Olympic Speech

President Bush is rehearsing his speech, using the teleprompter, for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

He begins with "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!"

Immediately his speech writer rushes over to the lectern and whispers in the President's ear:

"Mr. President, those are the Olympic rings. Your speech is underneath."

(via Simply Left Behind)

See more on the Olympics.

Information Links

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Salsa Time!

In August, it’s hard to find time to sit down and research some fascinating subject for you because I’m knee deep in tomatoes. Everyday I head to the garden with a five-gallon bucket and fill it up. Sometimes twice a day. I also grow peppers, so that means it’s salsa time! Cue the music!

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Welcome to Beijing

Lyrics available at YouTube under "more info".

Links for Fun

A review of Southern Barbecue. What you'll eat depends mostly on where you are.

How to Fix a Vacuum with a String Bikini.

The 6 Creepiest Marketing Campaigns Aimed at Children. Some are clever but unethical, and some were thought up by someone with a brain on drugs.

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It's been 22 years, but it seems like yesterday. Where Are They Now: The Cast of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

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Paris Hilton responds to the McCain "Celebrity" ad.

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¡Three Amigos!

From Wikipedia:
¡Three Amigos! is a 1986 comedy western film, produced by George Folsey, Jr., and Lorne Michaels. John Landis directed for HBO Films. Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short star. The movie was written by Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, and Randy Newman. Randy Newman contributed several original songs, including "The Ballad of the Three Amigos" and "My Little Buttercup", while the musical score was composed by Elmer Bernstein.

Gold Diggers of 1933

Ginger Rogers in a Busby Berkeley production of We're In The Money.

Five Fantastic Felines

Cats can bring a smile just by doing what they normally do. A few do so in amazingly helpful and inspiring ways.

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Fun and Funny Links

Ten Films That Should Be Broadway Musicals (with song suggestions included). If Legally Blonde can do it, why not Jaws?

Actual Laws Against Sexual Activity in America.

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Winglet, the Next Generation Segway

It’s called a standup mover, a compact motorized transporter, and a partner robot. And that’s just in the first couple of paragraphs of the press release. It’s also been called a vertical mechanized scooter. What it is, is something like a Segway. Toyota has developed the Winglet through its Sony Robotics subsidiary.

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Otters in Unison

Baby otters seems to be attuned to each other. (via Neatorama)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

One of my favorite authors has died. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was born in 1918 and served as witness to the entire span of Soviet rule in Russia. He was imprisoned for anti-Soviet propaganda, followed by exile in Siberia. His experiences were the basis for his novels, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Cancer Ward, The First Circle, and others. His magnum opus was a the 3-volume tome The Gulag Archipelago. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 and was deported from the Soviet Union in 1974. He returned to Russia in 1994.

The International Herald Tribune takes a look at Solzhenitsyn's life and legacy.

Solzhenitsyn had been an obscure, middle-aged, unpublished high school science teacher in a provincial Russian town when he burst onto the literary stage in 1962 with "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich." The book, a mold-breaking novel about a prison camp inmate, was a sensation. Suddenly he was being compared to giants of Russian literature like Tolstoy, Dostoyevski and Chekov.

Over the next five decades, Solzhenitsyn's fame spread throughout the world as he drew upon his experiences of totalitarian duress to write evocative novels like "The First Circle" and "The Cancer Ward" and historical works like "The Gulag Archipelago."

"Gulag" was a monumental account of the Soviet labor camp system, a chain of prisons that by Solzhenitsyn's calculation some 60 million people had entered during the 20th century. The book led to his expulsion from his native land.

Reading Solzhenitsyn was one of the few things that could keep me inside the dorm during college. He sparked my interest in Russian history as well as global politics and the philosophy of evil. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was 89.

Information Links

10 Fascinating Facts About the Ancient Olympic Games.

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The World's Worst Olympians. Some countries don't bring home many medals, but they have their reasons. Some should get kudos for just making the attempt.

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10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything. It's never too late to start developing them.

The Homeless Got Talent! The stories of eleven musical acts, artists, and one dancer who rose from the streets to entertain us (with videos).

A new study says parents harm their children's development if they ban tree-climbing or conkers. I'm all for tree-climbing, but since I don't know what conkers are, I'm afraid my kids are doomed.

Tips for getting rid of junk mail before it gets to you. Which beats throwing it in a landfill, like most folks do.

A spectator's guide to the Olympics. A short course on ten events you should check out.

Livin' for the City

Awesome! Stevie Wonder from 1973.

Bungee Jump with a Bonus Surprise

It bet it was his last bungee jump. (via Bits and Pieces)

Fun Links for the Weekend

Heavy Lifting with Batman and the Joker.

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8 People Who Will Ruin Your Party.

Take a nice relaxing flight. Isn't that soothing?

Watch the Laser Kitty with bobblehead action! Too bad his fat brother won't chase a laser like that.

Chinese Lessons for Geeks.

The 50 Hottest Women Sword Fighters.

The Lazy Blogger's Post Generator. I'd try it out, but it looks like too much work.

Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape Dying Planet. I don't often link to The Onion, but this one is just too clever.

Homeland Security looks for suspicious characters at Comic Con 2008.

Robots Are Our Friends

(via Everlasting Blort)

Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park

From Wikipedia:

Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park is a 1978 television movie, starring American hard rock band Kiss. The movie's plot revolves around Kiss, who must use their superpowers to battle an evil inventor (Abner Devereaux, played by Anthony Zerbe) and to save a California amusement park from destruction.

The movie was aired by NBC at the height of Kiss's popularity in the United States. While it was one of the highest-rated TV movies of the year, its poor acting and semi-comedic script causes it to be regarded poorly even by most Kiss fans. Despite this, it has attained cult film status.

Good Reads

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10 Things You Should Know About the Internet. Just so you won't sound like a n00b at the next geekfest.

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Electing a US President in Plain English. A straightforward video that explains the electoral college system.

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