Author: Don

Stormy Bacon Monday

No other meat tastes as sweet as candy. None is so richly aromatic. And none so well represents our spirit at a time when we are under assault from violent extremists who are hellbent to limit our freedoms, including the choice of bacon as a breakfast entree.

Yesterday I observed once again that crisp, fragrant bacon early in the morning vastly improves my attitude. (If you ever want to ask me for a favor, serve me bacon first.) I just now learned that tomorrow is “A Day of Bacon,” with an appropriate video every hour.

(Via Dustbury.)

But can you find “meaningful brain activity” in Washington?

In excitement of Sing Like a Pirate and Talk Like Chester A. Arthur Day, it was easy to forget that this is also the week in which the year’s Ig Nobel prizes were announced. A couple of the highlights:

NEUROSCIENCE PRIZE: Craig Bennett, Abigail Baird, Michael Miller, and George Wolford [USA], for demonstrating that brain researchers, by using complicated instruments and simple statistics, can see meaningful brain activity anywhere — even in a dead salmon.

LITERATURE PRIZE: The US Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.

The complete list is here.

Cultural notes

Helen Rittelmeyer:

The Yale English department is a good example. In the directory for tenured and tenure-track faculty, “Marxist literary theory” is listed by five professors among their fields of interest, “gender and sexuality” by nine, and “colonial and postcolonial” by 11, or a quarter of the 44 professors. In the graduate student directory, however, the numbers for those subjects are one, three, and a fat goose egg. That’s quite a statistical drop-off, considering that grad students outnumber professors nearly two to one. The topics favored instead by these future scholars are Romanticism (six), Victorian literature (five), Milton (seven), and, oddly enough, religious literature (also seven). Honorable mentions include “Biblical exegesis,” “conversion narratives,” and “Middle English devotional, visionary, and anchoritic writing”— they’re not just reading the Bible, they’re reading monks.

Professor Mondo:

I can’t get on Facebook without seeing people mocking various religions. However, the adherents of these faiths aren’t rioting, burning, or killing anyone — nor would they be tolerated if they did. However, the message we’re sending is that rioting works. The Islamists riot, and our government (and its media waterbearers) cheerfully throw the speakers who give offense under the bus. Apparently, the Mormons aren’t smashing enough windows or setting enough fires.

And Robbo.

Fish music

Roger Netherton, a young friend of mine, placed second this year in the old-time fiddle contest at Winfield Friday. He celebrated by heading over to Carp Camp, where he led the assembled eccentrics in a couple of tunes. Here’s the first. It starts off with Roger alone.

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/Carp1-2012.mp3]

There are more pictures of carp people below the fold.

Continue reading “Fish music”

Let’s sing

Old Jehovah had a farm,
Ee-I-ee-I-O,
And on this farm there was a snake,
Ee-I-ee-I-O!
With a hiss hiss here and a hiss hiss there,
Here a hiss, there a hiss, everywhere a hiss hiss,
Old Jehovah had a farm,
Ee-I-ee-I-O!

(Via Jane.)

*****

Here’s what was wrong with Moyashimon Returns: it didn’t stink. There was no kiviak, no hongeohoe, no surströmming, nothing pungent at all, not even cheese, just bland grape juice.

*****

I’m off to Winfield. See you all next week.

What’s so funny?

“Research” has determined the ten funniest movies of all time. Meh. There are a few minor omissions, such as anything from the Marx Brothers, Laurel & Hardy, Ealing Studios, Mel Brooks or Woody Allen, or movies such as Local Hero or The Wrong Box. Most films on the list I have no desire whatsoever to see.

I’m not that much of a moviegoer, so I can’t authoritatively list the true ten funniest movies ever made. Instead, I present some of my favorite comic movie scenes, only one of which is from a listed movie.

Continue reading “What’s so funny?”

Back to school Hell

Excel began her saga by getting hit by a truck. If the Great Will of the Macrocosm had not intervened, her story might have been something like Hells. Here are some screen captures from the first third of the movie. (It will probably be a week or two before I watch the rest of it. Right now, I’m getting ready for Winfield.)

Continue reading “Back to school Hell”