Random 31 Jul 2008 10:27 pm
Today was a big day. I read about the world’s oldest joke and heard an old favorite, Haydn’s Symphony No. 93, on XM Radio.
Okay, here’s the joke, recorded ca. 1900 BCE by a Sumerian who shall remain nameless:
Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.
Hey, [...]
Random 30 Jun 2008 8:27 pm
Since I’m one-quarter Slovenian, and have observed quite a few Slovenians up close, it doesn’t surprise me that they are capable of remarkable feats of pigheaded persistence.
You will recall how Martin Strel last year added the Amazon to the list of long rivers whose entire length he has swam.
Now we hear that Jure Robič has [...]
Random 21 May 2008 3:08 pm
The lefty blogs have gone so batscheiss crazy over the fact that Clinton is still in the race, it’s impossible to read them. So, for some weeks now, I haven’t. It’s very pleasant.
I finally got around to reading a novel a friend gave me a while back, Beyond Sleep, by the Dutch writer Willem Frederik [...]
Random 30 Apr 2008 7:42 pm
With gas prices rising with no end in sight, people are looking for ways to increase their mileage. In an article on techniques drivers are using to get farther on a tank of fuel (termed “hypermiling”), we come upon this:
Hypermiling can even make fuel-sipping gas-electric hybrid cars more efficient. Chuck Thomas, 50, a computer programmer [...]
Random 28 Apr 2008 11:46 pm
Here’s what I’m thinking tonight:
People talk a lot.
People talk about things they don’t know much about.
People prefer talking to not talking.
People start sentences before they know where they’re going to end.
People assume other people are interested in what they think.
People are as quick to condemn as they are to take offense.
People are not averse to [...]
Random 26 Apr 2008 10:11 am
Ever since Willie Mays hauled down that drive off the bat of Vic Wertz in the ‘54 World Series, running full-tilt with his back to the plate, I’ve had queasy feelings about the San Francisco Giants. It doesn’t matter that I was eight months old at the time. The team with the best record in [...]
Random 17 Mar 2008 9:42 pm
And now for another installment of the popular Basement feature “Gee, Where Have I Heard That Before?” The trigger this time was Strangers With Candy—specifically, the episodes where Jerri Blank joins a cult. The members sing a song repeatedly—relentlessly, one might even say. (After her ride in the van to Safe Trap House, Jerri says, [...]
Random 4 Mar 2008 10:54 pm
Maybe it has happened to you—it finally happened to me. You open an attachment directly in Outlook Express, edit it, and hit Save. Not Save As…—Save. Good luck trying to find the edited document.
I thought I could find where the document was saved by clicking on the attachment again, hitting Save As…, looking at the [...]
Random and Russia 3 Mar 2008 7:56 pm
Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest,
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum …
I always imagined fifteen guys stomping up and down on some poor guy’s chest. Maybe I’m the only one—I never really checked with anyone else. Well, today I came across this translation at a Russian blog: пятнадцать человек на сундук мертвеца, which back-translates [...]
Random 13 Feb 2008 11:53 pm
Okay, I’ve got a thing about verbal economy, but maybe this is too damn parsimonious.
A while back the online magazine Smith presented a six-word “story” by Ernest Hemingway:
For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.
A remarkably concise tale indeed—pathos concretized pithily. Smith invited its readers to go mano-a-mano with Papa, and six-word memoirs from its readers came [...]
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