Dear Uncle Sam,

I see you have been busy...




KFC says, support breast cancer, buy a big pink bucket of deep fried chicken. It's certainly not from Kentucky, it's probably not chicken but it is definitely fried. It's unclear whose side they are on, yours or the breast cancer.




And Dominos with their pasta casserole in a bread bowl. This idea is like hitting lose-a-turn on a wheel of 'what to put in a bread bowl'. I wouldn't be surprised if Dominos actually had such a wheel in their boardroom. I would support banning Dominos from putting anything in a bread bowl for the next thirty years, because honestly it doesn't seem that bomb in a bread bowl is very far off.

Anyway, check out the numbers on this thing,

Chicken Penne Carbonara in a Breadbowl

Calories - 2960
Fat - 114g
Saturated Fat - 48g
Cholesterol - 230mg
Carbs - 372g


Now now, I'm not one to get caught up with numbers, unless the numbers are something like 100% chance of earthquakes. I think a better idea would be to order the bread bowl and throw it at someone you respect.




Loving that home cookin'

Le Roi Brun, bad bad Le Roi Brun...

and,

Far from being freaks, the Hell's Angels are a logical product of the culture that now claims to be shocked by their existence. The generation represented by the editors of Time has lived so long in a world full of celluloid outlaws hustling toothpaste and hair oil that it is no longer capable of confronting the real thing. For twenty years they have sat with their children and watched yesterday's outlaws raise hell with yesterday's world...and now they are bringing up children who think Jesse James is a television character. This is a generation that went to war for Mom, God and Apple Butter, the American Way of Life. When they came back, they crowned Eisenhower and then retired to the giddy comfort of their TV parlors, to cultivate the subtleties of American history as seen by Hollywood.

- HST

Self Analysis Over One Hour in France;

Current Book: The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein
Current Coffee: espresso with sugar
Anoyance: overdubbing
Location: Aix-en-Provence
Evil: fois gras
Transportation: yellow second-hand bike
Hero: Hunter Thompson
Nemessis: Rick Steves
Goal: Budapest
Interest: Brick
Decorative Taste: medieval and post-modern medieval
Goal: Build the world's largest church, void of Christianity, and decorated with 40,000 little leaf-shaped solar panels
Site for the Above: maybe New Orleans
Enemy: sugar
Religion: Cathedralism
Semi-Depressing Thought: the tangle of souls entering infinity at exactly the same time after a nuclear explosion
Longing: American Cinema
Most Overrated American: Tom Hanks
Humorous thought: Tom Hanks overdubbed by a Frenchman
Instant Haiku:

The Crow
Being so inclined
To enjoy the company
of shiny things in Bed

Something worth one of my body parts: a motor bike
Intrigue: the impossible equation of European driving, the number of motor bikes, and the scarcity of bloodshed
Something heavy that would still be worth carrying: a huge American flag
Longing: the stretch of north Rochester road where it winds through the forest
Perplexion: lacking the appropriate subtlety in reading French to know if Shaquille O'Neal was actually traded to the Cleveland Caveliers, or if it is just speculation
Wine: cheap rosé
Woman's name: Hélène
Man's name: Henry
Worry: the recent death of my iPod leaving me alone with Frech discothèque
Philisophical question: what came first, the European or the stereotype
Interest: sentences
Album in mock production: 'Dizzy All Over'
Philisophical idea: If enough people take photographs at one time; will the moment fall into the past
Place to go after this table: Picasso Cezanne exhibit
Wonder: how Romans ever turned into Italians
Worthy alternative to pictures: this
Word that i would attend to if handed a dictionary: rhumatitis
Useless possession that i will never own: a large photo album of my loved ones standing in front of famous shit
Curiosity: the lack of relationship between an object and it's background, especially in the above photographs
Gratitude: being born before the internet
Something which is better in Europe: thrift stores
Something which is worse: The Economist, which costs $5.95 yet €5.50 and a whopping 10 Swiss Francs, despite being closer to the source
Visual pleasure of Provence: the tendency of people to ornamate their light yellow homes with purple shutters and doors
French word: métier
Instant destination: the unseen distance ahead
Final question: is it the lack of subtlety in my use of the language, or are the French actually humorless?

Grippe du porc!

Here's to my new bookmark. It's an ad for a piece of property in Connecticut, a horse ranch, an 'Equestrian Estate' to be exact. On the slightly cramped 2.5 acres, some standout features include a 'cozy library with built-ins', a '4-stall horse barn and paddocks', and the dining room has two fireplaces.

Although when the time comes for it, Tay and i plan to build our own house (she's really keen on fancy tree houses), so i am really only concerned about the land (land owners!). But i have an unapologetic fascination with picturesque property catalogs. And i admit that it would be fun to raise some horses for a little while, spending the evenings in town with a jukebox and a bar room stuffed with Connecticut bankers. God bless em.

a classic...

(Note: this is not one of them 'funny pictures' that people throw around the internet to be all funny. This is the real bovine, smack at you.)

I had meant to mention it a couple of weeks ago, but it was impressive to see The Economist officially endorsing marijuana legalization, with a cover story no less.
How to stop the drug wars
This was a proud moment for me, being an Economist enthusiast through calm and storm. I am also a fan of the truly radical, where it can be found, and what we see here is a healthy pinch of it.
I like how it looks, maybe the wigs will take notice.

I was reading today that the military has gotten a laser up to 'battlefield strength'. Apparently Boeing has received the 100 million dollar contract to produce a vehicle to tank around the laser, whose size is yet more comparable to a zebra than something to holster onto a spacesuit. Nonetheless, i am always happy to see one more science fiction stereotype checked off the list. I am also happy to see Boeing mixed up with ray guns, a couple of my favorite things, balm of dog bites and bee stings.

I have a photograph which may be from 1940, but who can be sure. The picture was given to me as a gift. It is an excellent thing, measuring just two by three inches. The worldstuffs it has anchored, from perhaps 1940, are really something special. The image is of the deck of a ship, out at sea. The picture was taken by someone standing in the midst of a crowd. The crowd is circled around something, which they are all looking at, but you cannot see what it is. The men all have hats, as was the custom before JFK made hair popular. The ladies are wearing hats as well. There is a fur collared woman to the center, so i imagine this to be a classy ensemble. Nobody is dressed for sailing.

All i can be sure of is that some reason got this large gang of chaps and gals out on the open sea, my guess would be willingly. It has the look of a Saturday, and as i said before, it might be 1940. Everyone is smiling.