Billboard in Minnesota.

Via Instapundit.

Fatboy Slim

Walken Dancin’

Stop Go

J.D. Salinger, dead at 91.

Out of respect for this talented man I will not attempt any kind of goddamn tribute so as not to appear phony.  Obituary is at the link.

Some may recognize the title of this post is taken from a short story written by Salinger in 1948.  Read it in high school and haven’t read it since, but it immediately came to mind with the author’s passing.  I guess that is a fitting tribute to a unique writer.

Yes, for many a year now I have contemplated the mystery of Heinz’ 57 varieties.  Varieties of what?  Ketchup? (Heinz’ preferred spelling, as opposed to the Catsup produced by Hunt-Wesson).

And now, through the wonders of the internet, or more specifically the archives of James Lileks, we have the answer:

And so now one is left to wonder just how many of the original 57 varieties are still in production today.  You are on your own for that….

So, apparently Venus Williams caused a stir at the Australian open this past weekend.

Heh, one of those optical delusions I suppose.  Not sure what all the fuss is about.  I mean she didn’t make an ass of herself like Fiona Butler did a while back.

I never had much talent for the game of tennis, but it is a great spectator sport.

Ahem.

An equipment failure for a female UK bobsledder led to this…

Pretty amazing satellite image of Bondi Beach in Australia.  As you zoom in you can actually see some of those notorious Great White sharks.  Check it out!

So, one of my work projects involves the conversion from the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) back to the legacy General Schedule (GS) system.  The wise mean in Congress deemed that the multi-millions of dollars invested in a pay-for-performance program for government workers employed by DoD was nothing but a Bush-era boondoggle and pulled the plug.  Well, Congress acted at the behest of their union overlords, but hey, who am I to complain?

So, I’ve had a lot of down time lately.  Spent New Year’s weekend with a cold so I stayed inside warm and hunkered down.  And I whiled away the hours reading the latest novel by Stephen King Under the Dome.

I guess I should preface this by saying I’m a big King fan.  Yeah, I know the literary elites like to turn their nose up and sniff that he is just a hack who churns out pulp fiction for the masses.  But I think the bigger point is that King is a master storyteller whose creativity in creating worlds (not just supernatural ones, but yeah a lot of that too) and characters that are almost real to us.  Certainly the  reader can almost always relate to the extreme challenges they face in King’s bizarre stories.  The Stand remains one of the best novels I have ever read.

It was also the longest until I tackled Under the Dome’s 1072 pages.  A hefty read indeed.  It was a good story built around an interesting premise.  But I thought it was overlong, sloppy, not particularly well written, and chock full of cliches and caricatures.  Yep, despite its length it seemed like King just phoned this one in.

I wouldn’t say don’t read it, it is a fine way to kill time.  But if you are expected a classic King spellbinder you will share my disappointment.

Anyone have a guess as to what this is?

Give up?

Ok, it is a satellite image of the Lena River Delta in Siberia.

59 more really cool images of Mother Earth from the eyes in the sky can be found here.  Check ’em out!

Through the mysterious powers of the internet I happened upon an article from a Scottish newspaper, aptly named The Scotsman.  But that’s not important right now.

The big news is this: Beer could be the new weapon against cancer.

MEN now have another excuse to go down the pub thanks to new research suggesting that a compound in beer may prevent prostate cancer. Tests showed that the ingredient, xanthohumol, blocked a biological pathway that allows prostate cancer to be fuelled by the male hormone testosterone.  The disease is commonly treated with drugs that act in a similar way.

‘I screamed, but there was nothing to hear’: Man trapped in 23-year ‘coma’ reveals horror of being unable to tell doctors he was conscious

I am occasionally reminded what an old fogey I really am.  Hmm, I guess just using a word like fogey pretty much proves that point, doesn’t it?  But no, I was speaking musically here.

The impetus for this reflection on being aged was my listening to two new (?) songs this weekend.  I guess new may be relative, but bear in mind my musical tastes are nearly as old as my softball jerseys.

So anyway, my buddy Craig in Canada sent a link to a song in the comments in response to my cosmetic surgery for vagina’s post.  Give it a listen.

Craig, I stand corrected.  I guess some guys do call it that.  “what do I really want in a girl? me.”  Classic.

I also came across a music video at the Althouse blog that was somewhat reminiscent of my MTV watching days in the big hair 80s.  For the production values alone, this video is worth the watch.

Bad romance indeed.  Well, I’m not about to criticize today’s modern music.  That would make me sound like an old geezer or something…

No kidding, I couldn’t make up stuff like this.

Global warming (now known as climate change since the Earth has not in fact warmed for the past ten years or so) is fast becoming the new religion of its zealous adherents.  Woe be to anyone with the audacity to question the tenets of the faith of those who believe in the coming apocalypse.

The One has made it clear that, just as Fox News isn’t legitimate news, anyone who disputes the scientific “consensus” of global warming is not a “real” scientist.  And they will be dealt with accordingly:

Last month, President Obama gave a somewhat chilling, if somewhat ignored, speech on climate change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He stated that any scientific debate about the magnitude of global warming is unscrupulous, decrying “those who . . . make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary.”

Then, the president talked tough, saying, “We’ll just have to deal with those people,” language familiar to anyone who knows the vagaries of Chicago politics.

The time for debate is over, so sayeth the Messiah.  There can be no dissent.  Unbelievers are heretics, and well, with this unusually cold weather, what better time to re-institute the fine tradition of burning at the stake?

We have not seen this kind of deviation from scientific orthodoxy since the days of Galileo Galilei.  You remember him, don’t you?  The fool actually believed that the Earth revolved around the Sun!  The powers that be dealt with him harshly for ignoring conventional wisdom, and we should learn from that lesson as well.  Arrest them! Burn them!  We will not tolerate naysayers!

Although an argument can be made that the Sun does revolve around the Earth.  Just sayin’.

UPDATE: Global Warming Strikes Korea

Photo from ROKDrop.

In the blogging community the only “lifeform” lower than a troll is the infamous sockpuppet.  For those unfamiliar with the term, Wiki defines it this way:

A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception within an online community. In its earliest usage, a sockpuppet was a false identity through which a member of an Internet community speaks with or about himself or herself, pretending to be a different person,^[1] like a ventriloquist manipulating a hand puppet.

There are many real world examples of people caught engaging in sockpuppetry to the detriment of their professional careers.

I welcome any and all comments and points of view.  I expect people to be respectful of each other and I trust anyone commenting here is more than capable of defending themselves and their opinions.

I will not tolerate sockpuppets at LTG.  I sign my name to what I write here, because I decided from day one that if I was not willing to stand behind my words, my words were meaningless.  I respect the fact that some folks use pseudonyms as a matter of comfort or necessity, and that is fine.

But creating a sockpuppet identity to support your own arguments or to personally attack another commenter is in my opinion a chickenshit thing to do.

So it stops now.

Un F—ing believable!

Polanski in his own words:

“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!”

I need to go take a shower.

And I think this is a workout program I could sink my teeth into… (link not safe for work!)

Hat Tip: ROKDrop

I am really enjoying the thoughtful comments y’all have posting on the healthcare debate.  Both sides on this issue are making some valid points, and really that is what I’d like to see on the national level.  I certainly do not agree with Pelosi and the White House that the protesters constitute an angry un-American mob, but I don’t support tactics intended to drown out legitimate debate either.

You may have noticed that your comments sometimes don’t immediately appear.  For some reason, certain comments get captured in my moderation queue.  I try and check everyday and will release them for posting when I find them.  I do not edit, censor, delete, or otherwise modify any comment.  So have at it!

Speaking of commenters, where have you been Dennis?