There are a lot of local comedians out there. You always find these folks in the "Question of the Day" column in the Plain Dealer. Last week, the question was what do you think of the nickname for the new hockey team? It was the Lake Erie Monsters, if you recall. Pretty dumb. But someone suggested, "What about the Cleveland Steamers?" Do they have an editor there?

Today's question was about your favorite snow day memory. A joker chimed in that with Paul Briggs as your school superintendent, you never had snow days. Ha! They also had the temerity to bring up the quote, "If I can come to work, then the kids can come to school." Brilliant!

Meal of Links

I zipped over to the Cinemark to see "Volver". Almost had a private showing, if it weren't for these two women who showed up when the trailers started. Speaking of the trailers, with this sort of movie, you get Sony Pictures Classics and Fox Searchlight types. One was a German movie you had to read. Another was a Paul Verhoeven movie you had to read. They snuck in the Adam Sandler/Don Cheadle "Reign Over Me" which, of course, meant dollars for The Who with "Love, Reign O'er Me" playing. The Sandra Bullock movie where "Jim dies" was also shown. The new Danny Boyle film, "Sunshine", looked really good. But the one that I thought looked the best was "The Hoax" with Richard Gere. That one is about a story I'm familiar with, the Clifford Irving fake biography of Howard Hughes, a fascinating story. And The Who made more cash as "Who Are You?" was played over that one.

As for "Volver", I'll paraphrase Penelope Cruz's mother who asked, "When did your chest become so big?". Almodovar must have liked filming her, because there were a few shots of her ass and some disturbing cleavage views. Not that her cleavage was disturbing, far from it, but the way it was filmed was so, what's the word, distracting? Anyhow, Cruz was really good, maybe her best. The movie was OK. I thought there were some loose ends as some characters kind of showed up, then drifted off. What else did we have? Death, incest, attempted faux incest, murder, reality TV, Cruz singing, more humor than you would think. Probably not Almodovar's best, and as you can tell, it's not exactly setting the box office world on fire, probably because you have to read it. Might be worth catching at a matinee or some evening, years from now on IFC.

Jack Bauer gadgets. The city of Los Angeles once named a street after Jack Bauer in gratitude for his saving the city several times. They had to rename it after people kept dying when they tried to cross the street. No one crosses Jack Bauer and lives.

Some Spike Jonze commercials to chew on.

Exercise Yard

At work, we debated on what Jim Nantz will come up with for his totally ad libbed, off-the-cuff line that he's been working on for days when the Colts (i.e. Peyton Manning) win on Sunday. I was leaning toward something with "PAY-dirt" or "PAY-off" after the final Victory Formation.

As "One Shining Moment" is played in the background, we decided it will be:

"And Dolphin Stadium has become Peyton's Place." Can I get a prop bet?

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6 Down: Painter Chagall (4 letters) Answer: Marc