popplers

Hmm. I wonder if he'd eat the garden gnomes.

Pricy, but you have to admit-- it would make quite a statement.

Admit it. You've always wanted a giant Cthulhu statue. Now you can have it. Nethercraft's interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft's Great Old One is perfect for home or office, and makes a thoughtful gift... just imagine their faces! When placed in the front yard of your home, it also does a great job of deterring door-to-door solicitors, and, well, almost everyone else too.

Julia retrospective

Julia! America's Favorite Chef airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. on WGBH. And today's Boston Globe Food section has lots of reminiscences, stories, and recipes from the lady herself. I can't wait to try out this amazing Reine de Saba cake.

Yet another reason why I love the TiVo

Via Boing Boing: a cautionary tale. All DVRs are not created equal.

[…] Our second Explorer 8000 is also a piece of junk. Like the first one, it regularly fails to record requested shows. But this one goes even further in its attempt to aggravate me by freezing up while playing back a show, and pixelating and jittering like a lost episode of Max Headroom.

Yesterday I was at Best Buy, and I noticed that 40-hour TiVos were on sale for $50 after rebate. I bought one and set it up. What a difference! If TiVo were a beverage, it'd be a tall glass of Jamaican ginger beer with chipped ice and a lime wedge, while the Explorer 800 would be a paper cup of warm fake lemonade stirred with the finger of a nose-picking six-year-old. […]

Bon appétit!

The Boston Globe ran a more detailed obituary for the wonderful Julia Child. I certainly never knew that she was in the OSS:

[…] Julia Carolyn McWilliams was born Aug. 15, 1912 in Pasadena, Calif., the eldest child of Julia Carolyn "Caro" Weston McWilliams and John McWilliams Jr. In 1934, she graduated from Smith College, where she, by her own admission, had done mediocre work.

Tall, freckled, athletic, and spunky, she had hopes of writing for The New Yorker. She did a brief stint at Coast, a literary magazine in San Francisco in the late '30s. She rejected a marriage proposal from the Times Mirror newspaper heir, Harrison Chandler. Jobs at W.& J. Sloane furniture's advertising and marketing department in New York, then later in Beverly Hills, did not work out. She applied to serve in the Navy WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services, but was rejected. "I was too long," she told biographer Noel Riley Fitch. Mrs. Child was 6 feet 2 inches tall and wore a size 12A shoe.

Mrs. Child's foreign service career began in 1942 under William "Wild Bill" Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services. She volunteered for India, where she met Paul Cushing Child, a man 10 years her senior who was worldly, artistic, and largely self-educated. She did not consider herself much of an intellectual compared to him; all she knew about food was how to eat. Paul Child had lived in Europe, spent a decade with a brainy and beautiful older woman, and considered the 32-year-old file clerk rather naive.

Both were transferred to China, where Paul Child began looking at her differently. As chronicled by her biographer, she had a staff of 10, coded information sent to agents, and took charge of a foot locker filled with opium for paying spies. She could also throw a party together in hours. They married in 1946, in Bucks County, Pa. […]

We'll miss you, Julia.

Julia Child goes to the great kitchen in the sky.

Security Theater

A minor victory: MBTA halts baggage screening (for now).

Stamp Act

You may have already read about how you can create your own stamps. I didn't realize how expensive they were-- a sheet of 20 $0.37 stamps is $16.99 + 2.99 S&H. Yes, you read that correctly-- it's $1 per stamp. But it's almost worth it for these.

It's funny and it's true

Via daypop: iPod vs. The Cassette

Know yer rights

Alert Reader Daniel sends us the latest example of our civil liberties being trampled upon. Thankfully, mephron didn't back down in the face of abject stupidity.

I assume that mephron's run-in happened on the Staten Island Ferry, but that's not to say that it can't happen here in the Cradle of Liberty. If you're riding the T, you may want to keep a copy of the ACLU's Know Your Rights: Stops and Searches on the MBTA in your bag. And the Bill of Rights. The ACLU of Massachusetts can be reached at this number: 617-482-3170 x318.

The difference between cats and dogs

Those Wacky Japanese (#477 in a series): When I read that single women in Japan were buying these pillows, I thought it was amusing. Especially the bit about the "vibrating arm function" (nudge nudge, wink wink). I left the article up on the screen so that Chris could see it. His comment: That's just sad.

I don't even know where to begin.

Googling for seaside.games inexplicably leads me to this:

HAGGIS HURLING

A TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH SPORT REVISED

Once a popular sport throughout the country, Haggis hurling will reappear at this year's games after a gap of too many years.

(Here's where I'm wondering exactly what they mean by hurling…)

The ancient Scottish sport of haggis hurling has it's origins in the village of Auchnaclory which is close to the Falls of Dromach in Sutherland. While the men of Auchnaclory worked in the fields, the women would prepare and cook lunch for them. Instead of wading across the cold water, the women would call to their man and then throw or hurl his haggis lunch to him. […]

(Ahh, that makes perfect sense… if you're insane.)

Peasant's Quest

If you're already a Homestar Runner (or Strong Bad) fan, you've probably already seen the Peasant's Quest video game. It's wonderfully cheesy, and a lot of fun to play. If you're not a Homestar Runner (or Strong Bad) fan, watch this, then check out Peasant's Quest.