No backstory

I just thought I'd post this:



Very cool.

UPDATE: Hahahahaha! Any of you who've been associated with me for any length of time know how much of a kick I get out of this next one. Listen to the whole thing:



Damn, I just learned that Utah died a little less than a year ago. RIP, man. Your politics weren't (and aren't) mine, but you were a great entertainer.

WOO HOO!

Congrats are in order!

Spend them wisely, my young friend.

Quote of the Day

From ABC News, by way of Instapundit, comes absolutely the most mind-numbingly, gob-smackingly, cringe-worthily, head-bangingly, many-other-disparaging-adverbs-ily idiotic line it has been my displeasure to read in months. As "Upper-Income Taxpayers Look for Ways to Sidestep Obama Tax-Hike Plan", some joker at ABC wonders:

VOTE: Is it fair to reduce high salaries to sidestep President Obama's tax proposal? Share your opinion with ABCNews.com.

Here's my opinion, ABCNews.com: Someone on your staff is a drooling imbecile.

Psycho-nutjob-alligator-boy

I may or may not explain the title of this post tomorrow. Goodnight.

UPDATE: The lovely HH asked nicely, so here's the explanation. Our wonderful-but-vaguely-psychotic dog Wily loves to play what we call "alligator". He gets under a comforter or sheet or blanket or towel, or even just inside the pillowcase on his pillow. Then he plays "alligator", opening his mouth to "bite" anything that touches the material near his mouth. He doesn't actually bite, just pretends to. If you touch his butt, he spins around to "bite". He is so freakin' funny and gets the biggest kick out of playing this game. As do we.

Talkin' Baseball

Yeah, the season's coming up. And my mind wandered to baseball songs.

Of course, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" is too easy. Cool, but too easy.

But here is the second greatest baseball tune of the latter half of the 20th century. Check out Fogerty's guitar in this vid:



Another great song (which mentions so many greats from the 50s, especially Willie, Mickey, and the Duke) and the footage in this particular video is SO COOL:



But I have a particular soft spot for a different song. It's the one that was played for the pre-game show and for the post-game show for Dodger (genuflect) games when I was a kid. May still be, though I can't be certain because I live out of the area now and can't listen to the games routinely. But a small bit of searching suggests that this song is linked specifically to my bums Dodgers. Hey, they may be bums, but they're MY bums.

The worst part of this post? JeebusJumpingCripesOnAPogoStick. The best audio version I can find on Youtube is one dedicated (apparently) to the Foul, Satan-worshipping, Pedarastic Hellspawn that are the Foul, Satan-worshipping, Pedarastic Hellspawn. Jeez, that hurts. But here it is. Lyrics after the video:



I'll give them this much, though: the last clip on the vid says "and most importantly, almost everyone is doing better than the Wankees".

Lyrics to the song:

Let's go! Batter up! We're taking the afternoon off!

It's a beautiful day for a ballgame, for a ballgame today
The fans are out to get a ticket or two, from Walla Walla, Washington, to Kalamazoo
It's a beautiful day for a home run, or even a triple's okay
We're gonna cheer and boo and raise a hullabaloo at the ball game today.

Batter up! Strike one! Hey, the game has just begun and the home team's out to win!
There he swings! Strike two! At the pitcher's dipsy-doo, See his fastball pop right in!
This is it! Strike three! The fans are tearing up the chairs, but what the heck who cares?

It's a beautiful day for a ballgame, for a ballgame today
If you and I are out of dollars and cents, oh honey we can always share a little hole in the fence.
It's a beautiful day for the ladies, so throw all your dishes away
We're gonna cheer and boo and raise a hullabaloo at the ball game today.
At the ballgame, a wonderful ballgame today.
[smack!]
Wow!

And to finish off this long post, a great GREAT classic from the immortal Danny Kaye, in Monty-Pythonesque Lego people no less:



And even though it's a paean to the LA Dodgers, Danny gets in a few digs at their owner Walter O'Malley ("What does O'Malley do? Charge!"). Well-deserved digs, of course.

Rock on, Danny. We love you forever. C'mon you Flatbush refugees!

Bloody Mary

I hadn't had one in a while. I realized that last night. So I mixed one tonight. Well, two actually. Very good. And I sipped them whilst searching on baseball songs. Subject of next post.

Meme, Myself, and I

Cullen tagged me with a Facebook meme. Well, I haven't yet untangled the intricacies of Facebook, no time to learn this old dog much in the way of new tricks, so I'll do something here. Be warned: pretty boring.

HOW MUCH HAVE YOU CHANGED IN 15 YEARS?

****15 YEARS AGO (1994)****
1) How old were you? 35
2) Who were you dating Uh, nobody. If you'd asked #13 first, you'd have known not to ask. Dummy.
3) Where did you work? A biotech company in either Mountain View or Fremont, CA (depending on exactly what part of the year you're talking about, in February it was still in MV)
4) Where did you live? East Bay
5) Where did you hang out? Work mostly. Sometimes at home or at the ranch.
6) Did you wear contacts and/or glasses? Glasses
7) Who were your best friends? The Sainted Bride, and my buddy Julie
8) How many tattoos did you have? None.
9) How many piercings did you have? None that were intentional
10) What kind of car did you drive? 1988 Chevy Blazer. There's a slightly not very amusing story behind acquiring it that I might tell someday.
11) Had you been to a real party? Yeah but not for years
12) Had you had your heart broken? Not for about 15 years or so.
13) Were you Single/taken/Married/Divorced? Married with children
14) Any Kids? Two girls

**** 10 years ago 1999
1) How old were you? 40
2) Who were you dating? Uh, still nobody (married, remember?)
3) Where did you work? In February, nowhere. My job at the above company ended in January. Not to worry, I got a pretty damned good severance package. Started where I currently work in August.
4) Where did you live? Same place.
5) Where did you hang out? The local office of these guys
7) Who were your best friends? The Sainted Bride, and my buddy Julie
8) How many tattoos did you have? Still none.
9) How many piercings did you have? Still none intentional.
10 Had your heart broken? Not for about 20 years or so.
11) Were you Single/Taken/Married/Divorced? Still married with children.
12) Any Kids? Same two girls.
13) What kind of car did you have? 1995 Chevy S-10 pickup. There's a slightly amusing story behind acquiring it that I might tell someday.

****TODAY (2009)****
1) Age? 50. Funny how that math works out, yes?
2) Where do you work? A different biotech company in Mountain View.
3) Where do you live? Same place. Like I said, pretty boring.
4) Who are your closest friends? Still the Sainted Bride and my buddy Julie, but with the addition of a boatload of blog friends (you know who you are).
5) Do you talk to your old friends? Depends who you mean. If you mean family friends, yes. If you mean high school and college, not really (with rare exceptions like my buddy Julie)
6 How many piercings do you have? Still none intentional. Dude, if I didn't have one by the time I turned 35, it's not bloody likely I'd have any by 50.
7) How many tattoos? ibid.
8) What kind of car do you have 2001 Subaru Forester. Oddly, this got me disqualified from the "Conservative Hotties" club that Bitter Bitch once put together, on the grounds that only gays and lesbians drive Subarus. I find this to be an unfortunate case of prejudice. I should have been disqualified as a "hottie" for other reasons :(
9) Had your heart been broken? Uh, not for over 30 years. You really haven't been paying attention, have you?
10) How many kids? Interesting that you should have swapped the order of these last two questions. Same two girls (and none others that I know about, hahaha! [slap] Yes, cheap joke. Sorry.
11) Are you Single/Taken/Married/Divorce? Married with children out of the house [does the Snoopy dance]

Like I said, pretty boring and mundane stuff. Think you can do better? Go for it.