Comic for Tuesday, March 22nd

Posted: 9:00 am, Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005

I never knew this existed, but today National Goof-off Day! That's a holiday I can get behind. A study shows that the most popular way to celebrate National Goof-off Day is playing video games. This study was, of course, funded by Nintendo, but what can you do? Actually, as someone who cherishes goofing off, I have to imagine that the people polled just play video games a ton, anyway. I mean, I love goofing off, and this is the first I've ever heard of National Goof-off Day.

2.0 had a lady's night on Saturday, so I was left to fend for myself. I dined on hot dogs (this is especially funny because I actually do most of the cooking). Hot Diggity Dog opened around the corner from us back in November, and our first trip there (the night before Thanksgiving-ish) was only so-so. For some reason, dogs and March Madness seemed like a good idea to me on Saturday night, so I went back. They've gotten the hang of it. Those were some rockin' hot dogs I ate.

MNP's little brother runs an illegal gambling ring! Well, no, not really. But he does let girls beat him at poker. (caption)

Wedding season is fast approaching, and 2.0 made me list all of the weddings I've gotten her invited to that are coming up so she could write them in her planner. I knew most of them, but had to look up my cousin Scott's on-line. His Knot page says that the two things being stressed in their wedding ceremony are love and family or something like that (the Knot is being a bitch right now and won't load), and 'be you in shorts or a suit, the important thing is that you're there.'

Me: Sweet! I can wear shorts!
2.0: No. You can't.

By the way, how long are you given to write your thank-you notes for a wedding? It's been almost four months since the dry wedding and I haven't gotten a thank-you note yet.

I don't have MTV and rarely seek out videos, so my apologies if this is months old, but I found Green Day's Holiday video yesterday, and, since it's my favorite song off American Idiot, I thought I'd post to it.

I was trying to find a song by some British band Rolling Stone hyped (for some reason, I find their coverage of obscure artists to be better than their coverage of almost everything else), when I found this blog, Music for America. I've actually yet to find anything about music on it, just social stuff. Which, along with music, is right in my wheelhouse, so all right!

Crownover went and saw Ashes and Snow on Sunday. I was invited, but got the text message late, and had no idea what she was talking about. Looks like I'm finally getting some art up there with plenty of time for people to get to it, as it's around until June 5 (the same day, actually that the Basquiat show closes in Brooklyn, which is also highly recommended).

It's Holy Week this week, which means three straight nights of church for me. Growing up, my family always hit the Easter triduum, which is Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the eternally long Holy Saturday Vigil. I'm up in the air on the Vigil Mass this year, but Holy Week has always made me very nostalgic. Holy Thursday, for those of you out there who aren't Catholic, and those of you who are but whose mother wasn't a nun for fifteen years so you didn't have to do a lot of this stuff, is the celebration of the Last Supper. As a kid, we went to St. John's-St. Ann's in Albany's South End, and after Mass always had a huge potluck dinner in the firehouse across the street. Good Friday is the Passion (although they also read it at Palm Sunday, since Good Friday's actually not a required-attedance type thing)(and, also, I kind of hate that word now, thanks to Mel's snuff flick) and also they usually play Were You There When They Crucified My Lord, which is a really nice, sad, song. And then, since the Vigil was the end of Lent and my mother always made me give up ice cream, we'd go to Ben and Jerry's afterwards and I'd get New York Super Fudge Chunk on a waffle cone with sprinkles. Then we'd head up to my grandparents' on Sunday morning to hang with Mom's family and it was usually pretty warm by then, so my cousins and I could play baseball in the park. Yeah, I don't know why this week makes me so nostalgic, but I'm always brought back to my childhood this week. Thought I'd share. Oh, and, in the spirit of Holy Week, somebody from the Columbus Free Press wrote this nice comparison between the neo-Fascist Christian Right and that long-haired hippie, Jesus. I really liked that article.

Oh, I said I'd get to this - yesterday, I made reference to 100,000 dead Iraqis and said I'd get a source. In case anyone cares, here is the Iraqi Body Count. Most estimates for civilian casualties is at 20,000 or so, so I guess the other 80,000 is Iraqi combatants. I know their deaths are considered justifiable by even our anti-war politicians for the most part, but, still, they're Iraqis and they're dead.

And, finally, E sent me this article from Slate about one of the most underrated forms of Bush's douchebaggery, the fact that his administration is so secretive. Not about stuff we know he's covering up, but just the day-to-day secrecy that all the thirty-second news blips in the world could never touch upon to any satisfaction. Man, we are screwed.

bullfrog