Punny Tuesday

    And just my luck, I've been informed that I will be taking my first cruise this fall.  To Alaska.

Xinnian Kuaile!

   

    Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!  Today, two weeks of celebrating commences.  It's the Year of the Dragon (hence the pic, above), and the Chinese year is 4710.

    The Phoenix Chinese Cultural Center is about a mile from where I work, and back when I was learning Mandarin at the local community college, we'd take a field trip each (new) year there to enjoy the festivities and soak up Chinese culture.  The only catch, of course, was that we had to do all our conversing in Mandarin, with our professor watching.  It was a blast, although I'm sure the Chinses merchants "forgave" a lot of errors on our part.

9 Chickweed Lane

    A 9 Chickweed Lane comic strip from earlier this week.  Maybe it's just me, but I can't help thinking that they slipped this one by the censors somehow.

Happy Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe!

    Happy 212th Birthday to Edgar Allan Poe, whom I consider to be the greatest American writer of the 19th Century.  His style was original; he excelled at both novels and poetry; and he's a heckuva lot more interesting to read than Longfellow, Frost, or Whitman.  Indeed, Jason has waggishly bestowed honorary British citizenship on him, since to call him an American writer puts him in some pretty shoddy company.

    He had a rough childhood; did some strange things (like marrying his cousin when she was only 13 years old); and died prematurely under strange circumstances.  You can read all about it here.

     We'll leave you with this Trivia Teaser, that seems all too obvious but isn't :  What was Edgar Allan Poe's middle name?  Answer in the comments.

Quote for the Day

    George Carlin was a fabulous wit, and a great stand-up comedian.  But that didn't translate well into the printed word.  I've read two of his books (which are really just recycled excerpts of his performances), and they were both "meh".

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "You've all been living under the threat for so long that you can't wake up to the fact that it isn't there any more," he said.  "You've been hooked on missiles and bombs for as long as you can remember, and the idea of getting along without them just doesn't get through.  It's over.  Can't you get that into your heads?  We don't need it any more - any of it.  Everything that the West has publicly claimed to want for the last fifty years has happened.  Doesn't it occur to you that we might be able to do something constructive with all those armaments budgets now?"


(from The Genesis Machine by James P. Hogan)


4½*/10.  The complete review is here.

Happy Martin Luther King Day!!

   Yeah, I had to work, but I'm cool with that.  The commute to and from work was a breeze, and really, I've had enough days off in December, what with Holidays and Vacation.

Trivia Question : Which commie-pinko president signed the bill that made Martin Luther King Day a federal holiday?  Answer in the Comments.

Movie Quote for the Day

    From the greatest film of all time.  The quote that is, not the pic.

KEXX

    Well, phooey.  Phoenix's one and only Alternate Rock station, 103.9 KEXX, switched formats starting this morning.  We now get watered-down Classic Rock.

    Good-bye, The Refreshments and Bob Marley.  Say hello to The Eagles, Journey, Foreigner, Billy Joel, and Boston.  Don't even go looking for groups like The Doors, Canned Heat, Pink Floyd, or Jimi Hendrix.  They're not nearly uplifting/commercial enough.  And you're dreaming if you think you're going to hear Strawbs, Nightwish, or Country Joe & The Fish.

    The "hook" appears to be that you can communicate with KEXX - via Twitter, E-Mail, Phone, and/or FaceBook.  So in theory, it's "your radio station".  I guess I could request the Strawbs.

    In practice, you can forget about them playing anything but schmaltzy pop-rock.  They got something like 700 e-mails in the first two hours this morning.  Dave Pratt, the morning DJ, vows to answer every one of them personally.  Dave Pratt, the morning DJ, did NOT promise he'd play every one of their requests.  Mathematically, there's no way the air-time will keep up with the requests.  This reminds me of the KRZZ and KRUX request lines from long ago.   You could call in and request what you want, but the truth is, they already knew what they were going to play.  (*)

    We already have our watered-down Classic Rock station - KSLX.  Also, just four clicks down from 103.9 KEXX is a fantastic Classic Rock radio station, 103.1 KCDX.  They play a better variety of songs (including just about every group listed above).  And it's commercial-free.  Plus you don't get long-winded DJ's rambling on about humdrum topics.  It's too bad Radio Free Phoenix is no longer on the radio, they were also commercial-free and played some b*tchin' contemporary rock music.

    I'll probably still occasionally turn the dial to 103.9, hoping that this was all a bad dream.  And I have to admit 103.1 forgets to turn on its "transmit" button all too frequently.  But one yearns for a radio station that would hearken back to the KDKB of the early 70's by Bill Compton.  When you never knew what he was going to spin; you just knew that it was going to be awesome.

(*) : We busted this myth one night.  Several of us spent a whole hour phoning KRUX and requesting The Pusher Man by Steppenwolf.  Statistically, we had to have been the Number 1 request.  You know the outcome.  KRUX didn't even acknowledge our efforts; the played something like The Carpenters instead. 

Imaginaerum - Nightwish

   The new Nightwish album is out!!  It's called IMAGINAERUM, and it is fantastic, although I say that about everything they put out.

    Actually, it's a double-CD, with the second one simply being the instrumental versions of each of the tracks on the first CD.  The US release date apparently was today; although it's been out in the European markets for more than a month.

    There is Metal; there is Symphony; there is Celtic music; there are fantastic lyrics and text.  This is a concept album, structured to be the soundtrack for a movie due out later this year.

    Nightwish will of course be doing a world tour to promote the album.  After opening in LA in late January, they immediately split for Europe for the next few months.  But I am assured that the North/South America portion of the tour will follow in the latter half of 2012.  So I am expecting them to show up here in Phoenix in November or so - when Arizona is the only place where they won't freeeze their butts off.

    Last time, I saw them at the Marquee Theater.  Lousy acoustics, stand the whole time, and a mosh pit operating right beside us.  And it was still a fantastic concert!

    I've listened to the first CD twice now, and have to give it a full 10*/10.  But then, I'm not the most objective person when it comes to Nightwish.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "Well," I said as we walked back toward the depot, "what did you think of Mr. Best?"

    "He is an interesting character," Holmes replied, "and very much in the American grain, which is to say he is blunt, intelligent in an uneducated sort of way and quite obviously fearless.  His chief defect, I suspect, is that he is overly excitable by nature."

    "Did anything else strike you?"

    "Only that Mr. Best has several scars upon his right hand which indicate he was once badly burned."


(from Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon, by Larry Millett)


7½*/10.  The full review is here.

Geology Rocks

    We are partial to any cartoon featuring Science in it.  We are also partial to Rock & Roll.

Touché!

  

    I'm ashamed to admit it took me a full day before I "got" this one.

Friday RIF Comic

    FWIW, my current reading project is a bit more ambitious.  I'm tackling The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky.  The classics are something I generally avoid; especially Russian Lit.  But if I'm going to dabble in this genre, my first choice would be Dostoevsky, as I read a biography about him way back in high school.

    I'm about 100 pages through it so far; out of a total of around 600 pages.  I have no doubt that I'll finish it (I am OCD, after all), but it will take a few weeks.

RIP - Bill Heywood

    Sad news in the morning paper, as a longtime bastion of local radio, Bill Heywood, has apparently committed suicide with his wife, Susan.

    Details are sketchy, but it appears they went to a hotel, left a suicide note, and ended it all.  The Arizona Republic indicated they were having financial difficulties, had lost their home recently, and that Susan was in poor health, after suffering at least one stroke.

    There was a time when Bill Heywood was teh morning talk-show host in the valley.  Unlike the talking heads of today, who strive be as stupid, shocking, and extreme in their views as possible, Heywood was known for reasoned questions and smooth insight.  I shudder to think of what radio talk shows will be like in another 25 years.

    Heywood was 75; his wife was 70.  I haven't seen much else in the way of details yet, but I'm sure the Republic and the local TV channels are putting together some specials.

Bye Bye, Bachman

    Interesting results in last night's Iowa caucus.  The two candidates that claim God Himself told them to run for President - Bachman-the-Nut and Governor Goodhair - both got their a$$es spanked.

    BtN has already called it quits, and GG has sent out signals that he's seriously thinking about going back to Texas to work on seceding from the USA.

    The question is - what does God think about that?  Are they disobeying Him by going against His wishes by quitting?  If so, should He punish them in an Almighty Way?  I'm thinking a plague of frogs here.

    Or is it that He forgot to tell those damn left-wing-leaning Iowa Repugnicans to vote for His anointed ones?

    The fact is, politics is a dirty business; and anyone who plays the God-card is delusional at best; hypocritical at worst.  So personally, I think The Creator (who is a "She", BTW.  She told me so.) is sending a message that Religion should be kept out of Politics altogether.  Makes sense to me.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    It ain't the kind of problem you meet every day.  I doubt if it's ever been posed at Staff College ... "Now then, Mr. Flashman, you command an army fifty thousand strong, with heavy guns, well supplied, their lines of communication protected by an excellent river.  Against you is a force of only ten thousand, with light guns, exhausted after a week's forced marching, short of food and fodder and damned near dying of thirst.  Now then, sir, answer directly, no hedging - how do you lose, hey?  Come, come, you've just given excellent reasons for not taking a town that's lying at your mercy!  This should be child's play to a man with your God-given gift of catastrophe!  Well, sir?"


(from Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George MacDonald Fraser)


6½*/10.  The complete review is here.

Punny Sunday

    I learned to read music at a very early age - six years old or so.  We were forced to take piano lessons, and this particular teacher emphasized solfege, and reading sheet music.

    This came in handy later, when I was in chorus.  Unfortunately, both solfege and music-reading are analytical exercises, not artistic.  And the fact is, I have zero musical talent.  So the piano career stopped the day the teacher wanted my left hand to do one thing, and my right hand to do something completely different.  For me, it was like patting my head and rubbing my tummy.

Happy New Year!!

    Here's hoping you stay(ed) up until midnight to greet 2012.  Two of our three dogs will be totally freaking out when the firecrackers start to go off.  My choices are to go to bed around 10:00, knowing I will be awakened by crazed canines in 2 hours or to stay up reading a book, with the lights on and the stereo turned up, in hopes that the dogz won't see and hear to brouhaha.

Friday Funnies

    Indeed.  When have you ever seen Vivaldi worked into a cartoon?

Quote for the Day



"A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits."
(Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, born 155 years ago today)

Rah, Rah - Phoenix Suns!

    Hooray, hooray!  Basketball season is underway!

    Alas, things do not bode well for our Phoenix Suns, and they've only played one game so far.  But they lost - at home - to New Orleans, whom all the ESPN talking heads are pegging as the bottom-feeder of the NBA-West.

    Methinks we need to pick up this powerful pachyderm and get him into the starting line-up ASAP.  Don't worry about the Salary Cap; he'll play for peanuts.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    True love, like any other strong and addicting drug, is boring - once the tale of encounter and discovery is told, kisses quickly grow stale and caresses tiresome ... except, of course, to those who share the kisses, who give and take the caresses while every sound and color seems to deepen and brighten around them.  As with any other strong drug, true first love is really only interesting to those who have become its prisoners.

    And, as is true of any strong and addicting drug, true first love in dangerous.


(from Wizard and Glass, by Stephen King)


8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

Merry Christmas!

    Merry Christmas to one and all!  May you find Peace in your life; Peace in the world; and a red Lamborghini underneath the tree tomorrow morning.

Engineering Humor

    I work with lots of Chemical Engineeers.  I can say without any doubt that this is an accurate rendering of how any of them would view a half-filled glass.

What was spilled?

    Okay, I know I'm over-thinking this one, but...

    ... what exactly broke in that crate that flattened Beetle, thus spilling liquid?  The General has the bottle of wine in his hand, and comments that he hopes his wine-glasses aren't broke.  Makes (comic strip) sense, but then there shouldn't be any booze in that package.  We'll assume it isn't Beetle's blood.

    Sloppy cartooning, if you ask me.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "I knew," said Olivier, "she was not wise - the Empress Maud.  I knew she coud not forget grudges, no matter how sorely she needed to close her eyes to them.  I have seen her strip a man's dignity from him when he came submissive, offering support...

    "Better at making enemies than friends.

    "All the more she needs," he said, "the few she has."


(from The Pilgrim of Hate, by Ellis Peters)

The full review is here.

RIP - Kim Jong-Il

Kim Jong-Il

b.  :  16 February 1941

d.  :  17 December 2011

    Well, I've seen a lot of hate-posts about you, Kim, and I have to say you certainly deserve it.  You were obviously a paranoid-schizo from the get-go, and I suspect people outside North Korea don't know the half of the hell you put your country through during your reign.  Nevertheless, I'll do my best to write something positive about you.  It's a thankless job, but somebody has to do it.

    Let's see now.

    Well, you're the only leader I know of that basically flipped the bird to both the USA and China, and lived to laugh about it.  You made it into Dubnutz's "Axis of Evil", and yet outlasted the chimperor.  You scared the bejeezus out of Japan with your talk of developing nuclear weapons and occasional kidnapping of Japanese citizens for work in your concentration camps.  South Korea lives in dread of you invading them (again), which gives the US an excuse to station massive numbers of troops there.

    The TV showed all sorts of your loyal subjects weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth, but we know of course that it was all staged.  But hey, if I were living there, I'd put on a show of grief too.  It beats being shot to death as a subversive.

    I see you named your youngest son the next ruler, and the few opening opinions of him aren't very nice.  Basically, they're saying he's a chip off the old block.  I would have preferred one of your other sons - the one that was into Heavy Metal.  But hey, I'm just looking for common ground.

   So Rest In Peace, Kim Jong-Il.  Everyone else thinks you were a dsmented bastard, and they're probably right.  But I keep having this nagging thought that you were just a crafty old devil, and even now you're laughing in your grave about how foolish you made all the political powers of the world look.

The Saturday before Xmas Eve

    I knew better than to go out on the streets today - the last Saturday before the Christmas weekend.  But the book and record stores were calling to me like a pair of sirens. and I was looking for certain LP's to give as Xmas gifts.

    I think every automobile in the Phoenix valley was on the road today.  Intersections - all of them - were insanely overloaded.  Ditto for parking lots.

    Fortunately, none of those Xmas shoppers were going to the used-record store.  So that turned out to be a peaceful little haven for an hour or so.  I didn't find the records I was looking for (NIN, Radiohead, Tori Amos), but I frankly wasn't expecting to.  I did find a couple Vangelis albums, plus an old, obscure one by Jorma Kaukonen.  And got three light-classical LP's for free (Mahler, Bach's Greatest Hits, Artur Rubinstein).

    Unfortunately, lots of shoppers were hitting the used-book store.  The store itself was staffed sufficiently to handle the deluge.  The parking lot was not.

    Still, I'm off all next week, and will finish my shopping then.  All I need are stocking-stuffers for both Jason and Liz, and some "surprise" presents for Liz.  If I put my mind to it, I can have everything done by the end of Tuesday.  That way I don't have to venture out next Saturday, which will probably make today's traffic look like a picnic.

Schrodinger's Cat

     I'm uncertain as to whether I agree with Heisenberg's principle.

Demotivational Tuesday

    Good choice, Joyce.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "Have you worked in a bar before?" he enquired, clinging to his dignity as a drowning man will cling to the matchstick of proverb.

    Loz shook her beautful head.  "Not behind one," she said, "but we've danced in lots.  We're pole-dancers."

    "You don't look Polish," said Neville.

    Loz looked at Pippa.

    Pippa looked at Loz.

    And both laughed coquettishly.

    Neville clutched at his heart.


(from Knees Up Mother Earth, by Robert Rankin)

The full review is here.

Vacation!

   Yowzah!  I'm on vacation until the Tuesday after Christmas.  In fact, I only work three more days this year - the Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday of that week.  I have that Friday off too.  Gotta use my vacation days or lose them.

    There is Xmas shopping to do.  That's a two-week ordeal for me, but only cuz I'll find excuses not to start it next week.  Which is really stoopid on my part, since the schools won't be out until the following week.

Kewlness

Happy Birthday, Noam Chomsky!

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."

    Noam Chomsky is an activist, a linguist, an intellectual, and is 83 years young today.  His quotes (see above for an example) are pithy, witty, and very relevant to the world today.

    I became aware of him at an early age - but for a strange reason.  I have always done crossword puzzles, and "Noam" would often show up in a grid, with the definition something like "Writer Chomsky".   I'd usually try "Noah" for the answer, and of course it was slightly wrong.  For many years I wondered WTF this Chomsky dude was, and why he had such a strange first name.

    FWIW, "Noam" is actually his middle name.  His real first name is "Avram".

The Urinal

    And just remember, Power always starts with a Pee.

Jim Morrison roolz

    Back in the day, when everybody was debating who the the kewlest - The Beatles or The Stones, my personal opinion was that it was The Doors.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "The mike is yours," Dozsa said.  "What have you in mind?"

    "A patterned signal, to show them we wish to communicate.  Why start with mathematics?  They know full well that we know the value of pi.  But if we can recognize their music for what it is, and enjoy the same, faith, they can ours."  Caitlin reached down to the webbing on the side of her chair.  "Well that I thought to bring my sonador."

    She inserted a program and touched the keyboard.  Eine Kleine Nachtmusik tumbled forth.  "They offered us mirth," she explained.  "Let us offer it back."

(from The Avatar, by Poul Anderson)


The complete review is here.

The Christmas lights are up!

    I'll let you guess which house is mine.

Creationist Parenting

   Sadly, I have gone to church with parents that have this mentality.