This is neither a completely new interpretation of the concept nor a faithful re-make of the original. It’s somewhere in between and ends up being… nothing. So far, anyway.
There are many mistakes that stand out. The one that irritates me the most for some reason is that they explain why Six resigned. In the original, it ended up being quite key that we never knew, precisely because it was irrelevant. (And, of course, asking the question was the obsession of his captors.) The original stayed on target with the theme of a man who maintained his identity (and therefor his freedom) despite his circumstances. It didn’t cloud the issue with irrelevancies, most especially in the early episodes. Why can’t American TV writers resist the urge to tell the audience everything. Less is more, dammit. Besides, in this version just what the heck is it They want from Six?
Well, guess I should have known better than to try calling this in March. ‘Cause here it is less than three months later and JetBlue has already — much to my surprise — been topped. The winner? The Toyota Prius “Harmony” commercial, embedded below. Some of the most amazing and artful visuals ever put to motion pictures! And perfect audio with the Petra Haden version of “Let Your Love Flow”. I Hope my neighbors the Bellamy Brothers got a good deal on the use of their song (they’re from just up the highway, Dade City, FL).
The “Mustang” is a drink I developed in the early nineties in Gainesville, Florida. It was inspired by the fantastic blend of Jack Daniels and Cherry Coke that my college roommate Beth had introduced me to in 1985. I wanted to perfect that, so took it just a little further. The name comes from my love of the Ford Mustang (I drove a black ‘90 GT convertible at the time the drink was conceived). “Southern” was added to the name later, to distinguish it from the unrelated Fiery Blue Mustang.
My comment on this Gainesville Sun column has been deleted. Perhaps I was too explicit… Here it is, for the record:
“As a 42-yr-old who started at UF in 1984, I’m amazed that anyone could doubt the rivalry status of this game! ‘No hate, no history, no rivalry’ my A–! Pat nailed it when he said, ‘definitely blame it on Tennessee’s administration for pushing to strip Florida of its first SEC title following the 1984 season.’ Your sidebar summary of the ‘85 UF-UT game failed to mention how many Tennessee players were carried off the field that day with injuries. That game was perhaps the greatest physical manifestation of hatred ever on a college football field.
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Twice in the Navy, I was promised a trip to Australia. Twice I was sent to the Persian Gulf instead. Now, eighteen years later, justice is finally done. Altiris has sent me to both Sydney and Melbourne, with Auckland, New Zealand, as a bonus.
I was looking through material from one of my old personal Web sites and found my “Information Technology (IT) career tips” that I used to pass around. They were written prior to the Great Bubble Burst of 2001, so their relevance to 2006 was questionable.
See, I was one of those people who benefited from the insane expansion of the ’90’s, returning to school for an EE degree in 1994 and within two years, dropping out of to pursue my fortune. Back then, there was a massive deficiency of qualified people (I recall hearing the number 800,000 from 1998). A degree was a luxury that most IT employers didn’t care about then — all they cared about was experience and attitude (and quite often, experience was optional as well). So with friends all around me going off to work for cool companies like IBM, Netscape, Sun and Novell, I got on the bandwagon and encouraged others to as well.
Since this site is hosted at Auburn, first I need to disclose my status as a Florida Gator. Yes, I attended UF many years ago. I was in the Gator Band in 1984, the year UF actually won their first SEC Championship. Yah, I know all official records of that have been purged. But I was there. I have the license plate, and a friend of mine who played center that year has the ring to prove it.
I don’t hate Auburn. Really. In fact, my wife and I liked Terry Bowden when he was head coach there, and we cheered him on. It’s only Tennessee that we really hate, since they are the ones who, in 1985, petitioned the SEC to retroactively strip us of that ‘84 title. Get over it? Nope, don’t think so… 
