6424 So Long, Cap, & robo-dancer.

Ah, I'll miss you, Cap'n Kangaroo. I got an extra-long dose of your show growing up, with a younger brother who was into "picture pages" starring Bill Cosby and his trusty pencil "Mortimer Ichabod Marker", complete with follow-along workbook. I liked the old regime of Grandfather Clock, Dancing Bear, Mr. Moose and Mr. Bunny Rabbit (who I thought was a girl, despite the Mister... those Granny glasses convinced me at a young, young age.)

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Well, Mona got off easy last night... *no* calls at all. that's got to be some kind of record for a Friday. I hope the same luck continues the rest of this weekend.

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Robert E. Howard, the grandfather of sword and sorcery fiction, would have been ninety-eight years old yesterday. The creator of Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, and several Cthulhu Mythos stories died far too young after losing the battle with his personal demons. If you've never read his work, you're missing out on a lot. The Robert E. Howard United Press Association has a lot of resources about him and his work. (A lot more than just Arnold lopping off James Earl Jones' noggin, and rolling it down stairs.)

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I'm evil ...I edited out Sally (like Stalin did to Der Commissar) to economize on my dancing Linus icon. The Hey-Ya Charlie Brown link moved *fast* over LJ.

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Top 100 Usenet groups, by bytes posted

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Robot Belly-dancer ( Read more... )

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Here's a good description of "professional victim". I hadn't thought about it before, but narcissism is just the right slot to file folks like that.

Some people adopt the role of a professional victim. In doing so, they become self-centered, devoid of empathy, abusive, and exploitative. In other words, they become narcissists. The role of "professional victims" - ones whose existence and very identity is defined solely and entirely by their victimhood - is well researched. It doesn't make for a nice reading.

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Create your own super hero, akin to Hero Machine, but the art is better.

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New York Times on the Sex-slave trade in the US.

6425 - mishmash

Mildly chilly today (was feeling like 40 this morning. I had a cat under the covers.) I wonder if temperature has an effect on kids going missing, considering Mona's good fortune last night.

I can only imagine that's it's snowy-snowy in points North today. Hopefully, folks are staying safe.

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Reduced-fat Triscuits are yucky. Don't bother.

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Human clock: Click the pics for up-to-the-minute accuracy.

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DVDRhelp has Region-free hacks.

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Van Helsing... So cheesy. You know, Bruce Campbell could've pulled that role off, though Jackman looks the part, too.

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Random Scotto's dad factoid: He referred to my (or his, or my brother's) teeth as "snags". As in, "Don't forget to brush your snags after your shower!" Where he picked up that from, I may never know...none of use are really snaggle-toothed...Heavens to Murgatroyd, no! He'd been using it since I could recognize speech. I'm guilty of using the term myself, now.

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I'm glad to see something positive there...

Sarmad talks about how the US Army is rebuilding schools and what that means to Iraqi children and their nation. His English is a little rough, but it's from the heart, and it lets us know that despite the carping of the liberal press, we continue to do good work in Iraq. It isn't all about bombings and body count.

-via bandicoot

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Don't hesitate on this one: This bootleg mash-up is a virtuoso 39-minute musical journey in which dozens of pop tracks from the past several decades are sampled, layered, spliced, time-stretched, edited and compiled into one utterly amazing sonic blast. Warning: It's a 53MB file; so dial-up users you've been duly warned! (Bottom line is get it while it lasts.) Oh yes, be sure to print out the full track list.

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Torrent Reactor - another lovely bittorrent site.

6426 Heavens to Murgatroyd!

Found while searching for the proper spelling / origin of Murgatroyd.

"I do not know whether in those days there was only one Constable for each Township, appointed by the King or whether there was a small body of men holding office. Judging by the fact that the Constable for Midgley had the same name as the Berewick I imagine that there was indeed only one and therefore that our oldest known ancestor was the 'King's man' for the Township and consequently a powerful figure. Moor-gate-royd lies near Warley, Halifax. The secluded mansion, formerly known as "Murgateroyde" now called "Hollins", is built upon the demesne granted to the Earl of Warren by William the Norman, and is, from its families and the historic incidents connected with it, one of the most interesting of houses."

or....

In 1887 Gilbert & Sullivan brought the operetta - Ruddigore or "The Witch's Curse" to the Savoy Theatre on January 22nd for the first time.

One of the characters, Sir Roderic Murgatroyd, a "Bad Baronet of Ruddigore" had a generational curse on him: His ancestor Sir Rupert was cursed by a witch to "do one crime, or more, once every day, for ever" or face an agonising death.

So, basically the word "murgatroyd" has everything to do with a cursed existence, and unfortunate circumstances and situations.

Note, via ldy (who assisted in my search) - be careful doing any research... if you search for "murgatroid" on Google, you get porn! (and not gay panther porn, either!)