Love Life
I was about to join an Eskimo dating website but I decided I just wasn't that Inuit.

Quick Question
Is anybody buying Nicolas Cage as an action hero anymore?
I have to come down on the "no" side of that one.

Let's Talk About
Chicks, man. (For those who don't watch, that's a call-out to E Channel's "The Soup" with the very funny Joel McHale as host.) Just a couple of notes on famous females, Hollywood division.
First, I've never been a particular fan of Katie Holmes, especially after married the poison dwarf. But Wizbang has a few shots of her as she appears on the ABC show "Eli Stone." Credit where it's due: the pixie bob haircut is just adorable. Well played, very well played.
In contradistinction, I've always rather liked Minnie Driver. I'm well aware of all the criticisms that can be made of her looks but to me she's quite attractive. Well, until now. Which is really strange because I've generally found pregnant women to be lovely. Minnie is not carrying well. That bellybutton looks like the pop-up timer on a Thanksgiving turkey. Poit! It's crowning!
It doesn't help that her attitude toward her male companion is that he's essentially a sperm donor. Play nice Minnie. Play nice.

Worst Case of Lactose Intolerance Ever Recorded

Scene
(interior, a home office, a phone call is joined in progress)
(voice over) Enigmatic Misanthrope: I guess that's about it. Any new bodies in the crawl space?
BlogDog: No. Just the one.
EM: No additions? You're a lousy serial killer.
BD: Actually I'm a very good serial killer. I got it right the first time so I didn't have to keep doing it over and over.
EM: Which is good because you already spend too much time with the moisturizer.
BD: So true. The good stuff's not cheap. But it does work.
EM: Quicklime would solve that problem.
BD: Also true but too clichéd. Talk with you later.
EM: Later.

A Bit Early
I'd like to offer a big-ole, bad-ole Happy Birthday to my brother Lycurgus. And a bit early as The Day is the 2oth, not the day actual I post.
Congratulations on tearin' up another year and you'll be getting (apart from my screw up on the house number - I've been screwing up a lot lately) a package from the big box store in a day or so (according to the tracking it departed Buffalo this morning). And I've got another little something to send you as well. Very gift certificatey. But I think you'll like it. (cough)lands end(cough)

I loved this game as a child.

I have been glued to the Beijing Olympics....

I have always loved this stuff, I love the way it smells! I like the way it makes your fingers feel like plastic when you put some on and let it harden! I like to peel it off, like a second skin layer. I also like the way it tastes! It tastes like it smells and that is good! I like to build my models in a small room with no airflow, I like to airbrush with laquer in my room too. Laquer smells really good too, I want to drink some someday to see if it tastes good too. I love plastic modelling! I Love Testors Airplane Glue!When I build models with Testors airplane glue it make me forget about bad things, ugly things, like the cancellation of Denise Richards' reality show; Man am I ever glad I have a good supply on hand! I need to stop now...

"Meet the most exotic, charming and beautiful Chinese women".....I think I had too much to dream last night..

Free Hugs Campaign




I have watched this 3 minute 39 second video at least 25 times and each time it has made me smile. It is perfectly choreographed and a wonderful use of today's technology. I hope you like it because I believe it speaks to, as Abe Lincoln once said, the better angels of our nature.

Peace.

Paul

Lack Of Posting
I am loathe to be personal here on PoW. I (mostly) retain my anonymity. I eschew navel-blogging (the blogging of navel gazing). But I find myself in a position where I have to publicly acknowledge something I really have no desire to share.
I have a depressive personality. It has a strong genetic component (my paternal grandfather was a suicide) and it is exacerbated by pain and my tendency to draw inward instead of seek help. I have one singular ability which is to cover up my mental state on a day-to-day basis. I do things. I am in contact with people. But the fact of the matter is that I have been deeply, profoundly depressed for at least the last two months. I have finally come to the point where I have done something about it which requires that I acknowledge what I have been feeling. Let me not put too fine a point on it: I was in a state where I could rather easily have taken what I euphemistically call "an irrevocable action." I have given consideration to such at a few other times in my life and have always keep walking past the open windows. I believe I have spent the last several weeks lingering at the sill.
Yet, as of a couple of days ago, I have shut the pane and turned away. Now all the life that was going on behind me as I tarried is facing me and I will have to spend, probably, the rest of this month catching up to where I would have been at the end of May.
I post this by way of explanation. I have never felt an obligation to post to PoW but I have usually felt the desire to do so. That desire was absent. If I am to continue blogging, I felt it necessary to let those of you who have become acquainted with "BlogDog" over time what has separated me from my persona.
Personally, I owe a number of people a huge amount of effort and results, the output of which begins with this post. I will also offer my apologies, publicly, to those from whom I have removed myself. You do not deserve to suffer from my problems. I will do my best to make up for all that I have not done.
I will also try to bring my posting of interesting and amusing things back to a level where you readers will give PoW a daily look.

Finally, EM knew the drinks he had given Old Lady Hopkins were working. Tonight at the tender age of 34, he would be a virgin no more.

Delayed Embed
There is music so it qualifies. But the real point of this will be obvious to those who click "play." It is the "cutest moment in the history of the world."
(h/t Cold Fury)

Your Morning Cuppa
Have one on me.

Two Can Play This Game
After seeing the menu below, I had to drag out this image of a little menu card from the Stillwell Cafeteria in old Los Angeles. If you really want to see some price "the way they were," click on that image. My mother had a note on this that my father, an Angeleno from a young age, saved this as a reminder. I'll post the other side of this card too.
UPDATE: I just took a squint at that address on Google maps. It's about as smack dab in the middle of LA as you can get.

F.W. Woolworth Co. counter menu..circa. early 60's.

Remember "The Good Old Days"? Just thought I would post something us old timers could remember to go with the Who post...

A Baked Ham and Cheese-Toasted Three Decker Sandwich....60 cents.. with a King Size Coca-Cola..10 cents. Total bill of fare 70 cents maybe 1 or 2 cents for state tax. Notice..no diet soda's.

Yepper doo! I am ready for the "home"

The Who
This is a quick and dirty posting of the weekend music embed. More textual blather will be coming along later.
Later:
As you read this, keep in mind that "I've been a fan of The Who since the very beginning ... when they were known as the Hillbilly Bugger Boys."
First, I'd like to thank Denny for his accurate comment and then follow my thanks with my envy that he saw The Who when they really were The Who. My co-blogger the Enigmatic Misanthrope saw The Who at the now-defunct (de funk-ed?) Capitol Center in Landover, Md. My 'time machine dreams' include going back to that time and actually going to shows that I missed. Thus my envy extends to the EM and his lovely (now) wife who was also in attendance.
So why post the viddy I did? Because The Who, claims by the Rolling Stones to the contrary, actually are the "World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band." The Stones are the world's best R&B band playing rock music. I'm very glad VH1 gave The Who the props, the "Rock Honors," that have been long-deserved. And I elected to use "Baba O'Reily" which is one of the greatest rock tunes ever written, since it's part of a disc that had no bad songs. Not only did "Who's Next" not have a bad song, it was loaded with great songs. (hmmm - must go cue it up in iTunes now...) John Entwistle's turn at the mic, "My Wife," might be the weakest song yet it rocks as well as being full of the Ox's sly humor. Of course there's "Tommy" and the too-often ignored "Quadrophenia" in addition to the other albums the boys produced. I mention the extended-form music for a couple of reasons. First, listen to the horns in "Tommy" (as in the amusingly titled "Underture"). Superbly charted by Entwistle whose musical ability extended far beyond his brilliance on bass guitar. Much is made in the VH1 tribute of the Ox's bass line on "My Generation" which I think is perhaps the number 2 best bass line ever in rock (McCartney's in "Day Tripper" is first and the opening bass line in Queen and Bowie's "Under Pressure" is third). And Keith Moon's drumming was never better than on "Quadrophenia." I think he reached an apex in Quadrophenia where his drum kit was more an instrument than just a rhythm machine than it ever had been. His runs and fills were always there but in "Quadrophenia," they were never better. I also wonder if his being allowed to "sing" on "Bellboy" might have made Moonie happier to contribute. As great a drummer as he was, he was not a singer (as his solo album proves.) I do have to give Kenny Jones credit for a damn fine job of work drumming in Moonie's place now. How hard is it to come in for someone who really can't replaced?
The loss of both of these men is a loss to music. Perhaps the personal demons that led them to drugs and the "rock lifestyle" drove them to frenzied heights they wouldn't have otherwise reached.

Living in the now. Denny comment is spot on. Roger Daltrey was a great rock singer. Was. He "can sing" now but he can't "sing Roger Daltrey" as much as it pains me to admit that. I'm amused, however, to note the mic he's using has the cord wrapped back and forth and strapped with gaffer's tape. His famous mic swinging probably ruined more than a few before the roadies got the taping technique down. At least that he can still do.
Townshend was indeed never a singer. Never a great singer. But he could sing his own material. He hasn't lost what Daltrey lost likely because he never had what Daltrey had. I will allow that only Lenon/McCartney have written more great rock music than beaky old Pete. Listen to "White City" or "All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes" if you don't accept that. Two little-known discs that are damn-near perfect. As great Sir Paul is, he hasn't done that in his solo career.
My co-blogger routinely disses Townshend's playing and I'm willing to concede that there are greater guitar heroes than Pete. EVH, Brian May, Hendrix, Clapton. A lot. But his rare combination of writing and playing puts him in a special place. What intrigues me in this viddy is that he's playing a Strat. I think of nothing but Gibsons in his hands. He even wrote "Sittin' in the Sheraton Gibson / playin' my Gibson...." And that's all I have to say about that.
Now, about the show. Typical VH1 crapfest. As much as I love these guys, I'm nonplussed to hear Daltrey now that he's no longer Daltrey. The band still rocks but not like they could twenty years ago. Then there are the bands doing tributes. "Tenacious D" (whose fame I can never understand but then Jack Black has never impressed me as an actor either) doing a cover of "Squeezebox." Oh please! That song's a trifle, a throwaway, Spike Jones's "Cocktails for Two" in rock garb. Three words for that segment: waste of time. I won't call the efforts of Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Incubus, the Flaming Lips and Adam Sandler into question but, (insert exasperated look here) really. All that covering of Who songs just ain't worth anyone's time. Show archival footage, let the band play, do interviews. But spare me the butt-smoochery of the current acts. If a viewer doesn't know how good this band was, let him die in ignorance.
Finally, Rainn Wilson who's absolutely hilarious as Dwight Schrute in "The Office," was a waste of oxygen on this show. The intro when he dressed as Elton John's version of the Pinball Wizard from the horrifying movie of "Tommy" was just embarrassing. Dude, be selective.

• VH1 TV Shows
• Music Videos
• Celebrity Photos
• News & Gossip

Ah...yes.. Soylent Green (falsley advertised as high-energy plankton-yea right) is one of my all time favorite sci-fi movies and great snack idea.

You'll need:

1 package of Saltine crackers

green food coloring

fine mist spray bottle

3/4 cup of water.

Rent the DVD Soylent Green (1973) then mix the food coloring with water and spray saltines (gently misting) Dry 30 seconds on high in microwave and serve with your favorite Cracker Barrel Cheese. These little wafers really set the mood and the taste..well it "varies from person to person". You can also make Soylent Yellow and Soylent Red both of which were advertised as "high-energy vegetable concentrates." (and yes you eat them while watching the movie)

Did Megacolon Burger Boy of the later Vegas years, Elvis, have 60 Pounds of Undigested Red Meat In His Colon When He Died ? or was it something else?

This claim was somewhat true about Elvis Presley (in concept if not in actual quantity), but not for the reasons we're led to believe. According to an account based on the report by the four doctors who performed the post-mortem examination of the entertainer:The colon is approximately five to seven feet in length in a person Elvis's size and should have been about two inches in diameter...However, Elvis's colon was at least three and a half inches in diameter in some places and as large as four and half to five inches in diameter. The megacolon was jam-packed from the base of the descending colon all the way up and halfway across the transverse colon. It was filled with white, chalklike fecal material representing an amazing likeness of the King. See photo.This account makes it sound like Elvis was a prime example of the hazards of the "goo and glue" diet, but his poor eating habits (greasy, cholesterol-laden foods such as cheeseburgers, french fries, bacon, fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, ice cream) were far less responsible for the condition of his colon than other factors, such as his congenitally twisted ganglionic fold, his overuse of laxatives, and, primarily, his prolonged drug abuse. As one of the autopsy doctors described, "When you take downer-type drugs, depressants, narcotics, a lot of them, most of them, have the concomitant effect of slowing down the digestive system. In other words, the locomotive action of the bowel quits working, so it gets packed with food, and then it gets packed with more food. And it sits there distended and full of food, and that causes the colon to stretch." In other words, it was drugs, not meat, that caused the severely impacted condition of Elvis' colon.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the colon. Thank you and goodnight."

Yes!
As wont as I am to food blog (and I am wont), I must also share wid ch'all of my online shopping (sometimes). To wit: A product from The Ginger People of which I am most enamored (both The People and the product) which has been "temporarily out of stock" for a while now (insert sound of tapping foot). Ginger Spread is back in stock! I've just ordered a dozen of 'em. Which I will split with my fellow gingerphile David. Trader Joe's used to carry it but opted out of it at some point.
This stuff is fantastic. Let me share a TJ's recipe I've not yet made (shouting) because I didn't have ginger spread! (/shouting):

Chocolate Ginger Fondue Bliss
1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz. heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sweet unsalted butter
2-3 tbs ginger spread

Combine ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring often, until smoothly melted (about 10-15 minutes). When everything is melted together, pour into serving bowl (or fondue pot or crock-pot on low). Select your favorite dippers and dig in.
Suggested dippers: dried fruit (apricots, mangoes, papaya, figs), fresh fruit chunks (banana, strawberry, apple, pear), pretzel slims, cookies (macaroons).

Oh yes. That is pure decadence to me. I would also use this as an ice cream drizzle.

Another Sorbet
It seems I'll try anything. In this case, Ranier cherry sorbet. (If you've never had Ranier cherries, and they ain't cheap, you're really missing something.) Two pounds of the cherries ($10 at Costco and I don't know of any place that sells them as cheaply), 1/2 cup sugar, juice of one lemon and 1/3 cup of peach vodka. Blend it. Process it. Put in the freezer.
Don't get me wrong - the flavor is wonderful. Delicious. But the texture is strange. Fluffy. I think some air got into the mix in the pureeing but then the processing seemed to fluff it up some more. It's not bad. But I just like a denser sorbet. Of course I'll try this again with an intermediate step of trying to agitate out some of the air befoer the processing. Fingers crossed.
What happens next? Well, there are blueberries in the fridge....