No Wonder She Didn’t Get The Joke

So my beautiful, athletic, and culinary wife said in the course of the conversation, “Obviously, I can cook.”

To which I reparted, much like William Powell, I thought: “That’s what Comte said.”

And she didn’t get it.

Of course she did not. As I am twenty-some years beyond my intro to Sociology course, I confused Auguste Comte, founder of sociology and positivism, with Cesare Lombroso, founder of anthropological criminology, whose doctrines implied that criminality is inherited and that you can tell a criminal by the way he looks.

Hence, “That’s what Comte said,” makes no sense, but “That’s what Lombroso said,” now that’s quality sociologist humor. Because she said “Obviously, I am a good cook,” as though one could tell by the spacing of her eyes or the curve of her cheeks that she was a good cook.

I mean, it’s not as though she’s Cunégonde because:

  1. She is not ugly.
  2. She does not do pastries very often.

As though cracking jokes about Italian criminologists and French sociologists weren’t enough, I have to go bringing the works of Voltaire into it.

Truly, I have a dizzying sense of humor.

I’m just getting started!

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Dear Internet

All right, so I work at home and don’t interact with people much. Which leads me to talking to the (suddenly six) cats around Nogglestead sometimes, which in this case is a euphemism for “all day long.”

And just moments ago, I accused one of the felines of being a part of the Cat-a-mine Conspiracy.

The cat did not get it. Most people won’t. But this is the Internet, and somebody might.

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Your Internet Conspiracy Theory of the Day

A story from Instapundit yesterday:

SO A FRIEND HAD A WEIRD EXPERIENCE LAST WEEK — her car was struck by lightning on the Interstate. All the electronics were fried, they managed to coast to the side of the road, and then they couldn’t get out because the door locks and windows were frozen.

A story from the television news yesterday:

A motorcyclist riding on Interstate 5 survived a lightning strike Thursday as a tumultuous day of weather saw thunderstorms and rain roll through Washington on both sides of the Cascade Mountains.

Is this a coincidence or is the government testing its lightning drones on American citizens?

I was going to embed a tweet here that was something like this:

“The government is listening to your phone calls, reading your emails, and cracking your encryption.” – a crazy person one year ago

But that tweet has disappeared. Or I can’t find it again. Which is the same thing. (Conspiracy theory style note: italics are important!)

Frankly, I’m only bringing this to your attention because it’s been a little dry around here lately, and my gardens could use the rain that would come with my lightning strike.

UPDATE: Edward Snowden just emailed me this NSA internal video:

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A Plea for Responsible Parenting and Pet Ownership

I live in the country, and I hate this time of year.

Late January.

Parents who have gotten their children hippopotamuses for Christmas start thinking that maybe, maybe they want to park their cars in their garages again or maybe they’re tired of the zoolomasseuse bills, but they start bringing them out in the country and leaving them alongside the highway.

People, hippopotamuses are not native to the Ozarks, and they have not evolved to survive on the local flora.

I just shake my head when I see one lying beside the road, and it makes for dangerous driving if they topple into the roadway.

Freeing the hippopotamus that your child wheedled you into for Christmas is not humane. It is not right. Think before you buy based on one silly little holiday ditty.

Thank you, that is all.

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Emergency Holiday Substitution Hint

Run out of whipped topping before you’ve run out of pumpkin pie? Dill dip makes a convenient and obvious substitute!

In an unrelated rant, what is it with fickle children’s tastes these days? One day they love something and can’t get enough, and the next they’re upset and refuse to eat almost the exact same thing.

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Those Naughty, Naughty Labels

Naughty Avery labels

It’s even funnier to me because I’m on Avery‘s mailing list since I downloaded a Microsoft Word template for one of their shipping label projects back when I was mailing my book around the country.

So I get less risque requests for me to visit that company’s Web site in that email box from time to time.

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Federal Budget Idea

Hey, I have an idea to close the Federal budget deficit:

Let’s steal wi-fi from Canada!

Let’s face it, those Loonie-worshippers don’t have enough people to use all that bandwidth, and the United States is right next door.

I’m pretty sure theirs is the SSID of DonCherryIsGod.

Paul Ryan, you’re welcome to use this.

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Book Report: Heathcliff At Home by Geo Gately (1985)

Book coverSince it’s football season, the collections of newspaper cartoons comes out for me to browse while watching football so I think like I’m doing something worthwhile with my Sunday afternoon and evenings (the split attention between the cartoons and the football explains why I don’t have a lot of brain cycles to dwell on how nothing is actually worthwhile). In 2009, I read Heathcliff Strikes Again. This year, it’s Heathcliff at Home.

Whereas the two previous collections that I read were single panel episodes for the most part (that is, the daily cartoon), this collection is all multi-panel Sunday installments. The book is in black-and-white, though. It collects cartoons from across the years, though, from as far back as the late 1970s. Still, given that it’s a collection of longer strips in the same amount of space, there’s less thematic repitition in the book than you got with the single panel cartoons. Heathcliff goes after Spike a lot in this book, and Sonja does not make an appearance.

The cartoons are amusing enough, comforting somewhat to someone who grew up with them. But if you’re a big fan of Web comics, it probably ain’t your bag, baby.

Books mentioned in this review:

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Who Really Destroyed the Death Star?

George Lucas started messing with the real story of Star Wars even before the whole “Greedo shot first” revision of history and the attempt to market Darth Vader: The Early Years as some sort of heroic epic.

No, Lucas altered the story of Star Wars even before it reached the cinema:

Luke Skywalker did not destroy the Death Star.

Come on, reason it out: Skywalker was a seventeen-year-old moisture farm boy suffering from post-concussion syndrome whose experience piloting a small attack craft was cruising along the surface of Tatooine in a hovercraft and a couple of hours riding on the Millennium Falcon. Lucas wants you to believe he just suited up, hopped into a short range attack fighter, fought dogfights in the three-dimensional and zero gravity environment of space, and blew up an attack station?

Banta crap. You want to know who really blew up the Death Star? Continue reading “Who Really Destroyed the Death Star?”

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High Concept (III)

We’ve got a band geek. She’s on a band trip somewhere. She’s in her hotel room, leaning over her balcony, looking down on the strange city, thinking about the parade tomorrow and not sure she’s going to be able to eat much tonight she’s so nervous. She’s thinking about the parade, and she’s got part of her band uniform draped over her shoulder. Wistful, sexy, with a hint of John Philip Sousa.

Message: Band chicks are hot.
Continue reading “High Concept (III)”

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Niche Work If You Can Get It, And You Can Get It If You Try

Some people want to be the lead singer for a rock band. Others want to write and play the licks and hooks that catch and reel you into the lyrics of the rock anthems. Still others want to play the drums because they like to bang things. But not me.

No, I want to play the careening cars for the band. Continue reading “Niche Work If You Can Get It, And You Can Get It If You Try”

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Book Report: A Children’s Garden of Misinformation harvested by Art Linkletter (1965)

Book coverThis book collects the same sort of thing that Art Linkletter made a living on: children saying or writing funny things. In the 1960s, he made a living pitching these things to our grandparents and great-grandparents. And they must have eaten it up. How wholesome were they? Very.

By now, of course, this sort of thing has been eclipsed, sadly, by some of us making light of the stupid, silly, and uninformed things teenagers and adults say. It was sort of cute when children said it. But a couple episodes of the Tonight Show’s Jaywalking segments, and suddenly it’s not funny any more.

I think the book made me smile once. So why did I read it? Because I finish books I start, mostly, and because it hearkens back to a more innocent time.

Books mentioned in this review:

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