QUOTE FOR THE DAY

...we are back to David Miller invoking rumor as fact.

--John Byrne, cartoonist

The internet message board produces one thing of value: taken out of context, one can find the strange thoughtless poetry of a young cultural generation in a romantic decline.

As seen on The V.

More numbers madness: as of 9:42 omn, Pacific Time, I have used 66.6 units of insulin. Whooaa,,, And spookier still, I watched both versions of The Omen last weekend!

As part of my job, I sent an email at 1:09 pm to a group of artists, requesting an online donation. At 1:42 we received our first online renewal, from Port Townsend. A total of 33 minutes had passed!!!

Soem reflections:

33 is the largest positive integer that cannot be expressed as a sum of different triangular numbers.

Classic LP records turn at 33 1/3 RPMs.

There are 33 degrees in Freemasony. The 33rd Degree is the highest rank in the Scottish Rite of Freemasony. My uncle, Arnold Flottman, is a 33rd Degree Freemason.

33 is the best-known car number of retired NASCAR driver Harry Gant.

33 is the code for international direct dial calls to France.

A normal human spine has 33 vertebrae when the bones that form the coccyx are counted individually.

The number 33 is printed on all Rolling Rock beer labels.

There are 33 Cantos in each of Dante's 3 parts of the Divine Comedy.

Elvis Presley appeared in 33 motion pictures, including "Tickle Me" (1965).

The composer John Cage wrote a piece of silent music, entitled, 4'33".
The landmark film King Kong debuted in 1933.

Sea water pressure doubles every 33 feet of depth.

There are 33 customer reviews on Amazon.com for The Witch Doctors, by John Micklethwait.

The Hindu Rg Veda describes "the 33 divinities."

The existence of a total of 33 black holes has been confirmed, in our own galaxy and elsewhere in the universe.

Roswell, New Mexico is at 33°37'N latitude. This geo-latitudinal line also passes through what is known as the "Bermuda Triangle" in the Atlantic Ocean, as well as Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by as many as 33 conspirators.

King David ruled Israel for 33 years.

Michelangelo was 33 when he began painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Jesus Christ was 33 years old when He was crucified and ressurected. Some Gnostic sects who accept reincarnation believe Jesus has led 33 lives.

And I will turn 33 next month!!!

Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!!

Renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking from the University of Cambridge, front, is accompanied by his nurse during a visit at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong Tuesday, June 13, 2006. Hawking, author of the global best-seller a "Brief History of Time", arrived in Hong Kong on Monday and plans to give a lecture on Tuesday. Hawking is on a six-day visit in Hong Kong before going to Beijing.(AP Photo/Vincent Yu) 

Okay, am I wrong, or is that nurse hanging out of her shirt to a ridiculous degree? I know Hawking is a reknowned astrophysicist, but that amount of cleavage on his help is just crazy.

I just finished making 40 burritos. I am all that is man!

Some guy is standing in my driveway talking about how his relationship went wrong: "We were always living in the past, and that preventd us from moving forward" I wonder if others share my knowledge, and if that contributed to the break up? Or does his trite analysis of What Went Wrong hint at greater shallows?

I have a weekly conversation with my father about the Sopranos. I was wondering out loud why Vito (the gay wiseguy), why his goomah would put up with no sex for a year. Sure, it's this guy, but still. Dad pointed out that guys like that probably pay the rent for their mistresses. That had never occurred to me. See, 32 years old and I still have something to learn from the old man.

THE GOLDEN RETRVIEVER WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD

STRATHAM, N.H. Apr 7, 2006 (AP)— Satellite tracking, helicopter surveillance and dart guns failed. In the end, it was a ham dinner and a remote-controlled net that brought a golden retriever named Sam in from the cold after two years on the run.

Until this week, "he was winning 200 to 1," said Steve Sprowl, one of the experts who took part in hunt for the dog who earned the nickname "Golden Ghost."

Raiding garbage cans and winning handouts from sympathetic neighbors, the dog survived two New England winters, deer hunting season and a blow from a car.

Peg and Dennis Sklarski got Sam in 2004, after he was rescued from a life inside a chain-link fence in Tennessee, where he was sporadically fed and otherwise ignored. They had him only three weeks when Sam got loose.

Over the months and years, neighbors repeatedly spotted Sam and called the Sklarskis, and Dennis said he spent many nights cruising the roads.

In January, experts arrived from Boston with infrared cameras and a remote-controlled net but had no luck. A friend provided his helicopter for searching. Sprowl, an investigator with New Hampshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, failed repeatedly to get the dog with a tranquilizer gun.

Finally, donations let the SPCA buy its own remote-controlled net, and a family that had been feeding Sam had the contraption set up on its wooded lot. Other neighbors agreed to stop leaving him food.

After five weeks, police Officer Tona McCarthy, who had devoted hours of his own time to tracking the dog, spotted Sam in the area Wednesday and hid at the lot, watching for him on a video monitor. Soon, Sam appeared.

On the video, Sam's caution was obvious. He sniffed the air and the ground and looked from side to side. He crept toward the food dish.

Normally, Sam grabs his food bowl with his teeth and drags it away to eat. This time, though, he gobbled a few mouthfuls of ham first, giving McCarthy just enough time to release the net. The far end just caught the dog as he fled with the bowl.

Sam is now at the SPCA animal shelter, being treated for a lip cut suffered while trying to escape. He will remain under observation for 10 days for any problems such as rabies. Then he can go home to the Sklarskis.

They are counting on the dog's obvious intelligence to help him recognize that it's not a bad deal to be a beloved pet.

"The first time that I saw Sam after he was rescued, I went to his cage and I got down on all fours and said, 'Oh, Sammy boy' and he looked up at me, and he wagged his tail and he reached his paw out to me," Peg Sklarski said.

SICILIAN FOR DOUCHEBAG, PART II

Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Wednesday called his 2004 decision not to recuse himself from a case involving Vice President Dick Cheney the "proudest thing" he's done on the court.

Is he fucking kidding? I've done more substantial work on the Supreme Court than that. My graduate essay on Nixon's "Court Un-Packing Plan," as I so wittily called it, is a lot more impressive than laying down in a sixty-nine with a corrupt, arrhythmic septaugenarian-hunter.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

At the time we were on a mission to rid the world of alcohol. By drinking it.

-- Elvis Costello, reminiscing on July 26, 2005.

I am very unhappy with myself right now.