Lloyd Alexander
I've only read the Chronicles of Prydain, but they were excellent. I believe Mike’s read more.
Charles Nelson Reilly
Yes, you know he was simply fabulous on Match Game, prefiguring Paul Lynde on Hollywood Squares, but have you ever seen Lidsville? From the demented duo Sid and Marty Krofft, Lidsville is straight out of the what-drugs-were-they-on childrens television school of the early ’70s. Butch “Eddie Munster” Patrick falls into a magic top hat while snooping around backstage at a magic show and ends up in a special land where all the inhabitants but one are hats. Yes, hats. Who's the non-hat character? Charles Nelson Reilly, playing Hoo Doo, who’s trying to, um, do something.
According to yesterday’s Wikipedia’s this day in history. May 29th 1453 was the day the Ottomans (Ottormen?) took over Constantinople. This was the end of the middle ages, meaning that today is the anniversary of the first day of the Renaissance, which of course led to the great civilization we live in today.
If you were busy grilling Saturday night and missed the ABC World News piece on DonorsChoose you can watch it here:
ABC News: Charity -- Up Close and Personal
Includes scenes of our ever-so-glamorous office.
I recently ran across Webolodeon, a script that asks you every 5 minutes to give it a reason that you're actually using the Internet.
The idea, of course, is not to make you insane and interrupt your real work, but to ensure that you’re always aware of the task that brought you where you are—that you not allow a legitimate work search to turn into a 4-hour wikipedia party.
Requires Greasemonkey and of course Firefox.
In doing some Work-Related Research on Massachusetts geography, I ran across Norfolk County which is actually split into three non-contiguous parts. Is that the only U.S. county with an exclave? Of course not -- here's a list of enclaves and exclaves throughout the world. Me, I'm moving to the Unorganized Borough.
Bravo, Alonzo Mosley.
So Cebra was over last weekend and was marveling at Debbie's collection of cookbooks. I of course took the opportunity to complain, as I frequently do, that Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything does not, in fact, tell you how to cook everything. Elephant? Rattlesnake? I don't think so.
"Have you heard about the new Encyclopedia of Life?" he asked.
"Sure," I said. "They want to catalog every species on the planet...."
And then it hit me what he was getting at. What the EOL needs to be truly successful?
Recipes.
NYC's ex-mayor against NYC's outgoing mayor against NY's senator.
It could happen. Giuliani is the Republican front runner (cough, cough), Hillary is the Democratic front runner, and Bloomberg is this close to running as a third candidate with as much moola as a normal main party candidate would have:
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is prepared to spend an unprecedented $1 billion of his own $5.5 billion personal fortune for a third-party presidential campaign, personal friends of the mayor tell The Washington Times. "Bloomberg is H. Ross Perot on steroids," said former Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner. "He could turn the political landscape of this election upside down, spend as much money as he wanted and proceed directly to the general election. He would have resources to hire an army of petition-gatherers in those states where thousands of petitions are required to qualify a third-party presidential candidate to be on the ballot." "If Bloomberg runs, he could have more money on hand than either of the two major party nominees," said Mr. Toner, the former FEC chairman. "It would be the first time that happened in the modern era." [Link]
[Oh, just to clarify, I'm not saying that these are the best candidates, I'm just saying it would be fun to see this race]
Everyday life in Iraq captured in a series of video shorts about the lives of 20-somethings. It's called Hometown Baghdad.
Hometown Baghdad was shot by an all-Iraqi crew and tells the stories of three young people trying to survive in Baghdad.
(German, of course, for "The Spammers, The.")
Sorry I've been light on blogging as of late -- v. busy at work. Plus Ish was hit by spam commenters. It's been a couple of years since our last major invasion. Then, as now, the ironic thing is that their attempts to hijack this blog to boost the Google ranks for their real estate, airline ticket, and education scamsites are completely and utterly useless. Since the nofollow attribute is added to every hyperlink in comments, Google will ignore it. So at least I can take some comfort in the thought that the SEO firm (I assume they've paid someone to do this) is wasting their money. In the meantime, I've been plugging the leaks, deleting comments, and banning IP addresses (they are all from ThePlanet.com in Texas, which means either our friends are in TX and hopping IPs or someone is using a proxy through them; thanks guys!). This may take a while.
In the meantime, enjoy some pulp fiction popups courtesy of Cynical C.
Is no broadcast racist safe?
There are so many jokes that go with this story, where to begin?
I'll start with this one: Hamas, watch out, Mossad is a bunch of wimps compared to the law firm of Lipshitz, Fein, and Schwartz.
... stays in Iraq:
More than one-third of U.S. soldiers in Iraq surveyed by the Army said they believe torture should be allowed if it helps gather important information about insurgents, the Pentagon disclosed yesterday. Four in 10 said they approve of such illegal abuse if it would save the life of a fellow soldier.In addition, about two-thirds of Marines and half the Army troops surveyed said they would not report a team member for mistreating a civilian or for destroying civilian property unnecessarily. "Less than half of Soldiers and Marines believed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect," the Army report stated.
About 10 percent of the 1,767 troops in the official survey -- conducted in Iraq last fall -- reported that they had mistreated civilians in Iraq, such as kicking them or needlessly damaging their possessions.
The report noted that the troops' statements are at odds with the "soldier's rules" promulgated by the Army, which forbid the torture of enemy prisoners and state that civilians must be treated humanely. [Link] (Emphasis mine)
... have any of you even heard of the Turkish Star Wars? Man, that is some strange splicing.
Officially titled, "The Man Who Saved the Word", this Turkish-made film is commonly known as "Turkish Star Wars" because of its notorious bootlegging of Star Wars film clips worked into the film. Released in 1982, Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam was created in Turkey caught in the midst of massive political upheaval. As a result, American-made films were not easily acquired and were often remade with a Turkish cast and setting. The musical soundtrack is entirely lifted from Western film hits of the time, primarily using Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Did I mention there are gladiator scenes?
I'm still hung over from Loyalty Day, and Mother's Day is next week. When will I get a break?
I don't know what the 35mm film was doing on the ground next to the sandbox in the park, but I liked the results:
Full set here.
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of AmericaContinue reading "Happy Loyalty Day Everyone!" »America was founded by patriots who risked their lives to bring freedom to our Nation. Today, our citizens are grateful for our Founding Fathers and confident in the principles that lead us forward. On Loyalty Day, we celebrate the blessings of freedom and remember our responsibility to continue our legacy of liberty.
"Lauren Nelson, 20, of Lawton, Oklahoma, worked with police in Suffolk County to target would-be Internet sexual predators, taped for an episode of the TV show "America's Most Wanted."
She posed as a teenager and lured men into chatting online and meeting her at a home, where police and crews were waiting. Eleven men were arrested in the sting."
Not only is Lauren Nelson clearly not a minor, she is undeniably beautiful. In fact, she is...Miss America!
Thanks so much for loaning me the MP3s to sample. I've really enjoyed listening to some great music and learning about new artists.
Now, could you please properly tag those MP3s before you send them out? Pretty please? It would make things so much easier for all of us.
Thanks!