Bad Review

Sometimes, you find gems in some of the most amazing places. Take this well-written diatribe from an Audible subscriber regarding L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield: Earth bloat-a-thon:

Believe it or not, John Travolta's career-wrecking bomb of a movie is actually better than this book. What makes the movie better is that they cut out most of the dumber plot elements (90% of the book's 1000 pages). I kept reading this book thinking that there must be something in it worth reading, because it has sold millions of copies. Turns out there isn't. Most of the story is just plain stupid. It insults the intelligence of anyone who reads it. It is honestly very difficult to explain just how terrible this book is to anyone who hasn't read it. There are just too many long rambling chapters that expect you to accept ludicrous and poorly written events and characters. For example: bad guys who are made up of colonies of intelligent bacteria, who are lead by a royal caste of former circus performers and who explode in the presence of radiation. After their defeat we are introduced to a shark-headed banker alien who likes to chew mint, which he picks from an old lady's garden in England somewhere. Anyways, you're expected to believe a primitive human from Colorado acquires all the knowledge of the bacteria-people (with their help no less), teams up with a group of Scotsmen and leads a massive and very boring rebellion against a race that has conquered dozens of galaxies. Then the humans of course win and acquire the bacteria-people's assets and become really really wealthy. Wondering why this wasn't in the movie? Because it's stupid that's why, but it really is the plot. Don't believe me? Really bored? Try reading this and be thankful it's the abridged version, the full one is worse.

-- "Aaron", Reviewing Battlefield: Earth

I've never read B:E, nor will I ever. I did go see the movie, dragging friends along for what I knew was going to be a really awful experience. But then, I actually like bad movies -- it's so bad it's good kind of movies. While some of my friends merely groaned and squirmed, wishing for the pain to end, I laughed mirthfully at the ridiculous plot, characters, costumes, events, and special effects. It was awful. It was wonderful.





Speaking of Mr. Hubbard, Salon has been running some interesting articles on him, Tom Cruise, and Scientology:

Stranger than fiction -- A Review of Dianetics

Missionary Man -- Tom Cruise and Scientology

The Press vs. Scientology -- A look at the relationship between CoS and the Press

Scientology's War on Psychiatry -- self-explanatory

More Cool This American Life - Godless America

A fascinating episode discussing whether or not this country is founded on an idealogy of the seperation of church and state.

Most fascinating is the discussion of the history of Christian activists' attempts, for over a hundred-fifty years, to amend the Constitution to include various "Christian" amendments (five times since the Civil War such an amendment has come up to Congress, and five times these failed, voted down by Congress).

And Julia Sweeney's monologue at the end, about her attempts to explore her spirituality by attending church and reading the Bible, pretty much sums up my feelings entirely. And it's really funny, too.

This American Life - Godless America

Just Cool - The Sanctity of Marriage

I subscribe to This American Life podloads from Audible. Last night, as I couldn't sleep for coughing and choking on snot, I decided to catch up on my backlog in my iPod. As the hours crept into the early morning, I listened to the Sanctity of Marriage episode. It was absolutely fascinating. If you have any interest in marriage (I think anyone human does), go take a listen.

You'll need RealAudio (or get an Audible subscription) and an hour of earspace.

And, while you're there, listen to anything else. This is one of the best programs in American media today. My absolute all-time favorite is Fiasco!, which I think I've mentioned before.

Big Bird Saved -- But...

Big Bird and National Public Radio won a reprieve Thursday as the House restored $100 million that had been proposed as a budget cut for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The 284-140 vote demonstrated the enduring political strength of public broadcasting, whose supporters rallied behind popular programs such as 'Sesame Street,' 'Postcards From Buster' and 'The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.'

The Public Broadcasting Service undertook a high-profile campaign to rescind the proposed cut. Lawmakers were flooded with letters and phone calls.

The vote came as the House worked on a $142.5 billion spending bill for health, education and labor programs for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.

-- Salon.com News | House won't cut public broadcasting funds

Woot, but at the same time, the CPB is still under attack by right-wing apparatchiks:

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whose chairman is under fire for complaining about what he considered liberal bias at PBS, chose a former Republican Party co-chairman Thursday as its president and chief executive.

Patricia S. Harrison, the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, was selected after three days of closed meetings by the corporation's board of directors. She was co-chair of the Republican National Committee from 1997 to 2001.

-- Salon.com News | Public broadcasting names new president

So we still have to remain wary and protective of one of the few remaning truly unbiased sources of public news and information left in this country.

Broken Beak

I was recovering from a losing bout of the flu. I'd been cooped up in the house, alone with an ancient diabetic cat in more dire straights than myself and a crippled dog, limping from an old injury she sustained to her leg as a puppy. Enough of this, I thought to myself, I'm bored and hungry. I showered, dressed shabbily in a bright blue hawaiian shirt, and, already woozy from the effort, shambled out of the house and made my slow way to the nearest cafe for a late, light lunch al fresco. The sunshine and modest exercise would do me good, as would a helping of food of reasonably decent quality. I'm no doctor, but I do know there's nothing healthy about sitting in a dreary house all alone with nothing eat, even if you are still tinging at the corners with influenza.

The cafe was nothing special, although it had an excellent patio shaded by an enormous wisteria trained to a lattice above head. I turned in my order for some pasta and salad, then went outside with a glass of tea and a few breadsticks to find a table in the warm shade. The breadsticks I took for the local grackle and sparrow population.

After seating myself, I began breaking the breadsticks into tiny morsels. A young grackle, canny to what was going on, hopped up on the edge of my table directly across from me, eyeing me with his left, then his right eye expectantly. I carefully tossed a crumb at his feet, which he snatched up immediately and swallowed, looking back at me, asking for more. I obliged him with a larger piece that he had to fly away with to break into smaller pieces. I tossed some handfuls of crumbs to the ground, and the other birds came flocking out of their hiding places in the shrubbery, chittering and chirping excitedly at the prospect of a meal.

My pasta and salad arrived, and the young grackle came back to the table. He perched on the edge and watched me just out of arms reach. I ate the salad, but left four small cherry tomatoes, which I don't care for much anyway. I popped these open with my knife, then slid the bowl over to the bird. He danced back, then moved forward to the bowl as my hand withdrew. He inspected the tomatoes carefully with both eyes, then prodded them. Grabbing one of the pieces, he cackled with what I could only assume was complete delight and flew away. I turned my attention to my pasta, glancing up to watch the other birds still nervously attacking the numerous crumbs on the ground. Every minute or so, the young grackle would return -- I could recognize his scrawny body and green-black head now -- to steal another piece of tomato, cackle merrily, and fly away. I paid him no more attention.

My prescription for curing the flu wasn't that efficacious, although it did feel good to get outside in the warm air and sun. I walked home, feeling both better (warmer) and worse (more tired) than before. I put myself to sleep early, hoping that upon waking the next day I'd find myself rid of the obnoxious virus once and for all. Sadly, I woke the next morning more stuffed than before and looked forward to another dull day locked away in my house sick and alone once more.

As the late afternoon approached and the pangs of hunger with it, I again decided to stroll down to the cafe and get some more sun on the patio beneath the wisteria. I showered, dressed in the same loud blue shirt since I had hardly worn it at all the day before, and once again dizzily walked down to my little cafe. Too sick or lazy to change, I repeated my order for a simple bowl of pasta and a salad, grabbed a glass of tea and a few breadsticks, and settled myself outside in the warm shade of that lovely wisteria vine.

My food came quickly, really before I'd had a chance to begin feeding the birds. No sooner had my plates arrived, than that certain young grackle landed on my table. His beak was wide open, as if he was panting. Fearlessly, he stepped right up to the edge of my salad bowl and looked in. I greeted the young bird politely with a tip of my tea glass, welcoming him to lunch once again but firmly demanding that he refrain from poking at my salad until I had finished with it. I moved the bowl away from him, yet he did not dance away in avian wariness as expected. He simply stood there, open-beaked and silent, looking at me.

I looked back, and wondered about his wide-open beak. I examined him closely. I could have reached out and scooped him up in my hand as easily as I could grab my glass of tea, he was so close. I frowned, drawn in by sadness, when I realized his beak was open because the lower half was snapped and broken, dangling down from the bird's face at a slight angle. Blood crusted the base of the beak where it had become detached from his skull. He couldn't move it, broken as it was. I supposed he'd flown into plate glass window and broken it.

The bird moved closer to me. I reached into the salad bowl and offered him a morsel of lettuce. He nudged it with his broken beak, but having lost the ability to pinch anything between the two halves, tossed his head right and left in pain and frustration. I removed the cherry tomatoes from the salad and smashed them open with my fingers, setting the exploded orbs at the bird's feet. The grackle poked at them, wiggling his exposed tongue in the juices, but he couldn't lift anything up to swallow.

I grimaced and tried to ignore his struggling while I ate my pasta. I glanced up at him once or twice, considering what I could or should do. I could easily grab the bird, as he stood less than a foot away from me on the table and showed no fear of my hand when I offered him food. I imagined that if I did grab him, he'd panic and injure the beak further, perhaps ripping it off entirely. And if I did manage to grab him safely, I wondered if I could repair the beak at all. I'd saved small birds -- blue jays specifically -- before, long ago as a child. I had nursed them back to health with eyedroppers of milk, cornmeal, and powdered multi-vitamins. So, though I could certainly feed the young grackle with an eyedropper of mush, I couldn't imagine how I could reattach the dangling bloody beak.

The grackle serenely closed his eyes while I ate in contemplation. He must have realized he couldn't eat the food I offered him. Perhaps he was reflecting on his dire situation for the first time. So I marveled at him, skinny, green-black, and dangling beak. I wondered what he was trying to communicate, if anything at all. He had no fear of me. He stood there, next to my plate making no move to steal food, with an air of patient calm. He recognized my bright blue hawaiian print, I decided. I looked like some brilliant blue grackle god to him. I posed no threat to him, perhaps even could offer him succor. After all, I'd fed him the day before. He was so calm standing next to my plate, eyes closed, so resigned, so sad.

I reached out towards the bird. He opened his eyes, a little nervous as my hand approached, then he shuddered and closed his eyes again. He stood stock still while I closed my hand across his back and looped my fingers around his neck and under, ever so carefully, his broken beak. His tail feathers spread in anticipation. I held my hand and fingers loosely about his warm, soft, fragile body. He squinted one eye, glancing at me again, then closed it. His tail feathers relaxed like a sigh. I gave him a name then, whispering low so only he would hear it -- Sebastian.

I answered Sebastian's silent prayer with the smallest amount of pressure and an unflinching moment of humanity.

No Brainer

In the first study to map brain function during orgasm, scientists from the Netherlands also found that as a woman climaxes, an area of the brain governing emotional control is largely deactivated.

'The fact that there is no deactivation in faked orgasms means a basic part of a real orgasm is letting go. Women can imitate orgasm quite well, as we know, but there is nothing really happening in the brain,' said neuroscientist Gert Holstege, presenting his findings Monday to the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.

In the study, Holstege and his colleagues at Groningen University recruited 11 men, 13 women and their partners.

Holstege said he had trouble getting reliable results from the study on men because the scanner needs activities lasting at least two minutes and the men's climaxes didn't last that long. However, the scans did show activation of reward centers in the brain for men, but not for women.

-- Salon.com Life | Brain areas shut off during female orgasm

A Helpful Hint

Salon.com News | Goss claims he has idea where Bin Laden is: "Asked whether that meant he knew where bin Laden is, [director of the CIA] Porter Goss responded: 'I have an excellent idea where he is. What's the next question?'"

Destroying PBS

"The Bush administration is introducing a political agenda to public broadcasting. They are using the lame pretext that PBS is somehow liberal to justify it into a propaganda organ for the government. That is precisely what the board of CPB was set up to prevent 40 years ago; it is there to be a firewall between public broadcasting and political pressure. Ken Tomlinson is a disgrace to the purpose of that board, he has a political agenda and is engaging in a raw display of ideological bullying. The right-wingers in the House of Representatives are backing his power play with a threat to cut off funding for PBS entirely."

-- Molly Ivins, Destroying PBS (AlterNet)

Help save PBS from the Radicals in Washington. There is nothing biased about PBS. This is just one more grope for absolute power by the Right.

Write your congressperson and tell them you support PBS as it is.

Anecdote #2531-B

Today at lunch, the Brain demanded that he get a new phone. He is traveling to Las Vegas next week and, having lost his phone on his last business trip, needed a new one. Chuck the Eater was driving, since my truck was in the shop getting a tow-hitch installed.

Trying to be practical and responsible (to work), I suggested that we eat near the Cingular Wireless store to save time. This left us with pitiful and pitiable choices for lunch.

We narrowed our poor choices down to the Corporate Burito Palace (aka Chipotle) and the Dreary Salad Bar (aka Souper Salad). We deferred the choice to the Brain, who despises both. He selected the Dreary Salad Bar.

Lunch was predictably dull, consisting of lettuce. Sigh. We chowed down quickly and almost silently, all three of us not really enjoying the food and in no mood to talk about it.

After eating, we skipped next door to the Cingular store to get the Brain a brand-new Motorola Razr. As we entered the store, a handsome young man behind the counter called out to us, "Welcome to Cingular über Alles!"

I was a bit shocked, not expecting to run into any national socialists in my daily grind, but I let it pass. The Brain and I began chatting with one of the drones, when another customer walked in the door and the cheery young man called out again, "Welcome to Cingular über Alles!"

This must stop!

"Excuse me," I said, addressing the young man. "What did you just say?"

He looked a bit surprised, but he answered, "Um...welcome to Cingular Wireless?"

Chuck looked at me similarly confused (Why are you accosting this harmless young man, Blu?), but had a good laugh -- being german-light himself -- when I told him what I thought the fellow had said. The young man, of course, didn't understand at all.

If you are more like the young man than Chuck, you may edumacate yourself here.

Swallow Hard

I had posted a scathing indictment of the Christian Right's obscene use of Terri Schiavo (and the lies they told about her condition in order to further their agenda). I removed the post after I read it in a calmer state and I realized that I had fallen into the same trap -- using a suffering woman's condition and death to score political points. Needless to say, however, I was completely disgusted by the Right during the whole affair and by the schoolyard-bully-excuses Right idealogues are scrambling to now that the autopsy report is available. I strongly urge anyone who paid even passing attention to this circus to read the entire report. Now on to something lighter...

Yesterday afternoon, the unthinkable happened: my linux workstation locked up. Not only did it lock up, but my graphics card came crashing down in ruins. I must admit that I should take some blame for this myself, as I had tried to patch the kernel to install graphics drivers for my nVidia card a day earlier, and something tells me the two were related. As having a working workstation at work (how poetic!) is extremely important, I knew that I needed to replace my video card toot-sweet, as Truly Scrumptious would say.

Fry's, the huge (and rather crappy) electronics super-store is about 1 minute away from my workplace. So, I grabbed Chuck the Eater by the collar and told him were going to Fry's for a meeting, a video card, and a cup of joe -- all, frankly, quite true.

Once at Fry's we found the video card section and I started combing for something appropriate for a linux box. I selected an ATI Radeon 9200 for $79. It even had "linux" as a supported operating system listed on the box. Box in hand, we went to the coffee shop in the center of the store to have our meeting and get some coffee. There were two employees there -- an older woman in a green smock behind the counter and a younger woman near the cash register in the middle of the shop. Neither of them were within 10 feet of the gigantic "Order Here" sign with an arrow pointing at an empty counter. Minion-like, I stood were I was silently commanded to and waited for one of them to take my order.

The girl at the cash register blinked and smiled doe-like at me. The woman behind the counter fiddled with the espresso machine. After a minute or so, the older woman croaked at me, "She [the younger woman] can take your order."

I nodded and approached the younger woman at the cash register.

"I'd like an espresso and a poppyseed muffin, please."

She blinked. "A poppy...seed...um...muffin...ok..." Fumbling, she rang up a muffin. "What else did you want?"

"And an espresso."

"Um, ok." The young girl looked at her cash register, then back at me. She picked up a laminated piece of paper covered with barcodes, flips it over once or twice, scanning for espresso, I presumed.

"What did you want again?" she asked, putting the sheet down.

"I'd like an espresso and a poppyseed muffin." I repeated.

Pain crossed the pretty doe-eyed girl's face. A slightly older man, also a Fry's employee, came over and started chatting with her going to see Batman Begins. She turned away from me to acknowledge him. After a few moments of chit-chat, she seemed to remember that I was a customer and turned back to me.

"I'm sorry, what did you want?"

"An espresso and a poppyseed muffin, please." I repeated. Again.

The pained look returned. She glanced at the beau. He shrugged and looked at me, trying to force a polite smile.

Finally, she said, "What's that?"

Had my eyes had legs they would have jumped from their orbits. I was standing in a coffee shop. Behind me, a woman was cleaning an espresso machine. Above her, a gigantic, clearly legible menu began with the word espresso, just above cappucino and latte.

"It's an espresso." I said tersely, reveling in the tautology.

The young doe-eyed girl called across the shop to the older woman. "Can you help me, please" The older woman sighed heavily, as she must now stop adjusting the espresso machine and come help this girl who I surmized was the village idiot of Fry's Electronics. The woman stomped over, a flabby cigarette dangling from her lips even though she had no cigarette dangling from her lips.

"Yeah? What?" she growled at me.

"I'd like an espresso and a poppyseed muffin." I repeated. Again.

The older woman pressed a button and the register rang up an espresso. She marched back behind the counter and began to pull one while I paid the girl. I turned, walked over the counter, and the older woman presented me with a large styrofoam cup containing a thimble of hot black sludge.

"Anything else?" she croaked.

"And a poppyseed muffin."

"You want that heated?"

"Please."

She plodded over to the muffin case, selected a muffin, flung it into the microwave for a few seconds, and then gave it to me. Muffin and espresso in hand, I sat down with Chuck to try to enjoy them.

I lifted the cup to my lips and took a sip. My face contorted in pain.

"Too hot?" inquired Chuck kindly.

"No! It's awful!" I sputtered. "That's the worse espresso I've ever had in my life. It's like she just scraped up some tar off the blacktop outside and mixed in some stagnant water." I hand ed the cup to Chuck. "Here. Try it."

That -- offering some foodstuff just stated as terrible to a dining companion -- is an interesting phenomenon. It is obviously instinctual. It must be something like Great Thundering Monkey God! This thing I have just tasted is really bad! It must be poisonous. Yet, I have survived and can help my tribe with this hard-won knowledge. Here, member of my tribe, taste it, too, so that you will know it is bad and not eat of it again, if you do not die tasting it.

Chuck, having evolved slightly further than myself, sniffed it and refused. I took a few more sips to confirm that this was indeed the worst espresso on the planet, then turned my attention to sharing the muffin and talking shop with Chuck. We solved the problem (a work-related problem involving how to script around bad software), left the shop, paid for the video card, and returned to work.

The espresso hung around though, having tarred my tastebuds thoroughly, and hours later at dinner it required the better part of a liter of San Pelligrino to finally wash it away.

More Fun at Fry's can by found at the following sites:

• Fry's Tales of Horror
  
• Your Worst Buys are at Fry's
  
  

Dreamy Banality

I actually drafted this some weeks ago. It's been sitting in my box, thought I might as well post it.

In the middle of the night, I shot awake from a nightmare. It was one of those falling down the tunnel Vertigo moments, and I'm glad I escaped it. As I lay there listening to the pre-dawn birds chirp and the stream below my window gurgle, I reflected on what had just scared me so much.

It would be almost impossible to describe the dream in cogent detail, but here is the executive summary:

The Brain had become a Republican.

Was the dream itself scary? No. Nothing awful happened. No monsters appeared. I was not chased down and eaten. In fact, everyone in the dream, which consisted primarily of documentary footage of a Republican senate campaign in Wisconsin, seemed nice and polite.

Apparently, my dream-self was some kind of reporter, or perhaps the forementioned documentary's maker. I followed the candidate, your typical grey-suit-slick-hair politico with a huge grin, through his daily paces on the campaign trail. At campaign headquarters, while the candidate and his campaign workers (all white, all over thirty) shared mint tea and sugar cookies, I would try to ask a few questions to nail them down on their positions and opinions -- Are you a fiscal or social conservative? Are you a federalist? Are you a neo-conservative? -- only to be offered empty platitudes -- Why, son, I'm a man who loves America! Don't you? -- or tea and cookies.

The Brain was mixed in with the campaign workers, laughing and chatting with them. Every now and then, he would come over and offer me the mint tea and cookies with the utmost sincerity. I'd refuse them -- I just didn't want them. The third time I refused them though, he frowned and asked me "Why don't you love America?"

I woke up in a cold sweat, panting "Oh, god! Oh, god!", so relieved I was that it was only a dream.

With nothing much happening in the dream to warrant being a nightmare, I wondered why it had shaken me so. Then it occured to me that my subconscious was attempting to show me, in exacting detail, the banality of evil.

This State is Straights-Only

Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a resolution last week to amend the Texas constitution by banning same-sex marriage. As the amendment must be approved by voters in November, the resolution was only ceremonial, but it represents Governor Perry's disregard for the rights and needs of GLBT Texans.

Upon signing the bill, he responded to a question about how he would tell gay and lesbian war veterans returning home from Iraq that they could not marry. He responded that "Texans made a decision about marriage and if there's a state that has more lenient views than Texas, then maybe that's a better place for them to live."

If you are gay and live in Texas, pretty soon you'll have to drink from the gays-only water fountain, it seems.

Now, I don't really care about gay marriage that much -- hardly at all, I think it's a non-starter -- but I do care about blatant discrimination and laws intended to make one targeted segment of the population so inequal and so uncomfortable that sum effect (and, in fact, stated intention) is to ride them out of town on a rail.

I take cold comfort in knowing that I didn't vote for these backward-thinking Taliban. But it pains me daily when I consider that people I work with, know, and love voted for them simply because they were Republicans.

Chuck's Immoral Breakfast

I lean back and look out the window. Chuck the Eater apologizes, as he always does, for the ancient sour milk smell of his car. He's calling it that fairgrounds smell now. But we both know the truth. It's the smell of children puking up and spilling milk in the backseat. It's the smell of parents who've gotten used to the smell of puked up milk in the backseat.

"We had a great breakfast Sunday." I open. "Went to Breadwinners. The Observer kept saying it was a great place for breakfast and brunch for so many years, so we just decided to go."

"How was it?" Chuck asks.

"Good. Pretty good. I ordered a chicken salad sandwich. The Brain got a French Eggs Benedict. That's Eggs Benedict served on croissant with Medrange, rather than English muffin with Canadian bacon. It was huge. He only ate half of it, because he wanted chocolate cream pie for desert. And he brought home cookies. So, I guess he liked it."

"I guess so."

"It's much better than Cafe Brazil. An order of magnitude better. Same kind of stuff - eggs, skillet potatos - but better. Nicer. The Brain was surprised at how nice it was."

"What did you have, again?" Chuck wants to know.

"Chicken salad sandwich. I was thinking hard about getting biscuits and gravy. But, if I ordered them, I'd feel like I had a rock in my stomach the rest of the day. I love biscuits and gravy, but...you know...chicken salad for the win." I sigh, wagging a finger in the air. I hadn't realized how much I regreted passing over the biscuits and gravy.

"I'll have to go there for Father's Day."

"It'll be crowded. You'll need a reservation."

Chuck thinks about this for a second.

"Have you ever eaten at Ham and Eggs?" he asks.

"Nope."

"Well, it's like the opposite end of the spectrum. We went there breakfast Saturday before last. The owner is from New York. Everyone calls her Jackie-O. She's disabled. She rides scooter through the restaurant and has a parking space reserved out front that says For Jackie-O Only."

Where is he going with this?

Finally, Chuck zeroes in on the target. "I had biscuits and gravy."

I wince. "Wow. Great." Bastard can eat whatever he wants. "Were they good?" Duh!

"Well," he smiles, "the biscuit was the size of a loaf a bread and they served my gravy in a gravy boat. The portion sizes are immoral."

I sputter a laugh. "Immoral?! Can I have that?"

"Sure." he says, pleased with himself on all fronts.

The Starbelly Mystery

And you thought the Onion was joking when it headlined Starbucks to Begin Sinister 'Phase Two' of Operation...

Recently in Dallas, a new chain of sandwich shops, Potbelly, began to open. The first store was obviously too slick and too corporate to be anything but a chain. The second merely confirmed my suspiscion that we were under assault by yet-another-corporation.

Not that I dislike Potbelly. In fact, the one I eat lunch at (about once every two weeks) is just fine. The sandwiches are good and the people in the store seem genuinely, if unctuously, friendly. The chili is good, though somewhat over-beany and sweet to actually be called chili in Texas (see below). One should avoid the vegetable soup, which is gruelly, sweet, and devoid of vegetables.

Being generally suspiscious of corporate food marketing, I had wondered who was bank-rolling Potbelly. Obviously, there are some deep pockets here. McDonalds? Could be, after all, they steam-rolled Chipotle into affluent neighborhoods recently.

So, I looked at the Potbelly website. Very cute. Just a small-time sandwich shop making it big. But the aw-shucks small-time background seems a little contrived.

Hmmm...going national with sandwiches...hmmm...

Then, I ran across an interesting building at the corner of I-75 and Campbell in Richardson (North Dallas). The half-finished building looked familiar, but different, something like a mutant fetus. My first instinct was it's another Potbelly. My second instinct was no, it's something else, something familiar...

Then I recognized that certain architectural cue...it was a Starbucks. And it was a Potbelly. Together.

A Starbelly.

Phase Two has begun.

And now...Chili, Chili, Chili...

For reference, here is the recipe for chili. Note: Beans are served as an optional accompaniment on the side.

Serves 6

• 3 tablespoons ancho chili powder or 3 medium pods (about 1/2 ounce), toasted and ground
• 3 tablespoons New Mexico chili powder or 3 medium pods (about 3/4 ounce), toasted and ground
• 2 tablespoons cumin seeds toasted in a dry skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 4 minutes, and ground
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano preferably Mexican
• 7 1/2 cups water
• 1 beef chuck roast (4-pounds), trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 teaspoons table salt plus extra for seasoning
• 8 ounces bacon (7 or 8 slices), cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 medium onion minced (about 1 cup)
• 5 medium cloves of garlic minced
• 4 - 5 small jalape o chiles cored, seeded, and minced
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes or plain tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons lime juice from 1 medium lime
• 5 tablespoons masa harina or 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• ground black pepper

1. Mix chili powders, cumin, and oregano in small bowl and stir in 1/2 cup water to form thick paste; set aside. Toss beef cubes with salt; set aside.

2. Fry bacon in large, heavy soup kettle or Dutch oven over medium-low heat until fat renders and bacon crisps, about 10 minutes. Remove bacon with slotted spoon to paper towel-lined plate; pour all but 2 teaspoons fat from pot into small bowl; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high; saut� meat in four batches until well-browned on all sides, about 5 minutes per batch, adding additional 2 teaspoons bacon fat to pot as necessary. Reduce heat to medium, add 3 tablespoons bacon fat to now-empty pan. Add onion; saut� until softened, 5 to 6 minutes. Add garlic and jalape�o; saut� until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chili paste; saut� until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Add reserved bacon and browned beef, crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce, lime juice, and 7 cups water; bring to simmer. Continue to cook at a steady simmer until meat is tender and juices are dark, rich, and starting to thicken, about 2 hours.

3. Mix masa harina with 2/3 cup water (or cornstarch with 3 tablespoons water) in a small bowl to form smooth paste. Increase heat to medium; stir in paste and simmer until thickened, 5 to 10 minutes. Adjust seasoning generously with salt and ground black pepper. Serve immediately, or preferably, cool slightly, cover, and refrigerate overnight or for up to 5 days. Reheat before serving.

Dog Food

The Straight Dope: Is coprophagia dangerous?: "Dogs are also notorious coprophages, doing it mainly to gross out their owners."

Man, ain't it the truth? I have an adorable and sweet-natured dog, Coda, an Italian Greyhound who has lately become a very picky eater. I also have an ancient diabetic cat on his last legs. The cat has become so old and frail that he is not very likely to use his litter box unless he is sleeping in it.

Meanwhile, I am trying my best to find a food that the dog will eat. Once she was easy-to-please with Science Diet and Iams bones for snacks. Now, she turns her nose up at everything. Lately, I've tried feeding her Dick Van Patten -- which I'll microwave slightly to improve its aroma (Note: This dog food looks, feels, and smells a great deal like summer sausage. Nice for squeamish owners, bad for vision-impaired drunk frat boys). She snorts at and refuses the food publically, but sneaks off during the night to eat it.

That is, unless she finds an errant glucose-laced cat dropping lying around. Since I find precious few such droppings in the cat's litter box or about the house myself, I think I may have finally deciphered what my dog is telling me. I present a super-mini movie script of the encounter:


INT. BLUBRIK'S KITCHEN - MORNING

Blubrik sleepily goes to the refrigerator and removes a sausage-like log of Dick Van Patten dog food. He slices off a half-inch piece, uses his fingers to break the meat into pieces into a bowl, then puts the bowl in a microwave.

BLUBRIK
(sleepily)

Coda! Are you hungry?

INT. BLUBRIK'S BEDROOM - CONT.

Coda the dog bounces out from under the covers and charges out of the bedroom.

INT. BLUBRIK'S KITCHEN - CONT.

Coda charges into the kitchen and sits down at Blubrik's feet, wagging her tail. The microwave rings. Blubrik removes the food from the microwave. Coda stands up with excitement and expectation. Blubrik sets the food down in front of her.

BLUBRIK

There you go, some nice Dick Van Patten all heated up and in nice bite-size pieces for you.

Coda sniffs the food.

CODA
(snorting derision)

This Dick Van Patten crap ain't the crap I want! I want that cat crap. No, not the crappy cat food -- though admittedly I liked that once, too -- but the cat's crap. The crap. The C-R-A-P!

Oh, well. At least my house is cleaner.

USSR-R-US

Why do authoritarian governments always end up producing the same propaganda, apparently by the same artists, even?

Take these posters from the late Soviet Union, for example...



...and compare them with a MARC (commuter rail service between Baltimore and Washington D.C.) poster...



Welcome to your very own Orwellian Nightmare.

Slice of Life

Is the study and exhibit of human bodies morbid? If you would take your children to see the ubiquitous plastic "Invisible Man" exhibit at your local science museum, why would you have a qualm about showing them the real deal?

Salon recently had an article about the U.S. tour of Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds, wherein real human corpses are plastinated, dissected, posed, and displayed to the public.

Frankly, I think it's cool. Admittedly, the idea induced the willies in me when I first read about Gunther von Hagens and his original museum in one of Rick Steves' travel books. But, having seen some of the examples of the exhibit on the web, I can say that I think it's really fascinating. Of course, Salon pointed out that one of the knock-off Chinese exhibits might be a little creaky, leaky and down-right sneaky (Look, mommy, there's a bullet hole in that man's head!), and you can't help but imagine Vincent Price or Lon Chaney lurking somewhere just out of sight. I mean, Herr von Hagens is slightly creepy himself.

Compare for yourself:

Creepy, but not surprising. It takes a bit of a twist of mind to come up with a process like plastination, after all. (More interesting info on the good doctor can be found at Wikipedia and nndb).

But, all well and good, I say. Many Americans spend most of their lives in dread fear of death. We like to childishly pretend it doesn't happen (We'll live forever in heaven!), we go to funerals and try to pretend we've just stepped into the deceased's bedroom (The mortician did such a good job. Grandpa looks like he's asleep.), we litigate and moralize against risky activity, and we tell our children elaborate lies to cover up truth about death.

Nothing like a flayed dead man holding out his own skin to you to shake your belief structures.

Speaking of flayed skin and creepy men, one of my all-time favorite websites is The HiStory of Michael Jackson's Face. Enjoy.

Weird or What?

June 8, 2005 | Boston

On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres. Then they let him into the United States.

The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton's kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom.

Salon.com News | Man with chain saw, sword is let into U.S.

Grunion!

Just too cool for words. The extremes some animals will go to to mate...

"California grunion spawn at night on the beach, from two to six nights after the full and new moon, beginning a little after high tide and continuing for several hours. As a wave breaks on the beach, the grunion swim as far up the slope as possible. The female arches her body, keeping her head up, and excavates the semi-fluid sand with her tail. As her tail sinks, the female twists her body and digs tail first until she is buried up to her pectoral fins. After the female is in the nest, up to eight males attempt to mate with her by curving around the female and releasing their milt as she deposits her eggs about four inches below the surface. After spawning, the males immediately retreat toward the ocean. The milt flows down the female’s body until it reaches the eggs and fertilizes them. The female twists free and returns to the sea with the next wave. The whole event can happen in 30 seconds, but some fish remain on the beach for several minutes. (The Gulf grunion spawns during the daytime, and has smaller eggs.)"

Grunion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Plus, grunion is such a great word, so fun to say. Use it on your friends, or better yet, insert it into your post-coital pillow talk...

Wow, baby, you screw like a grunion.

Man Sues Toilet

Salon.com News | Man sues for $10M in toilet explosion

While trying to ignore the news about Michael Jackson, de-frocked porno-consuming priests, and 7-year-old axe-murderers, I smiled when I read this...

A man who says he was severely burned when a portable toilet exploded after he sat down and lit a cigarette is suing a general contractor and a coal company, accusing them of negligence.

I mean, I am very sorry the man got hurt, but, hell...didn't he remember all those dire warnings from when he was a kid hiding in the neighborhood drain pipes with his friends to smoke daddy's cigs...

Chuck's Right

Chuck the Eater is a big proponent of personal integrity and critical thinking. Our lunch discussions regularly traverse the political and religious landscape, touching on the profound and unprofound questions of the day.

Here's an archtypical Chuck quote:

Your life after your death is probably just like your life before you were born.

Perfect and concise. Today, he sent me the more wordy version today, apparently the "Quote of the Day" from Contegrity.com -- so, I thought I would share:

"The whole conversation about death is a boogeyman, and there's not much real interest in it. If you are in time, then what happens when you run out of time, or what happens when you die? But instead of that being an interesting question or a very great mystery, it is seen as an affront.

It's fascinating that people bother themselves some with what will happen when they die. Nobody bothers themselves about where they were before they were born. It was the same place. Why isn't that a big dilemma? Where were you? How did you get here? Where did you come from? That could be pretty interesting. But that's not as much of an affront."

Ken Anbender from The Fulfillment of Time
(Special Program, January 2004)

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