Comic for Tuesday, November 29th, 2005

Posted: 12:05 am, Tuesday, November 29, 2005

I forgot to mention yesterday - it's absolutely gorgeous in New York. Of course, I'm writing this Monday night and I think there's rain in the forecast for Tuesday, so it may actually suck by the time anyone's reading this. Anyway, the same thing happened to me last year when I was doing Christmas strips - I had it snowing in almost all of the strips, and it was actually quite nice out throughout. Just thought that was a funny coincidence. Unfortunately, it's funny weird and not funny haha, like a comic should be, and like the blog tries to be.

Well, we're off to a smashing start so far.

Does anyone know anything about the heating systems in Nissan Stanzas? I have to imagine it's around a '90 or a '91, and the heat cut out on the way home from Upstate Friday night. Whereas it is beautiful now, it was horrific Friday night, and 2.0, her mother and myself almost all froze to death. I think it may be a fuse or something.

I mentioned the American Experience on Tupperware yesterday, and Grafe mentioned that he's developed an addiction to PBS as of late. I'm typing this while 2.0's watching the Antiques Roadshow right now, which has gotten hipper since the days that my father watched it all the time, largely by hiring Lara Spencer, formerly the dippy blonde off Good Morning America. Still, the show maintains it down-home charm by having the yokels bringing their crap in record these odd voiceovers after being told what their stuff is worth. Some Okie just found out his art deco travel posters were worth about twenty grand. As they flash twenty grand over the wide-angle shot of the posters, the dude says in a totally different tone than the rest of his dialogue, "It's a good thing I don't faint." Sure is, Clem. In all honesty, though, those posters were awesome.

Oh, and what got me onto PBS was the fact that the Giants-Seahawks game went about forty minutes or so over its normal runtime and pushed back the Fox lineup on Sunday, so I poked around the dial instead of watching the Michael Rappaport masterpiece The War at Home. I settled on Thirteen, on a Nature episode featuring the Big Cats. I am the epitome of a dog person, but, holy God, those cats are freaking amazing. They had this weird low-light camera that could pick up perfect movement in almost total darkness, and taped a leopard stalking some gazelle. It took two hours to close ten feet on the things so as not to spook them. The gazelle aren't stupid, either - they graze in tall grass so that the leopard can't sneak up without making any noise. All the cat's work was for naught, though, as they caught a whiff of her sneaking up on them when the wind changed slowly. So she freaking realizes this and rolls around in dirt to mask her smell, and makes a lot of noise to distract the gazelle, and eats one in the confusion. Friggin' crazy. Watching the leopard hunt, I've never seen anything move like that before. Crazy. And after Nature, Masterpiece Theatre ran a new Pollyanna that 2.0 got into. I have to admit, it was quite charming. And the girl playing Pollyanna reminded me of 15 for some reason. Probably because she's a redhead and smiles a lot. It doesn't take much with me.

So that's PBS - or at least it was, until 2.0 just declared that she wants to be an expert on the Antiques Roadshow.

OK, now we're done. Drink at Work's weekly eye opener is about the fall of civilization in the southeast because of a dusting of snow, which, according to the Carolinians in the room, is exactly what happens if so much as a snowflake falls. Most of the Charloteers are from wintry climes, and Licia, up in Durham, is from upstate like me, so they can all handle snow much better than the folks they're surrounded by, and all told me about the snow"storm" they were hit with last week that yielded a half-inch of snow and area-wide panic. I don't think I could live in an area where Frosty causes mass panic, myself, but I do enjoy their stories. 'Til then, I'll make due with the Drink at Work thing. This made me think of my two favorite books about the fall of civilization. One is Nightfall, an Asimov story that I think some other dude expanded into a book. It takes place on a planet with something like six or seven suns, and because of the orbit of the planet around the suns, it only experiences total darkness once every 3000 years or something like that. And when it does, the stars drive everyone completely nuts. It was a pretty good read when I was 17 - I think it probably still would be, but what the hell do I know? The other one is Blindness, by Jose Saramago. The end is brought on by a dude going blind, except it's a milky white blindness instead of things going dark. Also, the blindness is contagious, and quickly spreads to everyone in the (unspecified) nation except for the first afflicted man's wife. Blindness is much more gut-wrenching and gritty than Nightfall, and also unquestionably better. On the Amazon page there, Blindness can be bundled together with All the Names, which is a much more uplifting Saramago that is also quite good. I'm going to keep pimping him, you m'ise well get used to it.

The Mets are just as active as the Sox right now in the free agent/trade market, and the nabbed Carlos Delgado, previously mentioned in this space because of his anti-war stance that kept him from standing for God Bless America, the playing of which I detest at ballparks. I'm very dismayed that he's ditching that now that he's coming up to New York. I think that's bullshit, Carlos. Fucking stick to your guns, dog. Anyway, the Mets look like they're getting better.

Good picture of Jeff Samadnadskldadka making a grab in Saturday's game - watch the hands there, Stanford.

I realize that the demographic that goes to the Doonesbury site and votes in its polls is not indicative of the entire country, but, still, these results are encouraging. 2.0 tells me that Air America is abuzz that Not-my-president is doing a media blitz in the month of December because he's the only one that can dig him out of the mess he's in. Or, more accurately, he's the only one that could dig himself out of this mess if he were in the least bit competent. Thankfully, it's Shitwit, so everybody get ready for some high comedy in the coming weeks.

I just noticed the AV Club actually was updated last week, and they reviewed the Big & Rich album that just came out. I keep hearing that these guys are so new and a shot in the arm of country or whatever. I saw them perform on the Macy's Thanksgiving parade coverage on Thursday - they suck. There was nothing really new or riveting about them. Mostly crap. Just letting you know in case, like me, you try not to be completely against a music act just because of the genre it's in. I was kind of hoping I could point to some country I didn't detest in case I for some reason found myself in a conversation with someone who listens to, say, Toby Keith or some shit. Hey, it's Christmas-party season, it could happen.

Speaking of crappy music, 50 Cent says that his game, Bulletproof, is really for kids, so buy it for them. First off, if you're the sort of parent that takes leads from 50 Cent on what is appropriate for your kids, you m'ise well buy them the game, because you're a horrible freaking parent. Also, 50 - you're not actually bulletproof. You've been shot nine times - you're lucky as all shit (or lying, more likely), not bulletproof. God, 50 Cent bothers me. Also, catch the end of that article - I never knew he thanked marketing in an acceptance speech. That's hilarious.

And, finally today - hey, look, I did a full, decent blog - this will help you kill some time today. There's apparently 75 bands in this picture. I just looked at it briefly, but I think I've got about five or so - the Gorrilaz, Guns n' Roses, the Jets, Led Zeppelin (I'm assuming), Black Flag and the Pixies - and it doesn't look like it's super-obscure or anything. So, uh, have fun. I guess the answers are supposedly on this page somewhere. Good luck, gang!

bullfrog

It snowed while we were in Ireland last week and I've gotta say they are even worse than the Southeast. With just the threat of snow the government was asking everyone not to make any non-essential trips. It took my uncle nearly 2 hours to travel 10 miles to come pick me up. nutty.

I eagerly await the 2006 snow days. i don't think we got any last year.

I'm up to 25 on the band thing after a few minutes of staring at it. Thank God for my big-ass work monitor.

It snowed in Chicago Friday night - people were wearing shorts and BBQ-ing :-)

I actually saw "The War at Home" on Sunday night at a friend's house. Guess I'll never get that 30 minutes back, but now I know to flip over to PBS before Family Guy, good call.

Please don't tell me that the Mets might actually take the division next year. I was so enjoying their mediocrity....

bullfrog:

in terms of the heater for the nissan; how many owners on the car? i ask, in the sense that since this car is about 15 years old, you'd be likely looking at a thermostat replacement and if the owner(s) are 2nd or 3rd or more, it's possible that they won't know if this has been replaced. additionally, has you wife/girlfriend or mom noticed the temp gauge out of wack? any coolant leaks? email me for more info: