the groundhog day project

It occurs to me, sitting her with For Your Eyes Only playing once again, that I do not have much else to say about it. I think I've covered whatever my 5-year-old self got out of it. The hidden curriculum of James Bond, anyway. On the surface, I enjoyed it. If, watching this film, you have not seen too many thrillers or spy films just yet (which, me at five--I hadn't seen too many), it's well crafted enough to keep you paying attention. (Though, to be fair, there's no mystery to it, so there's no room for guessing. But anyway, I guess there is just this: Bond could have saved himself a lot of time by not going to Spain at all, just heading straight to Greece, finding the wrecked ship (or finding Havelock's notes without the aid of Melina, then finding the wrecked ship-- or better yet, he could have stayed home while a professional diving team working for MI6 goes to find it --and retrieving the ATAC device, and heading back to London... with maybe one...

It occurred to me watching The Jerk that "jerk" didn't necessarily mean the same thing in 1979 that it does today. Words change, connotation changes. Today, Merriam-Webster defines "jerk" as a: "an annoyingly stupid or foolish person" and b: "an unlivable person; especially : one who is cruel, rude, or small-minded." Anecdotally, I can say most people I know (including movie characters) tend to use "jerk" to indicate that "b" definition. Specifically, I use "jerk" to describe someone who is deliberately or impulsively hurtful. But the Online Etymology Dictionary points out that in 1935, coming from "American English carnival slang, of uncertain origin", "jerk" referred to a "tedious and ineffectual person." This feels more accurate to describing Navin Johnson in The Jerk . He's far from cruel. In fact, he's almost obnoxiously pleasant, like when he gets that first ride hit...