Friday, December 14, 2007

Citrus

"What did you think of that lemon candy?"

"It was sub-lime."

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Socks

I had to throw out a pair of socks the other day.

Normally, when a sock has a hole in it, and you want to get rid of it, you have two options.

(1) Throw away the other sock as well. I feel a little weird doing this; it seems somehow wasteful to throw away a perfectly good sock.

(2) Keep the other sock. This can be annoying, though, because then you have an odd number of socks, and the sock that you keep might almost, but not quite match some of your other socks.

Fortunately, though, this time around, both socks in the pair happened to develop holes in the toes at the same time, so the decision was made for me with no unpleasant consequences! Isn't symmetry wonderful?

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Oh I, yeah, I'm still alive

Who are the greatest rock and pop groups of all time, if we restrict ourselves to those groups whose members are all still alive today?

If duos count, then we can include the Everly Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel, and Ike & Tina Turner.

All four founding members of the Kinks are still kicking.

We've also got Cream, who famously reunited for four 2005 shows in London.

Sly & the Family Stone were a large group, but Wikipedia seems to think all of their original lineup are still alive.

All four of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are still with us.

Whatever you may think of Michael Jackson's strange personal life, or his brothers' lack of successful solo careers, all of the Jackson Five continue to live and breathe.

Fleetwood Mac had several different lineups over the years, but I don't think any of the members are underground.

Of course, the nearer we get to the present, it becomes easier to name bands who haven't had a member die, but harder to agree on who the most "classic" or "biggest" acts are. But a few more who qualify are Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Talking Heads, Blondie, ABBA, the Police, ZZ Top, Van Halen, U2, and R.E.M.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

More on yesterday's lame cartoon

Thanks to Herre for sending me these cartoons that are every bit as hilarious and cutting as the cartoon I linked to yesterday.





Friday, November 2, 2007

Lame-ass political cartoonery

Thanks to Biiirdmaaan at the Comics Curmudgeon for this one. This has got to be the least specific political cartoon in the history of the universe.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

An anagram

It's Tom Petty's birthday today. His full name,

THOMAS EARL PETTY

is an anagram of

HOARSELY ATTEMPT.

Friday, October 19, 2007

A homophone

"Eyebrow raiser" sounds just like "Eyebrow razor".

Now THIS is real-life comedy

My friend recently went on a first date with a woman he met on the internet. They were talking on the phone shortly before this meeting, and even though they had already seen some pictures of one another on the web, the young lady provided my friend with a brief description of her appearance to make it easier for them to recognize each other. Specifically, she told my friend, "I'll be wearing a camouflage jacket."

My friend replied, "Oh, so you'll be easy to spot."

Fashion mistakes

Sometimes, one person or one unfortunate incident can ruin a fashion choice for everyone. For instance, November 22nd, 1963, was probably the nail in the coffin for the pink pillbox hat.

Also, no matter how much of a film comedy buff you are, you aren't going to wear a Hitler mustache and refer to it as an "Oliver Hardy mustache". "What? Why are you looking at me like that? I just enjoy Laurel and Hardy! What's wrong with that?"

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Last of a breed

Joey Bishop died yesterday. He was the last surviving member of the Rat Pack.

Some other famous "lasts":

Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow, was the last surviving main cast member from the Wizard of Oz. He died in 1987. (However, Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin coroner, is still alive.)

Tommy Ramone is the only surviving member of the Ramones' orginal lineup.

It remains to be seen who will be the last surviving member of the Beatles or the Who -- both groups have two members remaining.

Twelve men have walked on the moon, three of whom are now deceased. Since all of them were born between 1923 and 1935, I suppose that means that sometime perhaps about a decade and a half from now, there will be a last surviving moon-walker.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Sure as shit

I've decided that instead of saying "sure as hell", which is a common expression that flows out my mouth quite easily, I'd like to start saying "sure as shit".

The alliterative factor is a big part of the reason. Furthermore, "sure as hell" doesn't necessarily make a whole lot of sense if you take it literally. Many halfway religious people who have not-super-well-defined spiritual leanings might believe in some kind of afterlife, but a lot of them wouldn't think of hell as any kind of certainty. I think people nowadays are probably a lot more skeptical about the existence of hell than they are about some vague kind of afterlife or some kind of sentient superhuman force that can guide our lives.

Obviously, though, an expression like "sure as hell" shouldn't be taken so literally. When people say it, they aren't actually saying that the existence of hell is something they're more sure of than anything. It's a bit like when people say "What the fuck?" They don't actually mean "What in the name of sexual intercourse?" It's more like saying, "What in the name of [strong word for emphasis]?"

Language in general is fascinating, and so is swearing in particular. I could talk about it all day (for instance, it's interesting that "shit" is a stronger word than "hell", even though the former is merely a perhaps unpleasant daily reality, whereas the latter is punishment until the end of time). But at any rate, yeah, "sure as shit" rules.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Clocks are running late

Let's say I tell you that the clock in my kitchen is five minutes late. When my clock says that it's 8:00, what time is it really?

This is a sincere question. Check the comments for elaboration.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

On the 14th of October

Those words are spoken at the beginning of the 1985 song "L'Affaire Dumoutier" by Montreal band The Box. If you're not Canadian and/or don't remember the 80s, then you're probably unfamiliar with the song -- and even if you are a Canadian who remembers the 80s, there's no guarantee that you remember the song. I had a vague recollection of it, and thought it had a trippy video, and hence was pleased to have recently tracked that song down.

Anyway, that song got me wondering: what are the most famous examples of songs that mention a specific date? I'm thinking specifically of "name of month" + "number" -- there are plenty of songs containing the words "Halloween" or "Christmas" or "New Year's Day", but fewer that say "October 31st" or "December 25th" or "January 1st".

The three best-known examples that occur to me are:

"Pride (In the Name of Love)" by U2 (Early morning / April 4 / Shot rings out in the Memphis sky)

"September" by Earth Wind And Fire (Do you remember / The 21st night of September)

"Saturday In The Park" by Chicago (Saturday in the park / Think it was the 4th of July)

Thursday, September 20, 2007

In support of the serial comma

One more argument in favour of the serial comma:

I was reading somebody's Facebook profile, and she listed her favourite TV shows as:

"Sex and the City, Seinfeld, Friends and the Nanny".

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

A puzzle

What does this map represent? Why are some areas blue, some red, and some orange?


Tuesday, September 11th

Daily newspaper comic strips are, not surprisingly, composed a few weeks in advance. Occasionally, this can lead to coincidences of timing that can be unfortunate or ironic or poignant.

Perhaps not many of you are aware that Dick Tracy is still being produced as a daily comic strip. This is the Dick Tracy strip that appeared in newspapers on the morning of September 11th, 2001.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Music Trivia

Question 1

What do the following artists have in common?
Missy Elliott
Tupac Shakur
Kanye West

Question 2

What do the following artists have in common?
Pink Floyd
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Foo Fighters

Question 3

What do the following artists have in common?
George Michael
Peter Gabriel
the Beatles
Foo Fighters
Beastie Boys
the Traveling Wilburys
Warren Zevon

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Who would play God?

If you were making a movie, and money was no object, and you wanted to hire a celebrity to play the role of God, who would you choose?

My choices can be seen in the comments, but don't click there yet, if you first want to try to decide for yourself.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Akitas and huskies and cats? Oh my!

If you want something with that "Awww!" factor, you've come to the right place. Check out the touching story of Hachiko the faithful dog, or these three videos featuring husky-cat interaction.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Another rant I wrote

A blog I spend an inordinate amount of time on is the Comics Curmudgeon. On Easter weekend 2007, Johnny Hart of B.C. fame passed away. Even casual readers of the funny pages may be aware that for the later part of Mr. Hart's life, he was an evangelical Christian and sometimes displayed this fact in his comic strips.

Naturally, in the comments at the Comics Curmudgeon, a few different opinions were expressed about Mr. Hart's work. In response to some of the comments, I posted a little rant of my own. I admitted in the rant that I was concurrently angry for unrelated reasons, and I haven't really looked back at my rant until now. And you know what? Although I might have been angry at the time I wrote it, I totally stand by my rant. And since this is my blog, I thought I'd post a link to that rant.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Felines on film

Which music videos have big cats in them?

Like a Virgin by Madonna
Maneater by Hall & Oates
Island in the Sun by Weezer

Others?

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Bars shouldn't have bathroom attendants

The Brunswick House in Toronto is a bit of an institution. Founded in 1876, for some time it's had a reputation as a fun hangout for university students, not only from the nearby U of T, but also from other universities in southern Ontario in places like Guelph, for instance.

I moved to Toronto eleven months ago, on August 2nd 2006. For the month of August, I was subletting a furnished apartment that was literally less than a one-minute walk from the Brunswick House. Naturally, I started going there pretty frequently. In particular, I used to go there on Mondays for their karaoke night.

Karaoke night at the Brunswick stopped sometime in the fall, but it started again sometime in June 2007 or thereabouts. Tonight, I decided to go back to the Brunswick to check out the karaoke again after a long absence.

Anyway, to get to the point of this rant, I discovered when I went to the bathroom at the bar that there was someone there working as a men's room attendant. I think, as far as I can remember, that this is the first time I've been in a bar that hired such a person. It seemed almost hard to believe, because part of the appeal of the "Brunny" (as folks sometimes call it) is its "dive" character. The furniture is wooden and no-frills, and the beer and the decor are cheap.

So it's not exactly the place you'd expect to see a bathroom attendant. More to the point, though, I don't think there should be bathroom attendants at ANY bar. Now look, I understand that there are a lot of people out there who need a job where you just have to hand paper towels to people and get to collect a fair number of tips. I hesitate slightly to indulge in this rant because I know there are people who need these kinds of jobs. But still, I DON'T WANT TO FEEL OBLIGED TO SHELL OUT MONEY JUST BECAUSE I WANT TO PEE.

There is NEVER ANY NEED for a bathroom attendant. I can turn on taps by myself, and I can grab paper towels by myself. (By the way, part of what made it so incongruous to see a men's room attendant at the Brunswick is that we're not even talking about little white cloth towels, we're talking about an attendant who rips a piece of brown paper towel off of a roll.) But my issue is not just the lack of practical need for a bathroom attendant. It's also that I find it inherently intrusive that an establishment hires someone whose job is to basically hang out while I pee.

I wouldn't shop at a grocery store who hired someone to walk around with me along the aisles helping me to pick out products. I'd find it annoying. I can decide what food I want with no help from anyone else, thank you. It's kind of a personal choice, anyway. And what could be more personal than peeing or pooing, or washing your hands afterwards? Look, I know how to do this stuff, I don't need any help at all. And I don't want to feel obliged to tip somebody for doing something they don't need to be doing in the first place. It's just stupid. Stop hiring bathroom attendants. I don't want to go to your bar if you hire them. And if I do go to your bar, I'm going to seriously consider pretending I'm going out for a smoke (even though I don't smoke) and just pissing in the alleyway. DO NOT HIRE BATHROOM ATTENDANTS. IT IS STUPID AND ANNOYING AND WRONG. I'm not going back to the Brunswick anytime soon.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Stanley Cup Finals

Today, June 24th, is the anniversary of the latest the Stanley Cup Finals have ever ended. (1995 was the year.) This year, Vancouver was eliminated in round 2 by Anaheim, who went on to win the Cup.

If you're a Vancouver fan, you can find some solace in that fact. It's like, "We might have been defeated, but at least we were defeated by the best."

It seems to happen fairly often to Vancouver that the team that eliminates them from the playoffs goes on to win the Stanley Cup. It's happened in 2007, 2002, 2001, 1996, 1994, 1989, and 1982. (Of course, 1994 and 1982 are kind of cheats -- in those years, it's not quite accurate to say the team that defeated Vancouver "went on" to win the Cup.)

There are a couple of other NHL teams who can make similar claims.

"Whoever defeats St. Louis wins the Cup." This was true in 2002, 2001, 1999, 1998, and 1997. Five of six consecutive years!

"Whoever defeats Boston wins the Cup." This was true in 2003, 1995, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1988, and 1986.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

I have a cold

I went grocery shopping today while recovering from a cold. While standing in line, it occurred to me that it would be pretty funny if the following musical artists from disparate genres decided to go on tour together.

Oran "Juice" Jones
Vitamin C
Pulp

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Best of Craigslist

I just discovered the Best of Craigslist and man, is it ever funny. The next time you take a day off because you have a cold and want to find something to read on the computer all day, check it out.

Friday, June 8, 2007

Palindromes

At the subway station near my apartment, there's a door with the word "SIGNALS" written on it. I see that door pretty much every day, and so at one point during the academic year, it occurred to me that the following is a palindrome:

SLANG IS SIGNALS

The nice thing about this palindrome is that it's reasonably meaningful. "Slang can function as a linguistic cue that you belong to the same in-group as someone", or something along those lines.

After discovering this palindrome, I decided to Google it, since I was sure other people must have independently discovered it in the past. Sure enough, some people had, but there seemed to be surprisingly few.

One member of that small list is someone by the name of Dean Blehert, who has a long list of palindromes titled Light Verse.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

"Maven"

What do you think of when you see the word "maven"? What kind of image does it conjure up in your head? What does a typical "maven" look like?

L.M. Squires, at Polyglot Conspiracy, points out a tendency of which I was previously unaware.

Illeism

What do Rickey Henderson, Julius Caesar, Bob Dole, Duffman, and Elmo have in common?

They are all illeists, a word I didn't know until today.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Bunnies vs. Accountants

Just before Anaheim defeated Detroit in game 6 of their series, I remarked to my friend Adam that if Anaheim were to win that game, then the Stanley Cup final would be between two teams with notably non-macho-sounding names: the "Ducks" and the "Senators".

I said something to the effect of "It might as well be between the Doves and the Bureaucrats."

He replied with "Yeah. The Cleveland Aspartame vs. the Albany Douche."

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Infinite Monkeys

From the Wikipedia page on the "Infinite Monkey Theorem":

"In 2003 a humorous experiment was performed with six Sulawesi crested macaques, but their literary contribution was five pages consisting largely of the letter S, besides attacking and defecating on the typewriter. Researchers concluded that the infinite monkey theorem does not apply to real monkeys; despite their entertaining methods, they make poor random number generators."

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Joe Mathlete's Band Name Mashup Rodeo

The very amusing Joe Mathlete has a blog entry introducing a game where you have to make up hypothetical band names by combining two or more band names that overlap.

He starts off with a bunch of amusing examples, and then a bunch more amusing examples were suggested by others, including me. Here, assembled in one place for your convenience, are some of my suggestions. (I can't take full credit for all of them, because a few of them come from me tweaking someone else's suggestion.)

Taj MaHall and Oates
MatisyaHoobastank
You Say Party! We Say Dido!
Li'l Kim Mitchell
Fountains of Wayne Newton
Vince Neil Young M.C.
R.E.M.F. (best known for their hit "Everybody Hurts? Unbelievable!")
R. Kelly Clarkson
Aimee Manfred Mann
Yoko O-No Doubt
Talk Talking Heads
Weensryche
Genesister Sledge
The Grateful Dead Kennedys
Al Green Day
Iggy Pop Will Eat Itself
Lionel Richie Valens
Loverboy George
Al Green Jello Biafra
Electric Light Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Darkness
Ludacris Kristofferson
Mr. Mister Bungle

I then typed "Weensryche" into Google, to see if anyone else had previously thought of it, and I found something which I suppose shouldn't be a huge surprise: other people have previously played this game. Some of their suggestions (some of which coincidentally duplicated some of mine) can be found here and here.

A rant I wrote

Today, May 12th, is the two-year anniversary of a rant I posted on the web about people who like their names to be written in lower case. This rant is one of the first things that comes up when you type my (real) name into Google.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Worst. Lyrics. Ever.

A British radio show has compiled a list of "Top 10 Worst Lyrics", and this list was also discussed over at the Onion AV Club. Then some folks at Rolling Stone also compiled a list of their own.

There are tons and tons of comments following the Rolling Stone list, and I haven't had time to look at them all, but I enjoyed the following comment from someone named "David", especially the last sentence.

It’s more interesting when a good artist gets mentioned. We don’t expect much from Fergie or Sisqo and they probably don’t expect much of themselves lyric wise. My Humps is lyrically stupid but yet one of those guilty pleasures. So bad its fun type songs.

The bands that really try, are where it seems more sad and more of a failure. Isn’t Bernie Taupin regarded for his lyrics with Elton John? And he wrote that Starship song!!? White Rabbit and Somebody To Love vs. We Built This City. Its hard to believe its the same people (more or less)

Love Hurts by Nazareth, is a great example of a truly bad lyric, because it is totally serious.

His friends should have taken him out for drinks to get over his breakup or something, but not told him to write a song in his condition.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Bill Clinton creates crossword clues

This is really cool. Bill Clinton created the clues for this crossword from the New York Times Magazine. I knew the ex-prez was a crossword buff and had seen him in the 2006 documentary Wordplay.

Happy May 8

Today's the birthday of one of my favourite fictional characters on the internet: The Onion's Jim Anchower.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child

This could easily be one of those silly meaningless coincidences, but I've noticed in the past that a common bond connecting several famous popular music personalities is losing their mother at a young age.

Madonna lost her mother when she was 5

Bono lost his mother when he was 14

Paul McCartney lost his mother when he was 14

John Lennon lost his mother when he was 17

Elvis Presley lost his mother when he was 23

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Ohhh... NOW I get it!

Have any of you ever had weird misunderstandings from your childhood that you don't figure out until years later? Or maybe a joke you hear as a kid, and you laugh to be polite even though you don't understand it, and then one day, about a decade later, your mind is wandering and all of a sudden you're like "Oh, wait! NOW I get it!"

I think there are a few band names and song names that are puns, or have double meanings, or stuff like that, where I wasn't aware of the secondary meaning until long after I had first heard of them. For instance, I'm pretty sure the first time I heard of Adam Ant, I was about 8 years old. It probably wasn't until many years later that for whatever reason, I happened upon his name again, and I was like "Ohhh! Like the adjective 'adamant'!"

Similar things happened with the name of the band who did the song Funkytown. Their name is Lipps Inc. I think it wasn't until sometime in the current millennium that I said their name out loud and realized "Oh! Like 'lip sync'!"

In addition, I'm sure it took a long time before it dawned on me that the title of the reggae-influenced Led Zeppelin song D'Yer Maker, if said with the appropriate accent, sounds like "Jamaica", and that that was the whole point.

And I can also remember, as a small child, being vaguely confused and frustrated by the nursery rhyme about Solomon Grundy. The puzzle worked on me at that young age; I was honestly under the impression that Solomon Grundy must have been some strange otherworldly character who inexplicably led life at a magically sped-up pace. I guess it just so happened that it wasn't explained to me when I was very young, and then of course, nursery rhymes being what they are, I probably never encountered the story of Solomon Grundy again for years and years afterwards. I think I was about 14 or so when one day, for whatever random reason, I happened to encounter that nursery rhyme again, at which point it clicked. "Oh! I get it! Not necessarily the very next Wednesday!"

I'm sure everyone has examples in their own life. This is somewhat reminiscent of the very entertaining website I Used To Believe, which is about childhood misconceptions, but I'm talking about something slightly more specific: not just a weird idea you have as a kid, but something that escapes or eludes you as a child because it's just a little bit too subtle, and then literally years later, you happen to be thinking about the topic again, and then it clicks. Do you know what I mean?

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Vintage videos

Surely anyone of my generation will enjoy browsing this user's videos on YouTube.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Random Celebrity Resemblances

I think the recently deceased Boris Yeltsin somewhat resembles an older version of former Late Night sidekick Andy Richter.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Superlatives

Among all the human beings who have ever lived:

1. Who has been photographed the most?

2. Who has been caricatured the most by cartoonists?

3. Who has been on television for the greatest number of hours?

4. Who has been physically seen in person by the greatest number of people?

Obviously, it might be difficult or impossible to give precise definitive answers to these questions, but here's what some folks have claimed:

1. Princess Diana

2. Richard Nixon

3. Regis Philbin

4. Pope John Paul II

I have a hard time believing Regis beat out Johnny Carson, but apparently in August 2004 the Guinness Records people officially recognized Reege for "most hours on camera".

As for #2, probably George W. Bush is giving Tricky Dick a run for his money. For #4, I imagine Queen Elizabeth II puts up some respectable numbers -- and come to think of it, so would any entertainment personality with a long career performing in front of very large crowds -- e.g. Bono, Elton John, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, etc.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Mashups, get your mashups

In the mood to hear some genre-jumping mashups built out of pieces of disparate popular songs? Well, here you can find quite a few by Smash-Up Derby, and a bunch more by Party Ben.

One of Smash-Up Derby's that I've been digging on is She Sells White Weddings, and, for the sake of singling out one by Party Ben that I like, check out Somebody Rock Me.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Go Kermit!

Watch the 20th century's most famous frog sing:

Once In A Lifetime as performed by Talking Heads

Creep as performed by Radiohead

Hurt as performed by Johnny Cash

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Pandora Internet Radio

It's possible that I'm behind the curve on this one, but I've just recently found out about Pandora Internet Radio. Basically, this site allows you to customize your own user-created "internet radio station" -- if you suggest artists or songs that you like, then the site will play songs from its database that are supposed to be similar to what you suggested. The idea, of course, is that you can discover new (to you) performers with similarities to those you already like.

Having only discovered Pandora this weekend, I haven't spent much time learning all its features, but it looks like over time you can "tweak" your user-created stations by giving either a thumbs up or thumbs down to the different tracks that come up.

I started one customized station based on the band Ween, and two of the tracks that the website chose to play for me were by a guy from Vermont who I'd never heard of before, James Kochalka. The two of his songs that Pandora played for me were "Bad Astronaut" and "Magic Finger". I found them very entertaining. His compositions struck me as funny, tightly crafted, and indicative of an offbeat sense of humour mixing the adult and the childlike.

On Youtube, you can watch videos for the James Kochalka songs Monkey vs. Robot and Wash Your Ass.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

"Skull turf"

If you're reading this, then I suppose you must be either a real-life acquaintance or a through-the-internet acquaintance. And if you're in the latter category, there's a good chance you know me through my many comments over at Josh Fruhlinger's Comics Curmudgeon site, where the daily newspaper funnies are mocked, praised, critiqued, and deconstructed in the most thorough and humorous way one could ask for.

Whichever of those two categories of acquaintances you belong to, you may be wondering where the name "Skullturf Q. Beavispants" came from. Well, I got "Skull turf" from a daily comic strip called They'll Do It Every Time that debuted in 1929 and is now on its third author, Bronx native Al Scaduto who lives in Milford, Connecticut. Curious readers can find out more about this strip at the appropriate entries in Wikipedia or Toonopedia. You can even see a few panels from the 1930s and 1940s here.

I consumed newspaper comics religiously as a child, and continue to do so today. TDIET, as the comics cognoscenti abbreviate it, didn't appear in the local paper where I grew up, so I only discovered that strip as an adult. These days, my morning routine starts with coffee, oatmeal, and the ridiculously complete Houston Chronicle comics page.

All comic strips have their good points and their bad points, their on days and their off days. My fellow Curmudgeonites like to mock TDIET for being anachronistic, but I suspect the mocking is largely affectionate. It certainly is in my case -- and in fact, lately while reflecting on the topic, I realized that among all the Houston Chronicle's strips, TDIET may be the one I look forward to most each morning! I just find something so appealing about the offbeat language and the level of background detail.

I'm also fascinated in general with anything "old-timey American", to borrow a phrase colleagues use to describe Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder. For instance, I absolutely adore that sort of nasal stacatto accent you hear in movies from the 1920s and 1930s. Where did that accent go? Sometime in the twentieth century, we stopped sounding like Abbott & Costello and started sounding like Val Kilmer.

If you want to see some more old-timey comic strips, you can check out this selection of 1940s and 1950s slang from Mister Kitty's Stupid Comics pages, as well as a selection of installments of The Outbursts of Everett True, dating from the 1900s and 1910s, at Barnacle Press. Great entertainment, if you're at all like me.

So, in conclusion, what about the expression "Skull turf"? Where did it come from exactly? Well, it came from the TDIET of September 25, 2006, and it just means "hair".

Friday, April 6, 2007

My new blog

I used to have two blogs, and then I stopped updating them. Since September, I've been too busy for this kind of thing, but now I have some free time again.

The main purpose of this blog is to discuss random crap.