OVP: Free Solo (2018)

Film: Free Solo (2018)
Stars: Alex Honnold
Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
Oscar History: 1 nomination/1 win (Best Documentary Feature*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

I have a massive fear of heights, particularly high open spaces.  This is a weird conundrum for me, because since I was a little boy I also had a fascination with mountains and explorers.  I have a copy of a Life Magazine (one of those hardbound ones they sell at the Target checkouts) that profiles explorers from the past that became so worn through the years that when they re-released an anniversary addition I bought one just as an insurance policy.  So when Free Solo came out, I had a conundrum-do I see this movie which is apparently so intense as to make people actually upset while watching it due to their squeamishness about heights, or do I avoid it despite my love of adventuring?  Turns out my brother made that decision for me when he named it one of his best movies of the year (I always make a point of seeing all of my brother's favorite films of the year), and so on Wednesday night I went to it, fully ready to see the movie through cupped hands.  What I found was an awesome, awe-inspiring documentary that counts amongst the best I've ever had the privilege to witness, and if this movie is still playing at an iMax theater near you, do yourself a favor and get over your fears by catching the film.

(Do documentaries need spoiler alerts?) The movie is succinct (clocking in at exactly 100 minutes), and focuses on a single climber rather than a larger look at the art of solo-climbing: Alex Honnold.  A 33-year-old college dropout with a smile fit for a Neutrogena ad, Honnold is at first a strange choice upon which to center a documentary.  He has a ridiculously nonchalant attitude about pretty much everything, talking about his father's death with less emotion than he does how much he loves living in a van, and while he's easy-going, he's the sort of person you expect to be friends with and then he just forgets you exist.  This is highlighted in particular as we follow his relationship with girlfriend Sanni McClandess, who is not as closed-off as Alex about her emotions, and struggles to find a common ground with the man she's fallen in love with who seems incapable of telling her that he loves her (though he does at the very end of the movie, a moment that the documentarians wisely chose not to underline but it's there in its glory, ready for the narrative look at Honnold's life).

Chai & Chin's movie is successful because it finds even under Honnold's enigmatic exterior the soul of a man that is willing to give up his life with one slip of the rocks.  The movie ends with us knowing about as much about Honnold as we can, a man whose brain chemistry literally is different enough that he doesn't experience fear in the same way as an average person, likely allowing him to endure free solo climbing in this way.  They show the incredibly uncomfortable scene where he and Sanni are shopping for a house, and you can tell he's miserable giving himself over to change, only doing this because even though he can't say it, he loves her in his own way.  You wonder why she stays with him in these moments, rather than abandon him for a more conventional relationship, but there's something about Alex, and it's not just the big dick swagger he exudes or the fact that he's built like a Roman statue (the filmmakers go back to a scene of Alex shirtlessly doing pullups that feels weirdly reminiscent of Richard Gere doing situps in American Gigolo).  Alex is someone you feel, even as an audience member, you will remember forever because there's so few people like him. In a world where everyone is "special," he actually is.

This becomes clear when we get to the climbing sequences, which are mesmerizing.  It sort of staggers me that in a year where poorly-cut Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice somehow were nominated for Editing that Free Solo couldn't muster a similar citation, because there are moments where you watch this film and wonder not only how Alex can do this, but how could it be filmed this way?  The precision, dedication, and exactness of the camerawork is so meticulous it's easy to see this winning the Oscar in a week-any filmmaker will understand the stakes here, when literal lives are on the line.  The filmmakers even turn the cameras on themselves at one point, talking about how they don't want to pressure Alex to do this so that they have a movie, and wondering what sort of responsibility they'll have if he dies while they're filming.

But he doesn't die, and in one of the most mesmerizing 15 minutes I saw onscreen in the past year, he achieves his childhood dream of climbing El Capitan, the Holy Grail of free solo-climbing.  Even if you know how it's going to end, it's still jaw-dropping watching Alex meticulously climb the mountain, and you join in the documentarians who watch in horror as he ascends.  Alex, continually without fear, literally smiles and talks to the cameraman as he makes it to the very top, in a sequence where most of us would be screaming in abject horror.  It's filmed so well it's impossible to have cynical "what if he sneezes?" sorts of thoughts, instead just praying and watching a truly remarkable achievement of human endeavor.  I burst into tears as he ascended the summit, not realizing how invested I'd become in this mysterious man's shot at perfection.  Free Solo is the sort of movie that lifts your spirits, but also finds new ways to examine human achievement and our quest to find our place in the world, even if we can only find that place by going places none dare tread.

My Personal Heroes

Continuing with our theme of "running for president" Election Week, I thought it would be fun to go through some of my personal heroes.  While I count my parents, brother, and my grandmother among my favorite people and personal heroes, I am one of those people who have "famous people" heroes in the world either whose work, actions, or lives I really admire.

Having professional heroes isn't an uncomplicated thing, and I'll admit that there are more people whom I professionally admire rather than those I call a personal hero.  Ian McEwan, for example, I thought about putting on this list, but some of his statements have been harder to stomach when it comes to his politics, even though I find his writing to be breathtaking.  The same could be said for John Updike.  Admittedly, with the ten people I counted below as true personal heroes, none of them I have an entirely uncomplicated relationship with; each has done something that I might consider a bit questionable, but heroes aren't supposed to be perfect.  Your parents aren't perfect.  Your teachers aren't perfect.  So the expectation that a famous person hero be perfect are a bit extreme.

All that being said, heroes are who form you into who you are.  Several of these people I had their picture hanging on my wall growing up (one of them I have on my wall still), and helped to guide me into my passions and who I am today.  So it seems appropriate in the week where I'm pretending to run for president that I list out the people who inspire me.  They aren't ranked, but the first four are the first four for a reason.  Without further adieu...

Joe Biden

I actually get to meet Joe Biden next month, and I'm freaking out about it.  I genuinely have no idea what I'm going to say, or exactly why a Midwestern boy from Minnesota grew up idolizing the junior senator from Delaware, but that's the case.  I had a picture of Joe Biden hanging on my wall growing up, and I particularly admire the work he has done through the years being a man who "leans in"-I was raise by a strong woman who believed in equality for all women, and instilled that in her sons.  Biden is the sort of guy I'd want a son to grow up to be-confident, a little goofy, and someone who respects all people.

Rachel Carson

Another native of Pennsylvania, Rachel Carson is someone it's easy to idolize if you love nature at all.  The woman whose work standing up to chemical companies would one day create the EPA saw beauty in the world around her, and ensured that others did too through her writings.  A feminist and an inspiration for women everywhere.

Robert Kennedy

The entire Kennedy family, with their focus on service, country, and equality make for easy heroes in my opinion, but for me it's Bobby at the center who stands out.  Always striving for something better, a strong advocate for those whom society has forgotten or dismissed, and someone who occasionally falls in the shadow of those more easily celebrated, Bobby Kennedy is my short-hand for personal hero.

Robert Osborne

I spend most of my life trying to be Robert Osborne, or at least the Robert Osborne whom I saw for many, many, many years introducing pictures on Turner Classic Movies.  Osborne introduced me to a world that I still count as my home, and how not to just think about the movie itself, but the people and circumstances that resulted in that movie.  Plus, he's just so damn interesting!

Harry Truman

My favorite president.  A soft-spoken, bookish man who had the hardest decision perhaps ever faced by a president (to end a war that would kill hundreds of thousands by killing tens of thousands), Truman would spend much of his presidency trying to preserve that peace, fighting to create the United Nations, and coining the phrase "the buck stops here," something my personal responsibility-laden heart adores.

Claire McCaskill

Yes, I picked her yesterday to be my Vice President for a reason.  No politician currently holding office in America is tougher, stronger, and more consistently awesome than Claire McCaskill.  She's a fighter for causes she believes in, particularly advocating for women and preventing sexual assault, but she's also really cool-despite none of us living in Missouri, literally everyone in my family talks about Claire as if she's a member of the family, are familial benchmark of awesome.

David Attenborough

You'd be hard-pressed to find something I love more than just watching a David Attenborough documentary over-and-over again.  I adore animals, and love conservation/environmentalism (many of the people on this list have that as a centerpiece of their personality), and he creates these world with beauty, grace, and attention to knowledge.  He's a lifelong learner and advocate, something I hope to be for as long as I can be on this Planet Earth.

Sir Edmund Hillary

One of the first ways that I bonded with my dad was through a shared love of talking about adventurers.  My dad would look to the stars for his inspiration, but my "boldly go" hero was a bit more earthbound, the man who looked at the world's tallest mountain and saw his destiny.  Hillary dreamed big, something we all should want from our heroes, and remained active the rest of his life (he was a pro-choice activist too!).

Martin Scorsese

Scorsese isn't on here because he makes great movies.  I mean, he does, but Marty is also someone who celebrates movies, who loves the culture of film.  Scorsese interacts with art in a way that I have been able to relate to, and is someone who finds beauty in occasionally ugly places.  Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Silence-these movies are definitive because they are so fresh, and he's always challenging himself.

Pope Francis

A weird place to end, and hardly a predictable choice, but I am a gay Catholic, and as that's a hard road to trudge, I love that Pope Francis embodies why I go to mass, even if that means that occasionally I need to bite my tongue as I am pro-choice and pro-gay.  Francis's spirit is about helping the less fortunate, helping the planet, and living life with charity as a centerpiece.  It's how I strive to live, and he's the first pope that feels like he sees me that I've experienced since I converted.

John Glenn (1921-2016)

America doesn't seem fit for heroes anymore.  In an era of embarrassing national election results, vapid entertainment, and constant denial of the truth, it's hard to imagine that once giants walked amongst us, and the country was able to unify for brief shining moments around individual men and women who could slip forth and pose challenges that would have been thought impossible just years prior.  John Glenn was one of those grand titans of American history, a man of great substance and character who could push forward into the void and find an intense bravery few before him could mount.

Glenn was a military veteran of both World War II and the Korean War, eventually rising to the role of colonel, but it was his career as an astronaut that caught the world's attention.  Glenn would become, in 1962, the first American to orbit the earth, and would miraculously survive a dangerous mission to reenter the earth's atmosphere (recounted in such movies as The Right Stuff and the upcoming Hidden Figures).  He was the last surviving member of the Mercury 7 astronauts, men who stood forward during the height of the Cold War and played a critical role in winning the "Space Race" to the moon.  So beloved was Glenn that 36 years after his orbit, he returned to study the effects of aging at 77, making him the oldest person ever to go into space.

His career in politics is frequently an afterthought in public memory compared to his moment of immortality on February 20th, but he served for 24 years in the United States Senate as a Democrat, achieving that distinction after trying and failing twice to enter the august body.  Glenn never achieved his second dream, that of being on the national ticket, despite two attempts.  Looking back on it, it's a pity he was never afforded the opportunity as he would have made a fine president, but he can rest well knowing that he's the most significant Democrat of the past forty years to have never been on a national ticket or led a House of Congress.  That's yet another brilliant distinction is his career.

But for me, he will eternally be a hero circling the globe, one of those few men that I could look up to as a child, or any of us could look up to as an adult with respect, and marvel at such bravery, courage, and vision.  It takes an untold amount of will and grit to spend your entire life pursuing your dreams, particularly when those dreams literally take you to the stars.  Thank god we had men like John Glenn who showed us that finding the infinite is always possible.

Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

Sorry for the lack of afternoon articles the past two days.  I ended up going to the movies on Thursday (Trainwreck-you'll get my thoughts soon), and then yesterday I had the wonderful experience of buying four new tires for my car.  There's nothing quite like spending $800 you had absolutely no intention of spending-going to the mechanic's is a bit like playing Russian Roulette with your checking account.  Anyway, though, we have a ton of links to get through today, and I might sneak in a rant sometime this weekend (MIGHT!) since I deprived you of one this weekend.  Either way, you'll get afternoon articles:

In Entertainment...

-Chris Columbus (aka the guy who directed the first two Harry Potter movies and not the guy you learned about in first grade) wants to direct more Harry Potter movies, the problem of course being that there are no more Harry Potter books left.  To him I say "back off!"  This is not just because the first two HP films are arguably the least creative and interesting, but also because I think it's time to let HP rest people.  Jo Rowling can write Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them's script and continue sharing random facts on her must-read Twitter and maybe someday create that Harry Potter encyclopedia we were promised a decade ago, but I think that's it.  The books are wonderful the way they are.  We don't need an L. Frank Baum situation where we keep going to the well before everyone's sick of it.  Leave them wanting more is a phrase in entertainment that almost no one listens to anymore (just look at the needless Terminator sequel you didn't see a few weeks ago for an example), but the reality is that if you want to keep your film as a "classic" and not just "the good one" you need to stop while you're ahead.  Chris Columbus can go back to making Home Alone 5 or something instead.

-Variety came up with the Top 12 Digital Stars of 2015, with Pewdiepie appropriately at Number One. This seems correct, of course, and I think that we could all probably agree that Pewds (with his 38 million-odd followers, choice pop culture appearances, and multi-million dollar salary) is correctly positioned at the top.  But the rest of the list has me raising eyebrows.  Not including Grace Helbig, Tyler Oakley, and Connor Franta in particular seems like a miss of the zeitgeist considering their books, TV shows, and general omnipresence on the Internet, particularly when you consider Mighty Car Mods doesn't even have 2 million subscribers.  Still, it's interesting to see such mainstream press coupling YouTube's entrance into the mainstream (Smosh had its movie come out yesterday and the trailer for Lily Singh's new documentary is also out).

-Selma director Ava DuVernay had a lot of fascinating things to say at the BlogHer keynote speech she gave this past week.  Click here for a full rundown, but I was particularly struck by some of her rationale for turning down the Black Panther movie-so frequently we hear about how women are not put in charge of major Hollywood franchises, and so it was fascinating to see a woman turn down the opportunity, and her justification why was one of my favorite principles from a director (creating a cohesive body of work).

In Politics...

Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi with Hillary Clinton

-The big scuttle of the week in the world of politics was once again surrounding Donald Trump, and this time it was his threats to run as a Third Party candidate.  538 wrote about how third-party candidates rarely do as well as they initially were going to do in the primaries (only George Wallace actually gained of major third party candidates in the past fifty years from his initial standing in the polls), but that even a smaller percentage of the vote could be dire for the Republicans if he were to run.  I've also heard that Trump likely couldn't run for president without financial help from the public-his access to liquid cash isn't enough for him to be able to make it past about $300 million worth of spending (a fortune, but not a big enough one for him to run until November 2016).  Like everyone, I'm curious to see how long this lasts, but if he manages to simmer a bit, I think his support may be somewhat real and not a Herman Cain-style aberration.

-James Hansen, the godfather of the Climate Change movement, has announced perhaps his most dire warnings about global warming yet, talking about how the 2-degree number that is so frequently referenced is too high.  Hansen, though, does talk about how the 2-degree number may be reached, but also undid.  I know I sort of flood you with climate change articles during these roundups, but it's an important topic and new science regarding it has been coming to the forefront all of the time, so this is certainly not the last one you'll see here.

-Roll Call does a fascinating look at the longstanding feud between the two top Democrats in the House: Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer.  The two, who were interns together in the 1960's in Sen. Brewster's office, have taken decidedly different paths with their careers to get to roughly the same spot and it's particularly interesting to see how Pelosi's throwing Hoyer under the bus with Jack Murtha as her in-mind replacement caused her so many problems in her race to become the first female Speaker.  I still to this day can't figure out if Hoyer will actually get one session as the Minority Leader in respect for his many years as Number 2 or if the entire slate gets cleaned out the second Pelosi retires.

Shameless Self-Promotion of the Week...

-I am super into the Lindsey Graham cell phone-destroying video.  One of those rare instances where politicians are actually funny and not just "politician-funny."

YouTube Video of the Week...

-Apparently it's just going to be a Pewdiepie week, as I'm putting in Pewds' surrealist and shade-throwing (yes, it's clearly meant for shade-throwing) "YouTube High School" series which features Toby Turner, Tyler Oakley, and Marcus Butler all getting royally-burned.  I subscribe to all three, but I have to agree with the criticisms that Pewds is throwing their way, and it's nice to see a little bit of constructive criticism on YouTube considering a lot of channels have gotten way too toothless recently.  If you missed the original, click here (Tanya Burr gets the worst brunt of that one):

Just One More...

-Buzz Aldrin used his celebrity for good this past week in honor of the 46th anniversary of the moon-landing, talking about getting a man on Mars as well as potentially starting colonies on the Moon and Mars.  I am all for this, and think it's about time we start to explore the final frontier, so bravo Buzz.

The Summit (2012)

Film: The Summit (2012)
Director: Nick Ryan
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

What a weird movie.  That was the comment I texted about twenty minutes into watching The Summit, the recent documentary about the 2008 disaster on K2 which killed eleven people, making it the deadliest day in mountaineering history.  The film won an Editing prize out of Sundance and combined two of my favorite things in the trailers (mountaineering and mysteries), so I was quite certain that I would enjoy it, but man was that a mistake.  The Summit is proof that much like how you can take any story and make it fascinating with the right combination of writing, directing, and editing, you can also make any story boring and pointless when that combination is wasted.

The film's biggest mistake, in my opinion, was the weird juxtaposition between re-staging events and actual footage on top of the mountain.  It took me about fifteen minutes to realize that the film was filled with actors re-creating this scene, as initially I was flabbergasted that, short of planning the deaths himself, a documentary filmmaker could achieve such incredible footage as someone falling fifty feet down a mountain to their death or actually coming across a still living injured human being.  Once I realized that Nick Ryan wasn't a Lou Bloom-style filmmaker, the movie felt incredibly cheesy.  Increasingly these re-stagings actually look more and more fake, like when you had to watch those videos in Sunday School with the crumby production values showing Moses being found on a riverbank.  They also took me insanely outside of the actual documentary, as it was near impossible to realize if something was a staging or not, or even if all of the talking heads were actually who they said they were, since Ryan never once acknowledges what is real and what is fake, either with voiceover or with some sort of title card.

As a result the film is a weird meta-experiment in what one believes to be real, but it's not trying for that and so the entire movie fails miserably.  Honestly, I haven't had such a bizarre film-watching experience in eons.  The fact that the film won an editing award, when it is arguably the worst example of editing I've seen in a movie (I plan on referencing it as an example of bad editing, quite frankly, going forward) is even more shocking.  The movie not only cannot handle the blurring of lines, but it keeps retelling the story over and over and over again, without enough resolution in the end, since in the end we don't uncover the mystery.  We have people who are constantly backtracking their opinions, perhaps aware they are being filmed, but that doesn't make for a compelling narrative which this style of action-documentary is going for in the first place.  When we get to the final showdown, wondering if the principle focus of the film (an Irish mountaineer named Ger) was a hero, a madman, or perhaps even a murder victim (they hint around it, but I'm just saying that it seems like the documentary crew is going there even if they can't dare say it out-loud), we learn absolutely nothing except that there may have been discrepancies in the story, which we already knew.  As a result we occasionally get sweeping vistas of K2, but that's about all this movie is good for, in my opinion.

Did anyone else see this bizarre documentary?  My guess is no (it made zilch at the Box Office, though that's usually true of Art House documentaries that don't come with Oscars), but if you did I would love some discussion.  If you didn't, can you give an example of a film that had a subject you loved that you ended up hating because of the filmmaker's style?  Share it in the comments!

My 10 Favorite Trivia Questions

I love trivia.  It's one of my absolute favorite things-I cannot get enough of it, and I am a bit of a fountain for it.  One of my goals in life is to know at least five minutes worth of conversation about any given topic.  As a result of this, I have MANY different trivia questions that I love to whip out to stump people, but here are ten of my favorites:

Gov. Samuel J. Tilden (D-NY)

1. Which Men Lost the Presidency by One Vote?

These are not in order of personal preference, except for this one, as this is one that I came up with myself and it's my favorite stumper.  Three men have lost the presidency by one vote.  The first was in 1868.  President Andrew Johnson was on trial at the time and was impeached by Congress.  As a result, his removal from office was put to a vote and 36 "guilty" votes were required to remove him as president.  Only 35 were cast, however, so he stayed as president by one vote.  Had one more vote been cast, Senate President Pro Tempore Benjamin Wade of Ohio would have assumed the presidency.  Wade would have a rough year in 1868: he lost the presidency by one vote, was denied the vice presidency when Ulysses S. Grant refused to give in to party pressure and nominate him, and then would lose reelection to his Senate seat later that year.  Were it not for one vote, he would have become our nation's 18th president for about ten months in 1868.

The second man was eight years later, and his name is Samuel J. Tilden, at the time a New York governor who was running for the presidency.  Tilden actually won the popular vote by a healthy three-points in 1876, but the electoral college was basically a tie against Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes.  Several states (Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon) had electors that were disputed whether or not the Republican or the Democrat had won.  Since Tilden had 184 electors already locked up, had he taken just one of the twenty electoral votes these states had, he would have won the election.  Since no one could properly decide who won the states, Congress decided a commission of seven Republicans, seven Democrats, and one Supreme Court justice would decide on the victors.  Justice David Davis, famously independent, was to be that justice, but the Illinois State Senate, in hopes of bribing Davis to pick Tilden, offered him a Senate seat, which he took, but as a result had to resign his position on the Court.  As a result, there were only Republicans left on the court and the commission voted 8-7 on all twenty electoral college votes, effectively handing the election to Hayes.

The final instance happened relatively recently, with Vice President Al Gore and Governor George W. Bush.  With the election being hauntingly close (though Gore won the popular vote), everything came down to Florida.  The recounts intricacies were so minute (this was the closest statewide election in the history of the Republic, so pretty much any nuance you could find in election law could result in a switch of the victor) that the Supreme Court's decision may well have cost Vice President Gore the election (the media in subsequent analysis decided that a victory for Gore at the high court would have resulted in anything from a win for Governor Bush by 496 votes to a victory for the Vice President by 161 votes).  The Supreme Court denied Gore's recount in select counties in Florida by a 5-4 decision, effectively handing the White House to Governor Bush.

It should be noted that we actually know who cast these three deciding votes: Sen. Edmund Ross of Kansas was the final Republican defector in 1868, denying Wade the presidency, Justice Joseph Bradley was the Supreme Court justice who got Republicans their eighth vote in the Tilden/Hayes elections, and based on the order in which the Supreme Court votes, Justice Clarence Thomas (who was appointed by George W. Bush's father, coincidentally enough) would have been the fifth vote in 2000.  It's also worth noting that Wade, Tilden, and (so far) Gore never ran for the White House again.

Emil Jannings

2. What Oscar Winner used his Oscar statue to prove to Allied troops he was from Hollywood?

Emil Jannings was a German actor who won the first Best Actor Oscar (I believe it was actually the first award of the night, so he won the first Oscar, period) for his performances in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh.  Later in his career, the man with a thick German accent couldn't transition into talkies, but did find his way into Nazi propaganda films, many under the supervision of Joseph Goebbels.  As a result of this, when the Allied troops came to Germany in the Spring of 1945, he was potentially in danger, and as a result, reportedly came out into the streets waving his Oscar over his head in hopes of them recognizing his association with Hollywood.  Jannings was subject to denazification, and as a result never made another motion picture after the war.

It's worth noting that Jannings is associated with two other pieces of Oscar trivia, both also quite sad.  His performance in The Way of All Flesh is the only Oscar-winning performance to currently be considered "lost," while his performance in The Patriot is also lost.  The Patriot is the only Best Picture nominee to have that designation.  In fact, only one of Jannings' five Hollywood films (The Last Command) is fully-intact.  Jannings played a role in a later Best Picture, however, as he was a character (played by Hilmar Eichhorn) in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.

Park Young-Seok

3. What is a True Explorers' Grand Slam, and who was the first person to complete it?

If there is a Mount Everest of adventuring, it oddly enough doesn't end with Mount Everest.  It's the True Explorers' Grand Slam, which is topping all of the Seven Summits (the seven highest mountains on each continent), as well all of the 8000-meter mountains in the word (there are 14 of them, all in the Himalayas), and also reaching the North and South Pole.  This feat was first accomplished in 2005 by Park Young-Seok, who reached the North Pole in 2005 after completing all of the other mountains and expeditions.  Young-Seok went missing six years later while mounting Annapurna (one of the more treacherous eight-thousanders), and is considered dead, but lives on in adventuring legend for this accomplishment.

Gabriel in Da Vinci's Annunciation

4. How many angels are there in the Bible?

The answer is roughly 2.5, cheekily enough.  Two full-on angels are named in the Bible: Gabriel, who is the most mentioned angel in the Bible by name, who appears in the Book of Daniel as well as is the angel who announces the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, and then there's Michael, the archangel who appears in the Books of Daniel and Jude.

However, there are two angels that appear in the Bible that are "fallen angels," so 2.5 seems like a more appropriate answer.  The first of these is Lucifer, who is mentioned in the Books of Isaiah and Luke, and was considered the "most beautiful and powerful" angel until his fall, and he is generally associated with Satan.  Then there is Abaddon, who is briefly mentioned in Revelation 9:11 as the king of an army of locusts.

It's worth noting that there are two other angels that feature prominently in sects of the Christian faith, though are not mentioned in all different versions of the Bible.  Raphael, for example, features prominently in the Book of Tobit, which is part of the Catholic Bible but not part of the Protestant or Jewish Bibles, while the Book of Enoch (which is part of some Orthodox liturgy) features the angel Uriel.

Gen. Galusha Pennypacker

5. What General Couldn't Vote for His President?

Galusha Pennypacker is not just a man with the greatest name you've ever heard, he's also a famous overachiever.  During the Civil War, Pennypacker was in the Second Battle of Fort Fisher and fought valiantly, though received what at the time was thought to be a fatal wound, and was promised by General Alfred Terry that he would receive a brevet promotion for his bravery that day.  As a result, he was promoted to brigadier general on January 15, 1865.

However, Pennypacker actually survived this incident, and won a full promotion on February 18th, just four months shy of his 21st birthday.  As the voting age at the time was 21, Pennypacker became the first and so far only man to hold the office of general while not being able to legally vote for his president (he also received the Medal of Honor).  Considering that the voting age and the age for admission into the Army are now the same, it seems extremely likely that this is a distinction that Pennypacker will hold forever.  Pennypacker did eventually die of his Civil War injuries, but not until fifty years later, and is buried at Philadelphia National Cemetary

Queen Elizabeth II

6. What is the Royal Family's Last Name?

The (as of today) still unnamed princess born to William and Kate may not have a first name yet, but she does have a last name, even if it isn't widely-known by the public.  The last name of members of the Royal Family is either Mountbatten-Windsor or just Windsor.

The distinction is between those who have their "royal family" status as a result of Queen Elizabeth II and those that have it as a result of George V.  The former were given their last name as a result of an Order in Council issued by the Queen in 1960, which combined the royal names of Prince Philip's family and her majesty's family.  Prince Philip's family (he was a Greek prince) actually assumed Mountbatten during the war after a request from Prince Louis to King George V to move from Battenberg to Mountbatten.  Prince Louis of Battenberg was the grandfather of Prince Philip.

The House of Windsor started in 1917. At the time, anti-German sentiment was high in England and there was an emerging anti-monarchy sentiment across the continent (resulting in the assassinations of Emperor Nicholas II and his family in Russia).  As Nicholas II was a cousin of King George V, the monarch was convinced to change the family's name, which was the extremely German Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to something a bit more British.  They chose Windsor since it was the name of a well-known castle, and declared it by royal proclamation in 1917.

As a result of this, any member of the royal family who derives their royal status from Queen Elizabeth II (such as her children and male-line grandchildren) have the last name of Mountbatten-Windsor, while any members of the royal family who derive their royal status from King George V (these would be the Queen's cousins, such as the Duke of Gloucester and Prince Michael of Kent) have the last name Windsor.

Eva, Zsa Zsa, and Magda Gabor

7. How many times did the Gabor sisters get married?

Long before the Kardashians became the fodder of every tabloid story known to man, there was another trio of sisters whose every move and romance was chronicled by the press: the Gabors.  Extremely glamorous, the sisters were famed occasionally for their acting but mostly for their gossip-ready marriages.  Throughout their lives, the sisters married a combined total of twenty men (so far-Zsa Zsa is still kicking at age 98, though is reportedly in extremely bad health, so this number will probably remain concrete).  Amongst their conquests were plastic surgeons, stock brokers, millionaires, playwrights, hotel magnates, a count, a prince (Zsa Zsa's current husband) and most famously an Oscar-winning actor, George Sanders.  Sanders has the distinction of being married to both Magda and Zsa Zsa.

It's worth noting that in twenty marriages, only one of them resulted in one of the women having a child (Zsa Zsa and Conrad Hilton had a daughter in 1947...Zsa Zsa also famously slept with her stepson Nicky Hilton during the marriage, and Nicky went on to marry Elizabeth Taylor, another serial bride).  Only two of the marriages didn't end in divorce: Magda's first marriage to Jan Bychowsky ended when Bychowsky died and Zsa Zsa's present marriage to Frederic Prinz von Anhalt is still valid (yes, this is the guy who was one of the men that could have been the father to Anna Nicole Smith's daughter...it's a fine line of millions of dollars and a royal title that distinguishes "trash" from "socialite").

8. What are the only states never to have elected a woman to Congress?

This used to be four states, but with the election of Joni Ernst In Iowa this past fall the list is down to three.  The states are Delaware, Vermont, and Mississippi.  It's worth noting that women have run for Congress in all three of these states, but none have emerged victorious.  Of the three, Mississippi comes across the worst of the trio: not only has no woman won a congressional seat in the state, but the state has never elected a woman as their governor (this isn't the case for Delaware or Vermont, where Ruth Ann Minner and Madeline Kunin have served, respectively).  It's also worth noting that as-of-today, Mississippi has six congressional seats representing it while the other two states only have three.  Mississippi does have a prominent state senator running in the special election to succeed Alan Nunnelee, but it looks to be a very competitive primary so we shall see if this finally removes this distinction.

If you want to expand this a bit, six states have never had a woman serve in the House (in addition to the above three, there's Iowa, North Dakota, and Alaska), but all three of those states have had female senators.  22 states have not had female senators as of today-looking ahead to the upcoming elections the most likely contenders to rectify this (should candidates run and win) are Colorado (where Attorney General Cynthia Coffman is considering a Senate bid) and Nevada (where Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Rep. Dina Titus are both looking at running or are already in the race).

Georges Braque's The Birds

9. Who was the first living person to be displayed at the Louvre?

Georges Braque was the first living artist to have his work displayed at the Louvre.  I cannot find the specific piece that it was (a little help in the comments?), but I do know that he had an installation piece called "The Birds" that was put into the Louvre in the 1950's, an extremely high honor for any artist.  Braque's career was significantly overshadowed by his friend and professional rival Pablo Picasso.  Picasso is frequently cited with being the creator of Cubism, but he actually did this in conjunction with Braque.  The two worked together for several years leading up to World War I (when Braque would serve in the French Army), and their art during this period is extremely similar.  Braque never really strayed from Cubism (while Picasso was constantly trying a new artistic style), and therefore has been relegated to more of a footnote status in art history than Picasso, who enjoys a position as one of the "greats."

Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep

10. What roles was Meryl Streep turned down for?

Like all things behind-the-scenes in Hollywood, there is some different interpretation for this question, but there are three roles that definitely Streep was turned down for: Miss Kenton in The Remains of the Day, Queen Elizabeth in Elizabeth, and Patsy Cline in Sweet Dreams.  It's worth noting that all three of these parts (which went to Emma Thompson, Cate Blanchett, and Jessica Lange, respectively) won Oscar nominations, which means that Streep's awards count could, staggeringly enough could be even higher by now.  There's also rumors that she was turned down for the part of Michelle Straton in American Gigolo, while other sources state that she was offered the role (which eventually went to Lauren Hutton) but turned it down because she didn't like the direction of the script.  She also was brought in to read for the part of Dwan in King Kong, but was thought to be "too ugly" by Dino de Laurentiis (this part also went to Jessica Lange).

Streep was also considered for two other Oscar-nominated roles.  She was originally going to star in Thelma and Louise with her pal Goldie Hawn but had to drop out when she got pregnant (not sure who was playing which role, but both parts won Oscar nominations, the same of which can't be said for Hawn/Streep's eventual pairing in the cult classic Death Becomes Her).  She was also considered for the part of Ripley in the Alien films, which won Sigourney Weaver an Oscar nomination in 1986 for Aliens.  Weaver and Streep were classmates at Yale together, and were constantly fighting over parts, with Meryl usually winning the leads (also, if you trade in celebrity gossip, Weaver purportedly dated Don Gummer before Meryl ended up marrying him), so this is probably a nice vindication for Weaver.

And there you have it-ten of my favorite pieces of trivia!  If you like this article, please re-tweet it or share in the comments, and I'll do another one soon!  If any of these trivia pieces surprised you or you have additional shares, put them there as well!

Political Pet Issues

For those of us who love and appreciate nature documentaries, few names compare with that of Sir David Attenborough.  For decades, through his nature documentaries, Attenborough has brought an immense respect and dedication to conservation, animal preservation, and the shared knowledge of all the earth's creatures, great and small.  I had been toying around with an article about political pet issues, and after watching his wonderful new documentary miniseries Africa (which you can get on Netflix-definitely worth checking out if you haven't already), I figured this was the perfect segway.

As you may have guessed if you read this blog with any level of consistency, I am a man of quite a few opinions.  I personally love the idea, the concept of opinions, and how they shape a person and their interests.  In particular, I have a number of political opinions that I have shared in articles throughout this blog, and will continue to do so as the opportunity pops up.  However, we all have political issues that, for whatever reason, we are particularly drawn toward.  One of the things I find so fascinating about politicians is that we ask them to hold a bevy of opinions on an ocean of topics, but really, like us, they have their own pet issues.

This was drawn into focus for me in particular with the North Carolina Senate race recently, when Kay Hagan began to talk more forcefully about the Voting Rights Act in contrast to some of the anti-democratic laws (in regard to access to voting) that have been pushed through the GOP legislature.  Considering her likely opponent is a member of the Republican legislature, and that these laws are not popular with the majority of the state, it seems quite natural that the senator would begin to state her opposition to such laws.

What struck me as interesting about this is that this is almost certainly not what Kay Hagan initially became a part of government for; nothing in her background would suggest that voting rights legislation has long been a part of causes she has championed, nor that it's something about which she is wildly passionate.  I'm not suggesting that the senator hasn't always held these beliefs (I'm guessing she has), but like any politician she saw an issue her views were on the popular side of, and she ran with it.  We've seen this on a larger scale recently with more and more Democratic politicians (and even some Republicans) siding with gay marriage legislation in the face of positive public support for such bills.  Again, most politicians didn't enter the political arena with the specific intent of helping gay couples (I doubt that someone like Barack Obama had that high on his list of things to accomplish when he first ran for public office several decades ago), but politicians react to what is pressing and in the public consciousness, and what is important to the general populace at the time.  Politicians are people of varied opinions, but one that they all share is the need to win more elections.

What does this have to do with Attenborough, you ask?  Well, I figured since I espouse so many political opinions on this blog, I should go over some of my pet issues as another GTKY post (we haven't done one in a while).  I, like all of you and like all politicians, may have a lot of opinions, but there are ones that I celebrate more forcefully and more deeply than others.  I managed to winnow the list down to ten (not an easy task), and will list them in alphabetical order below (I got you down to ten-don't make me go further).  These are the issues that I actively seek out documentaries on, that I actively learn the opinions on before I vote in a primary or general election, and that I most hope to change people's perceptions on during discourse or discussion.

1. Arts Education

I don't really remember what the campaign was initially for, but the phrase "the arts enrich us" is something that has shaped much of my adult life (several of these issues overlap, and number six shares most of the beliefs of this bullet).  While a good chunk of my arts education was self-taught through seeking out every book I could find in my small town library, I did grow up with classes in music and literature, and the continued celebration of the arts is something that I cherish.  Study after study has proven that countries that over index in math and science scores (such as Japan and the Netherlands) have mandatory art classes.  Arts education has been proven to help in particular in lower-performing schools to close the gap in performance scores, and students who study the arts and music are generally more well-adjusted and have a stronger sense of self-worth.  All of this is to say that when arts education gets cut in favor of other school programs, I remember Richard Dreyfuss's words in Mr. Holland's Opus, "You can cut the arts as much as you want...sooner or later these kids aren't going to have anything to read or write about."

2. Climate Change Legislation

You want to make me super uncomfortable in a public setting?  Come up and start talking about how much "baloney" climate change is.  Depending on the situation, you'll either see me literally biting my lip or hear me go on a ten-minute long tirade about the dangers of pseudo-science and how study after study after study has shown that climate change is a pressing concern to the stability of the planet and that it is indeed man-made.  I strongly support climate change legislation, tougher regulations regarding environmental laws in the country, and support the Kyoto treaty that for some inane reason the U.S. has not signed into law.  If you ask me the biggest disappointment of the Obama administration, you'd be hard-pressed to find something bigger than the lack of movement on climate change laws in the country and around the world.

3. Conservation of Nature and Animals

Finally, the David Attenborough connection becomes apparent.  I watch films like Africa and Frozen Planet and my heart breaks that so many people want to sacrifice the beauty and wonder of nature with so little in return.  Conservation, of course, goes, hand-and-hand with the desperate need for climate change legislation (environmentalism makes up a trio of issues on this list, and is probably the political issue I am most adamantly supportive toward).  Instead of expanding into more lands and cutting down more forests and arctic wildernesses and jungles to find non-renewable resources and cause further carbon dioxide emissions into the air we should fund further scientific research into creating better and safer efficiencies in the areas we are already drilling and farming.

4. Disease and Medical Research

One of my great rallying cries in text messages to my friends (and my poor mother) is that research into medicine and disease prevention is something that we should be crucially investing toward.  I mentioned this in yesterday's article briefly, but I do feel that with larger scale diseases (such as cancer and AIDS) that we have fallen into a treat but not cure approach to the disease.  This is, and I'm just going to say it, in part because medical treatment has become such an enormous industrial behemoth.  You hear tinfoil hat theories regarding how it is a financially better decision to have someone suffer from a disease and just cure the symptoms than it is to address the actual disease, and while I want to believe this isn't true, we do live in an era where you can have an iPod the size of my thumbnail, but we haven't cured two of the most studied diseases in human history.

Also, a bit of a caveat within this-literally nothing makes me angrier than people like Jenny McCarthy and those people who are against vaccinations based on absolutely no scientific evidence.  I quit watching The View (at one point, one of my favorite shows) for a reason-I won't support someone who espouses such dangerous and baseless beliefs in a public setting.  Freedom of speech is something we all should enjoy, but it doesn't mean I have to support what you say.

5. Energy Research

Oil, coal, and natural gas are not renewable.  Solar and wind energy are.  Oil and coal are horrible for the environment, both in terms of their effect on climate change and in their impact on water, air, and land pollution.  And yet I feel like the media spent more time devoted to whether we should consider fracking last year than we did debating whether we should be transferring all of our automobiles into electric cars?  It doesn't make sense to me at all.

6. Film Preservation

Probably the narrowest issue on this list, and I should note that this translates over to preservation of music, art, sculpture, architecture, television, and literature, but film is the one that I most put my heart-and-soul into believing.  Film is a universal language, and as I believe that art is a unifying force for humanity, I feel on a very strong level that we should do everything we can to preserve our cinematic heritage.  And yes, that means that I think that the Library of Congress and other government agencies should step up to the plate and help to fund saving silent era and early sound films in the hopes that they will be enjoyed for generations to come.   On a different note, I also hope that we find more and more ways to make films open to the greatest possible public audience-it does no one any good to have, say, an early Mary Pickford short film locked in a Los Angeles vault and have no one ever see the movie.  Art is meant to be shared.  We should do what we can to aid the process.

7. Gay Rights

Obviously as a gay man this is a pretty personal one, and of all of the issues on this list, it's probably the  one that has seen the most progress.  My heart soars whenever another state grants marriage rights to gay couples or another country takes down an arcane anti-gay law.  I truly feel that this is an issue that will be addressed (at least on paper) in our lifetime.

I do want to note that as I have learned more about the gay rights movement and participated in it, the title of this personal issue has expanded more into the broader "equal rights."  Only the most obtuse of people cannot see how sexism, racism, xenophobia, and bigotry of all sorts hold back progress (in America and abroad), and addressing both the institutional and the perceptive inequities that plague society is dramatically important to move forward for all people.

8. NASA

Again, a very specific issue, but like film preservation, it's one that I hold dear.  I don't think a week goes by where I don't grumble about the ending of the space shuttle program.  I have an explorer's heart, I suppose, and think that when you stop moving forward you inevitably start moving backward-manned space flight is the gateway to further colonization in the rest of the galaxy, necessary for the infinite survival of Earth's species, and perhaps the only way that we may finally answer that largest of questions-are we alone in the universe?

9. Teachers' Rights

One that I probably don't talk about a lot, but I grew up in a family of teachers, and I think that we need to continue to equip teachers with the tools they need to thrive.  This means not funding charter schools and not leaving education with massive cuts whenever the budgetary belt needs tightening.  Instead of having charter schools which cherry-pick students, why not address the larger concerns of fixing lower-performing schools with better quality equipment, access to materials, and stronger nutritional/health programs?  And if we want to indeed talk about the "children are our future," there's no better way to acknowledge that tired but accurate cliche than with a qualified (and adequately-compensated) educating workforce.

10. Term Limit Laws

Almost every other issue on this list links to another issue, with the possible exception of this specific pet peeve.  I've talked about this one at length before, but term limit laws are one of the few anti-democratic laws that seem to cross both parties with regularity (though it is more of a Republican belief than a Democratic one at the end of the day).  If you want to "throw the bums out" fix issues like Citizens United, laws about false or negative campaigning, get more people to take advantage of primary elections, or just vote against the person you don't want in office anymore.  However, don't hamper other people's voting rights if you can't figure out a way to stop someone from being elected.  If enough people want someone out of office, they'll vote the politician out.  And if they don't, well, we live in a democracy-if you can't win, get more people to vote or change more minds, but don't stop them from being able to vote for whom they want.

And those are the ten, at least today (I cheated on a few and added some other issues in).  What would you like me to write about in the next GTKY post?  Share in the comments!

Everybody's Linking for the Week

Twas the week before Christmas, and boy do we have a lot of links!

In Entertainment...

Atlantic Wire: This article's a tad bit old, but super relevant as we trek into what looks to be a robust year for American Hustle.  Why is it that we, particularly with actresses, seem to toss them aside the second everyone seems to enjoy them?  This is true not only of Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence, but of almost every actress of note of the past twenty years (Meg Ryan, Jennifer Aniston, and Kristen Stewart spring particularly to mind).  I personally cannot get enough of Jennifer Lawrence (her interview with Jon Stewart was just aces), and am looking forward to another year of her on the awards circuit (whether she deserves to be there or not, well, I'll see American Hustle this weekend and let you know!)

In Contention: Sadly, we've all had to read a lot of eulogies and obits this past week with the deaths of Eleanor Parker, Peter O'Toole, Tom Laughlin, and Joan Fontaine.  Guy Lodge tackled the eight-time Oscar loser here, and looked at his many flirtations with the gold guy.

CBS News: I know at this point Katie Couric has apologized and largely condemned her highly controversial overview of the HPV vaccine "debate," but I thought I'd throw my two cents in for good measure.  As I've stated categorically on this site before, the debate about vaccinations and people's misperceptions about it is deeply upsetting and totally baseless.  Vaccinations save lives, and the increasing use of "gut instinct science," frightens me (and should frighten you).  From climate change to medical treatments to debates on women's reproductive health, people with no scientific or medical background are espousing lies, and for some reason the media thinks that showing both sides of a debate of fact is worth doing.  That this came from Katie Couric, who has been a tireless activist for cancer screenings through her long journalistic career, is stunning as she should know better.

The Globe and Mail: We're talking about literature people-look alive (in an aside that wouldn't make it past an editor so thank god this is a blog-anyone else have a pile of books ready for their Christmas vacation-I for one cannot wait!)!  The Globe and Mail tackles the subject (with less bias than one might expect-it's worth a look) of the internet and how the culture of "too long/didn't read" (a subject I worry about with some of my posts) may cause novels to become shorter.

In Politics....

Time: I actually love these types of articles.  While a lot of people focused on President Obama taking a selfie (ugh-it's a photo people, and when you overreact to everything it makes any legitimate complaints seem that much less compelling), really the focus should have been on Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama sharing a plane.  I remember a while back my friend Tory, when we were discussing the upcoming field of Republican and Democratic presidential contenders making the apt comment (it was at a bar, so I'm paraphrasing a bit due to potential memory impairment), "it's weird that they seem so interchangeable, since one is going to become immortal."  He definitely has a point-presidents become giants in public perception, and when the molders of history (and these three men truly have molded the history of the world for the past 25 years) get together, they indeed make history.  I easily would have given up all of my Christmas presents to have been a fly on the wall during this flight.

Politico: We've actually got a few from Politico this week, but we'll start with this one since Sen. Harry Reid, while the House is enjoying an early Christmas break (anyone remotely think they deserve it?) is trying to rectify this article.  This is an in-depth portrait of the 250 or so people that have been appointed to office by President Obama that have spent months (for some, even years) waiting for a vote in the Senate.  Patricia Millett, Jeh Johnson, and Mel Watt all proved recently that the "Nuclear Option" is actually being put to good use, as all have been appointed to high positions.  By the end of the week this article should be a bit shorter.

Also Politico: Probably the oddest story of the Affordable Care Act launch has to be what has been happening in Kentucky.  Kentucky has enrolled some 69,000 of its citizens into the new healthcare programs, which Rep. John Yarmuth (the only Democrat from the Bluegrass State in Congress) will happily tell anyone who will listen.  The even more unlikely cheerleader, and the subject of this article, though, is Gov. Steve Beshear, a conservative Democrat frequently at odds with his own party.  Once a washed-up political force, he lucked into the governor's mansion in 2007, easily won re-election in 2011, and is probably the most conservative Democratic governor in the country.  As the article points out, the Democrats have been BEGGING for a hero in the healthcare debate-Beshear's about as perfect for people like Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor, and of course Alison Lundergan Grimes as you can get.

Last One From Politico: I'm telling you-Politico Magazine has been quite excellent this week.  This is a portrait from veteran political reporter Jon Ralston about Harry Reid.  For anyone who cares remotely about the Senate and has an opinion of Reid (we all do), it's something you won't be able to put down.

Just One More...

CNN: Can you believe that Prince Harry, the rascally younger brother of Will, somehow got sexier this week by reaching the South Pole?  Such a stud, that one.

Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

Y'all know the drill here by now.  Here's a look at the articles I thought were fascinating this week:

In entertainment...

Jonas Brothers-Broken Up?

Vulture: Considering that Emmanuel Lubezki seems on the verge of another Oscar nomination, and perhaps finally a win, I figured I'd share this terrific look at Lubezki's finest films (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Children of Men, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder, and Gravity), where he discusses a sequence in each movie.

Indiewire: For those of you out there who have that terrific idea for a script that you're certain would land you some acclaim and maybe an Oscar nomination, here's some tips from four award-winning writers (two of whom have competed for shiny gold men).

TheWrap: I will likely be writing more about this in the coming week, but seriously-how great of a year has this been for documentaries?  Literally every time I head to the Landmark, I see three trailers for interesting documentaries that I want to see.  If you haven't seen one yet this year, it's time to head to your local art house or your Netflix queue and start adding some of the many, many, MANY movies on this list.

As for the new Oscar process, I am in love with the idea of an Oscar message board (if only they did this with all of the categories), though I am a teensy bit sad that they won't be able to discover some of the smaller films.  Then again, the narrative film voters rarely see all of the smaller films, so you know, maybe this was inevitable?

People: I'm not 100% certain why I'm putting this out there, but am I the only person who is a little bemused by A) the fact that the Jonas Brothers, a band of actual brothers, have "broken up" and B) how a band that was once the poster boys for purity rings would pose for the above picture?  Anyway, if you were once a fan, check out their thoughts on Miley Cyrus and twerking.

In politics...

Rep. Bill Young (R-FL)

Huffington Post: Could this article be more depressing?  For me, there's nothing quite as sad politically as an American than to watch us slowly lose our position as one of the leaders in scientific discovery (I think this is one of the most worthwhile aspects of government).  These ten things (along with about 10,000 other examples that you've been reading about all over the web) just prove that Republican leadership in the House has completely lost touch with the average American.

Washington Post: Rep. Bill Young (R-FL), who has been in the U.S. House for some over 40 years, announced his retirement this past week.  Young's departure is some of the best news that Democrats got this week-his district went for both Al Gore and Barack Obama (twice!) and it was largely Young's personal popularity that kept this seat in the GOP's column.  Though Charlie Crist will surely not run (who decided that was a good rumor to start?), both sides are currently recruiting for what will be one of 2014's premiere House races.

Gallup: In news that surely will be whispered in hushed tones at the RNC this week, the Republican Party hit the lowest score ever of either political party in Gallup's twenty-year polling history.  They now have an approval rating of just 28% (compared to the Democrats' admittedly low-but-not-by-comparison 43%)

In adventuring...

CNN: I'm positive you have all seen this photo, but I'm just stunned by it still.  What an incredible combination of raw nature and completely lucky camerawork by Baz Jenkins.  And though clearly "fish gotta eat," I'm glad that a clever seal pup like this managed to escape in the end.

CNN: Some sad news this week-Scott Carpenter, legendary astronaut and the second man to orbit the earth died yesterday.

Just one more...

New York Times: A few weeks ago, we discussed the Nobel Prize and what American would be able to win the top literary award.  While an American didn't, win a Canadian did (who is mentioned briefly in the article, so go check it out if you haven't!)-Alice Munro, only the 13th woman to win the award and the first Canadian.  Congrats to her-let's all go read "Dance of the Happy Shades" to celebrate.