said he believes Argentina will win The World Cup, I am also picking Argentina to win it all even though I really like Germany (who they place next) especially the star Turkish-German soccer player Mesut Ozil who is just 21 years old.

My other picks are Holland (over Brazil!), Spain and Uruguay.

The Dutch player Wesley Sneijder is pictured above. He has lead Team Holland in scoring so far, including the first goal in The Netherlands' 2-1 win over Slovakia on Monday.