Sort of lame that Lance Bass is pulling the ‘Ellen’ card right before he’s starting a new show.
It’d be cool if his new TV program is about how he caught “The Gay” during his Russian Space Shot, and returned to a planet populated by talking apes. I’d watch it.
For three episodes anyway, until it turned into Will & Grace, with Ape-o-Nauts.
Even Space Monkeys can’t save Will & Grace.
Sorry, Monkey.
This saying has word experts as befuddled as a bunch of zoo wardens trying to coax primates out of a large wooden container.
According to Phrases.org, Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang dates the phrase a “barrel-/wagon-load of monkeys” back to the late 19th century. But it doesn’t explain why a group of Industrial Age apes would be hiding in barrels or riding in farm carts.
Some sites have ventured theories. “Monkeys like to cram themselves into a large barrel at the circus,” the Daily Jolt offers, explaining, “This is probably the origin of the phrase.”
About.com quotes both the Oxford English Dictionary, which says the saying may come from “a barrel of laughs,” and word historian Charles E. Funk, who wrote: “One monkey arouses a great deal of amusement. Two or more then double the…amusement. If one were to release a barrelful…of monkeys, we must suppose that their antics would become hilariously comical.” We might.
Still on About.com, we followed the OED’s history of the phrase. It begins with a wagonload of monkeys, and includes mention of the mischievous beasts in cages (1840), bags (1908), and cartloads (1930). But it never reveals why humans started imagining them there in the first place — or why it would be fun.
Perhaps it’s the silliness of the image, or how perplexed and tickled you’d feel if you ever saw a barrel of monkeys. But for now, it seems, we’re left wondering how to help the little guys out, and never knowing exactly how they got in
Tailing a monkey man in search of healing powers
KOLKATA (Reuters) – Thousands of people are flocking to an impoverished Indian village in eastern West Bengal state to worship a man they believe possesses divine powers because he climbs up trees in seconds, gobbles up bananas and has a “tail.”
Devotees say 27-year-old villager Chandre Oraon is an incarnation of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman — worshipped by millions as a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion.
“He climbs up trees, behaves like a monkey and is a strict vegetarian, but he is no god and his condition is just a congenital defect,” says Bhushan Chakraborty, the local medical officer.
Tucked away in a hamlet in Banarhat, over 400 miles north of Kolkata, the state capital, devotees wait for hours to see or touch Oraon’s 13-inch tail, believing that it has healing powers.
Doctors said the “tail” — made up of some flesh but mostly of dark hair — was simply a rare physical attribute.
“It is a congenital anomaly, but very rarely do we find such cases,” B. Ramana, a Kolkata-based surgeon, told Reuters.
“He climbs up trees, behaves like a monkey and is a strict vegetarian, but he is no god and his condition is just a congenital defect,” says Bhushan Chakraborty, the local medical officer.
If I had a dime for every time I heard someone say that…
Newt wasn’t the most friendly host yesterday… I suspect it was a combo of smoke and/or illness stress that he was picking up from Tina. We had a nice time watching Monsters, Inc and a couple of Eddie Izzard concerts. Much (perhaps too much) Italian food was consumed, and I think a good time was had by all. The eggplant and garlic pizza is even better as a breakfast food this morning.
Some thoughts came up for a decor style for the apartment… maybe a tiki bachelor pad? If it’s possible to get that look with sturdy, comfy furniture, I’m all for it! The tiki-retro look is a pretty keen one.
The Mango Festival’s music was widely varied… from the amazing to Muzak-level artists played too loudly. I’m going to swing back by later today… many people are there having a grand time, so why not Scotto?
I’ve just switched the phones over to EN from ECN… so I think that maybe after a little morning nap, I’ll take a trek outside, if the skies stay clear.
through 9 am…isolated showers and a few thunderstorms will continue to affect the waters off the broward and Miami-Dade coast. only a few light showers will move onshore to affect the fort Lauderdale and Miami metro areas…though most areas will remain dry. the showers will move west northwest at 10 mph.
Danny contacted me earlier – wants to get together once or twice in the week ahead. (Last week was quite busy for him, and he was unable to comfortably do anything.) Maybe we can catch An Inconvenient Truth{website has some sound}. I’m interested in seeing how well it makes a case.
Side note, websites with flash opening pages / purely flash navbars are a bad idea… especially with sound. At best, it limits the size of your audience (if there are no alternate accessibility options added) and at the worst, it’s an annoying bombardment on the eyes and ears that also damages system security.
KIGALI (Reuters) – Twelve baby gorillas were given names by Western officials on Saturday in a ceremony aimed at attracting more foreign tourists to the tiny central African nation.
Dubbed “the land of a thousand hills”, Rwanda is home to nearly 400 mountain gorillas, one of the world’s most endangered species, which attracted over half of the country’s 22,000 tourists in 2005.
Tourism officials face an uphill battle to lure visitors to Rwanda, where around 800,000 people were massacred in the 1994 civil war.
Representatives from the United States, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands — where most of Rwanda’s tourists come from — participated in the baby gorillas naming ceremony, normally reserved for newborn children.
The UK ambassador to Rwanda Jeremy Macadie called one of the gorillas “Big Ben” after London’s famous landmark.
“Like the way ‘Big Ben’ is a major tourist spot in London, this young baby gorilla will be a center attraction for tourist to this beautiful nation,” Macadie said.
Rwanda earned over $25 million (14 million pounds) from the tourism sector in 2005 but hopes to make close to $100 million by 2010.
The first public naming ceremony was held last year when 30 baby gorillas were given local names.
Conservationists and researchers have traditionally named the gorillas they track using the patterns formed by wrinkles on the primate’s faces as identifiers.
A 1988 film, “Gorillas in the Mist”, based on the work of primate researcher Dian Fossey, who studied the animals in the 1960s, has put the tiny nation on the world map.
1 year ago – hobo sign icons, Goodyear blimp crash, pictures, Guide to Hobo / ’30s slang
2 years ago – slow email, drunken sailor song, testing remote palm broadcast, running away, nice letter of thanks
3 years ago – creaky knee, infrared zoo (Graypumpkin’s first visit?), remote cpu destruction of file-sharers, tiny robots, ghetto fries
4 years ago – tiling my old place, chocolate doughnuts, happy pill, instinct of awareness, how to make a smoke bomb
5 years ago – Evil News, blimpies heroin story, poop-poll
6 years ago – nuffin
Payday, and almost the weekend. I’m looking forward to a day where I can sleep in, and just unwind a bit.
WHAT: 21st annual Mango Festival
WHEN: Friday 6/16 – Sunday 6/18
WHERE: Deerfield Beach [Broward]
WALLET: see Web site for ticket prices
WEB:
– {City of Deerfield Beach – Mango Festival page}
– {TheMangoFestival.com}
“South Florida’s largest multicultural festival, Mango Festival is a celebration of Black Music Month and mangos! Join us for a weekend fullof exciting entertainment, over 100 vendors of unique arts & crafts and wonderful international foods…. Two stages will feature continuous live entertainment.”
–City of Deerfield Beach
Phoenix on Wednesday was named the sweatiest city in the United States, but Miami topped the list as the most uncomfortable American city due to its mix of humidity and heat. Continue reading 8408 – Thoisday
Two parter Dr. Who Episode “Satan Pit” didn’t do much for me. It started off ok, and then sort of unraveled, until it got a quickie star trek last minute baloney ending.
Dang… is it only Wednesday? C’mon. I want to sleep in.
Moment of Lyric is from here. Good stuff. I needed some percussion to make me move. (mp3s at bottom of the entry)
Went through my AIM and snuffed out a lot of old contacts who I never see online anymore… I guess if they want to talk to me, they’ll say hi. (That said, I kept a bunch, too, even though I don’t usually appear online.)
I can hear the “magic ringtone” though I’m well past my teen years. ringtone mp3
Every time I start feeling low, I realize how much I’ve got going for me. I’m so far ahead of 99.9% of the planet, as far as comfort goes… I’ve got a home, climate control, health, Newt, the ‘net, folks I can chitty chat with, LJ, etc. Not a bad world to live in.
1 year ago – 32 questions, dead fridge, cartoons, schedules, journal liability guide,
2 years ago – OTR, Black Eye guy, showers good, legion, corps more wealthy thangov’ts, DPD, purple turtle post-its, how to make, I get groovy sandals
3 years ago – Coco’s, “If I were” meme, Danny and I get together, Bro goes to ER over hand, playstation supercomputer.
4 years ago – Newtie love, Masai Cow donation
5 years ago – lovely chats full of (LODD , evil news, eye patches, little red munkee
6 years ago – Ben Franklin, Fight Club DVD cap
Thanks in no small part to the monkey chow diaries, I think I’ve got a good idea on making an effort to eat better, and to help make the world a better place.
My current solution – I’m going to pay matching funds to a foundation for anytime I eat non-grocery items (and I won’t be spending much more – cutting purchase of said items in half – so I’ll be spending abou tthe same amount). Anything from a vending machine or a restaurant, I’ll be earmarking an equal amount of cash for a charity for feeding (or better, teaching to self-feed) someone else who is hungry.
Here is a list of 263 charities that provide food. Though, I might prefer to support organizations that catalyze sustainable changes, like Engineers Without Borders. (The old feed a man a fish versus teach him to fish thing).
If anyone can recommend a good, reputable charity (where money goes to the cause, not executive payroll) that teaches recovery of land / self-sustainable health to people, please let me know.
I’m going to turn my homepage’s yahoo ads and the paypal charity tip jar to focus on that aspect of helping others, at least until the First of July (I may extend it past that point, too, if I don’t come up with another idea that at least as useful) so, if anyone visiting Newtcam or any other page that has a yahoo ad clicks on it, they can help without spending anything.
Other Projects are Hurricane recovery, Race for Life Cancer Research, and Wigs for Kids – Not to mention the following clickable helpers:
A few sites for positive change – None of them cost a penny but can help to do good works.
The hunger site – free food to the hungry
Breast cancer site – Help to fund free mammograms
Child Health site – Help save young lives for free
Rainforest Site – help to preserve our rainforests
Animal rescue site – Feed an animal in need.
It frequently seems that people want what they cannot have. That’s not a problem, until it turns out that the *only* reason they want it is because they can’t have it. Very silly, especially when they don’t want it anymore once they have it.
Well, Duh, I say to myself. Just be glad that isn’t one of my failings… I’ve got enough on my own.
I stayed home from work yesterday… but Dan came by to visit after 5pm – we checked out Lord of the Rings Online.. signed up for the Beta. Helped Danny figure out what sort of machine he’d need to play it, graphics-wise and such. No movie or Japanese foodies.
After sniffing out gaming tech online, we played pirates (see icon) – each of us won a game, and both were very close. I had superior firepower, he had speed on his side. Ramming and boarding were actually to my benefit for the first time ever playing the game.
I gave him a Rubyred Labs T-shirt as a victory gift from my valleyschwag pack. (I kept the stickers and perplexCity cards) Newt got along with Danny quite well, save for when Dan drew first blood in the pirates game… he exclaimed “BLAM!” quite loudly, and Newt leapt up on the table and yelled at him, and took a swabby-paw swat at his face. I swear, Newt’s more of a watchdog than a scaredy-cat.
After playing, we decided to stretch our legs, and yawns came in a rapid collection of waves… hard to guess what caused it. I think I yawned about 25 times in rapid succession… to the point where I got a little light-headed. Danny followed suit shortly afterward, though he only yawned about four or five times.
We went upstairs to the snack bar, but Target had no coffee, so we hit *$ on the way back. He bought me a pirate booster, so now I have a corsair and an American Ship… plus a Corsair guy that can create temporary fog banks with smoke bombs– not a bad addition to my current fleet of British, Spanish and pirate folks.
Dan’s shirt had a mermaid on it, but is no relation to the Feegee Mermaid. Yucka! – His shirt was more of one of these.(far more cute than feegee)
Going to grab a bite and visit with Tina today after work… should be a jim-dandy time. Perhaps we’ll swing by Dicey Rileys, too. I suspect Eddie Izzard is out, but I’m sure we can keep a steady stream of enjoyable banter going. I’m not used to having things happening outside of the HQ on “school nights”. It’s a refreshing change of venue.
Moment of Lyric – mp3
When your world is full of strange arrangements
And gravity won’t pull you through
You know you’re missing out on something
Well that something depends on you
All I’m saying, it takes a lot to love you
All I’m doing, you know its true
All I mean now, theres one thing
Yes one thing that turns this gray sky to blue
Thats the look, thats the look
The look of love
When your girl has left you out on the pavement (goodbye)
Then your dreams fall apart at the seams
Your reason for livings your reason for leaving
Don’t ask me what it means
Who’s got the look? I don’t know the answer to that question
Where’s the look? if I knew I would tell you
What’s the look? look for your information
Yes there’s one thing, the one thing that still holds true
(whats that? )
Thats the look, thats the look
The look of love
If you judge a book by the cover,
Then you’d judge the look by the lover
I hope you’ll soon recover,
Me I go from one extreme to another
And though my friends just might ask me
They say Martin maybe one day you’ll find true love
I say maybe, there must be a solution
To the one thing, the one thing, we can’t find
Thats the look, thats the look
Sisters and brothers
Should help each other
Oh, oh, oh
Heavens above
Thats the look, thats the look, hip hip hooray, ay
Thats the look, thats the look, yippee ai yippee aiay
Thats the look, thats the look
Be lucky in love
Look of love
Imagine going to the grocery store only once every 6 months. Imagine paying less than a dollar per meal. Imagine never washing dishes,chopping vegetables or setting the table ever again. It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
But can a human subsist on a constant diet of pelletized, nutritionally complete food like puppies and monkeys do? For the good of human kind,I’m about to find out. On June 3, 2006, I began my week of eating nothing but monkey chow: “a complete and balanced diet for the nutrition of primates, including the great apes.”
Hmm.. note the chow info page mentions *NON HUMAN PRIMATES*
Ingredients
Ground corn, Soybean meal, Cracked wheat, Sucrose,Wheat germ meal, Animal fat (preserved with BHA, propyl gallate and citric acid), Dried whole egg, Dicalcium phosphate, Calcium carbonate, Iodized salt,Vegetable oil, Choline chloride, Stabilized ascorbic acid (source of Vitamin C), Ethoxyquin (a preservative), Ferrous sulfate, Zinc oxide, Copper chloride, Manganous oxide, Cobalt carbonate, Calcium iodate, Sodium selenite,Vitamin A supplement,Vitamin D3 supplement,Vitamin E supplement, Thiamine (Vitamin B1), Niacin, Calcium pantothenate, Pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic acid, Biotin,Vitamin B12 supplement.
1 lb of chow per 35 lbs of monkey? Man… that’s a lot of food!
Ugly day at work yesterday, punctuated by warm flashes of light and comfort from points outside. Those flashes resolved into a soft, soothing ambient light after I got home, and spent time with those I truly care for. Sooth from beings four-footed and two. One work call came in, but aside from that, the night was calm and most reasonable.
Moment of Lyric – mp3
Was supposed to get together with Kev after work, but it didn’t work out. Tonight it is! Taking care of some old business and hanging out before he heads for Guantanamo Bay.
I am very happy with an email I just got… maybe some *very* nice vacation plans for Labor day in the cards! (September Holiday)
New monkey species is more unique than thought Continue reading 8350 –
The Sarah Jane episode of Dr. Who didn’t disappoint, and it was delightful to see both her and K9 again. I do think that if the Doctor had been a little less “devil may care”, a lot fewer innocents would’ve been killed.
In other TV news, I was enjoying Charmed, until they added the blond “cousin oliver”. See also the addition of the kid on Gilmore Girls. They’re just counting down to the end.
Right on. Happy Little Trees! “We don’t make mistakes, we just have happy accidents.” I love that guy.
Is it true that 1 human being out of 5 is a Chinese farmer? There are a lot of 20% breakdowns on google.
A few –
To the best of my knowledge, I don’t fall into any of those groups.
I’d say I know folks that fall into group #1, #2, #4 (but not from Nairobi), #5, #6, #8, #9 (in Seoul), #11, #13 (I think GP falls into that group… I’ll be 61), #14, #15, #16, #17
It’s really hard to find a house painted green in my neighborhood. I have yellow, many shades of blue, pink, white, and gray… but no green. Also, I’ve found no stray kitties in my walkabout… Seester Kelliebellie gave me a challenge! I like it, but it may take me longer than I had anticipated.
I had a little tummy-ache this weekend…feeling a bit better now.
Everybody’s got something to hide except me and my monkey.
– John Lennon
I like monkeys – mp3
I was walking through town one day and I noticed that the pet store was selling monkeys for five cents apiece. I thought that was odd since they were normally a couple thousand dollars or something, but I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I bought 200. You know why? I like monkeys.
Rough day yesterday. I knew in my gut it would be… I was tempted to take a mental health day.
Meeting this morning, but it’s set to be over after an hour, so it shouldn’t be too grueling, despite my concern about the content – I hope folks can keep professional and clear.
Socialists: Give apes human rights
The Spanish Socialist Party will introduce a bill in the Congress of Deputies calling for “the immediate inclusion of (simians) in the category of persons, and that they be given the moral and legal protection that currently are only enjoyed by human beings.” The PSOE’s justification is that humans share 98.4% of our genes with chimpanzees, 97.7% with gorillas, and 96.4% with orangutans.
The party will announce its Great Ape Project at a press conference tomorrow. An organization with the same name is seeking a UN declaration on simian rights which would defend ape interests “the same as those of minors and the mentally handicapped of our species.”
According to the Project, “Today only members of the species Homo sapiens are considered part of the community of equals. The chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orangutan are our species’s closest relatives. They possess sufficient mental faculties and emotional life to justify their inclusion in the community of equals.”
1 year ago – droopy dan, mlm scam, petroglyphs, wifi via airship, science fiction, local graffiti pics, newt on kittenbreak and kittenwar
2 years ago – Team Laser Explosion Secret Fan club, Eels, ADP sassmouth, php nuke is el-sucko
3 years ago – Travel plans, work, finn’s karma, Saw Murray
4 years ago – May Day Coming, Snuggles Newt, Super power, Chupa Blabs
5 years ago – web poll, dj poll, bit o’ fiction, My pet Skeleton, naughty news – lots of breasts, a bunghole, creed and a mime, mum.org letter for menstrualhut
Was dragging a bit yesterday, I practically fell asleep during apheresis. Workplace has been quite hectic, and some storm cloud vibes, as well. I’m hoping it’s just the fund raising aspect, but a lot of showing of tooth and claw recently. RS has the right idea about working from home. (I doubt she’ll ever come back to the office full time, after moving to the home-office idea.)
Mostly played with Newt and chitty-chatted last night… not a bad way to unwind after a long day. Quite nice, actually.
Leftover palm doodle that time forgot -(from Octoberish, post hurricane)
Set up wifi hot sync on my new pooter. works well. (thus the doodle)
1 year ago – hello tomorrow, Robots movie, found art pictures, alligator sounds /swamp witch, silly putty, pi day, IR webcam hack, free fonts, tally hall, ashes scattered, polar bears, open records, memory meme
2 years ago – subpages broken, Shazam!, Dead Like Me, CS sucks as a tech, vamp game
3 years ago – walkabout pics, lovieness, got unreal server hopping
4 years ago – thoughts of my sweetheart again! Roman tub, dreams of owning a pet grooming store, insurance woes, and palm doodles
5 years ago – Happy b’day kundalinidreams (no longer ljing), Dkmfkmkglklkgbkvbkbv,looking for a job as demagogue…(I’ll still take it, if anyone’swanting), happy unbirthday to me, uck!, edit this page (now dead), aprivate post to my sweetheart alone, a timeline of Scotto history,veggie lo mein, muppet trivia, and Rolf singing you and I and George
Bangs! Thank you, Eryx_uk, for the Axis and Allies Starter set! What a great b’day prezzie! It looked like the postman was playing football with the USPS box, but the contents inside made it without a hitch! Most awesome. I bet Danny’ll have a good time playing counter to me, as well. It’ll have a place of honor next to Zombies!!, Mage Knight and Heroclix.
New brain came! Everything looks pretty marvy, except that they forgot to send the external 160 gig drive. Calling them today to find out about that. Frankenbox can go back to rest… but I may leave him alive to act as a newtcam server.
Second life was smooth as silk, and not a reboot in sight, save for system updates.
Having a fresh system is nice… boots up super-quick,and loads of room to maneuver.
Comp usa is also still lagging about getting the backup of my system back to me. I may just torrent the lost / rome, etc shows over again.
Cordless keyboard and mouse are keen, but I fear power outage when I least expect it.
Sunburn, part two has begun. Operation snakeskin.
Man faces jail time for selling crack
A City of Poughkeepsie man faces a stint in jail for dealing crack in the city last year.
Landocalrissan Butler, 25, of Winnikee Avenue, entered a guilty plea Tuesday in Dutchess County Court to attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance, a felony. Butler told Judge Thomas J. Dolan he had five small bags of crack in his pocket Dec. 22 when police arrested him on Morgan Avenue. He said he intended to sell the drugs.
In exchange for his plea, Butler was promised a sentence of six months in jail and five years on probation. He will also be required to forfeit a cell phone and $432 police said he obtained through illegal drug sales.
Butler remains jailed pending his sentencing, scheduled for April 4.
Moment of Lyric (mp3)
