Frivolous Friday Blog Roundup

11 Comments

1. 

   mwbworld on March 3, 2006 at 2:32 pm

   “Plastic Assets” is not real. It’s part of the Huffington Post Contagious Festival

   • 

     BooMan on March 3, 2006 at 2:36 pm

     I know it’s not real.  This is frivolous friday.

     • 

       mwbworld on March 3, 2006 at 3:07 pm

       Sure enough.

       Of course the folks at the site you link to seem to be most unsure of that fact….

2. 

   Ed J on March 3, 2006 at 3:07 pm

   sees Bush and Rumsfeld sitting at a table. Goes over and asks what they’re doing. Rummy says, “We’re planning the next war, this time we’re gonna kill two million Iranis and one blonde with big tits.” The guy asks “Why ya killing the blonde with the big tits?” At this, Rumsfeld turns to Bush with a big grin and says “Ya see George, I told you nobody’d care about the two million Iranis!”

   • 

     BooMan on March 3, 2006 at 3:10 pm

     I heard that one a couple weeks ago.

3. 

   Renee in Ohio on March 3, 2006 at 3:21 pm

   I had to stop and think, to try to remember where I’d heard someone explain how the Hokey-Pokey was indeed “what it’s all about”. Finally figured out it was from Rabbi Lawrence Kushner’s Invisible lines of connection:

   So that’s what it’s all about! You put your whole self in, you take your whole self out; you put your whole self in and you shake it all about. The idea is that by doing whatever you’re doing with all of you, you can then take all of you out. The trick is how to do both.

   I wonder if he was one of those people who mastered the art of B.S. and could write a paper about anything at the last minute, and make it “deep”.

4. 

   dada on March 3, 2006 at 3:53 pm

   May be an old story, but new to me: via E-mail:

   On 20 July, 1969, as Commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon.

   His famous first words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, were broadcast around the world.

   However, just before he re-entered the Lander, he made the enigmatic remark: “Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky”.

   Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival soviet Cosmonaut, but upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Soviet or American space programs.  Over the years many people questioned Armstrong about the meaning of the remark but he always refused to answer and just smiled.

   Finally, on 5 July, 1995, in Tampa Bay, a reporter once again brought up the 26 year old question.  He finally responded.

   The object of the quote, Mr. Gorsky, had passed away and Mr. Armstrong felt he could answer the question.

   In 1938 when he was a kid in a small midwest town, he was playing ball with a friend in the backyard.  His friend hit a ball into his neighbor’s yard by the bedroom windows.  The neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky.  As he went to pick up the ball he heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting to Mr. Gorsky: “Sex!  You want sex?!  You’ll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon.”

   “Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky.”

   Could be just another ‘urban legend’, but interesting none the less.

   Peace

   • 

     BooMan on March 3, 2006 at 3:56 pm

     that’s gold.  If Mr. Gorsky couldn’t collect on that there is no justice in the world.

5. 

   soj on March 3, 2006 at 4:24 pm

   Your bro’s one smart guy but he’s got his facts wrong:

   With the number of human beings having increased more than six-fold in the past 200 years, the modern mind simply assumes that men and women, no matter how estranged, will always breed enough children to grow the population–at least until plague or starvation sets in. It is an assumption that not only conforms to our long experience of a world growing ever more crowded, but which also enjoys the endorsement of such influential thinkers as Thomas Malthus and his many modern acolytes.

   Not just the last 200 years.  The population has been doubling exponentially for 3,000 years.  Plenty of websites with the data.  Just don’t ask me cuz I make Malthus look like an optimist.

   I’m WAY in D. Quinn’s camp on this one.

   Interesting theory about “patriarchy” but total and utter bunko.  Societies do not breed children, the food supply breeds children.

   Pax

   • 

     soj on March 3, 2006 at 4:26 pm

     Oh my lord.. he’s a member of the New America Foundation?  Thank god my website is down or else you’d have my hide in a hat.

     (goes and hides)

     Oooohhweee….

     Pax

6. 

   Knoxville Progressive on March 3, 2006 at 4:32 pm

   Thanks for the link to Phillip’s article.  I had been recently thinking about the very same question – the decline in population of empires in decline.  I was wondering how widespread the phenomenon was, and having a “hard science” background I was thinking in terms of gradually escalating prices for the necessities of life as the soils were depleted, but your brother poses a plausible theory as well.  

   I certainly find the implications of his article disturbing, but I’m going to have to give it some thought as to whether the scenario he poses is typical, inevitable, just one small piece of the puzzle, or what.  At first blush, anyway, it seems that if what he posits is true, then maintaining institutions of education and liberal thought are one of our only lines of defense against the inevitable drift of society to the right…

   You must have really interesting family reunions!  Ours tend to run more along the lines of how the Flyers, Eagles, or Phillies are doing this season, the price of gasoline, what illnesses various old aunts and uncles have contracted, and the like. ;-D