Rick and I, along with Rebecca (who was visiting from Toledo), went to see Little Miss Sunshine this weekend. Must thank Joe for the hot tip. I haven't laughed such a significant proportion of my arse off in a movie theater since Monty Python films were in their first run. Of course, I'm old enough to have always really, really loved Alan Arkin.

There was a certain omigod-this-is-terrible twinge involved in watching the depiction of a beauty pageant for elementary-schoolers during the same week that the JonBenet Ramsey case resurfaced in the news. Worth putting that aside, though, to experience the sheer joy of over-the-top badness. (The idea of kiddie beauty pageants. Not the movie, which is terrific.) The film did a great job of capturing the embalmed, detergent-hawking grimness of beauty contestants, be they six years old or twenty-two. With one exception, though, and the exception was hellacious.

Oh, and if I were in my teens myself, I'd have a crush on Paul Dano. Besides being an actor, he's a rocker and he's from Connecticut. Keep an eye on this guy.