This is only tangentially related to NARC file sharers:

Before the movie and after the coke-sponsored movie trivia (Q:"You dog you." A:Harrison Ford in Hollywood Homicide) an ad for www.respectcopyright.org ran, featuring a set painter, or someone similar. He figures he will be the one hurt by piracy--not the actors, producers, etc--and for that reason we should not download movies and watch them at home.

I found this a little confusing. If movies become too expensive to make--if that is even possible--cutting the painters, the wardrobe department, the stuntmen, whomever, is an obvious poor choice. They don't get paid much for one. Also, people like to have sets and costumes and music, all the frills. I know millions of people would go see Jennifer Aniston Gets Paid $25 Million to Stand in a Room For Two Hours, but the novelty would wear off. How totally awesome has reality tv turned out to be? What percentage is watchable, never mind reminicent of reality? But it's so cheap to make, you better believe execs would love to port the "concept" to movies.

That's the man for you, when they're not engaged in complex computer espionnage they're trying to make you feel guilty because you downloaded Charlie's Angels II and didn't buy a movie ticket, don't plan to buy/rent the upcoming DVDs, purchase the clothing or the soundtrack CDs. It sounded a lot like just another threat: You better start watching all your movies in the theatre, Bub, or Joe the painter here gets the axe.

That is why I have retreated from pop culture completely. I only eat raw, bulk-packaged whole grains and drink canned Mountain Dew past its best before date.

I know there's something funny to be said about Mountain Dew. There are jokes about 9/11, about NASA's exploding shuttles, there really has to be something funny there. I'll let you know.

Lemme know.

The funny thing is--and it's not ha-ha funny, not like the only joke I can remember (What does NASA stand for? Need another seven astronauts) which I first heard from my cousin while walking into--this is all true--a Canadian Tire only two or three weeks after Challenger exploded.

I had never heard a joke like that before--it seemed too perfect not to be true and it was obviously a very, very bad joke, but not a dirty joke. I was eight, but I remember this pretty well, much better than, you know, pick a day at random from last week. (But, then again, you know what they say about memory: that every remembering or retelling strengthens the memory, that what is now a nuanced scene likely began as a fragment, half-remembered. So, who knows? This whole thing is pretty shaky, to be honest. The only thing I can say absolutely is that I've known the joke since at least junior high. It is one of the three jokes I know (The other two I repeat to no one, doing my part to remove them from the cannon) I'm not going to try and close all the things I've opened.

My bias: I'm more of a Dr. Pepper guy myself, though if someone were to make a good grapefruit soda I would drink that.

The funny thing about Mountain Dew is not their tv commercials, but the disparity between the name of the product and the product itself. Whatever you think of the flavour of Mountain Dew, pity the mountain grass that wakes in the morning sparkling with the stuff.

The weirdest jokes I recall went around in grade 11 or so which would be 1980 - Jesus on the cross jokes. Most are elaborate tales rather than one liners. Trouble is they really are funny.

One thing I don't understand about Mountain Dew is that I think it is supposed to be Honey Dew Melon flavoured but I didn't know the hills of anywhere were jam packed with melon farming.