Get Well Soon

Posted on August 25 2004 by Mickey

Hey, Rodney!
heart surgery today. We wish him a speedy recovery and lots of respect.
    Another favorite, occasional contributor Schmoe, had his brain shaved recently and we wish him a speedy recovery too!
    Get well soon guys!
Posted in Personal | 2 Comments

Jamming the Signal

Posted on August 23 2004 by Mickey
    Reportedly Air America Radio is finally broadcasting in Michigan. The station is 1290 AM, WLBY, formerly WHNE “Honey Radio”. Unfortunately, I can’t get the signal since it’s being overridden by AM 1270, WXYT. Since WXYT leans to the right, they’re as good as jamming WLBY’s signal. It’s an insult to my ears and my intelligence. Instead of hearing Sam Seder and Janeane Garofalo I heard some jackass questioning the validity of Kerry’s medals. At least Kerry’s medals are documented, unlike Bush’s.
    I swear I don’t wish this site to devolve into political rants, but I find it infuriating that people so willingly support Bush when he has done so little (if anything) to deserve it. I simply cannot believe Bush is getting away with so much, from his delusional pronouncements to his dirty tricks team’s outright lies, and people are falling for it unquestioningly. But enough of beating my head against the wall, let’s try an end this with a smile: according to Guardian UK (an actual newspaper, by the way, with reporters who ask questions and investigate and everything!): “The Spanish version of Windows used the word Hembra — meaning ‘woman’ in Spain — for choosing gender. But in some Central American republics, notably Nicaragua, the word is an insult meaning ‘bitch’.”
Posted in News, Politics | Leave a comment

Separated at Birth?

Posted on August 22 2004 by Mickey
    John Kerry and Ann Coulter. Separated at birth?

At least we know which one is the Evil Twin
Posted in Photos, Politics, WTF | 1 Comment

The Best TV Proofreader That Never Was

Posted on August 19 2004 by Mickey
      Last Monday, at 8PM EDT, ABC aired a special about unsold TV pilots called The Best TV Shows That Never Were. It was a fun show, providing glimpses at sometimes bizarre or laughably bad ideas that in many cases are justifiably forgotten. The smug superiority of the narration grew tiresome however, especially when it was so wrong — as this video clip shows. [QuickTime. 22 seconds. 1½ MB.]
    The object of their derision in this case is a 1999 pilot called Just Deserts [IMDB link], starring Joel Grey.

    Notice how the producers made a big deal about how the title was misspelled. I guess they were thinking “just desserts”, kind of like a dessert would be a sweet reward I guess. Funny thing is a quick glance at a dictionary — and they’re even conveniently online now too — shows that the phrase is properly used and spelled: “just deserts” as in something justly deserved. [Read Webster’s definition (you’ll need to click “[3,noun]”) or see what Snopes has to say.]
    Good going guys. You went out of your way to point out an error when it was not an error. Now that speaks well of the brain power behind network TV, even more so than these passed-over shows. (At least they didn’t misspell ”misspelled“.)
Posted in TV, Video, WTF | 1 Comment

Image of the Week

Posted on August 18 2004 by Mickey
    This week’s image is titled “Bad Parenting”…

Plop, plop, plop
Posted in Photos | 1 Comment

Hello?  Fox Music?  Hello?

Posted on August 17 2004 by Mickey
      For some reason this man is cruelly taunting me.
Posted in Music, TV | Leave a comment

Per Diem

Posted on August 16 2004 by Mickey
    Question of the Day: does the chilly and mild weather we’ve had for the last couple weeks mean a cold Fall and early Winter or a hot backlash of an Indian Summer?
    Word of the Day: aerophagia
    Order of the Day: Don’t let it get your cursor!!!
Posted in Books, Links, Personal, Tech | Leave a comment

Today in Fat (2004-08-12)

Posted on August 12 2004 by Mickey
    We turn now to Gayle Laverne Grinds, of Martin County FL, who according to WSVN-TV, “died yesterday, after a failed six-hour effort to dislodge her from the couch in her home. Workers say the home was filthy, and Grinds was too large to get up from the couch to even use the bathroom.”
    The Palm Beach Post continues the tale.
    “I tried to take care of her the best I could,” said 54-year-old Herman Thomas, who lived with Grinds in the duplex apartment in Golden Gate, south of Stuart. “I tried to get her to get up, but it wouldn’t do no good.”
    He said the woman that he called his wife hadn’t been off the couch for six years. […]
    “I wish I could have pulled her off the couch, but she wouldn’t let me,” he said, covering his face and sobbing.
    Inside the home, the floor and walls were matted with feces, and trash was strewn across the floors, some which were bare concrete. Furniture was toppled, and pictures were knocked off walls. […]
    Rescue workers were called to the home at 8:44 p.m. Tuesday by Grinds’ brother and his girlfriend, who reported the woman had trouble breathing and ̴emphysema problems.” The crew initially tried to remove her from the couch, but the pain was too excruciating.
    Workers wore protective clothing and installed large air handling hoses to ventilate the horrendous odor emitting from the home while trying to figure out how to get the woman and her couch to the hospital.

    And WFTV rounds it out to its conclusion:
    Emergency workers had to remove some sliding glass doors and lift the couch, with Grinds still on it, to a trailer behind a pickup truck. Removing her from the couch would be too painful, since her body was grafted to the fabric. After years of staying put, her skin had literally become one with the sofa and had to be surgically removed.
    She died at Martin Memorial Hospital South, still attached to the couch.
    Neighbors say they had no idea Grinds lived at the duplex, though they had seen Thomas and some children outside.

    It’s hard to imagine a more horrid life or a more pathetic and humiliating death. What’s worse is now she will be remembered for how she literally lived like a pig. I guess the moral of this story is “Get Up Off Your Couch Before It’s Too Late.”
    Either that or at least buy a couch with detachable cushions.
    P.S.: I can’t believe I just wrote half a page about this woman but could barely muster two sentences about Fay Wray. My values (and writing skills) are warped.
Posted in Food, Links, News | 2 Comments

Oops! Looks Like We Just Can’t Keep a Secret

Posted on August 11 2004 by Mickey
    I just want to make sure you didn’t miss this news story. The US once again outs another spy. They did it with Valerie Plame, and now they’ve done it with the guy who was responsible for last week’s three-year-old terror warning data. From ABC News:
[S]enior officials said Tuesday that some al-Qaida fugitives escaped after news reports revealed the arrest of a computer expert for Osama bin Laden’s network who was cooperating with investigators.
    […] Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a 25-year-old Pakistani, was nabbed in a July 13 raid in the eastern city of Lahore. His capture was a signal victory for Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism. He led authorities to a key al-Qaida figure and sent e-mails to terrorists so investigators could trace their locations.
    […] The Pakistani officials said that after Khan’s arrest, other al-Qaida suspects abruptly changed their hide-outs and moved to unknown places.
    […T]wo senior officials expressed dismay that the arrest of Khan made it into the media too soon reported first in American newspapers on Aug. 2 after it was disclosed to journalists by U.S. officials in Washington.
I guess it’s simply more important to try and steal the thunder of the Democratic National Convention than it is to actually fight the war on terror. But, you know what they say: “Results matter!”
    On the lighter side, Frolixo has a new diet plan.
Posted in Food, News, Politics | Leave a comment

E-Mail Plus 5

Posted on August 10 2004 by Mickey
    Ahhhhh… My sweet baby has arrived.
    I’ve got more pictures at my newly created .Mac page [since moved to a Flickr album].
Posted in Apple, New Computer | Leave a comment