It’s spring, but the wrong kind. More April in Bergen than Paris.

The weekend was nice. The weekend was great. As I drove around, spending too much money on stuff I’d put off buying for too long, I actually had to roll my car window down a little, to cool off. It got up to about 70° (that’s about 20° for you Celsius types).

But yesterday and today have been cool and overcast, with some rain. “Cool” in this case means temps in the 40s, which would have seemed tropical a couple weeks back. So I’m being unreasonable. I admit it freely.

My motives, however, are honorable. I want to go out and take my evening walks. And in my present health condition, still dragging the corpse of the flu around behind me, I refuse to tempt fate by walking in a chill breeze. Especially if it’s drizzling.

And I’ve come to the conclusion that working out on my ski machine in the basement actually causes me to get sick. Maybe there’s mold in the air down there.

Or maybe I’m just sick of the ski machine.

In any case, I watch for the sun as the watchman on the city wall waits for the dawn.

I’m sure that’s a biblical citation, but I can’t find it in my Cruden’s.

I bet I could find it if the sun was shining.

The guys at Rotten Tomatoes got to see 30 minutes of Pixar’s new summer movie, Wall-E, and talk to the director afterward.

What kind of reaction were you getting because in the first 30 minutes there was no dialogue in the film?

Andrew Stanton: First of all, I think that that’s a misnomer. There is dialog all through it. All I am saying is that they are not necessarily saying words in a language that you know. What I wanted was integrity. It all comes down to just as much as I believe that Luxo is a lamp and that it has a life in it and it thinks like a lamp and acts like a lamp and I don’t have to be told that, it doesn’t have to be spelled out to me, I just get it right away, I wanted the same thing with the robots.

I’d like a diagram of that last sentence, please.

Charlton Heston’s great ordeal ended on Saturday. Our condolences to family and friends. There must be some relief in the knowledge that he’s found rest at last, and there’s no shame in that. They’ve had plenty of time to say goodbye. Now is the time to commemorate an admirable life and a body of work that will live as long as our civilization is remembered.

Alas, I’ll never get the chance to see him play Sigfod Oski in the film version of Wolf Time, as I once dreamed.

“The Ten Commandments” was the first movie I ever saw in a theater (our family had seen “Around the World in Eighty Days” a while before that, but in a drive-in). My folks had to warn Moloch and me not to tell Grandma Walker we’d gone, because she didn’t approve of movies. Biblical movies didn’t make it any better—rather worse; they were a kind of blasphemy.

My major memories of that experience were the quality of the music (I’d never heard anything like it before), and the shots of the red clouds on Mount Sinai.

Later, my mom took Moloch and me (and maybe Baal, I’m not sure) to see “Ben Hur.” So I think I can say I saw both movies in their first runs. In actual theaters.

One of my favorite novelists, Stephen Hunter (who’s also film critic for The Washington Post) wrote an appreciation (hat tip: Powerline). I have to say I have a higher opinion of Heston’s movies, particularly of “The Ten Commandments” than he does.

I’m not one of those who watch TTC every year when they broadcast it on TV, but I did watch it again a couple years back. I recognized a certain stilted, pageant-like quality in the production, but I was also impressed with the way the screenplay (and Heston’s performance) delivered a faith lesson through Moses’ story. First you have the hot-shot young prince who thinks he can change the world with a single, dramatic action. When this fails, and he becomes a refugee, he thinks he’s learned his lesson. A small life and small goals are plenty for him now.

Then the burning bush appears, and he’s faced with the challenge of doing God’s work in God’s way. We feel his fear, his self-doubt and see how much hard work faith is. The powerful way Moses comes through in the end, looking just like Michelangelo’s sculpture (minus the horns) doesn’t diminish the fact that he’s earned his confidence through a series of very hard lessons.

I think it goes without saying that there’s no actor out there today the least bit like Charlton Heston. If they had the audacity to remake “Commandments” or “Ben Hur” today, they’d inevitably have to cast someone with a shorter shadow. But then the moviemakers would make the part smaller too. In the 21st Century, we look for heroes who make us feel better by comparison, not heroes who make us want to be greater than we are.

“The Robot Is Going to Lose. Not by much. But when the final score is tallied, flesh and blood is going to beat the damn monster.” – Adam Smith, economist.

I wonder if anyone has told these boys they’re going to lose. I wonder if they are programmed with Asimov’s three laws of robotics. (via Very Short List)

Writer Nancy Johnson says, “Say hello to your local cheesemonger.” She offers a few tips on trying new cheeses, reading about cheese, and even making cheese at home.

Here’s the best advice for storing cheese: don’t. Instead, take home small portions and visit your friend behind the cheese counter more often. If that’s impractical, then remember this: a good cheese is still alive, needs to breathe, and suffers if it loses too much moisture.

In related news, Wallace & Gromit will have a new adventure next fall.

Look at this remarkable bookcase/staircase combo from a London flat.