Jed is to Zeus as Granny is to

... Rhea. Jethro is obviously Hercules and Ellie Mae is a reasonable stand-in for Aphrodite. I don't know why this never occurred to me before. For the interested student: Solve Petticoat Junction for Dionysus.
Update. It turns out that Granny is Daisy Moses, Jed's mother-in-law and Jethro is, as I ought to have recollected, a Bodine. This throws things into a somewhat different light if I am strict with the family relations. Jethro's notable strength really does point to a Herculean cognate, though. Fiddle-faddle, I have no enthusiasm to look up Greek gods' cousins.
Update to the update. I propose that Jethro is a Titan, Epimetheus, a notable fool. But where is Prometheus? Perhaps the interested student could search for him in Petticoat Junction or Green Acres? The possible mother's-in-law for Zeus is a pretty wide field but Ellie Mae / Aphrodite's mother is Dione whose father is Epimetheus. Yes, Jethro is Ellie Mae's grandfather and I defy anyone to prove me wrong. Why shouldn't Bugtussle, Tennessee be every bit as inbred as Olympus.?

Smarter than the average bear.

They are doing it wrong.

Mr. Hogan is working on a prototype of a new model, the 550, for next year. State officials have agreed to test it by filling it with aromatic food and depositing it on Yellow-Yellow’s turf. “She’s the whole reason we’re doing this,” he said.

They are not building a better container, they are building a better bear. Sooner than is comfortable there will be a cadre of Adirondack bears selling derivatives to insurance brokers.

Seeds In My Yard

Colt .45 (aka Thundercloud)

Stupendously inept in almost every way but plenty of fun. Too many gaffes in front and behind the camera to even start to list.

Reading Comprehension

How old is Sarah Pratt

Spencer's Mountain

Wholly inferior first stab at Hamner stories. Not even a journeyman cast of family-movie troupers can overcome numerous debilities. Redeeming trivia: Wally Cox was discovered to voice Underdog via this dreck.
UPDATE: DVD extras include press tour interviews with Henry Fonda who is either exhausted, distracted by some calamity or just bored out his ever-loving skull delivering loopy yet cutting remarks about the movie.

The Statement

Several pluses: Unoffensive performances throughout. Michael Caine has adopted several new tics of the highest quality which serve one aspect of the film very well: the anti-thriller. His character is so old and decrepit that killing him is just gratuitous (and is not explained in the movie.) Decent photography. Not boring exactly.
Minuses: The telegraphing of events is so frequent and obvious that they almost start piling up on into each other creating a reverse echo chamber of meta-telegraphing. An inadvertent Memento. There is a very bad stretch where flashbacks, even more unneeded characters, and narration all happen in close proximity. Adequate dialogue but the plot is stupid.
But the biggest complaint is that it's just the Odessa File without Elie Wiesel. And also without the Dickensian reveal. One of the production companies is Odessa Films. Coincidence?
I find myself in complete accordance with this review.

Sudden Outbreak of Common Sense

Congress gets pay bill as bank bonuses swell | Reuters

Bionicle no longer matches color scheme

 

Bathroom floor is now painted white

 

Should have put down a primer coat in spite of the stink.

Scientists' Field Trip to the Idiot Preserve

Paleontology and Creationism Meet but Don’t Mesh - NYTimes.com There's a paleontologist / Palin joke in there somewhere but I don't feel like digging it out from the surrounding matrix.