Happy Flu-Day

Flu yesterday, actually--chills, fever, aches. Today I'm just dizzy and a bit headachey. :-/

But I did finish up my Mountain Colors Bearfoot socks. Nice and warm--I like this yarn.

Yesterday I watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Quigley Down Under. Yeah, kind of a strange duo. :)

I read on imdb.com that Sean Connery was originally slated to do the part of The Player in R&G, but pulled out to do Hunt for Red October and I think the movie probably benefitted from it. Good as Roth and Oldman are--and they're very, very good--I think Connery would have blown them out of the water. Not on purpose, but he's just such a huge presence, and The Player is a florid role. I think Dreyfuss is a better "weight"--the three counterbalance each other exactly. Wonderful movie, but you need to pay attention. Sad at the end, too.

Quigley is another kettle of fish entirely. Tom Selleck is just stunningly, breath-takingly gorgeous, even beat-up and covered with dust. People are right--if he'd been born 20 years earlier, he'd have been a major cowboy star. Quigley is a quintessential cowboy hero. Alan Rickman is a lovely silky sneering villain (although he's just as wonderful as the tormented and sensitive Col. Brandon in Pride and Prejudice). There are a couple of things I have questions about: Quigley starts off having a brawl with Rickmen's men, and later he gets off a real zinger against the British major, whom Rickmen's men hate. Usually these things would forge some kind of bond between them--you know how guys in the movies are always bonding after a fight (for instance, the quarterstaff fight on the bridge between Robin Hood and Little John). But not a one of these guys ever makes a friendly overture, or even has a word of warning for him. Also, I worry about the horses. I always worry about the horses in movies. Not the real horses, I trust the Humane Society to look after them. But like when Quigley rides away from the cave to find a town for supplies and bullets, he's shown riding that poor horse virtually without let-up for hours and hours. I'm like--what about water? According to Tufts U Vet School, a horse can lose up to 10 liters of water per hour with heavy exercise, and can require from 10 -40 gallons of water *per day*, depending on the weather and their exercise level. What about saddle galls--those horse-hair girths rubbing on hot, sweaty skin hour after hour? What about sheer exhaustion? I mean, Matthew Quigley is a big guy. And when he gets to the town does he unsaddle that poor horse and rub him down and walk him cool and get him food and water? No, apparently he leaves him to fend for himself in a gulley while he walks into town.

But ogling Tom Selleck is still definitely worth the price of the DVD!

Today's questions are: Am I un-dizzy enough to be able to drive to the store? And what's my next knitting project? And what am I going to get with the $50 Amazon gift certificate my brother gave me? :)