today’s junk, tomorrow’s joy

“Zontar, the Thing from Venus,” is one of the classic bad movies we’ve caught on tape. You know, the funny-bad type. But do you ever worry about the future? Most of the great bad ones are from the 50s and 60s. Will the bad movies of today be hilarious in the future, will [...]

four-footed lingo

Living with multiple felines has generated a lot of jargon in our house. Maggie in particular comes up with new word applications:
arm candy : our fluffy white cat that sits for hours on a chair next to maggie with two paws resting on her arm
kitty poultice : healing technique involving placement of a [...]

16 million people have the same birthday that you do

This wonderful fact was found in the “law of truly large numbers” entry in the Skeptic’s Dictionary. The site is subtitled “A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions (and how to think critically about them),” which sums it up pretty well. The writer evaluates just about every mystical and paranormal concept–from Abracadabra [...]

drop before you shop

I saw Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping yesterday. He was at Elliott Bay Books reading an excerpt from his book, What To Do If Reverend Billy is in Your Store. The title is from a memo that Starbucks sent to its New York City stores. The Reverend read a chapter from his [...]

just in case we have to mow down a lot of people

When President Awful was planning his current trip to England, among his staff’s requests of the British government were:
diplomatic immunity for special agents and snipers so they wouldn’t have bothersome legal troubles if they had to shoot anyone while protecting the president
permission to bring a “mini-gun,” a battlefield weapon that mounts on a tank and [...]

birthday goat

I asked her when she was born. “1990.” Do you celebrate your birthday? “Yes.” How? “My mother cooked a…what’s the word…a goat! My mother…. ” The student slashes a finger across her throat. She butchered a goat? “Yes, then she cooked it and gave it to people.” She killed and cooked a goat and [...]

less compressed

Went to seacompression last night with Rachel, Monica, and Scot. Am I less compressed? Not sure. Was it fun? Yup. Obviously a lot of work had gone into turning the old Safeway store (renamed Segway) into a playa party venue. A few items worth mentioning:
• Admiring a model of Black Rock City with [...]

forgotten moments

Several weeks ago I had a medical exam (don’t even ask. i’m fine, by the way.) that required me to be rendered mostly unconscious. There are wonderful drugs for this sort of thing, but they didn’t mention that the meds would cause amnesia. It’s an utterly strange experience. I have no memory at all of [...]