Comic for Thursday, June 8th, 2006

Posted: 6:57 am, Thursday, June 8th

Total grab bag today. We start with Uni Watch's sister blog, Inconspicuous Consumption. There's no permalink, so scroll all the way to the bottom of the archives to the ReeseSticks. The issue here is that, for some stupid (research-driven) reason, they named these things ReeseSticks when the brand name is Reese's. The thing you want to do is always protect the brand name. As that blog points out, Reese's Sticks is not noticeably harder to say than ReeseSticks. We deal with similar stuff at my office - the business-y folks don't understand the importance of, oh, not screwing with the corporate logo or not changing the name of a product in one flier for cutesy reasons. Drives me nuts.

Sweet trio of goofy songs from the Hater. Loyal Five Bucksateers know that I love the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, but that George Washington one is awesome, also. He weighs a fucking ton.

The boys at Penny-Arcade are doing some work for the ESRB, the guys that rate vid-yo games, and I think it's really awesome. I think that the strip itself comes and goes - it can be off for about four months and then kill for four straight - but Gabe's art has been fantastic the past few years. I wish I had the time that guy had to dedicate to this stuff.

Speaking of electronic entertainment, I think I've mentioned that they're making a game out of those Left Behind books before, right? This is the most detail I've read about it so far, and from a very, very angry fellow. I think the stuff I've read on early builds of the game is that it has gameplay that would've been acceptable maybe eight years ago. The problem is that, according to the first article, the developers plan to market to those megachurch things that scare the hell out of me so. That means that sales will be strong whether or not the kids play the game or not (and they won't). There's a link inside the second article to this from the Daily Kos, outlining Rick Warren's involvement with the game, which is pretty shocking. There was a big profile on him in the New Yorker a few months back, and as much as I wanted to dislike him, he didn't sound like a nutty demagogue in the article. Anyone endorsing a world view where all the problems are solved by the death of everyone who's not a Christian fundamentalist, though, well, I guess creative editing can't hide everything.

I haven’t regularly read comic books in just about a decade now, and have mostly missed what seems to be an industry trend of re-setting the clock on a book. I think the term is something like ‘continuity wipe,’ where the writers basically decide that, say, Spider-Man’s universe has become too complex, and it would be easier to basically start from ground zero and write stories like the introduction of Doc Ock with a 2000s perspective than it would remember all the nuances of Doc Ock’s character. Anyway, Sports Guy wrote about the post-Pedro and post-Nomar eras in Boston yesterday and basically gave himself a continuity wipe to where now he thinks Pedro should’ve retired a member of the Red Sox and he never gave up liking Nomar. In comic books, it’s just a goofy part of a goofy whole – in sportswriting, it raises the question ‘why should I read you if you’re just going to 180 on everything a few years down the road?’ This guy cracked more ‘thanks, beautiful,’ jokes about Nomar than you’d think possible, and now he’s all mushy over him on the Dodgers. The kicker is where he blames the LA traffic for showing up late to the game after raking LA fans over the coals for years for their attendance practices. Then friggin’ leave earlier, you moran. I wish I could block his columns from my Firefox, since I don’t seem strong enough to quit reading them on my own.

Via the Golden Tornado, an in-fricking-credible photo of an old Brutus Buckeye.

I have no freaking idea what “ESPN Cars” is – evidently my one-stop shop for news, opinion and a taste of what athletes are driving, whyever the fuck I would want such a thing – and I have long been of the opinion that cars are little more than tools and we’d all be better off obsessing about them much less than we do, but even I have to admit that this Shelby is a fine-lookin’ machine. It does not displace my all-time favorite car, though, a powder-blue ’64 Mustang. I would love to drive cross-country in one of those. Which I will probably never do, because I was nearly paralyzed a few weekends ago by the prospect of driving to Boston with the gas prices being what they are.

Today's MySpace nightmare is most likely NSFW - just some dude who loves butts. And apparently ladies with butts love him right back. It's all rather frightening, really.

bullfrog

Bullfrog,

Come on man, you have to go with the Mach1

http://autobytel.espn.go.com/content/shared/ar ticles/templates/index.cfm/article_page_order_int/9/article_ id_int/689

or the boss

http://autobytel.espn.go.com/content/shared/ar ticles/templates/index.cfm/article_page_order_int/8/article_ id_int/689

The fastback is the only way to go on the old 'stangs. Ive always been a fan of the old 70's vintage Pontiac Bonnevilles. The kind arnold had in Last Action Hero. Maybe someday when I have more disposable income and I tan better.

Since I'd basically go with anything that's not the '91 Stanza I'm cruising in these days or the '87 whateverthehellitwas I had right before the Stanza, I'm going to instead comment on the Burger King Last Action Hero cups. Does anyone remember these things? It was back in the day when Dan Cortes was still their pitchman. They came with these goofy film-strip sleeves that did the 80s-style two-movement action movement thing (horrible description, but I can't really verbalize at the moment). Just a terrible promo. This site says it has a picture of them, but I don't really think that's one of the cups:

http://emorysmemories.tripod.com/websale/film_ tv_images_7.htm

apparently i'm a 10 year old boy, because i find this hilarious... http://www.jlist.com/PRODUCT/MAR028

What in God's name were you doing on jlist?

it was a link on gothamist. what is jlist?

They sponsor Something Awful and their banners usually advertise hentai, Battle Suit Gundam toys, and Hello Kitty vibrators.

The lady that normally sits near my cube is out today, so I'm able to listen to my computer's speakers for once. The Brewers and the Padres are playing right now, and Uecker is talking about how it's a beautiful day to go riding your Harley. I freaking love baseball on the radio.

oh gawd....... No no no no no no no....

http://www.deadspin.com/sports/baseball/so-wev e-got-some-affidavit-names-179400.php

Take a deep breath, 15. There's still a chance your boy is OK.