Posting in the "Wee-Small Hours"...
...too wound up for sleep, so here I am again!

Breaking News that you can't live without: I'm watching MSNBC right now, and Mika Brzezenski (I'm not sure how to spell her name) read this news story: There was a "Nettle-Eating" competition on Great Britain, and the winner ate 58 feet of nettles! I guess a "nettle" is some prickly-sort of plant, which makes me wonder, "huh? what? Why would anyone want to do this?" Of course, I suppose that if you've got a scratchy throat, a nettle would be just the thing. I guess. It sounds awfully weird to me, this whole deal. By the way, Mika is the daughter of Zbignew Brzezenski, who was some sort of diplomat in the Carter administration, I believe. And, she was a Silver Medalist (skating) in the '72 Olympics! So there's a little trivia for ya. Mika is also the newsreader on "Morning Joe", which occupies the former Don Imus early-morning program slot.

Initially, I thought "Joe" (Joe Scarborough, actually) was the best of the wannabees MSNBC shuffled in and out of the former Imus slot. But, and I'm sorry, ol' Joe is just kinda wearing thin. He's no Imus. I guess that's the point. But Imus had an "edge" that Joe just doesn't have. Bland yuppie TV. Yep, that's where all my cable-TV payments are going. To watch people I have a hard time relating to. Imus, you out there anywhere? I am not kidding; "Morning Joe" is a train-wreck; he and his "crew" all try to sound quick-witted, and maybe they are, but except for Mika, the show is sophmoric and kinda difficult to endure. Joe's okay on his nightly MSNBC show, "Scarborough Country", but he's awfully hard to take in his newfound ad-lib program host capacity. I suppose that MSNBC is thinking, "well, at least he's not going to offend anyone". Playin' it safe.

Flip-flopping the flip-flops: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, formerly a Democrat, then a Republican, has now become an Independent. And he says he's not running for Prezzident because he plans on finishing out his mayoral term. Let's see, flip, flop. Flop, flip. Flip, flop. So is he running or not? Who knows? At least he wouldn't be susceptible to any kind of subversive money-generating graft and corruption; he's rich, after all. Yeah, that's what we need; another rich Prezzident to represent the little people of this great nation. Oh, yeah, and don't forget to vote. ZZZZzzzzzzz...... Another question: if Mr. Bloomberg doesn't like being an Independent, what else can he become, assuming he doesn't wanna be a "D" or an "R"? If questions like this aren't being asked, they should be.

So what's this got to do with anything? Well, it actually does sorta tie in...



You may recall that I mentioned Great Britain in the above paragraph about the "nettle-eating-contest" above. (Aside: maybe I'm ignorant, but I'm not really sure what the difference is between "Great Britain" and "England". Then again, I suppose I'm not very enlightened.) Anyway, this quaint building is a neighborhood pub in the town of Norfolk, which is somewhere near London. How did I get this photo? One of my internet friends, Lisa, sent it. I've been going online for approximately 8 years now, (8 YEARS?), and I honestly can't remember how I started corresponding with her. She works for Del Monte, the British division thereof. Anyway, this building looks like the typical olde pub where you can hoist a pint of ale. Quaint. And olde. So if you're tired of the same old night-life...you can hop a jet to England and drink here, mateys.
BLOG UPDATE: Lisa, the lovely lady who sent me the above photo, informs me that Norfolk ain't a town. She says it's a "county". In short, a 'finite' sort of district within the confines of Great Brittania. So the Pub would be in "The County of Norfolk, England", perhaps. If I haven't yet hit the nail on the head, at least I'm getting closer to it!


I actually had the item pictured here in this old advertisement...No, I didn't buy it new; I don't go back that far. But I found one of these old phonographs at a Goodwill Store back in the mid-90s. I don't have it anymore. Even though I had a good stereo system at the time, I still bought old phono's like this one. Heaven knows why. From the looks of this ad, this is a 1950s advertisement, so the phono was a good 40-years old when I bought it. And now, ladies and gentlemen, the ultimate in highly sophisticated portable listening pleasure...da-da-da-DAAAA...



This old clunker stereo, well, at least the model I had (which looks a lot like what's pictured here) had a tone-arm made out of heavy METAL, would you believe. The kind of stuff they make tanks out of. Well, not really, but you get the idea. Just the thing to chew up yer doo-wop. Shortly after I bought it, the needle/cartridge assembly fell OUT of the tone arm and I tried to shove the cartridge back up into the tone arm and it wouldn't stick. So there was the cartridge, hanging limply by a couple of small wires from the tone arm. Ah, but I had a bright idea: I had another cheap phonograph that was made out of something resembling thick cardboard, with a light plastic tone-arm. So, I installed 'that' tone arm onto 'this' phonograph. And it worked! But what an awful design for a record player. The speaker was so big that you couldn't see where to set the tone arm down unless you were standing up, looking down on the phonograph.

The saga of the dancing can of SPAM: On this blogsite, I used to feature a little dancing can of Spam, which was appropriate, since "Spam" is computer-ese for "largely unnecessary and unsolicited communication", which this blog consists largely of. Of course, the Hormel Company, makers of "Spam", is all up in arms; they don't like their chief meat by-product likened to internet garbage that no one wants to see. Well, I decided to give the dancing can of Spam the "Cold (Pork) Shoulder", but for those of you who wanna see what I'm talking about, here it is (sans the 'dancing' part):



The current picture on my blog (you may have to scroll down, it's on the left side of this page), is that of Homer, the ancient Greek author of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey"...or was that "The Iliad and The Odyssey"...(I'm getting as annoying as Joe Scarborough here). And if old Homer doesn't work out, or I get tired of him, there's another picture waiting in the wings that I just might use:



This is Victor Hugo, and I really don't know much about him; but he looks authoritative enough, yet he seems to have a reflective gleam in his eye, as if he's holding the cards and he doesn't wanna reveal too much about himself, hence cultivating an air of mystery. I think he was a playwright, or a composer. I don't know, and it's after 4am, I got home late from the jam session tonight (exercises in elemental guitar torture), and okay, I'm beginning to wind down now; I fear the onslaught of Mr. Sandman's sledgehammer. "GO TO SLEEP NOW, OR ELSE!!!"
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This post demonstrates the adverse results caused by sleep depravity. Or, maybe, just depravity in general.