Archive for 4/4/2008 - 28 Adar II, 5768

I have written many times about my fascination with numerology. How words and numbers inter-relate mystically.

In my writer’s group, which meets weekly, and I’ve been attending consistently for eight years…once a member gave everyone a challenge to write a poem containing the words: Shooting Blanks. This is what I wrote:

Scrabble

Shooting blanks
Onto the board
He formed words
Simultaneously
Meaning everything
And nothing

With this in mind, you may understand why I love this short video. Unlike most videos at VidLit, this doesn’t appear to be a ‘trailer’ for a book. This is a complete-in-itself video short story. It will only use up 8 minutes and six seconds of your day. (Though the concept of book trailers is an ingenious one….and I’d love it if VidLit had the money to put their trailers before actual movies. Just think about this concept…go to a movie and see trailers for books. The mind reels.)

(And just look at everything this post gives you besides the link to the video. Yesterday there would have been a 90% chance or higher all you would have gotten was the link, with perhaps a short msg about how it speaks to my numerological obsession.)

I am creating a blogging challenge for myself.

I am going to cease linking to anything except in two instances:

1) If I am linking to something else that I wrote
2) I am linking to something that I have read which has had an influence on what I am saying. (So readers know what thoughts are original to me, and what thoughts I get from elsewhere.)

This will eliminate posts that say only “Hey, here’s a neat article I just read” Or “here’s a wonderfully sick and twisted site I just discovered.”

We’ll see how long it takes before I come up with more exceptions, or decide the challenge is over.

I have read all six books of the Trilogy (HHGG; Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, The Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; Mostly Harmless; and Salmon of a Doubt). I have read the radio scripts. I have seen the BBC TV production. I have been a researcher for the official Guide since September 1999.

Before seeing the movie tonight, I had read Peter David’s review. I partially agree with him that there is no such thing as a purist when it comes to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Every version has its differences. There’s only a question of which version you prefer.

However, I’d like to make an exception to that — characterization. I’m not talking about new characters or missing characters. I’m talking about whether the characters respond and act the same to similar events. Whether they physically look ‘right’. I have no problem with a Black Ford Prefect. (For the record, I am using that term because I have no clue whatsoever what country the actor comes from, and it doesn’t matter to me, so I haven’t looked it up.) I’m not sure if Douglas Adams even specifies color in the books or radio play. I’m talking about Zaphod Beeblebrox.

I am not going to give anything away for those who haven’t seen the movie yet. But there are changes made to Zaphod’s character. The ‘revisualization’ of his physical characteristics I am fine with — and I think the f/x are cool. But the rationalizations they create, and what happens as the movie progresses I am not happy with, as a purist.

Alan Rickman as Marvin is great — but I dislike Marvin’s visual appearance.

I also don’t like how the movie is wrapped up so Hollywood style.

Now that I have gotten the dislikes out of the way, I had a lot of fun. I had warm smiles at all the lines I loved from the earlier sources. It’s hard to laugh when they are so familiar. I laughed at many of the added lines. An ‘ultimate weapon’ has been added to the script, and its several uses are progressively humorous.

I wasn’t sure at first, but I like the theme song that was written for the movie. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, is the title. And I am going to have to find an MP3 of it somewhere.

Rating (out of 5 stars) ***

Does everyone know where their towel is?

This is fascinating. Jackson’s Ex Wife, Debbie Rowe, took the stand yesterday and was asked questions regarding an earlier video she made praising Jackson. here are a collection of this morning’s headlines:

ABC News: Jackson’s Ex Wife Sets Back Prosecutors

CNN: Jackson’s ex: Comments on video weren’t honest

Kansas City Star: Interview Wasn’t Scripted, Jackson Ex-Wife Says

New York Times: Jackson’s Ex-Wife Says She Praised Him as Part of Deal

Reuters: Jackson’s Ex-Wife Says She Willingly Defended Him

All the headlines are correct…even those which sound mutually exclusive, it’s just interesting to see what each newspaper is focusing their attention on.

The Chicago Tribune is in desperate need of a fact checker. In two news stories, two days in a row, they have incorrectly identified one guy as a Mob boss, and another guy as a Mob victim.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

Published April 28, 2005

- A picture caption on Page 1 Wednesday incorrectly identified a man on a bicycle as the reputed mob boss Joey “the Clown” Lombardo. In fact, the man’s name is Stanley Swieton and he has no ties to organized crime. A story explaining the mistake is on Page 1 of today’s Metro section.

- A graphic on mob murder victims in the main news section Tuesday incorrectly identified as Nicholas D’Andrea a photo of his brother, Mario D’Andrea.

If you were searching for an assassinated man, twenty sous, or vocal mothers, where would you go? According to Amazon, your best bet would
be Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

They list “statistically improbable phrases” for books whose
publishers have allowed them to search their text.

Unsurprisingly, Notre Dame de Paris is the number one place to find a deaf creature, a gypsy girl, and her tambourine.

Before following the links, can you guess these novels (hint, none of
them are by VMH):

1) downy lip, little countess, peasant coat, and hundred roubles

2) man with the wooden leg, pecuniary liabilities, and crocodile book

3) ardent ways, enchanted days, and dear little brothers

The ACLU on Tuesday filed a petition with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asking for a full-court review of the April 14 ruling against Cynthia Simpson.

Simpson sued Chesterfield County in 2002 after she was excluded from a list of religious leaders allowed to pray at Board of Supervisors meetings. In a letter to Simpson, the county explained the invocations “are traditionally made to a divinity that is consistent with the Judeo-Christian tradition.”

…

The 4th Circuit overturned a judge’s 2003 ruling based on Marsh v. Chambers, a 1983 Supreme Court decision that ruled nonsectarian legislative prayer is generally constitutional. The appeals court wrote that Chesterfield County has done a good job of including leaders from a variety of religions to offer opening prayers and therefore abided by the Constitution by not advancing any one faith.

Apparently the court felt that limiting prayers to those in the Judeo-Christian tradition was a ‘good job’. Cynthia Simpson is a Wiccan Priestess.

Source

98% of all high school English teachers say Bible Study is important. The key, of course, is studying the bible as literature, in order to understand literary and cultural allusions in other work. I read bible stories in English class my Junior year in high school (in a quite liberal public school district).

This of course doesn’t mean there should be prayer in school. These are completely unrelated. And I daresay many in the Religious Right would not have been terribly happy with the way the Bible was taught in my school. But I’m familiar with the references they list in the AP article.

more info

I’m not sure how old he is, but Art Buchwald still rocks!. (In this piece, he talks to Zack the Zealot about the interplay of politics and religion in the filibuster debate.)

(This post is also a test to see how well Blogger’s blogging-by-email
feature works.)

I’ve switched from MovableType to Blogger.

Blogger allows me to keep my blog on my domain, but if you click on the comment link you will find the comment script is on their servers. So my host should be kept happy.

All bookmarks should automatically update.

Let me know what you think. Comments are back.

A Connecticut High School Student posted a profanity laced msg on his blog directed at the highschool band leader.

He was stripped of his drum major position, and given an in-school suspension.

He went to the ACLU for assistance. Naturally, the ACLU is helping, since this appears a straightforward case. A school ought not to discipline a student for remarks they make off campus.

There appears to be some concern in that while his profanity laced msg contained no threats…there was an earlier threatening msg at the band on a classmate’s blog. So there is an investigation into whether the two students, and their anger, are connected. But it would seem to me to be overstepping their bounds to take disciplinary action until such a connection is made. You don’t punish one kid for something another kid did.

What’s delicious (to my mind) this is not the first time the student has made their views public. He held up a Bush/Cheney placard at a Football halftime show. I think this kid is confused. If he supported Bush/Cheney, how come he went to the ACLU for help? Of course, the ACLU will help him. They’ll help anyone whose rights are being trampled.

There’s an old saying — a Conservative is a lay-off away from becoming a Liberal. The same holds for free speech rights. They’ll insist the ACLU is a bunch of left-wing commies, and that there is no danger of our rights being taken away….until it happens to them.

GreenZap - going live this summer - may provide some much needed competition for PayPal. (And they’re getting people to become members by literally giving away money)

Spain is about to become the first European nation to legalize both homosexual marriage and homosexual adoption. (Belgium and the Netherlands have legal marriage, but not adoption.) Pope Benedict the XVI unsurprisingly is condemning this.

I am slightly confused how this is a “freedom of conscience” issue though, as the Vatican is describing it. Spain isn’t suggesting, from what I’ve read, that anyone will be forced to marry someone of their own sex, or be forced to adopt kids with members of their own sex. Those who wish to marry and adopt heterosexually will still be allowed to. So I don’t see how “freedom of conscience” comes into play.

Actually, from my perspective, it’s the “freedom of conscience” argument that leads to laws such as these. But I’m not an RC, and probably don’t think like one.

I’m visiting my sister, brother (in law), and their dog in sunny California in a town near Half Moon Bay — El Granada. I walked with brother and dog this morning on a path by “the bluffs”. Damn nice scenic view. Wished I could walk it every morning. There should be a summer camp here — I have the perfect name for it.

Yesterday afternoon a few employees of a major internet company in the bay area (not going to mention the name) dropped by. They were deleting a few sensitive files from my sister’s laptop, since she does some consulting work for them. That took 3 hours because there were a lot of files, and they had to be deleted, and then written over 35 times. Writing over them once, five times, or thirty times apparently isn’t enough.

The IT guy heavily recommended downloading Firefox…so I gave it a try. So far I love it. They actually enable you to add RSS feeds to your bookmarks. All my daily blogreading is now in my bookmarks. It just provides the titles of the recent entries, but it’s still cool.

I’ve seen some interesting businesses in the area. A daycare center for “mildly ill children”. I’m not sure if this means kids with runny noses, or mildly schizoid. I can see a potential market for either one. Yes, I am positive the sign said “mildly”.

I’ve also seen an ad for a Doggie Spa - which uses only natural shampoos. They offer both self-serve and full-serve.

This morning my brother and I stopped at a place called “Poet’s Coffe” prior to the walk to pick up some Chai. Excellent Chai, and the owner is an actual poet. His poetry is up on the walls. The dog was able to come inside with us and she greeted all the customers. If I knew how to make good coffee, I might open a similar place in St. Louis.

The below is an email I just received regarding the Harry Potter Release Party in the CWE:

Left Bank Books is having the biggest party in town and one of thebiggest in the Country. Thought you all should know!

On July 15th at 9:00 pm the Central West End will convert into a scene straight out of the Harry Potter books. Euclid Street will be closed from Mcpherson to Maryland and participating stores will stay open or set up booths all relating to Potter madness. If you preorder your book with Left Bank Books you will get 25% off and receive an exclusive gift bag on the night of party.

Other participating sponsors are The Central West End Business Association, The St. Louis Science Center, The City Museum, COCA, The Riverfront Times, Fitz’s Root Beer and St. Louis Cinema.

The Science Center will be setting up a booth dedicated to the science of Harry Potter including potions and magic. The City Museum will take up the craft aspect of the night. They may also include their circus act, more details to follow. COCA will be adding to the performance of the night with actors dressed up as characters from the book to help set the mood even more. St. Louis Cinema is looking into finding space to project the Harry Potter movies on, and other businesses in the area will add their own flare to the night. There will also be face painters, costume contest, beverages provided by Fitz’s Root Beer, give-a-ways and prizes. Duffs Restaurant will stay open and will provide Harry Potter Menus to satisfy any hungry wizards appetite.

Don’t miss out on this! Call 314-367-6731 (Left Bank Books) for more info.

I was going through a scrapbook my mother kept when I was a tot. Below is what I think is my First Short Story. It was written down on 4/28/1975. I would have been 6 and a quarter years old. It’s typed, so my suspicion is I passed this story on in the “oral tradition”.

Once upon a time there were five enormous men and they liked to play in the desert. Every day when they went to the desert they rided on camels. And one day, when they rided on the camel to the desert they played hockey and it rained. And while it was raining they got this problem — they couldn’t talk. The problem solver was going to bed. And two days after he went to bed he had a holiday and they were going to the zoo to see monkees.

That’s the entire story. It needs some work.

From my research it appears the only moveabletype plugins that will truly prevent the DoS attacks my blog has been getting only work on MT 3.x . MT 3.x costs money. Even if I add a script that will moderate every comment, the server still gets hit with each attack.

I don’t want to add a CAPTCHA — those funky letters you have to read and type to submit a comment. Spammers have learned how to crack them, and besides, visually impaired people have difficulty with them too — and since I work for a not-for-profit which provides services to the disabled, I’m not going to prevent the disabled from making comments on my blog. That would be the height of irony.

Any suggestions for blogging programs I can
1) install on my site
2) Free
3) not as susceptible to spam attacks as Moveable Type

I know some will suggest going LiveJournal. (LJ, by the way was just purchased by SixApart, makers of MoveableType.) If I take my blog outside my domain, I am going to use Bloghorn. I like to support local products, especially good ones like Bloghorn.

[Naturally…if you have a suggestion…send it to me by email. Link on the Left. Comments are disabled.]

My host has disabled the comments to this blog due to a DoS spam attack. It seems the throttle I have on comments isn’t working

– I checked, and the most recent spam barrage came from multiple IP addresses…so the script that checks to see if IP xxxx comments more than X amount of times in Y seconds wasn’t triggered. But they all advertised the same webaddress, so it is clear they were all the same spammer.

Does anyone know of an MT-Plugin that puts a more generic throttle on comments? Perhaps one enforcing a 30 second wait between posts from anyone. My blog gets such a small amount of legitimate comments that this shouldn’t inconvenience too many.

The Prophecy of the Popes is a list of 112 short Latin phrases purporting to describe each of the Roman Catholic popes beginning with Pope Celestine II (elected in 1143) and concluding with a future pope described in the prophecy as “Peter the Roman”, whose pontificate will end in the destruction of the city of Rome and the Last Judgment.

According to the conventional pairing of of Malachy’s mottos to popes, Pope Benedict XVI will be succeeded by Peter the Roman. However, there is much debate about this. The last Pope, Peter the Roman, was added to the list in 1820, and does not appear in the original list. If this is the case, then Malachy intended the motto corresponding to Benedict XVI to be the last. On the other hand, others argue that Malachy did not indicate that he [’Glory of the Olive’] and Peter the Roman will be consecutive, and there may be more popes he did not foresee.

Before the election of Benedict XVI, it was supposed by some that his motto, “The Glory of the Olive”, indicated that John Paul II’s successor would be Christ himself, and that Peter the Roman is fictitious. Israel is referred to in Malchy’s texts as “The Olive” and so “The Glory of the Olive” would be Christ himself, and so herald the Last Judgement.

Source.

Saint Malachy (see a couple posts back) prophesied that this Pope would be the “Glory of the Olive”. Some suggested this might mean he would be olive-skinned. Ratzinger isn’t. Some suggested this might mean he would be Mediterranean. Ratzinger isn’t. Some suggested “Olive” might represent Israel or the Jewish people. Considering Ratzinger’s involvement in crafting the historical documents back in 2000…this may have legs.

It’s so much easier to figure out what prophecies mean — afterwards.

The Conclave elected a new Pope - Benedict XVI, formerly Joseph Ratzinger of Germany.

It will be interesting to see how much is mentioned of these paragraphs of his profile.

Before that, the 14-year old Joseph was briefly a member of Hitler’s youth organisation when membership became compulsory in 1941. He received dispensation to leave shortly afterwards because he was training in a seminary. He later enrolled in an anti-aircraft unit protecting a factory, but deserted in 1944, spending a few weeks in a prisoner of war camp.

He has said in subsequent interviews that although he opposed the Nazis it was not possible to resist openly - a point contended by some historians.

Personally, if he had been an adult member of the clergy, I would hold him responsible. But he was 14-17 years old, and didn’t join until it was compulsory. His desertion supports his contention.

update

More from the London Times and the Jerusalem Post

From the Jerusalem Post:

The only significant complaint that the Times makes against Ratzinger’s wartime conduct is that he resisted quietly and passively, rather than having done something drastic enough to earn him a trip to a concentration camp. Of course, whenever it is said that a German failed the exceptional-resistance-to-the-Nazis test, it would behoove us all to recognize that too many Jews failed it, as well.

…

As prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger played an instrumental role in the Vatican’s revolutionary reconciliation with the Jews under John Paul II. He personally prepared Memory and Reconciliation, the 2000 document outlining the church’s historical “errors” in its treatment of Jews. And as president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, Ratzinger oversaw the preparation of The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, a milestone theological explanation for the Jews’ rejection of Jesus.

If that’s theological anti-Semitism, then we should only be so lucky to “suffer” more of the same.

I wrote the below poem some time between 1995 and 1998. Nobody ever listens to me.

Patriotís Day

In 1775 on the 18th of April
Lanterns were lit so Revere and Dawes
Could ride at Midnight warning
All who could hear the British were cominjg.
Two hundred twenty years ten hours later
At nine oíclock Oklahoma City time
A bomb went off announcing
The arrival on American shores of terrorism.

At first everyone was sure it was Arabs.
For who else could commit
Such an act of horror?
Certainly it couldnít have been one of us.
But the events turned out otherwise
And two Americans were arrested:
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
Two more trials had begun.

Some friends of mine tell me
They want them to die.
All I can wonder
Is what good that will do.
It wonít bring back the children.
Nor will it deter future acts of terrorism.
In their diseased brains they believe
They are patriots, willing to die for their country.

Letís not make these two martyrs
For other distorted minds to follow.
More blood never wipes the slate clean.
Let them live their remaining days in jail
As an example for their remaining
Compatriots-in-confusion:
Violence isnít always
The answer to a problem.

Classic Bloom County

(It took him 22 years — and he only did three more chapters)

The first round of voting has completed:

I’m happy no Pope was elected. If one had been, we wouldn’t have had a chance to see the black smoke. I guess that’s selfish.

In the National League East: Philadelphia, New York, Florida, and Atlanta are all tied for second with 6 wins and 6 losses.

The Washington Nationals are leading the division with an 8-4 record — or in other words, a percentage of .666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666

(most newspapers do round up to .667, but it really never ends.)

According to a 12th Century prophecy we only have 2 more Popes before “The End”.

The ancient prophecy of St. Malachy states who the next Pope will be. Malachy was an Irish bishop entrusted with the gift of prophecy. Around the year 1139, he had visions of every single Pope until ìthe end of the worldî. He did not name the Popes directly, but wrote down the successors under symbolic phrases, set in Latin. He then gave them to the Pope Innocent II, where they remained sealed for approximately 400 years.

These phrases, despite their simplicity, fit the description of each and every Pope since Malachyís time with uncanny accuracy.

[…]

After John Paul II, there are only two more Popes listed. The final Pope is describe with this: ìIn extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations, at the term of which the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the formidable Judge will judge his people. The End.î

This article contains a list of all 112 Popes since 1139, Malachy’s description of them, and for a handful of them what those descriptions might have referred to.

I just woke up from a nightmare.
Someone poured a bucket of water on me.
My hair turned red, I shrunk several inches, and and….

I guess it could have been worse.
I could have turned into hsing hsing. (or ling ling)

I think I’ve been watching too much anime.
I better go back to bed.

A linguistics professor was lecturing to his class one day. “In English,” he said, “A double negative forms a positive. In some languages though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However,” he pointed out, “There is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative.”

A voice from the back of the room piped up, “Yeah. Right.”

Today is Leo Davinci’s birthday.

Without Leo, there’d be no Last Supper, no Mona Lisa, no Davinci’s Notebook!

Apparently, according to the Wehrenberg site now, the individual on the phone earlier today gave me inaccurate information.

Tickets go on sale at 12:01 am this morning. (I suspect the information I was given was the info for ‘normal’ ticket sales.)

I have no clue if ticket booths will be manned, or if this only applies to online.

Remote Controlled Headless Zombie Flies

From BoingBoing:

In a story in the current issue of Cell, scientists report that they can control fruit-flies remotely — by shooting lasers at their neurons. Cool enough, but then they tore the heads off a few flies, and found they were still able to stimulate the remaining neurons — and even induce them to fly. That’s right: Remote-controlled headless zombie flies

Video (.mov)

Tickets for Star Wars Episode 3 go on sale tomorrow morning for Wehrenberg theaters.

9 am ONLINE
Half an hour before the first movie starts at individual theaters (and since its a weekday, the first show is usually around noon….)

So if you really think there’s going to be a rush to buy tickets, perhaps for particular airings like a midnight show….don’t stand in line.
Buy Online. (Yes, there’s a $1 surcharge…but the midnight show could, theoretically sell out online before you get to the counter. If you don’t care about a particualr airing time, and you want to save a buck, go ahead and visit the theater on your lunch hour.)

This of course only applies to St. Louis. Situations vary from area to area.

“You write pretty well…have a sense of humor…much better…than I”

– Joseph Heller on a postcard written to the author of this blog in July, 1986

Don’t believe it? Read the postcard here.

Ellipses are absolutely the most wonderful linguistic invention ever.

The below was written by Robert Friedman, editor of the St. Petersburg Times. It appeared March 27th.

Like many of you, I have been compelled by recent events to prepare a more detailed advance directive dealing with end-of-life issues. Here’s what mine says:

In the event I lapse into a persistent vegetative state, I want medical authorities to resort to extraordinary means to prolong my hellish semiexistence. Fifteen years wouldn’t be long enough for me.

I want my wife and my parents to compound their misery by engaging in a bitter and protracted feud that depletes their emotions and their bank accounts.

I want my wife to ruin the rest of her life by maintaining an interminable vigil at my bedside. I’d be really jealous if she waited less than a decade to start dating again or otherwise rebuilding a semblance of a normal life.

I want my case to be turned into a circus by losers and crackpots from around the country who hope to bring meaning to their empty lives by investing the same transient emotion in me that they once reserved for Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy and that little girl who fell into a well.

I want those crackpot strangers to spread vicious lies about my wife.

Read the rest of the article.

A new book meme circulating around the sphere is going by the name “123.5,” and its rules are these:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t search around and look for the “coolest” book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

This is welfarequeen’s fault. (She didn’t start the meme, but I saw it there first.)

And damn her, I saw it at work, instead of at home… (I’m on my lunch hour)

Limitations: Giving limited to children of La-Z-Boy employees in the following locations: Siloam Springs AR, Redlands, CA, Monroe, MI, Neosho, MO, Leland and Newton, MS, Hudson, Lenoir, and Lincolnton, NC, Florence, SC, Dayton and New Tazewell, TN, Tremonton, UT, Bedford, VA, and Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

The world’s oldest porn disocvered. 7200 year old figurines in ‘adult poses’.

Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because
it comes late…I shall not compound error by pushing that decision still farther. - Justice Felix Frankfurter - Henslee v. United Planters Nat. Bank & Trust Co., 335 U.S. 595, 600 (1949) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting).

President Bush spent an hour and a half on Saturday on an 18-mile mountain bike ride at his Texas ranch. With him, as usual, was his indispensable new exercise toy: an iPod music player

The Ipod came from his daughters

Mr. Bush has had his Apple iPod since July, when he received it from his twin daughters as a birthday gift. He has some 250 songs on it, a paltry number compared to the 10,000 selections it can hold. Mr. Bush, as leader of the free world, does not take the time to download the music himself; that task falls to his personal aide, Blake Gottesman, who buys individual songs and albums, including Mr. Jones’s and Mr. Jackson’s greatest hits, from the iTunes music store.

The RIAA will like that part…it appears at first glance all songs on the Presidential IPod were legally obtained. But…wait!

The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon, a biking buddy and his chief media strategist during the 2004 campaign

SO…there you have it. President George W Bush has music on his Ipod that neither he nor his personal aide legitimately paid for.

Yes, Dr. Demento still exists. He never went away. The radio show is in its 35th year.

No, unfortunately, there still isn’t a St. Louis radio station that airs Dr. D.

However, there are a few radio stations across the country that do air his show, and stream it across the internet.

I listened to the show Saturday morning from 10 am to Noon on KACV FM 90 - out of Amarillo Texas.

I was connected via dial-up, and had no difficulties. There was one brief annoying 2 second gap in the show — but in a 2 hour time span that was impressive.

KACV is a college radio station, and the commercials are jam-packed with PSA’s from federal and state health agencies. �Some might consider this an added bonus — as listening to the government tell kids how bad pot smoking is can be almost as funny as the Dr. Demento show. �(Im not saying the message is a funny message — just the way they are doing it can be funny)

One weekly bit is the Demented News - on which I heard about a new book Leonard Nimoy is publishing.

STAR TREK icon LEONARD NIMOY is focusing on fat women in his second book of kinky nude photographs.

Nimoy shocked Jewish groups with the publication of his 2002 photographic collection SHEKINA with its juxtaposition of nude photographs with religious imagery.

The 73-year-old recruited the obese performance troupe THE FAT BOTTOM REVIEW to model for him - and he used nude works by HELMUT NEWTON and HERB RITTS as his inspiration.

He tells PAGESIX.COM of his photographic subjects, “They are
interested in fat liberation. Their self-esteem is strong. They will
tell you that too many people suffer because the body they live in is
not the body you find in the fashion magazines.”

Here’s a link to Saturday’s playlist. It was a conglomeration of songs from the past three decades. Some by fresh new artists, and some classics. Artists included Adam Sandler, Steve Martin, Bill Cosby, Tom Paxton, and even Danny Kaye!

Of the new stuff, The Hazzard’s ‘Gay Boyfriend’ was quite good. As was ‘Epithets’ by Paul and Storm (half of Davinci’s Notebook performing separately)

The Saga of Baptism-by-Proxy continues.

I blogged on this 2 years ago and got accused of hatred and insensitivity.

All I will say now, is according to the SF Chronicle, it appears the Mormon church has been making promises they have no intention of fulfilling. But that is just the appearance, and I’m sure there’s another side to the story.

I have a “Paypal Donation” link on my Victor Hugo Obsession site.

I just got $10. ($9.41 after Paypal took its cut.)

There are a couple ways for me to look at this.
1) Someone just sent me $10! Wow! Cool!
2) I’ve had that Paypal Donation link up for about 2 years, and I have earned what from it? $10?
3) I have had the website since 2000. I have spent approximately $10/month for webhosting. ($480 over 4 years) And I have spent many hours of work on it. And I have earned…$10.

I think I will try extremely hard to focus on the first response.

If it weren’t for that website, I wouldn’t have been quoted in the Christian Science Monitor, or interviewed on an Australian radio show. I think that’s worth $500. Sure.

It’s Opening Day for the Cardinals (I’m wearing red, are you?)
and it’s April - National Poetry Month.
So here’s a poem I wrote a year or so ago.
It’s a Pantoum (a Malaysian form of poetry introduced to the West by none other than Victor Hugo)

Pantoum - second and fourth lines of each stanza
become first and third lines of next.
First and third lines of first stanza
are fourth and second of last…
creating a squirmer effect.

The Wave

Arrival of spring
Grass fields
A high fast one
Low and away

Grass fields
Artificial turf
Low and away
Outside

Artificial turf
Players contracts
Outside
Foul balls

Players contracts
Millionaire salaries
Foul balls
Homeruns

Millionaire salaries
World Series
Homeruns
All star game

World Series
Seventh inning stretch
All star game
Play ball

Seventh inning stretch
A high fast one
Play ball
Arrival of spring

I came up with a new slogan, and now I’m getting fancy and actually using artwork!

The art is by Monet.

I saw a motivational poster at work. I’ve actually seen it several times over the past weeks. It’s been annoying me. I made a small change.

here’s my version.

Feel free to print out and hang wherever you are.

Maybe it will inspire everyone around you.

A complete list of Popes from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

(I can’t find Pope Joan on the list.)

Search Yahoo and Google simultaneously.

Useful…but arguably this puppy is better, and has been around longer.

My vote for best news photo of the year, so far. (And best headline.)