Silly Site o' the Day

Via BoingBoing, it's Lobster Dogs. Those poor goggies!

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Sheila Lennon, thank goodness some people play with their food. Quite creative, but all in all I think I prefer Robin to stick to pencils and brushes. Oh, and for good measure here are some melon sculptures (via Corduroy Orange).

Silly Site o' the Day

Yesterday we watched the last three Dr. Who episodes of this season in succession. Just lovely. This video on The Secret Powers of Time is almost as good, in my opinion:



Via Sheila Lennon.

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, I can no longer piggyback on any wifi connections at Mom's, her neighbor's network is gone as of last week. And both the US and England are out of the World Cup. I need some cats "playing footie" to take my mind off things:



Thank you, Cute Overload!

Just uploaded to the YouTube:



As the copy on this video says, we're subjected to this every morning, often starting at around 4 AM. This was filmed around 6:30, right after he'd been given his morning pill to help his faulty digestive system. We have to wait 15-20 minutes for the pill to get into his system. It's the longest quarter-hour in the world.

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

Off to Mom's for a "girls' weekend," just the two of us whilst Robin stays home, takes care of the cats and weeps for England's chances in the Final 16. We agreed that the US actually has a good chance of making it at least to the semis, but poor England has to face Germany then most likely Argentina. Between watching the US World Cup game and the two baseball teams I'm not really sure what I'm going to be doing at Mom's - yes, in fact it is kinda cool to get together with her and watch sports - but I'm taking the laptop with me and, if I can get a wifi signal, perhaps I'll practice getting better at Ragdoll Cannon 3 (via Cory at BoingBoing).

Silly Site o' the Day

"You can call him/her" Al is now a former coworker, having left to follow his/her dreams elsewhere, but promises to still read this blog. So I have to remember to say hi to Al every now and then. Al, this one isn't for you, but perhaps you'll find it amusing anyway. Robin and I were watching the Weather Channel this afternoon - sometimes I can't help it, I like looking at "viewers sent this in so we don't have to do our job any more" shots of windstorms and stuff like this:



Anyway, I suddenly noticed that both the (female) anchor and Brian Williams (appearing in an ad for a special on the mess in the Gulf which apparently does not touch his clothing at all) were wearing outfits right out of the '70s. I swear, Williams had on this white leisure suit and the anchor was wearing ruffles and poufy sleeves. I turned back to the channel a few minutes ago and another female anchor was beruffled. What the hell is going on here? You cannot tell me the stuff I used to get laughed at for wearing in high school is making a comeback 40 years later! I mean, next thing you'll tell me Chia Pets have returned...



Ohhhhh... Via Lambert.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Bunnyboy in tonight's Firesign chat, how about some SCTV videos? Been way too long since I've seen some of those. Where's my free budgie?

Silly Site o' the Day

Well, that's a relief - both the US and England advance to elimination Round 1 (aka The Final 16) of the World Cup. Meanwhile, via The Awl, the Robot World Cup is underway in Singapore.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via my friend Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast, people and things for which Joe Barton Would Like To Apologize.

Silly Site o' the Day

I was able to leave work a bit early today to attend the lovely memorial for Dick Giordano and catch up with a lot of industry friends, including my former ComicMix colleagues. (Bob Greenberger covers this more fully in his blog.) From what all the speakers (which included luminaries from Mike Carlin and Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz to Neal Adams and Joe Rubinstein and Walt Simonson and a screamingly funny anecdote from Terry Austin) were saying, Giordano was a hell of a nice guy, top-notch mentor and terrific editor. Maybe he could have made something good out of this mashup parody, which I probably didn't find nearly as amusing as I should have because (a) I haven't seen many of the films referenced and (b) they all kind of look and sound that way to me:



Via Heidi MacDonald.

Silly Site o' the Day

I got through a bunch of stuff today, after I'd moved a few things around and set up the ironing board in the bedroom so I could watch the World Cup and Yankees/Mets game and US Open whilst ironing. I've found that sports serve as excellent background to that particular chore, and I got more done than I would ordinarily have had energy for. I also finished and passed my 3-year AAA online driving course to keep my insurance rates lower; boy, that's a strict one, they auto-dial you if you take longer on a page than they think you should. By, like, a minute. Still, educational and far easier (and cheaper) than schlepping into the city to take it. Since those two things took up much of my day, I didn't have time for too much reading other than finally catching up on our Entertainment Weekly issues. But had I the time I'm sure I would have gotten through more of Who Blog in Darkness (via Digby).

Belated Friday Cat Blogging*

So I went to take a photo of Datsa this morning and discovered a dead camera battery. Fortunately it was, as every Saturday is, Recharging Day, et voila:



Dunno if you can tell from this angle, but I caught him in mid-stretch here.

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

Oh now, this is clever. Via BoingBoing, if you were a time traveller who wanted to make gazillions off inventions that we take for granted nowadays but which didn't exist during, erm, my high school years (gulp), how would you market them to blend in with the times? Alex Varanese has the answer.

You Can Call Him or Her Al

A coworker of mine has suddenly discovered my blog, and is teasing me relentlessly about it. So I've decided I'm going to send him or her (hey, it's the internet, one needs one's pseudo-anonymity) occasional messages as I feel like it. Hey Al, did you know I just found what is probably the last remaining deli which sells bagels (toasted with butter, mind you) for a measly 75¢? In our "neighborhood," yet? Just so's you know.

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy birthday to friends Alan Davis (and happy anniversary, Alan and Heather) and Pat Prentice, as well as huzzah on Sir Paul's 68th! What Silly Site could I possibly come up with to tie in all of these folks? Well, probably none, but I'm going with Animated Album Covers (via the Comedy Central blog).

Silly Site o' the Day

Now granted, I've never had children so maybe my views on this are a little skewed, but the Baby Mop (via Lisa at BoingBoing) just seems so wrong to me.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Melissa McEwan, who discussed the phenom that is Cage Flix, I found Mike Lacher's Wonder-Tonic to be good for whatever ails me. Gah, another three days of this antibiotic. Oh lordy, I miss my tea. And choccies. And yogurt. And, and, and...

Silly Site o' the Day

Ick, on another 5-day antibiotic regimen for a slight infection, but that means no tea, no milk products, no prolonged sunshine... is it over yet? Maybe if I disguise my food as other food (via Cory at BoingBoing) I won't miss my favorites...

RIP Al Williamson

I can't believe it's been a decade since we last saw Al Williamson:



That's from Ithacon 2000, with Roger Stern standing in the foreground, Robin in the middle ground and Al, with that unmistakable shock of white hair, in the background. Robin and Al sat next to each other and talked all day about inking, Al's career and other matters. My favorite bit was the way he mock-pronounced "Scranton" - to this day I can't watch The Office without smiling and thinking of Al. Here's a sketch he did for me that day:



I wish we'd gotten to spend even more time with him. What a great guy. He'll be missed.

Silly Site o' the Day

Ugh, 3 AM kitty, then 4 AM other kitty, and I'm really wiped. But nothing a Lego-built Most Useless Machine (via BoingBoing) can't cure.



Well, that and sleep.

World Cup Blogaround

Okay, theoretically it shouldn't be hard for both England and the US to beat both Algeria and Slovenia, so if that happens does that mean a Group C playoff, or that the team with the most goals is awarded first place? So little time, so many FIFA rules I don't feel like looking up. Might as well do a relatively short blogaround:

• I'm glad I added Roger Ebert's columns to my Bloglines subscriptions, I always seem to be bookmarking them. Highly recommended are his remembrances of racism growing up and his beautiful explanation of how Twitter has helped him communicate better now that he can't use his mouth.

• Yesterday was the 22nd (I think) anniversary of my first marriage, which is on my mind a lot what with the insipid coverage of the separation of Al and Tipper Gore. I agree with all the bloggers who say one cannot know what goes on within a marriage or why the participants decide to part, and particularly with folks like Miriam at Feministing who asks, "why does it have to be framed as a failure when a marriage ends?" I certainly don't consider my decades-long friendship with Steve (ten years of which also included our marriage) to be a failure at all. Sometimes people just move in different directions, and can both acknowledge that as adults without there being any fault or animosity. I just wish some of our couple-friends at the time could have understood that.

• Speaking of friendships going back over decades, my old buddy Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast makes a great point in response to Amanda's post about food and its relationship to income level - the time factor. She notes, "Either we are working ourselves to death in jobs we already have, sometimes multiples of them, or we are out of work and have gnawing terror of the future." As long as I have a job and hour-plus commute I'm not going to cook that often because, as much as I may enjoy it, by the time I get home I'm often too tired to do anything that requires any prep (and increasingly I spend my weekends catching up on errands or collapsing so that rules out food prep as well). I'll either make a cheese sammy or throw in a frozen dinner, and Rob opens up tins. Yeah, self-prep would be much preferred, if I had the energy. Staying financially afloat takes precedence. Oh, and I mentioned earlier about how Jill was the person who introduced me to the work of The Firesign Theatre about 30 years ago - well, now she's introduced me by way of her blog to someone else of whom I'd never previously heard; meet the late great Himon Brown.

• Tristero at Digby's place presents tales from the new Depression to which I can really relate, and has the same response I did to a recent Frank Rich article about President Obama's tendency to listen to self-picked authorities rather than actual experts.

• The Rude Pundit hits the nail on the head that a President and a CEO are and should be two very different things; I would argue that their jobs are diametrically opposed, which is why the idea of a corporate oligarchy is so odious to me. It's utterly undemocratic.

• As the manmade environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico continues to grow, the FAIR blog catches USA Today chiding the media for its lack of coverage about how oil spills have quadrupled during this century, completely ignoring its own role as part of that media cover-up. Also ignored are ideas from celebrities with actual experience in dealing with underwater navigation, and it was like pulling teeth to get them to listen to other celebrities with clean-up solutions. 'Cause, you know, they're just actors and directors, they have no political savvy.

• Nowadays if you follow pop culture there are certain things you can't avoid. I have no interest in seeing Sex and the City 2, or 1, or the TV show, or even reading Candace Bushnell's work, but I read reviews. One of the more interesting reviews of SATC2 was by Maria Bustillos at The Awl, who notes that The real problem isn’t that the women of SATC2 are mature; it’s that they are not." Odd how that doesn't seem to be a problem with long-in-the-tooth dudebro movies. And I totes agree with Melissa McEwan that there's no way Sarah Jessica Parker is ugly by mainstream standards. I find her body type too waiflike and her face a little elongated for my particular taste, but that's a matter of personal preference rather than cultural standards of beauty (and on the whole I prefer to gaze at men rather than women anyway so my opinion here is fairly useless).

• Also at Shakesville, SKM links to the Ms. Magazine blog interview with Feminist Hulk and his alter-ego. Both Robin and I love Feminist Hulk, and if J ever needs an artist for FH's witticisms I know where he/she can find an experienced one who's drawn the Hulk for years!

• This great softball story from Susie made me kvell. Maybe this sort of sportswomanship is the reason women's sports aren't accorded the same place in our society that men's sports are; by and large they seem far more honorable and, you know, sporting.

• Other stories of interest include Laura's recounting of a drug raid on a neighbor's home, and Peter's full-circle return to playing Dragon's Lair, this time for an enraptured daughter.

• While NYC mass transit commuters face service cutbacks due to a shortfall in "tax revenue from real estate transactions" (what the hell? why is the MTA allowed to dabble in real estate instead of providing not-for-profit service to NY residents? One may as well ask what business any public service utility has in, for instance, investing primary income in the stock market instead of using it to pay for infrastructure improvements) - but hey, we get new maps! - California, with more than its share of budget woes, has yet to get its mass transit act together, either locally (Sean Carroll talks about a great proposal to Get L.A. Moving) or in terms of longer distances (Mark Evanier links to proposed speedy train routes linking L.A. to Las Vegas). Yet another area where other developed countries laugh in our face.

• Ah, the comics industry. For every writer (and to give him credit he's known more for writing screenplays and TV shows than for comics) who achieves a raised consciousness like John August who takes the Bechdel Test using his scripts and finds most of them wanting (via Melissa Silverstein), there's an editor who still doesn't get why readers protest the lack of diversity in a fictional universe populated by "green, pink, and blue characters" (Brown Betty's reaction to Ian Sattler's remarks is pretty comprehensive).

• Elsewhere in pop culture, Lance Mannion examines the Russell Crowe/Kate Blanchett Robin Hood and its relation to other depictions of the legendary outlaw-or-was-he?, and the Good Roger Ailes reports on another musical act, this one from north of the border, taking action against misuse of their songs by Republican politicians who don't believe copyright laws (or heck, most laws in general) apply to them.

• One controversy on which I really don't want to weigh in is what happened with Helen Thomas, except to say I completely agree with Mark Evanier's take, and I think it's a shame that this will be what Thomas is likely to be remembered for.

• Bully examines the pictorial history of the Avengers table (love the Ikea bit at the end!), and takes us back to cheesy '70s TV with Encyclopedia Bull, Bovine Detective, which may or may not be a Quinn Martin Production.

• Lastly, Henry at Crooked Timber asks if A-list political bloggers who turn pro also turn their backs on (and delink) non-A-listers. I think there's certainly some of that going on, but I'm happy as long as wonderful people like Digby and Kevin Drum continue to link to me so that I know this phenomenon isn't universal. (And I'm sure it would also help the linky-love if I had the capacity to blog more often.)

There, and I've also ironed grand total of two shirts while I've been at this. Onward to Sunday afternoon!

Belated Friday Cat Blogging*

That's two days in a row for Datsa waking me up at 4 AM (I try to rise earlier than Robin on the weekends so he can sleep in, because he keeps Datsa at bay on weekdays so I don't have to wake up until 6 AM). I don't care how cute he can be, this early rising makes me woozy.



Nope, still don't care about Teh Cute.

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

Too many videos, too little time. That was my first reaction to Take180, particularly Electric Spoofaloo, where Samhita at Feministing really liked the fake iPhone ad featuring Jane Lynch.



Yeah, still haven't gotten into Glee, I'm afraid. Someone let me know when they get rid of Auto-Tune so I can watch it solely for the camp value. Or is Auto-Tune actually campy now?

Silly Site o' the Day

I don't know about you, but my heart goes out to Robert Green. The game never should have been 1-1, it ought to have been 1-0 in favor of England. Yes, I rooted for the same team as Robin did, unlike the 1986 World Series when my then-husband and I were fans of the opposing teams. Speaking of which, happy anniversary-of-our-former-anniversary, Steve. Just for you, have a fingerstache tattoo (via BoingBoing).

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Robin, it's the Rutles LUNCH, a collaboration between Rutle Corps (although probably not the all-but-official Rutle Corps) and Circle of Hay, naturally.



Oddly, my iPod's been playing a lot of randomly-shuffled Rutles lately.

Silly Site o' the Day

Man, it was one of those days when I was ducking and weaving out of tourists' way, and the day wasn't even totally sunny. Late spring in New York! No wonder Improv Everywhere seemed to strike a happy nerve with their Tourist Lane (via David at BoingBoing).

Silly Site o' the Day

Here, have some Phil Proctor on Dangerous Minds:



Looking forward to viewing it m'self...

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Bryan, who's been doing a tremendous job covering the BP oil disaster in the Gulf, it's the BP Oil Spill Re-enacted by Cats in 1 Minute:



And for Dorian, whose birthday is today, another from the clever folks at Tremendous News, the entire season of Glee re-enacted by cats in 1 minute:



So now I still don't have to watch the show. And oh, yes, it has Auto Tune.

Silly Site o' the Day

Those in the mood for a little gallows humor amidst the horrid environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico may wish to check out the Twitter feed of "BP Public Relations," a bitter satire indeed. Via Crooks and Liars.

Belated Friday Cat Blogging*

Well, that's half of Sunday gone already. Thanks, Morpheus!

But Amy was very cute earlier in the week, settling in on the Highest Point on the Bed again:



And they've both been fairly adorable today:



(While Amy sleeps, Datsa finishes up the remains of my Greek yogurt with blackberries mixed in; he adores Greek yogurt.)



So there you are. Now, back to the baseball game.

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

I tend not to check in with my YouTube subscriptions all that often. It's like Twitter or Facebook or Flickr or MySpace or StumbleUpon or any other social networking site - I have a presence on all of them, but I either don't have the time to play around on them or (with the exception of LinkedIn) I'm prohibited from accessing them for the 40+ hours per week that I'm at work. And yes, YouTube is one of the places that sends me periodic emails that the places to which I've subscribed have new videos. But I assume everyone who frequents these hubs enough to have their own page updates it fairly regularly (the way I do daily posts to this blog) so I usually ignore those emails, preferring to rely on bloggers like Mark Evanier to remind me when I really should check out the Python page to see Eric Idle's responses to fatuous comments:





Sorry about the ads, but they're out of my control, like so much in social networking these days.

Silly Site o' the Day

This has to be one of my favorite examples of pareidolia ever. Tetris, Tetris Everywhere, nor any drop to drink! Via Cory at BoingBoing. Off to Mom's for the day, where I will doubtless see some Tetris examples during the long drive.

Silly Site o' the Day

Today's link isn't really a silly site per se as much as a recommended one. Amongst the many blogs by women I've collected through the years and stored in Bloglines (see sidebar for link) has been a lovely gem called Brilliant at Breakfast. Always loved the name. Run by a smart gal named Jill. Not sure why it wasn't on my main blogroll in the first place other than neglect and my tendency toward mutual link exchanges. Then someone else was talking about a post on there and they mentioned Jill's surname.

Immediately I went to Facebook to look for her picture. Which all but confirmed my suspicions. I knew Jill. Pretty well, in fact. Jill and I were very close friends decades before the term BFF existed. We lived one town apart, she wrote a few things for INSIDE JOKE -- her boyfriend, now long-time husband, was IJ's production person for a long time, and I believe I may have introduced them to each other. I know for certain that Jill introduced me to the world of The Firesign Theatre; for that alone she has my eternal gratitude. She will always have my love. Considering my best friend from college and my best friend from my late 30s/early 40s are both gone forever now, I can't tell you how much it means to me to be reconnected with my best friend from my 20s. (And I mean, connected! We've been chatting back and forth on Facebook for the entire time I've been typing this post.) Jill, I'm absolutely kvelling here. I adore you, darlin'.

And your blog is the bee's knees. Welcome to the blogroll. Should have done it long ago, even if I didn't know you were That Jill.

Silly Site o' the Day

In memory of the late Rue McLanahan, we take a look at her Golden Girls co-star Bea Arthur... and mountains... and pizza. Via Crooks & Liars.

Silly Site o' the Day

Feminist Hulk smash patriarchy! Via Vanessa at Feministing, whose colleague Miriam found a few imagined copycats (or perhaps that should be copy-catwomen?).

Silly Site o' the Day

White Rabbits! Wow, June already! That means tomorrow is my half-birthday. Yeah, me and Betty White seem to be the only women over the age of 25 who keep track of half-birthdays. I also keep track of cool eggshell art, thanks to Lisa at BoingBoing.