Post Random Stuff

I was owed about 10 cheers that went missing in the last 24 hours. Is this a glitch with the site, or am I being punished for some karmic transgression?

Whilst looking for a dal recipe, I found the following webpage:

http://www.indianchild.com/Recipes/gravies_and_masala/dal_recipe.htm

My favorite instruction is to “Off the stove & garnish with Cialntro.”

I’m well-acquainted with the verb “off”, as in the Sixties counterculture usage, “off the pigs”. The only question I have is, how best to “off” a stove? If I blow it up with explosives, then there might not be big enough pieces to garnish with Cialntro. If I just plug it with a couple of .45 slugs, then the Cialntro garnish might not show up very well.

So many questions.

I had occasion to look up postal rates to England, and I found this little gem on the US Postal Service website. I will certainly think twice before mailing any horror comic books to the UKoGBaNI.

Country Conditions for Mailing – Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Includes England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and the Isle of Man)

Prohibitions

Any postal item containing enclosures addressed to different persons at different addresses.

Arms and parts of arms, except as noted under Observation #5 below.

Articles, goods infringing British trademarks or copyright laws.

Cards decorated with mica or ground glass or similar materials unless they are placed in envelopes.

Citizens Band Radios, walkie-talkies, microbugs, and radio microphones that are capable of transmitting on any frequency between 26.1 and 29.7 megacycles per second and 88 to 108 Mhz per second.

Goods made in foreign prisons, except those imported for a non-commercial purpose or of a kind not manufactured in the UK.

Horror comics and matrices.

Obscene articles, prints, paintings, cards, films, videotapes, etc.

Perishable infectious biological substances.

Seal skins except those from an accepted source.

Switchblade knives.

Restrictions

Coins; banknotes; currency notes (paper money); securities payable to bearer; traveler’s checks; manufactured and unmanufactured platinum, gold, silver; precious stones; jewelry; and other valuable articles, may only be sent in registered letter-post shipments or insured parcel post.

Foods or beverages to which any preservative or other substance has been added must comply with the British regulations for importation.

Live bees.

Live queen bees must be accompanied by an import license issued by a UK Government Agricultural Department and a health certificate issued by the appropriate Government Department of the country of origin stating that the bees are free of disease.

Meat, meat products, and animal products including dry sausage and dried milk require import license issued by appropriate UK Agricultural Department.

Plants and parts of plants require import permit issued by the appropriate Agricultural Department in UK.

So, for no particular reason I decided to see what tags had been applied to my sorry self.

Apparently, according to at least one 43Ter (now departed), “alive” is a good description of me.

I sure hope no one here has been tagged “dead”. Or even “moribund”.

Tropical Cyclone Bondo?

As in the auto repair product, much beloved by do-it-yourselvers in the American South, who leave their cars parked on the front lawn as the Bondo cures in the sun?

Hmm. First durians, now Bondo.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures of all time, this is truly a movie that is So Bad It’s Good.

The fact that I had a crush on Olivia Newton-John that lasted all through my college years and halfway through grad skool helps, too.

Now I see I’m not alone:

http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/go_fug_yourself/2006/12/fugadu.html#more

Oh, and I’ve seen Grease about 43 times, too.

One of my favorite science fiction short stories. I have always identified with Jeremy Shaffery. Funny, that, since the story was written in 1972 (when I was 13), and I had no idea at that time what my career path would be.

Except for the part about causing a global holocaust, that’s me in there.

This entry is for Marie Stardust, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of science fiction. If you haven’t read it, Marie, I will loan you my copy. I know you’re busy, but it’s only a short story, maybe 5 pages. Nebula nominee, but he got beat by Joanna Russ, who is another favorite (the first feminist SF writer, unless you count James Tiptree, Jr.).

A friend turned me onto a website with Silly Chemical Names.

The ring structure, arsole, is a favorite of mine, of course. I’d have to say cummingtonite is a close second, though.

The strange thing is, now I find myself wanting to taste this coffee.

Ahh, kopi luwak.

As I have spent some time surfing 43T today, I would like to offer the following quote to summarize my experience:

“Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls,
Would scarcely get your feet wet.”

—Deteriorata, Tony Hendra (National Lampoon)

(It’s funnier if you know the original of which this is a parody.)