27 years ago today, John Lennon was assassinated

John Lennon was assassinated by a deranged fan outside his home 27 years ago today. We lived in the neighborhood at the time, and could hear the sirens. I was listening to Vin Skelsa that night on WNEW when he broke in in tears, to tell us the news about his friend. Lennon had just released Double Fantasy (his best record in years) two weeks earlier. It was an incredibly depressing time, especially in New York City. Hostages were being held in Tehran, Jimmy Carter had just been trounced in the election, and Ronald Regan would be sworn in as President in a few weeks. For months fans gathered across the street from The Dakota, in what would become Strawberry Fields in Central Park.
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Poem: Stages

I am no one's grandchild
Or nephew or great nephew
I've never been a great grandson

I am still a son
Still a brother and uncle
Son- and brother-in-law
First second and third cousin
Daddy and husband

I am still to be a grandfather
Great uncle and father-in-law

And always have been
And always will be God's boy.
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Happy Birthday, Washington Monument!

In 1884, 123 years ago today, the Washington Monument was completed as workers placed a nine-inch aluminum pyramid on the tower of white marble. The city's (and my state's) namesake, George Washington finally had a fitting monument. 100 years earlier, Congress decided a statue of the great Revolutionary War general should be placed near the site of the new Congressional building, wherever that ended up being. It wasn't until 1832, 33 years after Washington's death, that much really happened on the monument front. After holding a design competition and choosing an elaborate Greek temple-like design by architect Robert Mills, the society began fundraising money for the statue's construction. These efforts raised some less than a fourth of the the $1 million needed. Construction began anyway, and on July 4, 1848, they laid the cornerstone of the monument: a 24,500-pound block of pure white marble.

By 1854, with funds running low, construction was halted. Around the time the Civil War began in 1861, author Mark Twain described the unfinished monument as looking like a "hollow, oversized chimney." In 1876, President Grant ordered the construction to be completed.


another phallic monument,
known locally as "The Brick
Dick"in Ypsilanti, Michigan

At the time of its completion in December 1884, those 36,000 blocks of marble and granite stacked 555 feet in the air, were the tallest structure in the world. A city law passed in 1910 restricted the height of new buildings to ensure that the monument will remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C.
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Alien Lore No. 119: The Holloman AFB meeting between President Ike Eisenhower and The Greys

Thanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing this one out. Holloman, of course, has always loomed large in the alien lore world. This is the first time I ever heard about Ike's involvement (the story reminds me of the episode in Dark Skies were President Truman meets with The Greys and then orders the army to shoot down with departing "UFO").

According to Clark C. McClelland, once with the U.S. Space Shuttle Fleet, a UFO landed in front of former U.S. President Eisenhower and other officials at Holloman Aair Force Base. Holloman looms nearly as large as Roswell or Area 51 in Alien Lore.

The old Alamogordo airfield (aka Holloman) had been a training base for heavy bombers. But one day, to the surprise of almost everyone, President Dwight D. Eisenhower landed there.

There was no band or parade--only a few birds calling in the distance. Everyone wondered "why is Ike here? What's going on?" The civilians and military were told that while the president was here, this would be a "business as usual" day.

Whatever was happening would happen was as far away as it could be from the base. Little could be seen unless one had a vantage point and binoculars. Soon, the radar officers gave instructions to shut off all radar. He had turned base operations over to his deputy base commander as long as the President was here. He felt it his duty to be with him with no distractions.

A phone rang in the tower with a report of two UFOs passing over Range Road 12. A minute later, the bogies were over Range Road 7, just a few minutes from the runway. Men in the tower swung their glasses to the north in the morning haze.

Something glinted in the sun, and then something else just below it. Now, a report came in of a third bogie five minutes behind the first two. The tower personnel who did not know what these were, were stunned. The objects had no tails, no wings, and no motors. They were just round objects heading toward the president's plane. They reported the objects, logged them and did their job which was "business as usual." The two objects stopped 300 feet over Air Force One, and then one touched about 200 feet ahead of the plane.

The other UFO hovered above the buildings over the tarmac. The disc had a good vantage point of anything that might come towards the president's plane and the UFO on the ground. Most people who saw or heard about the two craft at the base that day did not believe they were ET, but possibly new Russian or German innovations.

After the UFO landed in front of Air Force One, a man (whom people assumed was the President), came to the doorway of the plane, and approached the saucer on the ground. The man walked up the ramp, stood at the opening, shook hands with someone, and went inside.

Observers thought the President was inside the UFO about 45 minutes. When he emerged from the craft, he walked towards Air Force One. Most observers believed it was President Ike. Many of the witnesses recognized that famous bald pate and his stiff military walk.

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Video: a sylvan car ride

I don't know who made the video (if it was you, contact me!), but I like it. A nice little sylvan ride in the boondocks. . .

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Senator McCain Senior Moment (video)

Senator McCain loses his place.


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Idaho Statesman unearths more dirt on Senator/chocolate thief Larry Craig (with bonus audio clips)

Two months after Senator Larry Craig weaseled on his promise to resign, his old nemesis, The Idaho Statesman is back with interviews (and audio clips) of some of the randy Senator's pickups and victims. It's not just foot tapping this time, friends.

Five men came forward with lurid tales of Senator Craig, most of them were offended by Craig's vehement denials, including his now famous "I am not gay, I never have been gay." [1] Yes, it's a case of he said/she said, but four of the men are willing to make their names and accusations public:

David Phillips, a 42-year-old IT consultant in Washington, says Craig picked him up at a gay club in 1986 and that they subsequently had sex. Audio clip: David Phillips talks about oral sex with the Senator. Audio clip: David Phillips talks about the Senator performing anal sex on David Phillips.

Mike Jones, a former prostitute (who you may remember also told the world he had sex with another Republican, the Rev. Ted Haggard, last year). The former evangelist denied it but later 'fessed up and went off to be "cured." Audio clip: Mike Jones explains why the Senator's backing out of resigning drove him to go public.

Greg Ruth was hit on by the Senator in 1981 at a Republican meeting in Idaho. Audio clip: Greg Ruth describes a bathroom encounter with Larry Craig at the Republican convention.

Tom Russell, now 48, a former Nampa resident had an encounter with Craig in the early 1980s.

An anonymous fifth man from Boise who declined to be named said he was in a restroom at Denver International Airport in September 2006 when the man in the next stall moved his hand slowly, palm up, under the divider. Freaked out, the man said he waited outside the restroom and identified his stallmate as Craig, whom he had met once in Idaho.
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[1] Craig's denials are now also available in a Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure.
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Beaten to the punch? A disgruntled Jimmy Dean sausage customer

My fierce competitor Dean Ericksen has beaten me to the punch again. Jump here to Dean's blog to hear one of the very best viral audio files of all time. . .a disgruntled Southern Man, a Texan actually (Randy Taylor), unloading on the Jimmy Dean Pure Pork Sausage complaint line.

An excerpt:

"You've got three men who weigh over 200 pounds apiece, a woman that's a little plump--Scotch girl--and a daughter who's 13, and you're going to try to take a 12 ounce roll of sausage and a couple dozen eggs and feed that, it ain't going to work. And I'm not going to purchase your product anymore or ever again. And as far as your 16 ounce maple and sage, I don't eat that. I'm not from the North. I'm a Texas man. Jimmy Dean sausage is for southern people to eat with their breakfast with their fried eggs and their T-bone steak."

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The Mission To Unreached Peoples

I have passed by this sign on 85th Street in Greenwood, Seattle, every day for years. Last night I decided to snap a picture of it. Without actually looking up what The Mission To Unreached Peoples do (obviously something to do with Christian missionary work), it is evocative. Well, now I've looked it up, and yes, indeed, they are out there spreading The Word.


Whenever I see this sign, it makes me wonder whether I am one of the unreached peoples, or if I have been reached to the breaking point? Good question.
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Huck-a-mania! Ex-Governor Huckabee nipping at the heels of the "front-runners" who laughed at him weeks ago

click to enlarge Mike Huckabee

Ex-Governor Huckabee continues to surge in the polls. Sure, he may come back down to earth, but it seems like he is having one of those "Howard Dean" moments of political Midas Touch. In the first full round of tracking polls since last week’s “debate” among G.O.P. Presidential hopefuls, Huckabee pulled within three points of Rudy Giuliani. Before that debate, Giuliani was ahead of Huckabee by twelve points.

New polling data released today shows that Huckabee has pulled within 1% of Hillary Clinton in a general election match-up. Huckabee is leading in Iowa and tied for second in New Hampshire. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Giuliani with 20% support nationwide, Huckabee at 17%. Fred Thompson 14%, John McCain 13% and Mitt Romney, 11%. Ron Paul is pulling 7%.

The G.O.P. is experiencing some disequilibrium over the last week, between the debate, the Chuck Norris endorsement of Huckabee, and the apparent flowering of Huck-a-mania! Some of the frontrunners are gasping for air like goldfish on the sidewalk.

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Painting: Shark!

click to enlarge

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The Geek Hierarchy (or, at least one version...I could come up with a dozen other geek scenarios)

click the hierarchy to enlarge

The Geek hierarchy, from Brunching Shuttlecocks, a no longer active web site that remains more or less intact. The funny thing about this geek hierarchy is that it's not too far from reality. . .I work with people who more or less fit into every box on this "org chart," and most of them would admit it...at least about the people in the other categories. Yeah, there are replica sword collectors, renaissance faire folks, comic book fanatics, role players, Wizards gamers, Trekkies, and you name it.
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