dottie collins, professional baseball player

Dottie Collins, an ace pitcher in women's professional baseball in the 1940s, died this week at the age of 84.

Collins played a major role in preserving the history of the women's professional game. Her work led to a permanent exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, which in turn inspired Penny Marshall to make the movie "A League of Their Own". Collins had said, "The movie is second place so far as we are concerned. Being accepted by Cooperstown was the greatest thing that happened to any of us."

Pitching for six seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, created in 1943 to provide home front entertainment while many major leaguers were off to war, Collins dazzled opposing batters.

She pitched underhand, sidearm and overhand; she threw curveballs, fastballs and changeups; and in the summer of 1948, she pitched until she was four months pregnant. She won more than 20 games in each of her first four seasons. She threw 17 shutouts and had a league-leading 293 strikeouts in 1945 for the Fort Wayne Daisies, when the women's game resembled fast-pitch softball.

But Collins's greatest contribution to women's baseball may have come when its ball clubs had long been forgotten.

The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., had been considering an exhibition on women and baseball during the mid-1980s, but, as Ted Spencer, its chief curator, recalled in an interview, it had little material to display until Collins approached him.

"When I connected with Dottie, the ball started to roll," Spencer said. "If it wasn't for her, I don't know where it would have gone."

In 1987, Collins helped form an association of former players in the All-American league. She drew on her contacts to provide the Hall of Fame with memorabilia from the league, spurring creation of its Women in Baseball exhibit in 1988. Now an enlarged, permanent collection, the exhibit inspired the 1992 Hollywood movie "A League of Their Own," a reprise of women’s pro baseball during World War II.

New York Times obit here.

deadlines of all sorts

The MLB trade deadline is today at 4:00, and few Red Sox fans think Manny Ramirez will be in a Sox uniform tomorrow. I'm sad and pissed off about this, and the Sox being mired in a losing skid doesn't help.

Normally Allan would spend today glued to his computer, but we've had plans to get out of the house and I'm hoping to keep them.

I'm determined to give myself one day off each week - one day neither writing nor day-job. I may not be able to do this in September as my deadline approaches, but for now it's still possible. Last week my day off was spent doing household chores and reading in the backyard, not something I want to make a habit. And in keeping with my goal of a hike in a park once a month, an outing today would sneak July in under the wire.

But will Allan leave the house? I'm offering to bring a laptop and find an internet connection in the afternoon. We shall see.

If you're interested in the roller-coaster-soap-opera of Manny and the Sox, by all means visit Joy of Sox. I'm all talked out about it, and will resist explaining things in comments.

the blood on their hands

Many wmtc readers sent me stories about the death of former Army medic Joseph Dwyer. Dwyer is the man pictured in this famous photo, which mainstream news outlets used as a symbol of heroism during the invasion of Iraq.

From Greg Mitchell and AP:

Last week, Dwyer called a local taxi service to take him to the hospital after an apparent overdose, Capt. Floyd Thomas of the Pinehurst Police Department told the Fayetteville Observer. When the driver arrived, Dwyer said he couldn't get to the door, according to a police report.

Police kicked in the door at Dwyer's request, and he was taken by ambulance to a Pinehurst hospital. Thomas said bottles of prescription pills were found near Dwyer when police arrived. The former medic died later the night of June 28, according to authorities.

Dwyer served with the 3rd Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of Fort Stewart, Ga. He earned the Combat Medical Badge and other military awards.

His mother said the military could have done more to help with post-traumatic stress. "He just couldn't get over the war," Maureen Dwyer said. "He just couldn't do it. Just wasn't Joseph. Joseph never came home."

His wife, Matina, said: "He was just never the same when he came back, because of all the things he saw. ... He tried to seek treatment, but it didn't work."

She told a reporter that she hoped that her husband's death would bring more attention to PTSD issues.

Last week, I was watching a baseball game between the Red Sox and the Yankees. Like many games between these historic arch-rivals, this one was televised nationally in the US, as well as many parts of Canada. It was July 4th weekend, and the players were wearing special star-spangled uniforms and caps. The game-worn gear would later be auctioned off, a fundraiser for a Major League Baseball program called "Welcome Home Veterans". The auction is one of many similar gestures being held at ballparks around the US on July 4 and again on September 11.

The goal of Welcome Back Veterans - which MLB calls an "apolitical initiative" (oh yeah? then why will it be held on September 11th?) - is to help returning veterans make a successful transition back to civilian life. It will raise awareness of PTSD, as well as the alarming rates of unemployment, homelessness, substance abuse and violence among veterans as compared with the general population.

I felt so angry and heartsick when I heard this, I could barely watch the rest of the game.

The war criminals who created this war live in the greatest comfort money can buy. They spend billions upon billions of taxpayers' money to secure the massive profits of a few corporations. They create lies and propaganda to induce people to carry out their cause.

And the government that they've hijacked won't even squeeze out enough money to offer the victims of that war proper treatment and a decent life when they return. It's left to private foundations and charitable organizations to pick up the pieces.

It's sickening.

Those of us of a certain age remember a famous bumpersticker slogan, imagining a time when the Pentagon would need a bake sale to raise money. (It was old even when I saw it.)

And here we are in the 21st Century, and we're holding a fucking televised bake sale to care for our walking wounded.

i tried to watch some advertising and a baseball game broke out

You may recall how much I resent advertising swallowing up our entire landscape, exemplified by how difficult it has become to enjoy a baseball game in between ads.

I may have neglected to mention (on anywhere but our Red Sox "gamethread") a recent development in the decline of civilization. During Blue Jays games, Rogers SportsNet is now squeezing in ads in between pitches. Pitch is thrown, ad opens, ad closes, next pitch is thrown.

Do you hear me? Are you getting this? They are showing ads IN BETWEEN PITCHES!!!

And yet, to my amazement, James sent me one that might actually be worse.

Anyone who watches even a bit of TV has had the teeth-grinding experience of ads (usually for other shows on the same channel) being shown at the bottom of the screen. These in-show ads have become larger and more intrusive, with more moving animation, often blocking the show you are watching. Now it gets even better. And by better, I mean worse.

Click and watch. The original post James sent is here: a site over-run by ads.

And from Allan:

In advertising these days, the brass ring goes to those who can measure everything — how many people see a particular advertisement, when they see it, who they are. All of that is easy on the Internet, and getting easier in television and print.

Billboards are a different story. For the most part, they are still a relic of old-world media, and the best guesses about viewership numbers come from foot traffic counts or highway reports, neither of which guarantees that the people passing by were really looking at the billboard, or that they were the ones sought out.

Now, some entrepreneurs have introduced technology to solve that problem. They are equipping billboards with tiny cameras that gather details about passers-by — their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. These details are transmitted to a central database.

Behind the technology are small start-ups that say they are not storing actual images of the passers-by, so privacy should not be a concern.

"Privacy should not be a concern." Thanks, advertisers! We trust you to keep us safe!

southern ontario mini-vacation

Friends, baseball (most of it on the winning end), driving, dogs, a waterfront park and a long walk in the woods. Plus decent weather. What more can you ask for from a four-day holiday? We really had a lot of fun.

We spent a lot of time with Gito and Mrtew of Wondrous Canadian Renewal. We've known each other online for years, but this was the first time we met in person. The guys re-arranged their work schedules to hang out with us, and were the most amazing hosts. Seriously, I felt like I was at a bed-and-breakfast, Casa de Gito. We took walks, ate enormous amounts of sushi and other lovely meals that Gito cooked, watched "Corner Gas", went to Point Pelee, endlessly admired their house, and fell in love with Fang and Trouble, their two American Eskimo dogs.

This was also the first time we had heard the whole story of how Gito and Mrtew came to be a newly Canadian, married couple. I knew they had worked hard to be together, thanks to the idiotic, discriminatory US immigration laws. But I never knew just how bad it was, and what they went through. I know it's a story that many same-sex couples relate to, such as our friends Tom and Emilio. Thank goodness for Canada. (And yet another reason we have to make sure Canada stays Canada.)

Gito and Mrtew live in a beautiful neighbourhood in Windsor, much like our old neighbourhood of Port Credit, but without the the tear-downs and the constant construction of McMansions, at least not yet. The area is full of big, mature trees and lovely old 1950s homes, and is very near the river, the way Port Credit is on the lake.

The nicest thing about Windsor was the magnificent riverfront park. It runs for miles, with walking and bike paths, beautiful landscaping and a large sculpture garden. People fish off the railing; apparently on weekends the path is packed with fisherpeople. You can see the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline, which is impressive and beautiful.

We drove through some old neighbourhoods with gorgeous old homes, laughed at the ugly new faux estates, and saw the downtown.

The best part of Windsor was actually our friends' home. They are designers and photographers, and their home looks like something out of an interior design magazine. I often look at 1960s and 70s retro furniture and wonder how people make it work in real life. Now I know.

Their house is filled with crazy rotary phones, model cars (and trucks, airplanes, starships, construction equipment...), and retro technology like calculators and electric razors displayed the way we less imaginative folks put pottery or glassware on a shelf. It's playful and fun and amazing.

It's also a warm home filled with the love of two adorable dogs, two birds, a tankful of tropical fish and two very happy people.

* * * *

We saw three games in Detroit's Comerica Park. Although I wish the Tigers still played in beautiful, historic Tiger Stadium, Comerica is a lovely, downtown ballpark, beautifully done.

In my travels, I've learned that every trip has a regret: something you dreamed of seeing that is closed for renovation, or the ferry has stopped running for the winter, or you realize it's a three-day journey and you only have one day left. Even short road baseball road trips have a regret.

For the second game, we got to the park early to watch the Red Sox take batting practice. Our ace closer, Jonathan Papelbon, was standing right in front of us, holding court for another of our pitchers (who we also love) Hideki Okajima, and another man, possibly Jeemer's translator.

Drawing diagrams with his toe in the warning-track dirt, Papelbon was earnestly passing along some intricate knowledge. Although we're not sure of what - possibly gambling. We were close enough to have heard every word, but the new ballparks all have music blasting during batting practice - goddess forbid we could just enjoy the quiet sounds of baseball - so we only caught a word or two. Okajima was signing baseballs, especially for (apparently) Japanese fans who had come to see him. Another pitcher, David Aarsdma, was also signing autographs.

The regret? We didn't bring our camera that day.

The Red Sox won the first two games. In the third, the Tigers took a lead, the Red Sox came back to tie it, but Detroit won in the bottom of the 9th. The Sox won the fourth game (we were already home for that one), but seeing two wins in three games is terrific.

And for the first game, we hung out with my blog-friend Nigel Patel. I thought we were just meeting before the game for a quick chat, but Nige scored a ticket and managed to sit with us. Much fun!

* * * *

Yesterday, the last day of the trip, we drove in two cars out to Point Pelee National Park. With Pelee Island, in Lake Erie, this is the southernmost point in Canada, the same longitude as Rome and Barcelona. Point Pelee is full of wetlands, so it's a haven for many species of birds. We happen to be there during a bird festival, so the park was full of birders sporting binoculars, guides and all manner of equipment.

We walked on a long boardwalk out onto the marshlands...

...then took a shuttle tram down to the point...

...and walked back up along a beach trail.

The point, a sand spit, sometimes extends for a mile or more into Lake Erie. This time it was completely under water.

The trail is full of cacti. Cactus, in Canada!

I had hoped to also visit Pelee Island Winery, but it turned out that's an all-day project. The ferry is 90 minutes each way, and runs infrequently. We'll do it on another visit.

Our new friends.

More photos here.

baseball road trip

We are off to Detroit, to see the Red Sox play the Tigers for three games.

We've been to Tiger Stadium, Detroit's beautiful, historic ballpark, which now sits dormant, but not to Detroit's new downtown park. Comerica makes ballpark number 21 for us together, and 22 for me.

While in the neighbourhood, we'll meet up with my long-time blog-friend Nigel Patel, who lives in the Detroit area. "Nige" and I have been reading each other's blogs a long time. I'm excited to meet him!

We'll also meet and spend time with our even longer-time blog-friends Wondrous Canadian Renewal. Gito and Juan have generously invited us to stay with them in Windsor, Ontario, just over the river from Detroit. Before we return on Thursday, we hope to visit Point Pelee National Park and Pelee Island, the southernmost point in Canada, and where my favourite Ontario wine comes from.

Have a great week, and I will try to check in when I can.

day game

Today is my favourite baseball game of the regular season.

Every year on the third Monday of April, on the Massachusetts holiday of Patriots' Day, the Red Sox play a game at 11:00 in the morning, which is also the day the Boston Marathon is run. Patriots' Day commemorates the famous ride of Paul Revere through the streets of Boston ("one if by land, two if by sea"), and the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War.

The Red Sox have played a home game on this day every year since 1959, and the start of the game (if not postponed for bad weather) is timed so that the game ends just as the Marathon is heading through the city of Boston.

Today is the 112th running of the Boston Marathon. I take a special interest in the Boston race, as I usually know someone running in the wheelchair division. One of my favourite athletes, who I have written about many times, is Jean Driscoll, who has won Boston's women's wheelchair division an amazing eight times, seven of those consecutively. My girl today is Cheri Blauwet.

It's game time. Play ball!

the most beautiful jewelry in the world

Today is Opening Day at Fenway Park, and the Boston Red Sox will receive their 2007 championship rings.

I am happy!

happy opening day!

Yes, it's Opening Day, and we're waking up at 5:00 a.m. to make coffee and eat breakfast before the game. Today the Boston Red Sox - that's the World Champion Boston Red Sox - play the Oakland Athletics in Tokyo. The first two games of the season will be played in Japan, then the teams come back to California, finish spring training, and resume the same series in Oakland.

The Red Sox have two Japanese players, one of them very high-profile, so there's some extra appeal for legions of Japanese baseball fans. The Sox played a few exhibition games against Japanese teams this week.

Many Boston-area bars are opening early and serving breakfast. Pretty cool.

I'm happy Opening Day is early this year, because it doesn't coincide with my annual early-April trip to New York and New Jersey. Plus these 6:00 a.m. starts extend movie season by one week. (And we should be glad we're not in Oakland, where hometown fans have a 3:00 a.m. start.)

Play Ball!

a view to the inbox of a female sportswriter, or, why we still need feminism, part two

A Day in the Email Inbox of the Female Sportswriter

Thanks to Redsock.

nova scotia declared part of red sox nation

The 2007 World Series Trophy came to Halifax this week! There are deep regional and cultural connections between New England and the Maritime Provinces, and I thought this tangible evidence was really cool.

The trophy's appearance was the work of the Bluenose Bosox Brotherhood, a Canadian branch of Red Sox Nation diehards who found themselves in the spotlight for a few days.

For Wright — a fan since his father took him to his first game at Fenway Park when he was six — the chance to see, photograph and maybe even hold the trophy is simply too good to pass up.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for any fan of the Red Sox, my goodness," Wright said this week from his Halifax home. "I can't believe they have agreed to do this.

"The Yankees, those bums, would never bring it here."

Wright is a member of the Bluenose BoSox Brotherhood, a collection of more than 100 stats-spouting supporters who lobbied extensively since the team's latest World Series win in October for the trophy to come north.

Apparently not everyone was happy about the arrival of the trophy.

I guess the little guy is a Yankees fan.

sports columnist suggests bloggers should be exterminated. why we should care.

In response to my recent list of some sad US goings-on, my friend Dean G said:

Another item in your list could have been about the increasing cries by (especially young) US right-wingers for people they disagree with or find annoying to be tased. I've heard this sort of thing frequently over the past few years, and people here know full well that tasers are not safe, that they do destroy people. I somehow doubt that even a small segment of the Canadian population regularly calls for people they disagree with to be shot with enough volts to cripple or kill them, yet it's become a familiar cry now in the US.

Dean's comment was on my mind when I read this post in Joy of Sox. [Emphasis mine.]

Philadelphia Daily News sportswriter Bill Conlin believes that Jimmy Rollins was the National League's Most Valuable Player.

Rollins was decidedly not the MVP (as FJM points out), but that's not important.

A Phillies fan who writes the Crashburn Alley blog emailed Conlin and made the case for David Wright of the Mets. Conlin was not very polite in his responses. Indeed, during the discussion, Conlin wrote:

The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler's time on earth – I'm sure he would have eliminated all bloggers. In Colonial times, bloggers were called "Pamphleteers." They hung on street corners handing them out to passersby. Now, they hang out on electronic street corners, hoping somebody mouses on to their pretentious sites. Different medium, same MO.

A commenter asks:

By the way, does Conlin realize that the "Colonial pamphleteers" he's comparing to bloggers were the ones who instigated and led the American Revolution? So he's placing bloggers in the company of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Alexander Hamilton ... and siding with Hitler and King George III.

And while we're chatting about the Third Reich, remember when [New York Yankees announcer] Michael Kay compared the idea of an announcer "jinxing" a no-hitter with the Nazis marching people into ovens?

(Audio? You better believe there's audio.)

[See the Joy of Sox post for relevant links.]

Don't worry that you've never heard of VORP, and don't know an MVP from a BLT. Baseball is not the point here. The point: this is considered acceptable discourse in the sports world.

It might be easy to dismiss this - "it's only sports" - but sports is a dominant element of American culture, and nearly every modern culture. Values seen in sports reflect the values of the larger society. Everyone who complains about high player salaries or steroid use (and I am not among those) should realize that. I would venture that the culture of sport exerts a stronger and more immediate impact on society than any academic or scientific community. You may find that a sad commentary, but it still may be true.

In the sports world - as increasingly in the political realm - it's perfectly acceptable to speak this way. Someone disagrees with you? Hitler would have known what to do with him.

Often when we scrutinize language like this, we are derided with that most hackneyed of accusations: political correctness. But language matters. I'll use the sports columnist Conlin's own extreme analogy. Hitler didn't wake up one day and snuff the life out of millions of human beings. He brought "his willing executioners" in line with his ideas. Ideas expressed through language.

Every action begins with an idea. Ideas are communicated through language. Language leads to action.

Or it can. Usually there is not an immediate cause-and-effect. More often language creates conditions that make action possible. Why else do militaries dehumanize their enemies? Why call the Iraqis "sand niggers", why call the Vietnamese "gooks"? Because those words help create the necessary conditions that enable soldiers to kill. Because how we speak influences how we feel. Because if we acknowledge the common humanity in all of us, it is more difficult to have enemies. And if we deny that humanity, step by step, word by word, we arrive at Abu Ghraib, My Lai, Wounded Knee, Katyn, Darfur.

Opportunities for that acknowledgement - and that denial - are with us every day. And the consequences of denying each other's humanity are vast, and very grim. A sports columnist who implies that people who disagree with him should be exterminated walks a dangerous road. But he's got a lot of company.

it was...

...INEVITABLE!

Congratulations to the 2007 Boston Red Sox. Congratulations to US!!!

God I love this team.

toronto-area question

I do have more interesting things to post, but they will have to wait awhile. For now, a question.

Does anyone know of a large, international newsstand in Toronto, where you can get newspapers from all over the world? With such an international populace, I think one must exist.

In the old, pre-internet days, when the Red Sox were in the playoffs, Allan used to trek to Hotalings, then still near Times Square, to pick up the Boston Globe. The internet turned Hotalings into an anachronism; it closed its retail doors in 1999. (Which makes me question my assumption that such a place exists in Toronto...)

But even now, with access to everything online, my partner the historian (and packrat) would like to get the Boston newspapers when they win this year's World Series.

WHICH THEY ARE ONE WIN AWAY FROM DOING!!!!

Oh, am I shouting? Excuse me.

Does anyone know where one can find a large assortment of out-of-town, physical newspapers in the Toronto area?

joy of sox is blog of note

Joy of Sox, written by my esteemed partner Allan Wood, is the first blog listed in Blogger's Blogs of Note.

This is huge publicity for a blogger. You can see the listing on your Blogger dashboard, or here.

Allan just came upstairs to tell me. Let's just say my reaction would be bleeped on American TV. Family-friendly version: wow.

Not bad for the first game of the World Series, eh?

sox vs rocks

The World Series starts today! We're pretty much freaking out.

There's a Canadian angle to this one: Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis hails from BC. (He's also on my girls' team.)

This story in the Star says Francis is "in awe" of the Series opener at Boston's Fenway Park. That's good, Jeff. Be in awe. I remember when the Padres were in awe of my 1998 Yankees. It didn't go so well for them.

boston red sox win 2007 american league pennant

Down three games to one? No problem!

It looks like you all will have a few more posts to skip, because the Boston Red Sox are going to the World Series!

What a night, what a week, what a team.

I can't say it was "incredible," because I believed it with all my heart, every pitch, every game, every moment of this great season.

To the naysayers out there, to the gloom-and-doomers, to everyone scared of the supposedly mighty Yankees who chased us all year, to those who said Allan and I would create bad karma by being too happy, to the fans who believe in ghosts and goblins and curses, I would like to say:

I TOLD YOU SO

I've been waiting to do that for months!

I got a congratulatory email from M@ this morning, and friend of wmtc M Yass showed up in our game thread last night, so maybe some of you have caught the fever, or at least a sneeze.

The World Series starts Wednesday. It's Mason's nightmare: his Rox vs his Sox.

bruce vs baseball

We're seeing Springsteen tonight!

As I've mentioned, I swore off arena concerts a long time ago, but for Bruce, the E Street Band and this brilliant new album, I'm thrilled to make an exception.

Tonight is also Game 3 of the American League Championship Series; Boston and Cleveland are tied at one game apiece. We're taping the game; when we get home from the show, we'll go straight to bed - no internet!

Then tomorrow morning - Allan's birthday - we'll wake up, get our coffee and tea, and watch the game. Game 4 is also tomorrow night, so it will be a double-header for us.

So, first bruuuuuuce, then yooooook.

red socks vs racist logos

Tonight the Boston Red Sox begin the American League Championship Series. The victor of this seven-game series - in traditional baseball parlance - wins the pennant, and the right to go to the World Series.

The Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks, two recent expansion teams, began the National League Championship Series last night. The Red Sox will face Cleveland.

I call the team "Cleveland", because I object to using the name of an ethnic group - in this case "Indians" - as a team nickname. There are several other similarly offensive team names in the US - such as Braves and Redskins - but every one of them denotes Native Americans.

The current justification for these names is that they honour native peoples. Which is just a modern way of saying: shut up and go away.

As offensive as all these names are, only the Cleveland baseball team uses a hideous racial caricature as their logo. No other ethnic group is "honoured" in this way.

But what if they were? Do you think we'd see any objections?

Cleveland management claims the team's name and logo is a tribute to the first Native American to play in the Majors. Is that true? Read and learn.

Here's another question. If the logo is an honour, why, at Major League Baseball's inaugural Civil Rights Game, did the Cleveland players wear caps with only the letter C?

wmtc movie season is officially open

The Red Sox won the Division Series (the first round of playoffs), completing the three-game sweep with a thrubbing of the Team Formerly Known As Anaheim in their own corporate ballpark.

We were hoping for sweeps in every division series, which would have been a first, but Cleveland fell down on the job, and the Yankees won a game. We won't know who we play in the League Championship until that series ends.

This means, among other things, that I have a lot of free evenings coming up, so it seemed like a good time to re-join Zip.

I had some problems with them a while back (follow-up here, then improvement here), but I've decided to rejoin. No other option gives me such a huge selection. Throw in convenience and value, and I'm pretty much stuck with them.

Since my main problem with Zip was the order in which they shipped my movies, I'll tweak the system a bit to make it work for me.

With Netflix (pre-Canada), our movie queue represented every movie we might ever wish to see - Laura and Allan's movie universe. I didn't keep a movie list anymore: whenever I heard of a movie that sounded interesting, or thought of an old movie I wanted to see again, I would just throw it on the queue.

With Zip, since they were unable to get their priority-order system working, I'll have to keep our ZipList short and sweet. If it only contains my top 10 titles, then any movie they send will be high priority. And perhaps they've improved while I've been watching baseball. It could happen.

So that brings me to The List.

Back in July, I said:

This reminds me that I have not seen a single movie since Opening Day. Not one. We used to watch movies on off nights, or when there's a day game, or sometimes when our team is on the west coast. But now when there's no game, we just want to hang out in our backyard.

And, since I expect the Red Sox to play in (and win) the World Series, I won't see a movie til November.

I never even finished my movie list from the 2006 baseball season. I might have to give up on the list altogether.

This turned out to be true straight through October. Not one movie. Can you imagine how far behind I am on movie viewing? I guess I'm fortunate that the majority of movies don't interest me. But still. It's ridiculous.

So... what have you seen in the past six months that's been particularly memorable?

To give you an idea of what movies I like, I'll share my current short ZipList, which I reconstructed this morning. These are movies that were on my to-see list before baseball season started.
Sicko - yes, I never saw Sicko, but I will soon
Volver
Away From Her
The Queen
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Notes on a Scandal
The Simpsons Movie (just added that)
The Son (Le Fils)
Little Miss Sunshine
Flirting
The Hoax
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen
The History Boys
Brick
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)

We like good dramas, political movies, solid independent films with good writing and great acting, paranoid thrillers, noir, cons, smart comedies, and the occaisional dumb comedy but it had better be really funny. We see everything by Almodóvar, John Sayles and Ken Loach. I like movies with strong, convincing teenage characters, like Thirteen and Show Me Love.

No science fiction, no movies primarily seen for special effects, car chases or explosions. No giant armies running across sweeping plains holding up weapons and shouting. Coming of age, coming out, coming apart: good. Grossing out, catch phrases, celebrity vehicles: bad.

I just flipped through some of my old Netflix queues, and picked out some favourites from past years:
Bad Education
Vera Drake
Control Room
Super Size Me
The Station Agent
The Fog of War
The Triplets of Belleville
My Life Without Me
28 Days Later
L.I.E.
Spellbound (the spelling bee movie, although I love the Hitchcock classic, too)
The Dancer Upstairs
Hidden Agenda
8 Mile
Lumumba
Talk to Her
25th Hour
Y Tu Mama Tambien
American Movie
Our Song

OK, your go. What really good movies have you seen in the last six months? And, part two, what movies have you seen that you think I might like?