The Revenant (2015)

IMDB

The Revenant (2015): One note survival tale. Live action "Oh, No! Mr Bill!" Oscar for Leo DiCaprio for wheezing and grunting. Great look. B-

Brooklyn (2015)

IMDB

Brooklyn (2015): Irish girl emigrates to Brooklyn in 1950s but home still tugs. Simple, sweet love story. Enchanting look and feel. B-

The Double-Edged Blade of Magnet Schools

The big news out of the May 31 school board meeting was that the Richardson ISD decided to build two new elementary schools in Lake Highlands, one at Walnut Hill Rd and White Rock Trail and another to serve the area bounded by I-635, Abrams Rd and Royal Ln.

But something else was in the announcement, the ninth of nine bulleted action items, that deserves more attention than it will probably get: "Expand Northlake Elementary to include magnet programming if evaluation determines demand exists."

OTBR: A Free, Self-Service Guesthouse in Estonia

Latitude: N 59° 05.892
Longitude: E 025° 32.268

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

POTD: Shave and Haircut, Two Rupees

From 2016 02 09 Jaipur

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Rajasthan, India, where sidewalk barbers are common. Sometimes the barber sets up literally on the sidewalk, sometimes (like in this instance) his barbershop is open to the sidewalk. I don't know the standard rate for a shave in India (I had my own Mach 3 razor along), but I know it's not two rupees (worth about three cents). The equivalent of two bits, like the jingle says, is probably a better budget guideline for travelers.