The Forgotten Bond on Twitter

It's strange that after the Harry Lime floodgates opened: anti-heroes galore, but we had to wait till Al Swearengen for the anti-villain.Sun May 30 11:50:28 via Seesmicname
georgelazenby

Drunk Hulk is Brilliant

POUR SOME SUGAR ON DRUNK HULK! CAN NO GET ENOUGH! DRUNK HULK HOT! STICKY! SWEET! FROM HEAD TO FOOT! YEAH!Sat May 29 18:53:34 via webDRUNK HULK
DRUNKHULK

Dashiell Hammett b. May 27, 1894

Dashiell Hammett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An Early #FF for Patton Oswalt

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. #StripperAcademyFinalExamSongsWed May 26 04:45:47 via webPatton Oswalt
pattonoswalt

Liveblogging Test w/ Wave

Infrastructure May Not Be Sexy ...

"If you want to see examples of virtually every demographic challenge facing the United States," writes Scott Huler on page 1 of On the Grid, "come to Raleigh." Regular Independent Weekly readers will recognize immediately the ways in which Raleigh's rapid growth in recent decades has begun to strain its infrastructure:

"All those people leaving the Northeast and Midwest for the Sun Belt? They're landing right here in Raleigh. All those miles of roads being built to forestall traffic jams? Raleigh is building them. Those strip shopping centers filled with big box retailers that function for a decade or so and then wither and die, replaced five miles further out with the same center, only newer? That's Raleigh. New development going up without a clear sense of who's going to pay for the sewers, the roads, the schools—and whether there will be, say, enough water for the new folks to drink? Welcome to Raleigh."

Hits home.  Read more at Indyweek.com's Canavan-penned review of On the Grid.

Is This the Best Lost Explanation?

Lost Finale Recap: Case Closed brings in Bardo Theory, tying it to KSR for me, which makes me like it more.

The Personal Recollections of Samuel L. Clemens

Mark Twain's 100 Year-old Autobiography Features 'Vibrating Sex Toy':

"A section of the memoir will detail his little-known but scandalous relationship with Isabel Van Kleek Lyon, who became his secretary after the death of his wife Olivia in 1904. Twain was so close to Lyon that she once bought him an electric vibrating sex toy. But she was abruptly sacked in 1909, after the author claimed she had 'hypnotised' him into giving her power of attorney over his estate.
Their ill-fated relationship will be recounted in full in a 400-page addendum, which Twain wrote during the last year of his life."

I was not aware Clemens had left 5,000 pages of memoirs with instructions not to publish until 100 years after his death.  I think the appropriate scholarly response based on the quote above may be the Spock eyebrow.

Damian Aspinall's Extraordinary Gorilla Encounter on Gorilla School

These BlackBird Embeds Can Be Thought Of As My #FFs

Texas history textbooks of the future: the ocean attacked the oil rig.Sat May 22 23:48:44 via webThe Rude Pundit
rudepundit

FF X-Posting: Wherein I Argue (In Comments) 13 Is Too Young And Alienate My Nepalese Fanbase

Comments on this post were shut off before I could return from watching Doctor Who and press for an answer on when the poster thinks a child is old enough to decide to risk their own life for a dubious distinction.  We agree 5 is too young but he copped out of answering whether 10, 11, or 12 would be acceptable.  I think 13 is too young and there is probably some crap parenting going on in with this mountain climbing kid.  He's 13 and has already climbed several of the highest mountains in the world?  So at what age did this precocious mountaineer strike out on his own?  Or, at what age did his glory-hound-attention-seeking-too-rich-for-their-own-good-(there-I-said-it) parents start tossing him up mountains to encourage him to achieve his dreams?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deaths_on_eight-thousanders

Even "minor" injuries are not infrequent on Everest.  Would you let your 13 year-old make the decision to take this kind of chance?

For crying out loud, risk of Yeti attack was never even raised in this discussion. Throwing that in to give myself and excuse to apply a yeti tag to this post.

Testing BlackBird Bookmark (AKA RT Is Too Easy)

My English town name would be Bumwipey on Blackpool.Sat May 22 00:12:18 via EchofonAlec Sulkin
thesulk

"A Family Can't Live On These Fast Food Wages"

McKinnon carries the video.  He's got a bit of Christopher (The Ninth) Eccleston about him and I like it.  Dig the song, musically & lyrically.

Deranged Rogue and Lone Wolf

Sarah Palin headlining NRA meeting in Charlotte :: WRAL.com:

"CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sarah Palin is headlining a group of conservative leaders who will speak in North Carolina as part of the National Rifle Association's annual meeting.

The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican candidate for vice president is scheduled to speak Friday afternoon in Charlotte.

That session will also include actor Chuck Norris, U.S. Rep. Mike Pence and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour."

The news here, of course, is that former action star and walking internet meme Chuck Norris will be joined by notorious quitter and soon-to-be reality TV host Sarah Palin at the F*ck Yeah Guns! event in nearby Charlotte. As a reminder, these are the people on Burr's side. We've got an election coming up and a chance to replace Burr with a Democrat this fall. I hope this event enforces the mental association of Burr with Palin and the Tea Bag crowd out in Charlotte.

In related news, the sense I'm getting is Elaine Marshall will edge out Cunningham to be the Democratic candidate against Burr.

Is This It? (Triptych Cryptic Import)

Appears to be. I feel like after ten-and-a-smidgin years there should be some kind of rave-up blowout farewell tour instead of this sort of staggering marathon runner crashing in a twitchy, sweating heap at the finish line ending.  But here it is.  Blogger's shutting off FTP, we're all kind of busy all over the place, and it's finally time to shut it down.

I'm not sure when the whole thing will go away; it's possible this will just linger here for a while until our ownership of the domain name expires.  I don't even know how to redirect yet, so I'll plug my solo blog one last time: Cryptonaut-in-Exile (cdogzilla.blogspot.com).  There, in addition to the occasional blog post, you'll also find widgets for my friendfeed, gReader, and twitter accounts. I'm cdogzilla wherever I am, so look me up. I'm social like that.

Thanks to everyone who's participated in one way or another along the way: my dear friends who've posted at one time or another here; commenters, when we had commenting;  to A1pha over at YOY who graciously let us squat on his server; all the blogs that provided inspiration -- Ghost in the Machine, to my mind, first and foremost; and, of course, to the missus for putting up with me slouching at the computer over the years broadcasting my geekery/atheism/politcal ranting to a largely indifferent cyberverse when I probably ought to have been doing more of the housework or something.