Mark of Fridays: Lucky rabbit's foot

The five-month Mark

Mark Hanley, at five months

The measurements: I weigh about 17 pounds, but I carry it well. I'm short.
Best friends: Everyone is my best friend! What's not to like? I'm cute. I smile. I wave my arms. I even fart! I like everyone! (Incidentally, it was fun to have my cousin, Kalli, hang out with me. I hope she visits again!)
Enemies: I wouldn't go so far as enemies, but I am a little tired of this winter business. Snow, cold, ice, blah, blah, blah. I'm always bundled up and they won't let me play in the backyard. What day does winter end?
Just found out about: Rolling from my back to my front. Secretly, I'm pretty sure I've been able to do it for a while, but I didn't want to show off. I mean, what's the big deal? There's no gold medals for rolling over.
I'm not so sure about: Crawling. I think I'll go straight to standing up. I'm already better at holding myself up on my legs than I am at scooting. Crawling is sooo 2009.
Favorite activities: I'm starting to like laughing, but it is tricky. Sometimes Mommy (did I mention she's great, by the way?) will tickle my sides and I'll try to laugh, but it comes out as a cough. Then, she'll tickle my armpits and I'll smile, but instead of laughing I'll say "hep hep." There's just too much to coordinate.
I have a crush on: My feet. Everything about them is fantastic. They smell funny. Great. They taste funny. Great. Sometimes they're wearing costumes that I can pull off and put in my mouth. Great. If you haven't already, you should go get some feet. Mine came with my legs.
Major accomplishments: Ate banana baby food! Rolled and rolled. Experimented with laughter.

Mark of Fridays: Mr. Big Eyes

Why's everybody always lookin' at me?

Mark of Fridays: What was he thinking?

Following the success of Choose Your Own Caption, we now present: What is Mark thinking?

Go to the comments section under this picture and submit your best 5-month-old inner monologue. What was going through Mark's mind when we snapped this photo?

(Type your comment in the big box, click "name" to add your name, then publish!)

Mark of Fridays: Bath time!

After a good scrub, it's important to make time for a post-bath wrap-up.

Election Night update

Since he was snubbed in the Academy Award nominations, and since it's late on Election Day/Night, Matt thought he'd take a moment to remember his one-in-one encounter with Alexi Giannoulias, now the Democratic nominee for Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat.

About four years ago, Giannoulias - then a candidate for treasurer - called a press conference with State Sen. Linda Holmes in Aurora. It was about gas prices or something. Matt has already forgotten because...it didn't make much sense at the time. (In fact, the more questions Matt asked, the less sense it made. )

Anyhow, Matt showed up at the "press conference." Just Matt. Well, Matt and the photographer who snapped this picture off Matt dutifully scribbling notes at the "press conference" where reporters were outnumbered by speakers. As the photographer said: It's a lonely job but somebody has to do it. She could have also noted: It's a lonely job, but we still have to fill the paper.

Even though Matt was alone, Holmes and Giannoulias still set up a podium (although if you look closely it's just a cardboard box), still spoke from prepared notes and still thanked everyone for coming. Not "Matt." Everyone.

Still, the true highlight was the location. The pols picked an abandoned lot across the street from a gas station, again, so they could highlight whatever they wanted to say about gas or gas prices or gas fumes. Well, it turns out this "press conference" was on private property. And the property owner - who ran the ice cream shop next door - wasn't notified of the big press gathering.

So, he chased all three of us off the lot. And so the "press conference" ended, not with a bang, but with a whimper.

The best four seconds of a movie, ever, Part III

Recognize anybody now? Yep, that's Matt in his starring role as Man Waiting For Train in Public Enemies (also featuring Johnny Depp). Matt is the guy in brown jacket, brown hat, holding a suitcase. Not the lady.
If you are so inclined to rent the movie (we don't recommended it), you can see Matt at the 43-minute-58-second mark. After Melvin Purvis/Christian Bale hangs up the phone with J. Edgar Hoover/Billy Crudup, the next shot is of a training pulling in. Matt is waiting for that train, as seen above.
Don't blink! You did? Aww, you already missed it.
Matt is technically on the screen until 44 minutes, 2 seconds, although at no point do you see him any better than the image above. Pretty exciting, isn't it? Well worth 20 hours of walking back and forth in the cold.
And it seems that Lynne was right: she did see Matt. It's not that Matt didn't believe that Lynne believed she saw him....

But watching his scene, Matt did catch a blooper. In the below shot, on the right, you can see the very modern silver wheelchair loading equipment that was stowed behind a pole. In fact, that equipment was the reason Matt was sure he wouldn't be in the film. He figured there was no way they'd leave such an anachronism in the movie.
Take that, director Michael Mann! Bet you never counted on someone playing the movie back and forth at one-eighth speed in an innocuous scene! You are so busted!