Where's the Stress in "Couch Potato"?

I've come round the bend and am in the home stretch of the CELTA course. It's been grueling, but it feels amazing to only have one more assignment to write (not due till Tuesday) and one more lesson to plan (to teach on Wednesday). Four more days of class and I'll be certified.

So I've got a day off for the first time in 3 weeks. I've spent it half-sleeping on the sofa, watching old movies on Sky Classic.

I remember watching Fantastic Voyage) as a kid on Saturday afternoon TV matinees, being mesmerized by how cool it'd be getting shrunk down to microscopic size and journeying inside somebody's circulatory system. I didn't realize how totally cheesy it was. There's all this 60s trippy music, and the Proteus traveling through what looked more like a lava lamp than a carotid artery. I dozed off before they fought the white blood cells, lasered the blood clot and escaped via the old man's tear ducts. At least that's how I think it ends ... don't really remember.

But it did remind me of the Monsanto ride at Disneyland in the 70s. Did you ever get to ride that? It was one of my favorites.

I slept through the next film, which I think was a war movie, and woke up to watch Rebel Without a Cause, which I'd never seen all the way through. I seem to recall hubbub aobut the film having a gay subtext. Subtext? Plato's love for Jim was about as subtle as Raquel Welch doing a scientific striptease into a tight-fitting white wetsuit to swim through a river of plasma.

Watching her slowly peel off her lab coat to reveal her curves (I'm sure she'd be considered fat by today's standards) reminded me of my favorite joke of the week ...

Q. What did the zero say to the eight?

A. Nice belt.