2010

You are currently browsing the yearly archive for 2010.

Afflictor: Bringing great joy to clowns since 2009. (Image by steenslag.)

Let's play Turnip Strength Tester! (Image by A Dangerous Business.)

When I was a child, I once got to go to a basement-level arcade game parlor at the McGraw-Hill Building (though I always wrongly remember it at the General Motors Plaza). There was a cute long-running slide-show called The New York Experience playing upstairs and an essentially deserted arcade downstairs. It was full of insane ganes from days gone by (many of them made of wood) that I have never seen again. I have no idea what happened to it.

The folks at A Dangerous Business blog went much further afield to have a similar experience when they headed to a small technical university outside of Moscow to visit the fun and dingy Museum of Soviet Arcade Games. Games that have “turnip” in their name just aren’t as popular since the Soviet Empire’s demise. (Thanks to boing boing for pointing me toward the post.) The following is an excerpt from the piece about the trip:

Alexander Stakhanov, the guy who met us at the door and one of the four people that started this museum, gave us a quick rundown about which machines work and which don’t, how to put coins in (some are finnicky) and the general lay of the land. We actually understood most of it, though he was speaking rapidly and entirely in Russian. It wasn’t until after he was done and I said to Anjel ‘maybe we can leave our coats here’ that he realized that we were American.

He apologized for being able to speak so little English and we apologized for not being able to speak any Russian. He ran through a few of the key points again, handed us each a small plastic cup of 15-Kopek coins and excused himself to duck into the other room. At this point it was just a little after 7:30 and we were the only ones there. I took as many photos as I could before I just had to put down the camera and start playing.

This was one of the first games we tried. It’s called ‘Репка Силомер’ (Repka Silomer) or ‘Turnip Strength Tester.’ Later that night, we showed the photos to our homestay host, hoping for some sort of explanation. She had never played the game but told us that the concept was based on an old Russian children’s story.”

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The Time Machine goes all the way back to 1860.

Justin Johnson and some friends created the incredibly useful YouTube Time Machine, which allows you to sort through tons of YouTube videos, enabling you to see events specifically from 1913 or 1947 or 2008. The great idea was hatched in a Brooklyn bar named the Alligator Lounge and sketched out on the back of a napkin. Below is the first video that came up when I searched under “1902.” (Thanks to kottke.org.)

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Baron today resides in Malibu and is a painter.

From working as an abstract expressionist painter to directing episodes of Charlie’s Angels, Allen Baron has done pretty much everything you can do in the world of visual arts. But what he did best of all was to write, direct and star in the classic 1961 noir, Blast of Silence. The drama smartly uses bold yet low-budget symbolism as it follows a veteran mob assassin who may be doomed by a crisis of conscience.

An orphan and a loner, Cleveland hitman “Baby Boy” Frank Bono (Baron) has survived into middle age by making sure other people didn’t get the same opportunity. He’s been paid to come to New York to use a mid-level mobster for target practice, just the latest body he’ll add to his count. Against the backdrop of marvelous street scenes in Harlem and Greenwich Village, Bono pursues his quarry with steely determination until a chance encounter with a childhood friend makes “Baby Boy” rethink his grown-up existence–and perhaps imperils his life.

The movie has a nearly omnipresent hard-boiled narration (performed by Lionel Stander and penned by blacklisted writer Waldo Salt) that judges, evaluates and almost mocks Bono each crooked step of the way. But the scenes that are most memorable are the ones that occur in between the narration. Especially golden are the passages in which Bono squares off with a corpulent gun dealer (Larry Tucker), who lives in a dump with cages of pet rats. They’re a pair of predators looking to turn each other into prey. When the men tussle and overturned cages allow the rats to scurry free, it’s hard to tell the actual vermin from the human kind. (Available from Netflix and other outlets.)

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I don’t know how to describe this video by Chicago-based sculptor Joseph Siegenthaler, except to say that it’s mesmerizing and incredibly human despite its oddness–or perhaps because of it. (Thanks to Boing Boing.)

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Snooki: Judge threw the book at her. She didn't read it. (Image by Amy Nicole Waltney.)

That fucking idiot Snooki received a surprisingly harsh sentence today in her disorderly conduct case when the Judge ordered that she be executed by drowning on the beach at Seaside Heights on Christmas Day. It’s going to be really freezing when she sinks into the ocean and the life drains from her body.

The moron has no idea what the sentence means. When she heard the verdict, she was piss drunk and had just hit her head on the ceiling of a tanning bed. She thinks it may have something to do with drowning as many cocktails as she can. The one positive is that she probably won’t even know what is happening as the executioner leads her into the water in front of a large crowd of gawking slobs.

Local Seaside Heights merchants are thrilled about the forthcoming holy day execution because they thought Labor Day would be the last time this year they’d profit from the disgusting behavior displayed on Jersey Shore. Originally, they were angered that their town was depicted in such a disgraceful way, but once everyone starting making money, the moral outrage quickly subsided.

Executioner's hood is no protection from Bon Jovi music. (Image by Piotrus.)

But no one is more thrilled about the drowning than MTV and its parent company Viacom. They’re going to broadcast the killing live and think they can sell ads at several times the usual price–maybe even at Super Bowl rates! A colorful assortment of derelicts will be on hand to drink gasoline during the pre-game show. And Bon Jovi is going to perform at halftime. They’ll do that song they do about the working-class couple with the dreams.

After Snooki sinks and dies, a crane is going to lift her bloated corpse from the water so that her body can be stuffed by a taxidermist. If you want to have a look at the stuffed Snooki, it’s going to cost you a quarter. But having sex with her remains will run you fifty cents. In a heartwarming twist, Viacom has promised that part of the proceeds from the necrophilia will go toward rebuilding the town dump.

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Carrie Nation was apparently overjoyed by President McKinley’s assassination, because he was rumored to be a secret drinker.

Carrie Amelia Moore, a Topeka, Kansas, native who became famous as “Carrie Nation” in pre-Prohibition America, was a very large woman with an even larger distaste for alcohol. Nation didn’t just preach about the evils of drink–she used her hatchet just as readily as her mouth. At six feet and and one-hundred-eighty pounds, Nation cut a wide swath when she stormed into bars and, hatchet in hand, hacked the wood and glass until the police–sometimes seated at the bar–intervened. In its September 10, 1901 issue, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle recalls one of Nation’s mad temperance missions, this one in Coney Island. It was one of the dozens of times before she passed away in 1911 that Nation was arrested for her “hatchetations.” An excerpt:

“Carrie Nation has packed her hatchets and handbags and linen dusters and has left Coney Island behind her. A trolley car bore her to a busier part of the greater city yesterday afternoon, and as one of the old time songs relates, she will never go there any more. Her last hours at the beach were passed in the Coney Island court, where she was arraigned before Magistrate Furlong on a charge of disorderly conduct. Policeman George Ryder described how the Topeka smasher had done things to a show case owned by Jacob Wollenstein at an amusement place on the Bowery. Ryder said she made things hum for a while and then Carrie’s turn came to tell her story. She ignored the charge and discussed the question of the sobriety of Policeman Ryder. She said all the cops were ‘snakes and vipers and were drunkards.’

Magistrate Furlong said nice things to Carrie, explaining how dangerous it was to attempt to run Coney Island and then suspended sentence. Van Driver Connolly expected to take the smasher to jail, but he was disappointed.”

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Detroit boomed in the 1920s, as the Industrial Revolution and auto production soared.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Pittsburgh didn’t shrink in one. Decreasing the scale of a large, struggling city is as challenging, maybe even moreso, than growing one, and a city like Pittsburgh, which once had a thriving working-class economy based on steel, had to get smaller and savvier to survive over the last three decades.

Because of the housing collapse and other factors, quite a number of American cities–many in Michigan and Ohio–will likely need to reimagine themselves on a smaller scale now and in the future. Drake Bennett at Boston.com has an excellent article called “How to Shrink a City,” which looks at this phenomenon. An excerpt:

“Now a few planners and politicians are starting to try something new: embracing shrinking. Frankly admitting that these cities are not going to return to their former population size anytime soon, planners and activists and officials are starting to talk about what it might mean to shrink well. After decades of worrying about smart growth, they’re starting to think about smart shrinking, about how to create cities that are healthier because they are smaller. Losing size, in this line of thought, isn’t just a byproduct of economic malaise, but a strategy.

The resulting cities may need to look and feel very different–different, perhaps, from the common understanding of what a modern American city is. Rather than trying to lure back residents or entice businesses to build on vacant lots, cities may be better off finding totally new uses for land: large-scale urban farms, or wind turbines or geothermal wells, or letting large patches revert to nature. Instead of merely tolerating the artist communities that often spring up in marginal neighborhoods, cities might actively encourage them to colonize and reshape whole swaths of the urban landscape. Or they might consider selling off portions to private companies to manage.”

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These are the brand of raisins I prefer should you go to the market. (Image by Carlosar.)

Before getting to our featured country, let me first thank the fine people of Lebanon, Poland, Latvia and Spain, who have been frequent visitors to the idiotic site known as Afflictor in September. You are the wind beneath my fucking wings!

A special thanks goes out to all the people in Venezuela who have visited Afflictor so far this month. It’s been nice to have you with us. Best known as a country where kidnapping at gunpoint is the main form of aerobic exercise, Venezuela likely has such a high rate of violent crime because it is the domain of an insecure, controlling, thuggish sack of crap known as Hugo Chavez. He applies the country’s Constitution very selectively to gain revenge on those who disagree with him. Some genius Americans like Oliver Stone and Sean Penn  support Chavez for the type of behavior that would outrage them coming from their own President. They are irresponsible d-bags.

Venezuelans apparently need to rely on Afflictor for opinion, since having a free opinion there is so dangerous. We’re glad to be of service. A warm Afflictor welcome to you, the fine people of Venezuela!

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Yes, she is the granddaughter of director Elia Kazan.

A slack yet lovely film, Bradley Rust Gray’s minimalist movie follows a college student named Ivy (Zoe Kazan) as she arrives at her mother’s Brooklyn home for spring break. The work is slyly titled, referring to the epileptic Ivy’s ever-present threat of convulsions, but it’s also an ironic label for a young woman so given to a pensive stillness.

Very little action occurs in The Exploding Girl: Ivy visits her doctor, teaches a dance class for grade schoolers and half-heartedly goes to parties. Her boyfriend from college can’t join her at the last minute, and their halting phone conversations and missed connections don’t bode well for the relationship. Ivy’s timid childhood friend Al (Mark Rendall) is without a place to stay over the break, so he sleeps on her couch, and the two slowly fumble closer together.

Gray’s muted romantic drama has more in common with the alienated hush of a lot of contemporary Asian cinema than it does with tribal loquaciousness of Mumblecore. Kazan has received a good deal of credit for the film’s appeal, and rightly so: She fills nearly every frame with a contemplative center, makes every pause evocative. But director Gray’s contributions shouldn’t be undervalued. When a movie this slight, this tenuous ends up cohering, it isn’t by accident or providence. (Available via Netflix and other outlets.)

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Thanks to Dangerous Minds for pointing out this video of the mayhem that occurs in the interior of a cruise ship during a terrible storm. I could have done without the Rod Stewart accompaniement, but it’s still amazing footage.

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Fry me. (Image by Marcus Wong.)

I know you can deep fry anything, but I had never heard about deep-fried beer until this recent article in the Dallas News (thanks to Marginal Revolution for the tip). It is the brainchild of Mark Zable, who entered his concoction in the State Fair of Texas over the Labor Day weekend. Zable’s delicacy indeed won the Most Creative award, while the Best Taste award went to the Texas Fried Frito Pie.

Here’s how and why Zable fries suds:

“Fried Beer is a beer-filled pretzel-like dough pocket that’s shaped like ravioli. Take a bite and the beer pours out. But don’t cry over spilled suds. Simply use the dough to soak up the rest of the brewski.

‘Why drink your beer when you can eat it?’ creator Mark Zable said.

For three years, Zable has been on a mission to concoct Fried Beer. He remembers staring at a bar menu in a restaurant. Calamari. Nachos. Fried cheese. Bor-ing.

‘Someone needs to figure out a way to fry beer,’ he thought.

Zable started experimenting. But the beer-and-dough concoction kept exploding once it hit the fryer. He kept getting burned. So he consulted with a food scientist–still, no luck. Then, earlier this year, he finally found the recipe for success.”

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Don't do anything gross to me. (Image by Jack.)

Got a bunny suit we can borrow? (Union Square)

Hello folks. This may sound dirty and alarming, but we promise — totally kosher.

Here’s the deal: we need a rabbit suit — think Easter, mascot, Disneyland character. (A couple terrifying examples are below.)

You might be wondering why. What other reason could there be except–

The theatre!

A very funny, very nonprofit theatre company is putting on a show this week and we desperately need your help and your bunny suit.

We won’t do anything gross to it. We’ll return it in pristine condition, as clean and fluffy as we get it.

And we’ll be happy to share details and prove our legitimacy when you respond. (Please do — we’re in dire straits here!)

The nonprofit thing means we can’t compensate you with anything but gratitude and maybe a complimentary ticket to the show, so we’re counting on your generosity. And on you having some weird things in your closet.

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The New York Giants finished 2-8-2 that season.

This very bare-bones print ad appeared in the same 1947 Bronx high school newspaper that I posted from earlier. It was a special offer to students who wanted to see the New York Giants play pigskin. The game–as well as the Giants’ season–ended up a disappointment, with the New York squad being shut out 14-0. But the price was right. The ad copy in full:

“FOOTBALL

Polo Grounds
Sunday
October 19 2:05pm

New York Football Giants

vs.

Boston Yanks

School students will be admitted for 50 cents at special entrance. 159th Street and 8th Avenue only.”

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Inscribed by Stern: "Yo--let's do lunch. Howeird."

I haven’t heard a word of Howard Stern’s show since he moved to satellite radio nearly five years ago, but I was pleased to briefly get my hands on an autographed copy of his 1982 record, 50 Ways to Rank Your Mother, which Stern recorded for Wren Records during his pre-Booey Washington D.C. days, when he  was billed as “Howeird” and was very into playing “rank-outs” with listeners.

The radio host (not yet dubbed a “shock jock’) is pictured on the cover dressed in all black, wearing a dog collar and a brandishing a bullwhip. A middle-class mom, straight out of central casting, kneels and cowers before him. The visual is a play on the title song, which, of course, spoofs Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” The whole album is just as crass and tasteless, and despite being recorded before Stern really fully developed his act, it still has its moments.

Hairy Howard: muh-muh-mustache.

Howard did a record signing to get rid of the surplus LPs when he first moved to NYC, and he and Robin were among the inner circle of loons who were on hand to put ink on covers. Robin signed, “Love ya. You’re the best and you can tell your friends I said so.” Howard went with a simple, “Yo–let’s do lunch.” Howard offered a special thanks to “My first wife, Alison,” which was probably a lot funnier when he was still married to his first wife, Alison. Or maybe it’s funnier now. I don’t know. Here are the titles of the album cuts, which lay low everything from Neil Young to Leave It To Beaver:

Side 1

•50 Ways to Rank Your Mother
•Unclean Beaver, Part I
•I Shot Ron Reagan
•Barry Off-White’s Ode to Howit

Side 2

•Havana Hillbillies
•Unclean Beaver, Part II
•John’s Revenge
•Nail Young’s Cat
•Family Affarce
•Bruce Springstern

More Miscellaneous Media:

  • A Knight’s Hard Day. (1964)
  • The Lowbrow Reader remembers Ol’ Dirty Bastard. (2004)
  • LP record about the 1972 Oakland A’s.
  • Madison Square Garden professional wrestling program. (1981)
  • Spy magazine. (1989)
  • Artis Gilmore ABA basketball card. (1973-74)
  • San Francisco cable car ticket stub. (1990s)
  • Bronx high school newspaper. (1947)
  • Mad magazine. (1966)
  • Vancouver Blazers hockey guide. (1974-75)
  • John Hummer NBA card. (1973)
  • Carolina Cougars ABA Yearbook. (1970)
  • The Washington Senators MLB Yearbook. (1968)
  • Ugandan currency with Idi Amin’s picture. (1973)
  • Tom Van Arsdale basketball card. (1970)
  • “Okie from Muskogee” sheet music. (1969)
  • California Golden Seals hockey magazine. (1972)
  • Beatles Film Festival Magazine (1978)
  • ABA Pictorial (1968-69)
  • Tom Seaver’s Baseball Is My Life. (1973)
  • Hockey Digest (1973)
  • World’s Fair Guide (1964)
  • World’s Fair Guide (1939)
  • Buffalo Braves Yearbook (1972-73)
  • New York Nets Yearbook (1976-77)
  • “Tom Dooley” sheet music.
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    The 1970 Western El Topo is probably Alejandro Jodorowsky’s best-known film, the familiar genre lending it an accessibility despite its whacked-out story and psychedelic imagery. But that movie’s follow-up, Holy Mountain, even more twisted and surreal, is easily the Chilean director’s best work. A savage and wantonly sacrilegious indictment of organized religion (among other things), Jodorowsky provides an almost nonstop series of insane visuals, contorting and distorting nearly every iconic religious image with his cracked fun-house mirror.

    In a disgusting parallel to the Christ story, a thin, bearded figure known as the Thief (Horácio Salinas) is reincarnated after lying covered in flies and his own urine. Almost immediately a band of profiteers gets him soused, pours plaster on him and makes replicas of his form to sell to the masses. The Thief falls under the sway of the Alchemist (Jodorowsky), who impresses the reborn man by converting his feces into gold. The Alchemist then enlists the Thief in some sort of fuzzy plan to attain power and immortality. What happens as the film unfolds is so unique, so odd and so otherworldly it’s hard to describe. But there are naked blond twins who get their heads shaved bald, a frog-centric reenactment of Spain conquering Mexico and the so-called savior eating a replica of his own head that’s made of bread. And that doesn’t even begin to explain the parade of oddness. That it doesn’t all make sense hardly matters.

    Jodorowsky uses his every visual gift he possesses to not only skewer religion but also consumerism, government and, ultimately, the medium of film itself. Jodorowsky wanted to blow up all false, misleading images, cinematic ones as much as religious ones, and encourage people to focus on reality instead of fantasy. But when he’s just spent two hours blowing minds and popping eyes, such lectures seem like false prophecy.•

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    If you find our actor, don't eat him.

    You could keep pigs–or pretty much anything–in a theater basement in Brooklyn in 1902. Nobody cared what you did. I came across this small item about a pair of pig “actors” escaping from a theater in the January 15, 1902 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

    “In the play now being produced at the Park Theater, in Fulton street, by the Spooner Stock Company, two pigs are introduced in a pen during a first act. In the last act one of the pigs is carried on the stage by one of the actors. Between the performances the pigs are kept in the cellar of the theater. On Sunday night the pigs escaped from their pen and made a tour of exploration through the deserted play house. Last night, after the performance, the pigs were penned in the cellar as usual. Their pen adjoins the engine room. When the engineer was taking his ashes out last night the pigs escaped from the building and ran down Adams street to Willoughby street and as far as Gold street. The management of the Park Theater is anxious to learn the whereabouts of the pigs, desiring them for us in to-night’s performance of the play, ‘A Nutmeg Match.'”

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    Cigar the size of a trombone.

    Vintage Cigar Press – $75 (Croton on Hudson)

    Vintage wooden press / mold for cigars. Late 19th Century. Still has tobacco scent. Has Cincinnati printed in fading letters. Maybe that mean this was made by MILLER DUBRUL & PETERS MANUFACTURING COMPANY founded in 1870. Measures 13″ long x 4 3/4″ tall x 2 1/2″ wide.

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    A Canadian PSA in which a sous chef is horribly burned in a kitchen accident. Terrifying and needless.

     


    Afflictor: Exhausting pretty much the whole world since 2009. (Image by Frank Wouters.)

    An Israeli Defense Forces soldier is treated for injuries during the Gaza Flotilla Raid.

    Even though I occasionally make fun of the Huffington Post, they do some exceptional work. One example I just came across is a piece of eyewitness reportage from the Middle East that was written by a super-smart former colleague of mine named Kate Lowenstein. The piece, “The West Bank: A Firsthand Look,” is a really well-written account of the writer’s June trip to Ramallah in wake of the Gaza Flotilla Raid. You don’t have to agree with Lowenstein’s conclusions, but it’s hard not to be impressed by her unflinching account of what life in this border struggle looks like when we stop thinking of it in the abstract. An excerpt:

    “Day one: Day trip to Old Hebron
    According to the adolescent Palestinian boy who spent several minutes pedaling his wobbly bike alongside us as we walked, this cobblestoned, arched casbah contains 30,000 Palestinians, 500 Jewish settlers and 2,000 Israeli soldiers (I was able to confirm these approximations online, although the estimated number of settlers ranges from 400 to 800). That’s about a four-to-one ratio of soldiers to settlers, and, as my adult host explained, those soldiers are there exclusively to protect their Jewish charges from what they perceive as an Arab threat. This is especially important given that the Jewish settlers are methodically moving in on this Palestinian city, potentially making those Arabs pretty angry. The tension is palpable.

    While in most parts of the West Bank, settlers take up residence in areas near Palestinian neighborhoods, in Old Hebron they are actually taking property, sealing off roads and choking traffic from what were once bustling Palestinian shops–and getting away with it because they have a military to support them. If you walk on many of the increasingly deserted Palestinian streets (there are separate ones designated for Jews only–an offense that apartheid South Africa didn’t even dare commit), you’ll see a strange net overhead, stretched from one side of the street to the other. Dotting that net are pieces of garbage–cups, plastic bags, food scraps, filthy pieces of odds and ends. I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes: the settlers–who have moved into the second floors of Palestinian buildings–make a habit of throwing their trash down at their Arab neighbors.”

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    A message from the Editor.

    As we reach our 1,000th post, which is a slow morning for most bloggers, it’s time to look back at those items that resonated with you, the Afflictor readers. You can pretty much throw out the first 500 posts–they were god-awful and I’m embarrassed of them all. The next 250 entries showed slight improvement. And the most recent 250 posts were largely about monkeys using cocaine. These were spectacular. Here is a countdown of what the data tells us are the ten most popular posts in the history of the idiotic site known as Afflictor.

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    10. Lady Gaga Urinates On Home Plate At Yankee Stadium

    Lady Gaga: There was a line at the restroom. (Image by Daniel Åhs Karlsson.)

    Worried that someone somewhere in the world wasn’t paying attention only to her, Lady Gaga climbed down from the stands at Sunday’s Yankee game and urinated on home plate just before the start of the sixth inning. Taking off her clothes, grabbing her private parts and making obscene gestures in the luxury boxes for the game’s first two hours helped her make a spectacle of herself, but it wasn’t until she had downed a few large beers that Gaga was ready to unleash the piece de resistance. Imitating the squatting style of the late catcher Elston Howard, the New York-born singer gave the capacity crowd an amazing show.

    “Wow, she’s a great entertainer,” said Yankee fan Phil Vacco, 21, of Bay Ridge. “That’s why I live in New York. To see big stars behave like filthy hobos.”

    Yogi Berra: I'm sure glad I retired. Home plate smells like pee-pee.

    Lady Gaga has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past year, going from completely unknown to completely boring in record time. Now totally overexposed, she’s burned through Madonna’s whole tired act in a matter of months.

    “My fans are everything to me, and I would die for them,” Gaga said, pulling up her torn underwear after she was finished taking a leak.

    Then she headed to Monument Park where she set fire to a statue of Lou Gehrig and performed public sex acts with old timer Joe Pepitone.

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    9. Lindsay Thinks She’s In A Really Lousy Airport

    Lindsay: I'd like a window seat.

    Lindsay doesn’t know she’s in jail, so you probably shouldn’t mention it to her if you happen to wind up in the cell next to hers. She just thinks she’s in a very bad airport, like, the worst one she’s ever been in. Her lawyers didn’t want to bum her out, so they didn’t really tell her the whole truth and stuff. Maybe they should have.

    Lindsay thinks the plane must be very delayed. Perhaps there was a bad storm or something. And to make matters worse, this crappy airport has no magazine stand where she can buy an Us Weekly and a Red Bull. It’s odd that all the Passenger Service Agents have guns and handcuffs and the Ground Crew gives her strip searches, but in this age of terrorism, you can’t be too careful.

    The plane will be here soon, pumpkin. (Image by Glenn Francis.)

    Lindsay thinks it’s good of the airline to give her free food and a place to sleep while she waits for her plane, but the meals and accommodations are pretty subpar. She hopes the plane will get here soon because waiting around is such a drag. Lindsay isn’t sure where the plane she’s waiting for is going, but she hopes it’s someplace really cool. Maybe she’ll be making a movie there or hosting a party or something.

    Sometimes Lindsay wishes she could fly without an airplane. Then she wouldn’t have to wait around for anyone. She would just flap her arms and soar into the sky where everything is quiet and peaceful and blue. There would be birds to talk to and she could get close enough to the rainbows to touch them. And it would be just completely great and make her really happy if all the clouds she flew into were made of marshmallows and vanilla ice cream and crystal meth.

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    8. Exclusive: Snooki Running For Mayor Of Wasilla

    Campaign slogan: Wanna fuck? (Image by Amy Nicole Waltney.)

    Because every antisocial, opportunistic cretin contributing nothing to society feels compelled to run for Mayor of Wasilla, Snooki has just announced she’s throwing her snatch into the ring.

    Snooki has an unusual platform that has nothing to do with improving Wasilla’s primary school education or eldercare services. She plans to woo voters by giving a blowjob in public to a giraffe shipped in from the Alaska Zoo. It might sound strange, but there’s a method to her madness. Wasilla is a hardscrabble town that could use a great mayor to help it cope with the many social problems it’s facing, but short of that the locals need someone to make them feel better about themselves. Snooki blowing a giraffe will achieve that latter goal because it will enable the citizens of Wasilla to feel superior, since they won’t be the ones who’ll have giraffe semen in their mouths. Even though no one asked her to, Snooki has even volunteered to swallow the quadruped ejaculate. People are willing to give her handkerchiefs to spit into, but she won’t hear of it.

    For his part, Levi isn’t giving up without a battle. He’s agreed to finger the house pets (dogs, cats, ferrets, etc.) of any MILF who is willing to throw her vote his way. He has, however, asserted that he will not use his tongue on them. That could hurt him with swing voters, but no one will know for sure until Election Day. The one thing we do know for certain is the people who are considering creating a reality show that has Levi running a sham campaign for mayor of Wasilla are college graduates who should definitely know better. But they care nothing for the welfare of the people in the small Alaskan town.

    There'll also be assplay. (Image by Hans Hillewaert.)

    MTV and its parent company Viacom are being very supportive of Snooki’s mayoral aspirations, because they’re not multi-billion dollar corporations just using the Jersey Shore cast members to make large sums of money before discarding them like trash. People might think that’s what’s happening, but it’s totally not. For instance, if one of the Jersey Shore kids should contract HIV from one of the drunken hook-ups that MTV and its parent company Viacom enables and encourages, the network will no doubt be there for them.

    And MTV and and its parent company Viacom have a sense of responsibility that goes far beyond just the cast, extending to the millions of young viewers who may emulate the disgusting behavior displayed on the show. The program is popular with a very young demographic, and let’s face it, not all of those tweens and young teens who watch have great parental guidance. Should the show inspire some of them to behave promiscuously and get an STD, maybe even AIDS, the corporations will definitely intercede and help them emotionally and financially, especially if they need expensive hospice care. Anything less would be incredibly negligent.

    It’s not easy for executives at MTV and Viacom these days because they all keep having the same recurring nightmare. It goes something like this: After cashing their paychecks for Season 3, the Jersey Shore cast members realize they’re going to be replaced by cheaper dummies the following year anyhow, so they decide to not put their health at risk for what is actually a small amount of money. They all conspire to give up drinking and behaving like pigs and instead go to libraries and do charity work for people in need. MTV and Viacom execs all wake up in a panic just as the kids become good citizens.

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    7. NFL Rule Changes: Kidnappings Now Permissible

    NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell: I was just really tired of suspending everyone. (Image by Bradley Lail.)

    The NFL Rules Committee recently met and have made some changes to modernize America’s favorite sport and make it even more reprehensible. Commissioner Roger Goodell was tired of reprimanding everyone in football anyhow, so he decided to say fuck the rules to reduce the number of player suspensions and fan arrests. Dogfighting, gun and drug possession, beating up strippers, ticket holders behaving like boxcar hobos and players experiencing brain damage is just the beginning. Shit’s gonna get effed up, people!

    For one thing, kidnapping is now legal. If the other team has a player who’s really making it difficult for your team to win the game, your guys can get some guns and rope and kidnap that player from the opposing sidelines. Then they can have that player beg for mercy before the cameras to psyche out the other team. Fans will not only be able to bet money they don’t have on game outcomes but also on which players will emerge from their kidnappings alive.

    Players will no longer wear helmets. They’re getting brain damaged already anyhow, but it’s happening in a way that’s subtle, gradual and not entertaining. Now they’ll be a chance to literally see some of the damaged brains, should they ooze from a player’s gashed, bloody head. CT scans of the injured skulls will be taken as soon as players are carted off the field, and the head X-rays will be displayed on the scoreboard along with other stats.

    Who wants to pistol-whip the free safety? (Image by Belinda Hankins Miller.)

    Officials will be required to carry firearms, though they will only be able to use them to murder players at non-skill positions. If an official accidentally kills a quarterback or running back, he in turn will also be murdered. These executions will occur at mid-field via lethal injection, which will be administered by the referee the condemned official was least friendly with. Announcers will be encouraged to use profanities and talk trash about former announcers who have recently passed away. Those losers were weak and cowardly and their grieving families should know.

    Only fans have been able to get disgustingly drunk during games in the past, but players will now be permitted to drink booze and smoke weed on the sidelines. The liquor they drink will, however, have to be made by an NFL sponsor. It’s a great way to raise revenue through product placement. Cheerleaders are being replaced by prostitutes, who will provide players and coaches with blowjobs and quickies at halftime. Fans will likewise be permitted to have sex in the stands between halves, but they will have to bring their own prostitutes or purchase prostitutes from the concession stand. Fans who have grown too obese to perform sexually will be able to watch a porno on the Jumbotron so that they can remember what arousal felt like.

    The NFL will be much more interactive since fans will help determine when games are over. The 60-minute playing time will no longer be observed. Games will continue until 100 players and/or spectators have died from cardiac arrest or alcohol poisoning. The team with the most points at that juncture will win, and the deceased will be buried in a mass grave beneath the 30-yard line before carrion can have at them.

    Are you ready for some football?

    ____________

    6. Decoder: Larry King’s Interview With Lady Gaga

    Larry King: I should have retired when Jackie Gleason died.

    Larry King: We have a Tweeter question for Lady Gaga that was Twitted to us.

    Decoder: I think my pocket calculator just exploded.

    Lady Gaga: I am good friends with Deepak Chopra who I speak to a lot about my dreams. And he seems to think it’s nothing really to worry about. He tells me that I’m very creative and I should learn to embrace my insanity and not worry so much because I always call him and say, Deepak, I had this most horrible, morbid dream. What does it all mean? And he says you’re just very creative. Put it on stage.

    Decoder: Deepak Chopra is getting a new unlisted number.

    Lady Gaga: I probably should take a break and go on vacation. But I’d rather die on stage, not under a palm tree.

    Decoder: Talking to you, Larry, makes me fixate on death.

    Lady Gaga: I hope when I’m dead I’ll be considered an icon.

    Decoder: You are like a walking casket, Larry. You fill me with thoughts of mortality. I can see your breath when you speak.

    Lady Gaga: Ready to sit shiva for Larry. (Image by Danielåhskarlsson.)

    Larry King: Is there any boundary you won’t cross?

    Decoder: Would you, for instance, be open to being the fourteenth wife of a desiccated talk-show host?

    Lady Gaga: So much of what I do is hinged on show business. I believe so much in it–people ask me, what do you dress like when you’re alone? Do you ever just wear sweatpants or whatever they say. And I’m thinking that they–the concept of show business is lost. Michael Jackson, when he was being wheeled out of the ambulance when he was burned, he held his glitter glove up high above his head to was to his fans, because he was show business.

    Decoder: More than anyone else, Michael Jackson needed to throw on some sweatpants and not be a freak for five minutes. He’s a terrible role model for anyone in or out of show business.

    Lady Gaga: I’m very religious. I was raised Catholic. I believe in Jesus. I believe in God. I’m very spiritual. I pray very much.

    Decoder: I pray that you won’t touch me with your bony fingers, Larry.

    Larry King: Lady Gaga has a special relationship with her fans.

    Decoder: My fans, however, have all died from natural causes, as have their children.

    ________________

    5. Environmental Disaster Worsens in July As…Oh Wait, Snooki Just Crapped Her Pants

    Snooki: The turlet was all the way over there. (Image by Amy Nicole Waltney.)

    Something really bad was happening to the environment recently, but then Snooki crapped her pants. She’s the best! It happened either on a boardwalk or in a parking garage–there are conflicting reports. It wasn’t an accident if that’s what you’re thinking. Snooki can control her bowel movements; she just chose not to. Having been rewarded handsomely for sub-literate, antisocial behavior, she feels like she needs to constantly up the ante. And anyhow the bathroom was about 40 feet away, so why not just use her clothes as a toilet and do something to entertain her many fans.

    According to eyewitness accounts, Snooki had downed some booze and a veal parm a few hours earlier and felt she needed to evacuate her intestines, so that she could be light on her feet during a planned broken beer bottle fight with another woman. Despite her diminutive size, Snooki craps like a herd of alpacas. Her thong couldn’t catch the poop, and it oozed out onto the ground. The Smithsonian has called about it; they’d like to acquire the stool and permanently keep it floating in one of the museum’s toilets. It’s just like when they acquired Fonzie’s leather jacket if Fonzie’s leather jacket had been made of feces.

    Only losers use them. (Image by Downtowngal.)

    Everyone has been tweeting about Snooki dropping a deuce in her pants and fans are making a pilgrimage to the Jersey Shore to see it for themselves. The dung has been roped off to protect it from being stolen, but the masses can get close enough so that they can take photos in front of it.

    People who watch her TV show claim to like Snooki, but it’s unlikely they would ever want to trade places with her. It seems they just enjoy laughing at someone who makes them feel superior. But what kind of message does that send to children who might think they can thrive by acting like pigs rather than developing their minds. Democracy can’t survive without an informed citizenry and …oh wait, The Situation just pissed himself! There are conflicting reports, but it happened either on a bar stool or in a bowling alley. He’s the best!

    ___________________

    4. Shocking Ending On The Office Next Season: Michael Scott To Be Brutally Murdered

    Blood everywhere. (Image by Greg Hernandez.)

    It’s been reported elsewhere that the Michael Scott character is exiting from The Office at the end of next season, but we’ve learned exclusively that his departure will be as the result of a particularly brutal murder. The shocking crime is to occur at the hands of Meredith, Dunder-Mifflin’s troubled Supplier Relations representative, whose deeply rooted personal problems have long been a source of mirth.

    In the episode, Michael will be collecting his personal effects at approximately five in the afternoon, preparing to head home to his condo after another day at the Scranton branch when he is accosted by a knife-wielding Meredith, who is no longer able to cover up her pain with alcoholism and promiscuity. Having felt the sting once too often of Michael’s cruel taunts about her physical unattractiveness, Meredith lunges at him and can’t stop stabbing until her mania subsides minutes later. The warehouse guys have their hands full trying to clean up the mess.

    No man will harm me again. (Image by Angela George.)

    Although Pennsylvania maintains the death penalty, very few murderers are executed, so it’s possible Meredith will escape lethal injection. She had displayed the type of aberrant behavior in regards to alcohol and sex that people engage in to try to mollify acute suffering. This pattern of behavior most likely resulted from some trauma or abuse that occurred in childhood, and no one should have been making light of it.

    In a subplot, smirking prankster Jim decides to use the situation to irk thick-headed rival Dwight, placing Michael’s decapitated head on his desk and challenging his co-worker to defeat it in a staring contest. “Fact,” says Dwight, “If you put pennies on my eyes, I will simply blink and knock them off whereas a disembodied head will not be able to do so.” Dwight eventually takes the bait, but office tight-ass Angela becomes irritated with Jim, telling him that “it’s hard enough working here after the slaying and you keep making it harder.” That’s what she said.

    _______________

    3. New Show Coming Soon To ESPN: Lebron James Discusses His Pecker Variety Hour

    Lebron James: South Beach has much better pecker weather than Cleveland. (Image by Dave Hogg.)

    Coming off the ratings bonanza of Lebron James’ The Decision show, in which he revealed which NBA team he would play for next, ESPN has greenlighted the latest program idea from Camp Lebron, a show that has the newest member of the Miami Heat discussing his pecker. While James’ ego was somewhat satisfied by the non-stop attention from journalists and billionaire team owners and his ability to talk about his “talents” in front of millions of people, there was precious little time left for him to discuss his pecker. James is hoping the new show will remedy that oversight and help his pecker build a global brand.

    ESPN President George Bodenheimer quickly cleared the programming slate when he found out Lebron and his pecker were available, especially since King James agreed to donate proceeds from the ad sales of his program to charity. “Not only will this be groundbreaking programming,” Bodenheimer said from ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, “but just think of the good Greenpeace can do with all that pecker money.”

    Host Jim Gray will be on hand to ask Lebron tough questions about his pecker’s life on and off the court. The program will be immediately followed by Charles Barkley’s Vampire Disco Bullfight Execution Hour, in which the former forward will get effed up and just wing it.

    Charles Barkley: I decide which matadors get to live. (Image by Scott LaPierre.)

    _____________

    2. Exclusive: Huge Changes Ahead For American Idol

    Gen. Petraeus: You sing like Cher after she's been to a Taliban dentist.

    The news is everywhere that a shakeup has gone down behind the scenes at American Idol. With ratings starting to decline and Simon leaving the program, producers knew that they had to take some drastic measures.

    So, judges Ellen and Kara are out and replacing them will be J-Lo and Steven Tyler. What hasn’t been reported is that General Petraeus will also be joining the show as a judge. Already assigned with the twin burdens of successfully completing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Petraeus will be expected to rescue the disaster that Idol has become.

    Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri: Your pants are on the ground, infidel.

    Some people think Petraeus is too nice like Ellen, but this is a four-star general who is used to talking tough with some of the most evil terrorists in the world. If you sing a song and you sound like a bunch of cats murdering a bird, Petraeus isn’t going to lie to you.

    He’s also up for the ratings challenge. “We will pursue Dancing with the Stars relentlessly,” Petraeus said at a press conference. “We will target them and their leaders. We will fight hard and with discipline until we reach our achievable goals.”

    In order to further liven things up, Ryan Seacrest has been let go to make room for new host, Al-Qaeda member Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri. Unlike Ellen, this enemy combatant is definitely not too nice. In fact, he’s a terrorist hellbent on destroying Western culture. The banter between Al-Marri and Petraeus will no doubt be deliciously bitchy. Fox has its fingers crossed.

    ___________

    1. That Dick Cheney Sex Tape Finally Surfaces

    The fans respond. (Image by Landii.)

    That Dick Cheney sex tape that’s been rumored to be out there for a while has finally emerged on the Internet. It’s not great quality video footage–kind of grainy–but you can clearly see it’s the former Vice President.

    Some people think that Cheney’s political enemies have released the tape to embarrass him, but others believe that Cheney himself has leaked the video to boost his popularity. Nobody has any sympathy for him even though he has a ferret heart and arteries fashioned from a vacuum cleaner bag. Maybe having a sex tape in circulation will improve his standing with the public like it did for that Kardashian woman.

    I’ve already had a look at the footage and it’s as graphic as you might expect. It’s certainly not for the squeamish, as there’s no pixelation. Cheney likes using his mouth a lot on the private parts and he’s really into doing it doggy style. He seems unduly proud of his blotchy skin and tiny wang. There’s a tattoo of a scorpion on his ass. He sneers throughout.

    Cheney: Fuck me harder.

    You have to give the former Veep credit for being pretty athletic considering he lacks a pulse and a heartbeat and shit. During the climactic scene, Cheney appears to ejaculate bat blood instead of semen. It’s possible it’s snake venom, but it really looks to have the texture and consistency of bat blood. I don’t know for sure; I’m not a bat scientist.

    If the video goes viral, then perhaps Cheney will get to be a contestant on Dancing with the Stars or maybe decide to run for the Presidency in 2012. Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who’s done soft-core photo spreads and videos, can be his running mate. Obama only does tasteful topless shots, so they’d have that advantage over him.

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Oliver Sacks turned 77 in July. (Image by Erik Charlton.)

    Steve Silberman of NeuroTribes has an interview with Dr. Oliver Sacks, in which the neurologist describes in painterly detail his realization that he had cancer. An excerpt:

    Steve Silberman: Oliver, what happened to you just before Christmas in 2005?

    Dr. Oliver Sacks: It was a Saturday, eight days before Christmas, the 17th. It seemed just an ordinary day. I got up, went for my usual swim, and decided to go to the cinema, but as soon as the previews started, I became aware of something bizarre happening–a sort of incandescent fluttering to my left, which I took to be a visual migraine. But then I became certain that it was in my eye and not in the brain, as a migraine would be. That really alarmed me. I thought, ‘What’s happening? Am I detaching a retina? Am I going blind?’

    I didn’t know what I should do about it–whether I should go to an emergency room or phone up an ophthalmologist, or stay put and see if it all settled. I did the last of these, although I couldn’t concentrate on the film. I kept testing my visual field. Then I noticed that some of the little lights showing the way out of the cinema had disappeared in front of me.

    Finally, after about 20 minutes, I burst out of the theater, hoping that in the world outside, everything would look real. But it was evident to me that there was still a triangular chunk of my visual field missing, going from about nine o’clock to eleven o’clock. I phoned up a friend who asked a few questions, suggested a few tests, and then said, ‘Get yourself to an ophthalmologist ASAP.’

    I did so and told my story to the ophthalmologist. He took an ophthalmoscope, looked in my eye–and then I saw him stiffen. He put down the ophthalmoscope and looked at me in a different way, a serious and concerned way. He said, ‘I see pigmentation. There’s something behind the retina. It could be a hematoma or a tumor. If it’s a tumor, it could be benign or malignant.’ Then he said, ‘Let’s consider the worst case scenario.’ I don’t know what he said after that, because a voice in my head started shouting, ‘Cancer! Cancer! Cancer!'”

    Tags: ,

    Yeah, we probably don’t want Iran having nukes. Thank you to Reddit.

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    This wiseguy actually sounds very happy despite all his complaining.

    Buy the Cool Stuff My Girlfriend Won’t Let Me Keep

    One of the most bittersweet moments of my life was when my girlfriend and I officially decided it was time to move in together. We tenderly embraced, and she looked at me with a delicate twinkle in her eye and said, “I am NOT living in a house with a Yankee chair.” The parking brake had been released, and my bachelorhood began rolling downhill toward a brick wall.

    With more than 30 years of the afore-mentioned bachelorhood under my belt, I’m not ashamed to say that I have a lot of stuff. Guy stuff. As you can imagine, most self-respecting women are offended by the very thought of allowing these items to eye-rape their guests. My woman, alas, is no exception.

    With just two bedrooms in our new place and no hope for a dedicated “man space” in my immediate future, it seems that my only option (short of returning to a sexless existence) is shedding some of this Bachelor Baggage. That’s where you come in. Some lucky guy with a van/pickup truck and a shred of free will is going to profit immensely from my misfortune.

    (Please note that while picking up the merchandise, the lucky buyer will be forbidden to make eye contact with me as I sit slumped in the corner, sobbing gently. Thanks in advance.)

    Here’s the rundown of the haul:

    1. Yankee La-Z-Boy Chair: There is simply no better way to communicate to the world your love of heated buttock massages and America’s Pastime (in that order). This little beauty has all of the high-tech accoutrements that 1999 had to offer – heat/massage, a working speaker phone in the armrest and ample magazine/remote control storage space. This chair is pretty much the ultimate wingman for those “I’m not moving from this very spot for the next eight hours” football Sundays. I used to have those.

    The chair’s in good shape and everything works, but its stellar condition left my lady completely unmoved. Do me a favor, give it a good home and think of me next time you’re sipping a beer and eating a bag of chips that you’ve got stored in the armrest. I’ll probably be whiling away my day at Target, or another similarly soul-deadening establishment.

    Price: $275 (local pickup only – I’d offer to deliver but I drive a two-door sports car and I don’t feel like winding up on YouTube as I comically attempt to make the delivery. And yes, in case you were wondering the sports car’s days are numbered as well.)

    2. NEW 40.5” x 25” Samuel Adams Mirror in Wooden Frame: I honestly thought I’d get away with this one, since my sweetie and I won it in a raffle together. Guess again. This thing is brand-new, has never been displayed, and it’s HUGE (it measures 40.5” x 25”). It’s the perfect finishing touch to any bar or man cave. I’ve seen these things on eBay for over $350. I’m parting with it for much less. Just give it a prominent spot on your wall for all to admire, raise a pint to a fallen comrade, and we’ll both feel like we came out ahead.

    Price: $230

    3. Video Game Chair: This one comes with an important caveat –near as I can tell, it’s only compatible with last-generation game systems like Playstation 2 and X-“don’t call me 360”-Box. That being said, what’s the only thing better than wreaking havoc in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas? You guessed it, wreaking havoc in San Andreas while the screams of your innocent victims cascade upon you from built-in speakers located just behind your ears.

    Someone with a bit of electronics knowledge may (note, I said MAY) be able to figure out how to hook this up with a current-gen system. Me, I’m still annoyed that they made the prongs in electrical outlets two different sizes.

    Price: $75

    BREAKING NEWS – Yet another awesome-but-unacceptable belonging has been sniffed out and put on the endangered list:

    4. Margarita Lamp: Nothing says “party time” like this tasteful and understated lamp. From the lime slice to the giant straw to the artfully-rendered salt on the rim, the manufacturers spared no detail in their quest to re-create this beloved beverage in lamp form. If you have a basement bar and/or questionable taste, this is the item for you.

    Price: $20

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