Andrei Zmievski

If you have never heard of James Lileks and his Institute of Official Cheer, it is worth setting aside a few hours and browsing through the site, where “old pop culture is subjected to our patented Re-Ironization Process, and converted into chipper, spiffy, feather-light postmodern commentary on commercial culture.” Be prepared: it is funny. Very funny. He digs up old recipe books, tourist guides, advertisements and unleashes his merciless humor on them, describing a particularly unappetizing meat dish as “…a segment of an intestine from some creature that ingested the fender from an old DeSoto. In any case, it’s alarmingly aerodynamic, this meat; very modern and streamlined.”
The Gallery of Regrettable Food section has been made into a book, which has many more examples of egregious culinary failures. I have a copy and can wholeheartedly recommend it. Also, do not miss the Grooviest Motel in Wisconsin. Do not.

It’s good to know that in these times of adversity, Russia has its priorities straight.

Dilbert right on the spot again. I actually came across a hotel clerk like that at the W Hotel in Seattle.

Now that is just asking for punishment. If you are enough of a moron to want to eat cow brains, I am not going to stop you.

The Onion rules again.

Ah, the wonderful idioms of the English language..I have to admit that sometimes I catch myself saying one and then thinking, “Was that right? Is it really jumping at the bit?” In fact, that’s how I found the referenced page, by searching for an idiom that I butchered mercilessly. Oh well, no skin off my teeth.
Now reading: Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and a posthumous collection of Douglas Adam’s writings Salmon of Doubt.

Full Disclosure mailing list had a posting by Bill Borton who made the best “What If Microsoft Made Cars” analogy that I have seen on the Net.

Coffee is the common man’s gold, and like gold, it brings to every person the feeling of luxury and nobility. — Sheik Abd-al-Kadir, In Praise of Coffee, 1587
I think this Dilbert cartoon paints a good picture of what would happen if coffee was removed from our lives.

Thanks to this I can now reasonably well understand the speech patterns of my brother. Although Sterling, who apparently is intimately familiar with this aspect, says the list is somewhat old.
I am going to re-read one of my favorite books, Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Such a great work.

After I posted my rant about the latest Matrix installment, it acquired a few comments from individuals who believe that firstly I am a moron who does not appreciate the artistic sensibilities of the Wachowski brothers and has a personal vendetta agains the movie, and secondly that the movie is a bridge that provides brain candy for people to nibble on while they wait for the next one. To which I say, learn to spell and read the abridged script of Matrix Reloaded that summarizes my own and many other persons’ feelings about the movie far better than I could express myself.