Grilled Cheese, Johnny Depp, and Superman

In honour of the scene in Benny & Joon where Johnny Depp grills cheese sandwiches using an iron, that's what I'm making for lunch today. Yes, I watched that old movie yesterday afternoon (for the first time) and the craving for grilled cheese has not abated.

I don't really see any good reason why one couldn't actually make these sandwiches in this fashion (as long as you go easy on the steam button, as the movie character wisely informs us), but I'm nevertheless going to refrain from the experiment.

It's the first day of a week's vacation for me and I'm wondering how I'm going to spend my days off. I haven't made any plans. I chose a random week on the calendar back in May. It's alarmingly refreshing to have nothing on my to-do list.

I think I may kick back during the heat of the afternoon with the stack of videocassettes Kim gave me. She was getting rid of stuff before her move, and I'm her good friend who lives back in the prehistoric era where folks still own VCR's. Between her and Deb (whose VHS collection I also inherited) I will not have to venture to a video store for many moons. :)

On the subject of movies, I went to to the theatre with friends to see Superman Returns . I have powerful little interest in the whole complex Superman comic-book mythology, and so I went with low expectations. I ended up really enjoying it. Watch for a scene involving the space shuttle and a baseball game. Now that's good movie entertainment.

Not everybody in the theatre was as easily pleased as me though. A few rows back, a couple of fifteen-year-old comic-book geeks (er, aficionados )were openly weeping with frustration at all the touchie-feelie Lois Lane-and-her-little-boy family moments. "This is not happening!", moaned one.

They were the same lads I'd overheard outside the theatre before the show having an intense discussion about whether Superman could really get a haircut.

"Well, it's just not realistic if he can", insisted one of them. "He's supposed to be bullet-proof! So scissors wouldn't cut him!"

"As if!", snorted the other boy. "What are they supposed to do about their hair on his home planet then?"

Well, if Superman can't cut his hair, at the very least he can put gel in it. I don't think that guy ever has that forehead curl out of place when he's wearing his cape. That bottle of hair gel and the glasses are the only thing keeping him from being recognized by Lois Lane.