(:)(:)(:)(:) for Closer
At first snichols was a little disappointed that the movie Closer wasn't, as snichols had hoped, pronounced "clozer" and actually about John Kerry's miraculous win of the Presidency. Instead, it's "closer" and about all kinds of cozy closeness between 4 dear people.

Ok, really, it's a brilliant Mike Nichols film (is there any other kind?). Although Jude Law and Natalie Portman are excellent, Clive Owens completely steals the film with his flawless, vulnerable, sexy, despicable performance. Julia Roberts is her usual blah underwhelming self except for one flash of truth which Owens teases out of her in an unforgettable scene between them.

Amazingly and painfully accurate dialogue--capturing perfectly the male obsession with the actual sex had during infidelity: who, when, where, what positions, rather than the seemingly more important question of why.

Critics other than snichols have called it a cold film without love or likeable characters. snichols isn't sure what it says about her, but she didn't find it that way. She thought everyone was sympathetic, and that it was as much about love as it was about sex.

But the best was the conversation overheard after the film in the bathroom, between 4 very young women (17? 18? who can tell anymore)

Girl1: Oh. My. God.

Girl2: I know.

Girl3: I so know.

Girl4: Dude. When you said it was a Jude Law and Julia Roberts film I had no idea it would be like this.

Girl2: Don't look at me! I didn't know. She knew (pointing at Girl3).

Girl3: I did not know.

Girl1: All I know is that people talked about sex all the time and they said nasty, dirty things that I have never heard anyone talk about before and I never want to hear again.

Girl 2: I know.

Girl 3&4: I so know.

Poem by snicholsdaughter (8)

Time feels like the wind blowing fast and moving on.

Time speeds up when I'm playing soccer on the field with

my friends.

Time stands still when I'm watching a movie.

Time slows down when I'm doing nothing.

Time is my friend when there's something ahead that

feels dull.

What does time mean to you?

Time evaporates when I'm deep in thought.

At the center of time is a map that uses plus signs and

minus signs to show how places across the world

have different time than the model city, Greenwich.

Time gives us a way to know when we should be

somewhere.

Time is like air to me.

snichols' Kids' Letters to Santa

Dear Santa,

this year for christmas can I please have a digital camera and the book The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket.

Thank you,

NM (9)

Dear Santa,

For Christmas I would like:

-->A watch

-->A broomstick that really flies. This is how it flies: powered by two AA batteries. (on and off switch on the broom) If needed add little wings.

-->A snitch that really flies by a long wire (please don't make the wire to noticeable.) On and off switch on the snitch.

P.S. please note that I would like the last two on my list more than the first one. If you can't get the last two please leave a note telling me why. (If you can't get them this year please try next year.

From, EM (8)

Read the Angry Girl
snichols is not too busy to be angry, but she is too busy to stay on top of why she's angry. As Nancy Rader informed me, Angry Girl is not. Read her website and see all the latest on election fraud, election watch, etc.

But don't give up on snichols. She'll be back in the saddle yet. She's finally almost through reading What's the Matter with Kansas? --mandatory read for all of you. Hilariously funny at the same time as being an important expose into how we got to the point where Angry Girl and snichols are so angry.

(:)(:)(:)(:) for Wifeswap
snichols returned from Cabo (with corn-rows, btw) only to find that Bill felt snichols had given the cohousing Wifeswap a bad review while Bill loved it and thought it was great tv.

Let's be clear: snichols thought it was great tv too! It was phenomenally entertaining to her. So 4 snouts up for Wifeswap. snichols hasn't watched last night's (non-cohousing) episode but taped it (no tevo here--Bill is snichols' tevo) and is looking forward to it.

Back from Cabo
snichols just got back from 5 days in Cabo. Read Sara Nichols' (a very close relative of snichols) column, Eye on the Pie in this quarter's issue of Rudolf's Diner (edited by snichols' brother--it's all very nepotistic). Indeed, read Rudolf's Diner.

Wifeswap
Snichols emerged from a Thanksgiving/8 year old birthday/bad cold fog to catch her first (and possibly last) episode of "Wifeswap" tonight--found it hilarious/disturbing/thought provoking.

In this one, more aptly titled "husband swap," a huge bearded biker who lives for motor vehicles, television and pissing off his neighbors, swaps lives with a small bearded environmentalist living for cycling, chanting, and composting in Colorado cohousing.

The hilarious and disturbing fact was that the enviro's organic, yoga-loving, compound-clinging, frigid wife and two adorable toddlers absolutely bonded and loved the biker while the biker's tv dinner eating, cat piss tolerating, fossil-fuel burning wife and 3 rude and reluctant teenage (step)daughters basically wanted to set fire to the enviro in his sleep.

But it wasn't all bad--each family learned from the other. The cohousers learned that wearing leather, eating steak in front of the tv and having your kids puke from cotton candy at an amusement park can be great fun. While the biker trash learned that they really do hate recycling, cleaning up their house, eating vegetables and talking to each other as much as they thought they would.

Why is this all thought-provoking when it's an extreme gag cooked up by the networks for entertainment? Well, maybe it's not, but here's what snichols thinks we should consider: if most of the Bush supporters think that liberals are like the enviro, judgmental, out of touch with reality and just plain not fun, maybe that's an image we need to work on.

Why? Because it's not true. Although snichols' life may be somewhat closer to the judgmental environmentalist's than the fun-loving biker's, she basically lives a happy medium--that is, she lives in cohousing, recycles, and eats vegetables, but she also wears leather, eats meat, has sex and watches tv--in short, you can be doing right by the planet and having fun--they're not mutually exclusive.