They could also use different colored lights to pull you over - like happy green and yellow instead of harsh red and blue. That way you could sit proudly in your car and wave to people passing by because everyone else would know you were being stopped for awesome driving instead of bad driving.

This would change the way everyone drives. You wouldn’t be as apprehensive when a cop is following behind you and people would go out of their way to drive nice.

Yeah, if I was mayor I would definitely do this…

Its that last one that was quite funny tonight. She asked me to tell her the story of the 3 little pigs. So I did my best to recreate that timeless masterpiece and I think I could have won a voice over Academy Award (if there is such a thing) for my portrayal of the Big Bad Wolf. I might have gone a little over the top on the I’ll huff and puff bit but she didn’t care.

So after I’m done she wants to tell me a story. Here is Mia’s story.

“Once upon a time, upon a long time ago there was Scooby, Daphne, Fred….(big pause as she remembers the other sleuthing members) Velma, and Shaggy. And they were at the beach. And they saw a pirate ship. And Daphne was gone! She was stuck on the pirate ship! Help me! They flew to the ship and then they saw pirates! And Daphne kicked down the door and she huffed and puffed and blew the pirate ship away. The end.”

I love the thought of Daphne playing the part first of Chuck Norris and demolishing a door and then sucking in a huge breath to blow that ship away.

#10 Gremlins (1984)

This was most likely my first and most traumatizing movie theater experience. My unsuspecting parents were fooled by the PG rating and images of a cute, cuddly ‘mogwai’ - they weren’t alone. As a five year-old, my wife endured weeks of sleepless nights following her first encounter with the malevolent gremlin. It’s almost common knowledge that Howie Mandel provided the voice of Mogwai, but you may be surprised to know that Steven Spielberg funded the project. It’s interesting that Spielberg would direct Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom later that same year. Faced with the dreaded R rating, he lobbied the MPAA for a rating somewhere in between and the rest is, as they say, history…a middle-of-the-road rating, PG-13.

#9 Die Hard (1988)

It is easy to forget that this movie takes place during the Christmas season. Die Hard is considered by many to be the blueprint for the modern day action movie and is credited for establishing the ‘action star’ archetype (fallible, witty one-liners, all round tough guy). The Nakatomi building is actually 20th Century Fox’s headquarters. Believe it or not they charged themselves rent in addition to damages done to the sidewalk guardrail by the LAPD armored personnel carrier. Die Hard was renamed Big Building Fight in Tailand and A Hard Nut to Crack in Russia…doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?

#8 The Santa Clause (1994)

Aside from being my daughters favorite Christmas movie, I remain fascinated with the story’s concept for obviously different reasons. I had never contemplated the possibility of Santa being killed let alone the replacement process that would be required. If assuming the role involves nothing more than ‘wearing the suit’ shouldn’t we take another look at the recruitment process? Released in 1994, the Santa Clause grossed $144 million in the United States alone. Did you know that Chevy Chase was originally cast as Scott Calvin, but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts? Looks like the conflict was Cops and Robbersons…ugh, enough said.

#7 Home Alone (1990)

On a personal note I saw this movie with my family when it first opened in 1990. The very next morning we saw my mom off to the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Storm. The concept for this movie originated the year before during a scene in Uncle Buck where Macaulay Culkin interrogates a would-be babysitter through a letterbox. Writer/director John Hughes wrote the story with Culkin as the lead, but tested over a hundred other young actors just to confirm his first choice. Robert De Niro turned down the role of Harry who would be immortalized by the great Joe Pesci.

#6 Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

This classic has a total of four remakes and is probably why it’s easy to forget that the original was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1947 (lost to Gentleman’s Agreement). Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck insisted the movie be released in May to capitalize on greater ticket sales in the spring and summer. Consequently, the studio took great pains to promote the movie while keeping the fact it was about Christmas a secret. Talk about a sign of the times! How successful would that strategy be in 2007?

#5 Little House on the Prairie ‘Christmas at Plum Creek’ (1974)

This epitomizes the true heart and spirit of Christmas. Each member of the Ingalls family must make real sacrifices in order to make their first Christmas in Walnut Grove the best they have ever had. How prone I am to blurring and often times redefining the true meaning of Christmas by not being familiar with true sacrifice. The last ten minutes of this episode are particularly moving, especially for a parent. I am amazed by the unconditional love of a child for their mother/father. What a greater reminder of Christ’s unconditional love and sacrifice for His Father!

#4 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

(Cue collective groaning). No, this did not make my Top 3, but it was extremely close. I am hard pressed to come up with a more quotable movie and Chevy Chase is at his finest. Assistant director Frank Capra III is the grandson of Frank Capra, the acclaimed director of It’s a Wonderful Life. Remember the scene where Clark saws of the newel post? This is a direct reference to the newel post that was loose in It’s a Wonderful Life. Todd and Margo’s house (Griswold’s persnickety neighbors) was Murtaugh’s house in the Lethal Weapon movies.

#3 A Christmas Carol (1984)

There have been so many adaptations to the Dickens classic that I should probably use George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge to clarify. I tend to cringe when I see Scrooge in nothing but a nightgown, slippers, and cap as such attire has a tendency to punctuate vulnerability, almost infant-like. Scott brings an edge of meanness to his interpretation of Scrooge that is accentuated by his dress-slacks, dress-shirt, vest, and smoking jacket. I like to juxtapose the plight of Ebenezer Scrooge to that of George Bailey. Here we have a man who thinks he’s gained everything just to realize he has nothing. George Bailey on the other hand, loses everything just to realize he had everything all along.

#2 A Christmas Story (1983)

I borrow from British critic, Derek Malcom here by defining a great movie as one I could not bear the thought of never seeing again. Imagine if you will, a Christmas season without Ralphie and his official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and a ‘thing’ that tells time. My father purchased a Red Ryder air rifle for my brother and I in much the same tradition that is captured here. I can still hear my mother screaming from the top of the stairs one Saturday morning, voice so shrill a bucket of water would have gone unnoticed by comparison. I remember being yanked out of the house and thrust to the back yard in pajamas and bed-head with my stoic neighbor, Art standing by. You see it was great sport for us to crouch behind the deck with rifle in hand and snipe unsuspecting birds and squirrels, parents none the wiser. Our untrained eye caused more than a few stray bee bees to riddle the back of Art’s camper – we blamed it on someone else of course.

#1 It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

What can I say other than I am a complete sap each and every time I watch this. One of the main reasons I think this movie is timeless is that George Bailey epitomized every man. Who hasn’t at one time thought to himself, ‘I’m shakin’ the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I’m gonna see the world.’ We all have an intense desire to make a mark in this life, albeit that desire is often times misguided. ‘What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.’ Such a valuable lesson to learn that God’s plan for our lives is perfect, beyond even our greatest imaginations.

Concerning the recent debacle about Southwestern Seminary offering a homemaking course, the website The View From Her had some interesting things to say. (I found this particular post from my friend Becky Vartabedian on her blog Flip the Pig.)

I think a lot of people have offered knee-jerk reactions to this story. The author of The View From Her is very concerned that this kind of course encourages women to not pursue other academic areas of study and yet if the author would have done a little more research she would have found out that homemaking is only a concentration of a larger Bachelor’s degree in humanities. Only 21 hours of 129 are devoted to the concentration. The other 108 hours are in those other more intellectually stimulating categories like history, philosophy and theology.

The author says “It is so singularly focused on keeping women in their place.” The homemaking course is not about keeping women “in their place” but about broadening their curriculum, bringing in more prospective students and responding to consumer demand. This may come as a shock to some - but there are women out there who actually just want to be housewives. Why shouldn’t these women have the opportunity to take classes that relate and will improve them in the areas in which they spend the majority of their lives? Furthermore if the Seminary had an agenda of keeping women in the home why do they offer multiple masters degrees in areas of missions, teaching and other things which take women from the home? In a recent news release the seminary responded to the question: “Do you believe all women should stay at home and take care of their children?” They were quoted as saying “We believe, as Baptists, that every person is free to do anything they want to do.”

The other item that the author rails on is the fact that the seminary is out to define the “role” of women while completely ignoring the man. That argument is a bit absurd and is like saying the reason the Iraq war is wrong is because we’ve been ignoring North Korea.

The only thing I can really see being concerned with is the fact that the course is only open to women. Why shouldn’t a man be able to take interior design and cooking classes? While this isn’t a big deal, I would assume the reasoning here is one based more on logistics and comfort of the majority of the class who most likely would be women.

I think this is another case of the media and other people making a mountain out of a molehill. We shouldn’t be so quick to make judgments, be offended, and whip out our favorite proof-texts.

And speaking of my favorite Peanut Butter candies - how in the world did PB Max not make it? With commercials like this they should be in every convenience store in America and have several sub-brands right now. Man I miss that candy bar.

So I would like to share with you this summer’s favorite shot. It was taken in Winter Park, Colorado just behind the condo we were staying in. I don’t know a lot about composition, but I’m told this photo has it good…or something like that.

Enjoy the stylized versions and check back in a few months after my next 1000 or so to find another good one. (if you click on them - they’ll get bigger!)