popplers

Wouldn't doctors be better?

Today's out-of-context headline is brought to you by the Boston Globe: China tries using clowns in hospitals.

Schyndel's list

There's an article in today's Globe on coffee geekery, including 50 ways to improve your espresso production, latte art, and more. It also mentions in passing "coffee guru George Howell" and Terroir Coffee. Maybe I'll have to trot over to Acton on Friday or Saturday and see what all the fuss is about. You can't get much more local than that.

''I'm trying to change what it means to be a barista in this town," van Schyndel says, pulling two double shots for a visitor. ''It takes skill, it takes knowledge, and it shouldn't just be someone who happens to work behind a counter in a coffee shop."

Go Team Venture!

I love Robot Chicken, but I really can't wait for the Venture Brothers DVD to be released (a little over a month to go). Jackson Publick posted a pic from the interior packaging for the DVD: an awesome painting of Brock by none other than Bill Sienkewicz [Stray Toasters, Big Numbers, Elektra: Assassin].

If the latest posting on Publick Nuisance is correct, we should be seeing new episodes on Adult Swim in the not-too-distant future. This, plus the fact that I am finally done with my taxes, makes me very, very happy.

Thursday, April 13th, 2006
1:08 am

Finally, after months and months of this silliness, we have us some results. In the weeks since I last posted we've finished three episodes and shipped them off to the network. Post-production has thusfar been a surprisingly satisfying experience. Not only are the episodes looking much better than last season, they actually sound better, too. I don't know what MixMaster Dave Paterson is doing differently this time around but everything sounds just a bit richer, more sophisticated and epic. And of course, J.G. Thirlwell's mesmerizing scores continue to dazzle and delight. If you have a great sound system hooked up to your TV, these shows will really be a treat. Those of you with crappy TV's will enjoy it, too, I'm sure, just not as much. […]

Word of the Day

billingsgate\BIL-ingz-gayt; -git\, noun:
Coarsely abusive, foul, or profane language.

And as someone whose e-mail address appears beneath his column, I'm regularly amazed at the billingsgate people fling when they let their fingers do the talking.
--Scot Lehigh, "Let's talk about incivility - please", Boston Globe, April 13, 2006

Oh, Lordy…

Is the world really ready for Easter turducken?

Easter, which may or may not have been named after a pagan fertility goddess, falls conveniently close to the spring equinox, allowing the syncresis of rabbits, eggs and the rebirth of nature into a ritual about the slaughter and rebirth of God. Easter also now has been subverted into being about eating, though hasn't yet been taken to the extremes of Thanksgiving turducken.

Until now.

What I've been listening to lately

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

They Might Be Architectural Critics

I have really been enjoying the They Might Be Giants podcasts and other nifty stuff on tmbg.com. The Venue Songs are extremely funny, especially my favorite: Albany.

The Egg, when was it new?
The Egg, there's nothing to do
The Egg, the Egg, no corners for you

Poured concrete flowing into organic shapes
Carpet, wood trim, and some velvet drapes
Combine to make one perfect place

The podcasts are also lots of fun. Get 'em here, while they last.

Nifty shirts

Threadless.com has a new batch of T-shirts this week, including this one which I quite like: Tasty Table. (And if you're looking for drink recipes, go check out extratasty.com! They do not have a recipe for Thirsty Camels, however.)

Also cute: Why Did The Chicken Cross Abbey Road…? and Midnight Snack.

I boggle, you boggle…

Poz mentioned his WEBoggle addiction on Foam Totem some weeks ago. I've been playing a lot lately, and often place in the top 15. But I seem to do really well with the incredibly sucky boards. Like this one, for instance— my first time in the number one slot.

I usually play as rv. I have yet to see foamy on (but I have seen someone playing as Poz a few times).

Fishapods in the news

Scientific American offers what I hope will become a recurring feature, Just Another Lousy Week for Creationism: "The glass jaw of creationism suffered a hard uppercut with the highly publicized discovery of Tiktaalik, the wonderful fossil animal that is perfectly transitional between fish and tetrapods."

Times Online has some entertaining silliness in One small step for newt-like things:

Tiktaalik 1: Morning.
Tiktaalik 2: Morning.
T1: Got any plans for today?
T2: Not much. You?
T1: Thought I might go for a walk.
T2: A what? […]

Friday quickies

• Thought-provoking op-ed piece from The Morning News on supporting an author through buying books, staying in print, and libraries. I'm going to pass this one on to a friend of mine who is an author, just to see what she thinks. As a huge fan of the library, I'm torn. I read lots of books that I don't ever buy (too expensive, no longer in print, only available in hardcover) but I also buy books, receive them as gifts, add them to my Wish List, etc.
• Amusing page with lots of screenshots from the original Batman TV series fight scenes: the Batsigns.
• Jonathan Schwarz on Schrödinger's War: "It's easy to understand why the Bush administration wants it both ways: we're at war because that gives them more power… but we're also not at war because they would then have treaty obligations, such as under the Geneva Conventions."
• Cat and Girl root for the patriarchy.
• Environmental science student offers interesting observations on the coming plague. "Certainly not all conclusions drawn from data are correct, nor is all data necessarily valid; however, you must address these issues on their own terms, on scientific terms: you must show why different conclusions would be more appropriate or why the presented data is invalid. What you cannot do is shut your eyes and dismiss science as an ideology."
• Follow-up article on Tyler Hinman and other American Crossword Puzzle Tournament competitors. "The consensus from the hard-core faithful was 'As long as I can finish ahead of Ken Jennings, all will not be in vain,'" said first-time competitor Janet Siefert.

Repent! Lest you, too, taste the wrath of… the Were-Rabbit!

Via BBC News: Enormous rabbit terrorizes Northumberland gardens.

Grower Jeff Smith, 63, said: "This is no ordinary rabbit. We are dealing with a monster. It is absolutely massive. I have seen its prints and they are huge, bigger than a deer. It is a brute of a thing."

Mr Smith, who has kept an allotment for 25 years, added: "We have two lads here with guns who are trying to shoot it, but it is clever. They never see it. There were big rabbits in the 1950s and 1960s before pesticides were introduced, but not like this."

Obligatory Monty Python and the Holy Grail dialogue:

Tim: Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!
Sir Galahad: Get stuffed!
Tim: He'll do you up a treat, mate.
Sir Galahad: Oh, yeah?
Sir Robin: You mangy Scots git!
Tim: I'm warning you!
Sir Robin: What's he do? Nibble your bum?
Tim: He's got huge, sharp… er… He can leap about. Look at the bones!

I wonder if she hated the "Hometown Howdy" as much as I did

I missed it, but apparently another (former) Maynard resident recently won on Jeopardy! Congrats to Patricia DiMaggio!

Imagine this: You have five minutes to change your clothes before appearing on stage in front of millions of people and the zipper on your suitcase will not open.

Freudian nightmare? Maybe, but it was also Patricia DiMaggio's reality last winter. The Maynard resident had just banked $14,001 as Jeopardy champion and the vagaries of syndicated television demanded she return to defend her crown less than five minutes after winning. […]

Free Cone Day!

This year's Ben & Jerry Free Cone Day is April 25, 2006 from noon to 8 p.m. Head to a Scoop Shop near you and share the love.

This seems like as good a time as any to post a Flav-o-Review. Last week, I went to Shaw's to buy ice cream. As luck would have it, B&J's was on sale ($2 each!) and they had a great selection in stock. So, I picked up an assortment of flavors, including a few old favorites (NYSFC, Cherry Garcia) and a few of the newer ones (Black & Tan, In a Crunch, Magic Brownies, Turtle Soup, and Neapolitan Dynamite).

• Black & Tan: Cream stout ice cream swirled with chocolate ice cream. Chris and I both really liked this flavor. It's quite tasty, and not overly sweet. It's a smooth ice cream, though, and I tend to go in for chunky flavors. (That's just me.)
• In a Crunch: Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Fudge Covered Peanuts & a Crispy Fudge Swirl. Although I'm a big fan of peanut butter, I found In a Crunch to be too sweet. I like the combination of salty peanut butter and sweet (preferably dark) chocolate ice cream. Kimball's makes a pretty good chocolate/ peanut butter ice cream, but the p.b. distribution is too variable.
• Turtle Soup: Vanilla ice cream with fudge & caramel cashews & a caramel swirl. Chris liked this, even though he's not particularly fond of caramel. Anything with cashews usually rates with him. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't say.
• Magic Brownies: Vanilla Ice Cream with Swirls of Raspberry & Brownies. We've actually had this flavor before, but I'm mentioning it again because I like it.
• Neapolitan Dynamite: Cherry Garcia® and Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice creams, side by side. I saved the best for last. It has the brownie/ fruity goodness of Magic Brownies, but it's even better because it has a chocolate ice cream base. I don't really think that taking 2 existing flavors and jamming them into the same carton really counts as a "new" flavor, but it's a good combo.

Cult of victimhood

I loves the Fafblog!

Fare thee well, Tom DeLay. After years of diligently and thanklessly serving his donors, his lobbyists, and himself, the former House majority leader is leaving the United States Congress. He has endured one of the cruelest smear campaigns in recent political memory, a bitter and protracted effort to paint him as a criminal simply because he broke the law. And who in his position could have done otherwise? Even a heart as pure as Tom DeLay's was bound to be seduced by the corruption of Washington, a magical land where the streets are paved with kickbacks, corruption flows like sweet wine, and lobbyists condense on the morning grass with the newfallen dew…

I don't always agree with Cathy Young, but her recent column on Tom DeLay and the non-existent "War on Christians" is also quite good.

Superhero chat

In this week's Onion, the A.V. Club interviews Kurt Busiek of Astro City and Marvels fame.

KB: They seemed to find character flaws. They certainly didn't make Batman physically inferior, although again, Batman has no superpowers. Of the characters in Watchmen, only one is superhuman. The others are all costumed adventurers, and Alan [Moore] explored human failings among them. But every single one could still kick my ass up and down the street. They were certainly physically superior to me.

O: Even Nite Owl?

Go play for a good cause

Some years ago, I went to a Scrabble fundraiser that was sponsored by the Literacy Volunteers of the Montachusett Area. It was a fun gig, and that's how I met my current pack of Scrabble friends. This year, we learned that the Literacy Volunteers weren't going to do the fundraiser anymore— too much work, and not enough money raised. I was bummed, because I liked the location (Monument Grill in Leominster) and they always had good door prizes and raffles.

Just today, I saw a poster for the Literacy Volunteers of Greater Worcester. Their 4th Annual Team Scrabble Tournament will be held on Wednesday April 26th, from 6-9 pm, at the Hagan Center at Assumption College. Registration fee is $25 per person or $100 per team (up to 8 players).
Deadline for entry is April 22, 2006.

Allez cuisine!

God of Cookery (IMDb:7.4|Rot:83%)

I've really enjoyed the two other Stephen Chow films that I've seen, so I was looking forward to watching God of Cookery. It is uneven, but has some good stuff in it. The plot is pretty weak (and scattered), but it's laugh-out-loud funny when it hits its stride in the final third. The quality of translation in the subtitles was awful— bad enough that it impaired my enjoyment (and comprehension) in spots. I'd say this one is worth watching if you really loved Shaolin Soccer or Kung Fu Hustle; otherwise, give it a pass.