'A' for idea, ‘F’ for execution

I am currently reading the book The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived, a book that was inspired (at least partially) by Michael Hart’s The 100: A Ranking of the 100 Most Influential People Who Ever Lived, which is one of my favorite books.

Besides its obvious connection to Hart’s book (which the authors simply “leafed through”), I was attracted to this book because of its potential. Yes, of course real people have influenced our lives, but can it really be true that fictional people have also had such influence? I was immediately taken in by the prospect of reading captivating, persuasive arguments on how fictional characters had impacted my life. Paging through the book, I caught the names of Mickey Mouse, Odysseus, Captain Ahab and Superman, and I thought “Yes, I can see how these people may have influenced culture, I am eager to read more”.

Alas, the persuasive arguments are not there. Well, they are in some cases: the argument is made that Uncle Tom was a partial cause of the US Civil War, that The Cat in the Hat encourages children’s love of reading and that Buck raised animal rights awareness (though I think that distinction belongs to Black Beauty, who doesn’t make their list)…but in most cases, the authors simply give a ‘bio’ of the character. When I read the entries on Don Quixote, Ebenezer Scrooge and Tarzan I made a mental note to one day read the books from which these people came, which is a good thing. But unfortunately, the authors spoiled the plots by deciding to reveal the entire story of said characters, rather than detailing their lasting influence.

This is a missed opportunity, to say the least. The fun of Michael Hart’s book is not found in retelling the life of Buddha or Darwin or Shakespeare, it’s reading Hart’s arguments as to why those men belong in the top 100, and why they belong at the position he assigns them. Conversely, this book makes no such arguments. Why do they place King Arthur above Santa Claus? How is it that Dick Tracy finds himself nestled between Hercules and Joe Camel? What’s Peter Pan doing at #70? What’s Dracula doing at #33? Why is J.R. Ewing even on the list at all? And why isn’t Ronald McDonald on the list? Sadly, we’ll never know…because the authors’ miss this great opportunity to make their case.

To make matters worse, the authors nix the idea of discussing each entry in order of importance, instead placing them in the book by category. Another fun aspect of Hart’s book is the variety: one minute you’re reading about Adolf Hitler, then you turn the page and you’re reading about Plato. But in this book, the authors lump characters into categories, which they are very proud of. Heck, the list of entries by category appears in the book prior to the list of entries by ranking. Sherlock Holmes, incidentally, appears in the “Crime” category, instead of the Adventure or Literature categories. The authors even interrupt the discussion of each character and devote a chapter to how they decided which category to place each character into: Why is Dorothy Gale placed in the Movies category rather than the Literature or Americana category? The better question is: Who Cares? Dorothy’s influence, like Superman’s and Luke Skywalker’s, isn’t limited to cinematic appearances.

One more thing: the authors miss a grand opportunity here for real controversy (and higher sales!): in the introduction, they tell us of their lame decision to leave out all religious characters. Too bad – God belongs at number one.

Bottom line…
The idea of writing such a book: A
The execution of the idea: F
The book as a whole: C

Credits and Demerits

My wife and I have been watching a rotating selection of TV shows lately. We get the shows from Netflix, and watch them in order. I can’t help but notice that, sometimes, when we start an episode, we let the disk play right on through the opening credits. Conversely, with other shows, we habitually skip past the credits. Clearly, in the world of opening credits, not all television series are created equal.

Good opening credits (in order of when I thought of them):

Freaks and Geeks
Northern Exposure
The Addams Family
Star Trek (Both the original and the Next Generation)
Gilligan’s Island
Mission: Impossible
The Flintstones
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The Jeffersons,
Wonderfalls
The Simpsons
The Office
The Muppet Show
All in the Family
The Twilight Zone

We’re not watching all these shows, of course, these are just good openings regardless of whether I’ve seen an episode lately. In fact, some of these shows aren’t particularly that great – the opening song is the best part of the show. Either way, I list them here because they either have a great song, clever footage, a unique or stylized intro, or it’s just nice and short. Or some combination of all that.

Bad Opening Credits:

Quantum Leap
So, first there’s an opening scene that explains the premise. This, I have no problem with. But then, there’s a really long, really dated song and, just when you think it’s all over, you realize they haven’t even flashed the actors names on the screen yet, and a whole other verse begins.

Battlestar Gallactica
This one is a lot like Quantum Leap, what with it’s “here’s the whole premise” thing. After the teaser, though, the credits finally come on and then – after the credit are over! – we are treated to a bizarre montage of scene that we will see in the upcoming episode. Talk about spoilers.

M*A*S*H
There’s nothing wrong with the music…if this was a drama. My sister used to watch this show all the time, and after sitting with her through the opening credits, I’d get up and leave because I was so depressed. Some people claim this is a comedy, but I’ll never know because I can’t get past the first thirty seconds.

Futurama
Just a big, bloated, confusing mess. It nearly induces a seizure.


How about you – any TV show openings you particularly like or dislike?

New Year's Resolutions

I've made new year's resolutions for years, but I've never documented them anywhere. They've just been something I've kept in my mind and strove for as the twelve months unfolded. One year (1991?) I made it my goal to read everything by Dr. Seuss. Another year (2004), I made it my goal to learn to juggle and to read all the canonical Sherlock Holmes stories.

Of course, there are always the 'big' goals: eat better, exercise more, and - on a more personal note - move out of this house. Those are all good things to strive for, but I don't consider them new year's resolutions. I usually reserve the fun stuff for new year's resolution. So here's some fun stuff I want to accomplish this year:

1) Learn to yo-yo.
I can do the boring part, where you let gravity grab the yo-yo and then let momentum bring it back into your hand. But I want to learn the fun stuff. Owen loves his two yo-yos, and I am now the proud owner of one myself. I used part of my Xmas gift (a certificate to Amazon.com) to purchase a book on yo-yo techniques, so once it arrives I'll begin in earnest.

2) Brush up on my German
I used to be pretty decent at travel German. Alas, I let it slide. It's time to get some tapes and listen to them in the car once again.

3) Read "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn"
My wife tells me they're good reads, and I do like 19th Century fiction. So I guess it's time I tackle these.

4) Run in a race
Yeah, I've done this two years in a row now, but I want to do it again. In early November, the company I work for organizes a 6K race, so that's my race of choice, if possible, again this year.

5) Edit the wedding video
Our wedding was video-taped by two people, for a total of 4 hours of footage. My goal is to finally dump all that into my computer and edit it down to a watchable 1 hour (or less) video. I hope to have it done by our anniversary. Maybe we could give a copy of the video to our friends and family members as kind of a reverse anniversary gift. If I can do this by August, then I hope to...

6) Preserve other old videos
Specifically, my graduation party, a for-the-heck-of-it party I attended in 1988 and something called "Explorations in Videotaping" are all languishing on VHS tape, degrading more and more with each passing year. I'd like to at least get these into digital format by year's end.

And, finally...
7) Finish my book
If you know me, you know I've been writing a book. I started writing it well over a year ago, and I still have several chapters left. I'd like to wrap up the epic this year.

I'll recap in 365 days.