Jack’s Old & Busted Blog

(hifalutin.net): “A Southern perspective (plus one Yankee) on the collision of technology and pop culture.”

Keith: “Ya know, Mick, Ah’ve bean fashion-ated by the ‘ole origins o’ the uny-verse.”
Mick: “It’s a gas, gas, gas.”

(CBC): The name of the album due Sept. 6 reflects “their fascination with the scientific theory about the origin of the universe,” the band’s website said.

John, Yoko . . . Chuck!

(WFMU blog): But what makes watching the video of this performance so wonderful, and what has led me to watch it over and over again, is Yoko. During some random boogie moments Yoko grabs a nearby microphone and lets loose with some spirited Yoko-style caterwauling.

This has probably been around a while, but it’s still funny. I might add, “Don’t threaten an adversary with a military budget bigger than your GDP.”

(yale.edu): Being an Evil Overlord seems to be a good career choice. It pays well, there are all sorts of perks and you can set your own hours. However every Evil Overlord I’ve read about in books or seen in movies invariably gets overthrown and destroyed in the end. I’ve noticed that no matter whether they are barbarian lords, deranged wizards, mad scientists or alien invaders, they always seem to make the same basic mistakes every single time.

I guess this is how you know when your brand is successful (Logogle.com).

Lots of BMWs on this 11k in 11 days endurance rally (ironbutt.org).

I’ve been enjoying reading the Ian Fleming Bond novels in sequence. This little snippet of vintage sexism from Thunderball struck me as boorish, but insightful:

Women are often meticulous and safe drivers, but they are very seldom first-class. In general Bond regarded them as a mild hazard and he always gave them plenty of road and was ready for the unpredictable. Four women in a car he regarded as the highest potential danger, and two women nearly as lethal. Women together cannot keep silent in a car, and when women talk they have to look into each opther’s faces. An exchange of words is not enough. They have to see the other person’s expression, perhaps in order to read behind the other’s words or to analyse the reaction to their own. So two women in the front seat of a car constantly distract each other’s attention from the road ahead and four women are more than doubly dangerous, for the driver not only has to hear, and see, what her companion is saying, but also, for women are like that, what the other two behind are talking about.

I should point out that, as the shorter-legged member of the family, I usually ride in the back seat, so I have witnessed this first hand.