Friday Blogthing: Losing my religion

Today's blogthing is contributed by SmedRock, but its another blog quiz that gets it wrong.

Agnostic?!?! I don't think so.

I was born a snake handler, and I'll die a snake handler.

You are Agnostic

You're not sure if God exists, and you don't care. For you, there's no true way to figure out the divine. You rather focus on what you can control - your own life. And you tend to resent when others "sell" religion to you.

What's Your Religious Philosophy?

tagged: Friday, test, religion, agnostic, snake handler, meme, blog

Meet me in Brookside

Maybe it was just me, but it seemed last night's Blogoholics Anonymous meeting was a little more mellow than I'm used to.

Most of the usual suspects were there, though Erin ditched to watch (gag) Grey's Anatomy. I know, totally lame.

Anyway, XO has the roll call. The point is that most everyone had gone home by 9 p.m. I realize that it's a school night and all, but c'mon. I mean COME ON!

The three coolest people, Heather, The D and myself, kept the party going until Sponge showed up. It gave us a chance to learn the secret hand code Sponge has developed to make fun of all the people who left early.

But on to important things. As you know, The D has been all up in my hizzy about this K-State v. KU game tomorrow. He through down the gauntlet last night and challenged me to a wager.

So here it is: If KU wins (yeah, right), The D gets a free guest post on this blog. When K-State wins I get to write a guest post on his awesome blog.

That's the deal. I've never had a guest post on this page before, and I don't think I'm in jeopardy of having that happen after this weekend either. But you never know.

All you other KSU types should get in on this action, too

tagged: Kansas City, blogger, Charlie Hooper's, blog, meetup, Brookside, K-State, KSU, KU, football, wager, Grey's Anatomy

Not in MY Kansas

It's a big football rivalry weekend here in Kansas. The talented and battle-tested K-State Wildcats will host the untried and cream puff-filled KU Jayhawks in Manhattan on Saturday in a contest for bragging rights and a share of the divisional lead.

Obviously, I'm not fan of KU. The longtime reader of this blog is aware of that.

But I'd like to put all rivalry aside for the moment and focus on this tragic story from the local NBCActionNews affiliate.

It seems a callous, low-class businessman from Lawrence has been blatantly undermining the fragile economic state of the University of Kansas.

Larry Sinks, owner of Joe-College, a sports apparel store in downtown Lawrence, has been giving KU the bird for years, systematically ripping off the University's trademarks and copyrights.

The university has finally had enough and has rightly filed a 109-page lawsuit against the t-shirt bootlegger.

"Hawk Basketball," "Kansas Swim Team," or simply "Kansas" is printed on jerseys singled out by the University of Kansas in the lawsuit as examples of trademark infringement.

“We don't believe the word Kansas is a registered trademark,” said shop owner Larry Sinks.

Sinks has papered his store with signs warning don't shop here for licensed merchandise.

“We don't use the word Jayhawks. We don't use rock chalk Jayhawk. We don't use the bird. We don't use anything that KU has claimed they own,” said Sinks.

Sinks' attempts to slither through loopholes in the trademark laws haven't impressed the band of overworked lawyers from the small university. According to the story, the victims in the heinous crime hope that common sense will rule out in the end against the Big T-Shirt business interests.

KU has claimed even if the shirt does not have the Jayhawk or say Kansas University they can still make an argument that it's their property saying, "anyone with a mind knows what it means, and that's why we have it federally trademarked."

The little college on the hill is desperate to defend its trademarks because of the fiscal damage Sinks is causing.

Already Sinks' actions have cut into the budget so much, that KU has had to lay off three students who were being paid to take tests for KU football players. One of the students was at a loss for what to do next.

"That job was the only thing that allowed me to shop at J.Crew every weekend. I guess now I'll have to go work at the McDonald's with some of the KU alumni."

Sinks actions are also draining funds from the KU athletic budget. Last week, KU Athletic Director Lew Perkins announced a $40,000 cut in football coach Mark Mangino's food per diem. Already, Mangino has lost 150 pounds, drooping from 450 to 300.

Tragic.

Given these facts, I'm calling on all college football fans everywhere to band together to boycott Sinks' business with its diabolical practices. This must not be allowed to continue.

tagged: t-shirt, Sinks, Lew Perkins, sports, football, KSU, K-State, Lawrence, Mark Mangino, Jayhawks

I'm totally there

Actually, in my mind I'm already there.

Thursday Oct. 4 2007, 5pm

CHARLIE HOOPER'S BROOKSIDE BAR 816-361-8841
12 W 63rd St
Kansas City, MO 64113

Be there if you can. It should be a fun time, and hopefully The D won't show off his third testicle and ruin the party.

tagged: Kansas City, blogger, Charlie Hooper's, blog, meetup

YouTube Tuesday: The Ron Prince Stomp

Today's edition of YouTube Tuesday is in honor of a spectacular K-State win over the Texas Longhorns and in warning of the creampuff-filled Jayhawks of KU who come to Manhattan Saturday for a Sunflower State title tilt.


I also appreciate the dose of perspective Coach Prince provided later

Saturday, Prince explained his sideline celebration, saying, "If it was a dance, it's a bad one." He elaborated further Monday. "It's no fun just to stand there like a statue," he said. "It's a game. We're not curing cancer."

Beware the Prince Stomp. Let's just hope KU's Mark Mangino doesn't try something like this.

tagged: movie, YouTube, video, sports, football, KSU, K-State, Texas, Longhorns, Jayhawks

California on my mind

It's Monday already. Man, time can really get away from you. I returned from San Francisco last Wednesday evening and just wanted to dump a few thoughts out before they get away from me.

So here are a few thoughts/lessons I've brought back from my most recent trip to SF.

• Just because your host paid $360 for that bottle of 12-year-old Scotch, don't feel like you and the four other dudes in you party have to drink the entire thing. Scotch is a sippin' drink, and if you kill the bottle you'll regret it when you have to make it to a 9:30 flight the next morning.


• The people of Chinatown were celebrating the birth of the Peoples Republic of China when I arrived on Sept. 23, which coincidentally is my birthday. Happy Birthday PRC!




• When you're walking back to your hotel at 2 a.m. (Pacific time, that's 4 a.m. to you and me), it's okay to tip the homeless guy who serenades the ladies in you group with Ain't Too Proud To Beg. You have to appreciate the poetic honesty from a homeless guy.


• Weatherwise, San Francisco in the fall is beautiful. At least that's what I heard. It's hard to appreciate the great weather when you're holed up in a conference room all day. Oh well...


tagged: travel, Temptations, San Francisco, Chinatown, PRC, homeless, Scotch

Friday Blogthing: Flicked out

This week's Friday Blogthing is proudly, though involuntarily, submitted by Spyder at My Spyderweb.

Your Ideal Hairstyle:

Flicked Out

What Women's Hairstyle Is Right For You?

tagged: Friday, test, hair, style, meme, blog

YouTube Tuesday: Texas shuffle

Today's edition of YouTube Tuesday* is inspired by the upcoming tilt between my K-State Wildcats and the fearsome, top-ranked Longhorns from the University of Texas.

At least I thought they were fearsome. After seeing this video their helmet logo looks more and more like a female reproductive organ. Oh well, I guess you can't spell uterus without UT.


*Yes, I am aware that it's well passed Tuesday. Gimme a break, work is treating me like I slept with it's wife.

tagged: movie, YouTube, video, sports, football, KSU, K-State, Texas, Longhorns, uterus

Obscene gesture

I almost feel bad to be a Kansan. I feel a little guilty about the role of my fellow Sunflower State residents for once again pulling the steel wool over so many Missourians.

I'm referring of course to all of the poor, duped Missouri-types who are sooooo outraged by recent obscenity indictments in Johnson County.

You Missouri types are so easy. Must be the school systems, or possibly the generations of in-breeding.

But I do have some friends in Missouri, which is why I feel a slight twinge of guilt about this. So at the risk of ruining the fun for my fellow Kansans, I'm going to 'splain this jig to our slow neighbors to the east.

Conventional Missouri "wisdumb" is reflected by comments like

...you repressed, meddling, control-freak, Johnson County, Morality Gestapos really need to have someone pull the broomsticks out of your tight asses.

I can understand why someone with diminished mental capacity might feel this way about the story. On the surface, it appears that a bunch of prudes want to ruin the party for the rest of us by telling us what we can and can't buy.

But that's just on the surface. Hell, on the surface Brush Creek looks like it's NOT a conduit of raw sewage. But let's face it, Missourians aren't gifted at taking a deep look at an issue. Clay Chastain counted on this when he got them to vote for mass transit gondolas.

The thing is, you don't even have to look too deep into this obscenity indictments story to see what it's really about. It fact, it's written all over the newspapers and so-called local, so-called news TV stations.

But let me connect the dots for you anyway. With Halloween approaching and the economy in somewhat of a downturn, what better way to get publicity for your store than a controversial indictment?

According to my many inside sources, a secret cabal of Johnson County businessmen and political leaders hatched the scheme months ago. Using key sleeper agents planted at the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, the group was able to time the release of these indictments to coincide with a time when interest would already be high.

The group reasoned that an announcement that the stores are selling items that are too raunchy for public view would be sure to bring the depraved Missouri shoppers to Johnson County to spend their money.

And of course it worked like a charm. As soon as the story was released Missourians began to jump up and down in ape-like incredulity while driving their 1972 Pintos as fast as they could to Overland Park to buy Snake Charmers, Tricky Dicks and Country Lovin's.

So, once again, JoCo owns KCMO. And like I said, I do feel a little bit bad. To make up for it, I've got several hundred pairs of Billy Joel tickets. Anybody want one?

tagged: Kansas City, Johnson County, Halloween, obscene, obscenity, indictment, costume

Iran so far away

My man Mahmoud made a big splash in the Big Apple yesterday during his appearance at Columbia University.

Like many Americans, I didn’t realize how bad things actually are in Iran. First, unless you’re a Muslim, you’re a second-class citizen. And let’s face it, with all of the rules and laws around being a Muslim, even if you are a Muslim you’re a second-class citizen.

And talk about being out of the loop! If you’re in Iran, you have to deal with being in such a historical backwater that you don’t even know what World War II was about, and that was more than 50 year’s ago.

Then there’s all the sand. For the love of Allah, can you imagine how cranky you’d be when you wake up every morning with sand in your underwear? It would just about drive me to develop weapons of mass destruction.

But Ahmadinejad noted the worst thing about living in Iran.

In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who told you that we have it.

Can you imagine living in a country with such a scarcity of gay people? I mean, forget about the how the quality of your porn would suffer without cinematic glory of Lesbian Spank Inferno. Just consider how badly everyone must dress.

There’s no one in Iran “creative” enough to design clothes and keep everyone honest with biting, sarcastic criticism of everyone’s wardrobe.

That extends to all aspects of personal grooming for men. Just look at that picture of Mahmoud. If anyone is in need of some tips from the Fab Five, it’s this guy.

And I shudder to think about the sorry state of interior design in Iran. With no one qualified to match the right color with the right texture in your living room, everything must look like it was decorated by the men of the Delta House.

My friends, Mahmoud’s speech has really given me a new perspective on Iran. I pity those poor bastards.

tagged: Iran, Mahmoud, nuclear, Ahmadinejad, homosexuals, Columbia University, Muslim