This might happen in NY if there were more brains around to be had, but alas, it seemed limited to San Francisco (at least until it happens for real and we're all turned into zombies by the forces of darkness).
I include one picture for those of you too lazy (or timid) to follow the link above:
Our little celebrity has made an appearance in the courts of West Orange, only to be captured for posterity below:
The caption below the article reads:
Above, third grader Ellen Meyerson giggles as a judge tells her that her punishment for speeding is a $75 fine - plus no cookies, cupcakes, or fruit snacks for a week. Ellen was among a group of third graders from Hazel Elementary school from West Orange who toured the West Orange Police Dept., the Municipal Courtroom and Township Hall as part of the West Orange Government Day, sponsered by the Township for the past 15 years.
Faithful readers of this blog know that I think my daughters are the smartest kids in the world, but I submit a bit of proof for Ellen. Here's a school assignment that she spent 10 minutes on, a picture that she had to write a short story about. When she wants to, she can put together something that, as far as I can tell, is better written than many things adults write.
The Assignment:
The Story:
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As I hid in the bushes, Tarbosaurus roared. I smelled his foul breath. I saw his jagged claws. And I heard his earsplitting ROAR! I longed to be in my nest of soft twigs and leaves. But I knew that if I tried to escape, I'd be as good as dead. Lifes not easy when your a psittarosaurus, but you have to learn to live with it. Maybe the tarbosaurus would go away? I hoped it would! I wanted to see my mate as soon as possible! Tarasaurus lifted his giant hear and sniffed. It seemed to smell something else so it walked away from me and I, feeling very happy, walked home.
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Tonight's our last night in Paris. It happens to be pouring at the moment, but that's not really a big deal (although, we had hoped to go get a crépe before the night is out)--we've had incredible weather all week. 72 and sunny every day and in the low 60's at night. We came. We walked. We ate. And ate. And ate.
Last night was L'Atelier du Joël Robuchon, a very stylish, very inventive place in the 6th arrondissement that featured a 10 course menu of tiny tiny courses. Some were amazing like the grilled fresh Fois Gras with Hibiscus sauce or the asparagus cappucino. Some not so much, like the raw egg in a martini glass with a frothy spinich and ham croutons. Dinner hours here are crazy. We just finished tonight at 8:30 PM (we brought in Chinese food for our last night), and that's when we had put our names on the list last night. We didn't sit down last night until 10, finished after 12 AM. I don't think that I'll miss eating in the middle of the night, frankly.
All in all, we had a wonderful time. Paris was just beautiful, we walked forever, ate what we wanted, slept in every day and had a magnificent apartment to come back to every evening at no cost to us right in the heart of the city. We spoke french when we could, english when we could, and Fringlish most of the time, and almost everyone understood us eventually. Fresh pastries, fresh bread, and fresh air add up to a lovely time.
And, a big thank you to Alain Goldrach for the use of this apartment (there's an article about him with some pictures of him restoring a picture!) We'll be back next week, Alain!
For those who have never been to the Louvre, let me summarize:
1, the 
Mona Lisa. Very nice. Looks good in person, albiet about 20 feet away from you.
2, Michaelangelo's "slaves" (one of which is pictured). Brilliant and powerful and shows why he's the master.
3, a few nice Caravaggios, especially that one (The Fortune Teller).
4, some lovely Rembrandts, including that wonderful self portrait.
5, about 3 million gigantic, incredibly dull French paintings showing either dead soldiers or things with clouds. Skip all of these.
All told, we managed to wend our way through in about 90 minutes. Considering the place is about as big as the Pentagon (they used to fill some halls with dirt and ride horses through it to go fox hunting INDOORS), that's no small feat.
Oh, and we went to the Rodin Museum, which, all in all, has much more interesting stuff than the Louvre. Sorry, King Louis.
After a long day with a stomach bug, both kim and I were feeling much better by evening, so we decided on an american cafe for Cheeseburgers and then to see Spiderman 3. Oddly, it came out in France 3 days before it does in the US. That seems very strange to me, as I remember hearing that Europe always gets the big blockbusters well after we do in the states, but we certainly did see it. It was in English, with French subtitles, and the audience was very odd. There are a couple of scenes when poor Peter Parker is unhappy and Toby Maguire gets all blubbery--a bit melodramatic, perhaps, but they're serious parts of the movie. However, the audience was uniformly laughing at these parts. Either A, the subtitles were really bad, or B, they thought his acting was really bad. I don't know about A, but as far as B is concerned he might have been a bit hammy, but nothing too bad. It was a strange group to watch with. There was a funny scene with the wonderfully odd Bruce Campbell as an annoyingly French Maitre d' which was FAR funnier considering that he was putting on this silly French accent and the entire audience was French. They were all laughing, which I guess is a good thing.
Overall, the movie was good, not great. Not as good as Spiderman 2, which I thought might have been the best of all of the recent Marvel-type movies (Batman Begins being a close second), but it was fun and had some serious moments and great effects. I'd like to see it again, I think. Maybe with an English speaking audience that laughs in the right parts...
This is the kind of thing my scary mind wanders to sometimes, late at night. Below we have the Teletubbies, courtesy of Photoshop...
Tinky Winky. Dipsy. Laa laa. And Poe.
Say Hello!
