Category: True Stories

Hot Links of the Sarcophilus harrisii

Jack Harrison, the last survivor who participated in The Great Escape of WWII passed away on 4 June 2010. There’s an interesting interactive illustration of one of the tunnels here. [h/t to Wheels.]

Albino Raccoons.

Who is the Horseboy?

Disgusting prank is disgusting.

Awesome invention by a Ham radio afficionado that fights cancer.

Cadillacs and Album Covers here.  Two more here.

Google is getting so full of information it occasionally collapses under its own weight.

Need a chemical suit? Lookee here.

Live webcam in Amsterdam with sound here.

Speaking of sound, the Zambelli Family is awesome.

Amazing staring contest back stage at the Webby Awards. [via The Presurfer.]

What’s your American dialect? Here’s one test and here’s another.

The Sci-Fi Airshow has an online guided tour. I’m going next week. [via]

Saturday Matinee – The Clarks, Dan Akroyd, Eubie Blake, Tandy & Randy Newman

The Clarks! Tip o’ the Tarboosh to coldwarrior.

Dan Akroyd plays James Cotton‘s version of Ike Turner‘s Rocket 88.

Eubie Blake was awesome. He was 95 in 1978 when this interview was recorded.

During the break there’s  an advertisement for the troublesome RadioShack TRS-80 computer system, using magenetic tape cassettes for data storage. Only cost $599! That’s about $2,000 in today’s dollars. Later on, after users complained about problems with the cassette drives, Tandy eventually offered an awesome 5MB hard drive accessory, about the same size as a PC today, for $1,500 – a whopping $4,900 today.

Okay, 1978 was probably the peak of the (gag) disco phase, and the birth of R&B pop love anthems. There is absolutely nothing that ranked in the top 20 that I’d post here, except for maybe for the Stone’s “Miss You.” Worst song they ever did IMO.

On the other hand, this song made No. 41, and Randy Newman gets kudos for writing the most misunderstood song of the year:

Have a great weekend, folks, and meet me back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Swamp Rock, Ben E. King, Boz & Anson

I love this. Swamp rock with the most bizarre low budget video I’ve run across (found here) and it’s not even Cajun.

The video for The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band‘s new song Clap Your Hands was shot in one day in a barn in Indiana. All of the dancers, artists, freaks, weirdos, cowboys, kids, donkeys, bunko steerers, chickens, and regular folks, who are all Hoosiers, all volunteered their time and talent because they believed in the song and the band. The video was directed/produced by the acclaimed music video producer Kevin Custer (Lil Wayne, Soldja Boy, Flogging Molly) who remarked the day of the shoot, it would have cost a fortune to get all of these props back in NYC. To which The Rev. Peyton replied, These arent props they are just crap you find in a barn!

Ben E. King‘s great song as performed by a variety of performers. [Tip o’ the Tarboosh to Leeuna for posting it.]

Cbullitt tossed this one into the comments section a few days ago, and now I have new respect for Boz Scaggs. Here he is with Anson Funderburgh and an allstar lineup, including Blue Lou Marini.

Have a big ‘ol honkin’ great weekend folks.

We Kicked England’s Balls

Although the World Cup actually began yesterday somewhere in Africa, the USA team kicked England’s arse in a tie of 1-1. I’ll explain why shortly.

The game supposedly originated when victorious Brits began a game of kicking around the skull of a dispatched Roman soldier. Eventually the skull was replaced with an inflated sheep’s bladder (brilliance), and they began kicking that up and down the path between rival villages. The game spread to other villages, and gained the name of “Association Football,” abbreviated to “Assoc.” A participant was termed an “Assoc-er,” thus was the game of Soccer introduced into the English speaking world.

I doubt the previous summary is entirely accurate, but humor me for the attempt at historical improvisation.

Most Americans these days are introduced to Soccer (or Football as the rest of the civilized world calls it) via AYSO, an excellent organization that introduces their kids to the sport and allows parents to yell at each other with impunity over rules they don’t understand. The offsides rule is particularly difficult for us yanks to comprehend because you can’t actually see it unless you are standing right behind the line judge (who is constantly in motion up and down the sidelines) when the foul occurs.

So today, England, the ancestral homeland of the sport, was supposed to have had an easy win over the supposedly inept USA team. It was expected to be a blowout, and with a goal within the first five minutes of play, England led by infinity. However, in the last few minutes of the first half, the Brit keeper floundered allowing a tie score. He’s on suicide watch now, although it wasn’t entirely his fault as nine of his own teammates blew it before the bladder even reached him.

The USA team should be proud, even at a final score of 1-1. England got their pointy little noses polished. Now we’ll work on their teeth.

Kudos to Stephan Pastis.

“Pearls Before Swine” is a comic strip written and illustrated by Stephen Pastis. It first caught my attention in the Orange County Register Sunday Funnies, with a hilarious logo showing the main characters, Pig, Rat, Zebra and Goat as the Ramones. I’ve been following it ever since.

IMO, it’s not laugh out loud stuff (sorry Stephan) but some of it is very clever. When the strip began foundering, Pastis introduced a new group of characters to the mix: crocodiles.

The bumbling crocs speak in broken English, and spend all their time trying to dupe the smarter Zebra into letting them eat him. Pastis was way too subtle for me, until I spotted a not-so-subtle commentary in Pastis’ new storyline:

I don’t think I need to point out the symbolism here. On Monday 7 June 2010, Pastis continues:

Pastis deserves commendations for his subterfuge. Now, Stephen, about that elephant…

Vote Like You’ve Never Voted Before.

Tuesday, 8 June 2010, is California’s Primary election. For those of you on the west coast, the ballot initiatives are probably the most important of the mess.

As for me, I’m voting NO on every initiative except for Prop 13. It’s a good measure, and has no opposition. Owners of existing buildings should not be penalized by property tax reassessment for seismic retrofitting.

As for the candidates, Meg Whitman gets my vote for Republican nominee for governator, and conservative Chuck Devore deserves to  go to the U.S. Senate. The other candidates for other seats don’t matter much.

Now, Steve Rocco is another story. I’m tempted to vote for him just for the hell of it because he pissed so many people off. Here’s a guy who was elected to the board of the Orange Unified School District without even campaigning. He beat out the other contenders with a pair of nothing, and once elected, it took weeks for the OUSD to find out who and where he was. He’s a bizarre dark stocking cap with black sunglasses who’s full of conspiracy theories, and was arrested for supposedly stealing a half-empty bottle of catsup from an OUSD cafeteria. Now he’s running for Public Administrator.

Sounds like a great candidate. Write in Bunk Strutts instead.

Show Us Your War Face

afa-maori-warrior-cover
[Image and quote from here.]

That’s Maori Priest Irrarangi Tiakiawa, keeper of secret Maori martial arts techniques, including death strokes:

“I think this (death point striking) art should die. It is too evil for today’s society. I once witnessed my grandfather having an argument with another man and the other man was in the wrong, so my grandfather just got up and struck him with one finger to one point and the man died… “

The interview is interesting, and includes what to do if confronted by a Maori showing his war face:

1. Stand still. If you run you’re gonna get hurt.
2. The warrior will likely throw something down in front of you. If you don’t pick it up and hand it back to him you’re gonna get hurt.
3. Don’t fight. If you do you’re gonna get killed.

Fortunately, you’re unlikely to encounter a Maori warrior unless you’re in New Zealand, but now you know how to react without bleeding– much.

[Crossposted here a while back.]

D-Day – 6 June 1944

Pure balls, guts and subterfuge displaced the Nazis, saved Europe and brought down the Reichstadt.  Here’s to those who fought to the death for freedom.

[Related posts here and here.]

Saturday Matinee – American Dialects, W.C. Clark & the Fabulous Thunderbirds

American regional dialects are curious, and when I hear one I haven’t heard in a while I try to identify where the speaker grew up. If you listen closely, you can hear the ancestral accents and phrasing as well: English to the north, Scottish and Irish to the south. As for me, I have no accent, but Mrs. Strutts says I do… I sound a lot like central Ohio mixed with some faint Texan stuff. (Here’s a simple online test if you’re curious what accent mix you have.)

W.C. Clark backed by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and featuring Angela Strehli is an awesome mix of Texas blues. Never heard of W.C. Clark? Try this:

Yep, that’s Stevie Ray Vaughan with W.C. Clark. Next question?

Bertha Dlugi’s Contribution to the World

Bertha Dlugi’s invention, patented in 1959, was intended for parakeets and other birds that are allowed to fly freely about the house. “It is … a general object of the present invention to provide a garment to be worn by birds for receiving their excremental discharge to prevent it from being deposited on household furnishings when the bird is at liberty in the home and thereby avoid the consequent unsanitary condition.”

[Image and description from here. Crossposted here.]