He's a Southpaw !!

No wonder he's so smart. All left-handers are geniuses, you know.

Young Love

Meet Alfie Patten. At 13 years old, he's the proud papa of a bouncing baby girl. Mom's all the way 15 years old. They were 12- and 14-years-old when the baby was conceived.

Today, there was a wrinkle to the story. Two other teenagers have come forth claiming that they might be the father. It seems Mama got around.

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Kids. They grow up so fast nowadays. When I was 12, I was in 7th grade, and was still adjusting to the fact that girls no longer had cooties.

XKCD fix for the week.

A clever take-off on the old "gullible" gag.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We heard a Fry's Grocery Store radio ad earlier this week that began something like this : "In honor of Valentine's Day, fresh asparagus is on sale for only..." . I suggested to Liz that it might be more appropriate for me to make her an asparagus-&-lettuce arrangement (with maybe some radishes or carrots to add a dash of color) instead of spending money on the traditional red roses. She didn't buy into it at all.

I just finished...

This is one I probably won't review at the book-blog. And to all you Darwinists out there, I'd like you to explain why we "evolved" to where nose hairs and ear hairs only proliferate once we hit middle age. . BTW, Happy slightly-belated Birthday to Mr. Darwin himself, who yesterday turned a spry 200. The same day as Ray Manzarek, undoubtedly the business guru of The Doors, turned 70. (Sighs) I have always been a Doors fan. Jim Morrison would be 65 now. One wonders what he would've been like had he lived to experience geezerdom.

Photo of the Month

If this doesn't make you go, "Awwwwww", there's something wrong. And now you're telling me someone deliberately set these fires? . FWIW, Arizona went through something like this a couple years ago. Devastating, arson-caused fires when all our forests were tinder-dry. Hundreds of houses destroyed. They caught the jerk that set the fires - it turns out he was a local forest firefighter and did it to earn some money.

Ché Tribute

This is for "Ernesto", who commented in yesterday's post that Jason bears a striking resemblance to Ché. . I have a T-shirt with Ché on it. Same picture as shown above, only red-on-black. I rarely wear it, for fear that someone will be offended. Silly me. The most common remark I get is, "Who's the hippie?" Sheesh. Sic gloria transit mundi.

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Nice, eh? Unfortunately, the bozos in the bakery left a sheet of paper between the cake and the frosting. How the heck can you miss that? . When Liz called to get a refund, the manager's response was, "Are you sure it wasn't edible paper?" Yeah right, buddy. Nice try. Now give us our flippin' money back. Which they did.

But I digress. Here's Jason just as he realizes he blew out all of the candles but one. Happy Birthday, Jason !!

Busy Weekend

There was a lot happening in our little corner of the asylum this weekend. Some dear friends came over from San Diego. Jason's birthday was on Saturday. And Friday night, we went to the Rhythm Room to see and hear this lady and her band put out some great blues. You can read the Wiki article about her here. BTW, Candye, one of the San Diego friends and I all share the same birthday.

Another mystery solved

How did Escher come up with those incredible images? Ah. Just as I suspected.

Happy Waitangi Day !!

I really need to get me a Maori alter-ego. Dimension-traveling to New Zealand would be more fun if I knew people there, even if I had to chrono-hop as well.

A psychic link to PBS

I recently posted about the wonderful game of Risk here. And I just finished posting a review of a book featuring the Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (Death, War, Famine, and Pollution. Pestilence retired when penicillin was discovered) here. So imagine my surprise when that excellent comic strip, Pearls Before Swine incorporated them both into this week's storyline.

Coincidence? I think not.

Arizona Cardinals Win SuperBowl 43 !!!

The Arizona Cardinals stunned the heavily-favored Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday 23-20, in a game shortened to 58 minutes so the NFL could donate two minutes-worth of Super Bowl electricity to the storm-ravaged, out-of-power residents of Kentucky. SuperBowl MVP Larry Fitzgerald scored the winning TD with 37 seconds remaining. . Interviewed after the game, Fitzgerald said, "That play was open the whole fourth quarter. We knew we just had to have patience, and only run it when there wouldn't be enough time for the Steelers to stage a last-minute comeback. Now I'm going to finally get a raise".

Winning quarterback Kurt Warner had this to say : "I knew we were going to win. God told me this when He and I had breakfast this morning. He said He favored us because we have a 'churchy' name, "The Cardinals", and that glorifies Him. Now I'm going to Dollywood."

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Losing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger responded, "Of course I'm disappointed we only had 37 seconds left at the end. It would have been nice to have those 59th and 60th minutes. I'm also bummed that God was pulling for Arizona. Now I'm going to hie me to a nunnery".

NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell defended the power-donating decision, saying, "I don't regret it at all. The NFL cares about the community and I'm proud in knowing that we met our social responsibilities. Besides, the way Arizona was playing, Pittsburgh didn't have a chance. Now I'm going to sleep." . Finally, Cardinals owner Bill Bidwell had this announcement, "I'm giving the entire Arizona Cardinals roster its unconditional release. I'll be (bleeped) if I'm going to give them all raises for this. I never asked them to make the playoffs, let alone win the SuperBowl. I'm going to field a team of high school all-stars next year. It'll be a great experience for the kids, and I don't have to pay them a dime. They need to keep their amateur status in order to play college ball. It's a win-win situation. Now I'm going to the bank to count my money"

Hey London and Paris !!

We had a high of 82°F today! With low humidity and not a cloud in the sky.

Come to think of it, it's gonna be this way for the rest of the week.

And no, we don't want to discuss the weather when June rolls around.

Superbowl NAQV

Queen Victoria on Superbowl XLIII. My own delusion about it to follow soon - maybe tomorrow night; more likely on Wednesday.

WTFWHT?

I don't know which is sadder - the fact that Michael Phelps allowed someone to snap a picture of him taking a hit off a bong, or the fact that we continue to make role models out of sports personalities whose lives frankly don't measure up. . You'd think Phelps would've at least considered the ramifications of what this picture does to his endorsement career. What the flip was he thinking?

Movies We'd Like To See...

I like films that tell "the other side of the story". This one would be kewl. I'll probably watch my second movie of 2009 tonight. I'm getting to be a real cineophile.

"You kill people."

Kudos to the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who rebuked and embarrassed Israeli president Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Thursday, for Israel's recent overkill (literally) in Gaza. . You were hard-pressed to find this article anywhere; even MSNBC buried it on a back-page of its website. Nevertheless, you could find it if you looked hard enough, and a link to it is here. . It's a bold move for Erdogan to upbraid Israel and defend the Gazans. It squelches the timetable of the invasion of Gaza - which was carefully choreographed to happen during the transition of power in Washington, with the Israeli troops returning home just before Obama was sworn in. Nice and tidy for Israel, who hoped it would be forgotten by the time Obama got into the White House. Now Erdogan has brought the issue back into the headlines, reminding the world that the issue is anything but resolved. . Erdogan returned home to Ankara today to a hero's welcome. As for Dubnutz's predictable and lame-duck response, the cartoon below pretty much sums it all up. God, I'm glad he's been turned out to pasture in Texas.

Sparks Of Ancient Light

Artist : Al Stewart

Release Date : 15 September 2008

Genre : Folk-Rock (with a minor in History) Overall Rating : ***** ****½ (out of 10 *)

. This Week I'm Listening To... I've loved Al Stewart ever since KDKB here in Phoenix gave his Past, Present, and Future album extensive airtime in the early 70's. For some reason, other than Year Of The Cat (1976), none of his albums ever was a success with the un-historied masses. Perhaps it's because all his lyrics are poetic, intelligent, and deal with people and events that won't ever appear in People or Teen magazine. You won't catch Britney singing an Al Stewart-penned song. Heck, Britney wouldn't be able to even comprehend the words. . What's To Like... SOAL is vintage Al Stewart. The songwriting is superb. He's brought in Laurence Juden, formerly with Paul McCartney & Wings, and the two of them just shine on guitars. Al's voice is as good as ever, and all the tunes are catchy. There are no "new directions" here, but who cares? . About the only thing lacking is a 10-minute epic, such as Roads To Moscow or Modern Times. The longest track on SOAL clocks in at 5:41. . And Best Of All... See that album cover? That's a Phoenician trireme! It goes with Track 4, Hanno The Navigator. My Carthagenian alter-ego is ecstatic that Al chose to honor his heritage by writing, and then highlighting, a song about Hanno. You can read more about him here. . Bottom line - this is a fantastic album that unfortunately won't get any airplay. It's a typical Al Stewart "wet" album; i.e., a lot of the songs have water-related themes. And oh yeah, Al Stewart will be in Phoenix on 19 February at The Rhythm Room. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Super Bowl

Since I'm a chrono-hopper, I'll let you in on the upcoming Super Bowl game. The first half will belonged (tenses are ambiguously confusing to a time-traveler) to Pittsburgh. Statistically, they'll dominated, although scorewise, it's only a single-digit lead at halftime.

The fourth quarter belongeds to the Cardinals, and they will staged a dramatic comeback to won the game. The experts call it the 2nd-biggest Super Bowl upset of all time (*), surpassed only by Joe Namath and the New York Jets in Super Bowl 3.

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(*) : They mean "so far". In 2012, there's an even bigger surprise champion.

Jason's New Car

A 2002 Saturn. 90,000 miles; $2800. Sweet !!

Happy New Year !!

Chinese New Year, that is. 2009 is the Year of the Ox. Maybe that means it'll be a bull market on Wall Street. Lord knows, my retirement fund could use that.

More of his Legacy

The Worst ever. Plain and simple.

I Am Legend (the movie)

2007 (DVD : 2008). MPAA Rating : PG-13. Genre : Post-apocalyptic. Length : 100 minutes. Overall rating : *** (out of 5*).

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This is actually the third movie version of a 1954 novella by Richard Matheson. The first two were The Last Man On Earth (1964, starring Vincent Price) and The Omega Man (1971, starring Charlton Heston).

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Robert Neville (Will Smith) is seemingly the last human left on earth after a cure-for-cancer had an unforseen side-effect of turning everyone but him into rabid light-hating mutants. Along with his dog, Sam, he hunts for an anti-virus, food, and any other survivors; all the while trying not to be the mutants' next happy-meal.

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What's To Like...

It's got Will Smith in it. The guy can act, and always gets great roles in good movies. There are some awesome computer-generated shots of ghost-city New York. While the movie has made some significant changes from the book, quite frankly, that's for the better. Matheson's novella, although a ground-bnreaking post-apocalyptic story, is sparse on the action and bleak in its outcome.

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Still, it would have been ambitious to tackle some of the book's details. Matheson created two types of baddies - undead vampires and not-quite-dead mutants. The latter could think and taunt. In the movie, there are no vampires, and the mutants are ferocious but dumb.

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The girl's role is significantly different, and leads to a much-brighter ending. In the book, there is a question of whether she's "one of us" or not. No such mystery in the book.

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What's Not To Like...

Spoiler Alert : The dog dies.

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The Verdict...

Three stars. Will Smith's superior acting balances out the cinematic difficulties in telling the story. The ending changes the meaning of "I Am Legend", but doesn't neglect it. This was a good choice for my first movie for 2009. I think I watched five on 2008, which is above-average for me.

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Epilogue...

"I am a superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am Legend." (last line in the book)

Later that night...

Well I mean, someone did have to do the cleaning up.

Twice Upon A Time

Apparently, book titles are not copyrightable. There's at least a dozen different "Twice Upon A Time" selections to choose from at Amazon. One of which I am just finishing reading.

In case you missed it...

...we have a new president. And since none of my family are running for public office right now, I can say...

... for the first time in 8 years, I'm proud to be an American.

The worst 48 hours in a dittohead's life

Today, they have to endure all the Martin Luther King Day activities. Then tomorrow, they have to watch "one of them" take the oath of office.

RIP - Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth

b. : 12 July 1917

d. : 16 January 2009

. Andrew Wyeth was an American painter, specializing in uber-realism. He and Norman Rockwell may be the only two true icons American has in painting. . Whereas Rockwell was known for his artistic wit, Wyeth was known for his meticulous detail. His most-famous painting, Christina's World, is shown below. It may look ordinary, but go ahead and try to paint a wheat field like that without it getting repititious and boring. I've also seen some of his pictures with stone walls in them. It takes 10,000 subtle variations of gray to make those walls look real. They were always masterfully done. . Wyeth was also revealed to be a stud-muffin, when his collection of "Helga" pictures became public. Intriguing, yes. But he will be remembered for his Pennsylvania and Maine landscapes, not his nudes. .

RIP - Patrick McGoohan

Patrick McGoohan

b. : 03/19/28

d. : 01/13/09

. I remember Patrick McGoohan, first from the spy series, Secret Agent; then from the enormously popular and short-lived The Prisoner. . The latter, a scant 17 episodes long, quickly garmered a major cult following (is that an oxymoron?) when it aired in the US. In the summer, IIRC. McGoohan played a British secret agent who quits one day for no specified reason. He is quickly gassed and transported to "The Village", a pleasant seaside resort-but-prison for ex-agents of all sorts of countries. He is simply labeled "Number 6" and spends the rest of the series trying to escape and being a rebellious PITA for whoever it was that was running The Village. . We were all bummed when it was learned that there would be no second season. I suppose in retrospect, there are only so many plots that can be written about thinking you escaped The Village, only to wake up the next day, back in your cottage/cell. If you've nevcr seen this 1984-esque series, I can only say that I highly recommend finding it.

Mayan Zits

This is for "Bronx Cheers", who apparently watches and laughs at The History Channel as much as I do.

So long, a**hole

Nice to see there are others who feel the same way I do. And yes, I skipped his farewell address tonight.

Art Appreciation Wednesday

I'd make this into a "Where in the World" contest, but I have no idea where it is. Eastern Europe maybe? In any event, it's certainly a unique piece of mixed-media art.