Sunday Night Gallimaufry

You know the drill, this is the miscellaneous tab closing ceremony. Since I’m tired of politics today, there will be none in this list.

  • I have had several discussions about this recent article on a particular form of elective surgery. All that I can conclude from these discussions is that I have different aesthetic than many of the people I’ve been talking to. Oh, and, I guess, that we’re all pretty convinced that Western Civilization as a whole has some pretty serious body image disorders.
  • I recently had a chance to try some Ola Dubh, or “Black Oil” beer–the kind aged in 30 year old Highland Park casks. It was pretty good, although probably not worth the cost all things considered. I also had a chance to try Southern Tier Brewing‘s Crème Brûlée Stout. It was pretty much the perfect dessert beer–a category I’m not sure I would previously have admitted existed. You couldn’t drink more than one bottle of it at a time–both because it’s kind of sweet, and because it’s a big bottle that rolls at 10% alcohol.
  • I’m not sure if the story about beer brewed with 45 million year old yeast is awesome or not. On the one hand I love that A) the stuff survived dormant for 45 million years, B) that the stuff has a much less evolved “diet” than modern yeast, and C) the first thing a scientist with a 45 million year old pocket of organisms does with them is makes beer. On the other hand, this sounds like the setup for a sub-Carpenter horror movie where all the people who drink the beer eventually become pseudo-zombie extensions of a prehistoric hive mind or something. Even with the B-grade concerns, I’m still more likely to try it than beers made with certain other yeasts.
  • I wonder if I can avoid more religion arguments by just pointing people to the Official God FAQ?
  • If you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ve probably heard me spout off about adaptations one time or another. Hollywood often drives me nuts, especially when the changes they make in an adaptation lose the essential point of the story. I could do a rant here about lots of things, but instead I’ll step aside and let Alex Irvine take this one. The example he’s ranting on is so egregious that you almost have to laugh. It’s the best story since the one about Paul Gross being told that the studios would make Passchendale if he just “took the Canada out of it”.
  • The Third Eye–the pinhole camera made out of a skull, is one of the coolest, creepiest things I’ve seen on boingboing. It looks like a prop from a Tim Powers story… actually, no, it might be more from a Jim Blaylock story. And the pictures it takes, would also fit nicely into the story–pictures of what the eye might not be able to see.
  • Since I’ve been working for people in Boston for well over a decade now, and have spent a lot of time there in those years, I am, of course, familiar with the various lovely and melodic accents that are to be found in the Boston area. If you aren’t, you can educate yourself somewhat at the recently created blog, pronounced WOO-BIN, where the entires are “illustrated” with sound clips.
  • You know, he might be right, that might just be the most random panel in comic book history.
  • The most awesome geek t-shirt I’ve ever seen was one with Barney Rubble holding a bloody sword, and the head of a certain purple dinosaur, with the caption “Barney, there can be only one!”. However, that might have been outdone by the Cookie Monster Slayer costume. That’s hilarious, in a “this only makes sense in con-world” way.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
This work by Chris McLaren is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada.