Comic for Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

Posted: 12:16 am, Wednesday, May 31st

I didn't actually have much time to troll the web today, but the Morning News was kind enough to dole out their Online Excellence Awards in late May for some friggin' reason, and there are links a-plenty for your perusal there. 2.0 swears by those museum podcasts, obviously, and check out that Sherlock thing that Stanford's got going on. Nice work, aspirational peer.

I never did watch the Apprentice that had Tree's classmate in it, but luckily for me, the dude has a website. Don't miss the photo ops he's jumped at - Bill Clinton, Ken Lay, and Slappy Rodriguez. Yikes.

Oh, I mentioned the Drink at Work June 5th outing that is yet again opposite of a softball game of mine, but according to Tex in the City, they're doing on later in the month, also. Which is cool, because I don't have a softball game that particular evening.

Finally, after over five years of living in the City, I went to Trinity Church and Battery Park this past weekend. Now I just have to get to the Cloisters and my very embarrassing oversights will finally be a thing of the past. Anyway, nice logo, Trinity, and also, they're having a hip-hop Mass this Sunday in case anyone's interested. As for Battery Park, I liked the north end, the Rockefeller Park, before the south end got way too touristy. Plus, it had a bunch of Tom Otterness sculptures (same dude that does the 14th St stop on the ACE), and I always dig those. I mean, check it out, a frog:

Also in the area was the awesome Irish Hunger Memorial. I had no idea this thing existed. It's kind of a manmade hill, the underside of which has a lot of writing about famines (not only the Great Hunger, but famines of a more recent vintage, as well). The top is made to look like the rolling hills of the Old Sod, complete with a cottage they rebuilt from over in Ireland, and stone walls aplenty. There's also a big old stone from each county of Ireland, including the North. I've got some pics of this, as well:

Ireland is just like this, except with a billion times more stone walls, and a lot of sheep.
And Guinness everywhere.

They friggin' hid Sligo on me. I've actually never been here.

Have been to Mayo, though.

So, the game that we went to the other day was the first time in my 27 years that I've kept score for the entire game. I usually do the book for the softball team, but I have to hand it off to one of the other guys while I'm up to bat, so not every mark is my own. And I'm pretty sure I've never scored a Major League game before. It was kind of fun, honestly, and although I don't really need the help paying attention, it's kind of crazy exactly how much *more* attentive to the game I was. Although I'm just now noticing that Lowell was a disaster the other evening. Anyway, for further proof that I'm turning into my father, I've decided to scan in my scorecards from the other evening:

And here's the Devil Rays, in addition to what, unfortunately, passes for 'jokes' around these parts:

Tampa's starting pitcher was some dude named McClung that I've never heard of before. He wasn't particularly good. But it was a lot of fun to say "McClung," because I don't think you can say it so that it *doesn't* sound like you're mocking him. Also, Bruce Froemming is incredibly large.

And, as I mentioned, 2.0 and I went and saw An Inconvenient Truth the other evening. It is an excellent movie that is harrowing and hopeful at the same time, and the early returns seem to indicate that it's going to reach a lot of people. Which is good, because the closing credits are basically a how-to for trying to reverse the undeniable hurtin' we've put on ol' Madre Earth.

One of the more touching parts of the film was a little computer animation that calls to mind the recent Time cover about global warming. I doodled a Five and Dime about this using the only three minutes of downtime I had at the office yesterday.

Seriously, I love polar bears. But on Lost, if they ate the polar bear that they shot in the first episode (and have mentioned once since then)? No more show, man. That would be it right there. Their livers will fuck you up. I learned this fact in seventh grade home economics and it has always stuck with me. I don't know why. But now I share it with you.

I was a little torn on the MyDisaster for the day, but that transparent crap really astounds me with its popularity. I'll go for something a little different tomorrow. And, since Mikey mentioned 'em yesterday, hey look, it's Umphrey's McGee.

bullfrog

Sorry you didn't get to see Manny at your game.

umphrey's mcgee is playing summerstage this summer too! who knew?

Dude, you've been to the Irish famine memorial? That fucking thing was my nemesis for a good two years of living in New York. I have a really weird uncle who's OBSESSED with anything Irish, and every damn time I would go home, he would inevitably ask, "Have you been to the famine memorial yet?" Finally when my parents visited, I dragged them down to Battery Park City, where we wandered around for a good hour looking for the fucker. And after that hour, we finally had the ammunition to force my uncle to stop asking. Thank God.

Fuck polar bear livers.

Umphrey's McGee once played at my fraternity house. A lot of hippies showed up out of nowhere and tried to camp on our lawn.

I didn't even know the thing existed, man. We just happened upon it. 2.0 had found it on accident once before and was kind of surprised that it was where it was when we found it Monday. It's really one of the strangest constructs I've seen in the city.

I didn't even stay for the whole set the time I saw Umphrey's McGee at Bowery. I forget why - it wasn't wholly because I didn't care much for the music, but I'm sure that didn't help.

Brenden Bayliss was in my Brit Lit II class sophomore year and quoted Monty Python (How do you know who's the king? 'Cause he 'asn't got any shit on him.) during our discussion of King Lear. That's my contribution to the Umphrey's McGee conversation.

not a coincidence that the a-hole is wearing a Goatfuckers hat, right? I deem myself worth of a gold star for my observational and deductive powers.

Zero

I screwed up the logo, also, I just noticed. The prongs of the 'y' remain totally inside of the 'n'. Huh. Maybe I was subliminally disrespecting them. Yeah, we'll chalk it up to that.

Also, Lissa is reading the latest Saramago, which I haven't actually picked up yet.

the founder of mr. softee died. awww.... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/nyregion/31c onway.html?_r=1&oref=slogin