"Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner"

According to a new survey of 2,000 UK moviegoers, that’s the second-cheesiest movie line of all time. The complete list:

  1. “Titanic”: Leonardo DiCaprio’s “I’m the king of the world!”

  2. “Dirty Dancing”: Patrick Swayze’s “Nobody puts Baby in the corner.”

  3. “Four Weddings And A Funeral”: Andie McDowell’s “Is it still raining? I hadn’t noticed.”

  4. “Ghost”: Demi Moore’s “Ditto.” to Patrick Swayze’s “I love you.”

  5. “Top Gun”: Val Kilmer to Tom Cruise (news): “You can be my wingman anytime”

  6. “Notting Hill”: Julia Roberts’ “I’m just a girl… standing in front of a boy… asking him to love her.”

  7. “Independence Day”: Bill Pullman’s “Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”

  8. “Braveheart”: Mel Gibson (news)’s “They may take our lives, but they will not take our freedom!”

  9. “Jerry Maguire”: Renee Zellweger to Tom Cruise: “You had me at hello.”

  10. “The Postman”: A blind woman says to Kevin Costner (news): “You’re a godsend, a savior.” He replies: “No, I’m a postman.”

“Nobody puts Baby in the corner.” Geesh, that’s awful.

Ok, time for a minor confession: I don’t think the line from Notting Hill should be on the list. Go ahead and throw tomatoes if you must.

"I Wish…"

We went to our local nursery yesterday to pick out the Christmas tree and Char was roaming around inside with Lily, who is four. Lily, who couldn’t be more girlie if she was painted pink, spotted a small fountain and asked for some change so she could make a wish. Char dug around a bit and handed her a dime.

Lily stood with the dime held up and pinched between her fingers, closed her eyes and said, “I wish… I wish I was Strawberry Shortcake!” In went the dime.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Sometimes You Gotta Shake Your Head…

urlAnd wonder, “What the hell is wrong with this country?”

I happened to be tuned to a different (different as in, not the normal) radio station recently and heard Paul Harvey telling the story about Joe Maturo, Mayor of East Haven, Connecticut. This particular mayor, on this particular day, happened to notice that a storm drain cover had been dislodged. Thinking that this open storm drain posed a hazard to the good citizens of East Haven, the mayor spent about three minutes of his morning replacing the cover. One good deed, eh?

Well, it turns out that this scene was witnessed by a member of the local AFSCME union who then filed suit against the mayor. claiming that the mayor had violated the city’s labor contract by repositioning the storm drain. According to the union, this job — that took the mayor all of about three minutes — needs to be completed by four union employees: a driver, a laborer, a supervisor, and a dispatcher; each of which would be paid a minimum of four hours overtime.

Now, I think that unions played an important role in removing and preventing egregious conditions in the workplace and helped to even out the balance of power between employers and workers, but when the union pursues a suit such as this, haven’t they proved to be no longer viable?

If you can stomach any more, read the complete story.