The other Gore worth listening to

Mr. Vidal is still one of the great ones. Here's the first paragraph of one of his latest essays:

While contemplating the ill-starred presidency of G.W. Bush, I looked about for some sort of divine analogy. As usual, when in need of enlightenment, I fell upon the Holy Bible, authorized King James version of 1611; turning by chance to the Book of Jonah, I read that Jonah, who, like Bush, chats with God, had suffered a falling out with the Almighty and thus became a jinx dogged by luck so bad that a cruise liner, thanks to his presence aboard, was about to sink in a storm at sea. Once the crew had determined that Jonah, a passenger, was the jinx, they threw him overboard and--Lo!--the storm abated. The three days and nights he subsequently spent in the belly of a nauseous whale must have seemed like a serious jinx to the digestion-challenged whale who extruded him much as the decent opinion of mankind has done to Bush.

I think I'll re-read some of United States this weekend.

Pork and Beans ... OF EVIL!

How was this picture ever considered, even during the fifties, a good way to sell food?



More retro goodness can be found at Demonic Tots.

"Spy vs. Spy" in Java!

Video game nostalgia seems to be the order of the day, lately. C64s brings back some Commodore 64 goodness in the form of Java games.



Oh man, my spare time just went out the window.

Borrow 'em or buy 'em, take your pick!

A Jacksonville institution, and one of my favorite places to visit, is branching out into a second location that is LESS THAN A BLOCK FROM WHERE I WORK!

From Financial News and Daily Record:

It may seem kind of odd to open a book store within a long paragraph or two from a brand new library, but that is exactly what Ron Chamblin, owner of Chamblin Bookmine on Roosevelt Boulevard, has in mind.

Last week, Chamblin purchased a two-story building on Laura Street near the Main Library and has started the process of renovating the structure which was built in 1904. When the addition to the Westside store is complete and the downtown Bookmine opens for business, Chamblin said he'll have 32,000 square feet of inventory on the shelves at the two locations. The store is well-known among Jacksonville bibliophiles for its "used, rare and non-existent" books.

"I've got five storage buildings full of books that I don't have room to stock right now," said Chamblin. "I've been looking for a downtown location for about a year now and being a half a block from the library is a great place to be."

Suddenly my lunch hours don't seem nearly as boring anymore.

Your moment of "Jaw Dropping LEGO" Zen

I'd like to think that given the resources and the time, I'd have the talent to make something like this behemoth:



Lest I win the lottery and retire at 35, I don't think we'll ever know the answer to that.

In the days of Cartridges and Commodores

A pair of nostalgia links. First up is 1UP and their focus group where they sat down some modern kids to play old school games and gauge their reactions. Remember: The Duck is Evil. Part One and Part Two.

And second, for those who got depressed reading those last links, a complete gem from Defective Yeti as he gives the Bush administration the Zork treatment. Ah, if only he could be eaten by a Grue.