Pretzel Logic

Apropos of at least a few things, here is a very funny story from Michael Crichton:


A man goes on vacation and leaves his cat with his best friend. And he’s on vacation and the friend calls him up and says, “Listen. I’ve got some bad news. The cat got up on the roof and we can’t it down. We called the fire department. They came. The cat jumped to a tree. They went up the tree, but anyway, the cat fell, the cat’s dead.”

They guy said, “Oh, my God! How can you tell me in this way?”

He said, “Well, how should I have told you?”

He said, “Well, you have to prepare me. The first day, you should have called and said, listen, the cat’s on the roof and we can’t get her down. Then the second day, you call and you say the fire department’s here and the cat’s jumped to the tree, and the third day, you call me and you say the cat died, and by then, I’m prepared.”

The guy said, “Oh, that’s the way you want it?” He said yes.

He continues his vacation. Gets a call a week later, and his friend says, “Listen, your mother’s on the roof and we can’t get her down.”


The whole Crichton talk is pretty fun.

This week's sign of the Apocalypse

Were people asking him to? Did Rand Paul insinuate that he could? Is a time machine the only way to fix mistakes? Does not having a time machine absolve one from any responsibility for their actions?

People, if that crawl-line is true, why do we even have a government at all?

"I was just so relieved and so happy he didn't write a song about giraffes"!

Lavish links

1. The wonder that is Ron Artest (this is a must read).

2. Edwin Edwards wants a reality show.

3. Barry Eichengreen jumps the shark. He wants the "Marshall plan for Greece" to finance (and I quote) "building new solar and wind power-generating facilities, in order to turn Greece into a major energy exporter."

Hat tips to Tyler C, Keith G, and ironically, Barry E's own Twitter feed.

The old man & the gorilla

What does a 53 year old academic look like after clambering straight up the side of a volcano covered in rain-forest vegetation chasing a family of gorillas?

Well....like this (clik the pik for an even more tired-looking Angus):

photo is courtesy of the de Leeuw family from the Netherlands, who we met and trekked with in Bwindi.

They also sent us this great shot from Ishasha:

Photo of the day

(clic the pic for a more glorious perp walk)

People, who will join me in contributing to a fund to purchase razors and decent neckties for the NYPD??

Come On!!!!

He's Baa-ack

As amazing as this sounds, apparently Baby Doc is back in Haiti!

No word on what he was wearing.

Ziggy Stardust & the Spider from Slazenger?

There is a parody of this going around the interwebs; I can't understand why.

Oh brave new world that has such people in it

"Like, it sounds so old," she told the press before her Las Vegas party. "And then the other half of me is like, I feel so accomplished and it's really no different than 29."

Kimmy Kardashian!!

Ignominy, thy name is Ginepri

Squirrel 1, Robby Ginepri 0 !!

Happy Birthday Dr. Mungo

Yes, my nacho obsessed partner in crime is turning 52 today!

Here's Mungo on Google Scholar.

Here's some birthday advice for the old boy:

Old age, for instance, begins with the self-imposed restriction on forming new body patterns. First, one selects attitudes and postures to fit an assumed dignity and so rejects certain actions, such as sitting on the floor or jumping, which then soon become impossible to perform. The resumption and reintegration of even these simple actions has a marked rejuvenating effect not only on the mechanics of the body but also on the personality as a whole.

I don't know who said this, but my yoga guy e-mailed it to me this morning.

Serendipity now!

USA Bas-ket-ball

Well, thanks to the OKC Thunder duo of Durant & Westbrook, the USA are in the title game of the FIBA World Championships against homestanding Turkey.

I said earlier it would be hard for Team USA to win this with only 4 players contributing, but I guess I might have been wrong. Coach K gave an early hook to the sublimely knuckle-headed Derrick Rose (12 minutes of pt only) giving Westbrook 24 minutes and Andre Iguadala stepped up with great defense to help Durant and Odom who are the mainstays of the team.

Did any of y'all see them Lithuanian point guards zipping around? Neither did Chauncey Billups. Mr. Big shot was 1/8 and unable to stay in front of his man in any way, shape or form.

I just hope Kevin and Russell don't get too full of themselves and get out of what they need to do to help the Thunder improve on last year's performance.