Dan Ward's Day Off

I stayed home from school today, 'cause I was feeling sick. But first I got the kids off to school, 'cause they were feeling better. And once they were gone, I took a nap, then watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

What a great movie, and not just because of that snazzy sweater vest Ferris wears. It's a real touchstone film for my generation, and I think we all wanted to be Ferris (at least, I did). It was a perfect thing to watch on a stay-home-from-school sort of day.

I got a real kick out of seeing Ben Stein describe his scene (love those DVD extra's!) - apparently it was all improv'd, he'd never acted before, and to this day, he thinks his lecture about... anyone? anyone? the Depression... is actually interesting. He also commented that when he dies, the commentators won't talk about his 30 books or going to Yale Law, or writing a column for the WS Journal. Nope - they'll just say "Beuller... Beuller..." and that's alright with him.

It was a lot of fun to watch it again, both for the parts I remembered and the parts I'd forgotten. Of course, I would have much rather gone out to a fancy restaurant, caught a ball at a baseball game, looked at priceless works of art and then hopped up onto a parade float and sang some crazy songs, but unlike Ferris, I really was sick today.