Adventures with Johnny, Part 123

Her time travel experiments now completed, Johnny goes back in time to around 1976, where she visits her Daddy, age six, while visiting at his Great Uncle Fred's house (where he was proud to show off his soda/beer can collection).

Its weird, I don't remember meeting Johnny before January 2006--it must be one of those weird time paradox/"I am my own Grandfather" things.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 122

Johnny accompanies Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a special envoy to the Mid-East.

She believes in what she calls "Diplomacy Through Snacks."

Adventures with Johnny, Part 121

Johnny (flying back on the Red Eye from California) attends President Obama's official nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 120

Johnny is in California, participating in a rally to repeal Prop 8, which the California Supreme Court will rule on today.

68 Years Ago Today...

...Robert Allen Zimmerman was born. ("Bob Dylan" came along about twenty years or so later)

Happy birthday, Bob.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 119

Johnny is in attendance (she's sitting in front of Secretary of State Clinton) for Obama's speech about Gitmo.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 118

Johnny, still taking it easy, plays on the White House lawn with President Obama and First Dog Bo.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 117

Johnny's still getting over her UTI, so she's taking on a relaxed schedule for the next couple of days--her first outing being a quiet lunch at Ray's Hell restaurant with President Obama and Vice President Biden.

She ordered extra fries with her burger.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 116

Johnny won't be adventuring in the next few days; on Thursday afternoon she came down with a nasty UTI infection, so bothersome the poor thing must have asked to go outside about 10 times in just a few hours.

Since our regular vet wasn't available, we took her to the emergency animal hospital, which took care of her well and quickly. She's now on some meds, and we think she's already feeling better.

But for now she's going to take it easy. She's informed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel about her change of schedule.

Adventures with Johnny, Part 115

During a part of the evening not broadcast on television, Johnny entertains President Barack Obama at the Washington Correspondents Dinner.

She's wearing prop glasses because she's in the middle of her "Mitch McConnell Routine."

Giddy

That's what I felt, watching the new Star Trek movie, which I saw last night.

I had great trepidation about it--it was just hard for me to imagine how you could re-cast those roles, and there were so many ways for it to go wrong. I thought casting Simon Pegg as Scotty was genius, but I was still nervous.

But as the film started, I really enjoyed what I was watching. The opening is a real grabber, and sets up the story quickly and deftly.

Then the film gets to a scene where the young James T. Kirk, about 10 or 11 years old, steals a vintage car and takes it for a joyride. When he is pursued by a police officer (on a hoverbike, this is the future, after all), he drives the car right off a cliff, leaping out at the last second.

After crawling back up a ledge, he is approached by the cop, who demands to know his name. The kid, scratched bruised, defiantly yells, "My name is James Tiberius Kirk!"

It was at that moment that I let out a huge laugh--partly because the scene is genuinely funny, but mostly because I felt a sense of relief: the people who made this movie, J.J. Abrams most of all, got these characters, understood what makes them special, and was about to deliver one rollicking, fun Star Trek adventure.

And that they did. At 2 hrs, the film breezes by, full of laughs, adventure, great spectacle, and wonderful characterization. The cast is uniformly great--Chris Pine as Kirk (in a role I thought was un-recastable; I was happily proved wrong), Zachary Quinto as Spock, Pegg as Scotty, and Bruce Greenwood as Captain Pike especially--and it was a delight to see Leonard Nimoy once again as an older Spock.

I guess I could quibble about some stuff: I wish Scotty had come into the film sooner, I felt that the villain, Nero (Eric Bana) needed to be fleshed out a little more. Oh, and I guess this would've made it perfect:

...but that's for the sequel, I guess.


(Note to J.J. Abrams: Johnny expects Pay or Play, plus points off the back end, and a cut of merchandising. Call us, we'll talk)

Adventures with Johnny, Part 113

Johnny testifies before Congress, during a hearing involving something she calls "The Hamster Stimulus Bill."

Adventures with Johnny, Part 112

Johnny stands alongside President Obamaas he and Vice President Biden visit the Supreme Court.

(From left: Obama, Johnny, Justices Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, Souter, and Biden)

Adventures with Johnny, Part 111

Johnny stand alongside Rahm Emmanuel and Robert Gibbs as President Obama talks about the retirement of Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

Johnny, being only 3 and 1/2 years old, is not eligible for the position. Besides, she'd just spend the whole time barking at Scalia and Thomas.