U.S. Blues

It's not that the U.S. men's hockey team was really favored to win anything. It's that they played like a bunch of little bitches - there, I said it, it can't be unsaid.

Man, Congress is about to have a collective aneurysm. Cool!

Did you ever notice how some words that end in the letter p sound really weird? Like cup and soup and burp. Weird sounding words. But then other words that end with the letter p sound perfectly normal, like rip and step.


So, uh, yeah.

Happy Presidents Day - if you are not a President, then this day is not for you

In honor of our second most ridiculous national holiday (after Columbus Day), here is a little humorous exercise to entertain. It makes me thankful to remember that we do, indeed, live in a country where we can poke fun of the guy in charge to our heart's content and not risk getting some part of the anatomy excised.

Yeah, yeah, I know - it's from one of those political blogs that chokes up the internet with semi-informed opinions passed off as the most important things ever written. But I do occasionally find some of their stuff amusing and fun to read - and I also respect anyone who can laugh at President's Day, a holiday that was apparently cooked up by auto dealers.

We are in the End Times

It's been afwul quiet around here lately, hasn't it? And no, it's not because my Super Bowl pick fell through. Don't worry, despite going to Las Vegas last fall, I didn't gamble away one of my limbs or anything.

It's just that I think we are living in chaotic, nasty times. Nobody likes anybody anymore. The world is being flushed down the cosmic toilet, but keeps backing up the drain, like some nasty remnant of a heavy meal. Looking for some solace, I consulted Yahoo!'s "What's Interesting?" search suggestion. Hey, I like interesting things, right? I could use a break from the latest news about shootings, beatings, bombings and lying, right? And what did the wisdom of the search engine reveal to be their most interesting search? Yeah, you guessed it - celebrity baby names! Consider yourself lucky to live in such enlightened times.

Oh, why am I contributing to the curmudgeonry? Here, treat yourself to some pictures of puppies and kittens. Everyone likes puppies and kittens. EVERYONE MUST LIKE PUPPIES AND KITTENS.

Is it still OK to be a slacker?

So Kevin Smith is hard at work on "Clerks II". I have fond memories of the first time I saw "Clerks" - it was playing at Cornell Cinema, I had no pressing deadlines to meet one weekday evening (for once), but everyone else did, so I went alone. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. What's all this, then, about a sequel? I'm not going to complain, but I'm not going to get overly excited either. I'm somewhat hopeful that this will be another shot at the big time for Kevin Smith. Hit or miss, he's always been sincere and committed. I'm reminded of something Beck once said in an interview about his song "Loser," about how people of our generation are not really slackers, but that they insist on defining success on their own terms. Plus we know how to laugh at ourselves about our crappy jobs (not that I have any real reason to complain about mine, unlike my British colleagues). Here's to hearing another barrage of dick and fart jokes in "Clerks II."

From our Warshington office

This just in - the new House majority leader has a name that looks like "Boner."

Heh heh - boner.

Quit hogging the ground!

Man, Groundhog Day. How useless. I guess the kids love it, or something. But look at him, just sitting there. MENACINGLY.

I wonder if a groundhog would make a good comics character? I'm working on developing a story for a 16 page comic as part of the class I mentioned last time (you do remember that, right? It's just down the page if you don't.). I have a nascent, half-formed idea right now, kind of like the daffodil shoots that are surreptitiously poking their heads out of the ground in front of my garage two months too early (darn 50 degree "winter" weather!). I'm thinking about the theme of college life, with the main character being an innocent who just started college. The twist is that he still has an imaginary friend/spirit guide - of some sort. I'm not too clear on this part yet. If I were to pitch it to Nickelodeon or the Cartoon Network, I would pitch it as "Calvin and Hobbes meets Animal House." And then they would send me home with no cookie.

This whole creative process thing is a malicious little groundhog, I tell you.