Monday, July 21, 2008
0 commentsSunday, July 20, 2008
0 commentsReal men of genius
One of Bud Light’s funniest ad campaigns to date, the Real Men of Genius commercials made a somewhat smooth transition from radio to television. ‘Somewhat’ in the sense that our imaginations will always be funnier that what is visually spoon fed to us, and mostly because the singer from the ads is better heard and not seen. The following are 10 of the best Real Men of Genius’ which have been rated based on the following criteria:
1. The levels of sarcasm in Deep Voice Guy’s commentary.
2. The vocal quality and lyrical hilarity provided by the Stephen Tyler wannabe.
3. The value of the service/invention provided by the featured “genius.”
4. The urgency with which some of these genius’ need to get the hint.
While some have not made it to television yet they are still worth listening to.
San Francisco is always classy
Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital, and a state, too. But President George W. Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom.
From the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise, a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water-treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.
The plan - hatched, naturally, in a bar - would place a vote on the November ballot to provide "an appropriate honor for a truly unique president."
Friday, July 18, 2008
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Thursday, July 17, 2008
0 comments 0 commentsWorst Senator ever
While he was a medical school student in the 1970s, Bill Frist (formerly a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee) performed medical experiments on shelter cats while researching the use of drugs on the mitral valve. By his own account, Frist improperly obtained these cats from Boston animal shelters, falsely telling shelter staff he was adopting the cats as pets. In his 1989 book Transplant, Frist admitted that he killed these cats during medical experiments at Harvard Medical School, as part of what he claimed were his studies.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
0 commentsGive Ledger an Oscar if he deserves it, not because he is dead
I was as saddened by the tragic loss of celebrated actor Heath Ledger as much as anybody. The man was truly a genius of his craft, only recently getting the chance to break through being pigeonholed as the teen Hollywood hunk with films like Brokeback Mountain and I’m Not There. Even in his lesser films though, the performances he would deliver always stood out as a pinnacle of the production, oftentimes making mediocre movies that much more enjoyable because of them.
But for fuck’s sake, please stop saying he should get an Oscar for his role in The Dark Knight when the movie isn’t even out yet. This has been a recurring discussion amongst people ever since his death, and now with little over a week left until the movie can actually be viewed by the people making these claims, it feels like it's become necessary to speak out against such ridiculous notions.
It's just a parking space!
Reading police say a man has been charged in the shooting death of a 65-year-old neighbor following a long-running parking dispute.
Police say Herbert Rupp Jr. was shot in his southwest Reading neighborhood shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday. They say he intervened in an argument between 56-year-old Santiago M. Robles and a woman over a storage locker, and an argument began that culminated in the shooting.
Sgt. John Solecki says the Robles, who was taken into custody several hours later, had a long-running dispute with the victim. He says the suspect blamed Rupp for the city's removal of his handicapped parking sign.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
0 commentsSunday, June 29, 2008
0 commentsThe dying art of the knuckleball
In the Red Sox clubhouse a few hours before the start of a drizzly, early-May game against the Rays, Tim Wakefield wraps his hand around a brand-new baseball and models his knuckleball grip. On television, Wakefield's grip appears claw-like and uncomfortable, but up close, it looks effortless: His hand envelopes the ball easily, fingertips lodged just below the seam, ball snug against his palm. It's a grip that has helped him to more than 170 victories and a solid, if sometimes strange, 16-year major-league career.
Since the low-velocity knuckleball is comparatively easy on the arm, Wakefield can pitch on zero days' rest when his team needs him to, and he routinely finishes among the Sox' leaders in innings pitched. He's 41 now, and could easily extend his career another six, seven, even eight years. (After pitching seven scoreless innings in a 5-0 win over Arizona on Wednesday, Wakefield is 5-5 with a 3.88 ERA this season.) Knuckleball legend Hoyt Wilhelm was one week shy of his 50th birthday when he called it quits. Phil Niekro, a.k.a. "Knucksie", pitched till he was 48. Wakefield says he'll pitch as long as he can -- even into his 50s.
"Barring injury or anything like that -- absolutely," he says.
Baby bumps.. the new uggs
After 17 students in one Massachusetts school turned up pregnant this year, Time magazine called it the "Juno Effect." The term referenced the hit comedy Juno, about a high school girl who's unexpectedly expecting. By depicting the sunny, even redemptive side of Juno's plight, the magazine argued, Hollywood had perhaps made motherhood attractive for teens.
It's the kind of conclusion that sometimes draws criticism for being hasty. But Jane Brown, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says the Juno effect is real.
