George Aar

There was a "W.O.W." sticker in the movie "Ordinary People" (an awful movie BTW). It was one of those round, orange ones with a sort of smiley face on it. The character's mouth is formed from the letters "W.O.W." For some reason the sticker didn't meet with VPW's approval and he ended up just giving them out to all the kids in "W.O.W. training" one year. Anyway, there's a scene in the movie where the parents are going through their son's stuff in his bedroom after he's committed suicide and the sticker is on the wall with a bunch of other posters and whatnot as the camera pans by. Yeah, I knew you'd all be impressed...

74,000 miles in 7 years? ! Damn, I put more miles than that on my lawnmower.

The only new car I ever bought? A 1974 Chevrolet Vega. Yes, I do wish you better...

Socks, you met Tom Waits?! Wow! It doesn't get any better than that. "And the bouncer is a Sumo wrestler, With the I.Q. of a fencepost. And you cannot find the waitress with a Gieger counter And the carpet needs a haircut And the piano has been drinking, Not me." One of our unsung (or only partially sung) heros, fer sure... I used to live next door to Linda Ronstadt. Oh, yeah, I once made the climb from the "Phantom Ranch" to the rim of the Grand Canyon in 4 hours. I'm still out of breath...

I'd go for a good probate attorney. He could divy up whatever they have left to some deserving folks. You know, maybe a middle-aged, balding remodeling contractor who needs a long vacation in Nepal. Somebody who needs to spend a little time trekking in the Himalayas before he's too old and creaky to do it anymore...

Raf, Re: "Now THAT musical should be made into a movie." Wasn't the Musical made from the Movie? ("The Scarlet Pimpernel" with Leslie Howard in the lead).

Hey Frankee! I just gotta weigh in on the pineapple thingy. I like pizza with Canadian bacon and pineapple on it. Call it whatever you want Raf, it was a pizza dough when they put the toppings on it. What I don't get is the inordinate praise lavished on "New York" pizza. I had pizza a several joints in Manhattan, feh, it was dough with glop on it. Maybe I'm not one to judge, I seldom eat the stuff anyhow. I got my fill years ago. And bagels were another thing. I've heard for years about how wonderful they were in New York. Nowhere else even came close. We're talking about dough, people. It's boiled and then baked, but it's just a glob of dough. They don't taste any different in New York. Sorry...

Dave, I was at that meeting. You couldn't have given me a nudge and clued me in? No, I had to go on staff to figure it out. Oh, well, C**** Gr****ch set up the meeting and he's still in. The lights just never seem to come on for some of us...

I always love the way Mr. Bell challenges his guests. Guest - "The Venusians are - as we speak - gathering their armada together and mounting their assault on Earth." Bell - "Yes! I've heard about that!" "Just amazing!" When he should be giving out recommendations for a good therapist, instead he encourages the poor, demented geeks - all the while making his living doing so. Unethical doesn't begin to say it...

I've been almost tempted to actually watch this. The only reason I'm reluctant is my severe case of Carreyophobia. The guy just makes my skin crawl. I mean a serious mental aversion. Will viewing it aggravate my delicate state?

You can scoff at the wisdom of the immutable laws of God if you like, but I, for one have always honored His will by observing Ex. 23:19, "Thou shalt not boil a kid in his mother's milk" To this day I've never committed that transgression. So there...

Here's a quote from Richard Dawkins from the U.K. Guardian newspaper: "Not only does science know why the tsunami happened, it can give precious hours of warning. If a small fraction of the tax breaks handed out to churches, mosques and synagogues had been diverted into an early warning system, tens of thousands of people, now dead, would have been moved to safety. Let's get up off our knees, stop cringing before bogeymen and virtual fathers, face reality, and help science to do something constructive about human suffering." I know that's not the majority viewpoint around these parts, but I gotta say, I agree with him wholeheartedly.

The dog seems to be really enjoying it too. I mean, he looks absolutely ecstatic...

"I would also suggest perhaps a different picture on your home webpage. The current picture of an alluring young woman in a somewhat provocative pose with a guy nuzzling her neck" Yeah, I think I can read his mind - "Nice Rack!" or some such?

Here's Snopes' take on it: http://snopes.com/crime/justice/grannies.htm (they also have the story of the Australian Grandma)

"I think Geo. is using steroids" No! It's just a cream lotion, you know, dry skin and all...

323.4, I'm tied for the lead!

My best so far is 315.5. Looks like I need a little practice to make it to the top. How many points do we get for being the leader?

Sudo, I dunno about how far inland the tsunami can wreak havoc, but I can think of numerous reasons why animals wouldn't be victimized as severely as humans. #1 being what I already mentioned. Animals don't spend a lot of time on the beach, PEOPLE do. 2. Animals are not in structures or vehicles that can fail and trap the occupants 3. Animals have few distractions. They aren't listening to the radio, reading the newspaper, thinking about world events, or even talking with their friends. As a result, it would seem that they're very tuned-in to their immediate surroundings. 4. Animals are walking barefoot all the time. They have four feet on the ground to sense movement through. They have no shoes, floors, sidewalks, or furniture between them and what's shaking. 5. Herd animals are naturally wary and very sensitive to the group they're in. Any one member of the group which sensed something wrong would immediately tip off the rest of the herd, or even other animals around, to something going wrong. 6. Rescue workers aren't looking for non-human victims. If there were dead animals laying out in the jungle somewhere, it's going to be a while before anyone gets to them. The places frequented by people are going to be the focus of any searches right now. And I'm sure there's lots more possible reasons one could come up with, without resorting to some sort of "Gosh, there must be something at work here that we stupid people will just never understand!" type of default setting. From what I can tell from the video I've seen of this and past tsunamis, being even a few hundred feet from shore would be enough to give one a lot better chance of survival. Given that animals generally are innate swimmers, and not known to frequent the shoreline, I just don't find it very remarkable that lots of animals haven't died.

Of course there's also the minor point that elephants and wildebeest don't spend a lot of time sunbathing at the beach. But, then, why spoil a good story...

What was VPW thinking? Pretty easy, I think. He was trying to sell a product. He wanted to minimize his costs and maximize his profits. And in the meantime, if he could also ingratiate himself by abusing some of his volunteer slaves (hell, we even willingly called ourselves that!), well, all the better. Wierwille was simply an amoral businessman and hedonist. The "spiritual" trappings were just cover, nothing more...

Well, I packed up all the boy's gifts, found the coresponding receipts, and I'm off to return everything (it was all still sitting in the exact same place on the living room floor as Christmas morning, just sans the gift wrap). He obviously couldn't give a $hit about any of it, so I'm gonna get the dough back. I think I'll split it with him, maybe not. He'll have to at least ask where everything went. If he doesn't notice it's even gone, too bad, so sad... ("Meet the Fokkers"?, I don't think so. It doesn't look like my kinda show at all, maybe "The Aviator". Ah, who am I kidding? I'll wait for it to come out on PPV...)

Me? I got a couple of books and a desk calendar. Not bad, but then I make sure everyone knows, I don't want anything. I've got plenty already. If I need anything, I buy it. So come years end, there's nothing I want. Really...

And Littlehawk, Nope, I'm not putting you on. I hate the farking holidays with deep and abiding loathing. And they only get worse with each passing year. Henceforth I'm not giving anything but cash in a plain white card. If they don't like the color of the cash or the denomination, I will cheerfully take it back. I'm not doing anymore holiday meals with mom 'an them, and - if at all possible, I will be out of country at the time. So much more pleasant...

Lutefisk! Stirs up nostalgic memories of my youth. (for those out of the loop, lutefisk and boiled potatoes are the traditional Norwegian Christmas eve meal - don't ask me why). Only a Norwegian would think that packing fish in lye was a good idea. What you end up with is usually a sort of fish jello. I know that's not what it's supposed to be like (to quote my late father "it's just not good anymore!" - as if it ever was), but that's always the way it came out in our house. Then we'd actually sit down and eat that crap. Yikes! I guess this year could have been worse...