Chinese checked

I followed a link posted by Dan at Gone Mild and found to my amusement that, like Dan, my blog has been banned by China.


I can only assume this is because of my recent rant against the poisonous food at China Star buffet at 95th and Metcalf.

But it's good to know that China is protecting all those little Chinese from the dangerous ideas that I spout out in this virtual fish wrap. Check your blog and let me know what you find out.

tagged: China, ban, blog, censorship, culture, free speech

YouTube Tuesday: La Traviata

The long-time reader of this virtual fish wrap will know that I'm kind of into opera. And since today's kind of a culture Tuesday, I'm posting another animated opera adaptation, this one from Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata.

Interestingly enough, I find this entertaining not just for the music, but also for the dancing gobs of goo that remind me of a psychedelic mushroom trip I once took at a party in Niagara Falls (man, that was one crazy Yom Kippur!)



tagged: movie, YouTube, video, Verdi, music, opera, La Traviata, mushroom, culture

Nature's first green

The site of these first blooms near my office building brought to mind the famous poem by Robert Frost.

Nothing gold can stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

tagged: Robert Frost, spring, flowers, poetry, nature, Nothing gold can stay

Here's to your health

The Slate recently reported on some editorial shennanigans pulled by the John Edwards for President campaign in a promotional DVD in Iowa.

I personally think the criticism of Edwards' questionable edit is just a bit of hair splitting. What I'm really stoked about is that Edwards is making National Healthcare one of the primary planks in his campaign platform.

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting to get government healthcare. Why should I pay my hard-earned money to go sit in a waiting room for a few hours, just to have a overly-stressed general practitioner prescribe a course of antibiotics for whatever it is that I'm sick of?

Why should I dig deep into my own pocket to pay for generic prescription drugs when the government has the responsibility to do that for me?

If there's one thing that we know government can do well, it's healthcare. With Edwards as president, I'll finally get the quality of medical care that is currently reserved for government employees and military veterans.

tagged: Walter Reed, healthcare, John Edwards, medical, politics, policy

Friday Blogthing: TMI?

This may be a little too much information... but what the hell, it's Friday.

Your Penis Name Is...

Bavarian Beefstick

Penis Name Generator

tagged: penis, name, Friday, humor, Bavarian , Beefstick

Icing on the cake

Officials with the NHL, the Sprint Center and the Pittsburgh Penguins have been skating around a relocation of the hockey team for a few months.

It has been pretty widely accepted in the KC area that the sweet deal made by AEG, the managers of the new arena, was really nothing more than leverage for the Penguins organization to use against government officials in Pittsburgh.

But the leverage is taking longer than expected to move city, county and state officials to build a new Pittsburgh arena. And with each passing day, the Penguins ownership group gets closer to finding a new home.

Just the other day, they declared that they were at an impasse with officials in Pittsburgh. They have since met with the mayor of Las Vegas and approached city officials in Houston.

Meanwhile, the AEG folks aren't waiting in the penalty box. Though details were lacking, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that AEG has sweetened it's already sweet offer to the Pengins.

Kansas City upped the ante in an attempt to lure the Penguins from Pittsburgh, Wednesday.

Penguins' co-owner Ronald Burkle met Wednesday with officials from AEG, which will operate the new Sprint Center in Kansas City. AEG has sweetened its offer to the Penguins.

"If the Penguins make a decision to relocate, we are absolutely positive that they will not find a better offer or a better market than they will get in Kansas City," said Michael Roth, vice president of communications for AEG. "We don't spend our days worrying about whether or not they will leave Pittsburgh, but we do strongly believe that Kansas City is where they will end up."

While I still think the odds are long that the Penguins will end up in KC, the Lloyd Christmas side of my brain is sayin' "So you're telling me there's a chance."

tagged: hockey, Kansas City, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sprint Center, Mario Lemieux, sports, NHL, Las Vegas

I'm Number 1!

I have no reason to be pissed about scoring a perfect 100% on this quiz about Tom Hanks' movie career.

All those other quizzes I sucked at are just water flowing under a bridge. I admit I was a little daunted at first, but I didn't turn yellow. I just went with the flow, since I didn't want to flush away this opportunity to show what a whiz I can be.

Go and try it yourself (ladies, feel free to sit down). I'm not going to leak any of the answers to you. If you can't get at least a few of these right, urine trouble. But by all means, like Tom Hanks, you should five pees a chance.

tagged: humor, movie quiz, Tom Hanks, pop culture

Headlines: Condom nation

Condom applicator wins design award

Design gurus in South Africa have declared the Pronto condom applicator the "the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa."

I look at that thing (you can see a video demonstration here) and I think (now this could just be me) that it looks waaaaaay too small.

tagged: condom, applicator, South Africa, Pronto

No more wedgies

I may have mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating.

The "wedge salad" is the most ridiculous culinary fraud ever perpetrated upon the American dining public.

I mean come on people! This isn't a salad! It's a chunk of lettuce with possibly some peppers thrown in for color. Have we become so lazy that we can't chop up the lettuce? Are we so lacking in creativity that we can't toss on a couple of cherry tomatoes or cucumbers? This is like giving someone a loaf of bread and calling it a sandwich.

How have we let our democracy get to the point where a quarter-head of lettuce is considered a salad. That's not the America I know.

Hell, that's not even Mexico.

tagged: food, lettuce, salad, fraud, culture, cusine

YouTube Tuesday: Sun, Sun, Sun... Here it comes.

I'm taking this moment to declare that Spring has officially sprung.

Weatherwise, last weekend was amazing. And even though we're seeing slightly cooler temps today, I'll still take sunny and 55 over cold and wet anytime.

Don't get me wrong, I was pleased with the nice soaking showers we had last week. It's good to have something like that to wash away the winter grime. But in a lot of ways it has been a long, cold, lonely winter. And days like yesterday just make me want to skip work and sit on the roof and O'Dowd's with a Boulevard and the NCAA tournament.

But what do I have to thank for this springtime pleasantness? Everybody's favorite celestial body, The Sun.

Today's video is a reminder that the sun isn't just a big magical firey god to which we need to continue our monthly human sacrifices. Though it is that, it is so much more.



tagged: movie, YouTube, video, religion, God, science, weather, music, They Might Be Giants