I'm just curious how many of you were some of the poor saps who camped out yesterday morning at the Apple Stores to get an iPad.No, I'm not one of them. Fer pete's sake, it took me six years before I finally broke down and got an iPod! Probably be just as long before I spring for an iPad (which I still think has one of the silliest names for a gadget ever :...
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Friday, April 02, 2010
NCAA may expand men's basketball tournament (to NINETY-SIX teams!)
The first thing that popped into mind when I read this was, "Is this what it takes to make sure Chapel Hill never again has to play in the NIT?"(rimshot)I can tell already that I'm going to get heaps of grief from Chad and Eric about that :-PThe NCAA is now pondering the idea of expanding the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament from 65 teams to a whopping 96 schools going to the annual tournament. Under the proposed plan the National Invitational...
When insects sleep...
Miroslaw Swietek, a physical therapist in Jaroszow, Poland, has perfected the art of going out with a camera and flashlight in the early morning hours to capture stunning photographs of insects asleep and covered in drops of dew. That's a dragonfly resting on a leaf that you see above.Nothing else needs to be said: Swietek's photos speaks for themselves. But if you want...
April Fools 'Fess-Up Time, 2010 Edition!
All good things must come to an end. Which as more than one person has noted, means that my jokes are cursed to live forever! :-PYou know what I like most about April Fools Day? It's that my birthday is March 31st. So for me it's like a two-day long extravaganza of hilarity and thanks to this blog, I get to share that good-natured nuttiness with a wide audience!Okay well...
Thursday, April 01, 2010
George Lucas to remake PORKY’S
I remember a few years ago when Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith came out, and one of many interviewers asked George Lucas "Will you make any more Star Wars movies?" And the Flanneled One said "no". He remarked that he wanted to make "smaller, more personal, more intimate films" for a bit, as opposed to big-budget blockbusters. You know: "art-house movies".Well,...
ROCK BAND: "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC coming October 27th!
We already knew that ROCK BAND 3 is scheduled to retail later this year... but I am already drooling about this one even more: Rock Band: "Weird Al" Yankovic has just been announced by Harmonix and MTV Games! It'll publish on October 27th, just over seven months from now.Here's the press release that IGN Games posted a short while ago...ROCK BAND: "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC WILL...
“The NASCAR Tax”?! Don’t go there Governor Perdue!
What. The. #&@$ ?!?!?Just saw on the website for the Raleigh News & Observer that Governor Bev Perdue is talking with members of the General Assembly about levying a tax on all NASCAR-related sales within the state of North Carolina.I say again: What. The. #&@$ ?!?!?According to the article, if enacted into law the tickets for NASCAR stock car races will have a 10% tax imposed upon them. And it's not just that, friends and neighbors:...
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Jaime Escalante has passed away
The sad news is coming out of California today that Jaime Escalante has died at the age of 79, following a battle with cancer.Escalante, originally from La Paz, Bolivia, was a teacher of math and physics in his own country for many years before coming to the United States. When he got here he could speak no English, began taking night classes to earn degrees in biology and...
Another random rumination on religion
For something based on the assumption that all people are imperfect, it's curious that religion makes too many people willing to cause suffering based on the assumption that they are perfectly right about ...
Two INDEPENDENCE DAY sequels?! Awwww hell nawwww!!!
IESB.net is reporting that Twentieth Century Fox is about to commit to two sequels to Independence Day: its 1996 mega-blockbuster about aliens arriving on Earth to wipe out humanity on the Fourth of July. Will Smith is already set to return as Steven Hiller, the hotshot pilot he played in the original.Do we really need this? For its tenth anniversary in 2006 I posted an...
"The Package": Post-episode reaction to this week's LOST
First things first: Whoever it was at ABC that thought it would be a "brilliant" idea to put that blood-red V countdown bug in the lower right-hand corner of the screen needs to be dragged out into the street and shot. I've never seen such a nuisance more distracting from what should have been a completely enjoyable experience of watching an episode of Lost.(It was enough to make me not want to stick around long enough to watch V tonight, if that...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
To the person presently fixated on searching this blog
Behave yourself or everybody finds out who you are having an affair wi...
Monday, March 29, 2010
An open letter to WFMY Channel 2
Dear management and staff of WFMY:I am a life-long viewer of WFMY. Yours is the station that I have most associated with well-produced television. Growing up our own television was always tuned to one of two channels: the local PBS affiliate for Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and Channel 2. Until the time I was 8 years old I didn't even know that there were other stations that did news, weather and sports. I will always fondly...
Sunday, March 28, 2010
"For all of the loved ones gone."
Ten years ago today, our family lost the nucleus around which we revolved our lives. That was the day that Elsie Roberts, my beloved grandmother - and who was called "Granny" by everyone who knew her - was taken Home.(Here's the memorial write-up that I did a few years ago on the occasion of what would have been Granny's 100th birthday.)That was the beginning of a very long and dark period of my life (which might have been pretty dark to begin with)....
Pennsylvania man, publicly drunk, attempts to revive dead possum
A fella named Donald Wolfe has been arrested in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on a public drunkenness charge. Police found him along a highway 65 miles east of Pittsburgh.The biggest clue that something was terribly amiss was that Wolfe was attempting to restore to life a roadkilled possum, which reportedly had been "dead for quite awhile", with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.I'd love to know what the heck this guy had been drinking...
One of the best-ever arguments against socialism
Last night while going through some older material on my hard drive, I found this Beetle Bailey cartoon from a few years ago. In it Mort Walker - through his character Plato - articulates one of the finest arguments about why socialism is not only a bad thing, but against human nature. And in light of what has transpired here in the United States during the past several...
Oh crap, I missed Earth Hour!
While every other conscientious person on the planet was turning their lights out between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. local time, I was burning through Lord only knows how many BTUs of propane in a gas-powered forge turned up full blast, and then employing some industrial-strength metalworking equipment that uses up lots of electricity in Dad's knifemaking shop.Because of me, Earth is teetering that much closer to doom! What ever shall I do for penan...
