Blue Whales Lament, "We Can't Take It Anymore!"

Driven suicidal by the torrent of incredibly stupid, banal, and jaw-dropping inanity of what passes for news in California, the largest mammals on the planet have decided to end their lives rather than suffer through another report of celebrity retardation. "It's insane! I can't take one more story about Phil Spector or O.J. Simpson or those crazy, drug-addled, rich white chicks like Lindsay Lohan and Britney showing their beavs or whatever it is they do," moaned Azure Regalus, a once majestic blue whale now listlessly bobbing in the ocean off the California coast, close to death. "Don't they care about real news? Real life?"

"We used to have some hope for humanity. We figured they would finally learn to communicate with us and we'd be able to help them with some of their problems, like this global warming thing, which is an easy fix, really. But they're regressing; losing rather than gaining wisdom. What a waste." Azure Regalus then shuddered pitifully and sank, lifeless, to the sea bottom.

photo by Stephen Osman LAT

Avon Walk For Breast Cancer

We had a great time yesterday, thanks to Connie, who lives on the Avon Walk route, which winds its way 26.2 miles around the streets of Long Beach on Saturday, and another 13 miles on Sunday, and so we set up a table in front of her house, resplendent with water and chocolates and 'sports beans' (perhaps the greatest marketing coup in recent years. Jelly beans as a fitness aid?), and we gave the great gals who were walking some much needed support, and there were a few guys too, but what was great was that the gals had a great sense of humor about a grievous problem, wearing shirts labeled with monikers like "Save Second Base" (it took me a while to figure that one out), "Walkers for Knockers", and "The Rack Pack". We had a blast.

I did feel a little guilty kicking back and drinking a Heineken while handing out cups of water, but what can I say?

You can still contribute to a good cause. You don't need any handy web link. You can figure it out. Just do it.

Star Trek Remastered

Episodes of Star Trek TOS (i.e. The Original Series, for you non-Trekkers) have been remastered with some beautiful new graphics and effects and are being shown on local TV stations. I haven't seen one of these yet, but there's one coming up (The Galileo Seven) on one of my LA stations (and many others, click here to see schedules), and I'm ready to TiVo it! Check it out, ML!

A Gori in Long Beach

Just when you thought the world was heading down a sluiceway filled with scum covered detritus hurtling toward the dark abyss, joyful reminders of hope and sanity sometime crop up that make a person sit up, blink her eyes, and take notice that maybe the Great Scimitar is not hanging over our collective heads after all. For instance, when you see a young person parallel parking into the realm of adulthood with some semblance of control, passion, wonder, and good humor.

Such is the case of one Rebecca Green, daughter of our friends and former neighbors Stephen and Elise, and who is now taking some summertime off from UC Berkeley to live and learn in Delhi, India. She’s started a blog, with lengthy albeit fascinating missives describing her adventures. Please take the time to check it out, and send her some encouraging greetings. Hi Becca! Becca’s Blog is here.

In honor of one of her postings I offer the following:

Animals I’ve seen in the road and / or in my house:

Hummingbird
Squirrel
Moonjelly
Chris Smith
Japanese beetle
Benny, Abby, and Bootsy
Garden spider
Black crowned night heron
Seagull
Stephen Green
Silverfish
Brown moth
Wild green parrot
Assorted dogs and their excretions
My face in the mirror after poker night

Loose Ends

Here are some links to stuff that’s caught my interest in the last couple of weeks:

For various reasons (chief among them: I’m an idiot) I wasn’t able to migrate my Starry Night astronomy software package over to my new pc. So I’m going to try out an open source version which looks to be adequate for my needs: http://www.stellarium.org/

If you are a Star Trek TOS fan, take the time to check out these “new” episodes masterminded by an obviously obsessed fan named James Cawley. Very large size downloads, but using Bit Torrent helps.

New Yorker magazine cartoon caption contest.
Astound yourself with how really unfunny you are.

My father-in-law Philip wondered if we were familiar with Parkour. Actually I see real world examples at work every day at quitting time. Phil, there’s a good example of Parkour craziness in the last James Bond film Casino Royale, which was a pretty good movie incidentally.

And the song "How We Operate" by Gomez is great.