Enotes

Tom Cruise has certainly tried many milieus as an actor. He's done romance, suspense, comedy-drama, avant garde, you name it. Now Cruise, 49, is in yet another "Mission: Impossible" movie, this one called "Ghost Protocol." I got to thinking about Cruise's career as I've been seeing trailers for his latest "M:I" movie pass through my TV. The action/adventure genre---and that's certainly what the "Mission" movies are categorized---would seem to infer that the star doesn't have to do much acting. Indeed, in so many of them, that's been the case. It's tempting, to me, to suggest that the acting talents of Tom Cruise are wasted when it comes to the "Mission" films. Cruise was never better than he was in "A Few Good Men" and the iconic "Jerry Maguire"---that I think will elicit very little argument. But in the "Mission" movies, there's an increasing amount of jumping and free-falli...

Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner has battled Democrats and those within his own party. He's seen the worst of legislative gridlock, just like all his colleagues. He is no stranger to tumult. But Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) hasn't likely ever come up against a group like the one he's mixing it up with now. Women. Sensenbrenner has succeeded in offending women of all shapes and sizes---especially those who aren't runway model, thin as a rail types---in his comments about the, um, "posterior" of Michelle Obama. Yes, First Lady Michelle Obama. Sensenbrenner, it seems, is offended that Mrs. Obama has a healthy food agenda for America's children. He looks at the First Lady as government personified---big government, specifically. So Sensenbrenner did the very short-sighted, small-thinking thing and tried to use Mrs. Obama's own posterior against her. "She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself," Sensenbrenner was overhead sa...

Towne Club pop isn't dead. Those rumors are greatly exaggerated. Well, maybe not greatly exaggerated; it's not exactly on every shelf around town. Or should I have spelled it, towne ? But Towne Club, that distinctly Detroit soft drink, can still be accessed. Our daughter spotted some at Produce Palace, on Dequindre in Warren. The bottles aren't the same, bullet thin sized as before. They're 16 oz. now. But it's still Towne Club. If you're under 30 years of age, you might want to click away. For Towne Club was a staple in the late-1960s, early-to-mid-1970s. It worked like this. You bought the pop, in its multitude of varieties, by the case. You could mix and match. The main bottling and distribution center was located on Ryan Road near 1o Mile, if memory serves. The cases would be purchased and there was a deposit on the case itself---which at the time was a HEAVY wooden thing. Then you'd bring the empty bottles and the case back, and repeat the process all o...

The National Transportation Safety Board has spoken, and there are two ways that you can look at it. First, here's what they said, according to a story in today's Free Press : "The National Transportation Safety Board says distracted driving has claimed too many lives and made a sweeping recommendation today calling on states to ban the use of portable electronic devices for everyone behind the wheel – even if they have a hands-free device." In other words, no talking on a cell phone, period. Even if both hands are on the steering wheel. As promised, here are the two ways to look at this recommendation---which is all it really is, because the states pretty much write their own traffic laws. First, seems that we all got along just fine for decades without talking to people on phones inside our cars. It's not so much that we have to talk---but that we can. So, we do. Second, I think the NTSB should extend their recommendation to other distractions that I have see...

I'm certainly not what you would call the most religious person in the world, though I do proclaim myself to be a Catholic---just not a card-carrying one. I also don't consider myself a prude, though I like to think that I know right from wrong. But one thing that gets stuck in my craw is the uneasiness I feel when couples get married in less-than-regal venues. You've read and seen the stories. Scuba enthusiasts getting married underwater, etc. Now comes the very-21st century story of Oklahoma couple Eva McCarthy Capparello and Carmine Capparello . The two met online in 2008 (very 21st century, as I said), and grew to know each other over cups of coffee at Starbucks (EXTREMELY 21st century). That's fine, and cute and endearing. Why does this kind of scene make me frown? But they decided to tie the knot at, you guessed it, the local Starbucks. Why does this bother me so? I suppose it's my maybe-stuffy belief that marriage is sacrosanct and should be entered into acco...

I can save myself a bunch of typing today and just send you over to the Detroit News' Laura Berman's wonderful column about the bull-in-a-china shop mayor of Troy, but sometimes you just want to take your crack at something, even if, in this case, Berman knocked it out of the park. Berman's piece should be a must-read. She perfectly captures the clumsiness of the "honorable" Janice Daniels, Troy's new mayor, whose off-the-cuff Facebook post in June about gay marriage in New York came back to bite her in the tush. By now you're likely up to speed on this, but here goes anyway. Daniels, in June, voiced her displeasure over the new gay marriage law in New York state with this pithy comment on her Facebook page: "I think I'm going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there." The incendiary remark occurred before Daniels was elected mayor, which happened just weeks ago. And she initially tried to use that...