Happy Groundhog Day to you! I hope you are gathered with your family and loved ones to observe this sacred holiday.

In the meantime, “Snide Remarks” is back from Sundance hiatus (yeah … that’s the excuse I’ll use this time) with “The Oaf of Office,” recounting some recent scandals and what to do about them.

Over at Film.com, Eric’s Time Capsule is about “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” this week. Also, I think I forgot to give you the link to “Tremors” from a couple weeks ago.

Remember that you can follow me on Twitter if you like (I’m EricDSnider), and that I won’t be your friend on Facebook unless I actually know you. A guy has to have some standards.

This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.

This week’s devotional reading — that’s what I’m going to call “Snide Remarks” from now on — is entitled “The Book of Highdef,” and it’s about that time when I bought a TV. Fans of creaky, archaic syntax will especially enjoy it!

At Film.com, this week’s edition of Eric’s Time Capsule focuses on “Alive,” the true (cannibalism!) story about the South American (cannibalism!) rugby players who had to eat each other (cannibalism!) after their plane crashed in the Andes Mountains. The movie was released 16 years ago this week. I remember being a freshman in college and seeing commercials on TV in the dorm basement and thinking, “A movie about cannibalism? This I gotta see!” Then for some reason I didn’t actually see it until last week. Apparently the subject matter isn’t as compelling as I thought it was.

This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.

The final “Snide Remarks” of 2008 is, as is customary, a clip show featuring my favorite parts of all of this year’s columns. So put on your reminiscing hat!

Eric’s Time Capsule at Film.com is off this week, but I forgot to tell you about last week’s, which was “Naked Lunch,” so maybe you can read that now if you’re not doing anything else.

Finally, this item at Cinematical — The Worst MPAA Ratings of 2008 — might hold your attention for a few minutes, especially if you often find yourself thinking that a particular R-rated film should have been PG-13, or vice versa. Or maybe you were one of the millions who walked out of “Prince Caspian” thinking, “Holy crap, how did that only get a PG?!” The MPAA ratings board is such a failure that if they were to rate themselves, they’d get an NC-17 for “pervasive failure, and some smoking.”

This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.

Having done a column in July about things we learned at the movies in the first half of 2008, it was only proper that I should do another one now, covering the second half of the year. That is, as you know, how I roll.

Speaking of movies, allow me to draw your attention to an ad that’s been running on this site for something called Cowrite. This is a contest where basically a screenplay is being written by committee: Given a basic premise for a movie, you write what you think should be the first 10 pages of the script, the judges choose the best entry, it gets posted online, and then people can submit the next 10 pages (having read the first 10, of course), and so on, until the story is finished. Each of the biweekly winners gets $3,000 cash and prizes, and theoretically the final product will be shopped around and maybe get made into a movie that I will write a bad review of, because honestly, who ever heard of a screenplay written by 11 people being any good?

But the point is, it sounds like fun if you’re at all serious about getting some screenwriting experience, and it could be lucrative. Personally, coming up with ideas is always the hardest part for me, so having the basics already laid out is appealing to me. So perhaps I shall enter and WIN and then write a good review, at least of the part of the movie that I wrote.

This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.

Portland is experiencing some of its coldest weather EVER, with highs below freezing expected all week. Right this minute it’s 21 degrees, with the wind chill making it feel like 1 degree. Yes, one degree. How many degrees are there today? Just the one. I think we can all agree that this definitively proves that there’s no such thing as global warming.

In merrier news, today’s “Snide Remarks” is about U.S. Postal Service regulations!

And hey, look over here! It’s Eric’s Time Capsule at Film.com, which today addresses “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America,” released 12 years ago this week. The film’s lasting legacy: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ cover of “Love Rollercoaster” on the soundtrack.

This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.

Today’s “Snide Remarks” is “A Message from Claus Inc.,” in which I make the bold comedic choice to pretend Santa Claus is having financial problems! See that cutting edge over there? Yeah, I’m on it.

Meanwhile, Eric’s Time Capsule at Film.com features “1941,” Steven Spielberg’s “disaster” that opened 29 years ago this week. “1941″ is a very noisy movie. I’ll say that much for it.

Also, if you’re on the Twitter, you can follow my updates, if you want. My Twitter name is the same as my real name: EricDSnider. I promise that I will never use Twitter for anything useful. That is my pledge to you.

This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.

Happy Monday to one and all! Or, to those who are on the East Coast and only check this site during work hours, happy Tuesday! (The early part of the day slipped away from me while I was doing Important Things. Sorry.)

This week’s edition of “Snide Remarks” — #600, as it happens — is entitled “The Gay Marriage Column,” and it is fairly self-explanatory.

Elsewhere, this week’s chapter of Eric’s Time Capsule at Film.com addresses “Ragtime,” released 27 years ago this week. Eric’s Time Capsule was on hiatus last week, but the previous week’s entry was on “Jacob’s Ladder,” in case you missed that. As always, comments and “Recommend” clickings at Film.com are most welcome. And take notes, because all of this will be on the midterm.

This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.

I mentioned my grandfather’s death a couple times on the blog last week, but today’s “Snide Remarks,” entitled “I’ll Be Darned,” is officially on the subject. I wrote a funny column when my other grandfather died, and I wouldn’t want ol’ John to feel left out. I just noticed that the columns have a few things in common, too, like mentioning both grandfathers’ work ethics. Which is funny, because that’s probably the only thing the men had in common, apart from one’s son having married the other’s daughter.

This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.

Sure, there’s a new “Snide Remarks” column today, called “Boys Nintendon’t Cry” — but more importantly, the site has had a face-lift! Note how my eyes gaze upon my own name with awe and admiration. Feel free to do likewise!

The main improvement is the front page. It had gotten very cluttered, and it was hard to find things. Now it’s a bit cleaner and simpler. This site has three kinds of content — my weekly “Snide Remarks” column, my movie reviews, and my blog — but some visitors were only aware of one or two of them. On the new front page, whenever I post something new — be it “Snide Remarks,” a movie review, or a blog entry — it will appear at the top of the list, labeled appropriately. Hopefully people who make this site a regular destination will go straight to the front page every time and just see what’s been added most recently.

(Of course, if you use the RSS feeds, you’re not missing anything anyway. But you’d be surprised how many people, according to the survey we did several months ago, didn’t know I had a blog, or didn’t know I wrote a weekly column called “Snide Remarks,” or thought they were the same thing.)

My brother/webmaster Jeff has done all the actual work, as usual. He is to be thanked and lauded! He is also to be e-mailed if you notice anything that has gone amiss in the transition, or any other bugs related to the technical side of the site. There might still be some wrinkles we need to iron out.

Coming soon: the ability to do advanced searches in the movie review archives, an HTML version of my weekly “In the Dark” e-mail, and a button on the site that when you push it a candy bar comes out of your CD drive.

This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.

There’s some political silliness in this week’s “Snide Remarks.”

And speaking of political silliness, below are Sarah Palin’s two “Saturday Night Live” appearances from this weekend, once in the opening sketch and once in “Weekend Update.” The show didn’t really require her to do much (which is smart, since she’s not an actress or a comedian), but what she did do, she did well. Good for her. (The show earned its highest ratings since 1994, so good for “SNL,” too.)

This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.