The musings of a madman...

I have been on a "let's grill some turkey" kick lately (as I type this post) , having fired up the small grill 3 times between Friday and now, in the name of smoked turkey wings or legs. Dropped by the Food Lion (1300-store regional grocery chain here from Pennsylvania to Kentucky and the states in between, for those who don't know) down the block on the way in last night for a couple things to get me to that ends without having to leave a smoking grill at my house unattended. Once I had my things and arrived safely to checkout, a woman and her son approached the line behind me. Now judging by my nieces and nephews, as well as other kids I have been around, I would place this boy at somewhere between a big 7 year old and a smallish 10... By all estimations, he APPEARED on the outside to be a normal child, as in not involved in any special ed programs -- not to be confused with Special Ed, of I'm The Magnificent fame. Or even the one of Crank Yankers fame. [ Phli...

Having given up beer for Lent, and not having a mountain of cash to blow on alternative liquors in lieu of, this has been a largely sober month for me for the most part. Spring started the other day, so I guess I will set about the adult thing of "Spring Cleaning" in and around my house, what with a few days left on my sabbatical -- barring the acquisition of a second job, of course. I have compiled a bit of a list of things to do, inside and out. *** outside *** Wasp nest on the front of the house needs to be sprayed and knocked off once all of the hellish bugs it contains have dissipated. Kill/cut back some of the trees in the back yard between my house and the park. a) SHAVE the yard, cutting the grass to the lowest setting that the lawn mower will allow, then... b) With sand, fill the holes Irv created getting his truck -- and 2 support trucks -- stuck in the mud on the side of the house. Pack tight and top with real soil to grow good grass with. c) Install drainage in t...

The hot-button issue of the moment is healthcare reform... If you didn't know that then you are likely not reading this right now. While the president spoke last night, I was watching basketball and after that Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Not to be a total ass or anything, but out of genuine curiosity to fuel whether or not I should even be excited about this -- and if so how excited should I be... As presented, the question was... "Could someone explain to me what specifically this 'healthcare reform' will bring? And I request that it be done without the backloading of opinion, be they positive or negative, I want the meat and potatoes of this one and none of the bullsh*t." Again, I do not edit the content of the responses, straightup copy/paste... The only thing I fix is the use of quotation marks. This discussion will be a little different from prior "Question of the Days," in that I will not be using the responses that do not specifically address the ...

Well, home on a Sunday and with nothing to do prior to firing up the grill this afternoon to smoke a couple of Turkey legs for The Katie and I, I got to thinking about a topic for question of the day, and went in. As per the usual, it came in the form of a facebook status. Then I realized a typo, deleted and RE-typed it correct this time, and it goes as such... "Could you get involved with someone who belongs to a different religion from your own, or even none at all? Why/why not?" First respondent this morning was former coworker, Angel, with... "Nope. It will cause arguments and problems eventually. Also, I'm close with my family and we are Christians. You must fit in...not to mention my father is a bishop and brother is a pastor. I need you to at least go to church with me sometimes, celebrate holidays, etc. Sorry, 'I' can't do that." Next respondent was best friend Roger, with... "I could personally. Most religions ...

If you're like me, you download a ton of pr0ns and music, a lot of which comes attached in rapidshare links or similar (mediafire, megaupload, hotfile, sendspace, etc...), and you may or may not fuck with torrents -- which I don't. One point of strussfration is having to wait on, or actively attend to the starting and handling of your downloads when they come in this method. Without a premium (paid) account, then you are not allowed concurrent downloads on most of these channels, not to mention that you must wait between downloads. Not to mention that this can GREATLY fuck the download/completion of multi-part archives. Imagine with me that such a program exists that would allow you to actually queue your downloads, that it will wait the necessary time between downloads and go forward with them -- even entering CAPTCHA for you -- save them to the folder of your choosing and even extract the files from the archives and delete the .zip/.rar files from your computer? Well we'r...

"Gangster rapper" is an oxymoron as a concept, simple as that. If ever there was a more oxymoronical (lol, I know) word in the general lexicon, that is it... Gangsters in general know that the move is to simply shut the fuck up about dirt done, lest it will become used against them in a not-too-distant future situation. Imagine, say... Al Capone? made a song or whatever medium employed at the time (what, newspaper?) to broadcast the sordid tales of his exploits during prohibition? Imgine if Anthony Spilotro ("Nicholas Santoro," if you believe Casino to the letter, or "Nicky Tarrantino if you're an ignorant coon and go on the word of Biggie) went out bragging about how big a corrupt money pit that Vegas was, an open pussy ripe for fucking? Exactly... Tell me why, then, I am to believe that some ignorant coon is guilty of ANY of the shit that they've admitted to on record? Hell, The Sporty Thievz would be joining a Lifer's Group for the shit they...

You know what I dig about TVR? The fact that not much is known about the inner workings of their company or tooling, yet their cars are motherfucking FAST, and exotic at the same time. Enormous inline 6 engines make for a very sexy exhaust note, and in the case of the car we're currently discussing, a very interesting presentation of it as well. Personally, I am not a fan of the cladding/shroud surrounding the exhaust, but other pictures will show that it is not always there. Without a ton of information to provide, other than the car debuted in 2004 and had a 2-year run, and came in all kinds of strange colors -- as is par for the course with TVR -- I have not a lot to keep you on without just getting to the images, so here we go.

When my 13 year-old niece was a smaller child, if she didn't want something, she would say "I don't like that," not quite understanding the context of context. Ever the evil genius now, she gets it, so no worries... It seems, though, that ADULTS seem to unlearn that shit just in time to become narrow-minded when it comes to trying new things, which leads us into today's Question of the Day, this one comes to us courtesy of the pretty lady Barri over at Witches Brew ... Why, when faced with something that they have never had, do people -- usually brown people -- toss up "oh, I don't like that" just because they'd never had it before? [ Phlip note - a prime example of this would be sushi, and an exception to the rules would be chitterlings -- I don't expect ANYONE to like the specter of eating pig asshole and intestines] First Facebook respondent was my cousin * Wayne , with... "I don't like clams... but I love clam chowder (goes t...

Desperation is not a terribly masculine trait... This week, we have seen both Gilbert Arenas and Chris Brown bitching up in the news. For those that don't know... Gilbert Took to esquire magazine just ahead of his sentencing to talk about how he deserves to be punished for what he did. This comes as a total surprise to me, to suggest that any man, regardless of his income level, should be PUNISHED for breaking a law, especially when the breaking of that law might, you know... KILL someone? This comes in the same week that he was revealed to have requested a change in jersey number to be like NBA Model Citizen, LeBron James as well. I would be so inclined to think that this move was in earnest if I hadn't thought that Gilbert Arenas was totally full of shit BEFORE carrying guns across state lines and pulling them on a teammate "as a joke." Coincidentally(?), it also happens to come about a week or so ahead of his sentencing for the aforementioned running afoul of estab...

DMX was arrested again recently, big shocker there... It has reached the point where you can set your watch by his arrests. With an arrest record like his, it is only natural that the man is on probation(s) of some sort(s), and therefore would be facing some time behind bars for his latest escapades. Unless something happens, of course. Yeah, something is reported to be taking place. Dr Drew Pinsky, seeing an opportunity for another paycheck from VH1, has reached out to authorities asking if he could be allowed to treat DMX for his drug problem(s) at his Pasadena Recovery Center. One would only be able to infer that the cameras will be rolling as they normally are in that place, and that we will get a season of Celebrity Rehab and perhaps Sober House as a result. While I am the one who, though unable to turn away from some of the admittedly shitty "reality" programming on VH1, will sit back and talk on just how made up it all is. You usually have one "celebrity," (q...