Movie Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Today I am going to do a movie review of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The movie is about a British intelligence agent who came out of retirement to help catch a Soviet Spy during the Cold War. I will warn you that there are no dogs in this movie so the humans have to carry the movie on their own. I thought this was a boring movie. George Smiley (played by Gary Oldman) mainly stood around looking out the window or sitting around smoking cigarettes. It would have been a great ad for a cigarette company if they had George occasionally tell the audience which brand he was smoking and how much he liked them. I'm sure this is probably a more realistic portrayal of what it is like to be a spy than most movies involving James Bond. I have often made fun of Bond jumping from rooftop to rooftop without ever as much as yelling in pain---which does not seem at all realistic. However, by the time this movie was over, I was hoping that someone would do some rooftop jumping just to put a little life into the movie. I'm guessing that the next movie this director plans to do involves showing a realistic factory assembly line so that he can capitalize on boring jobs. I give this movie 1 paw up which is about a 3 on the human movie scale of 1 being bad, and 10 being excellent. To be fair, I am not a big fan of spy movies so if you like most spy movies, you may like it better than I did. Personally, I would have been happier staying home and watching Snow Dogs--the greatest movie ever made!

Demon Flash Bandit (Movie Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

I Would Prefer Guests Not Be Alligators or Snakes

Because I am a sled dog, I love a lot of snow during the winter. As I have mentioned in past entries, my human Mommy does not share that love of snow and winter. In fact, I have overheard her talking about moving to Florida so that she won't have to deal with snow and ice in the future. Of course, I have been doing everything I can to persuade her to quit thinking about moving. I think things are wonderful here in Michigan, and the only move that should even be considered would be to an even colder place--like Alaska. Today I found a news article from Florida that I had to make sure Mommy would see. I think this news item might make snow look a lot better to her.

The story is from Palmetto, Florida. Alexis Dunbar returned to her home to find an alligator occupying the guest bedroom. It is assumed that the alligator crawled into the house from the pond in the back yard and entered the house through the doggy door. I think the alligator did show that he was very polite because he could have stayed in the master bedroom, but he was polite enough to go to the guest bedroom which tends to be the smaller of the two rooms. Although he was a polite guest, I do understand that I would not want an alligator in my house either. They do have some big teeth, and they might decide to eat the host or the host's dog. I'm hoping that this news article will make Mommy realize that it is better to wake up to snow on the ground outside than to an alligator in your bedroom. Florida also has a lot of poisonous snakes, and if an alligator can get inside your house, it would be even easier for a snake to get in. I think snow will start looking better and better to Mommy, but it is hard to tell. As all us dogs know, humans aren't always as smart or practical as we are.

Demon Flash Bandit (Not a Fan of Alligators and Snakes)

Only Real Enemy: BIRDS!!!

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War in the United States. Of course, tension had been building up for a long time prior to the shots fired at Fort Sumter. The fort had been under siege-like conditions for months prior to the attack. The south wanted to secede from the United States, and the north wanted to keep the union intact. Before the whole thing was over, a lot of people died and many people were wounded. If you ask my opinion, the whole thing was a waste. This is why I think that all warfare should be directed at the real arch enemy of the planet--BIRDS!!! I don't like them, and I think they are only useful as snack food. Once again, they have stolen my snow. Just a few months ago, a dog could go out and enjoy a yard full of lovely, white, cold snow. Now the birds have stolen it yet again and are singing about their triumph as I write this blog. I speak fluent bird, and their main song is "ha ha, I stole the dogs' snow". I can't even go and bite them because my humans (typical of their species) don't appreciate how horrible the birds really are. They think they are cute and sing sweet songs. I only wish the humans could speak bird as I do. Then they would not be fooled by the birds and their songs. However, on the original topic of the anniversary of the Civil War, it is sad when the humans decide to fight each other no matter where they are or what it is about. Maybe one day they will realize that and learn to get along with each other. If a dog and cat can get along, then there is hope for the humans. Demon Flash Bandit (War is Stupid)

Dirt: It Loves Dogs

I was watching a video that was posted by one of my fellow bloggers, Gone to the Snow Dogs, and in this video, the dog, Shelby, had some dirt on her paws and mouth. Of course, the human jumped to the conclusion that Shelby had been a "bad dog". I am here to relate the story from a dog's point of view since I have seen this kind of thing happen many times in my lifetime. The human lets the dog go outside. The dog is innocently walking around the yard, maybe taking care of some kind of important doggy business, and making sure the neighborhood is safe. We dogs are always working at protecting our humans and what do we often get for our efforts? Humans telling us to quit barking is usually the outcome. Yeah, we are protecting them from every possible danger, and all they want is quiet. Don't blame the dog is a butterfly gets into the house and strangles a human in their sleep--we tried to warn them, but they wanted quiet. Anyway, the dog is just walking around the yard minding his or her own business when dirt attacks!!!! Yes, the dirt attacks the dog. The dog has nothing to do with it. It gets in the dog's mouth, it gets on his or her paws, and sometimes it even gets all over the dog's body. We dogs enjoy dirt so we understand that it is just trying to be pals with a dog so we don't want to get the dirt into trouble so we do what the humans ask us to do and keep it quiet. The dirt even jumps out of the Earth causing a hole so it will look like we have been digging. Humans, being of limited intelligence, always believe the dog was involved.

I might add that sometimes a dog does dig because a dog has farming to do. I myself have planted several bones, and when they grow into cows and pigs, there will be some good eating around here. Angel Zoom Smokey has a garden planted with chicken bones because chicken is her favorite food. If Burger King burgers had bones, I would definitely plant some of them. It would be great to go out and harvest my own burgers when I'm hungry.

I hope that other dogs and dirt are not mad at me for telling the true story of what happens when we go outside. I think it is about time it was told.

Demon Flash Bandit (Informer)