kbobam

I'm currently watching an episode of 'The Odd Couple', and this couple, actually married at the time, suddenly appeared. I cracked up at the idea of them showing up at the same restaurant as Oscar and Felix, and otherwise didn't think twice about it. But it hit me a few minutes later that a large percentage of the population wouldn't appreciate this 40 year old scene at all. Note- In 2009 TV Guide ranked this episode number 58 on it's '100 Greatest Episodes of All Time' list.

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O... M... G...! That song is so ridiculously great! I'd like the tune and the voices even if the material was bad. Which it wasn't! Of course this makes it even harder for me to 'bust' Steph and let everyone know that any music she posts is the result of excessive work from grossly under-paid employees. Here's a photo to prove it!

The 'seizure concern' I mentioned earlier reminded me of something I learned about during my construction days. You know those little strobe lights (Cool! I'm integrating 'far-out' stuff into this boring post!) that you see as part of or next to fire alarms in commercial buildings these days? They were of course designed to be 'noticeable'. Which is kind of an understated way to put it. But the people who researched how to best accomplish this did too good a job. So when these alarms first appeared, it turned out that a good number of people who didn't even know they were in the upper-half of the 'seizure-prone' community wound up convulsing when fire alarms would go off in business or public places. Luckily, some sharp research people discovered that the seizure problem only occurred when all the strobe lights were in synchronization. (Sorry! I was going to say "synch", but figured the whole word would sound more sophisticated!) So all that was necessary to solve the problem was to wire the strobes to go off in a random fashion. So this is why you now look down a long hallway when alarms are going off, and see random flashes instead of blink-blink-blink-blink.

What about the distress caused by the "...I don't like Pelts." remark? (Those were 'razzing', not 'fighting' words! I respect personal opinions.)

I'm a little late in saying that winnie's 'dancing ducks' is pretty spectacular. And not the kind of photo you're going to see in publications which depend on random people with phones for their pictures.

Hey Jeff! So what's up with the railroad tracks on the Eastern Seaboard? I used to travel between D.C., New York, and Boston forty years ago on the fast trains, and it was the tracks that were limiting their speed. Now we have at least some improved tracks, and fancy 'leaning' trains, but the top speed hasn't really changed all that much. What gives? I'm just 'going off' and you don't have to respond to this, since it probably isn't all your fault. Welcome aboard.

Hi, Steph! Want you to know that I and all your TMC friends are here with you now! Isn't it relaxing here? The 'The Lounge' forum sure is a peaceful place! You can talk, or fall asleep, or do anything you want! When you think about it, you couldn't have things better! Now that I've talked you down, I have to say Boy! That graphic really hit me! I kind of want to swivel my big monitor vertically and look at it full-screen, but I'm having some possible seizure concerns, so I don't know. ( :

I always feel a real mental slap in the face when I'm dwelling on how totally crappy my life is, and I suddenly see something that makes it not seem so bad. (P.S. It's okay to think this post is serious and humorous at the same time! Lighten up and give yourself a break!)

Yes, but they don't advertise it. It's one of the perks of belonging to their secret 'One Percent Club'. (I'll be happy to be your member reference.) Here's how it works for the clientele 'in the know'. You go to the balloon section, hold your hand next to your mouth like you're telling a secret and quietly ask for a 'Have A Nice Day!' balloon. The sales person will whisper back "I think we have some in the back!" and whisk you through the 'employees only' door to the freight elevator, which will take you downstairs to the most amazing underground city known to man, but perhaps I've already said too much! (It seems like some $Trees have a cold section, and some don't. Of the two stores in my area, one does and one doesn't. Don't know if these 50/50 odds are consistent all over the country or not.)

Well, the steamed dumpling turned out to be pretty good! (Don't let the word 'bun' fool you.) I think the reason this product found its way to the Dollar Tree is because that paper doily sort of thing is permanently stuck on the bottom. You can peel it off after steaming, but it'll still take a little dumpling with it.

Convenience, but no corkscrew. Not for me! ( :

HA! Those are hilarious! (Definite 'nerdnip', a word I didn't know which Ric brought up recently, and this gives me a chance to say "HA!" to him as well.) Going to have to be honest and say that I'm really not sure if the USB knifedrive is a joke or not, since nothing surprises me anymore. And you're right about the other one. It's a finely-tuned balance of pushing it to the hilt but not quite going over. ( :

I first saw the giant knife on a television show about 'gadgets'. It was described as a "thousand dollar Swiss Army knife". Turns out the show was from 2008, and those of you who checked out the link may have noticed that the price is now $2149.95. Obviously this knife is a no-brainer investment which easily stays ahead of inflation! So if I were you, I'd click on that 'add to cart' button as soon as possible, while the price is still so reasonable!

Here's a link to something totally ridiculous just for the fun of it. Although some of you might want to look around at the more normal stuff, too. I had a really good nostalgic time checking out all the varieties. To this day I've never owned one of these things. But as a kid, they were one of those esoteric items that you dreamed about, without really expecting to ever have one. You never really lose your soft spot for stuff like that. ( : http://www.wengerna.com/giant-knife-16999

Here's the latest Dollar Tree experiment. 3/4" marble for reference. Looks like it has the potential to be pretty good. If only our entire lives could be "Delicieux et Pratique"!

I agree with your concerns. Not that I don't appreciate the museum's desire to keep the appreciation of great art a pure and relaxed experience. But I think a large number of us justify many of our actions by saying/thinking "Been doing it forever. Hasn't got me in trouble yet!" Which of course was also true for anyone who's ever gotten in trouble. Right up until the time they did. ( :

Gotta like it! Although the style isn't the same, I guess it's the outrageous colors that made me flash back to Peter Max. There was a period of time when his artwork was on the sides of NYC buses. As a ten year old hippie, I really dug it. ( : Couldn't find a bus photo. Ship'll have to do.

I'm going to honest here. Since I don't personally have much pet-owner experience, 'wet dog' is funny. But it's not even close (imho !) to 'cowboys herding cats' which is blanking hilarious! ( :

Of course it's also nice to see that 'marbles' has been an equal opportunity employer since way back when. Looks pretty clear that this has been the case at a competitive level, as well as in the general sense that all 'youths' enjoy them intrinsically. Those of you familiar with the movie 'My Cousin Vinnie' will need to be told that the last 'quoted' word meant 'yutes'. So kudos to those of you who've been spreading the idea to younger people. As someone who is old as dirt and has seen it all, I'm pretty sure that eventually some of these young people will realize that they can go out in the woods and clear a place to play and have a great time with no electricity or internet. For whatever reason, I think that's a pretty good thing to learn these days, and might surprise them. ( :

The reflection could be taken down even further with a little-known technique. It's a form of 'cross-polarization' which the specialists who shoot photos of 'artwork under glass' use frequently. The basic idea is that in addition to using a polarizing filter on your lens, you also polarize your light source. This is usually done with 'polarizing film', which is flexible yet stiff plastic which can be cut to size. Here are two photos. The first shot was done using two flashes normally. For the second, I've stuck pieces of polarizing film over the flash heads. (And manually cranked up the flash output to compensate exposure.) I'm going to shut up now and see if anyone's interested. ( :

1926! Boy. Most of these people have no idea how good they have it right now!

Or a turqui!

I did try to use myself as a human balance scale, but only succeeded in doing a really poor Hindu deity impersonation. ( :

Geesh, it sure wasn't working, was it? Don't know why a standard copy/paste didn't work correctly. Thanks, Ric. That's where it was supposed to go.