Mesmerized

I'm a 32 year old white guy, but my favorite song right now is the "Radio Edit" (by the Freemasons, I believe), of "Mesmerized" by Faith Evans. It has got to be the happiest song I have heard in ages. I was scandalizing North Beach this evening, bopping to my walkman and singing along on my way home from the 'Stro. It always puts a huge smile on my face, even though it reminds me of someone I probably can't ever have (you know who you are -- and, for the record, I'd still go out with you).

Speaking of Mesmerizing people, I have to mention Katherine Hepburn (nice segue, huh?). In medical school, my friends and I decided to watch the AFI's Top 100 movies of all time. We started with "Yankee Doodle Dandee", and then it died. In an effort to remember that I enjoy things other than trying (desperately on occasion) to meet someone, I'm trying to watch them in order, with the exception of the very few (sadly) that I have already seen.

So #99 is "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?", and I loved it. Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier -- how could it be bad? As you may know, the story line is that an African-American man and a white woman decide to get married on the spur of the moment, and the families have to deal. There are a number of great speeches and discussions about racism and love, but my favorite moment (other than the phrase "pigmentation problem") was Katherine Hepburn firing her nosy, bigoted, gallery administrator. I'll recap the speech (full credit to the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner):

Hillary: "Well, I must admit I was intensely curious. I simply couldn't believe it. It's so unlike Joey to do anything so appallingly stupid"...

K.H. : "...Try not to worry about it. Now I have some instructions for you. I want you to go straight back to the gallery. Start your motor. When you get to the gallery, tell Jennifer that she will be looking after things temporarily. She's to give me a ring if there's anything she can't deal with herself.
Then go into the office, and make out a check, for cash, for the sum of $5,000. Then carefully, but carefully, Hillary, remove absolutely everything that might subsequently remind me that you had ever been there, including the yellow thing with the blue bulbs which you have such an affection for. Then take the check for $5,000 dollars, which I feel you deserve. and get, PERMANENTLY, lost.
It's not that I don't want to know you Hillary, although I don't. It's just that I'm afraid that we're not really the sort of people that you can afford to be associated with.
Don't speak, Hillary. Just go."

I can't do the speech justice in text, but DAMN. Despite the hanging prepositions, I hope I have that kind of class if I get to fire someone for being an asshole. Who da woman -- Katherine da woman. And she did win one of her record 4 Best Actress Oscars for this role.

Given the time frame, I finally gave up on the remainder of the previously mentioned political posts. Thanks to the Bush administration, though, there are new ones coming all the time. I'll try to get one or two out while they're still topical.