"A pox on your house."

I heard this expression the other day. It's an old fashioned curse/insult that old prospectors and possibly English lords used to throw at each other. I don't actually know the etymology.

What I do know is that the real, literal definition of what that means is "I hope your family gets sick and dies."

Sometimes being a literal person can be awesome.

Completely extremely no in any way related note: Congrats to Martha and Matt.

TripAgitator

Ok so a little back story: Cass and I are planning a vacation. We are looking at resorts and last minute deals and such. Trying to do due diligence when researching resorts is frustrating and stressful. I hate it. So when something like this rolls along it makes me smile a little.

We use TripAdvisor reviews among other things to try to get a feel for the places we are looking at. A feature I was unaware of allows the hotel staff to respond to the reviews. This almost never occurs, and I was unaware of it until we stumbled across Krystal Cancun. Therein almost every review has a reply from Paris Aguilar, who is apparently the Lobby Manager at this resort. And when I say almost every review I mean even ones where only one sentence is written, like "Enjoyed our stay, food was just ok but the staff was great!" Paris will be there with a followup. She is the Cal Ripken of whatever the hell I'm talking about.

So one reviewer posts a review and at first I am taken aback by how glib it is, because usually when people have a bad experience at these resorts they complain about it for nine paragraphs on these sites. But this one offered almost no detail, except to complain about Paris Aguilar by name.

I have come around to thinking that this is a troll by someone who, like me, happened upon the reviews and decided to mess with Paris Aguilar. And as you can see, it worked. So I'm hoping this is true and if so kudos to CR1412 for irritating a complete stranger so effectively.

I know why the raged bird sings (2011)

I'm late in getting to this but it's time for me to look back and say things I like.

GOOD

Movie: Hugo
I just loved this, and while the 3D helped I can't really call it essential to the film. Just a beautiful movie and the love Scorsese had for what he was doing really showed.
Runner-Up: Attack the Block
I'm seriously so close to flipping these. ATB was just awesome and fun.

Television: Louie
What Louis C.K. is doing with the format and power he was given is seriously incredible. There are episodes that remind you why he's a great comedian and others that remind you he's a great filmmaker. The whole package is only loosely related but it shows tremendous skill.
Runner-Up: Parks and Recreation

Music: The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
I was more surprised by how much I like this album than anything else this year.
Runner-Up: Childish Gambino - Camp

Athlete: Robin van Persie
In all honesty I wasn't a huge fan of RvP up until last year. He was always that talented guy on Arsenal who was hurt too often. This past year was incredible though and even though I'd love for someone else on the team to score regularly it's hard to stop cheering. *note: still not my favorite player on the team
Runner-Up: Aaron Rodgers
It's undeniable that Aaron Rodgers in the calendar year 2011 was really awesome.


BAD

Movie: The Green Hornet
Not terrible, just terribly disappointing. I avoided seeing too many terrible movies this year.
Runner-Up: Horrible Bosses
Aimless.

TV: Whitney
Holy crap. NBC needs to seriously cut their losses and look for ways to just profit off their cult hits/critic's choice programming. Stop trying to appeal to whatever the hell this is aimed at.
Runner-Up: Hater

Music: The Lonely Island - Turtleneck and Chain
Just mediocre overall. Nothing really stood out except for two tracks, and one of those came out several months before the album.
Runner-Up: Jay-Z and Kanye West - Watch the Throne

Athlete: Sepp Blatter
Not actually an athlete but in the world of sport there is no bigger cat party.
Runner-Up: Ndomakung Suh
Special note: I decided to reserve these spots for people who do awful things within their realm of sport. Obviously the Penn State scandal was much worse but it wasn't within the realm of the sport. I have perspective.