W & O: Classic

ESPN does it. Why can’t I? Introducing Wise and Otherwise: Classic...

Maybe my blog didn’t exist when these events occurred, but if I’d had a blog, I would have covered them. Now I do, and now I have. The following repackaged written accounts and pictures from my pre-blogging era are now available in blog form:

Thailand: November 2002: “Mantra, Monks and Motorcycles”
True story of my attempt to photograph a monk on a motorcycle in Thailand.

Nigeria: January 2004: “Misadventures with Captain Bonehead”
Yours Truly tried a little too hard to avoid contracting malaria in Nigeria.

Australia: July 2005: “Oh Possum!”
A colorful account of catching a possum in the Land of Oz.

Comments can be posted on “classic” entries. Keep an eye out for “new” old entries in the near future.

Cosmic Questions

Those of you who keep up with the news know that today Pluto was demoted from full planetary status to dwarf planet status. This, of course, raises some important questions:

1) Since Pluto, the ninth planet, is now a dwarf, do we now have eight planets and eight dwarfs? If so, will Snow White allocate a planet to each dwarf, and how might the assignments be made?

2) Until today, school children have remembered the planets in our solar system through such mnemonic devices as “My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas.” What will the sentence be now?

3) What is the correct plural of dwarf: “dwarfs” or “dwarves”?

Your thoughts?

The Name Game – Amphibian-Style

What’s camouflaged and squishy and rhymes with “blogs”?

Yep, you guessed it:




FROGS!









The evening cacophony of croaking sometimes makes me wonder if the compound’s frog count is approaching plague-like levels. And these things are tricky to spot at night. As I walk back to my apartment after dark, the prospect of accidentally trampling frogs underfoot kind of creeps me out.

So, what should we name the frog pictured above? Submit your suggested frog name, and I’ll announce the winner in a future post. Multiple entries per person will be accepted, provided they’re not lame.

(Lame entries, however, may receive special attention in a future post.)

"Will this make your blog?"

Believe it or not, I have had multiple (okay, two) inquiries as to whether or not various material will get airtime on my blog. Ask, and ye shall receive.











My cousin Matt should appreciate his mug shots being posted here. I hope my Aunt Debbie is equally enthused about her guest appearance.














I apparently promised another friend of mine, Stephanie, a cameo on my blog around the time I made this previous post. I apologize for neglecting you, Steph. I thoroughly enjoyed your singing at the jazz jam session.

Here’s looking at you, kid.

Technologically Impaired

Good news: I returned to North Africa during the days when drinking water and toothpaste could be carried on airplanes.

Bad news: My cell phone died; my apartment phone cannot make calls outside the compound; my personal e-mail has been stingy about letting me login; and my work e-mail has been down.

Good news: It didn’t smell funny for long when...

Bad news: ...my roommate blew out our wireless Internet router’s 110V adapter by plugging it directly into a 220V outlet.

Good news: I still have a blog, something for which a mouse potato like me can be thankful.

Circa 2006

The cars we drive get bigger.

I Luv my brother!

Last evening, I was at the bachelor party of the tyke in the cardboard go-cart with diaper paint job. The throng gathered for the occasion was recalling first memories of Adam (pictured below, in vehicle, circa 1982).



















Since the groom-to-be is my brother, I was able to reach back a little further than his college friends to recollect a first memory. For some inexplicable reason, the earliest salient memory that popped into my mind was of pushing him around in a Luvs box. I hadn’t thought about it in years—maybe decades—and thought the memory was mine alone. It turns out the whole scene was captured on film.

I got the diaper brand right and everything!