Scuffulans hirsutus

Eryngium

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Not only is Sarah Palin more than a match for Chuck Norris — “We don’t know who would win in a Chuck Norris - Sarah Palin cage match because they’ve never invented a cage that can hold Sarah Palin” — but she’s a meganekko, too.

(Via Chizumatic.)

I heard yesterday that one of the great progressive rock bands, Gryphon, has reunited to record a new album and perhaps give some concerts after disbanding more than thirty years ago. I just did a little searching to verify that. While the main Gryphon fansite does announce their reunion, their MySpace page states that it’s been suspended. Grrr.

Here’s an example of the sort of music I’d been hoping to hear more of, their “Glastonbury Carol”:

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If you have things to do and have absolutely no time to spare, don’t click here. (My best so far is 466 528 576 pounds of fish, plus logs, boots and cell phones.) (Via Dale.)

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Kids, be your favorite martyr for Halloween. (Via large furry animals.)

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Warmth. (Via a small furry animal.)

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To put the Democratic convention in perspective, read Dave Barry. His coverage begins here.

Spotted on the way to work this morning. (The color is not quite accurate; the flowers are less blue and more purple than they appear here.)

(Via Frëd.)

I’m not exactly nostalgic for my days in the SCA, but I may see this movie if it comes to Wichita.

Tribulus terrestris, a.k.a. puncture weed. One of the pleasures of bicycling in summer.

Close-up, showing the developing seed heads.

Public enemy #2 is the idiot who chatters on a cell phone while driving. #1 is the jerk who doesn’t look, doesn’t think and doesn’t care. All three are common in Wichita, particularly the last.

This year’s Bulwer-Lytton winners have been posted. There are a few that aren’t too bad:

As she watched the small form swing backwards and forth from the crystal chandelier - hands on hips, sniffing the air and squeaking inaudibly - it suddenly became clear to Madame de Pompomme that she had done the wrong thing asking Jacques to find and bring back her long-lost sister: for, whilst her coterie would doubtless be enchanted for a short while, the novelty of Janine having been raised by bats since the age of two in caves of the North-west Congo would soon wear off in seventeenth-century France.

There are certain people in the world who emanate an aura of well being — they radiate sunshine, light up a room, bring out the best in others, and fill your half empty glass to overflowing - yes it was these very people thought Karl, as he sharpened his mirror-finished guthook knife, who were top of his list.

But most are laboriously dull, spliced together with too many semicolons and dashes.

The Lyttle Lytton results for 2008 were also disappointing, with nothing the caliber of “In 3010, the potatoes triumphed.”

If you want a laugh, I recommend watching the Stafford County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors in action.¹ (Via the Maximum Leader.)

1. Please note that what is illustrated in the video is not “fuzzy math,” but stupidity.↩

Does the background music to this clip sound familiar? Steven thinks that it’s 19th-century, but I don’t recognize it. My guess is that the tune was composed specifically for the show.¹

1. The clip is from the anime Strike Witches, which I don’t recommend.↩

I’ve heard this one many times as a bluegrass tune, but I think I like it better as a stride piano piece:

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… bomb disposal probably isn’t for you.

(Via Chizumatic.)

“The Crime Wave at Blandings” is the single most satisfying short story in the English language.

On a related note, there is a new poll in the sidebar.

Update: Only two votes so far? Good grief. You all need to do some remedial reading.

Postcards from CERN. (Via Aziz.)

Odds and ends in lieu of a substantative post.

My ankle has healed to the point that it’s a minor nuisance, not a major problem. It doesn’t feel right, and I expect that it never really will, but I can get around plenty well now, up and down stairs and out on my bicycle. I’m done with formal physical therapy. Next month I plan to take a beginning ballet class as a form of advanced PT. I don’t expect to be back on the dance stage again — my ankle is getting better, but my knees aren’t — but taking class will be worthwhile just to demonstrate to myself that I can still do it, despite everything.

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I’ve installed a new photo gallery that I hope will be easier to upgrade in the future when it becomes necessary. I’m in the process of uploading the pictures from the old site. There are a bunch of them, and it’s going to take a while to post them all. Currently, there are some pictures from last year’s Walnut Valley Festival, some from the local botanical garden, and a selection of pictures from my days in the Society for Creative Anachronism. The last are mostly black and white and date back to when I worked in an old-fashioned chemical darkroom.

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Robert the LLama Butcher, one of my favorite bloggers, has his own place now, The Port Stands at Your Elbow. He promises to keep posting at the old site as well.

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Watchmen is one of the very few comic books graphic novels that I have read. The inevitable movie is due out next year, and it looks like it might not be a botch — though it almost was:

… they originally wanted Keanu Reeves for Dr. Manhattan, Ron Perlman for The Comedian, and either Jude Law and Tom Cruise for Ozymandias. Gack!

Toren makes an essential point in the comments there:

Alan has put his money where his mouth is and transferred all his share of the profits from the movie to Dave Gibbons, the artist. I’ve met Dave a few times here and in England and I must say he’s not only a great guy but his work in adapting Alan’s brutally difficult script has been vastly underrated. To take Alan’s insanely complex and dense scripts and adapt them to read fluently and yet contain the unbelievable amount of required detail and foreshadowing is one of comic’s great accomplishments. Dave’s work was hugely appreciated within the industry but alas, never got much credit outside of it. It was all “Alan Moore is God.”

It’s a damn shame.

Alan Moore isn’t God, but is he Shakespeare? Eve Tushnet has some interesting things to say about Watchmen (spoilers), finding parallels with Measure for Measure and much else. (You may need to scroll down to the entries for January 23, 2004.) Scroll up for additional comments and links.

Update: More on Moore from Tushnet.

A little something for Rush fans: