I’m Number 1!

Go to Google, and search for “Paige”. I’m number 1. And I’m ahead of Paige Davis, star of the The Learning Channel television show Trading Spaces. Whoopee! I have achieved my lifelong goal!

The Longest Baseball Game

It began April 18, 1981, and 33 innings later, after 8 hours and 25 minutes of baseball, it ended. ‘‘It’s still the most bizarre and remarkable game I’ve ever been involved in,’’ said Cal Ripken, Jr, the baseball Iron Man who — surprise, surprise — played every inning of that marathon. ‘‘Thirty-three innings in one game. Now there’s a record I don’t think will ever be broken.’’

Walking In Memphis

Walking In Memphis, a song by country band Lonestar, came on the radio yesterday, and my 14 year daughter, a major Clay Aiken fan, said — no yelled — “I love this song! Crank it up!” Today, she asked me to bring a CD of country music with me for our ride in the car. Sorry, Clay, you’re history!

Now This Is Bizarre

The headline at ESPN.com reads “Ripken aids wounded, naked kidnap victim”. What?? Read the whole story here. Nice job, Cal.

Carnival Of The Vanities

The week’s best posts from around the blogosphere are compiled in Carnival Of The Vanities Week 62, hosted at Setting The World To Rights.

Nice Job, Mr. President

Let me take a minute and compliment President Bush for making the effort to have Thanksgiving dinner with US troops in Iraq.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you pilgrims, and everyone else too. May your holiday be warm and friendly and filled with good people and good food.

I had the pleasure of visiting a friends house, and having dinner with his entire extended family, none of whom I had ever met before. But they are a very nice family, I had a wonderful time and the food was fabulous. I remember large family gathering like this when I was a child, but now as an adult, I don't usually have large family gatherings any more. My closest relative is 400 miles away, my sisters and father are thousands of miles away, and my children spent the day with their mother. So I am thankful I had a place to go for Thanksgiving.

More Politically Incorrect Ethnic Humor

Two bees were out flying around. One bee says to the other: “what is that on your head?” The second bee replies that it’s a yarmulke. The first bee says, “A yarmulke? Why are you wearing one of those?” The second bee replies, “I don’t want anyone to think I’m a WASP!”

Drainspotting

Drainspotting? What kind of lame hobby is that? Well, according to the FAQ at drainspotting.com, “it’s fun, really. I can think of stupider things to be interested in. Hummel figurines, for example. Plus, drainspotting is free! Just walk around and pay attention to what's going on by your feet.” Okay, fun is in the eye of the beholder, I guess, but how can you deny the simple beauty of the manhole cover shown at right? Check out photos of all sorts of drains, manhole covers and similar metalwork, submit your own (although most of you would never admit to having photographed one), or comment on the ones already submitted.

Also, read why most manhole covers are round, but there are indeed other shapes that work, including triangular shaped manhole covers in Nashua, NH. (links via Off on a Tangent).

Dozens Offer Kidney to Mourning

Alonzo Mourning, forced to retire from the NBA last week with a life threatening kidney disease, has received dozens of offers from people willing to donate their kidney for Mourning’s use. While this is very admirable, it creates an ethical dilemma. 17 people die each day because a donated kidney is not available. Should Mourning get a kidney that someone specifically donates to him? Or should he be forced to wait on the list like everyone else? I can’t seem to make up my mind on this one. On the one hand, those people waiting for several years deserve a donated kidney just as much as Mourning does. On the other hand, if it’s your kidney, and you want to donate it to a specific individual, why shouldn’t you be allowed to do just that? What do you think?

Those Wacky NBA Mascots

A woman celebrating her birthday at a Denver Nuggets basketball game got more than she anticipated during a time out in the Nuggets-Suns game. Rocky, the Nuggets mascot, reared back and with a John Elway-like throw, pasted the woman with a birthday cake. Go here to see the entire sequence of photos, from start to finish. It is not clear if this was the mascot acting on his own, or something planned by one of the birthday woman’s friends. I hope it was planned by a friend, I would hate to think a mascot would take such an action on his own. I would not like that to happen to me.

Offshore Outsourcing, Again

According to a CNET report, “Citing the need to protect local businesses, the state of Indiana terminated a software contract it had awarded to an Indian company — a move indicative of growing opposition to offshore outsourcing.” This announcement comes about a week after Dell decided to stop servicing its business customers via a call center in Bangalore, India.

This Old Barn

Location: Knowlesville, NY, just north of Route 31. Photo taken with Kodak DX6490, f7.1, 1/350 second, ISO 80, 14X zoom.

Look What We Dug Up

Big discoveries in the world of archaeology:

An ancient hearth in Brazil has been dated to 56,000 BC, or 40,000 years previous to any earlier known human habitation of the Americas. This is a stunning development, but the dating method remains controversial, and so not everyone is convinced at this time.

Llactapata, a forgotten Inca royal city overgrown by the jungle, and located within sight of the famed Inca city of Machu Picchu, has been discovered. Llactapata was first seen by explorer Hiram Bingham in 1912, and then forgotten until recently, when it was discovered using infrared aerial photography.

Klan Initiation Goes Wrong

At a KKK initiation ceremony, a participant was critically wounded when a Klansmen fired his gun into the air, and the bullet came down and struck the participant in the head.

The blog Go Fish has a pretty good rant about this event.

In addition to deleting one racist asshole from the planet, there is the added bonus of sending the racist asshole who pulled the trigger to jail [hopefully]. Hopefully when he gets sent to the pokey he has a massive African-American roommate who takes a liking to him.

Should I be less happy that a man was shot dead? As far as I’m concerned, anyone who joins the KKK or any other hate organization deserves whatever bad things come their way.

Dell Shuts Call Center in India

Responding to a large number of complaints, Dell has decided to stop servicing corporate customers from its call center in Bangalore, India. The calls will instead be routed to call centers in the United States. Dell refused to specify exactly what the complaints were.

I hope the managers at my company are paying attention, as the rumors fly that our computer support will be done primarily in India. Not only will this result in a loss of jobs here in the United States, but it results in consternation among those of us who remain and will need computer support at some time. It’s not just cost — it’s quality! You can quote me on that!

Hangzhou Skies

I’m not sure why these pictures of Hangzhou, China, caught my attention, but I find them striking. From the blog Ape Rifle by blogger Patrick Bennett, they depict a world that sadly, I will never experience. And yet other pictures of Hangzhou are strikingly familiar. The description of the culinary delights at the Hangzhou Food Festival (with music by the Backstreet Boys blaring in the background) make we yearn for some high-quality Chinese food tonight. (The permalinks don’t seem to work properly, so look for the post at Ape Rifle on November 3, 2003).

Calling Your Child’s School?

At the blog Heather Mooney, Schoolmarm, here’s some humor about the automated answering of phone calls at your child’s school.

Ugly Americans?

America has a bad enough image around the world, we don’t need to anger our allies, such as Great Britain. Yet, through carelessness and selfishness, Americans who accompanied President George W. Bush have made the Queen of England very upset, and for the first time, I feel sorry for Her Majesty. She didn’t deserve this, and it basically is unacceptable bvehavior on the part of the Americans who were part of President Bush’s entourage. (via The Presurfer).

Woman who fought leukemia meets her bone marrow donor

Who says there is no good news being reported? This is a very touching story. Christine Pettrone’s life was saved by a bone marrow donation two years ago. Now, she meets the young woman who made the donation. Read about it here.

Mayor cancels alien landing over abduction fears

The mayor of a Brazilian town says he has cancelled a planned landing by an alien spaceship during this week’s Brazil vs. Peru football match.

Okay, let me get this straight. The mayor has planned an alien spaceship landing? How do you schedule such a thing? Did the Brazilian airforce know about this? That’s the part of the story that is more astonishing to me than the cancelling. I want to know more! Inquiring minds want to know.

Top Level Domains

Most of us internet surfers understand .com, .org, .gov, etc. But did you know that every country and some geographic areas have their own internet suffix? It’s called a top level domain. And so, as you surf around, you may come across Jen’s excellent blog suffixed with .nu (for the remote Pacific Island nation of Niue), or the very useful utility site at blo.gs (.gs stands for the South Georgia and Sandwich Islands). Check out all of the top level domain abbreviations here. Memorize them all today!

What Up, Hilary Duff?

Now, you can own your very own Hilary Duff doll! That’s right, what are you doing just sitting there, run over to Wal-Mart and pick up yours now! You can get Hilary, the rock star; or Hilary, the movie star; or Hilary the TV star. Better yet, get all three!

And I was hanging out at my favorite honky tonk last night, watching some dumb NBA game on the TV. I couldn’t hear what was being said (cause I was in a bar, duh!) and on one of the commercials for the NBA I Love This Game, there she was, Hilary Duff. At least, I think it was Hilary. She is definitely moving up in the world, to the point where she is one of the cool celebs to appear in an NBA ad. Way to go, Hilary!

Ethnic Humor, If You Don’t Mind

A young jewish woman joins the Peace Corps and spends three years in Africa. Upon her return to the United States, her mother is waiting for her at the airport. The woman steps off the airplane, and says to her mother, “Allow me to introduce my new husband”. And she points to the man standing just behind her. The man is seven feet tall, wearing only an animal skin, he has an animal bone in his hair and his face is covered in ceremonial paint, while he holds a spear and wooden shield. The mother cries out, “No, no, no! I said: rich doctor!”

Sad News

From Eric at Straight White Guy (via Madfish Willie’s):

What with all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person which almost went unnoticed last week. Larry La Prise, the man who wrote “The Hokey Pokey” died peacefully at age 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him in the coffin. They put his left leg in, and then the trouble started.

This reminds me of the time many years ago when the inventor of the motorcycle sidecar died. In a touching ceremony, he was buried next to his coffin.

Moronic Commercials

The new advertising campaign by Microsoft strikes me as one of the stupidest ideas for an ad campaign that I have ever seen. The ads portray people in an office setting, celebrating as if they had won the Super Bowl. There are scenes in which the water cooler is dumped over someone sitting at his computer. There are scenes where officemates give each other high-fives, while other officemates cheer wildly. And in these ads, the announcers voice is vaguely reminiscent of the former voice of NFL Films, John Facenda.

I find all of this pathetic. I realize the ads impose a football-like metaphor on the office environment, that its all exaggeration. But please ... when was the last time you jumped up and down because your software had a new useful feature? In fact, when was the last time you were in an office and saw high-fives or cheering? Could these ads be more unrealistic? Wouldn’t it be better to promote your product using realistic advertising? I find myself very much turned off by these ads and somewhat offended.

As long as I’m on the subject, allow me to complain about New York State Lottery advertisement. These insult my intelligence. They imply that everyone who purchases a lottery ticket will be a winner. “All you need is a dollar and a dream”. Great slogan, if you have a dollar and a dream, and you go out and buy a lottery ticket, now you have a dream, and New York State has your dollar.

This Week’s Bonfire

Read all of the worst posts this week from around the blogosphere at the Bonfire of The Vanities, hosted at Wizbang.

Or, if you want to read the self-nominated best posts of the week, check out the Carnival of the Vanities, 61st edition, hosted at Peaktalk.

Brief Comments About The News

Michael Jackson facing child molestation charges again? Hmmm, I’m not at all surprised.

Keyshawn Johnson de-activated by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Excellent move, its about time someone stands up to these prima donnas. Johnson’s behavior would not be tolerated in most businesses.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Wesley Clark stands up to a Fox reporter to make sure Clark’s words are not mis-interpreted. Not since George H. Bush stood up to Dan Rather have we seen this type of fireworks on a live network news broadcast.

A new species of baleen whale has been discovered. I hate to say “I told you so...”, but just as I predicted, not a single psychic predicted this ... nor did they predict any of the other items in the news today.

Life Is A Series of Compromises

Amanda at Girl Meets World complains about her life these days: “Wake-up. Go to County Market, the grocery store. 8 hours of my young life down the drain. Wake up go to County Market. Wake up go to County Market. Sleepy, very sleepy.”

It’s a tough lesson to learn, that life isn’t all fun and games. I find myself in the same category. I want to have lots more fun than I am having right now. I stay up too late, out dancing or watching sports on TV, then drag myself out of bed the next morning, and go off to a job that only sort of interests me right now.

Last night was a good example. I had a great time dancing. I talked to lots of nice men and women, I had tons of fun. Melissa the cheerleader, Melissa the math major and Jamie from Brockport were all much too much fun to watch and talk to and dance with. And I had to leave earlier than I would have liked — I had to make one of those compromises — so I could get up the next morning and do a reasonable job at work. Of course, I need the job so I can go out and have fun, and I need to go out and have fun so I can keep my sanity through this wonderful season (the downsizing season where I work).

Life’s a dance, and life’s a series of compromises.

Handy Guide To Eating Rocks

A handy guide to eating rocks for beginners. A lot of this guide is just good ol’ plain common sense, but you’d be surprised how often people make the same stupid mistakes eating rocks. (via The Presurfer).

Introducing: The Mystery Meson

Scientists have discovered a new sub-atomic particle that does not fit into any existing theory. This particle exists for only about one billionth of a trillionth of a second before it decays into other longer-lived, more familiar particles. However, even something this ephemeral will cause physicists to modify existing theories, or come up with a new theory regarding energy and matter. But that’s the great thing about science, it is self-correcting, it changes to accomodate new data.

If Microsoft Built A Blogging Tool

Over at dustbury.com, Charles describes what would happen if Microsoft built a blogging tool. Naturally, this does not sound like an improvement to existing tools. Example: The built-in spellchecker will have issues with the word “Unix”. (link via Electric Venom)

Congrats To The Jury

I would like to congratulate the jury in the John Allen Muhammad sniper case, for seeing through all the misleading attempts by the defense to point the blame elsewhere. Muhammad today was convicted of capital murder and three other crimes.

Where is The Outrage?

Meryl Yourish expresses her well-written anger at the bombing of synagogues in Turkey. In particular, she points out that the bombing didn’t just kill Jewish worshippers, it killed many Muslim passersby. She also predicts that there will be no sense of outrage from the Arab world, similar to comments I made recently.

I Feel Much Better Now

Scientists have revised downward the probability of Earth being hit by a massive asteroid. (via Spacecraft blog)

Worst Web Site Design Ever?

Here is my nomination. Tell me if you have found a design you think is worse.

Update to “King of The Paranormal”

Updating a previous post in this blog, you can view a clock that shows how long it has been since psychic Sylvia Browne agreed to have her abilities tested on the Larry King show. It has been 803 days since she agreed to the testing protocol, and 984 days since she first agreed to be tested. At the J-Walk blog, you can read, via Sylvia Browne’s own website, some of Sylvia’s predictions for the next 100 years. I presume that this is a much longer list that the list of Sylvia's correct predictions.

Utah Mayor Wins Election Via Dice Roll

With an electoral tie in the race for mayor of Washington Terrace, Utah, the two candidates had to draw lots. They agreed to live by a roll of the dice, and so with TV cameras watching, Mark Allen rolled a 4 and 1 and won the mayoralty, as his opponent rolled a pair of twos.

Snark Hunt, Week 13

Go over to Electric Venom (Kate’s blog) and read this week’s snarkiest posts.

King of the Paranormal

Larry King has had a distinguished journalistic career, but he has a long history of un-journalistic promotion of UFOs, psychics and spiritualists. He appears to have gone back on his word to arrange to have psychic Sylvia Browne tested to see if her psychic abilities are real, even though Browne has promised to undergo such testing several times on the Larry King show. Read all the gory details here at Chris Mooney’s blog.

Remember the ABA

Doc. Artis. Ice. Three-point shots. Red, white and blue basketballs. Afros and slam-dunk contests. Refs in red striped shirts. Louie Dampier. Darnell Hillman. Kentucky Colonels and The Spirits of St. Louis.

It was basketball as it had never been played before. Basketball raised to new heights. Remember it again at Remember The ABA.com.

More Bad News for Abuja, Nigeria

Most of you have received the famous Nigerian scam in e-mail. A somewhat legendary web site pokes fun at the people who perpetrate this scam, advertising “Write better emails. Make more moneys�. You are invited to a conference in Abuja, Nigeria to learn how to improve this scam. Now we get news that two Egyptian chess players, including their national champion, contracted cerebral malaria at a tournament in Abuja. Both died. Somehow, making fun of Abuja doesn’t seem so funny now.

A Devastating Critique of the Buffalo Bills Coaching

The offensive playcalling of the Buffalo Bills is being terribly mis-managed by offensive co-ordinator Kevin Gilbride. Read all the gory details here.

Bye, Bye, Judge Moore

Or should I say, “Bye, bye, ex-judge Moore�? Alabama’s Roy Moore was removed from office because of his controversial refusal to remove a large monument of the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building. The nine member review panel was unanimous that Moore had “willfully and publicly� put himself above the law.

Moore still doesn’t understand the point being made by this ethics panel, and by every court that has ruled on this issue. He claims he is being persecuted because he “acknowledged God�. He most definitely is not. He is guilty of not acknowledging the separation of church and state as provided by The First Amendment of the United States Constitution. He can acknowledge God in many ways that would not have resulted in this punishment. He chose to acknowledge God in a way that violated the US Constitution.

I predict that if Moore appeals, he will lose. I predict that if Moore chooses to run for election as judge again somewhere in Alabama, he will be elected easily. I predict that if he gets elected, he will again raise this issue.

“W. C. Handy, won’t you look down over me?”

Perhaps you have heard those lyrics in the song written by Marc Cohn, and performed by many artists, including recently by Lonestar. Who was W. C. Handy?

William Christopher Handy was the father of the blues. He was born to a poor Southern family in 1873, and he had to hide his interest in music from his parents. But eventually, he joined a band, travelled around the country, and set up shop in Memphis in 1909. His music quickly became quite popular and he single-handedly introduced a new style of music, “The Blues”, to the world. Handy performed at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on his 84th birthday in front of 800 people. He died less than a year later, and is buried in The Bronx.

Carnival Of The Vanities, Week 60

Check out the week’s best blog entries at the 60th edition of Carnival of the Vanities, hosted at Dead Ends. And don't forget to download Mozilla 1.5 or Mozilla Firebird for Mozilla.org to enhance your browsing pleasure of the Carnival with tabbed browsing.

Search A Blog via Google

Google allows you to limit searches to specific Internet domains by adding a keyword and domain information. For example, if you want to search for admissions information at Stanford, you would enter:

admissions site:www.stanford.edu

Thus, if you remember a post here on Paige’s Page, for example one that mentions Lou Gehrig, an easy way to find it is:

gehrig site:home.rochester.rr.com

Now, to be perfectly honest, this searches all sites at home.rochester.rr.com, not just mine. But the search is extremely quick and you can find those search hits from my blog very easily, as they are labelled Paige’s Page. Further refinement of the search limits the results to just my blog:

gehrig Paige's Page site:home.rochester.rr.com

From Body Sushi to Naked Sushi

Over the summer, the idea of “body sushi” became quite trendy on the west coast. Body sushi is ordinary sushi served on a “platter” that is a scantily clad woman, as we reported in this blog here and here. No nudity. Now, some entrepreneurs in Seattle have taken the next obvious step, and are serving up naked sushi, where the platter is a naked (topless) young woman. This has caused quite a stir, as the Associated Press reports. As you might expect, women’s groups object, while male sushi lovers seem to have no problem with the concept of naked sushi.

Flutie! Flutie! Flutie!

I just wanted to say that one more time! Of course, according to The New York Times, it’s not time for Doug Flutie to ride off into the sunset.

Arab vs. Arab Violence

While it is hard to judge the true level of public opinion by one news report, this Reuters report about the recent bombing in Saudi Arabia indicates that the opinion of ordinary Arabs has turned against Al Qaeda. Here are some sample quotes from ordinary Arabs from the article:

They can't express their views in this way. They must try another way.

But they are very bad Muslims. I am sure this is not correct Islam.

These people have no brains. This is not the way.

What strikes me as being very hypocritical is that by and large we didn’t hear comments like this from ordinary Arabs when the terrorism was directed at Israel, Europe or the United States. It seems that terrorism against other Arabs is a no-no according to street opinion, while terrorism directed at other targets is tacitly or explicitly condoned on the street.

Update: The New York Times has a similar article on November 11, 2003.

Hilary Duff Signs with CBS

Hilary Duff, formerly the star of Disney’s Lizzie McGuire, is now the newest star in the CBS lineup. Duff will star in a Family Ties like show, airing in the 2004-2005 season. (via Adrants)

It’s obvious that Hilary is now one of the most recognized teenaged stars out there, with a TV show, movie and former #1 CD. Now, CBS has jumped at the chance to sign her up to attract younger viewers. Apparently, there was an intense bidding war for her between CBS, NBC and Fox.

Let’s wish this wholesome young star continues to do well, and continues to portray a likeable, wholesome teenager.

Did Yogi Berra Really Say This?

“In theory, there should be no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is.” (quoted at Celestial Navigation.net, via Gone East Too)

It seems a little too deep for Yogi, but then of course, Yogi himself admits, at Yogi-Berra.com, “I didn’t really say everything I said”.

BBC “proves” Nessie does not exist

Using 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to ensure that none of the loch was missed, a team of scientists sponsored by the BBC surveyed the waters said to hide Scotland’s legendary Loch Ness monster, but found no trace of the monster.

US Baseball Team Fails to Qualify For The Olympics

The United States baseball team, a favorite to win a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics, lost 2-1 to Mexico today, meaning that they fail to qualify for the Olympics. Now, it’s not like we invented baseball or anything ... wait, I guess we did invent baseball. Okay, this is a huge embarrassment. Okay, huge is an understatement. Damn!

Congrats to Silandara

Silandara chooses to not celebrate Christmas this year, gladly accepting all the benefits of this decision. No more stress, no more overspending, no more decorating. She looks forward to giving out and receiving love instead. From personal experience, Silandara, let me tell you that I enjoy it much more when I don’t celebrate Christmas. (Her blog has no permalinks, so look for the post on November 6, 2003).

Mozilla beats IE any day

To enhance your blogging pleasure, please give the browser Mozilla a try. It beats the crap out of Internet Explorer for blogging, and just about any internet surfing. Why? Because of the tabbed browsing feature. That means, suppose you are reading a blog, and you come across a particularly interesting link. Just CTRL-click on the link, and it opens in a new tab! Your original blog is still there too! Keep reading, open as many new tabs as you like, and the links are available right there for you in separate tabs to read! Here's an example showing tabs for three blogs, Dead Ends, Electric Venom, and Paige’s Page.

But don’t take my word for how nice this is, go read what Dead Ends has to say about Mozilla. Then go download your copy from Mozilla.org. You can download the browser only, its called Firebird. Or you can download the entire integrated browser suite, include the browser, a fine mail and news-reader, and address book, and a web-composer. They all come with pop-up blocking built right in! And, if you use Mozilla for your mail reader, it has configurable junk filters! What are you waiting for??

Dullest Blog In The World

If life gets too exciting some times, check out the Dullest Blog In The World, just back from hiatus. (via J-Walk blog)

I became aware that my spectacles were not sitting quite correctly on my nose. Using my hand I moved them slightly, thereby making them feel more comfortable. This adjustment completed I continued with my activities.

Dancing Story, continued

I have written (here and here) about a woman who said something that I did not like while we were dancing together. Here’s the end of the story. I saw her again last night, she first came over to me to complain that I didn’t see her in her Halloween costume. Now, prior to this I had decided that I would have to say something to her about her earlier comment. So I said, as calmly as I could, “We have to talk for a minute. When we were dancing two weeks ago, you asked me if it was okay if you went to dance with Sam, and I didn’t like that. I was offended.” I was shaking as