Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Rain, Facebook, and Ms. Knightley

  1. At last, it has been raining in Brisbane on and off for the last three days. To appreciate the significance of all this moisture, read this entry by another of my favorite bloggers, Mooselet. She, by the way, has some sort of unending reservoir of physical and emotional strength for parenting that I used up two days after Will was born. Just so I'm clear about the value of rain in Australia, it is measured in millimeters, not centimeters or something bigger. A forecast can include the chance of 5-10 millimeters of rain--that's not even a half an inch!!
  2. I am now on Facebook. Why would a "middle-aged" man do such a thing? The answer is simple: peer pressure. EVERYONE in my immediate social group at UQ seems to be on this. I'll report back once I understand the benefits of all this "social networking." If you're on Facebook, please consider adding me as a friend...I am desperate to become popular.
  3. The other night we watched "Pride and Prejudice" (the Keira version) on a DVD that I bought here in Oz. Guess what?! Viewers in the U.S. saw a different ending. Elizabeth and Darcy are shown cuddling and whispering sweet nothings to each other in the U.S. ending, but the rest of the world saw the credits hit once Elizabeth got her father's blessing for the engagement. (I've heard the Swedish version had an even racier ending involving Jane, Elizabeth, and Darcy, but this is unconfirmed. Maybe Sven will check on this). It appears that Americans can't be happy with their romantic movies unless they have a little kissing in the end...

2 comments:

Author! Author! said...

I was so happy I didn't see it in America first...I almost threw up when I watched the American ending on the DVD. The other ending was perfect! Granted, the book ended with more of an epilogue, but really, who cares once all the tension is gone?

Mooselet said...

First off - flattery will get you everywhere... or at least a drink if I ever manage to catch up with you here in Brissy. It's not endless, believe me, but my goal some days is to simply make it through the day. Nothing more than that.

Isn't this rain great? I think the sheer size of the numbers in millimetres makes it sound like we're getting flooded, but in reality we only have a couple of inches. We'll take what we can get.

I'm glad a never saw the US version of the movie. Darcy isn't a cuddly, kissy type of guy, is he?