Thursday, September 11, 2008

We're not sure why, but it's irritating when people refer to movies as Shows, as in

Us: You ever see the movie Lost in Translation?

Them: Oh yeah, I love that show!

Maybe it's because they use Show to refer to both movies and television programs, which apparently is perfectly acceptable, but ignoring the distinction can lead to confusion. Suppose you're professing your love for a television show that's also a horrible movie.

Them: All-y'all see that show The Avengers? That was great!

All-y'all
: [In unison] Jesus Christ.

Why not just save us confusion and yourself scorn and refer to movies as Movies and television shows as Shows?

That written, here's Roger Ebert on the current candidates' favorite movies

Here's what Nixon watched

Here's Clinton on his favorites

Here's more

We also learn what the first movie screened in the White House was ("Birth of a Nation" – not a good start!), and who watched the most movies in his term (Jimmy Carter with 580; an average of one movie every three days!). What's most interesting is how much the movies these men liked said so much about each of them. What did Ike like? Westerns. Who was Johnson's favorite movie star? Himself. What was Nixon's favorite movie? Patton. What was Bill Clinton's favorite movie? American Beauty (hearing Clinton talking about how much that movie blew him away as the camera slowly pans up the infamous poster of Mena Suvari's half-nude body covered in rose petals is priceless!)

0 comments: