“The Boys”: Heartwarming, Heartbreaking

The Boys Movie Poster

You know the songs by heart.

“A Spoonful of Sugar”
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”
“The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room”
“Let’s Go Fly A Kite”
“It’s a Small World (After All)”
“You’re Sixteen”
“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”
“I Wan’na Be Like You”

And there are hundreds more, many of which you also know.

But do you know who wrote them? (The answer: Robert and Richard Sherman.)

Even if you know who wrote them – and if you do, consider me impressed – you surely don’t know the story behind the story of this brilliant songwriting team.

Robert’s son Jeff Sherman and Richard’s son Gregg Sherman have teamed up to make The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story, a stunning documentary about their fathers. Any fan of Disney, any fan of music, any fan of the creative process will be grateful for this film.

It’s not always easy to watch, which is evident from the film’s tagline:

Brothers. Partners. Strangers.

You can see a trailer at the film’s website. But better yet, go see the film itself if you have the chance. Disney is releasing it, so we can hope for a DVD soon as well.

I <3 Throwboy

Hope I’m not the only one who thinks these Throwboy pillows are clever as well as cute. In addtition to the “Icon” collection, pictured here, Throwboy offers “Chat” and “RSS” pillows. They’re 100% fleece, polyester filled, and go for $29 each or $149 for the set of six. They seem rather perfect for dorm rooms and office sofas, don’t they?

MSR Flex 4 System Cookset | Uncrate

What a clever idea – a compact cookery set for four that collapses into a tidy, portable pot. This MSR Flex 4 System Cookset makes my minimalist heart very nearly want to go camping, just so I would have a reason to get one.

A Partial List of NFL Sponsors

A quick search of the NFL site and of the web has yielded this list of those having sponsorship deals with the NFL. This is by no means a complete list, nor does it take into account the endorsement deals of individual players or teams.

• Bridgestone
• Coors
• Gatorade
• General Motors
• IHOP
• JC Penney
• Mars Snackfood (Snickers)
• National Guard
• Procter & Gamble (Old Spice, Gillette, Febreze, Head & Shoulders, Prilosec OTC)
• Reebok
• Sprint
• Visa

Sources:

• Ads on the NFL.com site
• http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=8341385&page=1
• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124943033965506247.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/sports/global/10bridgestone.html
• http://www.nfl.com/snickers

Twitter’s @Replies Change, Reconsidered

Until fairly recently, if you followed a Twitter account, you were fed every tweet that account made, whether it was a general/broadcast comment, or a response to another tweet (even if you didn’t follow the other person).

Many of us, especially in the earlier days of our Twitter membership, used this as a way to jump into conversations, and especially as a way to find new people to follow (“If my friend follows/chats with that person, I’ll check her stream and maybe follow her myself.”).

For technical and scalability reasons, Twitter changed that functionality earlier this summer. Now, you only see an account’s @replies if you also follow the person to whom the reply is directed.

Many people – myself included – were unhappy with this change. I felt that it would result in a bit of a Twitter echo-chamber, that I’d miss out on conversations, and that it would be more difficult to find interesting accounts to follow.

But lately I’ve reconsidered my unhappiness, and decided I rather like the new policy.

For one thing, I get many fewer tweets in my stream. I follow a few hundred accounts, which results in thousands of tweets per day, even under the new policy. I don’t get to read them all as it is. I’d get to read far fewer of them  if every tweet every one of my follows made every day was pushed to me.

The other thing, which I’ve grown to appreciate more, is that I can be a bit (only a bit, mind you) more relaxed about replies I make. Before, if I replied to someone, my tweet would go into the stream of the nearly-900 people who follow me, whether it was relevant to them in any way, or not. We’ve all experienced the joy of following someone who turns out to generate loads of trite or irrelevant tweets. They’re usually rewarded with an unf0llow.

Now, though, my replies only get seen by the person to whom they’re directed (if they check their @mentions!), and by anyone else who follows the both of us. The likelihood of my tweets being regarded as irrelevant is therefore greatly minimized.

And guess what: I haven’t had any trouble finding new people to follow. I check out the streams of the people who follow me. I check the streams of the people I follow, and see who they’re interacting with the most. I read “Follow Friday” and other recommendations. And if people want to include me in conversations, they direct a question to me or include my name in their tweet, so I see it in my @mentions.

So, my apologies to Twitter for my original castigation of their @reply policy change. I’ve grown to rather like it.

Your thoughts?

Thank you (really)

The joy of having a mailing list with a few hundred recipients is that when I send out news, I get responses. Sometimes, a few hundred of them. That happened most recently when I sent out my “good news to share” missive explaining that I am cancer-free after my surgery.

The only problem is that responding individually takes time and I ran out of time before we left to take Ben to college last week. So while I’ve now resumed replying to emails (in the order received!), I’m only about halfway through the list at this point.

If you’re one of those whose kindness I’ve not net acknowledged in kind, please accept my apologies for not doing so yet, and know that I will do so soon! And also please know that I appreciate, beyond calculation every word of support and love I’ve received.

Reflecting

It’s been fascinating and heart-warming to engage with so many people in the middle of the year. I’m used to it at holiday time, this sharing of news and good cheer, but not in July-August. I’m actually having trouble keeping up with all the emails.

It’s been fascinating to HAVE to sit back and accept the flood of warm wishes and offers of meals and rides and logistical support. Usually I shy away from this kind of attention and feel undeserving and embarrassed. Those who know me well know I much prefer being backstage to being onstage. But Tom insisted that I let our friends BE our friends, and it’s been wonderful. Everyone seems genuinely happy to be of use, and just having dinners brought to us this past week has been more of a godsend than any of the donors will ever really know.

Having flower arrangements fill the house has not only added life and loveliness to the surroundings… but they are visual representations, not only of their senders, but of all the people who care and want good things for me. Every time I see a bouquet, I’m reminded of the fact that there are people to whom I matter. It’s incredibly gratifying.

I want to hold onto these feelings of mutual love and goodwill for as long as possible.

Good News