Director Joe Wright has followed up his hit 2005 film “Pride and Prejudice” with a quietly heartbreaking adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel “Atonement.”

The film features stellar acting by James McAvoy, Keira Knightley and newcomer Saoirse Ronan. Combined with amazing cinematography that captures both the beauty of the English countryside and the grit and destruction of World War II on western Europe, it’s hardly surprising that the won a Golden Globe for the year’s best drama.

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With all this hoopla being made over the important sports match between the Patriots of New England and the Giants of New York, I’ve been thinking about how many damn sports movies there are.

We’ve been privy to movies about mentally challenged people playing sports (“Radio”), dogs playing sports (“Air Bud”), and even Sundance Kids playing sports (“The Natural”). Although their topics may vary, they all share one very crucial element; I hate them all with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.

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Yours truly was at the Drake Hotel in Chicago last week, and not because I decided on a mini-getaway before classes started. I was cordially invited to The Union des Grand Crus de Bordeaux 2005 Vintage Tasting — and let me tell you, it was divine.

After signing in and sticking a daunting name tag onto my cashmere sweater, I, together with my companion, picked up a Riedel glass from a long table and we made our descent into the ballroom.

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Let’s face it, folks--it’s colder than a Yeti’s perineum outside. Any temperature less than the combined score of a pre-Gretzky NHL game is considered bad times in my book.

Some people defend the cold and say that it’s part of what gives Wisconsin its character. Well guess what, kiddo? That toothless guy at the townie bar sipping on his seventh Lucky Lager and mumbling about how he was almost a walk-on for the Badgers during the Carter administration also gives our state character.

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The most difficult review to write is that of something as powerful and sincere as the soundtrack to the new film “Juno.” These songs will turn even the hardest punk into a love struck fool, and they transport the listener to a kinder world of innocent relationships and tender emotions.

An “American Idol” compilation would take all of 10 minutes to trash, but the first 20 words of this doting article have taken me 45 minutes to decide upon. How could I begin to explain the depth of feeling which these songs evoke?

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When “Animal Crossing” came out it effectively ended my life for a two week period.

I can’t remember much about what happened. It was over a winter break and

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We all know that winter is the season to cover our skin. Sweaters, scarves, mittens and wool coats cover our limbs to shield them from the freezing outdoors.

However, many people admit forgetting to shield their faces during the coldest months of the year.Itchy, chapped, dry and red are all describe the typical winter face, albeit the unprotected one. Caring for your skin is a seasonal activity and just as seasons change, so should your moisturizer.

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“Don’t wipe it away Nat. Let me have my vicious little circle,” says Don Birnam to a bartender named Nat, referring to the ring a glass leaves on a bar. Don (Ray Milland) plays an unsuccessful writer and tormented alcoholic in Billy Wilder’s 1946 bleak drama “The Lost Weekend.”

The film begins with Don and his brother Wick (Phillip Terry) packing for a long weekend in the country, to help Don break his addiction to alcohol (he has been sober for 10 days, or so he says). Somehow, Don convinces Wick to take his girlfriend Helen St. James (Jane Wyman) to a concert.

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