Hornswaggler | The culture, the humor, a bit of the sports, not so much the politics, and the workplace distraction
Hornswaggle is an alternate spelling of
hornswoggle, an archaic word that means to bamboozle or hoodwink. I take my
pronunciation from the late Harvey Korman in "Blazing Saddles" --
"I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers,
bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits,
vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers,
buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train
robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers and Methodists!"
Here's a good "Shouts and Murmurs" entry from last month by Noah Baumbach. It takes just a little while to get going, but it's pretty funny.
I've seen just two Baumbach movies: "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," which he co-wrote with Wes Anderson, was a letdown, but the fault there is mostly Anderson's; but I enjoyed "The Squid and the Whale." It was funny but also had some emotional substance to it.
Speaking of Anderson, his fans break down into two camps, split on the question of whether "Rushmore" or "The Royal Tenenbaums" is his best movie. (Those who would choose "Bottle Rocket" don't have a leg to stand on, in my opinion, and though I haven't seen all of "The Darjeeling Limited," it didn't exactly generate a chorus of acclaim.) I am firmly in the "Royal Tenenbaums" camp. The debate over that subject deserves its own post at some point in the future.
