Here in New York City, my border collies are a freak magnet so I wasn't surprised today when a disheveled guy came up to us on this morning's walk.

He asked me, "Are those borderline collies?"

When I got my new laptop last month, I decided to go with IE7/8.  I was still smarting over the crap when a windows update opened a security hole in Firefox which downloaded spyware on to my old computer.

I'm back to using Firefox.  How long did IE last?  38 days.

( what was the message? )

I did no such thing!

I never get tired of that joke.

death of car
Originally uploaded by eriador42.

Last Thursday, my car died. I knew it was gonna' happen. The car was 17 years old. Still it was a surprise when it happened: a big cloud of blue smoke, smoke in the car itself, I could hear pieces of the engine falling out onto the ground.

I placed an ad on craigslist and some kid (18) came by and bought it. He plans to fix it and I'm glad I sold it to someone who plans to do that instead of having a junk yard come by to scrap it for parts.

Location of death: Citifield.



We decided not to replace the car.  It's a hassle in NYC.  Expensive to insure and park ($200/year at work & $125/mo at home).  Our garage was a block away down a very long and narrow alley with a 90-degree turn at the end.  Even if we found a space on the street, there was still the issue of alternate side of the street parking.  So I'm a subway commuter now.



My college's new walkway from the subway to campus.

My wife is the most un-goth person I know.  When we saw someone wearing Transmuters boots she whispered to me, "I thought they had shots for polio now."

So imagine my surprise when she bought herself ( this. )

Thank god the DC conference trip is over! I'll download pictures later tonight or tomorrow.

In the meantime,





take the WHAT BAD BOOK ARE YOU test.


and go to mewing.net. not as good as reading a good book, but way better than a bad one.

On May 2, 1959, Earlham held its traditional May Day festival. This celebration of old English culture included a May pole, old English songs and dances, and an old-fashioned breakfast in the dining hall.

Hogi Hansen (’59) and Sara Delo (’59) were crowned Robin Hood and Queen of the May. The Mask and Mantle drama group performed the play Pyramus and Thisbe on the Heart, and the Glen Miller Orchestra, led by Tex Beneke, played for the evening's dance.

May Day was celebrated annually at the College from 1875 until 1993.
May in Earlham History | Earlham College Pressroom


Also, you gotta' read this
Podcast Extra - From the Earlham Digital Archives | Earlham College Pressroom

The New York Connecting Railroad (which is elevated) is 100 feet from my apartment.  No problem normally, except in the last few days the Acela trains blow their horns as they com up to my street. 

a ... "wretched hive of scum and villainy."

Mos Eisley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RE: http://moronqueen.livejournal.com/517700.html

In college I worked in our college's radio station. I did the news on Saturday nights. We'd go in about 1/2 hour before the show and pull news from the UPI wire. I swear, since it was Saturday, nobody at UPI was paying attention or someone thought that they could slip a joke in.

"A gas pipeline in Vincennes exploded today when two guys on a backhoe accidentally ripped it open."

Two guys?

"An explosion in a Fort Wayne high school chemistry class injured a student who was rushed into emergency optomological surgery. No other pupils were injured."

We both cracked up -- on the air -- at the last one.



* Since our frequency was 91.5 someone came up with this slogan. We never used it.

Thank you, Abraham Lincoln!

I have Thursday off; it's Lincoln's birthday.

Also, since that would throw off the academic calendar (somehow) we had Thursday's classes today (which is rather Monty Python-sque). 

So, I didn't have my 3 hour class tonight!

My wife says that my new glasses look like Lewis Black's


I'll have to work on the fingers.

( grateful guy )

Jackson Heights for Indian food. 

Dinner tonight at Igloo.

Re-reading (for the third time)

 Or ... Greek and Swedish pictures.

When I read my wife this news story -- about Bill Murray getting divorced -- and got to the line that said Murray physically abused his wife, Barbara said, "Did he give her noogies?"