The Captain America movie is set to start filming in July, and if reports are to be believed the role still has yet to be cast. It is a tricky role to fill. Cap has to be played by someone fairly young because there will be several more movies with him in the future. ( Including at least one Avengers movie.) Cap also has to have a certain "look", build, and be able to lead men like Tony stark (Robert Downet Jr.,) and Bruce Banner (Edward Norton). This makes casting a younger actor difficult. I have seen several list of ideas on who it should be and think most of them are jokes. Brad Pitt, Arron Eckhart, and Nathan Fillion are too old. Chase Crawford, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Micheal Vogel do not have the right "look". Others do not have the acting chops to pull off such a huge roll.

This movie is important to me because Captain America was my first hero. My Uncles had collected comic books as kids. My grandmother kept them and as a kid i would read them. captain America was always my favorite. And now, in my mid thirties, he is finally coming to the big screen. I cannot wait. And so it better be played by some one who can do it justice.

Here are four people I think MIGHT be able to handle the role... none are perfect, but some are close.

1. Sam Worthington. He was in Prison Break and in Terminator salvation. It was in Terminator that I think he showed he could play Captain America. He would need to bulk up a little and practice smiling. (Does he ever smile?)

2.Patrick Flueger. He was in the 4400. He is young and really needs to add some weight. However he did a decent job of acting and seems to have the right look.'

3. Chris Carmack. granted he has been in nothing that you have seen. (Into the Blue 2, a few episodes of smallville and Higglytown heroes.) However he is the right size, has the look, and can act...maybe. ok it is a stretch I know....

4. Jensen Ackles. Supernatural and smallville. He can act, has the look, and could easily bulk up enough for the part. And I know what most of you are thinking. the guy is like 5'8" in platform shoes. Actually he is 6'1". He only look so short because his co-star is the jolly green giant. ( jared paladecki is 6'5".)

So their are my submission. If I had to list them in order of favorite to least favorite it would be Ackles, Worthington, Flueger, and Carmack. I admit it is very very close between the first two. Flueger is a bit of stretch but I think he would do a good job, I just do not know for sure. Carmack is a much bigger stretch.

So who do you like for the role of Captain America?

It has become painfully obvious that too many people are taking some hard drugs way too often. Want proof... Keep reading.

Are you on drugs?

: John Kragisnskiorother better known as Jim from The Office is trying out for the lead role in an upcoming movie. Guess which one? It seems that john k and his agent think he would be the perfect man to take on the role of Captain America. Read that again..outloud. Jim from the Offfice wants to be Captain America. Look, I like Jim. In fact outside of Dwight, I find him to be the funniest thing about the Office. BUT, and it is a big but, a baby got back type of BUT, he is no where close to being the right guy to play Captain America. Now maybe he could play the sidekick Bucky. Or maybe he could be Captain America before he took the super solider serum. but not Captain America. Not ever. No.

He is definately on drugs.
: I make no bones about this, this one is personal. I cannot stand the guy. His voice makes my skin crawl and my temperature to skyrocket. Given ten minutes in his prescence I would spend the first 6 beating him and the last four gloating about it. Who makes such a terrible response in me? It is the Dyson guy. I assume his name is Dyson. But when ever he comes on talking about his vacuum this what I hear. "I am amazed that no one else is as brillant as me. Why no one noticed what my insight and intelligence picked up on right away is beyond me. My vaccums are pure genius, as am I." If this guy ever reinvents the toilet, we are all in for some terrible commercials.

I hope he is on drugs
: Al Gore. As I write this the Northeast is getting hammered by the third major BLIZZARD in the last month. Florida is once again getting to enjoy freezing weather, and just last week it was snowing in Texas. I know we all got a little chuckle when he hinted that he invented the internet. And I know most of us have forgotten how he wanted the presidential votes counted again, and again, and again, until the numbers added up in his favor. But really, what else does this man have to say before we realize that he is enjoying some really good 'shrooms on a regular basis. Can you imagine a better way to come up with all of the nutty things Al Gore has then tripping on mushrooms and going with what ever it put into your head. Hey it worked well for the Native Americans right?... Oh wait....

They wish they were on drugs
: Apparently after winning the gold medal for women's hockey the Canadian women stayed on the ice after the game. They weren't alone. No, they had their good friends BEER and CIGARS. Now most consider it tasteless to celebrate in front of your vanquished foe. I can give the Canadians a pass on that though. But it is universally considered poor manners to celebrate in front of a vanquished for while swilling beer and blowing smoke rings in their direction. It is even worse when some of the beer guzzling, cigar smoking women are not old enough to drink....even in Canada. On top of all of this I have one question. What kind of woman drinks beer and smokes cigars after a big win? Are they lumber jacks moonlighting as hockey players? Do these women shave their beards and let their legs go all naturale? It just seems a little classless, tasteless, and far far beneath an Olympic gold medal winning team. And i doubt they can blame drugs for their poor decision.

He may need some drugs
: The Dutch coach who misdirected a long distance skater into the wrong lane..... causing him to be disqualified and lose the gold. The mistake by the coach is monumental. It was in the 10000 meter race. In case you missed it, that is a lot of zeros in that number. If I had skated 10000 meters in a record time, only to be disqualified for following my coaches orders, the coach would need witness protection. Of course if i skated for 10000 meters, there would need to be some serious investigating done because I cannot ice skate for 10 meters without crashing into something...usually the ice. I do feel for the coach. He messed up. A blunder. And he will no doubt be forever linked to that one mistake. No one will remember that the guy he was coaching actually skated to a new Olympic and world record. that he won with ease. No, all we will remeber is the one mistake he made. I am glad my life isn't that public. (All right, truthfully, a month from now most of us will not be able to remember any signifigant details from this incident. We will be lucky to remember that their was an ice skating event that covered 10000 meters.) So it could have been worse. The guy could have been Al Gore.

The University of Mississippi is changng their mascot. Several years ago they did away with Colonel Reb, a Colonel Sanders look alike. The leading candidate for his replacement? General Akbar. Now some of you may not be enlightened enough to know who General Akbar is. He is the squid looking alien that leads the rebel (get it REBELS) alliance against the empire in the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back. He is best known for his bugged eyes and his line in the movie.." It's a trap". For the dignity of college football, I hope that George Lucas tells Ole miss that it will cost a zillion dollars everytime they use Akbar's image. (You know he is getting royalties from Verizion for the "DROID" phone, Right?)

Shamoo attacks. Ok so it wasn't really shamoo, but one of the killer whales at Sea World killed it's trainer. That is pretty horrible. But the fact that it happened in front of an audience makes it nightmarish. can you imagine taking a school group to Sea World for an educational field trip only to see a man flung around like a rag doll by shamoo? The news media is making this out to be a horror story. What did they expect? Hey, let's pen up a huge carnivore that likes to eat meat that looks like a seal, put a human trainer out there in a black wetsuit (just guess what that looks like?), rub fish smell all over the guy and see what happens. Oh! Color me surprised.

I would also like to point out that all of those claiming damage at seeing this.... how many of them have seen all the SAW movies? Or the Hills have Eyes? With the ridiculous amount of gore and violence on the T.V. and movies, I find it hard to believe that most watching this weren't somewhat fascinated by it. I bet some were videoing the whole thing.

Definition of Pathetic: A male russin figure skater..... I could stop there but i won't.... A male russian figure skater who in a tempertantrum over not winning gold at the olympics awards himself a platinum medal on his website. Of course now he is claiming that he didn't do that, that someone else must have. Yeah right

My wife and son are in Cali for a funeral. I am stuck here... alone. the house is silent and really very boring. There was no one to pick on, no one to tuck in, no one to read too, and no one to talk too. BORING!

So most of the kids at the school are going to see the FC musical tomorrow. It is The Scarlett Pimpernel. This is a conversation that results from that.

"Coach, What is the Scarlet pimpernel?"
"It is like a french version of Zorro"
"Oh O.K. What is Zorro?"
"Fine. It is a antique french version of BATMAN. A dandy fop during the day, a daring crime fighter at night."
"THE FRENCH INVENTED BATMAN?"
"GO run laps"

I think we need a culture class for most of todays students. The history of our icons, a history of rock and roll music...including it's roots in jazz and blues. We could trace the lineage of Superman thought the ages, look at the many reincarnations of batman, discuss how they relate to historical epics like Bewoulf and the Iliad. Then we could look at classic films. I could keep going but you get the picture. it depresses me to hear students talking about great music and mention Parimore, Jonas Brothers, and whoever else is the flavor of the month. It's like saying Bert and ernie were the greatest actors of the 70's and 80's.

I am done rambling. good night.

SO the other night my stomach was upset. This is nothing new. It happens reguarly and the Docs say I can expect it to happen for the next two or so years. (Let's hope they are over shooting that to be on the safe side.)

Anyways, I was tucking Con into bed, getting ready to read him his night time story when a huge, deep, bellowing belch surprised me and escaped unfettered. Now I am not always so crass as to belch likethat, but I will admit I kind of chuckled. But have no fear, Andrea immediately chastised me. As she was getting on to me for my rude behavior my son, the litte trouble maker, decided to imitate me. So he makes a low growling, burpy noise and continues it for several seconds. The look on AJ's face said it all.

I burst out laughing. I couldn't help it. Unfortunately for me this only encouraged my little belching sidekick to do it again. and again. and again. Needless to say it was hard gettingthrough his bed time story.

Moral of the story. If you are going to do something rude and socially unacceptable in front of your sone.... make sure your wife is in the other room. That way when he later tries to duplicate your gross sounds you can innocently say "OH I wonder where he picked that up from"

My untrained observations thus far... please share your own.....

UPDATE!!!
Ok someone explain this. the georgian figure skater..Allison Reed, is actually an American citizen ... but is skating for the Georgian Olympic team. But that is not the weird part... her older brother and sister are figure skaters for Japan. Allison lives here in the U.S. I assume her sister and brother do too. So how does this work? I know about dual citizenship, but when you live in the USA, skate for Georgia, and then have siblings on the japanese team... yeah I am confused.

Shaun White was a man among boys. He is not someone I admire, nor is he someone I would want Connor to look up to, but there is no doubt he is the best snowboarder in the world at this time. Watching him in the half-pipe was awe inspiring.

I could easily go the rest of my life without ever seeing or hearing about jonny weir(d) again.

Women's hockey is a two team contest. It isn't very pretty.

Speaking of pretty.... the Russian woman's curling team is not hard to watch. At all. The fact I can not understand anything they say doesn't inhibit my viewing pleasure in the least. I am a big fan.

Apollo Ohno needs to be sponsored by Gillette. And then shave that hamster on his chin.

Linsey Vonn is insanely fast. Breath taking, gut wrenching 90 miles an hour on thin strips of wood (fiberglass?) fast. I do not care for downhill skiing events, but WOW she is a rocket.

Luge seems boring to me. I do not mean this to be insensitive at all, it just hard to see the skill level from one luger to the next.

And finally.....

I love watching the best in world compete. I love watching the different flags rise, the different national anthems play, and the tears in the eyes of the gold medalist as the moment washes over them. It is completely different than watching pro sports. The passion is at a different level. As I grow older, and just possibley a little more mature, I appreciate all of the athletes more, and hurt when they fail dramatically. They carry the weight of a country on their shoulders. How can you not root for someone willing to bear that load?

An update. My latest "check-up" showed no tumors, no polyps, no cancer. So all is good. granted, fasting for a 36 hours and the prep is unpleasant, but worth knowing I am still kicking cancer in the teeth.