Too Bad, So Sad

And we think we know the rest of the story here. ...and an Allahu Akbar to you too....

HT: Big Ray via e-mail.

Father of the Year

HT: Fred

Wishing You...

a restful weekend from your labors.

The Genius of Will Rogers

"Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."

"If you ever injected truth into politics you have no politics."

"Now if there is one thing that we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage somebody else's affairs."

"The more you observe politics, the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other."

"There ought to be one day - just one - when there is open season on senators."

Will Rogers

Finally...Iraq War Explained

To quote MGF today at lunch: "Every once in awhile there has to be a good conflict. Otherwise the rolls dwindle."

It's as plausible a reason as any other I've heard before.

Once In A Lifetime

(Look Closely: That's a lot of people!)

A virtual Hajj. One of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Falling Housing Prices Are Good

Or so says Michael Kinsley.

"We all count this money when we tot up our net worth. If you don't want to sell your house, you can borrow against its rising value. Nowhere is the real estate insanity of recent years more vividly on display than in the market for second mortgages. Lenders hawk them like patent medicines in the 19th century, as a cure for all your ills.

"And even if you don't take out a second mortgage, you can still fantasize about what the house is worth. Fantasies of real estate prices have long been a staple of middle-class conversation. These days you can go to the Web and get a specific number.

"All these rising house values added trillions to our sense of national wealth, but it is an illusion. If everybody, or even a fraction of everybody, tried to cash in on this rising value, prices would collapse, and the value would disappear. . . Economists predicted for years that something like this would happen as the boomer generation aged. Nobody believed them."

The entire short article is worth a read.

It appears that the "Greatest Generation" appears to be the biggest beneficiary of the housing bubble when it was still full. Just like they have from Social Security. Those younger cannot/will not be able to say the same.

Don Quixote Online

And many other great titles. If you like reading books from a screen.

HT: The Other Eclecticity

Elton John - Sweet Painted Lady

From his classic Goodbye Yellowbrick Road album, 1973. Almost didn't know what he was singing about back then.

Elton John was never more popular than he was back then. Had the pleasure of seeing him in concert in October of 1974 in the Oakland Colasium Arena. Kiki Dee opened the show.

Give To Help Pancreatic Cancer Research

In Memory of Sharon Aiko Yaguchi Miotke

To all my non-readers: Please give to help find ways to detect pancreatic cancer early. A best high school friend lost his wife in June to this deadly cancer. Even a small donation will help the cause. This is so much like Jeff to make something so tragic an impetus to make life better for others. I hope that you will give something to this cause. Sincerely Thanks! Link to give is here.

Oh No! Yoko Ono Disses Hybrids

Put a Bentley up against a hybrid any time, the Bentley will usually always wins.

"Let them eat cake..." I mean, "Let them drive a Toyota."

James Taylor - Secret O'Life

It may not be the secret, but James Taylor sure sung about one back in 1977. From the JT album.

Secret O'Life

Written By James Taylor

The secret of lifeIs enjoying the passage of time

Any fool can do it

There ain't nothin' to it

Nobody knows how we got to the topof the hill

Since we're on our way down

We might as well enjoy the ride

The secret of love

Is in opening up your heart

It's okay to feel afraid

But don't let that stand in your way

'Cause anyone knows

That love is the only road

Since we' re only here for awhile

Might as well show some style

Give us a smile

Isn't it a lovely ride

Slidin' down, I'll be glidin' down

Try not to try too hard

It's just a lovely ride

Now the thing about time is that time

Isn't really real

It's just your point of view

How does it feel for you

Einstein said he could never

Understand it all

Planets spinning through space

The smile upon your face

Welcome to the human race

Some kind of lovely ride

I'll be slidin' down

Try not to try too hard

It's just a lovely ride
Isn't it a lovely ride

See me slidin' down, glidin' down

Try not to try too hard

It's just a lovely ride

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time

Science Explores Gut Reactions

Interesting NYT article that intuitive types will get all giddy about. Gut reactions can be spot on with no supporting "objective data".

HT: Seed Magazine

Senator Craig Is Going Down

Pun intended. Dead man walking, or is that kneeling? He says he wasn't lewd or crude but only misconstrued.

LOL UPDATE (!!!!) from The Gay Patriot:
"Could there be any more stark contrast? Democrats talk about outlawing SUV’s, while Republicans like Larry Craig make sure every American is entitled to a Hummer.
Comment by V the K — August 29, 2007 @ 10:28 am - August 29, 2007 "

Well Said, or is that Well Graphed?

From "Indexed" of course.

"So Happy Together"

"Imagine me and you, I do..." Saw this ad in a magazine today and had to chuckle.

A View On The Proper Education Of The Very Young

Take your young to hotel lobbies. Short and bitter sweet advice.

HT: Vox Day

Test, But Cool Too

Testing the new video uploader that Blogger offers. My analysis in an update.


Update: I favor this to my third party uploader, Hipcast. Mostly because the video "screen" is larger. Don't have to leave Blogger to upload. I suspect that Blogger will not make music audio uploads easy to do, the RIAA, would go after them in a heart beat I would think. Eclecticity likes to be semi-semi-unique in offering the occassional tune for my non-listeners.

Paul McCartney - One More Kiss

(Gustav Klimt - The Kiss)

From Red Rose Speedway, 1973.

How Not To Do Powerpoints

HT: Dr. Z's Institute. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great Commerical - Remember?

The Bronx is Burning showed the taping of this commercial and I thought it would be fun to show the original. There was a tremendous power struggle and psychological warfare going on between Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner.

Thanks to the wonder of YouTube the commercial was out there for the taking.

Warm Fuzzies Here

Watch it all you sentimental fools!

The Fascist

The fascist is whoever is trying to shut you up, shut you down, dis-employ you, silence you, cripple you or marginalize you for the crime of daring to fall out of step with the party and the conventional wisdom. Beware of them.
The Anchoress – August 21, 2007

Jean Luc Ponty - Computer Incantations for World Peace

From his great Individual Choice album, 1983.

If only computers could.

If The Truth Be Known

58%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Dating Site

So that's only just over half of an addiction isn't it?

Wu Was Out To Screw

I conceded to MGF today that he may be right after all in his refusal to eat darn near anything Asian. His tastes are primarily continental. "Why would you eat foods from countries with starving people?" He asks.

"BEIJING (Reuters) - A Beijing factory recycled used chopsticks and sold up to 100,000 pairs a day without any form of disinfection, a newspaper said on Wednesday..."

Full Story here.

Yuck.

(But the place down the street has the best sesame chicken on the planet. That is, if it's chicken at all.)

I'll have to think this one over a bit.

Shared The Road...

for a time with a fella in a truck like this while driving to work this morning. Lots of bumper stickers. And he had this website prominently displayed. So I checked it out.

"The League of the South is a Southern Nationalist organization whose ultimate goal is a free and independent Southern republic."

Talk about a lost cause. Pissing into the wind. They say the war is still being fought down here. Being from the west, it is mostly amusing to me.

Carding Old Guys

At the register, a kid clerk muttered: "ID?"
"Huh?" I said.
"ID, you know, for the beer."
It dawned. He was carding me. "You think I'm under 21?"
"Yeah, naw, I mean, it's policy."
"What's policy, to card seniors?"
"We gotta card everyone. It used to be only to 40, but over in New York someone ran a sting or something. So now they make us card everyone. No exceptions. You got ID?"
I found out later they had carded my 82-year-old stepfather, too.
So I called Price Chopper corporate and, yep, it really is Price Chopper policy. Corporate told me they're worried about litigation, about new state laws like Tennessee's that mandate universal carding for alcohol purchases. Hear the whole commentary on this here.

At 15 or 16 I became a cashier at the liquior store that my father managed. I needed to make judgements every day about the people that I thought needed to be carded to buy alcohol. Don't recall ever being "trained" how to do it either. Applied a little common sense I guess. In the 5 years or so I had that job, I don't believe I ever sold to an underage person. I might have irritated a few by asking for ID though when I thought I needed to.

So the pencil heads upstairs and in government make blanket rules now to have their cashiers card everyone just to be safe. Shows how much they trust their workers judgement and common sense.

Boy-Genius Blind Phone Phreak Joybubbles, 59, Succumbs

"He was 58, though he had chosen in 1988 to remain 5 forever, and had the toys and teddy bears to prove it. "

"At 4 or 5, he learned to dial by using the hookswitch like a telegraph key. Four years later, he discovered that he could disconnect a call by whistling. He found this out when he imitated a sound in the background on a long-distance call and the line cut off. It turned out that his whistle precisely replicated a crucial phone company signal, a 2,600-cycles-per-second tone."

Full New York Times obit here.

Even though I never heard of the cat up until yesterday. I'm gonna miss Joybubbles. A true broke-the-mold original.

Grist for my kinda blog.

Wikipedia has an entry on Joybubbles too!

"Joybubbles ran a weekly telephone story line called "Stories and Stuff." The numbers were +1 206-FEELING (+1 206 333-5464)... Stories and Stuff was usually updated on the weekend."

Hear him over the phone. All about powder puffs.

Digital "Carpet Bombing"

Let the muckity-mucks earn their pay!

When you are simply not getting anywhere with "regular" customer service and you need to let the man (or woman) behind the curtain know that you need help/redress.

Worth the read.

I got a rental car paid for during the time that my car's transmission was being serviced due to a screw up on the company's part. It took a letter to the CEO, but they did right by me eventually. The local manager attempted to blow me off and say that my expectation was not reasonable.

The Glass Is Almost 3/4 Full!

You've Experienced 72% of Life

You have all of the life experience that most adults will ever get. And unless you're already in your 40s, you're probably wise beyond your years.

How Much Life Experience Do You Have?

I Covet

covet
1. to desire wrongfully, inordinately, or without due regard for the rights of others: to covet another's property.
2. to wish for, esp. eagerly: He won the prize they all coveted. –verb (used without object)
3. to have an inordinate or wrongful desire.

I think Number 2 applies here. Knopfler's comes out in September, Plant's and Krauss' in October.

Quote of The Century

The American Indians found out what happens when you don't control immigration. (Unknown)

Veteran at a Hillary Clinton Speech

HT: E-mail from Big Steve Crowmagnum Man

I Found It On The Internet

It has to be true. Hamburger management needs a policy for everything. Or is that Safety, or is that HR?

Comcast's Policy for Changing The Water Cooler Bottle.

Read it and weep.

Kelsey With A Frog

From last summer in West Virginia. Is she not a button? She caught herself a bunch of newts that day too.

Catholic Facts About Elvis

No kidding. Here.

HT: Whispers in the Loggia

Paul Carrak - Harvest For The World

I've been goofing lately here. Time to get a little sentimental. This song was originally performed by the Isley Brothers. Paul Carrak does it well too.