December 2011
700 Hobo Names →
If you’ve never listened to John Hodgman’s 700 Hobo Names, you should spend an hour listening to it. I can’t decide which name is my favorite—I can come up with a dozen favorites in the first hundred (examples: “Cheesequake O’Lennox”, “Drinky-Drunky Tom, The Drunk,” “Ghostly Nose Silvie,” or “Ovid”).
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Occupy
You know what would be cool? If someone with a lot of money bought a bunch of black tactical jumpsuits and visored helmets and combat boots, and distributed them to the Occupiers before one of the city’s “clearing actions.”
November 2011
Church vs. State
Colorado’s having some school voucher issues, where Jefferson County, for example, is wanting to do school vouchers. For every student going to a non-public school, the parents get $X in vouchers to use at a private school—and “private schools” can include religious schools.
Of course, opponents claim church vs. state separation, and say we can’t use public tax money...
Jazz in Port Said/Bossa Nova Araby - Eddie Kochak
Puzzle
So it’s taken me months and months to make this wooden puzzle for John. Finding the right kind and dimensions of wood; cutting the pieces out; sanding them down to a super-fine sheen; etc. Right now, the puzzle is complete—and absolutely beautiful!—but unpainted/unvarnished.
Last night, I did some tests of the water-based dyes that I got to color the puzzle. I got water-based,...
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Morning
Crappy morning, this.
So November 30 is St. Andrew’s Day, the day to celebrate all things Scottish. Like, the one day I can do something cool with my Scottish heritage. And I’ve been looking forward for months to wearing my kilt today. My Scottish kilt, that I got in Scotland. Och aye, an’ all that. So I pack up this morning, and got the kilt, got the hose, picked shoes and a...
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Burners in Forty Years...
I like this idea of Burners in like, thirty, forty years:
By then, the Main Event may not actually be held any more. But we’ve got all this creativity and energy, plus the culture and history. Yes, there will be regional events. But I imagine Burners—or some Burners—turning into a fraternal organization, along the lines of the B.P.O.Elks or the Grange or Oddfellows or Masons or...
Clothes
If I ever won the lottery, I’d get rid of all my current clothes and re-build my entire wardrobe from just two places: all my sporty clothes would come from LL Bean and all my dress clothes would come from Brooks Brothers.
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Secret panel can put Americans on kill list' |... →
wilwheaton:
American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to officials.
There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House’s National Security Council, several current and former officials said....
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The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion →
stfuprolife:
“Abortion is a highly personal decision that many women are sure they’ll never have to think about until they’re suddenly faced with an unexpected pregnancy. But this can happen to anyone, including women who are strongly anti-choice. So what does an anti-choice woman do when she experiences an unwanted pregnancy herself? Often, she will grin and bear it, so to speak, but...
WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR: Secret Fed Loans Gave... →
soupsoup:
Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks Undisclosed $13B
The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency …
Thanksgiving
‘kay, guys, I’m out for T-giving. Don’t post anything cool until I get back next week, yeah? Thanks.
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Ratings: Thanksgiving Symbols
Turkeys
The nice thing about turkeys is that they vaguely resemble a child’s outstretched hand. Clearly, there is no stronger argument for an intelligent designer of the universe than the fact that, when Thanksgiving comes around and authoritarian art must be created in the nation’s elementary schools, the students need only trace their off hand with a washable marker to create an instantly...
Suspension
You know what I love? When cops or judges or anyone who’s accused of wrongdoing gets suspended with pay “pending the outcome of the inquiry.”
I understand that if someone turns out to be not guilty based on “the inquiry,” then they shouldn’t be penalized. And it’s not really fair if you suspend them without pay and they turn out to be not guilty, then...
Children's Books
John really likes the interactivity of some of our toddler books like Pat the Bunny and CAT. He strokes the fake fur, looks in the mirror, sniffs the flowers (sometimes sniffs the mirror…it’s on the next page, but it still smells like the flowers), lifts the flaps, etc..
But because these are mass-marketed books, they necessarily take short cuts. The patch of fur to touch is just on...
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Trains and archetypes
So we’re reading a baby book to John, and there’s a picture of an old-fashioned train. And it occurs to me that there are many examples of things that even now we’re brought up to see as the archetype of something, even though that thing is totally out of date.
I’m not explaining myself as well as I’d like, but basically, in kid’s books, toys, and other...
Despite all the rights of free speech and assembly... →
wilwheaton:
Glenn Greenwald:
The intent and effect of such abuse is that it renders those guaranteed freedoms meaningless. If a population becomes bullied or intimidated out of exercising rights offered on paper, those rights effectively cease to exist. Every time the citizenry watches peaceful protesters getting pepper-sprayed — or hears that an Occupy protester suffered brain damage and...
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Foxy!
So Saturday evening, I’m pulling away from the front of our house, and in my headlights there’s a fox just sitting in the front lawn next door.
I shouldn’t be surprised, because I’ve seen foxes (and coyotes) down by the river; Rocky’s seen evidence of coyotes by the lake nearby; I’ve seen skunks and raccoons in our own backyard. But a fox this far into the...
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Hotter than a two peckered goat in a forest fire.
biddypunk:
beefranck:
My Dad just described something as “hotter than a two peckered goat in a forest fire”.
I’m not sure what it means, but it needs to be drawn and tattooed on someone.
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Apogaea Art Haiku, by Sam Limanski
Apogaea needs art
Not just so we can burn it.
We’ll give you money.
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“The principle difference between an adventurer and a suicide is that the...”
– Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All 