Random Thinking

[ Mood: Amused ]
So Beth and I are watching one of our favorite programs on Court TV.

TV: When the police found the abandoned car, they also found a vital clue pointing to a suspect…

Me: His driver’s license!

TV: His driver’s license.

Beth: How did you know?!

Me: I said the first stupid thing that popped into my head!

And on that note of brilliant criminal masterminds comes today’s random story, “Thief leaves police a vital tip-off”. In this case, the thief left one of his fingers at the crime scene which was, of course, fingerprinted. The fingerprint was found in the database and led to the criminal. So the moral of this story is, don’t leave any fingerprints at a crime scene, especially if they are still attached to your fingers.

[ Mood: Happy ]
Today is Halloween so be sure to take a piece of candy on your way out.

But it is also the birthday of our dear internet friend, Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira, a book title that I will never be able to spell no matter how many times I write it down. In addition to being a published author, Debra is a noted blogtologist.

So happy birthday, Debra!

From Journey Woman by way of Chicken Spaghetti

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next four sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig around for that “cool” or “intellectual” book on your shelves. (I know you were thinking about it.) Just pick up whatever is closest.

Here’s what I found:

“I was trying to warn her,” Artie said weakly.
Artie returned to his table. He drew hypodermics, one after another. His pen pressed harder and harder as he colored in the embalming fluid inside, as he perfected the trajectory of the three drops squirting out.

- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

What did you find?

[ Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Working ]
Blender magazine, published what they consider a list of the 50 worst songs ever. All I have to say is that they don’t have a clue about bad music. The first thing to notice is that the list is heavily weighted with songs from the 80’s and 90’s. But the decade that represents the low point of music, when Top 40 meant prepare to have your ears bleed, is represented by one song and it isn’t even really that bad. That decade is, of course, the 70’s. This was the decade when I was in high school, when car radios only had AM, and when DJs were paid in cocaine to play the worst music ever made!

How can any list claiming to represent bad music not include the horror of a song, Afternoon Delight by the Starland Vocal Band.

I can’t even read the lyrics without getting nauseous. What is truly frightening and should help you to understand how bad 70’s music was (outside of the punk rock scene) is that this song won the Grammy for “Best Arrangement for Voices” in 1976.

As bad as this song is, it has some stiff competition. The group Paper Lace managed to have two equally repulsive songs come out in the same year, 1974! They started with the anti-war song (or perhaps anti-anyone who is forced to listen to this abomination) Billy, Don’t Be A Hero. It featured the classic lyrics:

Not content to let their victims recover from this song, Paper Lace immediately followed it up with The Night Chicago Died, a perplexing salute to gang warfare on the east side of Chicago. Of course, there never was any gang warfare on the east side of Chicago (Capone did his business on the North Side or the Near South Side) but since the writer of the song had never actually been to Chicago we can excuse this faux pas. And besides, why let a little thing like facts get in the way of a perfectly dreadful song.

Glory be indeed! Finally we come the the group Bread. I’m not sure what to say about them other than that the album, “Best of Bread” seemed to be ubiquitous (15 million copies sold). Everyone I know owned this album but no one actually bought it. It seemed to appear to in everyone’s record collection like mold growing in the high school showers. This was the kind of album that parents would buy for their children as punishment for some unholy act.

Bread’s music was the type that sticks to you like a leach, sucking your musical taste from you leaving you a mere shell. Their lyrics left you rubbing your head in wonder as to what they were attempting to say. Bread started their musical fest in 1971 with the release of their enduring song (enduring as in “I am enduring being beaten about the head and neck”), If, which asks the musical question, “if we release a horrible sappy love song will the American public pour money on us,” which the answer was, of course, “yes”.

Inspired by their success, Bread followed this up in 1972 with another equally painful song, Baby, I’m-a Want You (and no that is not a misprint).

Listening to the vocals, the song sounds more like “Baby, I’m a warm shoe” which makes just as much sense as the actual lyrics.

I am running out of adjectives and I’m beginning to have bad songs running through my head (and they are wearing cleats) so I will leave it here. Please feel free to add your favorite worst songs in the comments.

OK, some people take high school sports very seriously and a successful high school career can lead to scholarships, so I wasn’t amazed by this story but then I read this…

Six year olds!!! The guy is pulling a gun because his 6-year old isn’t getting enough playing time?!! Amazing. Anyway, here is a link to the article which includes a picture of dear old dad.

[ Mood: Happy ]
I went to Borders in Stony Brook today and they had Cousin Kevin’s book out where everyone could see it. Last time I was in there it was hidden on the shelf in the “Local Interest” section.

And I got home and there was a book waiting for me from Emeline’s Momma (Barbie). The book is The Lovely Bones which I have wanted to read for awhile. Thanks Barbie!!!

And I found out that someone else bought me a book from my wish list.

[ Mood: Angry ]
It’s a stupid thing to get mad at but I’m mad. We needed new garbage pails and I wanted to get square ones with wheels because they are easier to wheel out to the curb for Michel if I’m not around. So they had a couple at Target with lids that looked like they wouldn’t blow off so I bought them. We fill one of them with garbage and put it at the curb and after the garbage men come and go, the can has not been emptied! Instead they stuck a note on the pail. “Town sanitation law says that the maximum size pail that can be used is 32 gallons.” These pails are 45 gallons. Oh, I am pissed. I bought these pails in this town. How could Target be selling garbage cans that can’t be used. They could at least have put up a sign saying they can’t be used in the Town of Oyster Bay.

So does anyone have an idea what I can do with two 45 gallon garbage pails?

When Julia Wilson was in 8th grade, she was mad at George Bush because of the invasion of Iraq. So she posted a picture of Bush on her MySpace account and scrawled “Kill Bush” across the top of it. In her history class she was told that threats against the president are a federal crime so she removed it. But it was too late. Julia had been placed on a Secret Service checklist. Wednesday, months after the picture was removed, Julia was pulled out of her class and questioned by the Secret Service. They yelled at her and threatened to send her to juvenile hall, leaving her in tears. The Secret Service agents eventually realized that they were dealing with a little girl and told her parents that they would delete her file.

Meanwhile, in Worsley, Greater Manchester, in Great Britian, a 14 year old girl, Codie Scott, was arrested for “suspicion of committing a section five racial public order offence”. Apparently she didn’t want to sit with a group of students that spoke little English because they wouldn’t talk to her. Codie asked the teacher if she could sit with a different group of students because the group was speaking Urdu, a language Codie did not understand. The teacher accused Codie of racism and a week later Codie was arrested. The judge wisely threw out the case. This was the same district that had a 10 year old arrested for referring to another student as a “Paki”.

So is this world we want to live in? A world where 14 year olds can’t be 14 year olds? A world where freedom of speech is tossed aside in the name of protecting presidents and avoiding offending minorities?

[ Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Watching Music on the Alternative (Jane's Addiction) ]
I was nominated for Parent of the Week. I actually didn’t even notice until Michel pointed it out to me. So this week I get to answer all the questions that everyone has been dieing to ask me. And at the end of the week I get to pick the net victim. Should be fun.

The Ambien is starting to kick in so my typing if startingt oto gtte a ;little meesseedd up . So I think i should call it a nught!

[ Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Watching Baseball ]
Sunday was the Romp for Research at Asphalt Green in Manhattan. We were late and I think Mary was getting worried but we made it. It turned out to be a beautiful day and a huge crowd showed up. I think Mary said that there were 400 people and they raised over $100,000 after paying for the Romp!!! The location was perfect. There was a section with picnic tables and then there was another section that was like a big artificial turf soccer field. The whole place was fenced in so that we didn’t have to worry about Mikey escaping and getting into traffic. This was Manhattan after all. There was plenty of food and soda and free t-shirts and goodie bags.

Michel and I received the "2006 Romp for Research Recognition Reward" for our work on the website. The plaque (I have a picture of it to post) is sitting on my dresser because we haven’t figured out where to display it yet. We are thrilled to have been given this award but Mary deserved the award for running this fantastic event!

Beth finally got to meet Mary’s daughter, Libby in person. They have been exchanging emails for awhile but this was the first time they actually got to meet. Libby is a really sweet, petite girl. Even though she is the same age as Beth, Beth towers over her. I have a picture of them together that I will post when I get it on the computer. I think they really liked hanging out together.