Once again it’s time for some Friday Happy Hour direct from the blogs at Mental Floss:
1. A few weeks ago we talked about rewatchable movies—films you’ll watch again and again on cable or DVD. But what about movies you saw in theaters and couldn’t wait for home video to see again? What movies did you see multiple times in theaters? (Do you remember what made you want to go back?)
The obvious answer for me is each of the Star Wars movies. I’m just a geek that way. But the other one I’ll add in here is Independence Day. It’s just a cheesy fun big summer movie, but for what it was at the time it came out, I couldn’t get enough of it, and going to it became an event for me and the people I hung out with… ended up seeing it 4 times in the theater.
2. One of the first magazines I subscribed to was Nintendo Power. I remember reading a Letter to the Editor about a group of friends so intent on buying the game Ice Hockey, they flew all over North America and spent thousands of dollars trying to locate a copy. (I don’t know how fierce the editors were in verifying claims made in these letters.) No idea what made me think of that this morning. But have you ever gone on an elaborate quest, Harold & Kumar-style, to buy something on a whim? Where did your travels take you?
Just this week in Kansas City… the quest for the Boulevard Chocolate Ale. Who knew that a beer could become the must have item? Checking every store, multiple times, I kept striking out, but now that it’s all said and done I managed to score 4 bottles, including the 4th bottle that I stopped this afternoon to pick up on the way to the airport.
3. We had our first-in-years company retreat last weekend in Durham, North Carolina, on the Duke University campus. While the words “company retreat” conjured up visions of icebreaker activities and trust falls, those exercises were replaced on our agenda with bowling and basketball and discussing what exactly made the hotel coffee so bad. That last one required breakout sessions. Have you ever had to go on a company retreat? How’d that work out?
The best one I can think of is when I was a pastor. The denomination I worked for was pretty conservative and their idea of a fun retreat left a bit to be desired. Branson, Missouri… the place that represents all that is wrong with the world.
4. Every few months we end with the same simple question—what are you currently reading? Do you recommend it?
I’m currently reading Open, Andre Agassi’s autobiography. I’m really fascinated by it. The range of things that can lead to someone’s greatness is really amazing.