The writers' strike

From this blog:

So why is this news important? Because now both sides in this writers vs producers fight are further apart than they have ever been, and that’s saying a lot. Both sides believe they have fresh and ample reasons not to go back into negotiations anytime soon. And by soon a worst case scenario of months and months and months.

If this means Pushing Daisies dies an early death, I will be pissed. (Okay, okay, I know that's about the least of the problems that this strike can cause. I would not, for example, want to be a production assistant, or a writer's assistant, or even part of the service industry which caters to production companies right now, because I'd be out of a job.)

(And for the record, while there are issues involved with this that I'm sure I don't know nearly enough about and that might affect my opinion, just looking at the WGA's demand for doubling their DVD and new media residuals [from what, four cents to all of eight cents?], I can't help but feel they are more than justified in their demand and their action.)

Mountie: 1, Rat: 0

Ratatouille is out on DVD, and we rented it because Dad hadn't seen it yet and I wanted to see it again.

Of course the movie was good--I believe I went on at length after I saw it in the theater about how it's one of the most adorable films I've ever seen, and I want to hug it and squeeze it and call it George. But as a bonus for the DVD, they also had a short film called, "Your Friend the Rat," a vaguely musical history of rats, hosted by Remy and Emile. It was cute and amusing all the way through, but the best part? When dramatizing why Alberta was particularly rat-free, they depicted the battle between Mountie and Rat as a video game wherein the Mountie (somehow dressed simultaneously in both the dress reds and the outfit of a particularly patriotic hockey goalie) used his arm padding/shield, which had a Canadian flag on it, to...shoot a laser in the shape of a maple leaf at the rat. I was on the floor.

(Oh, look, someone put it on YouTube. Why am I not surprised? Watch, it's hilarious.)

*

Now I really want to cook my sausage-and-garbanzo-bean soup tomorrow. (Much like Linguine, I am winging it with the soup. This...is the first time I've ever made a soup that doesn't come condensed in a can. I hope it turns out edible.)