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?

Appearex Commercial

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.

Full Story

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!

A Night In Minneapolis, With Pictures!

I'm in Minneapolis for the night. I have a business meeting tomorrow, but tonight I had the opportunity Minnesota had to offer. That is, all Minneapolis had to offer on a Sunday night with 8 inches of snow on the ground and when you are by yourself because your coworker is stranded in Dallas.

But, lucky for me, there is a real great jazz club just a few blocks away called Dakotas, and tonight I had the pleasure of enjoying the beautiful sounds of Saxophonist Frank Morgan and pianist Joanne Brackeen perform together. It was a real treat. Here are some pictures I took between the hotel and the club:
(click images for larger views)















Minneapolis with 8 inches+ of snow on the ground




















The Wells Fargo Center




















Mary Tyler Moore in the snow

Oh, Snap! Isn't That Annoying?

If you visit any websites where when you scroll over a link, a picture of the website it links to is displayed by Snap Preview, and you're like me and find that really annoying, there is a really simple way to disable the feature: Just go to this page and Click Where it says to disable Snap Preview Anywhere. Then, when you go back to the offending site, you'll have to click refresh to get rid of the function.

And there you have it.

Helping Hershey

Last week, after reading that Hershey announced plans to cut their workforce by 1,500 people, I immediately posted an angry article on this blog, and called for a boycott of Hershey products.

The next day, I embarked on a business trip, and while at the airport I stopped to grab a magazine and a bottle of water. At the counter, were limited edition Hershey's Dark Chocolate bars with Macadamia and Raspberries called "Mauna Loa." I am a total sucker for limited edition candy bars, and really, any new flavor of junk food. So I impulsively bought the bar, and as I'm munching on it, I suddenly realized I had just bought a Hershey's product, mere hours after I called for a boycott!

"Whatever," I thought,"nobody would listen to me anyway." I caught myself, and realized that was just a defense mechanism, trying to make up for my hypocritical action. Then I thought, that maybe a boycott would hurt Hershey sales, and that would only justify their reason for scaling back U.S. production. And, maybe a boycott was the complete opposite way to go aboput this. Instead, we should persuade everyone to "eat more chocolate," and promise Hershey that we would continue to support the company, if they would in turn promise not to go forward with the layoff plans.

My wife and I have set up a website, www.kissesforhershey.com, where we've laid out our plans, and set up a petition for people to sign. We plan on sending one Hershey's Kiss to CEO Richard Lenny for every person who signs the petition by July 7th (Chocolate Day). We also hope to start a letter writing campaign, where people send letters to Richard Lenny, pledging our support as a valued customer, enclosing a Hershey's proof of purchase, and asking him not to go forward with the layoffs.

Please check out the site, sign the petition, and tell five friends about this movement. It turns out 3,000 jobs are at stake!!

It's Electric! Boogie uggie uggie

The creator of the electric slide, Richard Silver, says that party goers at weddings and bar mitzvahs, etc. are doing the dance, all wrong. He says the dance he created has 22 steps, and that people are only doing 18. Specifically, dancers should be touching their toes twice, in succession, instead of just once, and he's considering legal action! You need to listen to this nutjob get interviewed on NPR. Seeing people at parties dance incorrectly gets him very upset, and he's hired a lawyer to explore all options.

After paying my way through college as a wedding DJ, I am permanently scarred from enjoying "The Electric Slide." I can no longer bring myself to do this dance at parties, in fact just hearing the song gives me painful flashbacks, so news that the creator wants to have people who dance it be fined is actually music to my ears! Ric Silver (official website) is out of his gourd but he's got my support.

Now, what can we have done about that cha cha slide or the chicken dance?

Happy Banks and Post Offices Are Closed Day!

According to an article in The New Yorker, officially today is not President's Day, Presidents' Day, or even Presidents Day, but actually only (officially) is George Washington's Birthday Day. See for yourself: http://www.opm.gov/fedhol/2007.asp !

Other things I learned from reading The New Yorker on flights to and fro Miami this weekend:

*The creator and driving force behind '24' is a self-proclaimed "right-wing nut job,"

*The former owner of the Detroit Tigers and creator of the Domino's empire is on a Catholic crusade. He sold Domino's, in part so he could build what he envisions as a truly great, Catholic university.

*Grey Goose has a new pear flavored vodka called La Poire.

Milton Hershey Just Rolled Over In His Grave

Hershey Co. is cutting 1,500 jobs over three years as part of a plan to scale back production lines and move some manufacturing to Mexico, the candy maker announced Thursday.

During The Great Depression, instead of laying off workers, Milton Hershey employed workers to build such structures such as The Hotel Hershey, a community center, a theatre, a sports arena and a stadium in the chocolate factory's town in Pennsylvania.

To mark this sad day, I suggest everyone go out and buy an American-made chocolate product, such as from Ghirardelli or The San Francisco Chocolate Factory.

Politics As Unususal

Self-loathing black man? South Carolina state senator Robert Ford, who is black, says that if Barack Obama won the presidential primary, “Every Democratic candidate running on that ticket would lose because he’s black and he’s at the top of the ticket — we’d lose the House, the Senate and the governors and everything.” Way to fight the power, Bobby.

Meanwhile, Obama issues his first apology of his campaign for the White House. He's also going to have to apologize to Oprah at some point. He promised her he's announce his campaign intentions on her show, and instead chose the Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois, the same place where Lincoln delivered a famous anti-slavery speech. My guess is that Oprah will forgive, but she'll expect a spot in his cabinet.

Stuart Smalley is running for the Senate.

Stephen Colbert is trying to correct the "well known liberal agenda" that exists in desserts, with his Americone Dream ice cream. My wife doesn't think she'd like the flavor, vanilla with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and caramel. I would love Ben & Jerry's to come out with a mint ice cream with coconut, chocolate and puffed rice.

Speaking of mint, the U.S. Mint will try one more time to get the public to accept a $1.00 coin. These new coins will be the same shape, color and metal content as the last failed version, but apparently the gov't is blaming Sacagawea's image for the failure, and instead they're trusting that presidential images on the coins will be better received. The first coins, available tomorrow, will feature George Washington on the head side. Brilliant. One of the most common complaints about the dollar coin is that it is too similar to a quarter, so the geniuses decided to stick Washington's face on it. That should do it. Every three months though, a new president will be honored (in the order they served) - a series that as of now will run into 2016. Can't wait for that Taft coin. Our leaders prove once again that they've got more dollars than sense.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Preview

Mookie Of The Month - February 2007

Mookie during her blue period

Update: Billy Joel's New Single To Be Released Soon

Earlier this month I posted news that Billy Joel had recorded a new pop song for the first time in 13 years, and I also espoused my hateful (and, to date, unsubstantiated) theory as to why it's been so damn long. Today we learn that the new song, titled "All My Life," will first be heard on Feb 7th, exclusively and inexplicably on People.com, followed by its release for sale on iTunes on February 20th.

Billy Joel will sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl on Sunday, kicking off a tour on which he'll perform the pop music he'd become "weary of," I guess until now?

Why Yes, Perhaps the Pen IS Mighter Than The Sword, After All!

From the BBC:

US woman fights off lion with pen

A 65-year-old Californian woman has saved the life of her husband, 70, by fighting off an attacking mountain lion with a small log and his pen.

Jim and Nell Hamm were walking in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park when the cougar wrestled Jim to the ground.

Nell started hitting the animal with the log but it kept hold of Jim's head. She then tried to stick the pen in its eye. The cougar eventually let go.

full story

Hell Cat!

Greatest Inventions Of All Time

The four greatest inventions of all time are, in order:

1. Fire
2. Internet
3. Wheel
4. Sandwich

An excellent website all about sandwiches is The Sandwich Project. If you add it to your Google homepage, you'll get updated on the "Sandwich Of The Day"

Today's Sandwich Of The Day (sounds delicious!):

The Notch

What’s in it? Garlic and herb cream cheese and slices of really rare roast beef, red onion and juicy, ripe tomatoes. Oh, and a liberal sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper.

What should we know? This sandwich is sold at the Tailgate Picnic deli across the road from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Variations of the sandwich using ham or turkey (or alfalfa sprouts and cucumbers for a veggie version) are also extremely tasty.

Bread Type? Crusty rolls or baguette