Category: Uncategorized

Been feeling uneasy since 9/11, unsure who America’s true friends are? Well, worry no more — the Principality of Sealand has “communicated directly with the United States of America offering its resources” in the wake of the attacks, along with “its sympathy and concern.” (For those who don’t know, Sealand is an offshore platform built by the Brits in WWII to ward off German air raids. When the UK abandoned it after the war, a man named Roy Bates realized it was in international waters and decided he would occupy it, proclaim himself “Prince Roy,” and declare Sealand an independent, sovereign nation. More info here and here.)
The Sealanders say they can help the anti-terrorist cause because the Sealand Criminal Code “provides for placing any persons suspected of such activities under immediate arrest and detention at the Sovereign’s pleasure.” One hopes the Sovereign doesn’t get too carried away with his pleasure.

People, people — how many times do I have to say it? Let law enforcement do its job. Never take the law into your own hands. Innocent clowns could get hurt. (More details; via the smack.)

Matt and I linked to the same article today. He is hereby jinxed. He may no longer blog until I say his full name; until then, should he blog illegally, I may freely punch him. (Ah, childhood.)
Searching for a couple good jinx linx brought me to a four-square page. Now that is the sport of kings — strategy, cunning, cat-quick reflexes. I’d pay good money to see a professional four-square league. Hell, maybe I could play in such a league: four-square was just about the only successful athletic outlet for a geeky kid like me. I was damned good, I tell you. (Well, I was also quite a star at benchball, an odd sort of volleyball/four-square/tennis hybrid invented one middle-school free period by Josh Caffery and me. Truly a tactical sport, with much more Olympic potential than silly events like synchronized swimming.)
I was disappointed to learn, however, that the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel is not an organization for believers in the sport, like me, but instead for followers of Aimee Semple McPherson. She was one of the first evangelists to learn how to work the media, with stunts like staging her own kidnapping, “faith healing” animals at a Los Angeles zoo, and shilling “Go With Me to the Holy Land!” cruises to the Mediterranean.
Interesting fact about the ICFG: It runs the L.I.F.E. Bible College in San Dimas, Ca., which had heretofor been best known as the setting for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. So they’ve got that going for them. (In case it isn’t clear, San Dimas, not L.I.F.E. Bible College, was the movie’s location. Just to be clear.)

Peter Buck’s air rage trial has hit a snag, as the jury has been dismissed for reasons unknown. (Buck allegedly got drunk after 15 glasses of wine — well, who wouldn’t be? — and disrupted a British Airways flight in April.)
The only reason I’m linking this is because one of the four charges against him is “damaging British Airways crockery.” Is that a capital offense in the U.K.?

So I can’t read a calendar (see below). Is that a reason to vilify me? To attack my family, my good name, my heritage? To call me names like “silly nincompoop,” “cretinous ninny,” or “softheaded simpleton”? If you prick me, do I not bleed? I just (sniffle) don’t know (sob) if I can take (whimper) this abuse (howl) much longer.
Anyway. My photos are back from Japan. Horrible, every last one. All my attempts at “creative” shots for the paper are out of focus. I hope the photo desk can work some magic on them. (And if someone wants to buy me a scanner, perhaps you’ll see some of the horror yourselves in a very special episode of crabwalk.com.)
Still time to lay claim to some free CDs. I plan on bringing whatever’s unclaimed to the happy hour (whatever day it is), so get yer orders in now.
Advice columnist breaks up with husband: couple announces split in chat room. And it somehow all ends up with the happy, charming smugness of, well, a couple who shouldn’t be splitting up.

I fully expect all area bloggers to attend tonight’s tomorrow night’s dfwblogs happy hour at the Meridian Room. And I don’t want to hear that same old “I’m too busy fleeing from the Northern Alliance” excuse. (Okay, I’m a bit calendar-challenged today. Is it too late to claim a jetlag excuse?)

Got a flu shot today, for the first time ever. (I’ve always preferred leaving my health in fate’s hands.) Not so bad an experience. Although the list of the flu strains I’m being protected from (New Caledonia! Guangdong! Johannesburg! Panama!) reads like the itinerary of the world’s worst Grand Tour.

If I was Iraq — and thank heavens I’m not — I don’t think I’d pick now as the time to start launching mortars across the border into Kuwait. (A story that isn’t getting much attention today, thanks to that small matter of another plane crashing in New York.)
Let’s see: ever since 9/11, there’s been a huge debate in the administration over whether or not to make the War Against Terror a War Against Saddam and let Bush fils finish what Bush pere did not. For the moment, the Wolfowitz kill-Iraq wing seems to have lost the debate. If I’m Saddam, I’m on my best behavior right about now. But then again, I’m not a megalomaniacal dictator, so maybe I’m missing something. (Attention ex-girlfriends: it is neither the time nor place to comment on my megalomania.)
Plus, you’ve got to love any wire story with a sentence like this: “[UN spokesman] Bagga said Kuwaiti border police have also complained that 15 minutes before the mortar firing, two Iraqis ‘in khakis’ were spotted firing several rounds from a Kalashnikov in the direction of the Kuwaiti border.” Iraqis in khakis. Is Halloween already over? ‘Cause I’ve got a costume idea.

Death Cab for Cutie was quite good, I thought. Ben Gibbard, the lead singer, was much more, well, kinetic than I thought: on disc, he sounds like this fragile, sensitive soul who writes sad, gorgeous songs, but on stage, he’s a wild man, forever doing that shoulder-jerk dance geeky high school boys do when they’re rockin’ it on the dance floor. They didn’t play one of my favorites, the ultimate breakup song For What Reason, but they hit on just about all the other highlights of their back catalog. And the stuff from the new album sounded great live.
Plus, unlike certain bands I could mention, they took the responsibility of a Sunday night show seriously and were done by 12:30. They also dispensed with the most irritating rock and roll ritual, the lengthy wait for the encore. Twenty seconds of crowd yelping, and they were back out on stage to recreate the odd Bjork cover that comes on the bonus disc of the new CD. I like my bands user-friendly.
Leia and Matt, who came with, were quite tired after a long day of hamster declawing, and unfortunately they had to leave a bit early. Hope they liked ’em. If you missed the show, here’s a good downloadable Death Cab concert from April 2000. (Matt, I assume you’ve already found this page, but if you haven’t, go hog wild — lots of stuff you’d like. And here’s some more DCFC MP3s. Hey, that kinda rhymes.)

A group of us blogish types are going to see the illustrious Death Cab for Cutie tonight at the Gypsy Tea Room. Let me know if you’re interested in meeting up.