Pinball league this week was one of those nights in which things were kind of chaotic and, properly speaking, terrible, but terrible in the way that gets to be recounted in personal lore as a weird and wonderful thing that other people can't believe they missed. And so I offer for the comic value a report on How The Pinball Machines Broke Down. The description of what happened on Indiana Jones is utterly and absolutely true.
Other things that have run on the humor blog since last week's big piece ``When Swords Dance And Porridge Explodes'' have been:
- Buster Keaton, Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle and Al St John Made History, a tribute video showing off some of what they did best.
- Statistics Saturday: Why I Am Not Putting This Book Out For The Yard Sale, a useful chart of how used books end up, or don't end up, consigned to, er, consignment.
- And Featuring TV’s Frank As The Spirit Of Competition or Fair Play or Maybe Soccer, based on a weird dream I had that got really weird and involves soccer, conventions, and TV's Frank from Mystery Science Theater 3000 doing a sketch for the kids.
- Later That Same Afternoon ... in which I grumble about Apartment 3-G which is turning into a perfect vertical asymptote of time.
- Ahead Of The Yard Sale my dear bride asked if I had made something up in that Statistics Saturday post. The answer may surprise you, if you have certain opinions about Family Ties.
- The Secret Of The Moon Sphinx, because why even have a Moon Sphinx if you aren't going to have secrets for it?
Please enjoy, if you will.
Trivia: In 1793, Britain's ambassador to China, Lord George Macartney, agreed to kowtow (bowing, kneeling, and touching the forehead to the floor nine times) to the Emperor of China, on the condition that the emperor's courtiers do the same to a portrait of King George III (which Macartney had). The Chinese declined and so neither party kowtowed. Source: A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped The World, William J Bernstein.
Currently Reading: Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America, Peter Andreas.
