Quote of the day

"Wow, you're an awfully big boy to be getting lost, aren't you?"
--old lady in church, to me, yesterday morning.

(Oh, come on. Like I'm the first person who ever went back to the wrong seat after Communion.)

While I'm at it, I'd like to give a shout out to a friend of a friend who deserves some sort of trophy for this revolutionary idea.

See what I did there? Revolution? Get it? Hooo, it's going to be a long week.

He's always in the last place you look (Friday WTF)

Tomorrow kicks off the most important of all librarian holidays, Banned Books Week 2008. (Well, actually there aren't any "librarian holidays", but I guess this is close enough.) I might try to do a more detailed post on this in a few days, but for starters here's a trailer for a new film, based on my favorite banned book:



I'm really looking forward to the sequels, "the Sandiego Supremacy" and "Our Man in Pottsylvania".

Hail to the King

A headline in today's Post-Dispatch asked an interesting question: Wanna buy an Elvis Museum?


God help me, but yes. Yes I do.

Ahoy! (Friday WTF)

Today is International Talk like a Pirate Day. To celebrate, this Friday WTF brings you "How Dead Man's Chest Should Have Ended"



As a matter of fact, that was exactly the ending I'd hoped for when I saw that movie.

For more information, see Dave Barry's column on ITLAPD. And speaking of pirates...

Why music is not written by committee

Another quick post from a truly horrific link that the Frau sent me, from Wired News:

Scientific Attempt to Create Most Annoying Song Ever

EDITOR'S NOTE: The song itself is available for streaming or download at the above site. Click at your own risk.

The article lists some of the "unwanted" musical traits they incorporated (cowboys, bagpipes, cheap synthesizer, etc.), but neglected to mention one of the most undesirable things about the song: it's twenty minutes long. I tried to listen to it, but they lost me about 2 minutes in, just after the tuba solo.

Even to attempt something like this is a Frankenstein-sized crime against God and nature. But you know the really sick part? Their attempt at a Most Wanted Song is even worse. It sounds like the music from a dentist's office in Hell.

A rose by any other name...

To continue our hard-hitting political coverage, mein Frau just sent me this link:

Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator

From now on, you may address me as Vise Peeper Palin.

Speaking of which, just in case you hadn't seen it already...

Bottom of the 9th, bases are loaded... and so am I

Two quick items I wanted to call to everyone's attention:

1. I have a new favorite word: Bibliophibian.

2. The Baseball Hall of Fame is holding an online poll to help them choose nominees for the Ford C. Frick Award, a lifetime achievement award for sportscasters. There are a lot of deserving names on the ballot - Tim McCarver, Joe Morgan, and Dizzy Dean being a few that jump out at me. There are even a few great ones, like Pee Wee Reese and Al "the Mad Hungarian" Hrabosky, who deserve to win for their nicknames alone. But one name stands out far above the others-- the great Mike Shannon, the most quotable man in baseball since Yogi Berra.

VOTE HERE

ABOVE: Gotta love him.

EDITOR'S NOTE: the title for this post is my personal favorite Shannon quote. Runners-up included:

• faster than a cat in Chinatown
• It’s raining like a Chinese fire drill!
• I wish you folks back in St. Louis could see this moon.

EDITOR'S NOTE #2: I forgot to credit Frau Skippy as the source of the above photo. She found it a couple of years ago and sent me a copy. Mea culpa.

...And I feel fine (Friday WTF)

We interrupt all this political talk to bring you an important message: THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO END.

The Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest particle accelerator, has been completed by a group of scientists in Switzerland and France (yes, it's big enough to be in two countries at once). Just yesterday, they fired it up for the first time in order to take protons apart and see what they're made of. For more information, please consult this week's Friday WTF:



In other words, we're all gonna die.

Sure, this could be a huge breakthrough for science, and helping us learn more about the Universe and how it works. Or, it could create a black hole and annihilate the Earth in a fraction of a microsecond. I know it's true, because Wikipedia said so. The scientists who built this thing say it's perfectly safe, but what do they know? These are, after all, the same people who almost obliterated the Vatican a few years ago.

The moral of the story: life is so much more fun when you believe everything Wikipedia and/or Dan Brown tells you.

A Simple Comparison

I know that Skippy and the Frau bristle when I put political-type stuff on here... but I have a basic observation I'd like to share.

In the past week, while Sarah Palin was wowing people by dodging questions, Obama and McCain each did something that should have been newsworthy: each one took part in what became a hostile interview. Obama entered the (ahem) "No Spin Zone" in a 30-minute talk with Bill O'Reilly, while John McCain appeared on a Portland, Maine news program with a sarcastic and clearly partisan host.

The content of these clips can be frustrating, in that they both get bogged down in details. But at least watch the first few minutes of each interview. Which candidate demonstrates the ability to think on his feet in the face of hostile questions?

First, Obama vs. O'Reilly


Now, McCain in Maine


Two final points:

1) I realize the Maine interview focuses largely on Sarah Palin. Before blaming the interviewer, keep in mind that THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN now centers itself on Palin.
2) I'm really, really looking forward to the debates.

That's all folks (Friday WTF)

I'm really busy today, so I'll make this quick.

WARNING: mildly unsafe for work

Is it real? I really hope so, but does it actually matter?

Good Grief

We interrupt our political coverage to bring you a bit of sad news. Bill Melendez, the animator who made the Charlie Brown TV specials, has died at the age of 91.



George-Michael and his family are obviously taking it hard, but let's try to remember the good times.

Fracking politicians...

The Presidential election is still two months away, and I'm sure both sides will do their best to make them very, very long months for all of us. All this campainging and arguing seems especially pointless to me, since just this morning I picked my candidates.

ABOVE: This could work; everyone knows
that Obama is probably a Cylon.

Seeing the two of them standing together, they do look strangely familiar, don't they?