What's wrong with this headline from an MSNBC article?

Does this mean that the implants are firmer or that a firm is stating this?

By the way, I sent a post from work today, but I guess it didn't stick. It was about the passing of Vaughn Meader, the singer-turned-comedian whose dead-on (pun intended) impersonation of then President John F. Kennedy rocketed him to fame with a Grammy-award winning album.

Even the president was said to be amused, picking up 100 copies of the album to give as Christmas gifts. He once opened a Democratic National Committee dinner by telling delegates: "Vaughn Meader was busy tonight, so I came myself."(ABC News)

Go buy the CD (or the vinyl, if you can find it). Even if you don't get the time/event-related material, you'll still burst out laughing.

IMDb user comments for Purple Rain (1984): "It's no use. Arguments about the potato-chip thin script, the haphazard direction and some of the most laughable non-acting ever photographed for a film, will prove ineffectual. Such conditions have existed in the realm of film vehicles for music stars since the genre began, (with some mind-boggling examples of the worst of the lot offered by every star from Elvis, to Frankie Avalon, to Vanilla Ice.) What you watch these movies for is not the deep plots, solid writing or impeccable direction. It's for those moments of electricity that leap off the screen, strike you right in the butt and have you dancing in your theater seat, as the magic of a performer at his or her peak, in their heyday, turns a few minutes of film into a literal celebration of life."

Yup, that's why I love this movie and bought the soundtrack CD. It really is a great use of celluloid.

Washed another belt today, this time on purpose. Didn't get the result I had hoped for based on the result of the first time I did it. At least I did laundry. Now one day I'll get around to folding it.

The best description, history, and general discussion of Murphy's Law can be found here. It includes Murphy's Ultimate Corollary: "If it could have gone wrong earlier and it didn't, it ultimately would have been beneficial for it to have." The Wikipedia article also contains links to related articles and pertinent external Web pages. Read it soon, though, as the Wikipedia is freely edited and updated by it's users. Cool idea and a cool site.

Here's a first! I washed my belt. Previously I've washed spare change, wallets, pocket knives on a regular basis including today, papers ranging from the pointless to the fairly important, candy, writing implements of all sorts, and even a Handspring Visor Prism (several hundred dollars down the drain). Now I've finally washed a belt. Oddly enough I thought about it when I gathered the laundry then it slipped my mind.

The up-side is that the roller coaster-like twists it developed while keeping my tent-like pants covering my ample tummy have been straightened. When I took the belt from it's loops it was straight as an arrow and had the sheen of newborn kitten. The buckle redefined gleam. I might have to do this more often.

Yippee! I was back teaching today! My first call to sub for the year and it was for a good friend who decided to take a mental health day. Having subbed for him before I was very familiar with his style and material. Partly because of this I feel I was pretty effective. It helped that the kids knew me or were able to take cues from kids who did so I didn't have to waste time building rapport and could get right to the teaching.

Tomorrow I'm in for another teacher and friend under mostly similar conditions. Should be a great day despite my not knowing the 6th graders too well or them knowing me too well. And the bonus is that this is about $80.00 per day of income that I wasn't expecting to have. Double Yippee!

Hey, Lucy!! 'Splain this to me ...

• What is a String Cheese Expert? The Unwrapped show on the Food Network recently had an episode examining cheese and some fun aspects of it. The show is really entertaining and informative for trivia wonks like me, but featuring a String Cheese Expert? Really.
• Why people in Florida still seem to have trouble voting, even with early balloting.
• The same episodes of Buffy seem to be on everytime I tune in.
• Why I've been working on this post for three days. Okay, yesterday was super busy and today I napped for three hours, but really!

Mom gets around (click pic for larger image)

A couple years ago my mom took me to DisneyWorld and to visit my brother in Florida. I got her to put on some Minnie Mouse ears in a gift shop. The background was terrible so I cut her out of the shot and put it in another shot with the park's castle in the background. It fooled everyone so I thought Let's have some fun with this and take Ma around the world!

After gathering some shots (like the Great Wall, above) I took the same cutout and put it into a bunch of pictures, captioned them, and got some prints made. Then I sent them to my Aunt Ginny because I figured that no one would see them again if I sent them directly to my mother. They were a hit! Over the years I have frequently used them as my background wallpaper and thought of getting more prints to keep around the house. This composite fools some people for a while but when they see her with the exact same pose (and clothes) in places thousands of miles apart then they get the joke.

Doing this little project gave me the practice and encouragement to do the bunny pic I posted earlier this month. I like doing this stuff and with a little inspiration I'd like to do more. It reminds me of the stuff I used to do in the darkroom back in the pre-history of photography. Maybe I can do something with pics of my best friends?

Here's one of my works in progress using just part of the cutout:

Okay, here's another fun one.

Eventually it will be completely black and white but the trials I've done so far lead me to believe that I have to get the tones and colors perfect before removing the hues. And I have to darken the shadow, too. Might try doing a pattern wash. Dunno. Been working on it for a while now and then, off and on.

If I could have been a movie actor before 1960 I'd probably want to have been a character actor. One of those guys you see in a supporting role but without whom the picture wouldn't have been as good. Take Eugene Pallette for example.

Probably best known as the portly Friar Tuck in Errol Flynn's The Adventures of Robin Hood, he actually started as a leading man in silent films ("What a Character: Eugene Pallette"). His most famous roles were as a side-kick or as comic relief, often playing a well-to-do man, a police officer, or a government official. I have yet to see a movie with Mr. Pallette that I didn't like. Or more precisely, I have never seen a film that wasn't better for his presence. Currently Hell Below is on TV and he is rather good as the forward torpedo room Chief on a submarine during World War I. Having been raised by a Navy Chief I can attest that his portrayal is true to form and this helps gives the film genuine gravitas despite the otherwise sappy romance story at it's heart.

Yeah, right. Yahoo! Personals wants to convince us that this is the caliber or women-folk that use their service.

Now I may not be much of a catch myself, but the profile matches I see are nowhere near what Yahoo! teases us with. And most of them haven't signed into the service for weeks or even months. Still, one of my friends met his wife through Yahoo! Personals so I guess it works. Or it's true that even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while.

Just about every time I hear Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Blue Collar" it is shiny and fresh like a new nickel. I've already written about the song in this blog but not with the depth I feel it deserves. One of it's unique features stuck me as it played in the car on the way home from work tonight -- the double echo.

Normally an echo follows a sound but this is the only song I've heard with an echo preceding it's sound. Then it follows as it should, thus the listener gets an appetizer, the main course, and a desert with every note. The whole song is not like this, just the section that BTO puts in most every song for each member to take a solo. This effect is awesome in headphones or coming from a properly balanced stereo and positively augments the riffs that would still be awesome without enhancement.

More than a few critics deride BTO but I'm not sure they have really given the tunes a fair shake. Sure, orchestration and arrangements tend to be formulaic (nearly every song features multple solos as I mentioned) and the lyrics lean toward the mundane and simplistic in some songs (think: "Gimme Your Money Please"). But with the lack of airplay they got in their heyday and the inability of current radio stations to buy more than one album or play more than just "Roll On Down the Highway" (the one BTO tune I really don't like) or "Takin' Care of Business" from that one album I think the band would be more well thought of in this era. Or maybe if more groups did covers of the material. And I don't mean that lame Rick Springfield hack job on "Jamaica" retitled "Kristina." Maybe hack job is too mild.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive is certainly near the top of the class as Some of My Favorite Music.

Finally! Joan of Arcadia had some openly Christian music that I recognized in it's soundtrack! Recently I posted about my fondness for Skillet's "You Are My Hope" so I was especially pleased to hear it on my favorite TV program.

The Paul Simon classic "Kodachrome" was the song among photographers a generation or so ago. A great catchy tune from Fresh Young Fellows, "Picture Book" (from This One's For The Ladies), could well have the same meaning for a new generation.

It is featured in a visually impressive TV advert for HP Imaging Products. The technical innovations that must have been readied for it's production are akin to magic. I stop whenever I see it on TV. But watching it as much as I do I came to appreciate the music. Rather than buy the products featured I bought the song so I'm not sure the advert met it's goal.

"Picture Book" is similar to it's Paul Simon predecessor's theme of capturing memories, but it is quite similar in tone and fee, as well. However, the folksy heritage has been updated with more modern orchestration and a perkier, almost Punk-like beat. Very OK Go or The Hives in some fashion. It bridges Pop and Folk very nicely. This helps make it Some of My Favorite Music.

The ol' iPod is gonna fill up quickly if I keep duplicating songs. In this instance "John the Revelator" already lives in my library as an excellent cover from the Blues Brothers 2000 movie soundtrack. But after much consideration I had to pick up the original from Eddie James "Son" House, Jr.

The lyrics may be overly simplistic compared to similar songs but that doesn't diminish their brilliance. This rendition further simplifies the song by being performed acapella and doesn't feature some of the lyrical embellishments added by more recent artists and therein lies it's power. It is a spiritual statement free from any extraneous gingerbreading and is a clear example of the Blues as an American art form at its purest.

Does this make it the Song of the Day? Well, with my recent posting habits let's make it the latest in Some of My Favorite Music so I don't feel compelled to post a song daily..

We're allowed to post just one personal picture in our cubicles at work but it must move with us when we change desks. Here's the one I used to have posted:

It's a nuisance to keep moving the picture, though, so I just brought it home. Maybe if I post it here I won't need to move it.

The Masonic Apron

The following was written and proposed to be read as a Masonic Minute in my Lodge. Any Mason is free to copy and use it in their Lodge.

Various cultures use symbolic clothing for class distinction, merit, or honor. Our Worshipful Master's Marine Marksman ribbon is an example of this. But like that ribbon these symbols as usually not derived from functional articles as are the working tools in Freemasonry. These are rather well known, particularly the square and the compass which are the most public examples of our symbols. While each serve various purposes for both operative and speculative Masons they are accompanied by a frequently overlooked symbol that seldom is thought of as a tool, the apron. Certainly it is an emblem of innocence and the badge of a freemason, but is it a tool?

Farmers in New England are said to grow one thing especially well: rocks. Every season new rocks and boulders surface from the previous winter’s frost heaves and need to be removed before planting. If you have ever had to do this you know that rocks splinter, shatter, and launch themselves right at you when attacked by sledge hammers. Sturdy modern work trousers are a necessity, but our ancient brethren working as operative masons in the quarries of Zereditha had no such thing so they most likely protected their bare legs with a tough lambskin sheet draped from the waist. Thus it is of no surprise that those who recanted their involvement with the assassins of Hiram Abif appeared before King Solomon clad in white aprons.

It may well be that from this allegory one can assume the origin of the white lambskin being a token of innocence. However, scholars who trace the history of Freemasonry to a time before King Solomon point out that the Mithra mysteries of Persia invested the candidate with a white apron to show they were unsullied. Though we may never know its true origin we can still consider it a potent tool, albeit one with symbolism as its utility. Brother C. J. E. Hudspeth, P.M., Victorian Lodge of Research No 218 (Australia), wrote in 1949 that “The apron is a perfect square, its four right angles teach us that Purity, Truth, Sincerity and Honesty are the foundations of morality. Its four sides remind us to practice the four cardinal virtues - Temperance in word and deed; Fortitude in a noble purpose; Prudence in judging wisely; Justice to the humblest and greatest alike. The Square (or 'four') is the symbol of matter. Four was the emblem of matter to the ancients because they thought that the earth flat, square, and marked by the four points of the compass."

From this let me suggest that the apron is the most important of symbolic Masonry's tools. In one piece it embodies all the virtues, ideals, and hopes of our brotherhood. It is truly a badge of honor.

By the way, the Golden Fleece and Roman Eagle mentioned when bestowing the apron are honors given by British royalty, but that's another Masonic Minute.

I'm sick as a frog today and bummed about this: Rodney Dangerfield dead at 82

Maybe I'll be up to posting something tomorrow. To bad for all of us that Mr. Dangerfield won't be.

Twister (1996) is on TV and it caught my eye, keeping me from the ol' Blog, but as whenever I watch a movie I usually grab the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) and read the trivia, reviews, and other material that looks relevant or interesting. One of the things I found out was that Joss Whedon, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (theater and TV), was an uncredited script doctor. Not that I was surprised. He writes nice, tight character group interactions. The Twister scene with the tornado chasers chowing down on steak and eggs is an example of this and made me think of Aaron Sorkin at first because it was very much like the way he wrote for Sports Night. The only problem these writers's style is that most of their characters wind up sounding very much alike. Often I think that, except for specific dialects or backgrounds, the characters in these productions would be rather interchangeable.

Less so with Twister. Michael Crichton gets top writing credit and the nerdieness of the characters belies this, as well as the attempt to be scientifically accurate. The plot is simpler than Mr. Crichton usually writes but it is still an excellent movie because of the special effects, the character interactions, and the truly superior efforts of the supporting cast. Jami Gertz leads this group as the "reproductive therapist" thrown into a world totally alien to her. Then there's the cow. No explanation does that scene justice. You've gotta see it.

Sadly, the network cut the chow down scene mentioned above. Without seeing that a viewer would be at a loss to really understand the thin plot and think the movie to be just an effects fest. It's more and that's why it's one of my favorite movies of all time. And probably why it was the first movie ever issued on DVD.

My supervisor and I had a bad time with a customer today so to lighten things a bit she sent out some funny stories. Here's a few:

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah." The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?" The little girl replied, "Then you ask him."

One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?" Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, "Momma, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?"

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is watching." Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples."

Yup! Certainly perked up my day! Thanks, Kristi!

My initial attraction to the Christian Rock band Skillet has waned in much the same fashion that most music gradually fades from my favor, but "You Are My Hope" from the album Alien Youth remains a favorite. Aside from being a great tune -- not to hard & not too soft -- the lyrics are an extension of the musical theme that's been rattling around my head lately: God's love and my need for Him.

What is really great, though, is that shortly after the tragedies on 9/11 a Christian radio station mixed in parts of the speeches that Billy Graham and George Bush made in the public memorials that followed to create a noble tribute to the fallen and a source of comfort for those who remained. Very touching and it's my preferred rendition. At the time it was free on the band's Web site, but I'm not sure where you would be able to find it today.

But go to the there anyway as, like many of the Christian groups, they often allow free downloads of selected songs. I just picked up "Imperfection" from the new album Collide. It's pretty good and the samples of the rest of the songs are making me think of grabbing this album for $9.99 on iTunes.

Well, I'm back in the mood for Christian music. Wonder if that has anything to do with getting back to Bible study after three weeks of missing it? Maybe I just overdosed on it. That can happen. I love Bachman-Turner Overdrive so much that I play it and play it and play it ... then I get tired of it.

But driving home from work today I had a Christian mix CD in the car stereo and I flipped through all the tracks until I came across "Help Me Out God" by Superchick. Sometimes I think this is my personal anthem. Sure it's a catchy tune, well orchestrated, and has fine vocals, but it's the message that sticks -- I can't swim without you God. Help me out God, I need a little something ... Who would have thought that something so deep would be in a Pop song? Superchick, apparently. And they pull it off rather well.

"I Belong to You," also by Superchick, takes much the same message, mixes in a load of commitment, and tones down the Pop flavor into a mostly acoustical piece that is very touching. The central theme in Corinthians -- Love -- is the essential element. Some say that one bad turn chasing another is a vicious circle. But love of God begets love for self which in turn begets a love of God ... and a Victorious Circle forms. "I Belong" takes what is in my heart and puts it into music that was inspired by God's love.

And Superchick's "We All Fall" is the ultimate praise and worship song as far as I am concerned. A simple yet passionate piano, a soft yet caring voice, and heartfelt sentiments we all share blend into an emotionally deep song that invigorates despite a veneer of melancholy. No combination of the over 200.000 words in the English language and the smattering that I know from other tongues can ever convey what this song does for me.

Peace & Prayers