corrections forever

• Girl just features deep breath, not 'bong noises'. I think it probably is meant to symbolize drugs, but I don't have like Paul McCartney's word on that, or something.
• While the chocolate factory does look a little like the Sagrada Familia when viewed in sillhouette from the Buckets', it doesn't really look much like it at all. I think the central tower sort of looks like the Tower of Babel, though.
• Okay, so I was right about the outline for the creation of Caesar Salad - a chef in Mexico made it in the first part of the last century, but otherwise, I was pretty wrong. Caesar Cardini may have been working in Mexico, but he was Italian-American, and his restaurant was in Tijuana only to avoid prohibition, because he invented it in 1924, not 1947.

Media Corrections

• Noah Baumbach's first collaboration with Wes Anderson was 'The Life Acquatic', so that probably isn't much reason to be excited about 'The Squid and the Whale'. I'm still looking forward to it, though.
• 'Watermelon, Chicken and Grits' is an album by Nappy Roots, who I was conflating with Jurassic Five. J5's last two albums are 'Quality Control' and 'Power in Numbers'.
• Lifehouse was originally a Christian worship band, not a Mormon band.

corrections

• Bubble construction is often used for things other than tennis.
• While considerable modern liberty may have been taken during the reconstruction of Stonehenge, it is probably very similar to how it would have looked at its peak. I think it is safe to say they didn't complete any trilithons that did not, at some time in the past, stand. This is very different from Williamsburg, where, while plenty of thought was given to make the buildings appear appropriate, there are many anachronistic embellishments to the construction.
• I'm unsure as to the veracity of the whole 'Zinc causes loss of sense of smell' thing. Most of the lawsuit claims are tied specifically to the use of sprays or gels. Since a cold itself is one possible cause for loss of sense of smell (anosmia), these things seem difficult to verify.

Corrections

• Wong Kar Wai has directed three movies that don't feature Tony Leung: Fallen Angels, Days of Being Wild and As Tears Go By.
• From where I grew up, it seems to be at least eight or ten miles across the bay, if not more, not just seven.
• The Chinese name for rice porridge is congee.
• Ricky Jay narrates Errol Morris's cisco ads.

Corrections

• While Branford Marsalis was band leader for the tonight show for three years, I can't find evidence of Wynton ever even appearing as a guest, let alone band leader.
• I was thinking about the book 'Seven Daughters of Eve'. There is apparently a single unbroken female line to one woman who lived in Africa one or two hundred thousand years ago.
• According to wikipedia, a recent article indicated mitochondrial recombination was possible. My brother is doing work on related stuff, I think - perhaps he has some insight? Also, I'll have to ask him about polar body twins, which sounds sort-of impossible to me, as well.
• Methane is odorless, but, like propane, packaged with a foul smelling gas to indicate danger.

corrections

• I mentioned that the errors in paternity rates were as high as ten percent, but a recent study indicates it is only 1 in 25.
• A gris-gris is an amulet of magical protection.
• There isn't anything in Dogme 95's Vow of Chastity regarding improvisation. Also, they require everything in 35, not digital.

corrections

• I was probably thinking about Mary Shelly's stepsister Claire, who was perhaps Lord Byron's mistress at the time, although I don't think she wrote a scary story that summer.
• Also, Frankenstein itself took almost a year to complete - until the next Spring.
• Related to the above, I've been unable to find reference to them being 'stoned out of their minds on laudanum' that Summer.
• Eva Marie Saint starred in North By Northwest, not Suspicion. (Is that the one I said?)
• Unforgiven was `92; Silence was `91. This is the opposite of what I said. (Also, I was never going to remember The English Patient.)

corrections

• The Jersey Junkyard guy did puke in front of me, as evidenced by my camera, but I somehow didn't see it. Perhaps I was expecting more audio?
• There is no sign for I-495 East on US-29 approaching MD-193. A sign says "193 East & West Next Right". The sign that says "495 U Turn" is on 193, but, again, there is no such sign on 29 itself.
• The Postal Service is composed of members of Death Cab for Cutie, Dntel and Rilo Kelly, but not Clinic.

corrections

• In the United States, the suicide rate is about four and a half times the homicide rate, not 'about ten times', according to information I found from NationMaster and the census.
• For most forms of Herbal Ecstasy, the key ingredient is ephedrine, not caffeine.
• I'm still unsure why caffeine causes stomach aches.
• You do not pass by Salisbury on the way to Lewes. It is likely I was thinking of Denton. Denton's population, at less than 3,000, is a little bit more than a tenth of Salisbury's.

corrections

• Darius the Great was Emperor of Persia from 521 to 485 BC, which is pretty long after 'Something like 2000 or 1000 BC', which is what I remember saying.
• While O's pitcher Bruce Chen is ethnicly Chinese (his parents were Mainlanders), he was born and raised in Panama.
• Russian male life expectancy has already dropped below 60.

corrections

• TIGER data is provided not by the USGS, but by the Geography Division of the Census Bureau.
• A martini is gin with a splash of vermouth.
• Alcohol freezes well below -40 F, actually about -173.

People I get or used to get confused (feel free to suggest more)

• Anita Baker and Josephine Baker
• Rex Reed and Ralph Reed
• Neil Diamond, Neil Simon and Paul Simon
• Mary Queen of Scots and Mary Tudor
• Anna Paquin, Natalie Portman and Julia Stiles
• Julia Stiles and Claire Danes
• Ted Demme and Tony Scott
• William Wyler and Billy Wilder
• Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and Rufus Sewell
• Warwick Davis and Kenny Baker
• Chloë Sevigny and Scarlett Johansson
• Dave Eggers and David Sedaris
• Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware
• T.E. and D.H. Lawrence
• Luis Bunuel and Bernardo Bertolucci
• Takashi Miike and Takeshi Kitano
• Boy George and George Michael
• John Hughes, John Landis and Harold Ramis
• Aesthetics and Ascetics
• Madame Butterfly and M. Butterfly
• Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer
• Todd Field and Todd Haynes

words I don't know what mean

Or, more specificially, I think they mean something else.

• praetorian
• tyro
• idyllic

Lunch Corrections

• Well, I obviously confused/conflated Anita Baker and Josephine Baker.
• Then, I somehow called 'Covenant Marriages' 'Contract Marriages'...
• ... while introducing the dubious concept of the 'Starter Marriage', something based on a bad statistical analysis with no real basis that I could find, at least not from an unbiased party. However, introducing it did derail the conversation, so my heart was in the right place.

corrections

• According to the imdb's trivia page, it is a common misconception, one which I held, that Happy Days is based on American Graffiti. Happy Days is really a full version of a Love American Style sketch from before American Grafiti's release.
• Saipan is an island in the Marianas. Japan controlled it during World War II, but only from 1914 until the United States invaded. Before that, it was controlled by a series of European occupiers, who wiped out the native population.
• While the Magna Carta did establish limits on the regent's power, and specifically states that legal judgetment or law breaking is required for punishment or imprisonment, there is no specific reference to Habeas Corpus, with the term first appearing in use 90 years later.
• Paper Moon was released in 1973; Tatum O'Neal was born in 1963. That is pretty different from what I said (1970/1978, I think).
• The hottest outdoor ambient temperature was recorded not at Death Valley, but in Al'Aziziyah, Libya, at 58.0 C (136.4 F).
• The Charge of the Light Brigade was during the Crimean War, not the Franco-Prussian War.
• Crimson and Clover is sung by Tommy James & the Shondells. I was never going to guess that; if anything, it makes me want to find some of their stuff. When asked who sang it, I said 'Some supergroup, I think, you know, like Fleetwood Mac, but not them', not a category in which I would place the Shondells.

Words I Don't Know How To Spell

• separate
• embarrassing
• impossible
• vicious
• paraphernalia
• weird
• cinnamon
• whether
• questionnaire
• liaison
• labeled

More Corrections

• As near as I can figure, I was thinking of the murders in Ciudad Juárez, and probably had just read an article about the levantón. I can't find the article about the drug lords hunting the most dangerous game, but which may have been in the Post. I did find some refernces, though, to the larger state of affairs that would allow what people know as the 'Juarez Murders' to continue. (Although information from someone who actually registers the domain 'marxist.com' is obviously suspect.)
• Umami is the flavor indicated by MSG. Fat may have its own flavor, but it is definitely not umami.
• MSG may be a 'salt of an amino acid', but does not contribute to high blood pressure.

corrections

• 'Ballyhoo' is 'a noisy attention-getting demonstration', while 'shenanigans' are 'high-spirited or mischievous activities', and 'tomfoolery' is simply used for 'playful or foolish behavior'. While all three mean 'foolish behavior', ballyhoo presents the connotation of arrogance, while shenanigans presents mean-spiritedness or violence.
• Henry Lipkin was played by George Plimpton, not Tom Wolfe.
• The Hoff put on 'Good Will Hunting' last week, not this week. This week's free showings will be: Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa!), a night of Adult Swim cartoons, Oceans 12, Lemony Snicket and Clue (!).

corrections

• A dactyl is a stress followed by two unstressed. An anapest is two unstressed followed by a stress.
• Catharsis comes from the Greek meaning 'to cleanse.'
• Xenia is the Greek word for hospitality, although that doesn't quite cover it.
• Don Hertzfeld released a couple of shorts with his animation show recently.
• Lots of writer-director's have good first movie endings. Charles Laughton, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Thomas McCarthy, etc.
• Zaps are a symptom of Paxil withdrawal. Paxil withdrawal symptoms usually appear two to three days after ceasing medication, but can take anywhere between a day and a week to appear in force. Withdrawal of lithium seems to be less obviously verifiable. However, it is possible that, within the four days of the flick, Large has yet to start experiencing the real withdrawal symptoms. Another possibility is that he is getting the headaches because he really stopped taking his SSRIs while in CA, or that he is on the early withdrawal schedule and just starting to get the zaps at the reception.
• Prozac was introduced in 1985. Paxil became publicly available in 1993.
• Twins from a split ovum and two different sperm are referred to as 'polar body twins', or half-identical, Whether polar body twins exist is something I cannot say.