Horrible self-indulgence, Year Five

Yes, it's the fifth anniversary of when I started this blog, and it's time once again to review the previous year. I hope you will indulge this trip down memory lane. Five years. Wow.

This insane world.

Man threatens to set his teacher on fire because she assigned "The Crucible."
Weird sex stuff. Totally safe for work, though!
The hardcore dude at the convenience store.
Horrible shoppers on Black Friday.
God is mean.
The people who named their kid Adolf Hitler.
Some odd news: Birmingham, England removes apostrophes from its street signs; Anna Nicole Smith's life is turned into an opera; a 13-year-old father; churches believe in evolution!
An Afghan law makes it legal for husbands to rape their wives.
Torture; Carrie Prejean; speed cameras.
No naked hiking in the Switzerland!
Are you looking for a sugar daddy?
The Pentagon no longer quotes the Bible; a man called 911 because his adult son's bedroom was messy.
Sex is fun!
A great photograph.

Sports.

The Phillies win the pennant!
The anniversary of the end of the 1993 World Series.
Did the media want Tampa Bay to win the World Series?
A phallic team logo?
Bad sports announcing round-up.
Sports photos of the year!
Sammy Baugh died.
Cool photo of Shaq.
Cute lumberjacks!
World Naked Bike Ride!
Pole dancing championships. It's totally a sport, man!
Rick Pitino needs to shut up.

Politics.

Sarah Palin is wacky. I suppose we already knew that.
Yay, gay marriage was banned in Arizona! Again, I might add.
Post-Election Day thoughts.
Even more Election Day thoughts!
Sadness over Dana Perino leaving the White House.
Why is there no love for the American system of government?
Fifty years of the Chinese in Tibet.
Legislation to make commercials quieter.
Moral relativism and torture.

Religious oddness.

Jews versus Mormons!

Link-blogging.

Best butts, scary Ronald McDonald.

My observations on life and my life in general.

The five stages of memorizing song lyrics.
Riding the rails in northern Arizona.
Classes you can take at Mesa Community College.
The quality of friendship.
I bite my lip.
I'm finding it hard to be a Luddite.
Thoughts about Disneyland and Los Angeles.
Pictures of me from the late 1980s and early 1990s.
My power went out!
The summer of 1979.
My long post about racism.
My twenty years of collecting comics.

Culture, popular or otherwise.

Sunny von Bulow died.
Betty Page died.
Ricardo Montalban died.
Estrada or Nada should have been a real show.
Zsa Zsa Gabor turns 92!
Hans Beck died.
Rihanna's birthday made me feel old.
Dr. Seuss's birthday reminded me of something.
Barbie turns 50.
Erik Estrada turns 60!
Stupid Americans!
Hollywood is conservative.
Movie review: District 9.
Sort-of movie review: Inglourious Basterds.
I don't get SpongeBob SquarePants.
How to celebrate Guy Fawkes' Day!

Books I read.

Carlisle vs. Army by Lars Anderson.
The Will by Reed Arvin.
Shadowplay by Clare Asquith.
War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayres.
Dreamland by Kevin Baker.
Sacrament by Clive Barker.
Abarat by Clive Barker.
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes and The Somnabulist by Jonathan Barnes.
The Alps by Andrew Beattie.
The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.
For the Thrill of It by Simon Baatz.
The Catastrophist by Ronan Bennett.
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind.
Grant Morrison: The Early Years by Tim Callahan.

Great songs, according to me.

Part 39.

Into the back issue box.

The Magdalena vol. 2 #2.
Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy #6.
Wolverine #94.
Wolff & Byrd: Counselors of the Macabre #22.
Case Files: Sam & Twitch #23.

Death and sex in comics.

Dark Horse's Conan #0-50.
John Byrne's Next Men.

Comic reviews.

Three comics by Dwight MacPherson: Kid Houdini and the Silver-Dollar Misfits; The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo, volume 2; Dead Men Tell No Tales.
Aetheric Mechanics; Almighty; Dad!; Fishtown; The Martian Confederacy; Obsession; Slow Storm; Tiny Life: l)a.
B. P. M.; Swallow Me Whole; Jobnik!; La Muse; Septic Isle; Damnation.
Winter Men and its long publication history.
Fantastic Four Visionaries volume 0; Tokyo Days, Bangkok Nights; Eddy Current; Chronicles of Some Made; American Elf volume 3; Sulk volumes 1 and 2; Waltz With Bashir; Never As Bad As You Think; Miss Don't Touch Me; In the Flesh.
My Playmobil comic from the 1970s.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1910.
Strongman; The New Brighton Archeological Society; The Bun Field; Supermen!
Blinded; Ace-Face: The Mod with the Metal Arms; Blazing Combat; The Eternal Smile; Pherone; Walled In; Studs Terkel's Working; Britten and Brulightly; T-Minus: The Race to the Moon; Jan's Atomic Heart; Super Human Resources.
Black Hole; Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?; Far Arden; Imaginary Friends; Praetorian; Smuggling Spirits; Asterios Polyp; The Nobody; The Hunter.
The Ragbox.
The Field at the Edge of the Woods.
It Tolls for Thee.
Mercury.
The Imposter's Daughter.
You Have Killed Me.
The Big Kahn.
No Pasaran!
Frankenstein's Womb.
Gauze.
Some New Kind of Slaughter.
Awakening volume 1.
Dark Entries.
10 Beautiful Assassins.
The Middleman: The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse.
PS Comics.
The Colodin Project.
The Surrogates.
Stuffed!
The Storm in the Barn.
3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man.
Covered in Confusion.

Comics commentary.

My best comics of 2008.
DC comics in the 1940s.
Is Diamond Comics the devil?
The San Diego con, 2009!

My comic book shoppe.

Greg's Comics.
Ralph's Comic Corner.
Comic Zone.

Comics You Should Own.

Hellstorm #12-21 and Druid #1-4.
High Roads.
Hitman.
Human Target.
I Kill Giants.
The Incredible Hulk #331-346.
The Incredible Hulk #347-367.
The Incredible Hulk #368-401.
The Incredible Hulk #402-426.
The Incredible Hulk #454-467.

As always, I appreciate everyone who reads this blog, whether it's often or just every once in a while. Thanks, everyone! I know there are only about seven of you, but it's still cool that you're here!

Someone is going to hell ...

Wandering the Internet, I found this:

I'd like to think Jesus wouldn't mind someone dressing like that. Of course, who knows what she did next. Oh, Jesus, avert your eyes!!!!

Saturday night YouTubery!

It's Saturday night, and why don't we look at some videos I found on someone else's blog! Namely, Nik's. Because why come up with content when displaced Americans living in New Zealand can do it for you?

First: Bollywood action movie scene. If any Hollywood movie had anything close to this cool, they'd make a shitload more money, I tells ya.



And like Nik, I would totally watch this show:



Enjoy! Thanks, Nik!

The Internet is awesome

I was reading a weekly news magazine I receive, and in the back they always have a two-page story about something interesting that doesn't necessarily qualify as "hard news." Recently they ran an excerpt of a story from The New York Times Magazine about the web site SeekingArrangement.com. What's so special about this web site, which is one of many dating sites? It's specifically for sugar daddies (or mommies) and the young women (or men) who want to hook up with them. The article mentioned that several men go on it specifically to find mistresses, as many are married. The writer of the piece interviewed some of the young ladies, many of whom use the site to pay their way through college. Go browse the site. It's a tad bit creepy, but that's why we love the Internet!

Is this a great world or what? Who knew that a rich dude would have so much trouble finding a sweet young thing?

Why sports announcers should shut up

I ought to read Awful Announcing more often, because it's damned funny. They hate Pam Ward, who probably deserves it, but there's so many other horrible announcers out there, and the blog does a nice job of summing it up. The end of the year awards are up, and they are extremely fun and often inexplicable. Ward herself shows up often, as with this quote: "Great tackle, er, broken tackle by Charles. Gordon finally gets him in the backfield. Gain of 5 for Charles." Huh? They're broken down into categories, including the "overly sexual quotes of the year," which aren't, of course, supposed to be sexual. And there's some video clips, including one from a telecast of a football game where a man and a woman are ... well, I don't know what they're doing, but it made it onto ABC!

A few fun links while I'm still stewing about this weekend's football

I'll probably have something about football, but I'm just so grumpy about it. Until then, here's some fun links!

"Pornographic" snowboards? Why not? Okay, they're not really pornographic, but that doesn't mean uptight people can't call them that! Here's the original news story. Silly but fun!

Speaking of silly but fun, I'm sure many of you were unaware that a contest held last week in Paris crowned a man and a woman who had the world's best ... well, ass. Okay, it was called the "Best Bottom" contest, but we know it's all about the ass! Here and here are a few news stories about the huge event, and of course, there's a slideshow. Of course, if you don't want to click the link, I stole some pictures:



The guy is French, while the woman is Brazilian. Before you think, "Well, of course a Brazilian woman won!" last year's winner was Romanian. Eastern Europe represent! And I love that dude in the second picture. It's like it's the closest he's ever gotten to a woman's posterior and he's desperately trying not to drop the camera.

Finally, we get one of the spookiest photographs you will ever see:

What the crap is Ronald McDonald doing? Is he attempting some kind of mind control? The blog from where I snatched the photo has some theories.

Now I'm frightened and I need to go lie down. Brrrrr ...

Horrible self-indulgence, Year Four

Once again, I've finished another year of blogging. Yes, four years ago today I started, and I haven't stopped, although I'm sure many of you want me to! I don't have as many readers as I used to, and it makes me sad, but I'm going to keep plugging along for a while, as long as I like doing it. I post more at Comics Should Be Good! these days, mostly because there's always something new to say about comics (and I can piss off more people over there!) and I get paid to do it (not much, but a bit). However, I appreciate everyone who reads this, and I wish I had more time to write here. So here are the highlights from this past year of blogging. If you're interested!

BOOKS I READ.

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell.
The Dark Angel by Mika Waltari, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-Perkins, and Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Saved the World by Colin Wells.
From Jesus to Christianity: How Four Generations of Visionaries & Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith by L. Michael White.
Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land: The Vietnam War Revisited by Andrew Wiest, ed.
Breaker Boys: The NFL's Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship by David Fleming.
Love and Death in Kathmandu: A Strange Tale of Royal Murder by Amy Willesee and Mark Whittaker.
Charlemagne by Derek Wilson and Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and the Empires of A.D. 800 by Jeff Sypeck.
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester.
Jeeves and the Tie that Binds by P. G. Wodehouse.
Napoleon and his Collaborators: The Making of a Dictatorship by Isser Woloch.
In Search of Myths and Heroes: Exploring Four Epic Legends of the World by Michael Wood.
Pontius Pilate by Ann Wroe.
Nanjing 1937 by Ye Zhaoyan.
Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield by Kenneth D. Ackerman.
Last Team Standing: How the Steelers and the Eagles - "The Steagles" - Saved Pro Football During World War II by Matthew Algeo.
Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties by Kenneth D. Ackerman.
Jews and American Comics: An Illustrated History of an American Art Form by Paul Buhle, ed.

POP CULTURE.

The glory of Katrin Cartlidge.
Let's recast Arsenic and Old Lace!
Scary things in the Sunday comics!
What's up with The Departed?
The birthplace of fame: Scappoose, Oregon!*
My dream about the television writers' strike.
A fun gentlemen's club.
Is the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue porn?*
A question about No Country for Old Men.
Dawn Wells arrested with marijuana!*
Hope for large-breasted women!*
Ian Ziering as Cortés.
My new favorite sport.
Raquel Welch's birthday.*
Copping a feel!
Every kid plays video games.
John McCain as an old Batman.
The Dark Knight and its impact.
The Japanese have an ambassador to promote anime.

LINK-BLOGGING.

Congressional idiocy, right-wing idiots, pole dancing for kids, and hot grade school teachers.*
George Bush slapping ass, Craig Sager, singing Muppets.

GREAT SONGS, ACCORDING TO ME.

Part 34: "Little Guitars" to "Love Buzz."
Part 35: "Love Removal Machine" to "Many Too Many."
Part 36: "Mean Street" to "Monday A.M. First Thing."
Part 37: "Monkey Wrench" to "My Country."
Part 38: "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)" to "Next to You."

MY KOOKY LIFE.

Did Krys break her foot?
Did Krys break her foot? Part Two!
What happens in Arizona when it rains.
At the book sale!
Living in Beirut.
People who annoy me at the ballet.
Should my wife divorce me?
We get fake grass.
Our journey to Pennsylvania.

PEOPLE WHO DIED.

Mr. Whipple.
Suzanne Pleshette.
Heath Ledger.
Arthur C. Clarke (and Ivan Dixon).
Edward Lorenz.

NEWS OF THE WORLD.

Americans are reading less than ever.
Hot Italians giving weather reports!*
Independence for Kosovo!
Weird news from Venezuela and Nigeria.
Racism in South Carolina.
Did they find D. B. Cooper's parachute?
Anger about a vodka advertisement.
Wacky events in the Congo.
A girl and her embryonic twin.
Arizona kids who shouldn't have graduated, but did.
Bike tragedy!
More of civilization circling the drain.
Have Americans lost their sense of humor?
Is stripping the world's oldest art form?
Naked protesting.
Julia Child: spy!
Minorities will soon be the majority.
Raising a nation of wusses.
No room for moderation in politics.
The Large Hadron Collider is turned on.

PEOPLE WHO NEED TO SHUT UP.

Conservative talk show radio hosts.
Alicia Keys.
Megan Fox.*

TOP TEN LISTS.

My favorite television theme songs.
My favorite NFL (and AFL) Championship Games.
My favorite wars.
My favorite Christian sects.
My favorite fictional detectives.
My favorite hair metal videos.
My favorite science fiction novels.
My favorite celebrity crushes.
My favorite vacations.
My favorite empires.

PICTURE DAYS.

Snow-shoe hiking near Mount Hood.
Silver Falls State Park.
Downtown Portland - in black and white!
Our house in Portland.
In the mountains with my wife and sister-in-law.
The Chinese garden in Portland.
Waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Part One.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Part Two.
Spring in the Basin.
I receive a Master's Degree.
Our final visit to Seattle.

INTO THE BACK ISSUE BOX.

Green Lantern and Adam Strange #1.
The Incredible Hulk #301.
World's Finest #283.
Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #25.
Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual #2.
John Jakes' Mullkon Empire #2.
Ka-Zar #14.

COMICS REVIEWS.

The Simping Detective, Shortcomings, Cairo, The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Blakc Dossier.
The Ice Wanderer and Other Stories.
Popgun volume 1, Of Scenes and Stories, Munden's Bar.
I read Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life.
Midnight Sun, Therefore Repent!, The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery System (volume 1), Scout, The Interman, Houdini, The Handcuff King, Berlin: City of Stones.
Hazed, Candy or Medicine, The Unwanted, That Salty Air, Jenny Finn: Doom Messiah, Holmes, Cinema Panopticum, 2 Sisters.
Nixon's Pals, The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch, Three Shadows, Breathe.
Skyscrapers of the Midwest, La Perdida, The Dopple Ganger Chronicles: The First Escape, American Terror: Confessions of a Human Smart Bomb, The Safest Place.
Lost at Sea, Vampspew, Bluesman, Tiki Joe Mysteries, Antiques: The Comic Strip.
Nobody, White Death, Codeflesh, Monster Attack Network, Aces: Curse of the Red Baron, Dugout.
"Essex County" trilogy, Too Cool to be Forgotten, The Goddess of War, The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard, Wondermark: Beards of Our Forefathers.

COMIC BOOK COMMENTARY.

What are "fun" comics?
The "best-of" edition of Wizard magazine, 2007.
Why I review comics.
Wonder Woman on the cover of Playboy.*
My best comics of 2007.
Wonder Woman in the Sixties.
Wizard magazine from October 1992.
My revelation regarding Secret Invasion.
Issue #200 of Wizard magazine.
Free Comic Book Day in Mesa.
My top ten runs in comic book history.
The price of comics.
Confessions of a comic book nerd.
Is Green Lantern: Rebirth a good comic or not?
My experience at the San Diego Comic Convention.
Is DC publishing torture porn?

COMICS YOU SHOULD OWN.

Fury by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.
Grendel #1-12 by Matt Wagner and the Pander Brothers.
Grendel #13-23 by Matt Wagner, Bernie Mireault, Hannibal King, and Tim Sale.
Grendel #24-33 by Matt Wagner, John K. Snyder, and Jay Geldhof.
Grendel #34-50 by Matt Wagner, Tim Sale, and Patrick McEown.
Hard Boiled by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow.
Hard Time by Steve Gerber and Brian Hurtt.
The Heckler by Keith Giffen, Tom Bierbaum, and Mary Bierbaum.
Hellblazer #27 by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.
Hellblazer #41-50; 52-83 by Garth Ennis, Will Simpson, and Steve Dillon.
Spider-Man #1-5 by Todd McFarlane (this is an April Fools' Joke, by the way).

Thanks again for reading. Blogging is fun, isn't it?

* Denotes cheesecake in the post! Beware!

A few links to start the week

Every once in a while, I mourn the loss of my massive link-blogging posts. Boy, those were fun. I just don't have the time for it anymore. But I like reading weird stuff on the Internet, so I bring you shorter posts with links every so often. Enjoy!

When I want Olympic news, I go to With Leather. Among other stuff, they linked to this completely insane Craig Sager interview and this story about George Bush visiting with Olympic volleyball goddesses Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. In the first story, we get several classic answers by Sager, best known for wearing horrible sport jackets on the sidelines of NBA games. Here are some of the completely out-of-context answers:
"Well, have you seen the Red Foxes? Wait to see them. It's the Lithuanian dance team. The blondes?"
"I have a blonde fetish, and you don't find many blondes out here."
"I'm the one you should talk to when it comes to evaluating dance teams."
"And back when I did it, the mini-tramp was allowed in college ..."
"I haven't been off the mini-tramp."
"The only thing I can do is have this [belt] and have a matching thong. That's about the only thing I can do."
"I've been to probably 250 Hooters across the country and world. It's the only Hooters I've ever been to that didn't have any Bud Light or blondes. I was very disappointed."

Accompanying the second story is this photograph:

Yes, that's the leader of the free world slapping Misty May ... on the ass. Okay, so he's slapping her back tattoo. Still. That has to be the best picture of the year. I surely hope Tom has seen it.

In the odd but sad category, we have this site, which is interesting. The artist covered Footloose, of all soundtracks, in a bizarre way. Read about it at the site.

After that, if you want a quick laugh, check out the Muppets singing the Habanera from Carmen. Seriously. It's comedy gold!

So there you have it. A few links, just to let you know that I will never stop roaming the vast expanses of cyberspace to bring you the wonderful stuff that's out there! It's my mission!

Flotsam and jetsam

It's not a proper link post, but I have noticed some fun stuff around yonder internets recently. Come along and check it out, won't you?

Let's start off with the completely unbearable. Did you know that the House of Representatives passed a resolution commending Brett "Risen Christ" Favre? No? Well, they did. It's very nice to know that Congress has solved all the other problems in the world and can get around to commending someone because he threw more touchdown passes than anyone in NFL history. Oh, there's some crap about his charitable work, but come on - this is for throwing touchdown passes. We pay the salaries of these people, you know. You can read the text of the resolution at the link above, or at With Leather, where I first saw the story.

Speaking of idiotic things Congress is doing, I'm sure you've all heard of House Resolution 106. This is the one that calls the Armenian genocide a "genocide," and it has Turkey up in arms, because they're the ones who carried out the genocide in the first place. Why, you say, would Congress bring this up now, when the Armenian genocide happened between 1915 and 1923 ... in Armenia! Well, this is simply to embarrass George Bush. That's all it is. Listen, Bush is probably in the top ten of worst presidents we've ever had, but this is ridiculous. Congress has no business calling something a genocide, because that's not their job. If they didn't have anything to do with this resolution, it would still be genocide, no matter how much the Turks claimed otherwise. Turkey is our ally in the Middle East and is trying to join the European Union. They are a secular democracy that elected an Islamist party a few years ago ... and the party didn't immediately turn the country into a fundamentalist Islamist state. The genocide occurred, sure, but what's the point of it now, except to placate an Armenian-American lobby that wants nothing to do with Turkey. When Congress passes a resolution calling the destruction of the American Indians a "genocide," then they can cast stones. Shut up, politicians. Make policy. That's your freakin' job.

Still in the political realm, Thomas points out a pretty sad and disgusting story: right-wing radio and Internet people leading a charge against a child. What evil did this child commit? He is eligible for the SCHIP program, and several right-wingers, including Rush Limbaugh, think he's a rich kid trying to bilk the system. What assholes. This just makes me sick, especially because of Mia's situation. E. J. Dionne links to this post by Mark Steyn at The National Review. You can argue with Steyn's conclusions if you want, but what was most reprehensible was his statement that if the Democrats were desperate enough to send a boy to do a man's job (react to Bush's radio address, which is where this started), then the boy is "fair game." What an asshole. Excuse me. What a FUCKING asshole.

(In related news, Thomas used to come around here and say hello. Come back, Thomas. We miss you.)

Now that I'm all angry, I need some frivolity. Or at least something that doesn't piss me off so much. With Leather linked to a story from Down Under. Apparently, kids as young as 7 can now take ... pole dancing classes. It's all about the exercise, people! Of course, the kids love it - the story quotes an 11-year-old. Sure they do! I wouldn't have a problem with this if two things about it existed: boys were in the class as much as girls (I doubt it, especially in as "macho" a society as Australia), and the idea of pole dancing didn't have such connotations. No, that's not the girls' fault, but still. Doesn't this seem like stripper training?

Here's something that sounds cool, but makes me a bit uncomfortable. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to show women in bikinis! At Big Ten Tailgate, there's a link to a news story about a calendar of women. Sounds normal, right? Well, yes, but these women are school teachers. Holy cow! They're grade school teachers, too, so the boys they teach are a bit young. I just wonder how the kids will react. Of course, I'll make the obvious joke and say none of my teachers ever looked like this. What a weird world we live in! You can, of course, learn more about the calendar here.

Finally, why not sign an on-line petition? If you follow that link, you can read the petition that David Fleming of ESPN is planning to send to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. He's trying to get Goodell to re-instate the Pottsville Maroons' 1925 NFL Championship, which was denied them rather controversially. He's written a book about the team that I'm dying to get. You can read about his experiences promoting the book in Pottsville here (although he does call Pottsville "vibrant," which it ain't - sorry, Pottsvillians!). You can read more about the Maroons at the Wikipedia entry. I was #818 to sign the petition a few days ago, and now it has over 5000 signatures. Do the right thing - get the Maroons recognized as NFL Champions!

See? You can do good things in a world gone to shit. It's a tiny thing, but at least you're not contributing to evil, like Rush Limbaugh. No one wants to be like Limbaugh!

Horrible self-indulgence, Year Three

Yes, it's the end of my third year of blogging, so what better way to celebrate than with my annual trip through the past year of posts. I hope you'll forgive me for such awful navel-gazing. If you happened to miss anything I wrote over the past year, well, I forgive you, but here's your chance to catch up. Enjoy!

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT.

Our Halloween decorations get stolen.
The strange tale of the Goldfish Crackers.
Checking out what the Jehovah's Witnesses give out.
Halloween pictures!
Books we bought at the book sale.
Why I live in a horror movie.
The death of our cat, Smokey.
A sign of the Apocalypse.
I thought I had won, but I was sadly mistaken.
My sleep study.
Whose toes are these?
My weird wife.

THE WORLD AROUND US.

Yet another reason I don't read the newspapers.
Newt Gingrich is not a hypocrite!
Worst news story ever.
Things that angry up my blood.
People who better hope I never become dictator.
The Iraqis will just wait us out.
The pope is awesome.
The Virgin Mary appears in Minersville, Pennsylvania.

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING.

The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker.
Damascus Gate by Robert Stone.
Spanking the Donkey by Matt Taibbi.
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor.
Dry Heat by Jon Talton.
Perfect From Now On by John Sellers.
The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs by Bill Jenkinson.
The Colony by John Tayman.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling.
Crusader Nation by David Traxel.
Gettysburg by Noah Andre Trudeau.

TOP TEN LISTS.

My favorite junk foods.
My favorite cities.
My favorite cartoons.
My favorite guilty pleasures.

LINKBLOGGING.

Green Lantern meets Freddie Mercury, Bush as Sauron, rock album covers, Jesus bandages, and unintentionally sexual video games.
Odd news.
Strange maps.
Stuff on YouTube.
The bridges of Portland, the befuddled Swiss army, plots to overthrow the government, and Korean baseball brawls.

PICTURE DAY.

Pictures in artsy black-and-white!
Cruising on the Willamette.
Our Caribbean vacation - Grenada.
Our Caribbean vacation - the cruise.
Our Caribbean vacation - the Venezuelan hinterland.
Our Caribbean vacation - relaxing.
Our Caribbean vacation - the most disturbing photograph EVER!!!!
Nice pictures of Portland.
Autumn in the Northwest.
Going back to Pennsylvania.
A visit to my sister in Virginia.
Northern Arizona.

POP CULTURE.

How they made Lost better.
Noodlin' with chicks!
If Prince had any balls.
Worst lyrics ever!
Are you smarter than a fifth-grader?
Peyton Manning on Saturday Night Live.
How Bono comes up with lyrics.
Choose that album!
Bill O'Reilly goes postal.
Television finales.
Great albums by short-lived bands.
Worst tattoo ever?

THE WOMEN OF JERRY.

Part One, the pilot.
Part Two, season one.
Part Three, season two.
Part Four, season three.
Part Five, season four.
Part Six, season five.
Part Seven, season six.
Part Eight, season seven.
Part Nine, season eight.
Part Ten, season nine.

RANDOM HISTORICAL STUFF.

Nevada's land grab.

GREAT SONGS, ACCORDING TO ME.

Part 25, "House" to "I Am The City."
Part 26, "I Better Be Quiet Now" to "I Remember You."
Part 27, "I Shatter" to "If My Heart Were A Ball It Would Roll Uphill."
Part 28, "I'm A Mother" to "In The New Age."
Part 29, "In My Life Today" to "Instant Club Hit (You'll Dance To Anything)."
Part 30, "Interior Lulu" to "Jerusalem."
Part 31, "Jerusalem" to "King."
Part 32, "Kiss" to "The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance.
Part 33, "The Last Mile" to "Like It Or Not."

OUR ADVENTURES IN EGYPT.

Part One.
Part Two.
Part Three.
Part Four.
Part Five.
Part Six.
Part Seven.
Part Eight.
Part Nine.

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS - INTO THE BACK ISSUE BOX.

Power Man and Iron Fist #112.
Eternal Warrior #40.
Untamed #1.
Egypt #6.
Suspira #4.
Green Lantern #138.
Cyberforce #1.
Azrael #30.
P. Craig Russell's Night Music #1.
The Green Hornet #8.
Star Wars #83.
The Terminator: The Enemy Within #1.
Darkhawk #15.
She-Hulk #58.
Ghost Rider #23.
Supreme #51.
Crimson Dreams #10.
The Secret Defenders #9.
Demonslayer #2.
Cable #40.
Thunderbolts #22.
Justice League of America #240.
Action Comics Weekly #639.
Superman Adventures #36.
Daredevil #223.
Hawkman #22.
'Mazing Man #12.
Ragman #4.
Web of Spider-Man #22.
Objective Five #3.
Witchblade #86.

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS.

Batman Chronicles volume 2.
Rock Bottom and Seven Sons.
Bosnian Flat Dog, Content #2, and Vatican City, Las Vegas.
Agnes Quill, Ed's Terrestrials, and The Dreamland Chronicles.
Fun Home and Stagger Lee.
First Moon, Blessed Thistle, Red Eye, Black Eye, Para, and Borderline.
Giant Robot Warriors, Hip Flask: Concrete Jungle, Sore Thumbs, It Rhymes With Lust, and Solstice.
Alice in Sunderland and Elk's Run.
The Last Sane Cowboy and Other Stories, Pulpo, Worry Doll, Rocketo, and The Salon.
An Endorsement of Smoking, Mail Order Ninja, Polly and the Pirates, Mouse Guard, Wormwood: Gentlemen Corpse, The Professor's Daughter, Three Strikes, Less Than Heroes, In Dublin City, The Homeless Channel, The Black Diamond Detective Agency, and Exit Wounds.
Justice League of America #10 (man, I love this post and the response it got).
The Vesuvius Club, Cowboys & Aliens, Silverfish, Black Cherry, Crécy, and Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened.
Yesterday's Tomorrows, The Last Call, Narcoleptic Sunday, The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo, and Super Spy.

CONVENTION NEWS.

The Phoenix Comic Book Convention.
The San Diego Comic Book Convention.

COMIC BOOK THOUGHTS.

Two fading titans - baseball and comic books.
Why Fun Home is overrated.
How do we choose the comics we read?
Comics you bought after they jumped the shark.
Comics were better in the Seventies!
Or were they?
The death of the postmodern superhero.
How Civil War could have worked.
The annoying puritanical attitude of Americans.
A rather lame defense of Michael Turner.
Why I'm not the biggest fan of Darwyn Cooke's version of The Spirit.
The thrill of the hunt.
The Golden Age of Comics.
Galactus is suave.
Dazzler: ahead of its time?
Dialogue and narration from All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #7.

31 DAYS OF SEVEN SOLDIERS.

31 Days of Seven Soldiers category.

COMICS YOU SHOULD OWN.

Dreadstar #41-64 by Peter David and Angel Medina.
Elektra Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.
Elementals #1-5 by Bill Willingham.
Enigma by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fregredo.
The Extremist by Peter Milligan and Ted McKeever.
Fantastic Four #347-349 by Walt Simonson and Art Adams.
Firestorm #58-100 by John Ostrander.
Flex Mentallo by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
Four Women by Sam Kieth.
From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.

Man, that's a lot of writing. I wonder who's been raising the kids all this time? Certainly not me!

I'd like to thank my vast legion of readers. I'm sure I have at least 10 regular readers, and I do appreciate them. I've been wondering about keeping up with the blog, because I feel a bit burned out recently. I ought to update my daughters' blog a lot more - they are growing very fast, as kids do, and I often miss some things that they do because I'm busy blogging about football or comics. I'd like to continue, because I know some people like reading this, but we'll see. Does anyone want to give me a pep talk?

Either way, I'm pretty happy about blogging for three years. It's been a lot of fun, and I've got to "meet" some interesting people. Thanks for reading!

The bridges of Portland, the befuddled Swiss army, plots to overthrow the government, Korean baseball brawls ... Yes, the links are back!

I decided to do some linking this week, and now I remember why I don't do this anymore. It took me a long time to find just these links, and I could only surf the web for the first few days of the week - at the end of the week I was just too busy. I love doing these posts, because there's so much weird stuff out there in cyberspace, but I probably won't do it again. Never say never, though! Who knows what the future will bring.

So let's hit the links. You know you love them!

THE WACKINESS OF POLITICS.

This is from way back in March, but I couldn't let it go: On a routine training exercise, the Swiss army accidentally invaded Liechtenstein. It's not as awesome as it sounds, but it's still pretty funny.

This is a bit old, but I thought it was interesting: Sonia ranks the U. S. presidents. Sonia leans a bit to the right, but she's usually pretty rational. Putting Bush II at #9 is a bit crazy, however (as is putting his father at #10). Actually, I don't think we can rank any president after Carter, because it's too soon.

Here's a very interesting article about a plot in the 1930s to overthrow the U. S. government and replace it with a fascist-style government. When it came to light, our government whitewashed it, because many of the plotters were heads of big business and the social elite. Today big business doesn't need to overthrow the government - it just buys it.

Scott Adams points out this story: A Nebraska state senator has sued God. He did to protest frivolous lawsuits, but it would be more fun if he was serious.

If you want to protest the Iraq war, why wouldn't you dress like this?
I found the story at Donklephant, which links to the original story. Why people are surprised that others treat them better when they dress in nice clothing is beyond me.

This is interesting: Blackwater USA has been banned from Iraq. Blackwater is a private security firm contracted by the State Department. Apparently some of the guards killed some civilian bystanders on Sunday. It will be interesting if this has any effect on the practice of farming out important tasks in Iraq, like security. Probably not. I found this at Majikthise.

ALL ABOUT THE IDIOT BOX.

Apparently, Kathy Griffin upset some people with her sacrilegious Emmy acceptance speech. A FOX news correspondent helps explain things to her. That was awfully nice.

As the Emmy awards were this week, Go Fug Yourself was in heaven. This is Phoebe Price:

And just to be fair, Kristen Bell looked quite good:
(By the way, I didn't know who Phoebe Price is either. Here's her IMDb page.)

How can you tell if the television shows you loved when you were a kid are really any good? Dave Campbell provides the calculus!

COMIC BOOK CRAP.

Alan David Doane lists the three reasons people get to work in the comic book industry.

Some famous fashion designer named Luella (we know she's famous because she only uses one name) has come up with a clothing line based on Batman. Yes, you read that right. Check it out:
I found this at Blog@Newsarama.

Devon looks at major DC comics crossovers and what character developments came out of them here and here.

WHO DOESN'T LOVE FOOD?

If you're interested in buying a product that makes everything taste like bacon, why not try Bacon Salt? Under the product name is the actual tag, "Everything should taste like bacon". Um, sorry, but no it shouldn't.

Speaking of which, here's a story about ... bacon-flavored chocolate bars. Go here to purchase yours today!

TV chef Gordon Ramsay burns his plums. Not the ones he was using in a recipe, either.

I know you're dying to go to Chicago and eat at Moto, the "postmodern" restaurant. This is what the food looks like.

Oh dear Lord:


SLIGHTLY RISQUÉ SECTION.

I love the first sentence of this post. It's a bit ... pornographic, though, so be warned (no pictures, however, so it should be safe for work, unless your boss is reading over your shoulder, in which case you shouldn't be reading this anyway).

This is a bit old, but too good to pass up: Ashley points the way to ... OhMiBod. Just check it out - I can't ruin the surprise. You can also watch a video demonstrating the product.

SPORTS-RELATED GOOFINESS.

With Leather points out how cool Shelley Duncan is when kids ask him for an autograph. Shelley Duncan, by the way, is a Yankee outfielder. The kid who asked for an autograph was a Red Sox fan. Things went downhill from there.

Woody linked to this video:
It's Korean baseball getting nasty. But "nasty" to Koreans means something far stranger than it means to us.

ICKY EXPLOITATIVE STUFF.

Do you know who Maddison Gabriel is? Why, she's the 12-year-old (she's now 13) who was chosen as the "official ambassador" of Gold Coast Fashion Week in Australia. I read about her here, which is also from where I stole this picture:
The Prime Minister of Australia is outraged, and wants to ban models younger than 16 from appearing on catwalks. Ms. Gabriel, you see, actually did some modeling of decidedly adult fashion - bikinis and such. She, of course, thinks it's great. Her mother thinks John Howard, the PM, owes her an apology, saying a bunch of idiotic things, including "We're trying to get our teenage daughters to act older." Why, exactly? This just makes me sad. I'm not going to link to a picture of her in a bikini but not post it, because it's just icky. The picture isn't too objectionable, but it's still a 13-year-old modeling a bikini. I guess fashion designers like her because they design clothing for women with no breasts and no hips - just like normal 13-year-olds!

FUN MISCELLANEOUS.

I found this picture here. There's another fun ones there as well.

Jeff Parker has been blogging about the bridges of Portland. Well, I find it interesting.

French surgeons removed a woman's gall bladder ... through her vagina. Wow. I found this at Ace of Spades, where there's some other weird news for your enjoyment.

Is this history's most wicked woman?
Read about her at the link and judge for yourself!

Why you need to watch what you say around children.

Blogger Play lets you view every single photograph uploaded to Blogger. It's mesmerizing and oddly touching, looking at peoples' lives flash by (you can pause it, too). I stole these two stunning photographs of New York from this post:

I found the link at The Giant Fighting Robot Report.

CHEESECAKE AND BEEFCAKE. I'M ALL ABOUT EQUAL TIME!

You know what you need in your life? A calendar featuring Mormon men without their shirts on:
This is causing some consternation among the Church elders, as you might expect. Sheesh, lighten up, people! Part of the proceeds go to the charities that the missionaries were involved with on their missions. The calendar, as you might expect, is big in the gay community.

I know this is a shameless excuse to post a picture of college girls in bikinis, but does this really look like a swim team?
One of them is wearing a belt, for crying out loud! And don't they look a bit, um, chesty for a swim team? I stole the picture from here after seeing it at With Leather.

Tom's latest Object of His Affection (full list here!) is Olivia Munn:
I usually have at least a marginal reason for posting attractive women, but not this time. I just think she looks pretty darned good in that costume.

That's it for this week. I hope you like the links, because I very much doubt they will appear again. Savor them! Remember: the Internet is a wild and wacky place. It's always fun to zip around it!