Monday, February 02, 2009

Groundhog Day

Okay, so I have been reminded that it is Groundhog Day. And that reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day, which is a favorite movie of several family members. I like the movie just fine, but it isn't my favorite.

It isn't even my favorite story with this theme. Being a fan of sci fi, I had seen other time loop stories before Groundhog Day. Here is a Wikipedia article about time loop stories. I don't think that I have seen all of them. I may have to track down some of them.

The first movie I remember seeing was a made for TV movie based on Richard A. Lupoff's 12:01 PM. I haven't read the short story, but it was about a guy who kept having to relive the same hour, and there was nothing he could do about it, and he seemed to be the only one aware of the problem. The 12:01 movie made the story into a romance where Jonathan Silverman keeps reliving the same day, during which he has to both figure out how to get things back to normal and keep Helen Slater from being killed.

The short-lived series Daybreak was about a cop who keeps reliving the same day, during which he has to solve murders and hope that if he can set everything right that things will go back to normal.

Stargate's "Window of Opportunity" has Jack and Teal'c reliving the same day, but the rest of the Stargate team doesn't notice. They have to explain the problem to Sam and Daniel, watch the two of them try to figure out how to fix things, memorize what gets done, and then explain that step to Sam and Daniel so that they can figure out the next thing, which they then also have to memorize. In the middle of this they decide to take a break and do pleasant things like play golf. Among Stargate fans, this is one of the favorite episodes.


In real life, this is the fourteenth day of my trying to do the dollar a day thing. Tomorrow I plan to take a break from it to do the free Grand Slam thing at Denny's. I figure that "free" breakfast will cost us about seven dollars for drinks and a tip, which is about half what I plan to spend on grocery stuff for the rest of the week.


Sunday I ate:
.36 chili dog
.20 yogurt
.17 mac and cheese with free turkey
free cookie
.05 handful of chips
____________________
.78 daily total for Sunday

3 comments:

dmarks said...

I also remember the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" time-loop episode with Kelsey Grammer as a starship captain. That one had a pretty good novel written as a sequel to it. The novel was very much involved with the Federation version of the coast guard. It might have been by Diane Duane, but I am not sure now.

Actually, I'm not sure the book was a sequel. With time loops, sequence is never quite certain, is it.

I've seen "Groundhog Day" once and liked it. Mrs. Dmarks has not, and wants to because she has heard it is good. We're disappointed that we can't find it on anywhere lately

The time-jumping in the current season of "Lost" is worth an aside mention, as is the situation in "Time Traveler's Wife", even though those are not really loops.

Enjoy Denny's. Even at $6 or $7, it is still a big savings over a typical meal out.

dmarks said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dmarks said...

(oops. comment windows were popping in wrong order. I posted the wrong comment here. It is now deleted, but is perhaps in your email notification for the blog where it sits not making sense at all. Sorry about that.)