The World Wide Weird
ROTFL Elmo
Tuesday, September 19th, 2006It’s the 10th anniversary of Tickle Me Elmo, and Mattel is celebrating with T.M.X. Elmo, as in “Tickle Me Extreme” Elmo.
The latest Elmo has ‘tickle spots’ on its chin, tummy and foot. When a child tickles Elmo once, the doll laughs, slaps his leg, falls down into a sitting position and then stands up while laughing.
The second time Elmo is tickled, the doll repeats that pattern, but then falls backward and starts kicking his feet while laughing. It then stands up and asks to be tickled again.
The third time Elmo is tickled, the doll goes through the first two patterns and then rolls over onto its tummy, thumps his hand on the floor, rolls onto his back and stands up again.
Next year, look for Epileptic Elmo…
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California vs. Stanford – “The Play”
Saturday, September 9th, 2006| I’ve seen the very end of this clip dozens of times (when California runs back a kick-off into the endzone using about ten laterals and a rather unfortunate Stanford trombone player), but this is the extended clip. It shows Stanford marching down the field to go ahead before the fateful kickoff with eight seconds left. Their quarterback was a kid named John Elway. I wonder what ever happened to him… | |
Categories: Sports Talk, The World Wide Weird | 1 Comment »
The Pizza Challenge Lives!
Thursday, August 31st, 2006For those who have been wondering what ever happened to the whole Pizza with Regis Philbin thing (and you’d be surprised how many have been wondering), an update from Chenopup:
Just wanted to check in. I spoke to my ABC 4 contact yesterday. I will send her an email detailing what we’re doing and she will forward to Buena Vista contact for Regis / Kelly.
We may start some local press on this very soon.
I’ll keep you posted. Sorry for the lull.
So there you have it – pizza with Regis is still a possibility.
Stay tuned…
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Chenopup comes to New York and we eat pizza together! Check it out…
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Lots of Storage and Fun for the Kids!
Wednesday, August 16th, 2006
Check this out – Lego hard drives!
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So What’s Up with the Pizza?
Wednesday, August 9th, 2006I know, I know – I got everybody excited with talk of pizza and Regis a couple of weeks ago and then SILENCE. What gives, right?
Well, here’s the update from Jason Bennion, our correspondent on the ground in Salt Lake City. Seems Dave (proprietor of Este pizza) is still working on transportation logistics, and Chenopup is still working on TV coverage. Also, Jason has sampled the competition and offers this promising review:
The pizza is indeed similar to what I remember eating in New York ten years ago: a thin, flexible but not-too-chewy crust, not too much sauce or cheese, and served in massive wedges that must be folded in half to be easily manipulated. As for the flavor, well… it’s good. It’s damn good, in fact.
As Glenn Reynolds would say, read the whole thing.
UPDATE: For the most recent update, click here.
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Proof that there’s Karma in the World
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006This is among the most bizarre stories I’ve ever heard:
A waitress in Westlake, OH loses her wallet in a bar in nearby Lakewood, OH on July 9th. The person who stole it sells her drivers license to another woman, Maria Bergan, who is 23 years old. Two weeks later, Ms. Bergan walks into a bar in Westlake and is asked for ID to prove she is 21. She hands the waitress the stolen license she just purchased and (wait for it…) the waitress recognizes it as HER OWN LICENSE!!! Ms. Bergan is arrested and charged with identity theft and receiving stolen property. Says police captain Guy Turner:
“The odds of this waitress recovering her own license defy calculation.”
Indeed. Almost as high, in fact, as the odds of someone who is over 21 using a stolen license to prove she’s over 21.
As Brannon Denning (guest Instapundit blogger) says, Doh!
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Pizza Team Utah Gets Serious…
Thursday, July 27th, 2006Some more updates from the bizarro world where “Who’s Pizza is better – NYC or SLC?” is the top story:
— Several folks, including some of my friends & co-workers in New York and some folks in Utah are concerned that in order for the test to be fair, the New York pizza must also be made 24 hours in advance and kept unrefrigerated, etc. just like the Utah one. I’m beginning to understand why Congress has so much trouble passing laws…
— Dave, proprietor of Este pizza, has tested a frozen pie and says this:
It was very good but lacked some the punch of a true, fresh pie. We’ve ruled out the frozen option and believe it puts each contender into a position where they feel they have an inferior product.
Yes, that’s right. He said “contender.” He’s also running test trials. I plan to begin my training by, you know, eating some pizza. It’s rough, but if you’re going to compete at this level, you have to be prepared.
— The current plan is to fly Dave to New York with a “chilled” pizza, the rules being that he make as much of it as possible in Salt Lake City and then have a “bakeoff” (quite literally) somewhere in/near Rockefeller Center. This is where I start wondering what will happen when I walk into a local pizzeria and ask the manager if some guy I don’t know from Utah can use his pizza oven (most likely outcome: “Get out of my store, you crazy bastard!” Throwing of pizza cutters is on the list as well, but significantly less likely, I think)
— My suggestion was we get the local ABC affiliate to recruit someone in New York to help me out. If I walk into a pizza joint with an actual TV person, I think we stand a better chance of the store manager buying into the idea.
— I’m also told that Dave has three top New York pizzerias that he’d love to go head-to-head with. Who knew there were rivalries among these folks? I wonder if they get up every morning and check their stats on some webpage somewhere…
— In what I can only describe as a flourish of overconfidence, Dave has also mentioned that there’s a pizzeria in Cincinnati that he wants to challenge next. Apparently, our little show is fated to become a nation-wide tour. Here’s my question, though: if you prevail in New York (Hah!), what do you prove by prevailing in Cincinnati also? And if suffer the agony of defeat that most certainly awaits you in the Big Apple, how much of a consolation would it be to beat up on poor Cincy?
And, of course, the main questions: in the unlikely event that you prevail in New York and lose in Cincinnati, am I really going to go through this again with a pizza maker out there? Will ABC cover it again? At what point does this go from a segment on the local news to our very own reality show?
The mind continues to boggle…
UPDATE: Momentum fades, but hopefully only briefly. Here’s the latest status.
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The Pizza Challenge Heats Up!
Tuesday, July 25th, 2006This little pizza challenge is starting to take on a life of its own. Rather than try to describe it, here’s the latest e-mail from chenopup:
Brian,
The latest…
I met with Dave [the owner of Este pizza] today. He’s very excited and is in fact brainstorming with his cooks at this time to figure out the best way to prepare the pie for shipping. He’s wanting to go up against the best there is in New York so this should be a blast.
I am meeting with him again tomorrow after he’s had some time to plan it out. I’m going to look at arranging a videographer there in NY to come shoot the final taste test if that is okay with you. If I can get the right price on a ticket, I’ll even fly out myself. I was supposed to be in New York the last week of August anyway, I may have to try to pick up that gig again :)
I pitched it to my local ABC affiliate here and they love it and want to do a segment for their morning show. The program director will also look into contact Regis and Kelly as well since they’re ABC as well.
So things in the works at this point…
– Este is a go.
-Dave wants to go up against the best NY has to offer. (He’s from NY) :)
– We need to decide on a type of pie and the best way to send it / comparable pie to be cooked with it in one of the top locations in Rockefeller area.
– Blind taste test with local NY’ers as to which is the better pie.
– Sit back and wait for all the news stories to roll in… see what you started?
mike
OK, so first of all – cooks? Plural? How many cooks does it take to make a NY style pizza? Each guy in Manhattan makes a few at a time during the lunch rush. I’m starting to wonder just how serious these Utah folks are about their pizza.
Second, Regis? Seriously? The only downside, of course, would be eating pizza for breakfast. The things we endure for our adoring public…
UPDATE: The next installment is available here.
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Breaking News – Web Experts Also Good at Math
Tuesday, July 25th, 2006InternetWeek has published a State of the Spam article, in which they claim that 80% of all e-mail traffic during the first three months of 2006 was spam.
The article includes this stunning piece of analysis on page 3:
[Michael] Geist, the [Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa], figures that if 80 percent of e-mail is spam, “then four out of five e-mail servers are there to deal with spam, not to deal with legitimate mail.”
Ya know, I think the guy has a point – I mean, four out of five is right around that 80% figure quoted earlier in the article…
Sheesh…
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Pizza Challenge Update
Friday, July 21st, 2006The latest from the pizza front:
Chenopup (that would be the Defender of Utah Pizza) and I have exchanged several e-mails. The first idea was to send the pizza to my home in New Jersey, and have me bring a New York pizza home from work for a home-based taste test. An OK idea for starters, but it just doesn’t have that New York feel…
Moving on to idea number two: we’re going to try and have the pizza delivered to my office in Rockefeller Center, home of the Ice Rink, the Christmas Tree, the Today Show Studio, and NBC World Headquarters. I will see if I can convince a local pizza shop (there are something like twenty of them within spitting distance around here) to warm the pizza up in one of their ovens, so we can do a pie-to-pie comparison in an honest-to-goodness New York Pizzeria.
Chenopup (who, I may have neglected to mention, is a filmmaker) is pleased with the idea, and is considering getting a cameraman to join us and film the entire episode. This, as well as some film of the Utah pizza being prepared in its home state, and perhaps even some free press in Utah about the event (yeah, that’s right – I called it an event. Problem?!?)
Not to be outdone, I mentioned that once the press was involved, someone should alert either Conan O’Brien (who tapes across the street every day at around 5:30) or David Letterman (who tapes about five blocks from here, also at around 5:30). This is exactly the kind of schtick those guys do professionally every day of the week…
Stay tuned. This is starting to have the potential to move from the ridiculous to the sublime…
UPDATE: Apparently, I jumped too quickly to the Late Night mode. It seems ABC considers this worthy of their morning show (yes, I’m serious. Why do you ask?) and are even considering talking to Regis & Kelly about it. Read the details here.
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