QUILMES BEER...A POOR CHOICE OF NAME?

On my 365 Bottles Of Beer Calendar for today, the selection named above. Now, this beer is brewed in Quilmes Argentina. And I haven't tried it either...yet. But the story behind the beer is that the beer & town are both named after the Kilmes Indian tribe.

Now, it would seem to me that any tribe calling themselves 'kill-me' is just asking for trouble. "Hi- we're the kil-mes" "Oh,okay, if you insist."

Needless to say, the Kilmes Indians are extinct...

WAL-MART;YOUR FRIENDLY 'DRUG'STORE

Wal-Mart is in a battle to secure the trademark for the smiley face used in commercials, print and in-store. Frenchman Franklin Loufrani has been securing the smiley face trademark around the world since the 70s and has earned millions in licensing fees for the smiley since then. Wal-Mart officials say the company didn't plan on registering the trademark until Loufrani threatened to do so first.

And, as you may know, the smiley face was a great pot smoker's symbol in the 70s, and a Ecstasy rave-scene logo in the late 80s.
So now the 'all-American wholesomeness' store wants to trademark the drug logo?

Yeah, maybe they can get marijuana legalized and sell it in the store; then they can trademark the logo on the pot packaging...

DUANE ROLAND:R.I.P.

Don't know how many of you out there are/were fans of the great southern band Molly Hatchet, but Duane, one of the founding members(lead guitar), passed away last Monday. He was the last remaining original member of the band when he sold the name (to one of the second generation guitarists) in 1990. He apparently died of natural causes at age 53 (my age!What the hell's natural at 53!).
I just saw him in May of this year in a band called Gator Country, which consists of ex-members of Molly Hatchet. Great show, glad I got to see him before he passed away; sorry I won't get to see him again.

OH THOSE CRAZY JAPANESE

Mitsugora Bando VIII, a famous Japanese Kabuki actor and “Living National Treasure,” died in 1975 from eating fish.

Mitsugora Bando VIII had a weakness for chiri — a gourmet dish made of toxic blowfish fillets stewed with blowfish livers, skin, and intestines. After consuming his fourth bowl of the delicacy, which imparts a definite “high,” at a Kyoto restaurant, the famed Kabuki actor abruptly died. Every year, the Japanese consume 20,000 tons of blowfish, paying as much as $500 at special restaurants—despite knowing that 70-100 people die each year from eating it.

...And yet, these are the same people who banned U.S.beef because they were worried about 'mad cow' disease!! So what is that all about; eating the beef isn't dangerous enough for them?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN BROWN

Born on this date in 1964, according to the DaVinci Code 2006 one page per day calendar. So happy birthday Dan.

So, while we're on the subject, my daughter Crystal (hola!)took me to see DaVinci Code the movie for Father's Day. Thanks Crystal. The movie was quite good, certainly better than expected from all the bitching I've heard about it. Even Phyl liked it, and she didn't want to see it at all. I thought it held quite close to the book (for a movie) and was probably one of the better adaptations I've seen...usually they suck big time! The French chick was very good, Tom Hanks was ok, Ian McKellen was very good; I even forgot he was a bad guy. Alfred Molina was ok, but kept waiting for his octopus arms to show up, so that may have been a bad casting move!

And the walking on water bit at the end...well I guess it's supposed to remind you not to take the movie as gospel truth(pun intended)...

U.S. LEGO FACTORY TO CLOSE

Saw in the paper that the Lego company is closing their U.S. manufacturing plant
due to a downward trend of sales.

So, obviously, they'll be able to dismantle the building into tiny little bricks that they can sell at flea markets for $5 a bucket...
but what are they going to do with the little plastic people who will now be out of work???

DON'T YOU WISH YOU HAD ONE?

Mar 13, 2006 - A woman in Norway was startled this past weekend when she drew water to wash dishes and beer came out of the taps. Given that beer in Norway is quite expensive, costing about $7.50 for comparable to a 12-ounce bottle in bars, she might have felt immediately rich - except when she tasted the beer it was a bit odd and not at all carbonated.

"I turned on the tap to clean some knives and forks and beer came out," Haldis Gundersen of Kristiansund told Reuters news service. "We thought we were in heaven."


It turned out that a worker in a bar two floors below had mixed up the pipes, wrongly connecting a new barrel to a water pipe leading to Gundersen's flat. The bar got water in its beer taps.

So next time you go apartment hunting try to find one above a bar; maybe you'll get lucky too!

THIS DAY IN HISTORY...AND A STORY

In 2004, Connecticut Gov. John Rowland resigned as he faced possible impeachment charges in a scandal involving state contractors.

Interestingly enough, my wife actually knew this guy when he was first starting out in politics. Back in the early 80s when he was a State Representative, Phyllis was in charge of the children's garden at the Ansonia Nature Center. When they were having their Harvest Festival in the fall, he donated Kool-Aid for the festival.

And he didn't even ask for a kickback...

THIS DAY IN HISTORY...

On June 19th, 1870, the Confederate States of America were dissolved.

Unless, of course, you live south of the Mason-Dixon line, where the battle continues. And the South shall rise again!

And speaking of the 3 Stooges, happy birthday Moe Howard.
If you were alive you'd be 109 today, but you're not...

EDIBLE FRUIT...OR ZOMBIE EYES??

Lychee nuts, as shown above, look like a nice safe, if somewhat spiny fruit.
Of course, it's not really a nut, and the seed inside, that looks like a nut, is actually poisonous. And if you notice the picture below, once you peel of the outside, what you're left with is a slimy looking milky white round piece. Now tell me, does that look like edible fruit, or does it belong in the eyeballs of
those great o0ld 40s & 50s zombie movies?? And when you pop the eyeball, inside is the poisonous nut...



So you tell me, would you rather eat it or use it as a movie special effect...

APROPOS TO NOTHING...A STORY

Apropos to nothing,that reminds me of a story. A few years back Robert Plant was rehearsing for one of his solo tours here in Lakeland Florida. My wife & I went down hoping to get him to sign a Zep album and a Now & Zen cassette. Their were maybe a dozen of us fans there waiting patiently in murky weather. We chatted with the band when they came out for a smoke. Well, finally the rehearsal ended, but no sign of Robert. About 45min later, it finally started to drizzle, but still we waited. He finally came out, ran right past us to the limo (as his minder told us (only 4 people left now) "certainly he can't stop here in the rain") and off he drove without so much as eye contact or a hullo there. Ungrateful bastard.
But conversely Arlo Guthrie will hang around after a show until everyone gets a picture and/or autograph; as will Mark Farner of Grand Funk.

LAST 6 BOOKS READ

1)Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler: More Dirk Pitt adventures; this one with WWI biplanes, Nazis, & cocaine, all in a lovely ocean/island setting.

2)Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen: Interesting one about an obit writer, a dead rock star, and a unreleased record album. Slut Puppies indeed!

3)The Second City by Donna McCrohan: A look at the history of the Second City Theater, which spawned SCTV and countless comics from Alan Alda to Fred Willard (going to have to do apost on that, one of these days), and dozens inbetween. Yeah, even Homer Simpson (Dan Castellanata).

4)Queen Victoria by Cecil Woodham-Smith: Well, this was a long arduous book! While interesting, the author was far too detailed about peripheral events that affected Q.V.'s life. And the book only covered from her birth to the death of Albert,the Prince Consort!

5)Deception Point by Dan Brown: Still not as good as A&D or D.C., but better than the last one (about the computer). This one had icebergs, meteorites, alien life-forms, Nasa, the President, and murder most foul...

6) Lightning by Dean Koontz: Really liked this one, got into some really weird shit. Time-traveling Nazis, death/not death, actually quite a bit of lightning, and a happy ending. What more could you possibly ask for?

STEWART COPELAND SUES DOORS

Manzarek and Krieger said they had been taken aback when Copeland took the matter to court.

"It was like, 'Listen, man, you're a great guy, but this is just not working out, so thanks a lot, and let's part friends,'" said Manzarek. "And he said, 'Okay,' and then a week later, 'I'm suing you.'

'Oh. All right. Well, let's not part friends, then.'"


Hahaha...well put Ray!!!

'LIGHTNING BY' DEAN KOONTZ - ERROR

Oddly enough, on page 180 of the original hardcover edition of this book, which is a fine book, by the way, there's an error that's hard to miss.
While talking of the heroine's son, Chris, things that scared him were mentioned.
These things include the lightning in Dr Frankenstein's lab in the original movie, lightning that scared Donald Duck, and the stormy night in 101 Dalmations during which Drusilla DeVille threatened the puppies.
Drusilla Deville...what happened to Cruella?? Is Drusilla her evil(er) twin??
Beats me, but there it is...

ON THIS DATE...PART-2

In 1944, the first German V-1 "buzz bomb" hit London.

Which is less a random thought than you might think. My Mom is English, and actually grew up in the Ealing district of London up until she married my Dad, who was in the Canadian Air Force, attached to the R.A.F. Legend has it they met in an underground (subway) station during an air raid. Anyway, previous to that, my Mom was actually hit in the leg by shrapnel from a buzz bomb that exploded in her neighborhood. When I was growing up, I remember being able to see the scar on the back of her leg - not large, but still visible.

ON THIS DATE...PART-1

In 1991, revising a policy with roots to the McCarthy era, the Bush administration agreed to remove almost all 250,000 names from a secret list of unacceptable aliens.

Including Mork from Ork...but not including Alf...

CHEESY MOVIE...MADE IN FLORIDA

So I was flipping through the channels yesterday, and caught the last half of a Viking movie (The Norseman) on one of the Flix channels. Now, I always have to watch Viking movies, sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not - but just gotta watch `em anyway.
This one was particularly cheesy, 1978 & starring Lee(6 Million Dollar Man)Majors!
Yeah, HE sure makes a great Viking! So the cheesy Vikings were fighting cheesy Indians, and eventually win, more or less.
So, watching the credits at the end, it turns out the movie was filmed at Hillsborough State Park (probably Hills.River State Park),Plant City, and New Port Richey - called Newport Richie in the credits...
Getting the name wrong...now that's cheesy...

STUPID COMMERCIAL

Watching the news this morning, and a commercial for a local Ford dealer comes on.
Now, of course, he wants you to buy his cars, rather than anyone elses, and that's to be expected.
BUT...
...And this is the part that's really stupid; his sales pitch goes:
"Buy a Ford,save a job. Make our economy strong, not theirs"

Now what the hell is that supposed to mean - we're supposed to buy American cars just because they're American? If the Japanese cars had never been sold here, would the American car makers ever improved their gas mileage? I think not, since they never made an effort at it before Toyota,Honda,et.al. showed up.

So let's try to sell cars on their merit, ok, not by pandering to patriotic bullshit.

IMPRESSIVE

Watching the Stanley Cup finals tonight, Edmonton (yay) vs Carolina (boo).
The part that really struck me; they're playing in Edmonton tonight, and of course
they do the 2 national anthems. So this Canadian guy sings the 'Star Spangled
Banner' and then he sings 'O Canada'. Well, the Canadians sing along, they actually
know the words to their anthem and really sing it out!
In fact. the actual singer stops singing into the microphone and just holds it over his head as the crowd of 16,000 sings. They actually sing without following the singer!
And they sang loud, I've never heard an American crowd sing as loud to our
national anthem anywhere,anytime...
Absolutely fucking incredible...if only because of that, the Edmonton Oilers deserve to
win the Stanley Cup...
...since the Lightning obviously aren't...

ENGLISH SPOKEN HERE (MAYBE)

There's an article in today's paper about a cheesesteak place
in Philadelphia that now has a sign up stating that orders must
be placed only in English. Now, I think that it's actually a good
idea for any people living in the States to actually learn to
speak English well enought to communicate...but...being that
this restaurant is in the heavily Italian district of Philadelphia...and
we've all watched those Italian gangster movies...

Isn't that like the kettle calling the pot black??

I mean, are they actually speaking English, goombah?

[Possible SPAM] Spam Quarantine Report for -----------@-----.com

----- Original Message -----

From: ucereport@mxlogic.com

To: ---------@------.com

Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 8:17 AM

Subject: [Possible SPAM] Spam Quarantine Report
for ---------@-----.com

 

Just had to post this...the Spam Blocker at work is actually listing

it's own report as 'possible spam'. Now isn't

that just too silly??

Ahhh...the wonders of modern technology...

RIP: BILLY PRESTON

Damn, but they're dropping like flies. Billy died Tuesday in Scottsdale Az after lingering in a coma since last Nov. Saw him play with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, and he was always

full of energy. And now he's gone at 59...another minor icon from my youth.

DEAF LEOPARD???

Tom Leppard, who holds the title "Most Tattooed Man" in the Guinness Book of World Records, was tattooed with a leopard pattern.
Hopefully, if he's not already, perhaps he'll become deaf...
And move to Sheffield...

RIP: VINCE WELNICK

Today's paper nice obit for Vince Welnick; once keyboard player for The Tubes, later post 1990 keyboard player for the Grateful Dead. Another musician who was never well known, but contributed to the sound of both bands.
I'm sure he'll be missed by those who've played with him, and remembered by me when I listen to my old Tubes music...

A GOOD DAY TO DIE??

Well, no day is really a good day to die...but...if you were to die today, look at the company you'd be in:
Ronald Reagan in 2004
Dee Dee Ramone in 2002
Mel Torme in 1999
Vito Scotti in 1996 (and if you'd seen almost any TV series in the 60s, you'd know him at once.
Conway Twitty in 1993

AMUSING VIDEO BOO-BOO

Was watching VH1-C last night, they had a block of Squueze videos playing. While watching the video for 'Black Coffee In Bed', there was a quick little boo-boo.
In the early part of the song, there's a bit where you just see the drummer; just as the camera cuts away from the drummer you can see the right drumstick go flying out of the drummer's hand and shoot off to the right. Pretty funny, had to rewind the DVR and watch it a couple of other times. He really wasn't drumming that hard, actually he was probably miming to the song, so maybe he wasn't really holding on that tight.
But it sure was funny!

DREAD ZEPPELIN: UN-LED-ED

Now here's a band that deserves to be better known, if only for the above pictured album. This is probably the most serious parody band that I've heard; at least until they turned into a parody of themselves. But they started out with this great album of Led Zeppelin songs done by a reggae band fronted by (Tort)Elvis. And the second album, with a a parody cover of L.Z.4 titled '5,000,000' had a few good songs also, but the end was already in sight...

But, if you find this in the used cd bin at your favorite music store - buy it!

No, really, I mean right now, you know you have nothing better to do since you're reading this, so go on, be off with you...