Comic for Monday, March 10th, 2008

Posted: 12:01 am, Monday, March 10th

This was meant to be an ode to forgotten storylines and character traits, but it - as does so much that I attempt here - came out more depressing that anything else. Whoo, me!

For no real reason, I've been trucking through some of the PVP archives - that strip's about to hit the ten year mark in a few months, and it's amazing to see how much it's changed - and I thought this strip in particular was interesting. I'd love to see if that gets mentioned.

Next Monday is Saint Patrick's Day, and I will consume my annual corned beef sammich. Goddamn, I love corned beef. Possibly because I only eat one sammich a year. But, anyway, even though I will be eating a sammich that day, this stew looks freaking awesome and will have to be constructed at some point. And also this salmon pasta, which sounds shockingly similar to the awesome penne al salmone that I used to dine upon a lot at Trattoria Kick-Ass.I wish Elise had posted it earlier in Lent. It's funny, I actually probably eat fish less during Lent than during normal times of the year, since I'm *forced* to align fish purchases with a Friday, and because we're usually out and about on Thursdays and Saturdays. (God, Thursdays... I've caught Lost on telly like twice this season. Still haven't seen last week's, because we've been tearing through Battlestar Galactica. We've watched the first two seasons basically in the last two weeks, I think, and now just need Netflix to come through with the Season Three box set basically one right after another so that we can watch the last season in realtime. In case you want to talk Battlestar, remember - we've only seen seasons one and two.)

Oh, man, I am so bummed about this. Embedding has been disabled from this video, but I implore you to check it out. It's a music video from Square One, the kind-of math version of 3-2-1 Contact, and I'm kind of pretty sure it's a take-off of the Rockwell video that 2.0 posted the other day. It's a song about probability and how probability should not mess with the signer. Epic. Epic.

And since 2.0 had never seen Square One, here are the other two awesome segments from that show. First up is Mathman, who I never realized wore a Michigan helmet. No wonder bitch-ass sucka couldn't figure out multiples of six.

Give him a scholarship!

And then there was Mathnet. This one doesn't have the full intro line - "My name is Monday. I carry a calculator."

True story, I actually taped Square One on a Friday to find out the conclusion of the five-part Mathnet for the week. And I believe I also taped Square One every day to actually get the probability video on a tape, erasing any other episode because I didn't care. I'm not making this up. Sadly.

Ah. Good times.

bullfrog

MNP -- Monday, March 10 2008, 08:25 am

Man, I LOVED Square One. Especially Mathnet.

SHOCKING.

Was anyone really into 3-2-1 Contact? I never got into that one. Not even the Bloodhound Gang.

3-2-1 Contact didn't seem as cool as Square One. Contact was like early 80's and Square One was like late 80's, early 90's, I think?

Yea for Lissa and not having a care in the world!

Woo Square One! I loved mathnet too, MNP and I probably watched it together actually. Remember that Mathnet storyline with the Broadway show "Anything Went"? And the "Rear Window" one?

I never liked Agent Tuesday as much as Agent Monday, though - the LA ones were way better generally...

The southern tip of Manhattan looks really weird to me with the WTC still standing in the Mathnet intro, by the way.

I loved 3-2-1 contact. And reading rainbow.

3-2-1 Contact here! This doesn't surprise me now that you mention the early 80's bit. It's a generation thing.

I'm kidding.

My ultimate favorite educational television program would have to be Mr. Wizard. In retrospect however, the idea of a bunch of kids hanging out with an old man to do experiments seems a little...creepy uncle-y.

My favorite was Beakman's World. Granted, a lot had to do with Lester, the man in a rat suit.

These days, I'd put Good Eats as my current favorite "educational show", even thought it's sort of tongue in cheek. There something novel in the idea of the science behind making blueberry muffins.

wait - all time creepiest is mr goodbody. hands down.

I like that the gang tends towards the darker lagers.

Reading Rainbow here! LeVar Burton ruled. But you don't have to take my word for it . . .

Also "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?", both computer game and TV show (though I was a little old for the show by the time it was on).

Square One was high-speed. Great show. I'm disappointed CK beat me to the "WINTWISCS" mention. That remains the king of the early-'90s educational shows. I'm glad though that Rockapella has fallen off in popularity.

Are we going back to the one-man show about Ron? I was psyched to have him attend the show and its ensuing hijinks. Or did he already do that in the past and I forgot about it?

Also, fun Carmen Sandiego fact: The actress who played The Chief was the unseen radio DJ who keeps the rival gangs informed in 1979's "The Warriors".

CK, I LOVED playing where in the world is carmen sandiego!!! Wow, I was a huge nerd...

Chief was in something else recently, too, but I can't recall.

I remember the end round of Carmen Sandiego being shockingly difficult - the timer was just about five seconds too short for anyone to ever win. I think I ever saw like three people win that thing.

Yeah, we're going to get something on Rob: The Show. Probably not this week, though - I knew I was being overly ambitious with the date on the tickets, but we'll chalk it up to time passing weirdly in the strip.

And I, too, was too old for the show, but unlike CK, I had nothing else to do.

I couldn't get this to run, but somebody else may have better luck - the Apple IIe Carmen Sandiego game...

http://www.virtualapple.org/whereintheworldiscarmensandiegodisk.html

Spitzer likes him the prostitutes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html?hp

um, the pope can just add "sins" when he wants? http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aizloDFbRPRM

How the crap can something that's "morally dubious" be declared a sin? If it's a sin, it's not dubious. If it's still dubious, it can't be a sin. Pope needs a dictionary. (Not that I have a problem with most of that list. 1 and 2 are stupid, 3 is iffy in that drug abuse is a sin that pretty much carries its own penalty in the long-term, and 4-7 are downright jigtastic.)

As for Spitzer, ye gods, man. How stupid can you be?

Sweet, Notre Dame is actually projected to play Siena in the latest brackewhoosily.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/stewart_mandel/03/10/bubble.watch/index.html?eref=T1

I just have to say that I think the original 7 deadly sins just about cover it. And they are way easier to memorize.

Agreed on Spitzer, that was really a stupid move. But politicians seem to show an amazing lack of judgment in that area. Spitzer didn't rep the "teh ghey is evil!1!" thing, which if he did probably would have caused him to be part of a male prostitute ring / gay sex something or other. (See Foley, Mark; Craig, Larry; and Colorado, That One Big-Time Preacher Guy From).

I am with you on "morally dubious" being impossible as a sin by definition. Apparently he just means that when in doubt, you're probably sinning? That would certainly be the stereotypical Catholic response.

Excessive wealth? I can think of some fancy Vatican stuff that would do much to lessen the rich / poor gap. Red Prada slippers, for instance.

First of all, as an actuary, math-themed you-tubes = good.

Second of all, as an employee of a company whose parent company was sued by Spitzer which resulted in me and my colleagues losing thousands of dollars in our stock purchase and 401(k) plans (which were exclusively in company stock at the time), I can't say I have much sympathy for the guy now. What a scumbag.

Yeah, the Vatican's got the market cornered on excessive wealth. And doesn't not practicing birth control help widen the gap between the rich and the poor? Benny didn't think these through.

The news is orgasming up here in the Apple over Spitzer. Apparently our lieutenant governor is a blind black dude. We have wild minority cred in the Empire State now!