Author: joe

It’s been 20 years since it premiered and I remember watching it every Saturday morning (with the New Adventrues of Mighty Mouse). Pee Wee’s Playhouse returned on Adult Swim on Cartoon network tonight with many of its later-to-be-famous cast members (Laurence Fishburne, Phil Hartman and Gregory Harrison). It was as cheesy, over-acted, and gay as I remembered it (and just as much fun). The world was definitely a simpler place when a show like this could air on Saturday morning without the virtue police slamming it for unsavory content. Now it airs with the likes of Aqua Team Hunger Force and Minoriteam.

Being a webmaster to 20 or so sites, I get approximately 400 spam emails a day. I’ve gotten most of it under control with SpamArrest (shameless plug here!), but I still need to skim my two main accounts for valid messages. Tangent warning: Will someone please tell my why a company as big as AT&T (formerly SBC, formerly Southwest Bell, formerly AT&T) can’t ever send your only billing notice from the same email address so that it actually passes your authorized sender list?
But I digress…I graduated from Vi^agra emails to Ci^lis (and do they think they using ^ instead of a means it won’t be tagged as spam?). I get messages to Ebay customer, Best Buy customer, McDonalds customer, Walmart customer (like I’d ever shop at Walmart!). And who is Robert.Allen and why is he convinced I want to be rich? Among my favorites from fake names like Levi Chang (a Chinese Rabbi, obviously) and Shirika Veracruz (a Mexican pharmacist, apparently…since the Canadians and Mexicans are really vying for my mail-order pharmacy business), is Christian Debt Removers. It’s good to know that someone is looking our for a debt-ridden Christian family like mine.

I just wonder if these Christians thought about their imagery before quoting Proverbs 22:7?

At each Olympics, I tell myself that I’m not going to get wrapped up in them. Invariably, by the second day, I’m hooked. The winter Olympics for me is all about the ice…figure skating, ice dancing, speed skating. Snow? Too cold. Downhill skiing is like watching car racing for me. It’s all about the finish line. But show me Sasha Cohen’s stylings across the ice, or Johnny Weir’s creativity, or Shizuka Arakawa’s grace and I’m rapt. And the speed skating relays– I’m on the edge of my seat.

I love to watch the competitors congratulate each other at the end of the race…the acknowledgement that it is about the sport, not just winning. Not that winning is bad. The world should fight its wars this way– on the field, on the slopes, on the ice. Let the best man win, and let the losers return to try again.

My two weeks of guilty pleasure is almost over, then it’s back to CSI.

EDIT: There’s always one that makes that exception. Speed skater Chad Hedrick of Texas may be a winner, but his Olympic spirit (and decency) are lacking. From his treatment of his teammate Shani Davis, to his dissing of the Dutch gold medalist, he should learn to keep his mouth shut.

Yes, Saturn’s moon Titan, not the LA Latino band. It’s only a matter of time before some remix artist finds it and we hear it on a dance floor!

Listen here.

The same state that brought you “evolution is a theory” stickers for textbooks, now seeks to set civil rights back decades as well. Georgia’s Republican representative Earl Ehrhart (incoming Chair of the House Rules Committee, no less) sponsored a bill to repeal a section of Atlanta’s city ordinance that protects same-sex couples. “You have a true philosopical divide between the state Legislature and the City of Atlanta” he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the Illinois House sent a bill banning discrimination against gays and lesbians to Gov. Rod Blagojevich who has said he would sign the measure into law. “This message sends a clear message that we will not allow our citizens to be discriminated against,” he said.

Perhaps they should send that message to their friends in the South.