condensation

Of course it will not do for the ordinary, person to attempt the extreme condensation practiced for example by foreign correspondents of the larger newspapers who, because their cable tolls are high and words are precious, make use of a variety of ingenious combinations which are interesting merely as phenomena peculiar to the handling of cable dispatches for newspapers.

For example, a press correspondent might ,first write this dispatch:

"The enemy has not yet been met or even seen on account of the entanglements thrown up during the night," etc.

Revised for the cable, this dispatch might read:

"Enemy unmet unseen account entanglements upthrown night."

Needless to say, this form is unsuited to the ordinary business or social telegram.

Eliminating Small Words -- HOW TO WRITE TELEGRAMS PROPERLY
A Small Booklet by Nelson E. Ross, 1928

via daily jive

mascot

This is firming as one of my favourite images from the State Library of NSW ...

Mascot arrivals greeted by Philips' Diplomat Philishave promotion for their electric shavers

new home

The old home and the new house ...


After some two-and-a-half years of enjoying free space at Upersportingpundit courtesy of the generous Scott Wickstein, boynton heads back to Blogger - at least for a short time.



relaxing...


Not that I think the old template is wonderful, but I've tried to achieve a sense of continuity with the old white space and Haloscan Blue happening.
All the old ubersporting comments can be seen in their rawness and stripped of html by clicking on "Uber comments" at the end of the archived posts.

In the meantime, please partake of some savouries and party like it's Popular Mechanics

crunch time

Crunch time: TypePad or back to Blogger?

The latter has improved vastly since I last posted, but does that je ne sais cachet of subscription count?

---

Comments: crunch time

You'd have to get lots of people to move links over; you being around the blogosphere a little while I guess you probably have hundreds of linkers.

I get tempted from time to time to leave blogger, mostly for the better layout on other sites. But that's increasingly becoming redundant with feeds.

But that fancy french stuff sounded good, so that may sway you!
Posted by armaniac at February 22, 2006 02:54 PM

Well, armaniac, you sprung this deleted post out of the closet via bloglines ;)
(Thought it fell into the musing-to-myself genre, so deleted it. Temporarily)

Alas, I have to move, so it's either/or, but probably not to the most blog-cred move: mydomain with wordpress...

From what I've seen I like TP - but am wondering if it's that relatively superficial thing of layout (which can be tweaked in blogger fairly simply) that makes people pay for alternatives?
There is the Blogger commenting thing - but most people have adjusted to the registration process...
apart from that Blogger looks smooth to me.
Posted by boynton at February 22, 2006 03:22 PM

Typepad, Blogger, I like the free-ness of Blogger. I like it very, very much.

It does everything I want it to do. Actually no, that's not quite true - I can't ban particular IP addresses. Maybe that's a good thing.
Posted by Laura at February 22, 2006 03:47 PM

Ah - I was wondering about that last point, Laura.

I have done that only once. No regrets.

Everything but categories and some spiffy comment coding, but we await the hacks...
(And if I go that way I might try the deli-ci-ous/category route - if I'm as clever as you and can figure it out )

Blogger circa 02 was a different fish to the googleblogger of 06 I think. I like the dashboard.
I like the wysiwyg editing. Yes I like the Free
(although I must say I've had Free here due to the ongoing generosity of Scott Wickstein)

It's a perception thing mainly isn't it - I don't think many Go Back To Blogger...
Posted by boynton at February 22, 2006 03:57 PM

Free is good. (at last a post I can understand-I think.)
Posted by Link at February 22, 2006 11:18 PM

Please not Blogger! It takes my dial-up a bloody long time to load the comments, and half the time it doesn't work. Incidentally, Laura, that's why I never comment at Sill's Bend any more :-(

Need I say that Wordpress is pretty good and hosting rather easy and cheap(er than Typepad)?
Posted by Kent at February 23, 2006 05:29 PM

Oh dear - today I'm leaning back to Blogger and all...
I was surprised that there wasn't that great a difference in the hosting/wp alternative and TP's medium plan. So this and something about the "pre-fab" (thks Gummo) appeals to me.
Posted by boynton at February 23, 2006 06:13 PM

I was thinking of changing to WP, but it seems much easier and free! to find one of the squillions of free templates out there and play with it.

New one for mine should be ready about mid 2007 at the current rate. I've taken over Haloscan comments, but only because I don't want to lose the ones already made that I cherish. If I was starting now, I'd keep the blogger comments, which have improved tremendously from 18 months ago.
Posted by Zoe at February 24, 2006 09:36 AM

crazy and sillsy alone do a lot for the cachet of Blogger, Zoe.
Yeah I lost all my Haloscan comments from Blogspot days...I try not to think about it.


(btw I had put "state-us" instead of 'cachet', but ubersporting-comment-bot rejected that spammy word correctly spelt. I will certainly miss the creative spelling tasks required to beat the bot)
Posted by boynton at February 24, 2006 12:13 PM

If I hadn't moved about a gazillion times already, I would move back to typepad. I love the option of messing with templates. :)

Posted by: michelle at February 26, 2006 09:21 AM
- but Blogger seems pretty good, and fairly easy to mess with...?
(well I've certainly messed up my template I think)

I've decided to go back to Blogger and see how it goes...

Posted by: boynton at February 26, 2006 04:26 PM

delay ill

Anagrammed Tube Map
(via As Above, Kevan)

With due acknowledgment to the creator of the London (Non Old?) map, I tried my hand at the local Lilydale line, a section of railway much traversed in childhood and in dreams.

---

Comments: delay ill

The forecast for sidecar month is an echidna storm.
Posted by Tony.T at February 20, 2006 04:06 PM

not Monash Direct?

Matron Chides as Medics Thrown for not directing them to Modern Switch instead.
Posted by boynton at February 20, 2006 04:22 PM

Two reflection on the London Underground map: what a strange & haunting world it conjures up; somebody must have spent many, many hours composing it. Hmm...
Posted by Dick at February 20, 2006 11:19 PM

I suspect many Australian train stations of being anagrams already.
Posted by Kevan at February 21, 2006 03:34 AM

Yes, there's a kind of urban narrative there.

Actually some of the names read like good blog names. "Swearword & Ethanol" "Dully Hubris"...


You mean all the -gongs and - nongs, Kevan? ;)
Interesting that "Mooroolbark" didn't yield as many choices as the prosaic, English "Ringwood East"
I had to discard "Gradient Woos" and "Sweating Odor" before settling on "Organised Tow"...
Posted by boynton at February 21, 2006 02:29 PM

Craigieburn/ Broadmeadows Line:

Nice Air Burg
Dead Swab Moor
Can A.J.A.*
Long Rye
a.k.a. Pork
A love space
Homer's tart
Be reveling
Eden's son
No poems done
A lost cave
Newt-maker
Kong in nest
Let hormone burn*

(*Gummo T. contributions)
Posted by Zeppo Bakunin at February 21, 2006 06:58 PM

Wonderful.
Eddie should have said: "We have a saying in Dead Swab Moor..."
You always have to go to the end of the line to get the nice air, but I think "a.k.a Pork" is my fave.
Posted by boynton at February 22, 2006 10:01 AM

big tv

Big Picture Television 1949 Crosley Spectator

Vintage Television Ads


Flashmatic the first wireless remote
A flash of magic light from across the room...and you remain in your easy chair...


(after this site on the flashmatic via bifurcated rivets)

---

Comments: big tv

There's no way to verify it now but I'm pretty sure this is my TV that once was.
http://tinyurl.com/9t3wm
It's a Stromberg-Carlson.
http://tinyurl.com/9bzpx
There's a metaphorical springboard in that woman's eyes, with the telephone on the demo in the ad.
They're historical.
http://tinyurl.com/ae48r
They made many other models.
http://tinyurl.com/79dhh
To get the full nuance you'd need to have been in a State-side world where there were only maybe four or five kinds of popular TV mfrs.
And S-C was not one of them. They were a sort of hobbyist's choice, something the TV-cognoscenti recognized. And then only mainly in the 50's and early 60's.
It was for sale on Craig'sList, a less-crass ebay thingie we have here in the US, I mean the image is from that, via Google.
I found it at a garage sale, a near-antique, many years ago now.
And sold it so also, long ago.
Posted by rollo at February 18, 2006 01:23 PM

The metaphorical springboard jumped out at me.
Tecnhology.
Busy.
Look at me.

I love that 9bzpx S-C. Showing window box. Could have been the best thing on the televsion sometimes.

One of my biggest regrets of this ilk is not grabbing a beautiful vintage TV off the nature strip when in a hard rubbish collection once.
Probably didn't work, but would always work as a table.
Posted by boynton at February 18, 2006 02:17 PM

re the crosley Spectator: Crosley made cars and gave their refrigerator a great name - The Crosley Shelvador.
Posted by Brownie at February 18, 2006 11:36 PM

Yes, a great name. Like Roll-a-door, they could have set a jingle to the Toreador song?

- and they also made the "Icy Ball"
http://www.refresearch.com/m-icyball.html
Posted by boynton at February 20, 2006 01:50 PM

beat repeat

I have had cause to revisit the archives over the last week.

This is a memorable image, once lost in the links*, good for today.

valentine

valentine

onlookers

---

Comments: valentine

Hope you got lots of valentines greetings today Boynton ?
Is a good day for love.
Posted by A Romantic at February 14, 2006 06:49 PM

Oh - is it Valentine's Day...
Posted by boynton at February 14, 2006 07:28 PM

Oh.....how sad !
Posted by A Romantic at February 14, 2006 08:29 PM

No...I was joking.
Just forgot to ;)
Posted by boynton at February 14, 2006 09:51 PM

Surely, it must have been a thrilling sight on Valentine's Day 1908, to watch a barquentine loaded to the gunwales with soft toys, heart-shaped balloons and long-stemmed roses bringing her cargo into port.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at February 15, 2006 02:16 PM

They watched her sinking...

As wonderful as the image is, Gummo, I must confess to a distortion of history by placing these two images together. They are unrelated. Well at least superficially.

"On the 4th August 1908, the Falls of Halladale left New York bound for Melbourne. Captain Thompson, who was in command of the ship, was pleased with the general cargo he had secured for the journey. Valued at £35,000, it included 500 sewing machines, plumbing iron, 6,500 gallons of oil, 14,400 gallons of benzine, glassware and 56,763 beautiful American slate tiles."
http://heritage.vic.gov.au/page.asp?ID=243


"Spectators were apparently disappointed to find that the cargo (or booty) consisted only of rock salt"
http://www.theage.com.au/news/Victoria/Peterborough/2005/02/17/1108500207155.html


The spectators may have been hoping for a sewing machine, only to end up with rock salt.
Ain't love grand.
Posted by boynton at February 15, 2006 02:43 PM

;)
Posted by boynton at February 15, 2006 02:48 PM

songs for dogs

• 87% want to hear a song about a toy

PETA informally tested the CD on dogs who accompany PETA staffers to work and found that "Squeaky Deaky," a song about, you guessed it, squeaky toys, piqued dogs' interest while "You're a Good Dog" caused them to relax and close their eyes. But they quickly became alert again when they heard the barking dogs at the beginning of "Adventure Dog."

Songs to Make Dogs Happy via the Presurfer

Update: Hear samples at NPR


Portrait of Harry Bormann and his dog Bobby

---

Comments: songs for dogs

'..renowned animal "medium" Dr. Kim Ogden..'

*blink*
Posted by peacay at February 13, 2006 02:16 PM

Don't know about dogs, but cats seem to be more attentive to Baroque than twelve-tone.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at February 13, 2006 03:54 PM

"214 dogs were queried as to their preferences in lyrical content and music type"

"My Rottweiler Virgil loves the music so much that we had to get two CDs; one for the house and one for the car.
http://www.kimogden.com/id5.html


Don't know about all dogs, but this Jack Russell would be very attentive to baroque as long as it was squea-que.
(Should be a new CD: Squeaky Barokey)
Posted by boynton at February 13, 2006 07:03 PM

Ok - so this is embarrassing.
(After finding the link to the songs on NPR:)

"My Jack Russell loves the track Squeaky Deaky so much that she ran to the back of the computer, struck a classic HMV pose, and will not move"

This could well rival "Song about the Jay" (with its twin themes of Adventure and Toy) in her affections.
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/009141.html
Posted by boynton at February 13, 2006 07:19 PM

This sentence from
http://www.kimogden.com/id5.html
has been making me laugh:

"214 dogs were queried as to their preferences in lyrical content and music type"

(especially combined with
"• 87% want to hear a song about a toy")
Posted by boynton at February 14, 2006 06:01 PM

light blogging

I have a few geo-technical issues to resolve, so blogging will be light for a while.

 

(As if blogging was ever dark or heavy round these parts...)

---

Comments: light blogging

Have already seen the fillum of the situation to which you circuitously and cryptically allude, "The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging". A phyllum which Kundera afficondos will be well aware starred the gratuitously and somewhat clumsilly hyphenated Juliette of the Spirit-Boynton-Binoche.
Posted by Sedgwick at February 3, 2006 06:06 PM

I should probably read the famous airport novel "Blogging and Nothingness" too, while I'm in a sort of blog transit lounge.
Posted by boynton at February 6, 2006 12:37 PM

There's also that famous poem "Blogging Toward Bethlehem".
Finnegan's Blog.
The House of Seven Blogs.
The Blog in The Willows.
A Blog of Two Cities.
The Blog of La Mancha.
From Blog To Eternity.
Wuthering Blogs.
The Old Man and the Blog.
I have to stop now.
Posted by Juke Moran at February 7, 2006 06:28 AM

Wuthering Blogs sounds like a good name for a ...


Posted by boynton at February 7, 2006 01:41 PM

If Wuthering had a blog, would it from the sizes blow?
Posted by Gummo Trrotsky at February 8, 2006 05:57 PM

whither bluster
Posted by boynton at February 9, 2006 12:06 AM

Angela's Ashes the author was blog Irish.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at February 9, 2006 12:09 AM

and what's the difference between blog Irish and 'lace curtain' Irish?
Posted by Brownie at February 9, 2006 10:34 PM

Barely a whisker if you're browsing in Windows...

Nothing to write home about anyway.
Posted by boynton at February 10, 2006 02:29 PM

Shifting sands? Tectonic disruptions (in Melbourne??)
Posted by Link at February 10, 2006 11:36 PM

Any of you punsters coming on Friday? If you let rip there and I feel overwhelmed, I can just secretly turn my hearings aids off.

Mr Holden, sadly, will be stuck in Bordertown with a car full of kids, trying to bribe them with bundy and coke to let him back in.
Posted by david tiley at February 12, 2006 03:08 PM

Shifting cybersands, Link.

Hope to be there at Lane Sedge, David.
Posted by boynton at February 13, 2006 09:55 AM

cartoonify

ChatFu: Cartoonify... your ... Chat

or Cartoonify your blog comments

(This thread was chosen at random, but cartoonifying might work well with more earnest dialogue, or bitter bouts of comment stoushing. Perhaps cartoonifying is a better alternative to disemvowelling or banning when things turn nasty.)

via the presurfer

---

Comments: cartoonify

Excellent work as always ... I really want Captain Caveman as an option
Posted by Russell Allen at January 30, 2006 08:00 PM

Bender I recognised, but who be the guy with the black robe and glasses?
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at January 30, 2006 09:28 PM

I'm waiting to be enlightened.
I be dumb at these things.

I was hoping James Russell might tell me ;)
Posted by boynton at January 31, 2006 01:59 PM

disemvowelled. oh oh! beautiful. xxx
Posted by Kitty Brown at February 3, 2006 10:01 PM

Yes - is Teresa Nelson's word/idea at "Making Light".
I have never seen it in action, but it sounds like a good way to deal with trlls.
Posted by boynton at February 6, 2006 12:39 PM

radio style

Apostrophe

is going the way of the skylark, but should still be treasured. It has disappeared from Regents Park, Kings Road, Barclays, but should be protected in Lord's (the cricket ground). It is not needed in MPs, QCs; and is unwanted in the possessive "its". But it is essential in place of the missing letter in "it's". Thus: "It's a damn shame that its (the skylark's) future is so uncertain".


Black box
"The black box flight recorder" is permissible. "Black box" on its own is not. Many of them are in fact orange.

Sports people
it makes more sense to continue to refer to them by surname when they stray beyond the sporting arena.

BBC radio Style Guide via making light

---

Comments: radio style

"exhortations in the style guide had no effect on the number of mistakes; the level of mistakes was not affected by exhortations in the style guide; we hope to effect a change in this"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/page/0,5817,184844,00.html
Posted by Kent at January 31, 2006 06:48 AM

That's very effecting, Kent.

The things you learn in one 20 minute session:

"there is no such thing as a bicep"

"wines are lower case"

and:

"car bomb
two words"
Posted by boynton at January 31, 2006 02:05 PM

aquatic

Seu Jorge - The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions

---

Comments: aquatic

Cool! Well-spotted. The music played a big part in the flick's weird charm.

If I find a copy in Melbourne's CBD, I'll let you you where (It's too nice to burn pirate CD s thereof). But I suspect it's gonna be another Amazon job.
Posted by Nabakov at January 23, 2006 09:10 PM

Forget to add that if you like Seu, you could well enjoy Nouvelle Vague as well.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A2875520
They do the best bossa nova version of "Too Drunk To Fuck" I've heard in quite a while.
Posted by Nabakov at January 23, 2006 09:16 PM

Forget to add that if you like Seu, you could well enjoy Nouvelle Vague as well.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A2875520
They do the best bossa nova version of "Too Drunk To Fuck" I've heard in quite a while.
Posted by Nabakov at January 23, 2006 09:17 PM

Opps.
Posted by Nabakov at January 23, 2006 09:19 PM

Opps. Again.
Posted by Nabakov at January 23, 2006 09:20 PM

I was listening to the Amazon TLA_with_SZ soundtrack samples before I found that link, having watched the film 3 times. Yeah I really like Seu, and Nouvelle Vague is great too.
(I'm still waiting to buy a Joao Gilberto CD after about 3 years of thinking about it!)
Posted by boynton at January 24, 2006 02:53 PM

Those musical links are a good idea, and are a big part of Andersons fillums. Mark Mothersbaugh (ex Devo) also does fantastic soundtracks for Rushmore and The Royal Tennenbaums.
Posted by Tony.T at January 24, 2006 05:06 PM

I've been listening to Mothersbaugh track 16 (16 times)
Ping Island/Lightning Strike Rescue Op

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006JMLI4/103-8688997-1202213?v=glance&n=5174
Posted by boynton at January 24, 2006 05:10 PM

"Ping Island/Lightning Strike Rescue Op"

Yes, that was so bloody cute when Bill started slyly grooving to it and then the jump cut to them paddling along to the beat underwater.

It really is a lovely little film isn't it? Like a home movie where you'd wish you could've have been in frame yourself. Even the one bit of gratitious dog cruelty is funny.
Posted by Nabakov at January 25, 2006 02:15 AM

I counted two bits..?
(on the first viewing mind)

never funny but yeah forgiven.
So many funny lines - I was laughing the whole way through.

I would be quite happy to live in the Belafonte for the decor alone.
Posted by boynton at January 25, 2006 11:07 AM

books

The Book Bar
- a bar made of condemned library books rescued from the skip.
via cynical-c


Bed Books

It came to me while on a motor home vacation, when I just didn’t have the head room to sit up in bed. There was literally no comfortable position to be in – and that’s when it hit me! If the book was printed so that I could lie on my side, I could read for hours!

via the presurfer

 

Update: some bookshelves from This Into That

thanks to peacay via bookLust, *

---

Comments: books

And not to be outdone: some bookshelves
http://www.thisintothat.com/secondeditions.html
I can't decide if it's sacrilige or ultrarecycling.
[via booklust]
Posted by peacay at January 26, 2006 07:25 PM

I love the way that the Bed Books people try to keep "reading on your side" a secret, in the page of hilarious reading positions.
Posted by Kevan at January 26, 2006 09:14 PM

Great link, peacay, so I placed it in the post.

Indeed.
Also, "Unhappy Chest Rester" raises broader questions about the effect of one's mental state on ease of reading.
Posted by boynton at January 26, 2006 09:42 PM

burning

When Laura created her (all) extraordinary Christmas post assembling gifts for bloggers, I dashed off an attempt to show a place which had reminded me of the Girls Crystal landscape in question - and the crystal mindscape in general. (nb: This is not the one in the Strzeleckis - but on the other side of the Valley)

Up until a few years ago it had a distinctly 50's feel, with non-descript (ancient concrete) picnic tables and toilet blocks, ideologically and environmentally unsound trees, and river gums with their mighty, litigious limbs in tact and shading the white gravel road where you could count on your hand the number of cars and tractors that circled round the weir in an afternoon. Despite the recent upgrading, it is still a beautiful, peaceful place, gippsland-green and off the beaten tree-change track.

I ended up not posting it in December, but was thinking of the region as fires rage across the hills at Moondarra. The vista of distant hills winding up along the Thompson is the type of country that's burning.

---

Comments: burning

"ideologically and environmentally unsound trees". Gorgeous phrase... I've always wondered what to call them.
Posted by Kent at January 26, 2006 06:37 PM

willows? ;)

Well - willows are in the second camp and their eradication is obviously nec. for river health.
But some of the old exotics planted in shady ignorance may get the chop for less sound reasoning?
Posted by boynton at January 26, 2006 06:46 PM

Deciduous is the word I was after. It's a different kind of un-Australian, but there's only so much gum I can take.
Posted by Kent at January 26, 2006 07:05 PM

I heard a firefighter refer to "Eucys" (sp?)the other day.
Re: plantantion timber, but I've never heard that contraction before.
Posted by boynton at January 27, 2006 11:46 AM

The oiliness of eucalypts is of course the reason we (and Californians ) have bushfires and England does not.
Plant English trees around your house if you live in the bush.
Posted by Brownie at February 3, 2006 10:07 PM

fires

Bushfires are burning around the state...
We sweltered sleepless through the 2nd hottest January night on record and today sat out the 42 degrees waiting for the cool change, checking into the weather bureau's current observations every 10 minutes and listening intently to ABC emergency service radio with sirens replacing the call of the cricket.

Meanwhile in the city, in the loungeroom, films featuring oceans or snow are the way to go.

---

Comments: fires

Perhaps you should get out "Downhill Racer".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064253/
Imagine if Polanski had directed it. The mind boggles and hits a mogul the wrong way. As I suspect Roman would have done.
Posted by Nabakov at January 23, 2006 09:23 PM

Take top sheet to bathroom basin. Hold sheet under cold tap till wet. Wring. Take wet, wrung sheet back to bed. On bed, lie face up suspending cool, damp, sheet over near naked bod holding aloft with upturned toes. Slowly relax erect feet and allow wet sheet to drape over (nearly) naked bod. This could inititally be excruciating but its worth it believe me - anything to feel moementarily f r e e z i n g. If heat persists night after night, try something else-like not sleeping, as I'm not sure that this is entirely good for old ducks over the long term. Not that your and old duck!
Posted by Link at January 23, 2006 09:48 PM

ahem sorry, should read, not that you're an old duck.
Posted by Link at January 23, 2006 09:50 PM

almost funny to enter house after the cool change, and find it like a convection oven.

not funny to see dark blue car covered in fine grey ash wafted into Ballarat from fires west.
Posted by Kitty Brown at January 24, 2006 12:49 PM

Hmm - might wander up the hill and look for Downhill racer now - seeing it's 2 free movies-tuesday.

as an old duck I might try that Green method, Link, thanks.

The house is still set on "warm", Brownie.

It's the deliberately lit fire in Gippsland that gets to me...
Posted by boynton at January 24, 2006 03:12 PM

Inconceivable over here. I've just put on a jumper in spite of the fact that we've had the heating on all day. Global warming has yet to make it up Offley Hill.
Posted by Dick at January 30, 2006 09:41 AM

I've just put on a jumper too this morning ;)
That's Melbourne.
(And loving it at the moment)
One night last week I was wearing a parka (as you do) while walking dogs at night - the next day it was mid 30's!
It always seems that the worst two weeks of Summer coincide with the Australian Open tennis. Though maybe I'm being optimistic - there's still Feb to go.
Posted by boynton at January 30, 2006 12:06 PM

storm light

 

Flo contemplating the weird light after the weather broke last night.
The back garden went fully technocolor and possibly the possums were psychedelic too.

---

Comments: storm light

Todd-AO Widescreen Dog-O-Vision.
Posted by Tony.T at January 21, 2006 04:02 PM

128 degree possum-eye lens.

Posted by boynton at January 21, 2006 04:47 PM

So the dog is actually really skinny?
Posted by David Tiley at January 21, 2006 07:11 PM

Oh - is this a case of "I never realised my muscle looked like that"?...

Guess it might be an unflattering angle for Flo - who is 'stocky' but not fat.
Posted by boynton at January 21, 2006 08:21 PM

It was very weird light, but it didn't last long enough for my liking. Copped a baker's dozen of mozzie bites standing in the yard but it was well worth the pain.

Wish the heavens would bloody well open right now.
Posted by Laura at January 21, 2006 11:12 PM

Maybe a caption contest is in order?
Posted by Link at January 22, 2006 09:58 AM

I wandered out to the street to view the strangeness wishing I had a camera. Last night's light had bushfires in it - deep red sky to the west.

Good idea Link, but your line from last time would take some beating: "Oh Lordy I hate headspace to(night)" ;)
Posted by boynton at January 22, 2006 10:55 AM

My dog loathes rolling thunder and wants to climb on my head for safety.
Flo is supposed to be 'stocky' - she's a stock dog!
Posted by Kitty Brown at January 23, 2006 12:00 AM

Flo hates the thunder too - makes her roll around nervously ;)

Guess the cinerama might have made her look
S t o c k i e R...
Posted by boynton at January 23, 2006 12:05 AM

Y'know, her bum does look big in that light.
Whereas mine's perfect during a eclipse of the full moon.
Posted by Nabakov at January 23, 2006 09:24 PM

The dog next door
barks
all
night

Apparently only when the moon is full, say the owners.

I
don't
believe
it
Posted by boynton at January 24, 2006 02:57 PM

Fantastic pic. Love the tree. Though forget her bum, the tail looks like she is sitting next to a molehill.
Posted by another outspoken female at January 26, 2006 12:16 PM

a sting in the tale?...

Alas, a.o.f, something good was lost in the downsizing. The tree in full does look rather good and less nocturnal - and of course that light can never be caught by the hapless shutterbug.
Posted by boynton at January 26, 2006 05:48 PM

crazy

At a timely point in my blogging ennui of jannui, Kent sent a link which I think made as much sense as anything else I chanced upon.


Also - via toph, I sampled the Google Story Creator by submitting My January Ennui a couple of times:

24 hours a day.

The vault will have metre-thick walls of reinforced concrete and will be protected behind two airlocks and high-security blast-proof doors.

w00t.

Thank you to everyone who delurked and said hello last week (and thanks also to everyone who did not have to delurk to say hello).

But absent an ark, one takes comfort, paradoxically enough, in the charms of the music of anguish.

By the time we got home though I could hear her screaming before I even opened the car door.

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Comments: crazy

Here's what I got when I put my name into the Story creator:

And therefore funny. All Rights Reserved.
An “absolute gas,” as we used to say in high school.
In the New Oxford Note “Ms. Pray tell what should you call firefighters if both men and women are wearing bunker suits? You could always say firemen and firewomen, but that’s awkward.
I say police officer.
Feaster.
Posted by Helen at January 30, 2006 01:24 PM

That's impressive.

"And therefore Funny" - would be a good blog name for bloggers or humourists lacking "confidence"*?
(see John Birmingham)
Posted by boynton at January 30, 2006 02:16 PM

commentary

Bogart was propped up on pillows to make him taller to match Bergman's height...

More Trivia Tips about Casablanca - this time via the DVD audio commentary by Roger Ebert.


(I'm starting to like the commentary genre, after sampling the tangential appearing statements from director and cast of The Haunting)

Yet, some big name directors also can put aside ego-stroking to provide insights. The commentaries that Francis Ford Copolla provides for ‘The Godfather’ Trilogy is justly praised, but the commentary he provides for the great little film he made between #s 1 & 2- ‘The Conversation’- may be the best filmmaker on filmmaking commentary around- from anecdotes about star Gene Hackman’s reluctance to submerge his machismo, to the technical hurdles involved in the famed opening bugging scene Dan Schneider

The Commentary for Eurotrip has members of the cast and crew playing a drinking game to their own film, while giving a commentary Wikipedia

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Comments: commentary

Oh, the shame of the shortarse movie star! Bogart's stat-ure is, of course, a function of qualities other than mere distance from the ground. Ditto Cagney & even little Alan Ladd. I'm kinda glad that Tom Cruise is never likely to stretch any higher, though...
Posted by Dick Jones at January 19, 2006 09:56 AM

Regarding the above comment - is the following a joke?

'Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:

Your comment could not be submitted due to questionable content: tatoo*

Please correct the error in the form below, then press Post to post your comment.'

*Spell this word with a 'u' replacing the double-o & there's the explanation for the censorship.

Wha..?!
Posted by Dick Jones at January 19, 2006 09:59 AM

Strange...
Maybe the uberbot is sensitive/zero tolerant of short stat.ure jokes?

I did know Te.x.as was banned...

I'm a big fan of Bogey's qualities.
Posted by boynton at January 19, 2006 03:08 PM

song tapper

The Song Tapper - Search for music by tapping the rhythm of the song's melody

via the presurfer

I tapped in a tune freshly heard on the radio. It wasn't there, but I was suprised to see the songs that matched...I wonder if this a way to find partner songs
Who knew Yesterday sounded like Eine Kleine Nachtmusic or that Yellow Sub and O Holy Night might tap into each other?

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Comments: song tapper

I just pounded out any old jibberish and came up with the following (I think the last one was an accurate assessment of my tapping.):

Bang! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

London Calling - The Clash

Build Me Up - Fountains Of Wayne

Zelda - Nintendo

Whistling In The Dark - They Might Be Giants

Three Blind Mice

Skid Row - Little Shop Of Horros

I'll Be Here A While - 311

Common People - Pulp

Bad - Michael Jackson
Posted by Tony.T at January 17, 2006 10:11 PM

three deaf mice?
Posted by boynton at January 18, 2006 12:45 PM