It’s entirely possible I’m not the crazy one in the family anymore

When my brother described the idea as something that had occurred to him while in a bar after the Ottawa River run last year, I knew to believe that when I saw the video (be advised that this was shot from a Skidoo and is pretty loud, so do a volume check early).

I love being in this family exactly because of stuff like this. Or, as a friend put it several years ago after he and the Suburban Banshee met my folks after a recording session in Michigan, “That explains so much…”

That was an inauspicious start to the day.

Woke up early and thought I might use the quiet hours of the morning to work on my model of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.

I promptly dumped a pot of yellow paint in my lap.

Well, things have got to get better from there.

Apropos of nothing…

I discovered today that I really like poached eggs. No idea why I never had one before today, or why I decided to make them today. I just got a sudden urge to, and I liked ‘em.

Been reactivating a long-neglected hobby lately — model building. Just finished a Saturn 1-B; nearly finished with a 1:144 scale model of The Independence, Harry Truman’s presidential plane. And then today I found my model of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. Hee.

Meanwhile, while poking around stuff, I also came across some abandoned writing projects (and almost all of them immediately showed why they’d been abandoned).

The one I can’t figure out were three lines on the top sheet of a pad. Either it was to be part of a MSTing, or something I thought of and thought was funny. I don’t know.

What was written there was:
Mystery Science Theater 2001
“Cambot, give me Rocket Number Nine!”
“I’m sorry, Joel. I can’t do that.”

I don’t know wny my brain does this stuff to me, no.

How to lose a vote, the modern way

I had pretty much decided that I would be supporting Jennifer Brunner for Senate here in Ohio because I was delighted with the way she fixed Ohio’s broken election system after we finally got rid of that damned crook Katherine Harr… er, Ken Blackwell.

Well, now she’s got some work to do. I had emailed her office for some thing or another — I think it was about the lack of a paper ballot option in the last election — and now I find that my email address has been added to her campaign spam list, and that the systems on her site to be removed from the list and to contact the campaign both don’t work. Glad I used my Hotmail address!

Anyway, I’m in Lee Fisher’s camp now, when I had been solidly behind Brunner before. That’s about as unforgivable as it gets, as far as I’m concerned. If she wins the primary, I’m probably voting third party, or if there isn’t one I can get behind in the Senate race, just not voting in that race. Needless to say, voting Republican isn’t an option until they evict the theocrat/neocon wing and get back to being the party of Eisenhower and John Anderson.

Holy Toledo!

These immortal words of Gumby’s pal Pokey were the ones I used when I learned of the passing of Art Clokey, their creator.

That makes cents.

Couldn’t resist that title there.

So last November, the mint released the new reverse design for the Lincoln cent that will be permanently (or at least until 2059) replacing the Memorial back, as the Memorial replaced the Wheat back in 1959.

They chose a very retro Union Shield design that I hope is the opening salvo in a long-overdue rethinking of our coin designs. I actually preferred the next one, but the one they chose is nice, simple and historical. One also has to keep in mind that this design has to fit and be legible on the limited space available on the back of a penny, and has to wear well over time.

Actually, I’m of the opinion that we should rethink our pocket change from the ground up. And while we’re at it, get rid of the paper $1 and $5. A paper bill only lasts about 18 months. A coin … well, check your pocket change. I still frequently see nickels from the ’40s and ’50s. Once in a while, a Wheatie cent. You won’t find higher denoms before 1965 since they were silver before then, though.

A few years ago on a numismatics forum I used to hang out on (and should get active on again), I proposed a ground-up redesign as follows:

More unacceptable behavior

This time from Brit Hume, unsurprisingly on Fox, who suggests that Tiger should convert to Christianity to fix his personal problems, after insulting Tiger’s current beliefs (Buddhist).

Oh, yes. Christian men are always better husbands. Just ask Mrs. Jim Bakker, Mrs. Ted Haggard and Mrs. Jimmy Swaggart et al.

This is so far over the line of acceptable commentary that it laps itself and goes over the line a second time. If he really felt it needed to be said, then he should have arranged to meet privately with Tiger, or sent it to him privately. Instead, he has the hubris to engage in a spectacularly rude display of arrogance. It’s none of Brit Hume’s bloody business what religion Tiger is, and I don’t know how he thinks insulting his religion first is going to help him make his point.

Unless it’s suddenly acceptable now, for example, to publicly call on the Duggans to convert to some set of beliefs that will allow them to use contraception. How about asking Brit himself to convert to Buddhism so that the next time he opens his mouth about that religion, he doesn’t spew some bigoted lie he just made up?

Another year, another Doctor

Finally caught up with the end of the Tennant era. For those who haven’t seen it, details are below the break…

o/` Spoiler alert, spoiler alert… o/`

Season’s Green Things!

Greyhound to Toledo in about six hours.

Feelin’ the holiday mood like Ebenezer Scrooge before the spooks came. That oughta change once I see my nieces.

So, this little piece of seasonal nonsense. I wrote the first verse and posted it to Steve Macdonald’s journal partly as a reply to his terrific “Cold Butcher” … and mostly because it was stuck in my head and had to go somewhere to relieve the pressure. He wrote the rest.

The melody is, of course, obvious.

Oh, the creature outside is frightful
And he thinks you’ll taste delightful
There’s a monster out in the snow
Wendigo, wendigo, wendigo!

Oh he doesn’t show signs of stopping
‘Cuz your joints are good for popping
You hunker there way down low
Wendigo, wendigo, wendigo.

I don’t wanna kiss you goodnight
Cuz I’d hate to go out in the storm
If we nail the door shut real tight
Maybe we’ll last ’til the morn

The fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, he’s still there spying
And we’ll hold these shotguns just so…
Wendigo, wendigo, wendigo!

Why the fuss?

The brouhaha over President Obama’s bow to the Japanese emperor, I simply don’t get it. It’s a mark of respect. And for the Faux News talking heads who are screaming that no President has ever bowed to another world leader, uh, well, that’s about the accuracy you expect from Faux News.

I mean, Nixon did. And so did the Shrub. There’s another picture of Shrub bowing to the Saudi king, but that was to receive a medal so it doesn’t count (sometimes my team overreaches, too).

Still, there it is. American presidents have bowed to other world leaders before. It’s not new, it’s not tradition breaking, and it’s the poorest excuse for an issue I’ve heard in a very long time.

Of course, the rules are always different for Democrats and Republicans. Sheesh. I’ve heard more probing questions asked about the propriety of Obama bowing to the Japanese Emperor than I did of the propriety of the impending war in Iraq during the run-up in ‘02. Where are our priorities?