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Young Frankenstein"How can you, of all people, never have seen Young Frankenstein?" That's what a cow-orker asked me a few weeks ago. He then loaned me the Mel Brooks film on DVD and Debbi and I watched it on Friday. It's not quite what I expected, but it is hi-larious! I had expected it to be more of a comic remake of the original film, but it's actually a comic sequel. Directed by Brooks, it stars Gene Wilder as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, Marty Feldman as Igor, Peter Boyle as the monster, plus Chloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Madeleine Kahn, Gene Hackman (!) and others. It's even in black-and-white! Wilder is the man of 1,000 sarcastic faces, and the performances are first-rate. But I think what really makes the film is the understated nature of the humor, which only occasionally wanders into the outright ridiculous (Frankenstein introducing the monster to his peers is far and away the biggest instance of sheer lunacy in the film). Walking that tightrope is an impressive achievement, especially since the thing is so darned funny anyway! I guess Marty Feldman is remembered by many people for his turn as Igor in this film. He sure does a great job, sheer comic lunacy underscored by his British accent. I actually wish he and Wilder had more scenes together, as Frankenstein is a perfect foil for Igor. Boyle is great as the monster, especially in his brief (but terrific) scene with Hackman (whom I didn't recognize at all). Garr and Leachman are good in fairly limited roles, but Kahn outshines both of them in a role no more expansive (though with a really goofy twist at the end). Overall, though, it's Wilder's movie, and he romps through scenes which he plays absolutely deadpan, to completely manic and obsessed, to downright weird. I can't imagine it being anywhere near as good without him (plus, of course, he and Brooks co-wrote the script). Definitely a keeper. Probably Brooks' best film.
 The cats went to the vet last Wednesday for their annual check-up - only four months late. I'm a slacker. Fortunately, they are both in pretty good shape, considering they turn 12 next month. Newton's teeth have never been so good - he had a few extracted when he was young. They're getting crummy again, and so Tuesday he's going in for a cleaning, and possibly more extractions ("extractions" is vet-speak for "having teeth pulled"). Hopefully it will not be bad. Jefferson will be baffled at why he's being left home alone, but not as baffled and presumably traumatized as Newton will be. Jefferson, for his part, is rather overweight, weighing in at over 17 pounds. (Newton weighs only 9.5.) We got some blood work done for Jeff, and fortunately he does not have signs of diabetes (he was also astoundingly well-behaved while they drew a blood sample), but he is now on a strict diet to try to lose weight. I'd like to get him down to about 14 pounds, which is where he's been for much of his adult life. Then figure out whether he needs to lose some more. He's not too happy about having his food carefully rationed, but hopefully he'll be happier and have more energy once he's lost some weight. (I'm also trying to play with him more. The laser pointer is good for that.) In any event, the fact that the cats are basically healthy is very good news. Hopefully they'll stay healthy and happy and be around for a long time to come.
I've been shopping around for several things lately. First, I'm looking for a new printer. I know I'll want to print both photos and text (and perhaps occasionally graphics), but since I don't know what my usage patterns are going to be it's hard to know what to buy. I suspect in the long run I'll get a laser printer for text, so it's probably more important to have an inkjet printer which prints good photos. (And of course it should work with Mac OS X.) I'm targeting spending about $100-200 on whatever I buy. A friend of mine who is pretty knowledgeable about these things says that Epson is the wave of the future and that I should get one of those. He also says that Canon printers tend not to work well with non-Canon paper, while Epsons work better with them. Which seems like a worthwhile concern. Review sites I've looked at (like Consumer Reports and MacWorld) seem to generally rate Epson printers lower than HP or Canon, though. So I'm not sure what to do. Any suggestions? (On the bright side, at Fry's to look at printers I found a copy of Railroad Tycoon 3 for only $20. Woo!) I'm also looking for some bike shoes. Biking in sneakers is no longer doing it for me, as my feet get pretty sore by the end of a lengthy ride. So today we went to the Bicycle Outfitter to buy a few random things and to try on shoes. One challenge for me is that I have extra-wide feet; my New Balance sneakers tend to be 11-4E (though my current running shoes are 2Es - that particular model just runs wide). I tried on several bike shoes by a maker named Sidi, and found a pair which fit, but it ran $230 and seemed a little too fancy in some ways. So I am going to keep looking. I think I want to start with something simple. I am also going to move to using clip-on pedals, though ideally I would like to try out the shoes with my regular pedals first and then move to the clip-ons so I can get used to the shoes before getting used to the clips. The fellow helping me - who was really very helpful - said that comfort is paramount. He also said that I can use either road bike or mountain bike shoes with my road bike (I don't own a mountain bike); the mountain bike shoes have cleats which make them a little more general-purpose, but they may not fit the pedal quite as neatly as road bike shoes would. But that I can't use road bike shoes without clip-on pedals. So hmm. So I will keep looking for a bit. Advice in this area would be helpful, too.
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