Month: October 2003

Although Halloween isn’t necessarily the only time to learn more about Edgar Allan Poe, some of his more macabre stories do lend themselves to this time of year. Knowing Poe is a very thorough site that explores the “literature, life and times of Edgar Allen Poe…in Baltimore and beyond.” Among the many features on the site, there is a very nice annotated version of Poe’s famous poem The Raven.

TV game show mainstay Rod Roddy died yesterday from cancer at the age of 66. Best known for being The Price Is Right’s jovial, flashy-dressing announcer for almost 20 years, his trademark line “Come on down!” will always ring in my memory.

As I sort of mentioned just the other day, I hate the fact that this site looks like an obituary page recently. However, we’ve lost some personalities that really left an impression on me in some way, so I felt it was only fitting to honor their memories with a small tribute here. Maybe I need to seek out and post some good news to cheer myself up…

I still wish the Red Sox-Cubs match-up in the World Series had come to fruition, but that was obviously not to be. And just for the record, although I don’t really like the Marlins or the Yankees, I’m glad the Yankees didn’t win again. Anyway, I came upon this site that manages to find some humor in the perennial downtrodden Cubs with its version of (de)motivational posters featuring the Cubs.

Ever wonder how pencils are made? Wonder no longer…

One of my favorite characters from The Muppets was The Swedish Chef, so I was very happy when I came upon this tribute site to The Swedish Chef. It includes pictures, sounds, and movies (!), as well as the “World Famous ENCHEFENIZER” that will translate phrases into his trademark dialect. Very fun…

Fred Berry, best known as “Rerun” from the TV sitcom What’s Happening!!, died yesterday at the age of 52 due to natural causes, according to the AP. Although What’s Happening!! and it’s spinoff/sequel What’s Happening Now! are some of the cheesiest shows ever, I can still laugh at the hijinks of Rerun, Raj, Dwayne, Shirley, Dee, and Mama. And of course, I remember Rerun’s trademark dance, which was spoofed very recently in an episode of Scrubs in which Berry himself appeared.

I’m getting a little depressed at the recent untimely deaths of some of the personalities I remember fondly from childhood. John Ritter’s sudden loss in particular still gets to me, but this is really sad as well…

As much as I hate to admit it, it’s hard to disagree with MSNBC’s assertion that the NHL “isn’t popular enough to be on par with the other three major leagues.” However, the article does offer up a good list of 10 ways to help hockey return to “the fast-paced, highly-skilled, physically-demanding sport that is used to be.” Although many disagree, my favorite suggestion is to resolve regular-season tie games with shootouts after a scoreless overtime period. It would definitely add to the excitement of the game, and as the article points out would help keep attendance up if fans “knew there was a chance they were going to see Mario Lemieux and Dominik Hasek going one-on-one,” for example. Barring that, play overtime periods until someone wins outright, like in the playoff games. I think that rewarding teams with one point for a loss in overtime is total bullshit; play until someone wins, and then that team earns its points.

The other suggestions were a mixed bag, but in the end, I think that the last one might be the best one:

Stop playing Russian Roulette with the rules and regulations of hockey. The solution isn’t all that complicated. Enforce the laws already in place to the letter and that will take care of most of what ails the game today.

Amen. Finally, make sure and visit the Fark forum on this story to see some great suggestions for an eleventh item.

The “second annual exuberantly non-scientific Weasel Poll results” are in at Dilbert.com. It looks like I voted for the “winner” in all of the categories… :-p

The Boston Globe reports that although former president Bush “made his disagreements known to his son, they clearly have not found fertile soil in this White House.” These disagreements mostly seem to center around W’s foreign policies, specifically his “obsessive, proposed ‘theories’ of unilateralism… and preemption,” in stark contrast to his father’s “nuanced,” “gentlemanly” policies of “moderate and intelligent internationalism.” Granted, things have changed since Bush Sr.’s reign, but his “impetuously uninformed son” seems bent on burning all of America’s bridges in the international community, “counter[ing], or even [wiping] out, his father’s entire political legacy.”

So how does Bush Sr. convey his displeasure? “Pugnaciously anti-Iraq war Democrat” Senator Ted Kennedy has been awarded the 2003 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service, causing “so many jaws [to drop] all over Washington that usually voluble politicians were only heard swallowing their real thoughts.” I can’t believe this hasn’t been more publicized, because I can’t think of a harsher slap in the face to W than this. As the article points out, it should be pretty interesting to hear the formal presentation and its associated speeches on November 7th…

Can you tell the difference between quotes made by W and Ralph Wiggum of The Simpsons? OK, it wasn’t all that hard, especially for a fanatical devotee of The Simpsons such as myself. Still, I’m continually surprised at the idiocy spewed by W sometimes…