Hughesnet gone, the crowd rejoices
Our long national nightmare is over. Today I finally got to cancel my Hughesnet satellite internet service. My time dealing with the world’s most incredible scam is at an end. Thank God almighty. Now, before you think I am venturing a bit into the well-worn realm of tin-hat hyperbole, let’s look around the internet and see what [...]
Clever Coffee Dripper
For the past few months I have been going through coffee brewing items. For years I have brewed about 50 ounces of coffee in a press-pot for my morning consumption. Then I started to read of a few studies that said that unfiltered coffee can raise your cholesterol levels. I don’t need that. So I [...]
Ask the Crank: Historical Figure
In this episode, we take questions from the viewing public and pose them to the Crank. This week’s question comes from the fertile mind of Little Johnny of Fairfield, Wisconsin. If you could talk to any historical person for advice, who would it be and why? What an ineffably inane question this is. The publisher asks me [...]
Early Fashion Maven Gains New Understanding
Hobart, Tasmania – Recent scholarship has unearthed the letters and early photographs of early Australian fashionista Bill Thompson. These new findings have turned on its head the normally heald concept that Tasmania in the nineteenth century was peopled only by the island’s famous devils and the scheming ancestors of Marvin Hamlish. Thompson plied his trade [...]
Walt: The Other New Knee
Update: This was written just before we found that Walt’s new knee was all screwed up. So much for the nicey-nice words below. One day, this time when we are well and truly through this, I will write about it. Think of it as the worlds most boring cliff-hanger. The time has come, the surgeon [...]
Beef w/ The Dead: Dennis Hopper
In this installment, we find Andy showing incredibly bad taste by picking out something he didn’t like about the recently deceased.
Photos: Meet the Kitten
Meet our littlest cat, Otto. He is a Japanese Bobtail, muscular and quick, and certifiably insane. Over the three years we have had him he has gotten a bit better but he still is not what one would call gregarious. The woman acquired him while she was working at Penitentiary Glen. The Wildlife Center there tends to [...]
Spring Food!
Last week allowed us a glimpse of some warm temperatures. And what do warm temps bring? Tomatoes, of course! Start with a mozzarella, tomato and basil salad with a home made vinaigrette . Then onto a wonderful bacon, spinach and tomato sandwich with a light horseradish sauce. Then, for a side course, chicken livers! Why? [...]
“I think I may have hurt myself.”
Yesterday's dinner was the hottest food I have ever eaten. I really wish to emphasize this. This was the hottest food I have ever eaten. Ever eaten. Hottest. Yes. It has been 17 hours yet I can still feel its burn. Hot. Years ago, when the Cleveland weather would descend into the [...]
Book Review: The World on Sunday
The World on Sunday: Graphic Art in Joseph Pulitzer’s Newspaper (1898-1911) by Nicholson Baker and Margaret Brentano
Is there nothing beer will not influence us to do?
The wonderful people at Reuters bring us news of a brilliant money-making venture in the city of Amsterdam. It seems a clever inhabitant has built a large pedal-powered vehicle with room for twenty-two. The passengers pedal for their locomotive needs and are rewarded with the local beer. Brilliant idea for site seeing. Unfortunately it appears [...]
Les Paul
Les Paul died recently. While most currently known for his eponymous guitar models from Gibson and Epiphone, he was quite a popular musician in his time as well as the originator of technology that birthed modern music. Just watch this: Hear all of those vocal parts? Before Paul’s use of multi-tracking the only layered vocalizations [...]
Wonder what their hedge fund plans looked like?
A bit of a difference from today’s spend, spend, spend or we DIE!
Killing Bambi.
Overblown story of the week. So, an old lady beat a fawn to death with a shovel. She did this either because she was frightened (her story) or it was eating her flowers (her nosy neighbor’s story). She is in trouble because, for some reason, it is illegal to kill animals in your yard. Another [...]
Attempted Escape from Dystopia Ends High in Sky
From the newspaper of record, The News-Herald: Woman recovering after river rescue Tuesday, June 30, 2009 An unidentified woman is recovering in the hospital after she leaped from the old Pelton Bridge Monday night in Willoughby. ”Apparently, she had been drinking with her boyfriend at River Isle Apartments. She became upset for some reason and tried [...]
Geeeeeeeeeeetar ritein
Guitar magazines contain some of the most painful prose anyone is likely to encounter outside of the free local ‘zine. The word choice rankles, the basic coverage of the topic at hand is scattershot and the understanding of basic mechanics and electronics is closer to the time of alchemy than electron tunneling. Basically it hurts [...]
Book Review: Crusader Nation: The United States in Peace and the Great War, 1898-1920
Crusader Nation is a fine book to give one a good, albeit fairly shallow, understanding of the forces at work in the Progressive movement of the first two decades of the twentieth century. From the frenetic absolutism of TR to the revolutionary fervor of the IWW to the righteousness of purpose of Wilson, Traxel’s writing [...]
A Failed Project
Last year sometime I decided I was going to try to do something with the old newspaper stuff I collect. This was a project that didn’t go anywhere. I still like the idea and may return to it someday but I’ll have to come up with some better skills. Yes, the writing is fun and [...]
