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So, it's been a long week...

Picture of your Aardvark after printing two major jobs Thursday.

This week has been a "try mens' souls" week. More work than we could possibly get out timely, but we dood it! I am taking off tomorrow, and will veg. I do not hurt now, but that is because aspirin is a food group. Amongst other work, we had a 100+ shirt job, 2-color front and back, due this morning (Friday), and the customer got the artwork to us Thursday morning. This is what happens when customers have had uber service from us in the past, just like the Advanced classes the smart kids take. Lesson learnt? "If you are smart, you have to work MORE!"

Naw, I'm just physically beat. I am astoundingly thankful for our work. I am also astoundingly thankful for my pillow! Loen and Riatsila are at AWA this weekend, selling our awesome shirts of awesomeness.

I'll share some more later.






Rest in peace.

From J. Michael Strazynski: I regret that I must convey the sad news that Michael O'Hare passed away today. He suffered a heart attack on Sunday and was in a coma until his passing this afternoon. This is a terrible loss for all B5 fans and everyone involved with the show wishes to convey their condolences to the O'Hare family. He was an amazing man.

""Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, and Morobuto, and Buddy Holly, and Aristophanes, and - all of this - all of this - was for nothing. Unless we go to the stars. "" - Cmdr. Jeffrey Sinclair - Babylon 5

Glurge.

They DO know that no ten-year-old said this, ever?

Droll, Norton....

Familiarity breeds....

Enjoyment!

Jay, upon meeting me daughter at MatsuriCon in Columbus, he delivered into her care a couple of DVDs, one of which was the fans' choice "Best of Thunderbirds". I had a lot of printing to do today, and wanted something that I did not have to hang on every frame to follow the story, so I plugged it in! After I put the fire out after shorting out the plug - I really had to cram the disc in to fit it in the little holes - I put it in the DVD player.

The first episode was "Trapped in the Sky", the premiere show of the series, and easily the best one. The atomic-powered airliner Fireflash is sabotaged by the nefarious Hood, in a bid to attract International Rescue so as to photograph details of the control panels and conduits in order to become the wealthiest man in the world.

I know, right?

Wikipedia's writeup far outshines my own:

The Fireflash on its maiden voyage from London to Tokyo is sabotaged by The Hood and is unable to land. 

Why do I even try?

I have to say that it is terribly fun, but it suffers from a small problem. It was supposed to be shorter. The first nine episodes were filmed and in the can when their financier Sir Lew Grade was so overwhelmed by what he saw that he insisted that they be hour-long programmes. The nine had to be re-edited, new film shot, the whole schmear, all while NEW episodes were being prepared. It got done, and it worked, but some of the episodes have a stretched feel.

Two things: Alan Tracy is a dreadful little git! Ungrateful, whiny, brattish. These are his good points.
 When Bob Meddings manages to get aboard the Fireflash to defuse the Auto-Bomb Detonator Unit placed by the Hood (no, really...it is one of those little engraved nameplate things. I guess the Hood picked it up from that kiosk at the mall),

























why didn't they close the access hatch on the Fireflash, so Meddings couldn't possibly fall out?
 -------------------------------

I'm not REALLY That Guy. I dearly love all the Supermarionation series. I have just seen them all too many times. I can see little details and plot craters too easily. I remember the first time I watched "Fireball XL5" and noticed the shadow of the exhaust plume on the sky backdrop. It was charmingly jarring.

Sigh. I'm feeling the need to marathon the Anderson series. Even "Four Feather Falls".

Thanks, Jay. It's great fun!  And it ain't Ponies.

Press the button. Go on. You KNOW you want to....

I am NOT a number....

There is a precious meme galumping across Facebookland, where people show off their cognitive dissonance, or their outright stupidity, by becoming a Group's poster children for reading dysfunction. The darlin's identify themselves as "One of the 47%", a reference to a comment made by George Romney at a fund-raiser, speaking to people from whom he wished to raise funds because they had the wherewithall so to fund. He said at one point

"There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney said in a clip from the event first posted online on Monday. "There are 47% who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing."

He was speaking of a very specific demographic: those who "are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing." This is key (if ill advised to have been said at all) because the meme runs thusly:

Mr. Angryman Cecil has defined himself out of the scope of Willard's comment. In short, he is NOT one of the 47%. Here is another:

Mrs. Davidson, of Portland, OR (a bastion of conservative thought), also betrays an inability to read with comprehension, if indeed she read or heard the original at all. She has also defined herself and her family right out of the number she claims so proudly. This series of pictures (and there will be more, oh-so-many more) has all the marks of an organised propaganda to preach to the choir about what a terrible person Romney is, going up against St. Obama the Clean and Articulate.

What, Mr. Wolff? Why yes, "Well, DUUUHHHH" is an appropriate response to my revelation above.

Arrowing to the point, the capacity for people to number themselves, or to include themselves amongst a number, is a curiosity to me. The past year, we have been treated to the 95%-ers, and thus to the 5%-ers, and now the improbable 47% is wobbling about, seeking to find some political purchase on the cratered landscape of Opinion. People craving to be A Number.

I would prefer to be numberless, for to seek Numbering opens one up to the risk of the wrong Number (and I am not going all Left Behind on you, here), being with the wrong crowd, thinking the wrong thought. "The Prisoner" presented to us Number Six, a man who eschewed, no, projectile vomited  the idea of being catalogued numerically by anyone.

“I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own.”
 -----------------------------------------------
New No.2: “Good day, Number Six.”
No.6: “Number what?”
New No.2: “Six. For official purposes, everyone has a number. Yours is number 6.”
No.6: “I am not a number, I am a person.”

I would encourage those craving numberdom to be very careful. Numbers are nasty things, and can follow you around. Don't let yourself become a pawn in someone else's political game. I have little fondness for Romney, admittedly less for the President. There are other candidates, other parties...I, too must be careful with whom I  am numbered.

Water, water everywhere....

Nowadays I would encourage everyone to have some water filtration. The two I am looking at are the Berkey system, and the Propur filter.

With all of the stuff in the water, from cysts to fluoride (one of the charges against the Nazis during the war trials was that of poisoning the camp prisoners' water with fluoride.) to arsenic, chlorine, and a plethora of other things our purification systems don't handle, it would be advisable to get as much out as possible, water being essential to life and all....

There is even a GIVEAWAY going on!

PIRATES!!!

AAAAARRRRRRHHHHHHH! 

Jesus fanfic

Photo by Prof. Karen L. King

I am in possession of a document from 2003 that contains a quote: Galileo Galilei saying "I wrote all of Shakespeare's works.". I can even show you the laser printer it was printed on!

We should have the same faith in the veracity of that writing that we should accord the Egyptian Coptic papyrus fragment that is making the chat shows now. You know the one; Jesus is speaking and makes a reference to "My wife..." and “she will be able to be my disciple.”.

Let's look at this: a fragment, smaller than a business card, purportedly written in the fourth century AD, contains things found in no earlier manuscripts (of which there are multitudes). This is me being convinced. The New York Times, ever the theological Source of Record, breathlessly conjectures

Even with many questions unsettled, the discovery could reignite the debate over whether Jesus was married, whether Mary Magdalene was his wife and whether he had a female disciple.

The debate has been quite small, and primarily held amongst cranks. Scripture makes no hint of Mary Magdalene being married to Jesus, or to Shlomo the Tailor for that matter; her identity in Scripture is the woman from whom Jesus cast seven demons. As to female disciples: disciples, yes. apostles, no. The Gospels tell of women of means who helped support Jesus' ministry, so yes, there were female disciples. Herp, derp; why was this ever a question? Read the Book!

I reiterate the contention of Chez 'Vark: The Early Church Pseudepigrapha, with Gnostic Gospels like "Thomas" and "Judas" are Christian fanfic, rather like "My Immortal"  and are to be respected as such.

Cue theremin...

 


 I have seen the future, sez the Nostravark!

First, congratulations, Alabama voters! You have allowed the professional politicians to extort you with threats of prisoners being released, and your children being teacherless or schoolless, and now the trust fund will be pilfered with no promise of repayment.

That said, get set for four more years of President Barack Hussein Obama, because the national Democrat machine will use virtually the same tactics, except that now they will accuse Romney of wanting to kill Medicare, take meals on wheels out of the very mouths of the elderly, and force the children to huff toxic gases straight from the exhaust of military vehicles. And you know what?

You'll buy it. UNLESS of course you realise that NO political party would try to destroy the LARGEST voting bloc they have at their disposal. Republicans will NOT try to kill Grandma or Grandpa, or starve the children in school, or purposely poison your air or water.

The horror...THE HORROR!

I have a terrible, overweening fondness for kitsch. Really love it.
Nothing is kitschier than old-school horror hosts like Zacherly, Vampira, and Ashley Ghastley.
Doctor Morgus is the ne plus ultra.














They were funny, they had consistent schticks, they were funny...AND they were regional! They had the flavors of New Orleans, Charleston, LA.

But now, the ridiculous offerings we have syndicated are blended tapioca, with a few flakes of cayenne for spice. Elvira is just a girl with two enormous...talents,

and the entire show is a way to make jokes about...them. The movie offerings are public domain horrors..."Shock Theater" on the cheap. Elvira has caricatured herself in this incarnation. Her syndicated "Movie Macabre" has at last expired, though a few rattling gasps can be heard on outlying stations. Atomic Mystery Monster at the Gravediggers Local 16 blog writes:

While Cassandra Peterson is a very talented person (I love her albums and her two films were hilarious), I’d be kidding myself if I said that her looks had nothing to do with her success. If you had some guy in black spandex telling jokes about his junk instead of Elvira, Movie Macabre wouldn’t have made it past the pilot stage. Another thing to consider is how a lot of the people who slag on Mystery Science Theater 3000 often give Elvira a pass on doing the same thing, simply because they’re attracted to her.

Pithy.

Wolfman Mac is another story.

He hails from Pontiac, MI, and has a very involved ensemble with a cast of eighteen characters, like Boney Bob, Ivanna Werkagenn, and Torg the Robot. Part of their formula involves inserting themselves into the (again, public domain orphan) movies via bad video effects and rude sounds. Nothing like mature love of classic cinema.

And believe me, this is NOTHING like mature love of classic cinema.

I understand the role of public domain features. There are some corking good orphaned movies out there, but most are that way for a reason, shame being my first guess.  The need to have free movies to show goes a long way to convincing small local markets to give you a chance. Now Mac and Co. are on RTV, seen across this broad land, and the offerings are no better. His production skits are more than adequate, and he sprinkles classic commercials, quirky educational and industrial films, and Drive-in concession ads liberally when his actual featire is short. (FEATURE is SHORT...I could write for Elvira!!!)


The less said about Ivonna Cadaver, the better. Her Macabre Theatre (seems somehow familiar!) is another public domain film-fest! Riatsila sez that watching this is like eating Bob Evans pancakes, and being disappointed because they aren't Cracker Barrel.

She has breasts! See?

My current winner for Doing It Well is Svengoolie, a Chicago fixture in Creature Featuredom. Rich Koz, the current Svengoolie, is a master of the art. His use of sound clips is masterful (he even uses Stan Freberg bits...da man has CLASS!), and he is quite a good song parodist. His schtick is as well-worn and comfortable as your favorite slippers (how dated is that?), and his timing is excellent.

Plus, he pays for his movies.

The classic Universal Monsters are his mainstay, and I must say, for the first time, I am enjoying them. Saw "The Bride of Frankenstein" Saturday night, and MERCY! That was a great movie. The Franz Waxman score was eminently recognisable, as much of it was re-used in the Flash Gordon serials. Elsa Lanchester as the Bride was beautifully photographed. I must say that I understand The Creature's fondness for her!

Give Svengoolie a try. He is the closest I've seen to the classic horror hosts of yesteryear.

Berwyn?

All politics is local

I am sure this may chap some of you, especially those in the targeted professions like teachers, but I ask that you vote "NO" on the Alabama Trust Fund amendment.

Our representatives in Montgomery have overspent, and now want to take (not "borrow") money from the Alabama Trust Fund (royalty money paid by natural gas drilling). They already spend all of the interest; now they want to rob from the

principal. It is like a farmer eating his seed corn. EVERYONE will go hungry after the seed is eaten. If we allow Montgomery to pilfer the Trust Fund principal, it will reduce the annual interest it produces, so they will have to come back crying for more money from the Trust Fund.

It will also send the clear message that we do not hold them accountable for their overspending. "The constitutional amendment does not provide for the payback of the money, but Bentley said that’s his intention." I am thinking "roads" and "hell", here.

"Alabama voters rejected a constitutional amendment in 2010 that would have taken $1 billion out of the trust fund for road and bridge projects." Tuscaloosa News

Be as smart as you were in 2010.

Say NO. Don't let Montgomery eat the seed corn. (And be sure to check the wording on the ballot. Sometimes they get tricky to make a "No" be a vote "for" a thing.)

-------------------------------------
Alabama Trust Fund amendment ballot wording

The precise language as it will appear on the ballot:

Shall the following Amendment be adopted to the Constitution of Alabama?
Proposed Statewide Amendment
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to provide adequate
funding for the State General Fund budget, to prevent the mass release of prisoners from
Alabama prisons, and to pr

otect critical health services to Alabama children, elderly, and
mothers by transferring funds from the Alabama Trust Fund to the State General Fund
beginning with the state's 2012-2013 fiscal year and concluding with the state's 2014-
2015 fiscal year; to provide a new procedure for distributions made from the Alabama
Trust Fund beginning 2012-2013 fiscal year; to create a County and Municipal
Government Capital Improvement Trust Fund advisory committee; and to provide further
for distributions made from the County and Municipal Government Capital Improvement
Trust Fund. (Proposed by Act No. 2012-490)
Yes ( )
No ( )

No tricks. Yes or no. PLEASE vote "NO".

Remembering 9/11...and 1995....

Welcome to our annual national scab-tearing day, the day we remember when those terriss, ably guided by an unwashed Arab hiding in a cave in Afghanistan, pulled off a GENIUS coup, symbolically (and almost literally) bringing the world's leading Western economy to a standstill by using passenger airliners as manned cruise missiles. I will ever remember waking up to Rick and Bubba on the radio giving commentary, so I upped myself and hied me to the living room where the news was showing the horrors occurring in NYC. Then I heard about the Pentagon, and then the Pennsylvania field.

DAMN those evil terrorists. A thousand Muslim hells be unto them. The vitrification of Afghanistan and wherever else would have made a lovely, gently glowing monument to America's swift judgement of those who would DARE strike our Homeland, for that was the term given life by the Powers who watch over us, however imperfectly, from their eyrie in Washington DC.

And soon, the masterstroke of Legislation was cobbled together to grant us security and safety, wrapped in a virtual flag: The Patriot Act. But wait! Seems the Act has been a Bill Waiting to Happen, waiting for the Right Circumstance:

The next year, months before the Oklahoma City bombing took place, Biden introduced another bill called the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995. It previewed the 2001 Patriot Act by allowing secret evidence to be used in prosecutions, expanding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and wiretap laws, creating a new federal crime of "terrorism" that could be invoked based on political beliefs, permitting the U.S. military to be used in civilian law enforcement, and allowing permanent detection of non-U.S. citizens without judicial review. The Center for National Security Studies said the bill would erode "constitutional and statutory due process protections" and would "authorize the Justice Department to pick and choose crimes to investigate and prosecute based on political beliefs and associations.

"Biden himself draws parallels between his 1995 bill and its 2001 cousin. "I drafted a terrorism bill after the Oklahoma City bombing. And the bill John Ashcroft sent up was my bill," he said when the Patriot Act was being debated, according to the New Republic, which described him as "the Democratic Party's de facto spokesman on the war against terrorism." (CNET.com)

This is how the massive bill was written in twenty days. It already existed in main, thanks to Sen. Joe Biden. Knowing this troubles me. What security has it provided me?

I am secure in the knowledge that the TSA, under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security, can and will either take "naked" X-rays of me and my wife should we travel by air. Should we choose not to be fricaseed, we are secure knowing that either or both of our genitals will be fondled by strangers in the Name of Homeland Security, because clearly Bin Ladin is hiding there, as we have seen no pictures of his death.

The government is authorized to spy on its own citizenry without warrant. The President can declare any citizen an enemy of the State, a terriss, and can order him executed by Presidential whim.

Shall I continue? It is late, and we must be ready. As to the masterminds and tools used in the 9/11 attack, again I say damn them. A thousand hells be unto them.

I'm just not as certain who "they" are anymore.

Make of it what you will. From the clown pageant of the "W" years, to the clean, articulate years of O'bama, I have little trouble believing anything  from our servants in DC.

Mourn our losses, certainly. Most especially the loss of our Republic, the loss of our national soul.

Heil der Geburtsland!

Nursery Rhyme for Today

Taken at Rock City, Chattanooga, TN.

Old Mother Hubbard
Went to her cupboard
To fetch her poor dog a bone.
When she got there
The cupboard was bare
Because Ben Bernanke
Was on another
Quantitative Easing kick.

Painting with the broad brush.

Your Aardvark has Obeyed the Barns and Birdhouses, and has Seen Rock City. The Dread Dormomoo and he went to Chattanooga (apparently the only place where they can get awa' and have fun.) this weekend. We went with the Dalkhes, and had a spiffulous time (the spelcheker did not even try  with "spiffulous".) squeezing through rocks looking for gnomes and deer, and marveling at the wonderful beauty at this VERY non-tourist-trap tourist destination. We even braved the Temple of Doom style rope bridge (the "Swing-Along Bridge"),  180 feet of acrophobic nightmare with a beautiful view, none of which himself appreciated, being fixated on the back of the head of the guy ahead. Sorry, no personal pictures.

Overall, the place is one of breathtaking splendor. It earns the Aardvark's Touron Seal of Approval.

Friday night upon arriving, we made arrangements to meet the Dalkhes at Portofino's, a classic Greek-run Italian restaurant. Their Alfredo is worth the trip, even from Schenectady. 

We ate at the City Diner Cafe, natch, and also the Teriyaki House on Ringgold Road (whose white sauce is legendary!) It is in an old Pizza Hut building, so the gag writes itself. It is not a Japanese Happy MealTM Benihana knockoff. The food is prepared in the kitchen, and comes out as a delightful surprise. Himself had Hibachi Steak and Shrimp, the DD having Hibachi Steak. Om nom noms abounded! Breakfast Saturday was at the Diner, Aardvark: Eggs Benedict and Grits (only in the South! PLUS the Hollandaise was outstanding.)) DD: Eggs, Bacon, Homefries. Breakfast Sunday, Aardvark: French Dip Sandwich and Fries (It was 11:30 AM, K?) of which only half was eaten, and your Aardvark retired, beaten. It resides in the fridge, beckoning....The DD had The usual, but with grits.

Dr. Who was on telly after Teriyaki house, and afforded the opportunity to see last week's premiere, AND the new episode this week. It appears to be breaking the Matt Smith mode of "Whose life does the Doctor screw up this week?".

A good time was had by all, and the drive home was full of chatter. One thing that came up was the Dread Dormomoo's feeling of being cheated if she reads a novel which has no Import, no Great Theme, whereupon the 'Vark coined the term "Zombie Novel", that which has action but no soul. Endless spy thriller series seem to fall in that mode, as do most of the pulp novels that have passed before his 'Varky optics.

As tedious as the novels one is assigned in school can be, they have a point, a moral if you will, that which one may take away after the read without feeling it a total waste of time. Silas Marner details the evils of greed, and the Need to Have Others in one's life. The Scarlet Letter examines sin and guilt in the context of Puritan morality, and shows how the most moral among us may be caught in the web (among manifold other lessons). Tom Clancy's doorstops open the door onto the fell vistas of international politics, military might, and spies, with personal heroism normally tilting the scales..

Matt Helm and Fu Manchu, on the other hand....

(It has been said that The DD and the 'Vark have never had a frivolous conversation in their lives.)

Over all, a very good time.

NEXT MONTH: Lake Winnie!

Consumer ALERT!

If anyone is approached by Crescent Processing for your business's credit card processing, RUN LIKE THE WIND! They lie, and they cheat. They have a dismal customer service reputation. This is what drove us to use SQUARE.

Rest Well!

If the video that is SUPPOSED to be herein embedded is not, the link is

HERE!

In keeping with unicorns and fluffy bunnies...

Judson Hudson, a Whovian who raises mules, and has a Ghostbusters addiction, did this homage to another dear friend.








Creativity is awesome, is it not?

I kinda wish it had a Haruhi shirt, though....