Nobody pays attention to the fine print anyway.....

...as witnessed on this Oregon Ducks desk calendar .

New year...new styles..........

Niche marketing at its "best"....freezerwear for shapeless warehousemen.....in a stylish calendar that brings out the "heat".......or maybe not.

John Spencer's new fallback job......

More News From Next To Nowhere.....

......thank you to the EZ Stop Market in Harrisburg, OR for this timely reminder.

Wacky Packaging....

Item found at Mexican grocery store in Springfield, OR.......I just took the picture, but a Japanese fellow I know wanted to know why there was a Chinese caricature on the label.

I supported my local hip indie record store............

.....and I had to do the walk of shame with my purchases in this bag. I guess there's a price to pay somewhere.

Pearl District: The Big Country Lyrics Come To Life

The lyrics to the classic Talking Heads tune is what comes to my mind every time I have to think about that obnoxious idiot in his BMW who confronted me because I couldn't move my Pontiac fast enough out of his way so that he could get home to his precious condo near Powell's. "Enjoy your life in the ghetto!!! are the words that will forever echo in my head as a result of that encounter, one that took place on the typically crowded streets late one afternoon by that iconic bookstore. How sad and sorry of me not to recognize the fact that living in the Pearl District is the highlight of man's achievement on this planet, I just don't know how I'll be able to live out the rest of my days knowing that I'll never be as advanced as that enlightened soul was.



All of this came back to me upon receiving a flier in my NW Natural Gas bill this week. What's it like to live in the heart of the Pearl District? Here's your chance to find out. This chance to check out the views on this year's Street Of Dreams and live next to assholes like the one I encountered is one that I will gladly pass up. And yes, I do enjoy my life in the "ghetto" here in the valley just fine.

More Raging Controversy: Did Pujols Dig In The Dirt?

In a similar style of critical analysis that deals with the big issues, ESPN's popular pick-em game STREAK FOR THE CASH recalls the heyday of the National Lampoon magazine's take on nuclear war by debating on whether or not President Obama's ceremonial first pitch at tonight'sAll-Star Game in St. Louis hit the dirt or not. The purpose of the game is to try and pick 25 consecutive winners and win a million dollars by doing so. Several choices are offered every day for those who play. One of tonight's choices was whether or not the first pitch from President Obama would land in the glove of ceremonial catcher Albert Pujols. It seems that the result was somewhat inconclusive for a large number of people, who couldn't agree on whether or not the ball hit the dirt before landing into the glove of Pujols. What....controversy surrounding anything that President Obama does? Perish the thought! The entertaining in-game thread can be read HERE , with the comments relating to the first pitch starting in the 2000 level. The fact that hopes are riding with the continuation of various streaks, of course, plays no small factor in the writing of some of the participants.

Different Strokes For Different Folks: Portland Swing Club Opens Today

Yes, depending on how one view's the world, today's opening of an adult swingers club in downtown Portland, with involvement from porn star Ron Jeremy is either another sign that this country is indeed riding the hot rails to hell, or is a sign of enlightenment between consenting adults. I'd imagine the maybe the divergent views between the two sides could be illustrated with a couple of images; the first view represented by the infamous Royal Trux album cover, and the latter with the beautiful image of sexual union on the Sensuous Path To Bliss.












Club Sesso

"Say hi to your mom!"

Normally I'm not particularly fond of commercials, but this current promo for SNY with Keith Hernandez still makes me laugh with every viewing.

Don't Be Afraid Of The Remake (For The Most Part)

Maybe it was because my aunt did double duty on a date once by babysitting my brother and I at the drive-in for a double feature of The Conqueror Worm and The Masque of the Red Death with no discernible harm to our young psyches. Certainly watching Night Of The Hunter whilst my age was still in single digits didn't deter me from trusting adults either. However, the one movie/television event that left me shaken and scared was the 1973 program Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark; the tension created by the noises from the demonic creatures that lived under the house was truly terrifying; the fact that our baby-sitters let us watch the program and were then not malicious enough to try and scare the wits out of us kids afterward is still something I marvel at to this day.



In today's Los Angeles Times I came across a story debating the FUTURE OF MIRAMAX FILMS WITH DISNEY there was a paragraph about the upcoming remake of that classic show, starring Katie Holmes and produced by Guillermo del Toro. That second factor is enough to assure me that this will be a worthwhile project, though I am certainly proud of the fact that I have not directly paid one cent to see a movie with Mrs. Cruise, something that will probably change with this one.



Thanks once again to Youtube for allowing people like SciFiPilots to post sections of the original online, where people all across the country can watch it again and make comments such as "This movie scared the CRAP outta me when I was a kid!. In this clip, the heroine begins to tamper with things that she was warned against doing in her dream house.

Dropping The Towel For You

It's not that I have a particular affinity for television ads, other than as a topic of discussion at work for a brief period of time based on the relevancy of the product in question, but the ending of one of the current Swiffer ads (with the Player song Baby Come Back as background music) is just too fantastic to ignore. The idea of jilted household items trying to woo their way back into the hearts of their former users via romance is a memorable concept, and the towel drop in this ad probably works here as well as it does in real life. Minus the cops being called, of course.

Glad I Don't Take Recruiting That Seriously

Nice to see that the mentor of the nation's top running back recruit will be charging $9.99 a month for updates on the status of Bryce Brown, who has postponed his school decision until the first of March. No word yet if the recruiters from each prospective school will be afforded a special rate, an item with a link to the Miami Herald story is HERE.

$100 Trillion Note To Be Introduced In Zimbabwe

An unbelievable value in an unbelievably sad situation, when will Robert Mugabe do the sensible thing and leave office so that his country might begin to rebound from the severe harm he has done for Zimbabwe?


STORY

Signs At Work: What Else Are You Gonna Do?

.........at the local roadside bar? Just don't break all of the commandments in one night, tiger.

Signs At Work

Seen at a local ramen joint, a reminder that gyoza babies need their beauty rest.

Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Lied To?: Robbie Keane To Liverpool

The dizzying number of reports in the British papers regard the transfer requests from Spurs strikers Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov (to Liverpool and Man United, respectively) have undoubtedly been the culprit in raising the blood pressure of Spurs fans around the world lately.



The news of Berbatov leaving has certainly been expected by Spurs faithful over the last few months, but even a Carling Cup victory last February wasn't enough to persuade the Bulgarian to give new coach Juande Ramos another season to achieve the status of playing in the Champions League: Berbatov wants to play there now, the erratic play of Spurs on the pitch apparently a significant role in his moodiness throughout the year.


Keane, however, is an entirely different study: in the years that he's been at White Hart Lane, he has been a truly exemplary leader both on and off the pitch, a hard worker who appreciates the recognition from the Tottenham faithful. Many times over Keane has expressed how content he is at the Lane, and even as last year's roller coaster of a season was finishing up, he expressed a desire to finish his career at Tottenham.



Now that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has come out with a stunning statement earlier this week, that reads in part.... I have absolutely no wish to sell either player and to date we have not accepted any offer for either. However, when a player's head is turned and their commitment is absent, particularly when they occupy key positions such as that of striker, they become a negative influence in a team dressing room in which they were once a positive addition and influence. This is the situation we now have on our hands, with both Dimitar and Robbie having made it clear that they wish to leave for Manchester Utd and Liverpool respectively., the question that is burning on the minds of all Spurs fans is: Robbie, how could you and what exactly has changed in the last year to have changed your mind?


Going to Liverpool won't be nearly as unforgivable as when Sol Campbell signed with Arsenal earlier this decade, but it has still been received as a major body shock by Spurs fans. Yes, we know the true nature of professional sports is that it's a business, but when a trusted and admired player such as Keane disavows what he's said before (on many occasions), then the last shreds of imagined integrity and devotion to the team have sadly been cruelly ripped away.



ROBBIE'S LIES, LIES, LIES





LEVY'S STATEMENT






A pox upon both Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafa Benitez for their actions in these matters.

Mets Fire Randolph: It's All Fun And Games Till A Window Gets Broken....

.........or your team seriously under performs for the last year, but this isn't a children's book nor are we talking about monopoly money in a fantasy baseball league, this Mets team has certainly been a cause for consternation during that time span.


Omar Minaya let the word slip out just after midnight PST (3:14 a.m in the east) that Willie Randolph would be let go as Mets manager, just a couple of hours after a hard fought 9-6 win over the Anaheim Angels, though the general manager manager would not make himself available for comment for several hours afterward. The very strange timing of the announcement, announced just after the first day on a six-game western road swing for the Mets, certainly has made the Mets front office look incredibly inept, none of my friends have made positive comments about the way Randolph was let go, nor about the way the rumours kept swirling for the last couple of weeks that any game could be Willie's last.


The game itself was a good one, Jose Reyes conjured up a couple of runs by his base running, Carlos Beltran hit a couple of home runs, and a relatively balanced hitting attack (every starter save Carlos Delgado and Trot Nixon) got a hit along with either a run or an RBI. Starting pitcher Mike Pelphrey did a decent job in securing the win, though he faltered in the seventh inning and was charged with all six runs that the Angels scored.


It has to be said that the job Aaron Heilman did in the seventh was great; as team the Mets pitchers only struck out two batters, but those came at a very critical time in the bottom of the seventh and Heilman recorded both of them. The Angels had closed the Mets lead to 8-6 and had runners on the corners with just one out, but Heilman got both Vlad Guerrero and Torii Hunter swinging at the third strike to quell that rally, leaving Duaner Sanchez to get the Angles 1-2-3 in the eight. Billy Wagner raised blood pressure around the country by getting two runners on base with one out, but got bailed out when Garrett Anderson lined out to Reyes for an unassisted double play to end the game.


Not many Mets fans are arguing that Willie shouldn't have been fired, nor do they seem to expect a bit turnaround now that bench coach Jerry Manuel has been named interim manager, but the actions of the last 24 hours have left a feeling that Minaya certainly knows his days are numbered if the team doesn't turn it around and soon.



METS GAME RECAP

Cure For A Season Of Mediocrity And Underachieving: Raise Ticket Prices Even More!

How lovely for the fans in White Hart Lane to be treated to ticket price increases after a spectacularly mediocre year, a year in which their Carling Cup championship was certainly overshadowed by some of the most up and down play seen from a team in recent years. Losing 1-4 at home to relegated Birmingham after beating Chelsea for the Cup title? Says it all right there for me. Don't know what the tipping point for some fans will be, but the clubs message of "We're gonna do this..........we're gonna do that.............we're gonna do the other thing..........etc. etc........but we need more of your money first!" is going to wear real thin if next year Spurs perform as abysmally as they did this one.




GOING UP, UP, UP

One Reason To Never Listen To KPNW Again

A co-worker, who lives in Eugene, asked me earlier this week what had happened to SportsTalk on 1120 KPNW, and not having been able to catch the show for the last week on the road, I'd certainly missed a lot of stuff that had been going down.


Having been fan of the show ever since it featured three guys and was located on the FM dial, I'd casually assumed that since it was down to just one of those three (Steve Tannen) that maybe he was on vacation for the week, and also after ruling out the possibility of east coast starting times for the Portland Trail Blazers.


Turns out that he was fired for "business reasons", and the show's time-slot was filled with Micheal Savage (!). I found a link to an earlier blog posting on JASON'S OSU BEAVERS BLOG that has links to the Register Guard story as well as one from KVAL that feature words from the departed host.




Obviously, I have always enjoyed Steve's wide-ranging knowledge about many various sports, mixing the big national stories with his balanced views of the local stories. It was an entertaining two-hour show, one that rivaled the best of ESPN radio. Sports Talk will most certainly be missed.


The bright side is that we won't have to hear the waffling of Cougar Mark any more........;) j/k Mark..........Allan In Albany.