Slumdog Squarepants cost about $15 million to produce. In modern movie terms that is the equivalent of building a new Major League Baseball stadium for $1.37. As of Wednesday Slumdog had grossed just under a quarter of a BILLION worldwide - and that doesn't even include the $33.75 which it grossed in Marietta, Ohio yesterday at the 3:50 showing.

Excellent movie. It was not a soppy downer, nor was it 116 minutes of chases and kung fu-lishness which seem to dominate movies these days.

The cast were unknown (in the West) Indian actors, it was directed by a Brit and distributed by Americans. Because it was filmed largely on location in Mumbai there was a minimum of that bobble-headedness which Western actors use to show they are playing Indians from India.

The ending was predictable, but watching how the movie got there was great entertainment. War movies are like that; we know who won World War II. I knew that Apollo 13 had landed safely, but I still got a kick out of watching it happen on-screen.

New Topic

I had dinner with one of my oldest and best friends, Bill White who had a really good idea: Distribute the Federal Government.

We talked about moving the Interior Department to Yellowstone National Park; the Energy Department to Houston; Education to Princeton, New Jersey, and Agriculture to Des Moines.

Let's hear your ideas what Federal agencies we should move out of Washington and to where we should move them.