I Couldn't Resist It!

Juvenile?

Guilty as charged, m'lud. However, in my defence may I plead boyish silliness. You've got to laugh at this soon-to-be sailor's predicament. 

Love Shack: The B52s

N.B.: Blogging will be intermittent until Mid-March as I'm presently snowed under with a new work project!

In hindsight, the end of 1989 until the end of 1990 were probably the most difficult years of my life (and to be honest, it's all a bit of a blur until mid-1992).

However, even through that grim 15 months, The B52s album Cosmic Thing stands out as brilliant sunshine, everything that I love about the non-serious side of pop music. The stand-out track - amongst a number of other terrific ones - is the glorious, effervescent Love Shack, still sounding great 20 years later.

Love Shack: The B52s

Thanks for the help, guys.

Incidentally, the final lyric:

Fred: You're what?

Cindy: Tin roof, rusted!

means that Cindy's pregnant!

America's Tea Party: Modern Terrorists

In case you'd like to know more about the Tea Party, the curious right-wing alliance which is increasingly becoming more vocal and, arguably, influential in the USA - The New York Times will fill you in. 

The Tea Party is predominantly:

• white
• Christian (not mentioned in the article)
• Middle-aged and older
• Gun-loving
• Sarah Palin-loving

and in my eyes, is a ramshackle collection of simpletons being manipulated by big business to create mayhem, end the democratic process as we know it, in the name of American Patriotism.

Fueled by shock jocks, Rupert Murdoch's shameful Fox Network, and dubious extremist sources from the internet, The Tea Party, like Iran's pathetic, present leaders, sadly out of touch with Reality, trying to preserve a reality that has long-vanished. They are doomed to fail. 

Good. 

 

Hello Sunday Morning: A Great Australian Story

It was my pleasure to catch this story in the Sydney Morning Herald, this morning. It's about young, former binge - 15-20 drinks a night on weekends - drinker, Chris Raine, who spent one year, 2009, as a teetotaler.

Mr. Raine blogged about it for a year at Hello Sunday Morning and now there are a number of other young people doing the same (found via his site). 

He emerged in 2010 as both confident young man and a moderate social drinker, who is now hoping to gain governmental support to warn other kids - not just about the dangers of binge drinking - but more importantly, why he thinks its happening.

Great stuff! I can't help but think that Mr. Raine will be far more effective than the big budget ads that seem to inadvertently (except for the punch line) make binge drinking seem quite fun.

Anti-Binge-Drinking Ad

The Heart Attack Grill Revisited

Readers of this blog may remember a post that I did on The Heart Attack Grill (includes a great video) in Arizona USA, a burger joint which serves fat-proud fast food, including the outrageous Quadruple Bypass Burger.

Well, The New York Daily News reports that an upstart, The Heart Stoppers Sports Grill in Florida, which offers such treats as:

• Chili Chest Pain Fries 
• Death By Burger &  
• Killer Wings

is being sued by The Heart Attack Grill for stealing their idea of a coronary-inducing menu.

What can I say?

You May Now Kiss The Bride

So, you've paid the dowry, bestowed gifts upon your soon-to-be in-laws, organized, paid for the preacher and the reception - then, as the preacher solemnly says:

You may now kiss the bride.

You lift the veil to see your wife for the very first time...

 

Uh-oh! 

The Sydney Morning Herald takes up the story. 

Sarah Palin: Obama Could Improve His Standing With Americans If He Bombed Iran

Despite owning a fine pair of legs, Sarah Palin is an idiot!

Nothing new there but in her new role as spokeswoman for the American downtrodden W.A.S.P.s, she came out today saying that President Obama might improve his standing with the American people if he bombed Iran.

Huh?

Sarah Palin: Obama Could Improve His Standing With Americans If He Bombed Iran

"Palin -

• Quitter
• Liar
• Hypocrite
• Fraud

...She is one crazy motherfucker."

youtube member MamoDad

"I don't know what's worse - her strategy to kill innocent Iranians [who are presently] dying on their streets to topple their current regime, or admitting that she got the idea from Pat Buchanan." 

youtube member AllStarKase

Bomb Iran t shirt 

My God, how do the American Christian right live with themselves? 

How can they encourage Palin to utter such nonsense?

Have they any idea how much a third war will cost?

Can they imagine the carnage from an exponential increase in retaliatory terrorist attacks?

Has she any idea how these remarks can damage America's international standing?

Whilst I had been following the story via various news sources this morning, I found a blog post on it from Think Progrss.org, which is well worth reading, where one of their [admittedly anti-Palin and very partisan] commentators said:

"What kind of chromosome are these people missing?"

I'm wondering, too! 

I'm Sure That Every Country Has One

I'm sure that every country has one - you know, some beautiful woman who's making squillions from corporate advertisers in their home country but who means little outside of its borders.  

Here in Australia, our babe-de-jour is Jennifer Hawkins, Miss Universe 2004, an impressive, tall blonde, who, let's face it, looks like Aryan royalty.

N.B.: While she doesn't really do much for me, I'm told by the in crowd that she's got the hots for me. Join the queue, baby! 

Anyway, our Jennifer's caused something of a mini-scandal lately with her "nude" appearance on the cover of women's mag, Marie Claire.

Jennifer Hawkins "nude"

Blah, blah, blah. 

However, the Jennifer Hawkins story only gets interesting for me when you catch a photo of her as an 18-year old cheerleader and you can see, quite clearly, that her natural, big-boobed, girl-next-door looks bear little resemblance to today's finished article.

Jennifer Hawkins cheerleader circa 2000

Hmmm, looks like Jennifer' been keeping both her plastic surgeon and her accountant happy.

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned

As a young man during the 1980s, I was hardly a "player". I was mostly monogamous and while quite aware of pretty young things, seldom went further than giving them a casual nod of recognition. even though I was an outrageously enthusiastic and somewhat adept dancer at parties.

Later, during the Noughties, I was informed that a number of very attractive girls had then had serious crushes on me but I had been so involved in my work that I had seldom noticed and when I had, certainly did nothing about them!

However, during the 90s, (I was then in my early 30s but looked 10 years younger) something interesting happened. The crushes that women got on me occurred less (that was devastating enough!) but had been replaced by something else - the same type of women who had once wanted me, now hated me. Apparently, I had somehow become"dangerous" and "a mind-fucker" - even though I, still, seldom said a word to them. Yes, it was a curious time!

My guess is that I appeared to be a womanizer, the type of guy that they had previously burned themselves with and was to be avoided - at all costs! Even more, they had to protect their friends from me, so everyone had to be told how awful I was! Thankfully, my children arrived and though quickly both separated and a part-time dad, I had little time to get involved in further dramas with the ladeez.

So, it was with some curiosity that I read this article in today's Sydney Morning Herald, Be Nice And Tell Her She's Dreaming, which looks at crushes from the girl point of view. The title pretty much sums up what the authoress believes should be done  by a modern gentleman to put a nice girl out of her misery and while it wasn't really my cup of distilled llama's snot, the first comment by "au contraire" certainly got my interest:

"Have you ever been honest with a woman and told her you have no feelings for her? 

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, or spurned. I've been abused with language I would never use (and I'm a tradesman); I've had my tyres slashed, paint thrown over the car and a knife run through my screen door. And all by women with whom I'd not had a consummated relationship.

My tactic now is simply to make myself undesirable so that it's the woman's decision to call it off. Blokes learn from an early age to take rejection. Women's whole being is based on their desirability, so telling them you don't want to be with them is an affront to their core. This is one of the few instances where honesty is not the best policy."

Well, I should consider myself lucky. I only ever received character assassinations - though perhaps that may be more a product of the era rather than the quality of babe and though I may be hoping for too much, maybe there are still some attractive, fun-lovin' shielas out there, like the irrepressible Nikki Osborne (captured from a few years back).

Nikki Osborne: Aussie uber-babe

If Nikki's interested, I'm still up for a dance and it would be pretty safe because being such a nice girl, she would never slash someone's tyres - or - uh-oh, would she?