Godwin's Second Law

I have a phenomena that needs a good name.

Godwin's Law is "the inappropriate use of Hitler/Nazi comparisons and analogies" and/or "the phenomena that the longer the Internet argument/thread comments the probability of comparing the topic at hand to nazism/Hitler reaches 1."

I've noticed a similar trend: "the inappropriate use of civil rights/Lincoln/slavery comparison/analogies."

And or: "the longer the echo chamber (the opposite of an argument) especially concerning social movements, the eventuality of invoking civil rights/MLK Jr/Lincoln/slavery, etc."

Examples: quotes/comments/thoughts that MLK would support the NRA; the Tea Party is a civil rights movement; Sarah Palin/Michele Bachman/Rand Paul model their thoughts and ideology after Lincoln; "socialized medicine/Obamacare is really enslaving health care workers/doctors"; etc.

Now it needs a good name. Suggestions?

Out with one Fredy, in with another

Let me be the first to say it: Freddy Adu to the Seattle Sounders.

Photo credits: Getty images

Like my other predictions, I'm just putting this out there both as a hope and to say "I told you so!" if it does happen.

Unlike my other fantasies (I’m still holding out on Didier Drogba, but admit that Puyol and Guardiola are long shots), this one is somewhat based on reality. Sounders have a spot on their roster; Adu needs a team. The pay scale and position actually seem to fit*! 
All that needs to be done is to add a ‘d’ to all those  “Fredy” posters.

But it’s more than coincidental and complementary needs and a really bad joke. 
This pairing needs to happen to make Adu the player he’s supposed to be.

Just like Eddie Johnson.


Yes, Adu had a bad year at Philly, but that can hardly be blamed on him. Philly’s breakdown was so ugly and so public, even my mom heard of it**. It wasn’t a healthy, happy team. Adu needs a healthy and happy team.

Adu did have a horrible spell abroad (my mom probably heard about that too***), but that’s why he should sign with the Sounders.

Schmidt and Co. displayed their brilliance in signing Eddie Johnson. Like Adu, EJ was a youth prodigy; like Adu, he went to Europe to hit it big. Like Adu, he flopped badly.

And then he met Sigi, signed with the Sounders, and started shining brightly again, capping his return to stardom by single-handedly saving the US from certain global humiliation by losing to some tiny Caribbean nation so small and insignificant, I can’t bother remembering which one.

I have my bias: I want Adu to succeed; but great skill alone does not a great player make. Coaching is amount about attitude as it is physical ability. Schmidt proved that he can coach former child prodigies who are still far too young to be washed up and make him the player he was destined to be. (That’s a very convoluted way of saying “Eddie Johnson”).

That’s why they should sign Adu.

* I really know nothing about this, but from outward appearances, they do seem to match.
**That’s an exaggeration.
**Also an exaggeration.

Incredible Photos From History

Occasionally my uncle sends me emails that aren't filled with conspiracy theories and/or right-wing rhetoric.

Sometimes, they should be put online for the whole world to view. 

Like this one.

Last four couples standing in a Chicago dance marathon. ca. 1930. Three Princeton students pose after the Freshman, Sophomore snowball fight. 1893. Princeton, NJ.   "Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers." After realizing a woman was running Boston marathon organizer Jock Semple went after Kathrine Switzer. Other runners blocked him and she went on to finish the race. 1967.   The only known photograph of an African American Union soldier with his family. c1863-65   Russian peasants getting electricity for the first time in 1920 Johnny Cash performing for prisoners at Folsom Prison – Jan. 13th 1968   Cow shoes used by Moonshiners in the Prohibition days to disguise their footprints, 1922 "The Long Walk" British Army EOD Tech approaches a suspect device – Date Unknown   Tereska, a child in a residence for disturbed children, grew up in a concentration camp. She drew a picture of "home" on the blackboard, Poland, 1948   A Native American looks down at a newly-completed section of the transcontinental railroad. Nevada, about 1868   Microsoft staff photo from Dec. 7, 1978   Jewish refugees, approaching allied soldiers, become aware that they have just been liberated, April, 1945   New York man reads a newspaper, headline reads "Nazi Army Now 75 Miles From Paris." May 18, 1940   Three archers, Japan, ca.1860-1900   The earliest known photograph of men drinking beer.  Edinburgh Ale, 1844 Alerted by the smell of a broken bottle of liquor, Federal Agents inspect a "lumber truck". Los Angeles, 1926     Martin Luther King Jr removing a burned cross from his front yard with his son at his side. Atlanta Ga 1960   A Japanese family returning home (Seattle, Washington) from a relocation center camp in Hunt, Idaho on May 10, 1945   9 kings featured in one photo (Windsor Castle, 20 May 1910)   Louis Armstrong plays for his wife in front of the Sphinx by the pyramids in Giza, 1961   The headquarters of Benito Mussolini and the Italian Fascist party in Italy, 1934   The Kennedy trio in the mid 30s as teenagers; John, Bobby and Teddy The first official riders in New York City's first subway, 1904           ======= Email scanned by PC Tools - No viruses or spyware found. (Email Guard: 9.0.0.2308, Virus/Spyware Database: 6.20930) http://www.pctools.com ======

 

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It's a "Can I eat this?" Double header!

One of the... um, advantages of being away from home for two weeks is that there's all sorts of molding, fermenting food in the house!

Add to the pot-pourri a lack of actual edible food, general unenthusiasm for leaving home, and a lack of funds for buying actual non-moldy food if we were to leave home, and the result are several new entries for the latest blog-wave: "Can I eat this?"

Today we have a double header, as Briana respectfully pulled from the back of the fridge a jar of plums that I semi-processed back in September.

("Semi-processing" is going through the hassle of pitting and boiling fruit without adding sugar to make jam and/or alcohol, or doing anything else with the concoction other than let it sit in the fridge).

From a distance, it could be art.

Maybe that's an idea: instead of blogging, I should go down to the farmer's market and peddle my wares as inedible food-art, like gourds and sour plums.

I especially like the texture! If it hadn't been sitting my fridge for three months, I'd mistake it for a fancy variation of French mousse.

ANYway, upon further inspection, it's not so enticing.

Funny, that mold wasn't there before I left for Hawaii.

(Mold is kinda cool, especially if you're a small child and still learning about things in the world and what's safe to eat and what's not. What's wrong with that sentence vis-a-vis the theme of the blog?)

Wanna see something really cool? Of course you do! The inner mold -which is only on the top of the plum stuff, meaning if I take it off it's safe to eat, right?- has shaped itself to the top of the jar.

It's kinda cool if you look at it closely. Here, I'll add another photo:

It's at this point when I realize that I'm still recovering from the slight buzz that resulted in the previous installation of CIET.  And if there's one thing I remember from chemistry class, it's something about... like... um... not mixing experiments.

I should hold off on experimenting with the plum stuff after I'm absolutely 100% recovered from the pineapple stuff.

I'll just sneak this jar back into the fridge. Don't tell my girlfriend.

Can I eat this? 2013 edition

In this week's addition of "can I eat this?", we look at more than slightly fermented pineapple brought over from Hawaii.

I don't know what's more embarrassing, that I'm wondering if we should eat it, or that we let fresh pineapple go uneaten and ferment, bringing it all the way back from Hawaii.

But we just got back from Hawaii so there's not much food in the house, and I'm pretty hungry.

(I think that's the jist of the blog: I'm poor and hungry, and will probably be only poorer and hungrier in the future, so I should test the limits of edibility now while I... still... have my health?)

ANYway, the pineapple has a high BAC, something akin to old-fashioned American macro-brew.
So after eating about half a container (roughly half a whole diced pineapple), I started feeling queasy.

Was it the intoxicants, or deadly bacteria? That question is precisely why I don't do shrooms.

So I stopped eating, cause I feel like I just gulped down a couple cans of Budweiser at one in the afternoon on an empty stomach.

Luckily, googling "deadly pineapple bacteria" yielded no relevant results.

VERDICT: SAFE, BEST AT PARTIES.

Movie Review: Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Put seven aging Brits in India on screen and what do you get? Utterly predictable down to Judi Dench's milk in her tea. Still, it'll probably win Best Picture. I can't wait until Dev Patel gets to play something other than an "Indian" character, being he'd never been to India before filming Slumdog Millionaire.