My buddy Bill needs Le Café bump

Regular-reader, Facebook reposting, brilliant drummer and amazing photographer Bill Whitmire needs your help!

The long and short of it: Bill’s in a band called The Passing. The Passing need* votes. You have a computer. You can vote!

Here’s the juicy info:

All you have to do is go here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/Stoli?sk=app_108468622525037, put THE PASSING in their search box and click vote. You don’t not have to create an account or anything like that. Thankfully they made it super simple.

GO VOTE!!!

*The plural verb with a singular noun always throws me off.

 

 

Kottke: The Onion predicted the future

Official photograph portrait of former U.S. Pr...
Image via Wikipedia

I was reading back through Kottke’s blog, and I saw this gem about The Onion predicting the future 10 years ago. The Onion article is time-stamped JANUARY 17, 2001.

Kottke writes:

Published in The Onion more than 10 years ago after George W. Bush took office,Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’ is just getting more and more prescient.

Bush swore to do “everything in [his] power” to undo the damage wrought by Clinton’s two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

“You better believe we’re going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration,” said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. “Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?”

They probably should get a Pulitzer.

Everybah-day, rock my pah-tay

What a weird week.

We’ve been getting odd requests business-wise. We might finally schedule a shoot that has been in the works for almost two years.

We’ve had some house issues lately that we’re attacking. We’re finally fixing our car after ramming it into the train tracks one day last spring. The parts are ordered, and it should be done soon.

We had a couple plumbers in, because our dishwasher was backing up, and my toilet absolutely sucks at flushing.

My dad and regular-reader Aaron have visited recently, and they both wondered if there was adequate roof-top ventilation to strengthen the flush. The plumber said that’s not it. My dad also surmised that the toilet itself was deficient … that the tank doesn’t hold enough water to be effective.

Yesterday, we happened to have another plumber look at our building’s plumbing and he said that the internal workings needed to be replaced, because the plunger in the tank didn’t lift high enough. But even when you manually lift that doohickie, the amount of water in the tank isn’t enough to flush the toilet.

The plumber we called yesterday said that the toilet is the issue, and recommended replacing it.

“Damn,” I said. “I just saw a toilet out in the alley last week.”

He laughed.

He told me he could get me a toilet for $175 and install it for $80. I looked at Home Depot, and toilets are around $225 or more. I think it’s a pretty good deal.

One time within the last year, I had a spot of flu. I vomited a couple times, and because my toilet doesn’t flush well, I think I vomited more from the odor of not being able to flush my potty (hence the title “rock my pah-tay” above.

You’re welcome for telling that story. 

Right before regular-reader Xina and her husband visited, we noticed a few flies in our kitchen. By the time Xina and Mr X were in the kitchen, we seemed to be overrun with lethargic flies doing their native dances on the windows.

We used a trusty fly swatter to eliminate what seemed like hundreds of flies. We were embarrassed of the problem, but couldn’t determine a source.

Once in while, I like to hide a piece of raw meat in the kitchen and see who can find it first, Talulah or Tina. But I hadn’t done that recently.

When Aaron visited, we were still seeing the flies, and he guessed that maybe a dead rodent somewhere in the walls was the culprit. But we couldn’t smell it. The second day that Aaron was here, the flies seemed to stop.

We determined that Aaron has supernatural powers. We built him a shrine, with candles and streamers. Then killed him, hoping he’d raise from the dead.

Now the flies are back, and we’re on the run for homicide.

Honk.

We think the flies might have come from a rotten potato that our next door neighbor found under her sink. Our walls aren’t exactly closed off. If flies were under her sink, they could have found their way into our place.

All in all, we’re doing okay. I can’t wait to sit on my new john once installed. Maybe I’ll take pictures and share with you. I’m sure you’d love the beautiful body function art that I make.

We’ve had some other news that I’m not ready to share yet. And we have some other home-fixing issues that need to be addressed soon.

So keep checking back like 15 million times a day until. I appreciate it.

It’s Mercridog! Déjà vu style.

I’m pretty sure Jude wants Le Café Witteveen to be renamed, “Le Café Anna … Destroyer of Squirrels.”

I’m not sure I can let that happen, but I’m open to petitions signed by 6 billion or more.

Honk.

In honor of Jude’s recent move to Montreal, I named this Wednesdog, Mercridog (play on Mercredi) and it’s déjà vu, because Anna may have been featured on this special day once before. I can’t remember.

 

 

 

Oh, we’ve got her now!

When Michele Bachmann embarrasses herself over the details of Elvis’ birth and death, we should all circulate the video and make wild-eyed fun of her!

I’m just waiting for her to say something really stupid like, “Being gay is of Satan” or something.

Then we’ll have our victory!!!

Via Cynical C