Sure this is infantile but I know there was a face I was thinking of when I saw wee Benny smile that smile. It’s Mr. Bean! Even the hair is the same.
Previous deep thoughts of this sort can be found here and here.
Tiki Hotel
Now that I have seen it and heard Craig was barred from it as a youff, though reviewers debate, I want to stay at this hotel. Warning: Hawaii 5-0 alert.
That’s Me In The Picture
My alumni mag came yesterday and I made it to the “does anyone know who the hell these people are” picture…except its was on the cover this time. Not a big thing as it was not a big school but odd to see me there at a reception in my grad week, skinny and young in the back next to my then beardy pal Jamie. Nice mod narrow ties. Sweet lid in the foreground, too. What I really like is that I appear to be speaking or yawning but if you look to the right and see big Johnny at the bar he is doing the same thing. Because we are probably singing “…everybody wang chung tonight…” or something. I am not so sad for the lost youth, the years or even the unattainable thin – I am just saddened that the world never learned the message of that song:
…On the edge of oblivion
All the world is babylon
And all the love and everyone
A ship of fools sailing onAcross the nation, around the world
Everybody have fun tonight
A celebration so spread the word
Ah, for the days of nuclear fear pop.
Alaskans Sue
You have to love Alaskans. Not only do that have a dreamy flag, they love their privacy. Somewhere around here I have written about their 1970s court case that found that the right to privacy extended to your personal appearance so the state can’t tell you how to dress. Now a bunch of upright citizens are suing for the right to see their files gathered to determine who is on the no flight lists:
Up till now, TSA has shown us nothing. To make matters worse, TSA has been destroying Secure Flight test data and says they will continue doing so. As TSA isn’t giving us the information we have every legal right to know, we’re asking the US District Court in Anchorage to force the TSA to do a search for our records and to halt the destruction of records while it is taking place.
One of the cornerstones of personal information record keeping is the right of a data subject to challenge veracity and that requires access to the recors the state has about the person – any person – like you. Way to go Alaskans. From Boing.
Where Are The 90s Bands
This strikes me as a telling indicator that I am getting to be an old fart. The BBC has a story up about the people in 1990s Britpop bands and where they are now. I never even had CDs of many of these bands being even then cranky that the stuff the kids were listening to was nothing like The Clash or The Jam of my teens. Who cares where they are if you never cared if they were.
Inch Worm, Inch Worm
If you are interested in nerds deciding to take on a dream, check out the blog at Route 2, a small group creating wireless interent on PEI on hill at a time.
Hand Of God TV
Something to think about when you look out the window on a Tuesday afternoon wondering why, why we Canadians are kept from Argentinian TV by the all seeing eye of the CRTC:
Maradona and Pele, who have rarely seen eye-to-eye, swapped national shirts and headed a football to each other as Maradona’s new career began with goodwill wishes from his guests. Both took to the stage: Pele playing guitar and singing a song he composed himself and Maradona singing an Argentine tango about football. Pele praised Maradona for offering an example of how to beat addiction, calling him an inspiration for his jailed son.
I expect they shared their secret preferences for grilled meat condiments as well.
The Lost Business
I was struck by this passage from today’s Globe and Mail on the murder of Canadian Zaid Meerwali in Iraq:
Mr. Meerwali was targeted because he was a Shia Kurd, his brother said. “We are Shia. Shia believe in democratic society.” Munir blamed former Baath officials and Sunni insurgents for the slaying. “They don’t like to see people from Canada coming over there. They lost their businesses.”…Mr. Meerwali’s family said he studied at Toronto’s Seneca College to become a chartered accountant and that he went to Baghdad six months ago to start a business importing food and computers.
Has it really come to being a turf war about the wholesale trade? This makes me very sad and I am not sure exactly why other than the obvious loss of a very promising person who tried to do the right thing.