Sundown on the Edmund Fitzgerald

Last night I got to see Gordon Lightfoot live, in concert. It was fantastic. What a man – what a storyteller!

The story – and there is one – is to come, but here are some live treats:

Gordon Lightfoot singing Sundown

Gordon Lightfoot singing The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

[Warning: This song is cut short near the end, as an usher, apparently thinking that I was about to take a picture, made me put the camera away.]

The Pluto Formerly Known as “Planet”

Everyone has heard the news today that Pluto is no longer a planet. However, that’s actually not true. The truth is that they have changed the definition of “what is a planet.” In other words, it’s not that the perception of Pluto has changed; it’s that the perception of the scientific community of what constitutes a planet has changed. And this was codified today by a vote of the International Astronomical Union.

According to reports, the new definition of “planet” adopted this week by the International Astronomical Union states that a planet “has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”

So Pluto is not a planet. But my neighbor is.

Bubble Gum Alley – the Grossest Place Ever

Hmm..I wonder why they call it “Bubble Gum Alley”?

You know, on second thought, I’m not sure that I want to know:

Yes, both walls, the entire length of the alley…

All ABC gum. Eeeew! We figure that there’s a PhD thesis in epidemiology just waiting to happen here.

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The Locomotion versus the Time Warp

Have you ever noticed the similarity between Little Eva’s Locomotion and Richard O’Brien’s Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show?

It came to me as I was listening to the Locomotion (yes, again, I admit, the Veggie Tales version – it’s strangely catchy). And it struck me, like a hot kiss at the end of a wet fist – she’s describing the Time Warp!

Of course, Little Eva’s Locomotion was released nearly fifteen years before O’Brien’s Time Warp.

I think that O’Brien must have listened to a lot of Little Eva as a tyke.

Compare:

“You gotta swing your hips, now. Come on, baby.
Jump up. Jump back. Well, now, I think you’ve got the knack.”

To:

“It’s just a jump to the left, And then a step to the right
With your hands on your hips, You bring your knees in tight.”

I’m just sayin’

Nobody Move – This Bra is Loaded

Terrorists must be having a field day – at least if they are keeping abreast of the news. The Transportation Safety Authority has announced that they have given a lift to the ban on liquid- and gel-filled bras. The TSA announced the cleave between the rules on the curve-enhancing bras and all other goo-filled containers earlier this week.

Can it be long before women are smuggling Aquafresh in the left and Listerine in the right?

“We recognize it’s a sensitive issue,” said a TSA spokesperson, who added that they were “reaching out” to touch the gel-bra wearing community.

While the announcement was to provide support in particular those who wear gel bras for prosthetic purposes, the TSA has pledged that nobody would be “questioned about the contents of their undergarments.”

Cross your heart?

Soak Until the Size of Border Collie Testicles

I’ve seen many a strange thing in recipes, particularly with my foray into raw food, but never before have I seen a recipe in which one is instructed to prepare an ingredient to “the size of border collie testicles”.

I couldn’t make this up. The instructions, for a raw peanut dish, call for, and I kid you not, soaking the raw peanuts “until they are the size of border collie testicles.”

Damn, now I’m going to have to get a Border collie.

Or borrow one.

Can you imagine?

“Excuse me, can I borrow your dog for a just a moment? I’d like to measure his testicles. You don’t mind, do you?”

I sure hope that nobody from the SPCA is around when I’m making this recipe.

Don’t believe me? See the recipe calling for something “the size of border collie testicles.”.

Is $1000 Really a Severe Penalty for Harbouring an Illegal Alien?

Now, I don’t really care on which side of the illegal aliens debate you fall (and the sides are legion). And I don’t care whether you are for, against, or completely ignorant of, the new Riverside, New Jersey law which makes it a crime to employ or rent a home to an illegal alien (the so-called “hiring and housing’ ban).

But I object, rather strenously, to opponents calling the $1,000 fine a “severe penalty”.

Let’s think about this. If you are hiring an illegal alien, you are probably going to save way more than $1,000 by paying them a pittance compared to what you’d pay someone who was a citizen or here legally (let’s face it, that’s why you are hiring illegal aliens, isn’t it?) And if you are renting housing to illegal aliens, why you are going to make way more than $1,000 in rent in just a few months, and odds are good you are also saving on repairs and maintenance, because you are a slumlord who rents to illegal aliens because hey, what are they going to do, report you to the fair housing board for not taking care of the water and gas leaks, and the cockroaches and rats with which they are forced to sleep?

So, no, I don’t think that $1,000 is a severe penalty at all.

You want to bitch about money in connection with this new law? How about the $10million that those groups who are calling the law a “severe penalty” are suing the New Jersey town for, claiming that in the mere weeks since the law was passed, their constituents have suffered that much in damages. Groups such as the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders claim that they need $10million because of the passage of the law has done “irreparable harm” to their members.

Because, yeah, like suing for $10million is going to help their image, you money grubbing scum suckers.

JonBenet Ramsey Murder Suspect Confesses

According to CNN, the suspect in the Jon Benet Ramsey murder case who was arrested ealier today in Thailand has confessed. Now the big question on everybody’s lips is: “Who is it?”

So what do you think? Is the as-yet anonymous suspect her father? A man related to one of her rivals on the “dress your daughter up and parade her around like junior eye-candy” circuit? Just some random sick fnck? Ray Buckey of McMartin Preschool fame?

What do you think?