• IFC lets us know the top 10 indie films for 2011. Particularly looking forward to the Cronenberg, the Almodovar, and the Alfredson.
• Josh Wilker blends talk of the last Jose Canseco card, “The Twilight Zone” and “Jersey Shore” into a great, morbid greeting for the new year.
• I rail on the stupidity of American moviegoers but French ones ain't all that. In this unscientific poll from Le Monde, French readers chose “Inception” as the best movie of the year, with only one movie, “Des hommes et des dieux” (“Men and Gods”), within 40 percent of the former's total. That's fine. I have no problem with that. But somehow “L'arnacouer,” a lame romantic comedy, wound up with three times as many votes as “Carlos”? Mon dieu!
• My god. How interesting talk shows used to be. This time Dick Cavett talks to, believe it or not, Robert Altman, Mel Brooks, Peter Bogdonavich and Frank Capra. All on the same stage.
• My god. What a good writer Hendrik Hertzberg is. This time he talks up the 111h Congress and talks down the filibuster.
• Another good writer. Roger Ebert's last graph in this “White Material” review is as good as film criticism gets.
• The Land of 10,000 Lakes looks to be in good hands, as new Gov. Mark Dayton allows tea party protesters, railing against “Obamacare,” to have their say at the Capitol.
• Meanwhile, Karl Bremer, of Ripple in Stillwater, does due diligence on one of those protesters, and discovers that the man railing against churches for not providing medical ministrations (forcing the government, his argument goes, to do so unconstitutionally) is in fact a minister ... whose church doesn't provide medical ministrations. But that's just the beginning of the tale.
• The Writers Guild of America announces its 2010 nominees. I've seen all of the originals, only two of the adapted. Not sure what to make of that. According to Nathaniel Rogers over at Film Experience (which finally has its own Web site instead of a mere blogspot), many screenwriters couldn't get nom'ed because they weren't WGA members.
• The Producers Guild of America announces its 2010 nominees. Six documentaries and no “Restrepo.” The world gets dumber by the day.
• Last word goes to Joe Posnanski and his Hall of Fame post: “And Bert Blyleven, finally, made it into the Hall of Fame. This should cut back my writing work load by about 10% in 2011.”
• No, wait. Last word has to go to my last man standing. Apparently Michelle Bachman (R-Mn.) recently told a crowd of well-wishers that she became a Republican after reading a snooty book by Gore Vidal. (“Burr” or “1876,” she's mentioned both.) Salon's Justin Elliott then went in search of Vidal for a response. He finally got one through an assistant: “She is too stupid to deserve an answer.”

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