NFC Championship

It's the Eagles vs. the Cardinals next weekend, for the right to go to the Super Bowl. I grew up 50 miles from Philadelphia and live in Phoenix, so I like both these teams. And both have great storylines - the Eagles only making the playoffs by the most unlikely of circumstances, and the Cardinals pooh-poohed as not being worthy to be in post-season at all.

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In the AFC, it's Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore, but since I'm a time-traveler, I can tell you already - the Steelers win this one, albeit by just 4 points. I'd tell you who wins the Arizona-Philadelphia game too, but I know fans of both teams, so I won't spoil the suspense for them.

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And in case you're wondering, we chrono-trippers generally refrain from betting on games where we already know who will win/won. It draws too much attention to our time/dimension-hopping.

Monopoly

Monopoly for me is a blah, mindless diversion when you have hours to kill. Roll the dice, move the marker, hope you don't land on Boardwalk with a hotel, quit the game when everyone is bored stiff with it. . Years ago, Liz and I played it with a couple who took it extremely seriously. They made alliances, broke them, and pooled properties between them to gain monopolies to use against the other players. . To be fair, they told us beforehand how cutthroat they played. I just had never met anyone who was that way in Monopoly. The game I take seriously is Risk. Lie, backstab, double-cross. Whatever it takes to conquer the world; I'll do it. One's breaches of integrity are only reined in by the fact that if you break your word in this game, people will remember that in the next one. . In case you're wondering, the games that Liz is a cutthroat in are Yahtzee and Clue. Don't say I didn't warn you.

RIP - Donald Westlake

Donald Westlake

b. : 12 July 1933

d. : 31 December 2008

Damn, another one of my favorite authors passed away, and on New Years Eve no less. Donald Westlake was a prolific writer of crime fiction, and had almost as many pen names as I have multiple lives. . Most of his books were "serious" tales, but I happened to really enjoy his light-hearted (John) Dortmunder series, about a lovable, somewhat inept, only sometimes successful, anti-hero, big palooka of a burglar/criminal. . Finding Dortmunder books is rare. My local library only has three of the 14 in the series, two of which I already had found at the local used-bookstore and read. Borders and Barnes-&-Noble don't carry them. . You can read more about Donald Westlake here. Apparently, there will be one more Dortmunder book issued, sometime this year. That will be a must-find, must-read for me.

Me Are A English Major

From MSNBC.com today. I'm sorry, but "final" is an absolute word. Like "pregnant". Or "best". Or "dead". Something can't be nearly final; that's just NewSpeak for it being not final. And yeah, the phrase "nearly dead" irks me too. What's the opposite, "nearly alive"?

Excellence in Advertising - 2008

Smart cars have finally made it to the USA. I saw them close to 10 years ago in France. They're not as good of a deal as you'd think - they're over-priced like all get out. And with gas at $1.50/gallon right now, I imagine sales are slow. But cheap gas is a very temporary thing. . As for Dubnutz, we'll have to hurry to say our good-byes to him. His regime is at long last coming to an end.

The Demise of The Mesa Tribune

With the new year, our daily newspaper, the Mesa Tribune, has ceased a.) daily editions, b.) charging us for it, and even c.) delivering it to our neighborhood. . C'est la vie. In time, we'll have to subscribe to the Phoenix paper, the Arizona Republic. Until then however, I am going through withdrawals for two things - my daily Sports Statistics (box scores, etc.), and my daily Comics. . To get my Sports fix, I now get up 10 minutes earlier and watch the footer on ESPN. To get my Comics fix, at lunch I now go to www.gocomics.com and to the Dilbert website. . But there is a bright side to visiting GoComics. I've found some new strips, such as the New Adventures of Queen Victoria. Alphabetically, it comes right before Non Sequitur, which I simply can't go without for more than a day. A taste of NAQV is given below. We'll be featuring it some more in the coming weeks.

Excellence in Economy - 2008

Don't laugh. Money-in-the-mattress out-performed both the Dow Jones Index and my 401-K (which I now fondly refer to as my "201-K"). True, Colombian drug smuggling probably paid off better, but only if you lived to spend it.

Excellence in Architecture - 2008

Years ago, I took a 3-credit "Architecture Appreciation" course at ASU. Part of a curriculum designed to give me a "well-rounded education". . 50 minutes in a darkened room, watching slides and learning all about the Bauhaus Movement. Right after lunch. Zzzzzzzzz.

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Nevertheless, the Aquatic Center at the Beijing Olympics was definitely the architectural highlight of 2008. Simply breath-taking at night.

Topper

I work with a Topper. Even worse, he's a libertarian.

Gaza

Such inauspicious timing to Israel's "kill 'em all" war strategy. And no, I'm not letting the Gaza chuckleheads off the hook either. One could predict this would happen when one lobs a bunch of missiles into Israel. Especially newer, longer-range missiles.

What is the greatest movie of all time?

What a silly question. A more valid one would be "What is the second-greatest movie of all time?" . I don't know of any other film that has more memorable punch lines; funnier scenes; epic romances; and philosophical insight. Oh, and the best part of the best-ever movie is shown above.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

We're going out for dinner with some friends, and should be home by 8 and in bed and asleep by 10. Yeah, we're boring. We will however be wide awake at midnight, as our three dogs freak out from the firecrackers. . Have fun. Make some 2009 resolutions. Read a good book. Drive defensively. And for Heaven's sake, if you drink, don't drive. The cops are out in force tonight. Call me, and I'll come be your designated driver.

Role-Playing

When I grow up, I want to be...

Yeah, like I'm surprised.

Headline at MSNBC.com today - Study : Teenage "Virginity Pledges" are Ineffective. You can read the details here. . And in some strangely coincidental news, Bristol "No sex education for me" Palin finished her calving today as well. To either her first or second kid. No mention of a wedding date yet. .

- UPDATE -

They named him "Tripp" ?!?! WTF. Are they all druggies up there? Why not something normal, like "Moon Unit" or "Aryan Nation"? . Ummm. Listen, Todd & Sarah. I'm just kidding about that last one. Don't rename the kid Aryan Nation.

The dogz agree...

Christmas Day can be exhausting!

RIP - Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt

b. : 01/17/27

d. : 12/25/08

.    Eartha Kitt passed away on Christmas Day. She was best-known as a singer and actress (she played Catwoman on the "Batman" TV series after Julie Newmar departed). But some of us admired her for her anti-Vietnam-war views. In 1968, she made the following quote at a White House luncheon, which reportedly reduced LadyBird Johnson to tears...

  . "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

    . Eartha's "reward" in this land of free speech was to be blacklisted for more than a decade in the entertainment field, and to be investigated by the CIA and FBI. Years later, Jimmy Carter made amends by inviting her to the White House. . This apparently completes God's "set" of black, activist, female entertainers first speculated about here. He took Miriam Makeba home on 09 November, and Odetta home on 02 December.

Christmas Tragedy

Merry Christmas !!

May the spirit of Christmas dwell in your home, today and forever.

Merry...

Chemistry Cartoon for the Week

I never have trusted those @%$# cuttlefish.

Sarah Brightman Concert

The Sarah Brightman concert last night lived up to my expectations. Lavish production numbers; impeccable choreography; with a light show and graphics going on in the background reminiscent of Pink Floyd's DSotM tour years ago. And a 10-piece orchestra backing her up. . Ms. Brightman was, of course, divine. She can be a tad ...ahem... theatrical at times, but no one was complaining. Her voice was in top form, and this was the last stop on her tour. So she's presumably flying back to Merrie Olde Englande even as I post this. . The only negative was the 8:00 PM starting time, on a Sunday night, and 45 miles across town from our house. And we have Photo-Radar traps up the kazoo now, so one has to drive at 55 mph all the way home. We'll give this concert a solid "A". . Next up, maybe, will be a "Billy Joel / Elton John Dueling Pianos" concert in March. I'm neutral towards it, but Liz really wants to go. I can take or leave Mr. Joel, and I've seen Mr. John once, at Big Surf, while in a Purple Haze (me, not him). So he'd be hard-pressed to outdo that performance.

Dear Santa :

Here's what I've asked Santa to bring me for Christmas... ...because I've always wanted to play in a Polka-Metal band.

Christmas Music

Two of the more memorable holiday CD's. We'll conveniently ignore the double-R's in "Carrols" in the lower image. In certain parts of the UK, David Hasselhuffen has achieved a near-legendary status as a singer. "Hot Shot City" is not on the above CD, but if you ever have a chance to hear David sing it, it will literally change your life.

His legacy

Unitopia - The Garden

Artist : Unitopia

Title : The Garden (2008)

Genre : Prog

Rating : ***** ***½ (out of 10*)

. An excellent 2-CD offering from this Aussie group. 33% Pop, 33% Hard Rock, 33% Jazz, 33% Classical Piano, and all Prog. Yeah I know, that's more than 100%. . The highlights are the 22-minute The Garden and the 16-minute Journey's Friend, followed closely by Angeliqua and 321. The latter song is about a Tasmanian mine disaster, where two miners were trapped for 321 hours before being rescued. . The short songs lend a nice contrast to the two long tracks. Still, The Garden and Journey's Friend are what make this a noteworthy album. Both of those tracks are complex and have a smooth flow from one musical style to another. This second release by Unitopia is a proggy delight and showcases their songwriting and musical talents. Well worth the listen. .

- UPDATE -

Here's a YouTube link to one of their songs. This Life

Art Appreciation Tuesday

A nice take-off of one of my favorite pictures done in one of my favorite styles - pointillism. Which brings back collegiate memories of sitting on an apartment floor, three or four others present, three or four black lights present, and painting on black posterboard. Under the influence, of course. And one night, we all got on this pointillism kick...

"Here's your farewell kiss, you dog!"

Sheesh. Some people are just so touchy about us occupying their country, taking away their civil rights, murdering their citizens, raping their women, and granting immunity to the perps.

Daily Dilbert

Incredibly, I don't think this blog has ever had Dilbert on it before.

RIP - Bettie Page

Bettie Page

b. : 04/22/23

d. : 12/11/08

. Bettie Page, whom some consider the quintessence of voluptuousness, passed away at the spry age of 85. Originally a typist by trade, serendipity changed her career, first to a 50's pin-up girl, and then to a barrier-breaking provocatively-posing model, incredibly never with any nudity. . The worth1000 image above, while flawed (purists know her name isn't spelled with a "Y"), shows some of those controversial pics. They're tame by today's standards; nevertheless, try not to drool on the monitor. .. For the aesthetically-inclined, her measurements are listed as having been 36-23-36½, and she was Miss January 1955 in Playboy. For you trivia nuts, Miss February that year was much more famous and was....?? (No, not Marilyn Monroe.)

Tempe Arts Festival Blog

The pictures I took at the Tempe Arts Festival last Saturday are posted at www.taf-2008.blogspot.com . It's a static blog - nothing will be added from here on. Enjoy, feel free to join us next year, and bring your pocketbook.

Bye Bye, Bushie

Gosh, I'm running out of time to say my ta-ta's to Dubnutz. I can say one positive thing about him - he's made me appreciate the Constitution more than I ever did before.

Stone The Devil

Yeah, this is intelligent. Let's all go on a hajj, crowd around a stone wall, call it the Devil, and pelt it with rocks. You can read about it here. And don't give me the "it's all symbolic" BS. I'm sure Satan is just terrified of symbolic gestures. OTOH, he might get a kick out of you trampling your fellow pilgrims to death in your rush to get to the stone. . Sheesh.

Scenes We'd Like To See...

What's the point in learning magic if you don't put it to good use?

Tempe Arts Festival

We went to the Tempe Arts Festival today with some friends. Yeah, it's just a glorified Arts & Crafts Show, and everything was overpriced. It was huge - it took us more than four hours to walk the entire thing. The weather was perfect - overcast for most of the time, but no rain. And temperatures in the low 70's. I didn't buy anything (I'm not into Artsy-Craftsy stuff), but I took some pics of the more unusual stuff. If I get ambitious, I'll post them in a separate blog. Alas, ATM I'm fighting a cold, so I think tonight I'll snuggle under some blankets and read a P.G. Wodehouse book.

Life

Something quick, as we're heading out to The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Liz's birthday. An idyllic scene - a couple pauses beneath a gnarled tree by a wintry lake. And yet, there's something more...

RIP - Odetta

Odetta

b. : 12/31/30

d. : 12/02/08

. Odetta's heyday was in the 50's, slightly before my time. Along with groups like The Weavers, she embodied the definition of "folk-singing" until the next generation (Dylan, Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio) came along. . She's on one or two of my (vinyl) folk compilation albums. To be honest, neither she nor the Weavers are my folky "cup of tea". It's probably a generation thing. Still, she's one of those one-name singers (like Prince, Sting, and my personal favorite Melanie). You know you've carved your own niche when you're recognized by a single name. . But she was also a Civil Rights activist in the 1960's, and that's what I will most remember her for. She was a leader and a featured singer in the famous March on Washington in 1963. . The troubling thing is Miriam Makeba died less than a month ago, and now Odetta's gone too. God seems to have a habit of "collecting sets of threes". In Oct/Nov, it was authors. You can read about that here. Now He's either collecting black female singers, or black singers/civil rights activists. If it's the former, Leontyne Price is the most likely "third" of the set. If it's the latter, then the my money's on Harry Belafonte. If the pattern holds, the set will be completed before the end of the year.

Art Appreciation Thursday

Double your Escher, double your fun. It looks even better full-sized, so left-click on it.

The decorating begins...

Putting up the outside Christmas lights is not my favorite job. Oh, it's better than getting a root canal, and just a little worse than having someone bash me over the head with a brick.

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These pics were taken mostly to figure out how to deal with taking digital shots at night. Yes, there's a night-setting on the camera, but the pictures always come out blurred, cuz you can't hold your hand still long enough for the slow shutter speed.

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But setting the camera on the top of my pick-up worked pretty good in the top photo, even though the camera angles are limited, and the top of the truck gets in the pic. The bottom pic proved that using the flash also helps once it's gotten dark. Buried in one of my closets somewhere is a tripod. It's time to find it. .

My part of the decorating job is done. Liz will now turn every room inside into Santa's house (including the bathrooms). Those front windows in the top pic, and that space to the right of the "3160" in the bottom pic will shortly be overflowing with Christmas lights and other decorations. Stay tuned.

Get used to it...

"Police stopped 49-year-old Ethel Hylton at Houston's Hobby Airport and told her she was under arrest because a drug dog had scratched her luggage. Agents searched her bags and strip-searched her, but they found no drugs. They did find $39,110 in cash, money she had received from an insurance settlement and her life savings; accumulated through over 20 years of work as a hotel housekeeper and hospital janitor. Ethel Hylton completely documented where she got the money and was never charged with a crime. But the police kept her money anyway." (from DailyKos, 11/16/08) If you think this is bogus, google "Ethel Hylton" and follow the many links. Our local police goons have done similar seizures over the years. The New Times newspaper has done some exposés on this sort of abuse; I remember one where the sheriff's office furnished themselves with up-to-date computers by pulling such a stunt. . The truth is, most communities have statutes on the books that allow law officials to seize any and all property from drug dealers. The intent was to hurt the pushers financially (in addition to jail), but the upshot is, as you can see from Ethel Hylton's saga, police just take what they want. It's up to you to prove you didn't get the stuff they seize as a result of drug-dealing, and even if you do prove it, they usually keep it anyway. . The second truth is - it is estimated that as much as 70% of our paper currency was used somewhere along the way in a drug-related scenario, often to snort cocaine. So a drug-sniffing dog has the potential to "out" just about anyone carrying cash. . As our local governments feel the financial crunch of the present recession (thanks, Dubnutz; you jerk), look for them to try to increase revenues by things like photo-radar, speed traps, etc. The police are going to feel the pinch too. So you can expect a lot more "search & seizures" in the near future. Get used to it.

Giving lame ducks a bad name...

Have you noticed that our President-Elect is working much harder to fix the economy than our acting President?