Ladies and Gentlemen: Whiplash the Rodeo Monkey. Click the link in the article to see the pictures...

Today we'll discuss the flying lawn mower.

Death by Flying Lawn Mower

Video of a Flying Lawn Mower

Are they good or are they bad? You decide for yourself.

Here's a cool page of MP3s, that's worth going to check out here and there. Maybe you'll find something cool like this live version of The White Stripes doing "Jolene." Just scroll down a little ways and you're sure to find it.

Here's a player for the new Wilco album, A Ghost is Born. It's pretty good stuff. I dig 'Hummingbird" a whole lot. These guys are consistently solid songwriters. They also have a new interview on KCRW . . . check the sidelines here to the right for the link. Jeff Tweedy sounds a little like the '70s John Lennon here, too. Wilco has links to a coupla other bands that are cool, like The Autumn Defense. Some good music there.

Jon Spenser's Blues Explosion. These guys are the ultimate "get-up-outta-that hole" band. They're high energy, fast, rollickin' and damn proud of their name. It appears about a dozen times on every album. I wouldn't have it any other way. These guys have a new album out, too: Damage.

Hey Mario, can you work some of your charm and magic to get our boys back out on the ice?
I think folks around these parts are starting to really miss their hockey. I know I am. I may not follow the Penguins as fervently as I do our beloved Steelers, but after a while, you notice it's gone. I've noticed lots of dedicated Pens fans though (Melczak: "GO PENS!!!"), who are still wearing their gear about town. Pride yourselves dedicated Pens fans . . . Pride yourselves.

Ok, this is pretty cool, and must've been designed with the blind in mind.

Speegle, is like Google, but it speaks the results to you. Pretty sweet, and kinda funny when you type in a search query like "pillow fights" . . . Anyways, I think this has opened up the internet for the blind. Pretty cool!

Dude, you've got to go read this article. You probably know everything in it already, but that's OK, dude... will this Unit Plan ever finish?

Oh, and here's the trailer for Life Aquatic. I want to see Wes Anderson's new movie in the worst way, but it doens' come out in these parts until Christmas Day.

Squirreled away in my attic room, I'm desperately trying to finish my Great Gatsby unit plan. It's due Tuesday. Lollygagging is not good for deadlines, but even so the lolly will be gagged... if only for just a moment. I'm enjoying a fast connection from home, and finding that if I had this a week ago even, I wouldve been much farther along with this unit plan than I am.

OK. Enough of that. On to more sober topics like this poet, from the 1920s who was rather fond of his Martinis. Apparently he and his wife sometimes took their Martinis in a cemetery, and there's a great story here about when they ran out of ice. It's somewhat reminescent of the day after Curt's bachelor party: We awoke late Sunday morning after Curt's bachelor party, and after negotiating the operational mechanics of an odd contraption called 'the Big Ragu' (formerly called 'the fishbowl' ), we headed into the outside world for some brunch at Tom's Diner. It was late July, and the noon time sun shone brilliantly. Blindingly. Dazzlingly. I squinted and my eyes still hurt. As we walked out my front door and down the sidewalk I could only look at the sidewalk, wishing that I knew where my sunglasses were. Everybody else had theirs on.
"I really wish I had a pair of sunglasses," I said aloud, when squinting at the sidewalk, was a pair of sunglasses! I blinked, and blinked again. Bent over and picked up the shades, put them on my face and turned to my firends. "Look, I found a pair of sunglasses! I was just saying, i really wish i had a pair of sunglasses, and POW! there's a pair on the sidewalk right in front of me!" what really amazed me was how UN-impressed my companions were. Sorta like I had jsut seen a cloud in the sky, found it remarkable, and said so. "yup . . . " was the only resposnes I got, but there they were. Sometimes it's just like that.