Given I was figuring there was one sure thing among the LaPlaca dead pool entries it was Father of the Pride, I figured I'd better double check it, make sure I'm right. And oh boy was I.
I've just been freaked out by a house cat servicing a lion on national television. And that's a laugh line for them. How bad is it when the one joke I like is Carl Reiner suggesting we should all watch the World Series of Poker, and I immediately think, yeah, that's actually true, and put that on for 30 seconds. And to follow it all up, they spend five minutes on a "behind the scenes" commercial. That's the moral equivalent of filming the cast party.

If this doesn't show up on fark.com in a day or so, I really will be surprised. Yeah, it's frat humor, and yeah, it's something I heard on sports radio, but I know I'm not going to be able to hear the phrase "It's not a hard job" for a couple months without laughing.

I'm not even going to imply that these are related:

1. While flipping through channels last night, I found myself watching Telefon, probably the first film to introduce me to the immutable law of film cliche "if there's a shot panning over a rattlesnake in a glass cage, you're going to see that glass cage upset sometime soon. I was able to notice this at the age of 8, so I feel good about that as a formative experience. S'anyway, way earlier in the film last night, I noticed something I hadn't noticed in years, in retelling the list of dead Russians, Tyne Daly utters the phrase "Sailing Mishap", in almost exactly the same tone as which was used as a laugh line in a Teen Girl Squad.

2. Between the recent fight between the Pirates and Rockies, a Pirate leading the league in HBP, and Ty Wigginton's apparent fetish for reenacting David Cronenberg's Crash with himself and catchers (Previously, Koyie Hill, today, Yadier Molina), I'm wondering if someone should be releasing "Lloyd McClendon's Combat Baseball."

3. While at a Washington Wild Things game earlier in the month, I kept hearing them promote "Washington Redbirds Night", which is tonight. I had never heard of the Washington Redbirds, and none of the local historians I knew had. Doing some research, I found this as part of this. So now I know.

4. While perusing this, I found myself surprised by a listing for peru, as a color. Now I had never heard of this, and suspected it was a load of gypsum. Even dictionary.com and Roget's Thesaurus failed to give anything. Then I thought about it, and realized it was probably an in joke: Peru brown being the approximate tone of Paddington Bear, rare sort of bear from said locale. Can't prove it yet, but it at least seems logical.

Just noting this for later, because I know I'll need it: That's why he's Plaxico.

Apropos of nothing, I have to say that I almost miss the ads up top here. It was kind of fun to screw its classification system up. But now I'm seeing how the combination of new toys I have can get real interesting. It looks like whenever you publish, you'll pick up a new listing under Referring Web Pages as the next weblog picks you link up. So it looks like I'll be getting things as random as what MemeTracker kicks up.

I might have to extend out the Fro-ght call out to a class of hair-related incidents. During tonight's Texans-Steelers exhibtion, the TV commentator noted that David Carr's hair was getting a little long, due to a bet he had with his father, that he wouldn't cut his hair until the Texans won back-to-back games, something that they haven't done yet.

My cousin's next big project gets some pub.

Craig requested this, based on this article, and previous actions. While I really want to nail down a call of fraught based on this (especially the "I've just got to make better decisions," quote, which is up there on the leading indicator chart with "I can stop drinking any time I want.") However, I'm hesitant that it's not fraught sense, but me wishing the Browns ill. So, as a check on my senses:

Am I Fraught or Not? The Kellen Winslow II edition. Pro or con, answer below.

Cleaning out what I saw recently on Cronaca/Laputan Logic/and Mirabilis:

Chaucer's copyist
Columbus' bones
Henry VIII's favorite boat
Saint-Exupery's possible suicide
coffee's indigestion and coffee's genetics
England's jesters
Atlantean theories
and
Archeopteryx' capabilities [fixed]

Finally this article, which I can't find an easy answer to turn it into a question, but I find it very cool.

Just wondering:

Dan LeBatard's crazed leaping to the defense of Dave Wannstedt, during this afternoon's PTI, got me to thinking. Earlier this year, when I called fraught on Dan Marino's stint as GM of the Dolphins, I didn't think much of it once it collapsed the next day. However, looking at what's transpired in the past couple weeks with the Dolphins: losing Ricky Williams, losing David Boston, choosing to bring in a new QB, then getting A. J. Feeley, I'm beginning to think I may have underestimated exactly how big a call I was making. There is serious possibility of a hideous season for these guys, and I almost feel sorry for them. Had I known that this would have been the result (team wreckage, salt sown in your SportGrass), I might have held back.

Generally accepted quiz bowl principle: Three on a match makes a bonus:
Singapore's third prime minister takes office.

Three of your five senses are under attack.
Rank these pieces of nightmare fuel in order of their octane rating.

SIGHT: Yes, it is supposed to look like that. (Inbreeding on a Hapsburg scale.)
SMELL: Yes, it is supposed to say that. (Neither a typo nor a photoshop.)
HEARING: Yes, it is that show. (I listened to the album coming back from the Burns. Listen to the clips for full fear.)

Those of you who need your creativity jones handled:
Option 1: Designing for Cause
Option 2: Designing for Effect

Notes from the week:

I spent the last week either compiling my packet for Burns, doing the tournament, or recovering from it, so here's where I'll clean out the inbox.

Last Wednesday, Kenny sent me the link to this story, to which he noted:

I would put the over/under on FOX airing "The Running Man" at about 18 months...

And just as I was all set to post up, Olbermann pointed out the really scary bits of this on Countdown, that same night.

The House of Wacky Prop Bets will go over on that, after all, I can't see them doing it so obviously while the current governor is the Butcher of Bakersfield.

Found item: Altoids has added licorice to its flavor mix, or as they have spelled it in British: "LIQUORICE". I await the ad with Jessica Simpson asking "is it liquor or is it ice?" It appears to be isolated to the Ohio turnpike. Eating one is kind of like eating a black jelly bean the size of your head, and has the interesting effect of leaving a coating on your tongue (of flavor, not color, the mints are pure white.) On the other hand, while the can is closed, it disturbingly smells a little like Brut. If you like licorice, recommended, if not, well...

In our cute animals department: upon entering the parents' home last night, they were all atwitter about their new arrival. It seems that a small brown bat has made a sleeping spot for itself under the eaves next to the front door. Yes, I'm only mentioning this so I can say: "Don't you understand... THIS IS BAT COUNTRY!!!"

And finally, last night, I had one of those moments. While talking on the phone, I looked down to see a bag labeled "Half Price Books" lying on the floor. So while sitting there listening, I thought: "When did I buy those books?" and for the life of me I couldn't remember. The sudden feeling of "yeah, Dwight, maybe it is time for an intervention." came over me, as the possibility of me having used book purchasing blackouts became apparent. Pawing at the bag, revealing it only had a couple magazine back issues in it released the tension, but only slightly. Just not a good feeling to ever have.

I can't really call this fraught, because this is fairly obviously not going to happen to completion, or be over in a year. However, we may have to come up with a new category:Fro-ght?

I figure most of you have an interest in this. And this allows me to prove I was paying attention to who pings their pages.

The Allison LaPlaca Open TV Dead Pool 2004-05

S'anyway... While I was out, the trading deadline hit, and the Pirates and Mets swung the deal. On the surface, given I was expecting everything from Justin Morneau to Laynce Nix as possibilities, I can't really think it was a great deal for Benson. (Before you think I'm a screaming homer, the Garcia deal looked pretty comparable.) Looking deeper, I guess it was a reasonable trade, but stupidly executed.

The Pirates have three massive holes, 1B, 3B, and CF, and the possibility that they can improve at almost every position, and let the improvement cascade down to a second position, since most players could swing to another slot. There's so many C/1B/OF and 2B/SS/3B on the Pirates right now, I'd swear Mike Mularkey is running the offense. So I guess Wigginton is ok, though I have to admit that outside of giving me a Marcus Giles moment, I find him somewhat indistinguishable from Rob Mackowiak, whose job he's going to take. Peterson seems to continue the perpetual Pirate chain of, trade a pitcher, get a prospect, groom him, get him good enough to trade at the deadline, of which the classic sequence is Smiley->Neagle->Schmidt->Vogelsong. The part I can't figure out is the recovery of Jose Bautista. Basically we lost Bautista in Rule V, tried to get him back when he was cut, watched him bounce to another team, watched him bounce to another team, deal Ruben Mateo to that team for "future considerations", which we all considered the secret code for returning him after Joe Randa came back from injury, then finally, we find out that we dealt our best lower level hitter to recover a guy whom we then can't send back to the minors, lest we might lose him again. Why did we deal Keppinger? Ostensibly because he's blocked at his position (2B/SS/3B), and Bautista won't be...except of course by the guy he was JUST TRADED WITH.

Still these are small considerations. I could be a Met fan.

Something that had been bothering me for a long time: How did Wendell Willkie become the 1940 Republican nominee?