Super Bowl Weekend
I still remember Hurricane Alicia hitting Houston during the summer of 1983; I had just earned my MBA but it was just a checkoff on the way to my doctorate after returning to academics full-time. There were local runs on supplies before the storm hit. I was more amused to hear that San Antonio, some 180 miles west of Houston on I-10, also had runs on supplies. I don't think the brunt of the storm ever got near San Antonio, although some storms did hit during 2017's Hurricane Harvey.One of the things I often do near Sunday Bowl Sunday is check out the local Walmart. I'll never forget going to the Fairmont, WV Walmart back in 2014 or 2015 finding a whole section of chicken wings completely sold out. Sure enough, this past week you'll find enough chicken wings and appetizers on sale to live on for weeks. Now I knew chicken wings were a fad, with some restaurants specializing in them. (I went to one for a predecessor's going-away party.) And I did go through a chicken wing phase last year (in my crock pot). And I love hot-and-spicy foods. But to me, the Super Bowl is just another game and sometimes not very competitive. It's not a feast like Thanksgiving. In fact, as I write, I don't have anything special planned for tomorrow's meals. I've been mostly doing Nutrisystem to work on losing weight, so I'll probably do that tomorrow.
Any favorite? Familiar readers know I'm a Vikings fan; I recently reprised the background (but you can also read it here) So I generally root for the NFC champion, more so this year because San Francisco eliminated Minnesota, and I would like to think we lost to the Super Bowl champs. But there's another motive this time around. I'm old enough to remember the first of Minnesota's 4 Super Bowl losses--to Kansas City. I've never forgotten or forgiven that.
Pro Wrestling Notes
Well, I was following the Royal Rumble on a wrestling website and as soon as I heard McIntyre had eliminated WWE champ Brock Lesnar, I knew WWE had scripted McIntyre to win the battle royal and the opportunity to battle Lesnar at Wrestlemania. This is a curious booking decision because both wrestlers play heels. It's not the only one; Buddy Murphy, the latest recruit into Seth Rollins' heel faction, was booked with Rollins to win the WWE tag team titles, curious because Rollins had earlier recruited former tag team champs the Authors of Pain to his faction. And rumors are the women's battle royal winner Charlotte Flair will choose to face the new NXT brand women's champion vs. one of the 2 main roster title holders (Lynch and Bayley). That probably makes sense from the standpoint of a fresh feud, but traditionally NXT was known as WWE's "minor league" brand and less prestigious. They have occasionally had major talent make cameo appearances on NXT, an obvious example is Finn Balor. But to me, it would have made more sense to book an eventual challenger to one of the title holders and maybe have had the NXT champ target Flair and cost her the match.WWE did decide to book Nakamura into jobbing the Intercontinental championship to Braun Strowman, his first singles title. It's not really clear where they go with either character from here, e.g., have Nakamura turn on Zahn and Cesaro? Put Strowman into a feud with his former mentor, Bray Wyatt, for the bigger title belt?
Older Movies I Hadn't Seen But Like
The first DVD is one my Mom had (my late priest/uncle's?)that we watched during my holiday visit to Texas. The protagonist is a female restaurant manager whose father walked out on her mother and her (as a 10-year-old); her mother and she are now estranged. Fast forward, she's in a relationship with a widower and his 10-year-old daughter (who objects to the relationship and is a bit of a handful). The protagonist finds herself left with the boyfriend's daughter while he leaves on a brief out-of-town trip. She ends up going on a brief holiday supply errand and finds herself surrounded by hoodlums on the way back to her car; an old man out of nowhere shows up and is attacked by the hoodlums, who subsequently leave. The protagonist offers to give the man assistance; he's trying to catch a bus for a ride home long distance. An approaching storm (hence the movie title) leaves him stranded; feeling guilty about deserting someone who had just saved her, she offers to host him in her guest room until the bus station reopens. The three find themselves snowed-in at the house, they quickly lose power, and only the girl's phone has any battery life left.So the 3 of them interact over the next few days; the girl is devastated she can't attend her upcoming performance, so they decide to hold their own. (Hence, the picture you might see for the clip.) The old man seems disappointed the protagonist and her mother haven't reconciled. He's also carrying a pocket watch, intended for his daughter. There is also reference to the presentation of Jesus at the Temple and Simeon, who had been promised to see the Lord before he himself passed.
I won't give away the resolution of the plot, but given the fact the movie begins with her father abandoning the family, I quickly found myself wondering if this mysterious old man, probably her father's age, was her long-missing father. There are moving, mystical elements I love as to how the plot is resolved. Just a warning that it takes a while for the plot to unwind (and watching the boyfriend's daughter fight with the protagonist isn't fun), and my youngest brother, who subsequently borrowed the DVD, said he fell asleep watching it.
The second film is also older, about 15 years ago (not 2007's "Perfect Stranger"). I found this one while browsing through Amazon Video. Remember the 1990's Joan Osborne hit, "One of Us"? "What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us?..." An embittered woman, still bearing bitterness of her Dad's tragic death in her early teens, finds a purported dinner invitation from Jesus Christ. She is convinced she's being pranked, and she goes to dinner, determined to expose the prank. (For those readers into Biblical verses: Revelation 3:20.) Let's just say, by the end of the dinner, I found myself in tears. Of course, I hold a philosophy degree and started college thinking I had a religious vocation to the Roman Catholic priesthood. This kind of movie hits my sweet spot. Your mileage may vary, but I recommend it.
