Ladies and Gentleman, We Have a Winner...

Sexiest Geek Alive 2001. Way to go, Ellen!

posted at 8:32 PM | link |

What is it about Romania?

I'm not sure what I can say about this. Here, read it for yourself.

posted at 3:55 PM | link |

Do you Google?

Well, you should. Read more about it. And that's an order. [Way to go, Monika!]

posted at 3:45 PM | link |

Moon Over Zimbabwe

The New York Times has a great article on today's solar eclipse as it was viewed in Zimbabwe. I especially liked this quote:

"Phiri gave an excited commentary, watching in awe as the last glint of sunlight combined with the halo around the moon to create a celestial diamond ring. 'I wish I could take that and give it to my girlfriend, just put it on her finger,' he said."

The pictures accompanying the article are good, too. But the best picture has to be at Yahoo - take a look at this character.

posted at 3:39 PM | link |

The Fifth Annual Webby Awards are approaching quickly - have you voted? What are the Webby Awards, you ask? Well, according to their site:

The Webby Awards presents two honors in each category: The Webby Award and The People's Voice Award. Judges from The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select on the nominees for both awards, and the winners of The Webby Awards. The online community determines the winners of The People's Voice Awards.
...

From online galleries and up-to-the-second news sources, to interplanetary exploration and cyber-communities, The Webby Awards nominees exemplify the kinds of sites that Internet users should visit every day for information and entertainment. In addition, The Academy honors individuals for significant achievements and major contributions that have shaped the industry.

So, I invite you to log on and vote for your favorite websites at the Webby's People's Voice Awards. The awards will be webcast on July 18 and will be hosted by Sam Donaldson (weird!).

Shameless promotion time...In order to show your gratitude to the exemplary personal publishing service that allows me to enthrall you all with my brilliance, a vote for Blogger (in the "Personal" category) will help to promote a great provider of independent publishing on the web. Thanks!

Gotta run - a storm's a'comin'!

posted at 7:24 PM | link |

Will the real Billy Elliot please stand up?

posted at 5:00 PM | link |

Freaky...Damn, she's lucky.

posted at 2:28 PM | link |

The coolest thing about these glasses is their name. And they don't even mention where they got it from!

posted at 1:12 PM | link |

W O R K is a four-letter word.

Just thought I'd let you know that.

posted at 10:34 AM | link |

OK, that's enough playing around with this thing for the night. I'll be adding more links and favorites and that sort of thing to this page soon. I was just tired of that red. The page needed to be more open, and now that it's summer, I wanted a lighter feel to it. Silly, I know, but hey, I can do what I want with it. ;)

posted at 8:52 PM | link |

I'm working on some design changes - bear with me!

posted at 8:26 PM | link |

"...if the stories sound too good or too bad to be true, they probably are. "

Remember John Sacrosante, the homeless dot.com casualty that I couldn't quite muster up sympathy for? Well, it looks like my instincts still serve me well. (For the most part)

posted at 4:42 PM | link |

Aw, damn. I wish him well.

posted at 3:00 PM | link |

The IronMan says that not even he can play forever.

In a nifty little coincidence, Lou Gehrig was born on this day, June 19, in 1903.

posted at 1:54 PM | link |

Cute animal picture...Hunter and Chandi.

posted at 1:41 PM | link |

'Scuse me while I whip this out...

"The greatest comedy plays against the greatest tragedy," he has said. "Comedy is a red rubber ball and if you throw it against a soft, funny wall, it will not come back. But if you throw it against the hard will of ultimate reality, it will bounce back and be very lively."

Silly man knocks 'em dead on Broadway. If I'm lucky I might be able to get tickets for next summer.

posted at 11:48 AM | link |

"For a long time I was so angry - you wouldn't believe how much anger was inside one person - but I realised if you don't let go of that it would be me and my family who would suffer."

posted at 7:00 PM | link |

Well, Whadya Know

Why do we call that children's game hopscotch?

The game - called scotch hoppers in the seventeenth century - - is played on squares cut into the ground or marked on pavement. The name was derived from the Old French word "escocher," which meant to cut or mark. It was anglicized to "scotch." From the same source, we get the expression, to "scotch a rumor." And butterscotch - didn't you ever wonder about that? - is simply butter-colored candy cut into squares.
[source: A Browser's Dictionary by John Ciardi]

Why do we associate Dalmatians with firemen?

The answer is simple. The key facts are that there is a natural affinity between Dalmatians and horses, and Dalmatians make good watchdogs. People who owned valuable horses often kept Dalmatians around to guard them against horse thieves. Fire engines used to be drawn by fast and powerful horses, a tempting target for thieves. So, Dalmatians were kept in the firehouse as deterrence to theft. The horses have long since gone, but the Dalmatians, by tradition, have stayed.
[source: The Handy Science Answer Book compiled by The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh]

posted at 6:51 PM | link |

High Heeled Hell

I've said it many times before, and I'll say it again - I hope the man who invented high-heeled shoes (and you know it was a man) is spending eternity in 3-inch heels. And not just walking around in them. No, he has to go up and down stairs, carry heavy objects, go grocery shopping, dance for 2 hours at a stretch and drive a stick. Every day. For eternity.

If I ever think of wearing these damn strappy 3-inch heels to work again, please slap me. Hard.

posted at 6:37 PM | link |

I missed the first half of Dennis Miller this weekend (of course!). Here's a snippet from this week's rant on Death (you can read the entire rant at his site):

There is a school of thought, usually promulgated by the topaz-jewelry-wearing, multiple-cat owning, ancient-Volvo-with-"Practice Random Kindness And Senseless Acts Of Beauty"-bumpersticker-driving segment of our population, that says we as a society need to remove the stigma from death and regard it as just another part of life. These rainbow-and-unicorn simpletons ask, "Why do we insist on portraying death as cruel?" Well, it's difficult to answer that question, but if I had to hazard a guess, I would say, because it fucking kills us.

Does the prospect of my death frighten me? Hell yes. Do I think about it often? Hell no.

posted at 4:28 PM | link |

Oh, sure.

I find the ultimate Father's Day gift a day too late.

[link courtesy elise]

posted at 2:47 PM | link |

Unbelievable - and he was swallowing that stuff for 20 years!

posted at 2:30 PM | link |

Oh, my.

Er...Anyone else feel like they just intruded on a private moment?

And while we're at it...

Distracted, President Bush forgets what exactly it was he was reaching for...

posted at 2:22 PM | link |

Quiz Time

Invisibles #28 is up, and it's not as hard as last week - I got 7 out of 8! Anyone know where the one with the bowtie-wearing man is from? You can see last week's answers and top scores here.

Filmwise also has other quizzes at their site, Text and Visual, and they've posted some new ones. Dog Days is a visual quiz that asks you to name the movie in which the dog(s) pictured appeared. I apparently do not pay too much attention to dogs in movies - I only got 2 out of 12 correct. I fared much better with the Text quizzes - Movie Limericks asks you to identify a film by a limerick (10 is my favorite - but watch out, 12 spoils the end of the movie it is describing), and I got 11 out of 12. I am ashamed to say that I missed a perfect score because I couldn't remember where I heard him yelling, "Aunt Beru!"

posted at 2:10 PM | link |

Tom



In honor of Father's Day, Joel Siegel has come up with a list of movies to watch with your father. Personally, I would prefer to watch an old Abbott and Costello movie, or one of those Bowery Boys flicks, like the ones we would often watch on Sunday mornings. Or maybe one of those B horror movies they used to show on channel 5 on Saturday afternoons, before it was FOX 5 and all weekend programming that wasn't sports-related was an infomercial. WNEW out of New York City aired a program called Creature Feature on those afternoons, usually spotlighting some gothic Hammer Studios vampire movie or maybe a Japanese monster movie like Godzilla vs. Mothra. I used to love watching those movies with my father. My parents were divorced when I was very young and my sisters and I saw him every other weekend. Some may not consider sitting and watching a movie quality time with your father, but I disagree. Sitting and laughing along with Daddy at the bumbling Lou Costello or the poorly-dubbed dialogue in a Japanese monster movie was a way for me to share something with him. And nothing makes a kid feel more grown-up than to be in on the joke. Thanks, and Happy Father's Day, Daddy.

Also, for more father-related reading, check out this salon.com column, a moving reflection on an alcoholic father. Don't worry, it's not as depressing as it sounds.

posted at 1:31 AM | link |

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been re-opened, thanks in large part to this helpful Chinese couple.

posted at 1:01 AM | link |

Help! Help! I'm being repressed!

As fans of Monty Python's Holy Grail are most surely aware, the film will be released on DVD in the fall. The "enhanced" DVD version of the film will include 23 seconds of never-before-seen footage, as well as stereo sound. Ooo. Salon.com's cover story is a very silly interview with John Cleese and Terry Jones.

Oh, and by-the-way...Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!

posted at 12:51 AM | link |