The big one

You know what they say about jet lag... stay up until it's bedtime where you are. So here I am, struggling to not fall asleep for a few more hours. I'm flipping channels... there are hundreds of them, some your regular cable channels, some religious, some are pay-per-view porn (all I'll say about that is I was going through the various pay-per-view channels vaguely paying attention to the names of the films, when I thought, 'that sounds like a cooking show... why would that be pay-per.... oh... ew'). I settled on the style channel and turned it off less than ten minutes later because I couldn't take it.

Why this resort to brain candy? I've had all the substance I can take (do check out the current issue of Foreign Policy) and even all the crosswords I can take. I flipped through the airline magazine's map pages, which reminded me of a conversation we had in Istanbul. Over the preceding days I had heard Kate and Ian refer to various colleagues of theirs. It was Ian's last night and we were having dinner at YeniYilda (New Star), where our waiter was from Kazakhstan. We discussed how most people don't realize what a large country it is, and what Sasha Baron Cohen has done for it.

Ian: A friend of mine-- one of our labmates-- is from Kazakhstan.
A.: Which one is that?
Ian: The big one.
A.: No-- I meant, which labmate.

***
Clinging to my Sanity presents: in-flight film reviews. I.e. reviews of in-flight films. Not film reviews written in-flight.

Let's start with the Nanny Diaries. It was bad. Brilliantly acted, but bad.

They showed an episode of How I Met Your Mother, which I love. I watch no other sitcom-- have little patience for them unless they're really good-- and this one gets CTMS's seal of approval.

Then came Stardust, which I'd already seen in-flight last month. It was pretty good. It's actually a good airplane movie. I didn't need to see it twice, but until American airlines catch up with the rest of the world and offer on-demand... beggars can't be choosers.

Last but not least, Music and Lyrics, which wasn't bad. It was cute, not a bad airplane film. I especially liked it when Drew Barrymore's character says, "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have gotten involved. I have no filtering system."

On that note... [yawn]... goodnight.