Random Flashback for Friday 7/4/14

Were I absolutely true to my concept on Fridays (telling my story one week at a time ... but twenty years in the past), I'd have a photo of Smokey Robinson singing somewhere near the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art before the fireworks ... or of a photo of Wendy W and Judy W who hosted the party that Fourth of July 1994 ... or Brigette C who lived nearby that year and who joined us for the main event (because doing the Fourth with Brigette was something I did *twice* back in the nineties).

But alas, I don't have any photos of that shindig ... so I'll kick off my Fridays *this* July (about July twenty years ago) with another series of mysterious murder quest photos from when we performed on the campus of Lebanon Valley College that summer twenty years ago.  This show was "Holly Hemlock and Mistletoe", and this picture was 80% of the cast who had gathered for the customary photo shoot beforehand.  After all, Christmas in July worked back then ... so it will work for today as well!

More to come from this production in the weeks ahead ... but as for today, a safe and happy Fourth of July (with or without Smokey Robinson) to you and yours from me and mine!

Random Thought for Thursday 7/3/14

At the risk of ruining my street cred/reputation for verbosity, today's random thought is simply ... no.

As in NO the recent viral video saying you could open a bottle of beer with a magnet and a quarter DOES NOT WORK.

I'll feel good about the fact that my first instinct was to try it instead of just believing it after I saw it on the interwebs.  But I do have to admit that I was slightly disappointed as everyone loves a good party trick.

Last thought ... how's about my stock expression for dubiousness?

THE AFOREMENTIONED VIRAL VIDEO LIE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZxBz4fTe50

A SCIENTIFIC DEBUNKING OF THE BUNK:
http://skeptoid.com/blog/2014/02/15/open-a-beer-bottle-with-a-magnet-an-instant-internet-hit-thats-likely-fake/

ON THE OTHER HAND, THESE DO NOT APPEAR TO BE FAKE (TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYW3pSCTuNs

Bonus Post: Fond Memory 25 (LHS Quadranscentennial Celebration Edition)

Fond Memory 25 

on this, the Quadranscentennial Celebration of 

my Lebanon High School Graduation:

According to my calendar, there are 100 days until my 25th high school reunion back home in Lebanon PA.  

And, because I do so love me a countdown, starting tonight, and every 4th day thereafter (because my public school education taught me that 100 divided by 25 is 4), I'll be counting down 25 fond memories from those years (at least at the beginning, in no particular order).

To kick it off, here are two different ID cards from my junior and senior year.  A close inspection illustrates the following facts:  

1.)  Even though they *are* two different years, my high school mistakenly put the same year for my junior and senior IDs (I mean, I did well in school, but not well enough to collapse both years into one).  

2.)  I went to the poor city school, as the ID cards are clearly in black and white (and this was in the late eighties, so color photos had been around for a long long time).  

3.)  It appears I discovered my middle initial between my junior and high school years (take a peek at the early versions of my signature).

I'm very much looking forward to the weekend of Oct 11-13 this year ... but I'm just as very much looking forward to the counting down to it!  See you for memory 24 on Sunday the 6th!

Random Wordplay for Wednesday 7/2/14

Fap.

Used in a sentence:  "To counteract the feeling of getting too old and unhip, I do a few things ... I watch MTV programs, I catch a show or two on the CW and I keep an ear out for new words entering into the lexicon such as FAP."

Here's the disclaimer ... if you don't know that word and if the mother in the movie Carrie is your type of gal (or, for you literary types, the book Carrie), then you should probably move on and not continue NOR look at the links below.

Otherwise, then link through with abandon knowing that you were forewarned.

From what I can tell, there's a certain poetry to the onomatopoeia justification behind anime determining that this word could be used in manga comics to intimate (verb) the intimate (adjective) act of the male taking matters into his own hands, to asphyxiate the capon, to "subject the surface of a thing or person (or a thing on a person, as it were) to pressure and friction, as in cleaning, smoothing, polishing, coating, massaging, or soothing"-one-out as we used to say (ish).

And, for those of you who stuck through to the happy ending, now we're all hipper than we were before we started this post.

A GIF IS ANOTHER YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORD:
http://guycodeblog.mtv.com/2012/03/06/fapping-gifs/

UM ... I'VE NEVER KNOWN IT TO BE "FEEDING BOLOGNA TO THE SMURFS":
http://www.dribbleglass.com/subpages/euphemisms.htm

WARNING ... THIS PAGE CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT MIGHT BE NSFW:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/fap

Random Tune for Tuesday 7/1/14

Ok ... it's time for something big.  No, not exploding boats (exactly).  But starting tonight, and over the course of the next 39 weeks, I'll be letting a certain twenty year old two cassette mixtape dictate the tunes heard on Tuesdays.

Why?  Well ... because it's my blog so I can do what I want.  Also because it's been nearly twenty years since I've heard some of these songs (although, don't worry, they're timeless).  And because I hinted to Jon M that this would happen when he invited me to the Pearl Jam concert last fall.

And especially because these three sets of thirteen songs were carefully chosen to commemorate a few months in college where a number of lives intersected to be forever changed (Kim H, Brad H, Jon M, Rich G, Suzanne W and a host of others in addition to me).  The location?  Lebanon Valley College in the Funkhouser East building, at the end of the hallway on the second floor closest to the stairs (it was featured in quite a few Friday Flashbacks on this blogat the end of last year) ... known affectionately as FE 213.

Without further ado, *this* is the first song of the first side of the first tape of the mixtape known as FE213 Anthology I:  Long Live Uniqueness.

MAYBE NOW THE IMAGE MAKES SENSE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUP9DnurODw

Random Memorial for Monday 6/30/14

Gone but not forgotten:  that feeling of being scared to eat the mangos in the front yard.

The signs were there.  They were falling with much more frequency ... without the aid of a wind storm.  Those that did fall were finally showing some other color on the outside than that bright green hue.  The car ran over one in the driveway and it instantly smooshed it out in one piece.

But watching the islanders* walk by and look longingly at them ... and a few of them casing the joint to see if they could jump the fence and harvest a few dozen (they go through the 'hood, "stealing" them during the day, and then selling them a few corners away at four for a dollar) ... and the one yesterday whom I watched pick two and then slink back the side of the fence to hide them in the bushes until a return trip ... *that's* how it was evidently clear that it was time to finally try them.

Hence this meal ... scallops with a mango salsa (c) 2014.  Manga!

*Note ... I do not use islanders pejoratively (you know, like some people use "urban" to hide their hate) but descriptively ... that's exactly a contingent in the 'hood.

So with mangos o plenty, that hesitation to put things in my mouth that fell into the same spot where the puppies poop, you will now be missed.

280 RECIPES FROM WHICH TO CHOOSE:
http://allrecipes.com/recipes/fruits-and-vegetables/fruits/mangos/

BUT MINE ARE JUST NOT THAT COLOR:
http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-a-Mango-Is-Ripe

THEY MUST BE THE "OTHERS":
http://www.clrsearch.com/Fort-Lauderdale-Demographics/FL/Population-by-Race-and-Ethnicity

Random Scandal Sheet for Sunday 6/29/14

What southern Florida is talking about this week:

Sports.  It's taken over the lead news stories.

Having spent almost half of the recent dozen years in Chicago in the shadow of the Wrigley bleachers (just a spit and a holler away, on the other side of the 'el'), I'm used to these summer months being taken over by baseball talk ... but apparently this area doesn't have a team (well, at least a team about which anyone seems to wants to speak).

Instead, of late, it's all about how apparently some French guy Le-something-or-other is thinking about leaving town to play bball elsewhere (or, if he's not thinking about it, he's playing the money game to get a little more coin to cover his bills for chronic cramping).  I didn't even know the French were very bball focused!  Truth be told, it seems most locals are very quick to say au revoir to this Monsieur James.

And then today, based on what I saw that African man wearing at the local Home Depot (so bright!) and how the drunk south-of-the-border couple were behaving at the JCPenney when it opened at noon, it would appear that there's some international sports contest catching everyone's attention down here (it's a very diverse area, in case you didn't know).  It's unclear if any Americans are part of that event, a conclusion I make solely based on the fact that I've yet to come across anyone hootin' and hollerin' dressed in our flag as I'm out and about.

PS ... In case you didn't gather, I rarely watch ESPN, and then, usually with the volume off so I can just see the pretty pictures and read the graphics.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2014/06/24/lebron-james-leaving-miami-could-cut-heats-value-by-100-million/

UMMM ... IF I EVER WATCHED WITH THE SOUND ON, I'D MAYBE HAVE AN OPINION:
http://toplayusout.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/the-five-biggest-douchebags-on-espn/

SEE I KNEW SOMETHING INTERNATIONAL WAS GOING ON:
http://miami.cbslocal.com/top-lists/top-sports-bars-to-watch-world-cup-soccer-in-south-florida/