The 2005 movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with Vince Vaughn. Although it suffers from hero-gun-syndrome (like in the old Westerns where the hero could shoot villains with a revolver from 300ft while riding a horse, but the whole hapless collection of bad guys could only hit objects near the hero, or, if they were lucky, graze or wing the hero), it is a cute movie with some nice snippets of dialogue, and there seems to be some chemistry between Mr. and Mrs. Pitt.

For a wickedly popular sequel, the producers need to throw a bunch a money to Jennifer Aniston to play a character hunting down the Smiths with the support of Vince's character. The backstory would have the Jennifer character having some previous romantic history with the Brad character.

My father, Harry Edward Ashton, passed away this last week, and on this blog I wanted to note that our family was very proud of Dad's professional accomplishments. These included the ASTM William T. Pearce Award in 1983, an ASTM Award of Merit in 1978, and the ASTM W. T. Cavanaugh Memorial Award in 1994. Dad's many technical papers, writing as HE Ashton, are still referenced on the Internet to this day.

Thanks to all who have sent us condolences and given us support - very much appreciated and a great help to us.

The Dixie Chicks sales slump of their latest CD has been blamed on reaction to anti-Bush comments. However expect to also see a slump in Canada, which is hardly pro-Bush country. The reason is because the CD is annoyingly bland, and the few bright spots, such as the title track Take the Wrong Way, and another track, Not Ready to Make Nice Music, have a heard-it-all-before feel.

Sarah Dunant is said to have edited two books of essays. Since there are few writers of her skill, it would be best to leave this editing work to others. If the film business ever goes with 3D films en masse, as James Cameron has suggested, the Birth of Venus would be pure wonder in that format. Okay, we are never going to get that, but instead just a whole bunch of 3D Zombies and a whole slew of 3D remakes, but one can still dream in Florence colour.