It's National Pie Day

I'm not sure why that's a holiday or what it means—and for some strange reason we're celebrating it at my office—but it gives me an excuse to post one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite television shows of all time.

Snoqualmie Falls Flooding

I couldn't believe this photo of Snoqualmie Falls. We've had pretty bad flooding in the areas surrounding Seattle this week. The wimpy looking photo is one I took on a trip to the falls in September. Granted, my visit was at a lower point in the year for the falls, but the other shot, from Wednesday, looks like a different natural phenomenon all together. 

(Photo Credit: Joshua Trujillo/Seattle PI)

Advanced Dog Obedience Graduation

Just to lighten the mood a bit, I thought I'd share a couple of photos from doggy obedience class. My border terrier, Banner, had graduation from advanced obedience last night. The big finale was getting all of the dogs lined up in a row, very close together, all in down stays. Much easier said than done :) If you don't know what a border terrier is, he's the small, scruffy, black and brown one.

Macy's Parade Rickrolled

They got Rickrolled!

Happy Thanksgiving!

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Off topic ... but hysterical.

Fala!

Totally off topic ... but if you've been anywhere near me, or on the phone with me, or corresponding over email with me, over the past couple of weeks, you'll know I've been wracking my brains trying to think of the name of President Roosevelt's little Scottie dog.

All I could remember was
that the name started with an "F."

Well, I finally got smart and decided to look it up. So, for the edification of everyone I annoyed with my question, and for everyone else who likes cute, precocious dogs, here's a little Fala love :)

Roosevelt's Fala Speech:
"These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don't resent attacks, and my family doesn't resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him--at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars--his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself--such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog."--Sept. 23, 1944, address to the Teamsters Union

CNN Hologram Broadcast

Paul Levinson, my grad school thesis adviser, has a theory called anthropotropism. Roughly outlined, it states that as new media develop, they mimic, more and more closely, the characteristics of the physical human body.

I was reminded of his theory looking at CNN's "hologram" technology, where reporter Jessica Yellin was reporting from Chicago but appeared to be in studio with Wolf Blitzer, in a Star Trek "Beam me up, Scottie" sort of way.


Hoorah for the advancement of technology ... . It's still a little freaky to me, but maybe that's just because my greatest childhood nightmare was this.

First Contact: October 14, 2008

Not directly related to death, but related to a vague sense of "the beyond," so I'm going to post even though it's a little off-topic. A group called The Federation of Light is claiming that aliens who "come in love" will make first contact on October 14, 2008.

Conveniently for America, the message is in English! Conveniently for the organization, the aliens cannot be communicated with in any way that earthlings find meaningful.

Here's a video that explains all. I use "explain" loosely of course.



On a listserve I'm on, one of my former professors, Lance Strate, head of the Institute of General Semantics, points out that this is likely a reaction to the anxiety of the financial markets, and general anxiety in the world due to terrorism. Dr. Strate reminds us that the first alien sightings in the 1940s came in correlation with the initial scare over "the bomb."

Jeff Koons decorates Versailles

A mood lifter for all of us. Not related to death ... or politics, or the economy, or anything heavy and dark, and don't we all need that right now?

The glorious Jeff Koons has decorated the Palace at Versailles. He has taken what are already a beautiful building and grounds, but do symbolize wastefulness in the extreme, and filled them with joy, optimism, and light-heartedness.

Here's a short video. I can't think of a better artist to spend five minutes with right now.

Microsoft Seinfeld Ad: Where's the Branding.

Vocab fun—no it's not an oxymoron

So, until recently, I had been studying for the GREs. And at least for the verbal section, it was a lot of looking up specific definitions for words of which I had a general sense of the meaning—acrimonious, lascivious, hegemony, moribund ... fun ones like that.

But along the way, I was surprised to find that I was totally off-base on the definition of callow. In my head, I would have thought sarcastic, biting, acidic, or something like that. But it means "lacking adult sophistication: immature." A very useful word when you know what it means.

Takashi Murakami goes hip-hop

A link to Kanye West's new(?) video "Good Morning," which is directed by one of my FAVORITE artists, Takashi Murakami. I can't find a version that will allow me to embed on the blog, but here's a still photo to tantalize you. I love the little hip-hop bear with rainbow, glossy eyes and some of the first shots of him waking up in the morning. I also love the moment when he gets swallowed by the cloud-monster. Some of the appearances by traditional Murakami iconography are fun for a long-time fan like me, too. I don't think you'll be sorry if you take three minutes to watch.