Today's something or other #52

Is it really #52? Ah, who knows, who's counting and who cares? 

This was a Blogger Blog of Note:  Running From Camera. So simple. So effective. So genius.

Today's something or other #51

If I ever form a French techno-pop band I think I'll call it Microfiche.

Grandiose Decay in Detroit (or, more than slightly worn around the edges)

Detroit is four hours from Toronto and four hours from Chicago. Based on all the news coming out of there and seeing multiple photo essays like this one, it might as well be on the other side of the world. Detroit's decay isn't new, but it is hard to believe this has happened to a once proud city in a rich country.

The Grandiose Decay of Abandoned Detroit [Modern Ruins]:

Nearly a third of Detroit's homes are vacant, and along with the residences, the city's stately hotels and cultural centers have been abandoned as well, falling into dramatic disrepair, their grand ruins still showing the promises of a once-booming city.

Ruins of Detroit [Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography via Twitter]

United Artists Theater

Michigan Central Station

Farwell Building

Broderick Tower

Whitney Building

Bank Vault

Ballroom, Fort Wayne Hotel

East Methodist Church

Library

Fisher Body 21 Plant

Ballroom, Lee Plaza Hotel

Source:  io9

Extra Value my ass! Or, its not 1994 anymore

Big Mac Not Exactly an Extra Value Meal Abroad Anymore:

That clown wouldn't be smiling if he were backpacking through Europe right now. The Big Mac is more than a dollar more over there than in America, the Economist reports. Their findings are based on an annual 'burgernomics' survey that uses the comparative price of a quick meal as a metaphor for our financial strength. The conclusion: We're all paying A LOT more these days than we suspected. Oh yeah, unless you are in China, where using yuan looks like a more yummy proposition.

But a quick look closer at the magazines archives give better food for thought about which currencies are actually more stable: Since 2005 the Chinese prices for that home nuked meal have been not only cheap, but dependable. Russia's fast food costs have also seemed ever-so-slightly more stable amid world economic hiccups as well.

Unlikely places for backpacking, sure, but at least you'll be able to estimate the budget for that global pit stop in 2010.

[Via ChartPorn]

Added value (because I care):  Attention backpackers of 2010 - If you're dining in France, the "tête de veau" is exactly what it translates too. Be forewarned. 

Why do we have a backyard but a front lawn?

I Googled this but couldn't find an anwer, just lots of information about landscaping. Please help.

Today's something or other #50

A recent "Blog of Note", Sleep Talkin' Man is pure belly-laughin' good times. A mischievous and fun-loving wife records, and more importantly shares, what her husband says as he talks in his sleep. Hilarity ensures.

A sample:  "Lentils are evil. Pure fucking oozing evil. Take them away from me."

Good thing her husband seems to have a sense of humour about it. Enjoy!

The Knave Abides

What if William Shakespeare wrote The Big Lebowski? Well, you might get Two Gentlemen of Lebowski.

A sample:

WALTER: In sooth, then, faithful friend, this was a rug of value? Thou wouldst call it not a rug among ordinary rugs, but a rug of purpose? A star in a firmament, in step with the fashion alike to the Whitsun morris-dance? A worthy rug, a rug of consequence, sir?

THE KNAVE: It was of consequence, I should think; verily, it tied the room together, gather’d its qualities as the sweet lovers’ spring grass doth the morning dew or the rough scythe the first of autumn harvests. It sat between the four sides of the room, making substance of a square, respecting each wall in equal harmony, in geometer’s cap; a great reckoning in a little room. Verily, it transform’d the room from the space between four walls presented, to the harbour of a man’s monarchy.

WALTER: Indeed, a rug of value; an estimable rug, an honour’d rug; O unhappy rug, that should live to cover such days!

DONALD: Of what dost thou speak, that tied the room together, Knave? Take pains, for I would well hear of that which tied the room together.

An even catchier catchphrase?

Another new 2010 catchphrase [being started be me and inspired by Pat Burns’ (!?) comments to the media about the Tiger Woods situation*] to be used when something catches you unawares, blindsides you, floors you, or any time you think of it is, “that hit me like a 9-iron to the face.” Use it in meetings to impress your co-workers with your witty knowledge of current pop culture events or at parties to charm the ladies. You're welcome.

* Note:  If you didn’t read the full Burns thing in The Star…. Burns, a former cop, is friends with one of the police officers who responded to the initial 911 call. What a tangled web blah, blah, blah.

Forever the King

Elvis was born on this day in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. This either makes him 75 years old today or would have made him 75 depending on your particular bent.

To properly celebrate the King's birthday this weekend I highly recommend you rent / buy / borrow / steal the movie Bubba Ho-tep. Bubba Ho-tep is a classic 'B' movie that was a big hit at TIFF's Midnight Madness earlier this century.

For some classic Elvis music videos click here.

2010's first catchphrase?

Could "bad judgment" be the first catchphrase of the new year?

Washington Wizard's guard Gilbert Arenas apologized for exercising "bad judgment" in a dispute with a teammate where they allegedly pulled guns on each other (supposedly in the locker room, if some reports are to be believed). Arenas disputes the claims but won't say what happened. Here's his statement as reported on ESPN.com.

Gilbert Arenas continued to dispute media accounts of his recent locker-room confrontation with teammate Javaris Crittenton but conceded Saturday night that he used "bad judgment" just by having three firearms on Washington Wizards property.

Speaking to a group of reporters after the Wizards' 97-86 loss to San Antonio, Arenas also revealed that he is scheduled to discuss the case Monday with authorities. Yet Arenas described himself as "not nervous at all" about the fact that the circumstances of his gun possession and his Dec. 21 encounter with Crittenton at the Verizon Center are at the center of a local and federation investigation.

ESPN.com reported Friday that a dispute that began on the team plane and resumed more than 24 hours later in the team's locker room between Arenas and Crittenton was at the crux of an investigation by local and federal authorities.

Multiple sources told ESPN.com that an argument commenced during a card game on the team's overnight flight back to Washington from Phoenix on Dec. 19 and escalated into a heated exchange between Arenas and Crittenton. The Wizards had Dec. 20 off, but sources say hostilities between the two Wizards guards resumed Dec. 21 in the locker room on a practice day.

Sources say that Arenas, in response to what was said on the flight, placed the three guns on a chair near Crittenton's locker stall and invited him to pick one before practice on Dec. 21. Sources said that Crittenton subsequently let Arenas know that he had his own gun.

Remember "Gotcha!"?

If you are a male of a certain age - say mid-30s to mid-40s - you probably remember the Anthony Edwards movie Gotcha! from 1985. You probably also played a version of this game with your friends in high school using spit balls and a Bic pen. Well, Gotcha! enters the modern age with a new, augmented reality game for the iPhone called Gunman.

Today's something or other #49

From the New York Times

Man With 5-Inch Knife Stuck in Chest Orders Coffee

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 22, 2009
Filed at 9:28 p.m. ET

WARREN, Mich. (AP) -- A 52-year-old man complained only about the cold weather before walking into a diner with a five-inch knife sticking out of his chest. The unnamed man called a Warren 911 operator on Sunday night to ask that an ambulance be sent to Bray's, an eatery in neighboring Hazel Park. He said he had been stabbed during a robbery attempt half a mile away, then walked to the restaurant and called 911 from a pay phone.

On a recording of the call, the man gives a vague description of his attacker before saying, ''I'm gonna sit down at Bray's 'cause they got a chair and it's cold out here.''

Restaurant employee George Mirdita told The Detroit News the man calmly ordered coffee.

Police said Tuesday that the man is recovering.


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Information from: The Detroit News, http://www.detnews.com/