The Daily Update

A blossom fell... from off a tree.
It settled softly on the lips you turned
to me.
The gypsies say, and I know why
A falling blossom only touches
lips that lie.

A blossom fell... and very soon
I saw you kissing
someone new beneath the moon.
I thought you loved me, you said you loved me.
We planned together to dream forever.
The dream has ended, for true love
died,
The night a blossom fell, and touched two lips that lied."


Today in History:

Random picture of Valeria Mazza:

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Oh, come on now. It's a RANDOM picture.

In A.D. 64, the Great Fire of Rome began.

In 1792, American naval hero John Paul Jones died in Paris at age 45.

In 1932, the United States and Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway.

In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began.

In 1940, the Democratic national convention in Chicago nominated President Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term in office.

In 1947, President Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act, which placed the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.

In 1955, a summit opened in Geneva, Switzerland, attended by President Eisenhower, Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden and French Premier Edgar Faure.

In 1969, a car driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) (D-Mass.) plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard; passenger Mary Jo Kopechne died.

In 1984, a gunman opened fire at a McDonald's fast food restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people before being shot dead by police.

In 1984, Walter F. Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination in San Francisco.

In 1994, Tutsi rebels declared an end to Rwanda's 14-week-old civil war.

In 1995, Opening statements were presented in the trial of Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman charged with drowning her two young sons.

Random Pictures of China Chow. Dig In. I'd say Chow down, but that'd be in bad taste. And I can't see any bad taste here.:



Today's Birthdays:
Former South African President Nelson Mandela is 87.

Former Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, is 84.


Movie director Paul Verhoeven is 67.

Singer Dion DiMucci is 66.

Actor James Brolin is 65. As an actor, his biggest accomplishment that I know of is marrying Barbra. Nothing against Babs. Just don't know what signifigant contribution he's made.


Singer Martha Reeves is 64.

Singer Ricky Skaggs is 51. Ricky is the begnign strain. It's unpleasant but treatable. Should you be unlucky enough to catch the mre potent Boss Skaggs or the German Lotus Skaggs, best prepare your last will and testament. But that's what you get when you hang around those sorts of places. And don't think that you'll get any consolation out of it; she's just a carrier and transmitter. She isn't gona die from it like you will. Fool. Didn't you listen durning health class?!

Actress Audrey Landers is 46.


Actor Vin Diesel is 38.



Actress Kristen Bell is 25.



Shakespeare quote of the day:

Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
For I'll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunn'd
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, to incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou; to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms,
Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs or mine-
rals
That weaken, motion: I'll have't disputed on;
'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practiser
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.

-Othello Act I. Sc. II

Random Picture Time! Paige Butcher. Looks a little like Tar Reid, without the cocaine:


Word of the day:

ameliorate \uh-MEEL-yuh-rayt\, transitive verb:
To make better; to improve.

Being Bobby Brown:

It's nice to know that no matter how big of a star some people become, they never really grow out from being the trailer trash within. If we didn't learn that lesson already with Anna Nicole Smith, the Bravo channel drives it home with this show, featuring the disfunctional marriage of one Bobby "Every little step" Brown and Whitney "I wanna dance with somebody" Houston.

To watch this is to set up a lawn chair at your local trailer court with a 12 pack for a month or so, and watch the human dynamic at it's lowest level. Only, with Bobby and Whitney, it's at a mansion instead. Bobb comes across as comepletely clueless at the world outside of his brainpan, and unaware that any other feelings might exist beyond his own. Whitney? I was never a big fan of hers, but she strikes me as the tied-up animal that's given up any will to fight. So she wallows in the world they have created together, and make no attempt to make it better.

Compare Whitney of 1988 to the Whitney of now...you'd never think she'd turn out like this. With her blissfully happy pop songs and ballads ("One moment in time", done fo rthe 1988 Olympics? Don't tell me you forgot about that.), you'd have never thought you'd see her this low. Fortunately for their sake, they've got a ton of money to keep them upright until its too late.

For the sake of your own inner being though, let not your eyes cast upon it. You'll BEG to be turned into a pillar of salt if you do.

Course, a pillar of salt is pretty big. Some people only measure up to a stoop. Me? load-bearing column, complete with flying buttress. Of salt. It'd make me popular with the horses, I'll bet.

But that may not be something I want.

Coca Cola Zero review:

A recent edition has been made to the Coca-Cola family. As devout a follower as I am, I felt the need to pay my respects, visit the newborn, and like any other...twist off it's head and sup the sweet innocent fluids found inside.

Unfortunately, Mr. Lileks beat me to the review. Argh! Well, that's what I get for being remiss in my duties, I suppose.

From my perspective, He's only half-correct, though. True, it is Coca cola's answer to Pepsi One. And if Pepsi is going to leave any sort of room for negotiation, Coca-Cola is pretty much obligated to do one better. Or one less. One is the lonliest number. Whatever.

Anyway, I actually like it alot. Diet Coke just doesn't have the same bite to it that regular Coke does. It's sweeter, and there's another part that I just can't put my tongue on it.

What CAN I put my tongue on?

Jell-o pudding pops.

I found them in the freezer section at my local grocer! They're just like when I was a kid! Chocolate, Vanilla, and Swirl! It's the great taste we all remember. Have you tried one recently?

No?

Well, they're not Lujan Fernandez, but that's alot to ask out of a puddin' pop.


But what if you could have Ms. Fernandez AND a pudding pop?

Well now, you have taken a hypothetical question that while implausible, still had some basis of reality and turned it into something straight out of a green party convention. That's right, I am saying it has absoultely no chance at all.

And I don't know that what you are implying with Ms. Fernandez and a dairy delight ON A STICK, but I can guess. And there are doctors in that field who would shun the practice entirely.

(But don't think I hadn't thought of it, either, strictly between you and I.)

Random Picture of your writer:

Closed Circuit to E...note the T-shirt.

Anyway, Diet Coke simply isn't close enough to regular coke to really classify them together. When you tell me that product B is a diet product of product A, I expect them to taste similar as to be able to be hard pressed to see the difference. that isn't the case here. Diet Coke has a very distinctive taste seperate from it's predacessor.



No, I said predaCESSOR.

Enter Coca Cola Zero. The first taste of CCZ is nearly identical of Coca-Cola Classic. It arrives on the pallatte under the cloak of it's origin, presenting itself to unsuspecting taste buds as the main guest of the party. It mills about the room introducing itself as none other than Coca Cola Classic. The taste buds, who cannot see beyond the shroud, suspect nothing. But that isn't even the best part yet.

At some point the shroud must be removed. And when it is...there's nothing to be found! At all! To take it outside the analogies, there's NO AFTERTASTE AT ALL. You take a few gulps, and it flows down your gullet, but when you pull hte bottle away, it's as though it evaporated on your tongue before you ever had a chance to drink it!

I don't see myself straying from the original formula (loyalist that I am), but if I were to, Coca Cola Zero is where I'd end up.

But what if you had a Coca Cola in one hand, a pudding pop in another, and Lujan someplace else?

See, that is so absurd to consider, that I can't even entertain the possibility. I mean, even if I were, WHAT THEN can I look forward to daydreaming about in Heaven for the life beyond that?!


SI.com's Peter King and the role of fatherhood:

OK, really really late, but it's something that I simply can't let pass by. Peter King is an NFL writer for CNNSI.com, and fr Father's day, he posed the following note.

Now, I am posting this for a few different reasons. Let us count the ways!

1. I didn't understand this when I was younger, but sometimes the best thing a dad can do for his family is to get a divorce. A household full of tension and fighting and misery amongst mom and dad is no place for children to be. Better that they have a home of love and peace and structure. Things happen in life that sometimes require people to go their seperate ways, and unfortunately that means heartache for the children. But just because you are not a husband anymore doesn't mean that you can't be a great dad. That said, I am sure that is not the message Peter King was trying to convey. His issue was more along the lines of their approach to marriage, and what a lousy example that set for the kids. Despite what Mr. Trump or Larry King may say, any relationship they have with a woman beyond their mother IS their business, since you are the example thay are supposed to follow. So if you then set the example that marriage is as disposable as a paper plate, you have hardly set them up for their own marital bliss. Sounds like more heartache than should be given to all but a few people in the world.

2. The Lary King Quote. I'll post it again.

"I get amazed at the 50-year marriage. My father-in-law is married 50 years. To me, they've had to compensate a lot more than I did. Compensate, make arrangements, give up things, which I wasn't willing to do.''

This comes from such a different frame of mind than mine, that I don't stand a chance of seeing his point of view. For myself, I live to find the person in life who I am willing to give up things for. That probably exposes alot of my internal self right there I suppose. Like that time the photographer got me drunk, and...

Well anyway. The point is that marriage is a commitment to a life of sacrifice and compensating, and cooperation. Ideally, what you get out of the marriage is greater than that which you give up. Marriage isn't JUST that, of course. But this is part of it, and to enter into it without thinking that you'll have to make consessions at some point of the union is to see only yourself.

However, it is important to state that there are things which you should never give up. Dignity, which is different than pride. You should never give up your morals and personal beliefs of what is right and wrong. BUt material possessions? Please. I don't think that is what Larry King was referring to, but it's my point.


Full Throttle Drink Review:



Full Throttle is an energy drink similar to Red Bull. From this consumer though, it's a little more powerful. Shortly after taking it in, you feel your arteries strain to open as wide as possible for the blood to flow as freely and as quickly as possible, your pupils dialate, and like anyone else, you snap out of it 20 hours later on a river bank bathed in sweat, holding a gray sack full of jewels and marked money, and there's a hole in your leg where flesh used to be.

But then, maybe other people have a different reaction. I don't know.

I don't know exactly how much energy it give you, since I only had a drink or two of it. So all I can do is comment on the taste, which for an energy drink isn't bad. It's definately sweet tasting, and it's hard to place. It was suggested that it tasted similar to when you were a kid and you would mix all of the sodas from the spouts all into one drink. In my neighborhood, we called it a "suicide". And while there were some correlations, it wasn't an exact match in my tastebud archives. But it was close...very close. We had the right time frame, it was a taste from my childhood.

And then I figured it out. When I was at summer camp, there was a candy store at the top of the hill. You could buy candy and soda and all of that. Well, you had to carry all of that back down the hill once you bought it. And sometimes you didn't have enough hands to carry a drink and all the candy you bought. So what do you do? You do what I did. You put some of the candy into the soda and carry it dow. BUt of course, you can't do that with all candy. Chocolate and soda don't mix well. Bottlecaps candy and soda seems redundant. No, only Gummy candy remains unaffected by a carbonated beverage.

More specifically, Gummy worms. And that's when it hit me. Full throttle tastes like liquified gummi worms.



It's your favorite childhood treat! In liquid form!

Your favorite Diety help us if they ever catch onto the idea of taking those horrid circus peanut candy and turning that into a drink.

(shudder).



Adultery Cards

OK, in order to understand this rant, you have to click on the title first,a nd read the story. I know some of you aren't big on doing that, but it's important this time to really get what I am after.

Are we ready to continue? Good.

So lemme get this straight...you publish cards for adulterous couples to hare with each other, earning a profit off of other peoples sins? And you don't feel dirty about this?

"Hey, I am not the one having the affair. They don't HAVE to buy them. I just supply them. What they do with them is none of my business", the reply might be.

Ok so that makes you no better than any drug dealer or network TV. But what you are contributing to by doing so is unimaginable pain. If they want cards, they can hunt around Hallmark or wherever to find one that vaguely implies what they want. But this is just plain bullshit. DOn't pretend to be innocent about it.

And what the hell are the people in the affair supposed to do with the card? You can't set it on the mantle during Christmas. There's typically enough of a paper trail to hide as it is in an affair, wihtout passing card to each other which leave no doubt about it. It's bound to end up in a drawer if the recipient is stupid enough not to throw it in the fireplace or the trash as soon as they get it.

And how the heck do you buy them at a store if you have any concience whatsoever? Hmmm, I need one for Grandmother's 50th anniversary, Arbor day is coming up, and OH! I should get one of these for my infedel's out of town business trip.

(I use the term infedel, because it's not a lover. It's your partner in infedelity. How one could call something so gross and unpure in nature "love" is to not understand love at all. It should never be something to be ashamed of or have to be hidden. And if you find yourself having to hide it from someone close to you...say, A SPOUSE...well, it may be love in your book, but it's not in mine. )

And then you still have to take it up to the counter. With a sheepish grin, you put down the cards, as the teller rings them up. As she rings through the card of deception and lies, you needlessly blurt out "It's for my friend. She's the one having hte affair. And with that, you realize you've just implicated yourself. And the shame that washes over you at that moment is exactly what you deserve to carry.

Great idea for making money I suppose, but the cost to the soul is a heavy one. That's what happens when you put business before ethics, though.