Mookie Of The Month - March 2007

Talentless Twit Jessica Simpson Gives Minivan To Orphanage

The Associated Press is reporting that Jessica Simpson personally delivered a new minivan to an orphanage in Mexico. She won a car on the MTV Video Music Awards and traded it in for a minivan to donate. Apparently she's all about benevolence lately, as my wife told me she also is auctioning off some junk on eBay to raise money for the cause.

I'm a bit torn on the whole idea of celebrity-donates-to-charity as a news item. One one hand, it gives me more hope in humanity when I hear about a celebrity doing charitable work rather than talk about In-N-Out Burger as justification for drunk driving (though, she did have a point). I also understand the argument that celebrities should announce when they do charitable things, because they serve as role models to the rest of us. When the rich and powerful donate, it can inspire the less well-off to do so.

On the other hand, it also gets me sick to my stomach when every good deed a celebrity does serves as a photo op and an excuse to mention the projects the celebrity is working on. It just smells of a publicity stunt. I can't help but wonder why if Jessica Simpson wanted to support the orphanage, why couldn't she just write a check or, God forbid, go volunteer there for a few months?

What do you think?

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Oh, Deer

Here's a short anecdote that demonstrates how, two years after moving from Long Island to Greensboro, I'm still a bit of a fish out of water:

My coworkers and I are heading to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. We're driving on a new road, and I'm looking out the window at the remnants of what once been a wooded area.


"Hey look, that's funny. There's a treehouse!"


"Huh? No, I think that's a deer stand."


"A deer stand? That's what a deer stand is? I've heard of deer stands, but I guess I always thought they were something you put up to attract deer. I don't know, like a place were the deer would stand, or something?"


"Heh. No, a deer stand is where you stand, or sit, while hunting."


"It's got a roof, and walls. That hardly seems fair."


"As opposed to everything else about hunting that's fair, Mike?"

Non-Exotic Animal Photos, Part II

Since I live on a small (tiny) pond, I've built up quite a bit of unhealthy hostility towards Canadian Geese. Yet, they do look rather beautiful in these shots, I must say... Perhaps it's time I called a Goose Truce. I'll make Peace With The Geese?

Non-Exotic Animal Photos, Part I

Never thought I'd pass by cows on my commute home from work... (click to enlarge)

Wesley Willis' Chicken Cow Is Alive and Well

In 1995, Wesley Willis sung about The Chicken Cow, a killer beast who could fly as high as a bird, had killed as many as 100,000 people, and who could also break a glass. Willis has been dead for four years now, but if there is reincarnation, Willis may have come back in India as the chicken cow he sung about. A young carnivorous cow has been discovered eating chickens by the dozens!

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - When dozens of chickens went missing from a remote West Bengal village, everyone blamed the neighborhood dogs.

But Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, eventually solved the puzzle when he caught his cow -- a sacred animal for the Hindu family -- gobbling up several of them at night.

"We were shocked to see our calf eating chickens alive," Ghosh told Reuters by phone from Chandpur village.

The family decided to stand guard at night on Monday at the cow shed which also served as a hen coop, after 48 chickens went missing in a month.

"Instead of the dogs, we watched in horror as the calf, whom we had fondly named Lal, sneak to the coop and grab the little ones with the precision of a jungle cat," Gour Ghosh, his brother, said.

Local television pictures showed the cow grabbing and eating a chicken in seconds and a vet confirmed the case.

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Rock Over London, Rock On Kolkata - Blockbuster Video. Wow! What A Difference!

Pearl Jam's Biggest Hit Ever?

If you haven't had a good reason to listen to rock radio lately, I can't say I blame you. The same songs over and over again, new crap by Nickelback, idiot DJ's... Hey, I hear you. But I was listening to a local station (96.1 WWMG I think?) while scanning and came across this amazing version of The Who's "Love, Reign O'er Me." The voice was unmistakeable - Eddie Vedder, with a new Pearl Jam cover of teh Who classic. The song sounds as if it was written for Eddie's voice (Vedder is a huge Who fan), and piano on the song is incredible too.

Turns out this song was recorded by Pearl Jam for the soundtrack of a new Adam Sandler movie called, what else, Reign Over Me, which is apparently a pretty heavy drama, also starring Don Cheadle, about a guy who loses his family on 9/11 and is trying to cope. There's no plans to release the song commercially at the moment - it will only be made available to Ten Club members as part of their membership fee, but you can bet that if the song has legs it will be sold on iTunes eventually. Remember, "Last Kiss" was a huge song for Pearl Jam. This could be almost as big. Listen for it!