Banal Minutiae

This is a place for Grant, Gretchen, Claire and Charles to keep track of what's going on in our lives and keep our friends and family updated as well.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy

Over at The Huffington Post Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy.

It's a tongue-in-cheek article that I thought Gretchen would like. Here's an excerpt:

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate -- we get it, stop showing off."

The president-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Hey Gretchen!


Aren't you going to tell us about the time that Grant drove away with the gas pump nozzle still in the tank?

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Sunday, March 04, 2007

More Poetry

Maya Angelou, for Kellogg's Fruit Loops:

Toucan Sam, you leap on the back of the wind,
lode stone to assorted fruit flavors,
Phoenix of the dawns, one smile.
We gave you, Toucan Sam, life.
You, Toucan Sam, give us loops of fruit.
Fruity loops, Fruit Loopies,
swimming in the churning, frothy mother sea of milk,
Kellogg's appreciates consumer comments,
P. O. Box 221, Battle Creek, Michigan,
a prism of fruity color, a cornucopia
of over forty fruity tastes.

The orange,the apple,the grape, the pomegranate,

the quince,

the kumquat,

the kiwi,

the plantain,

the guava...

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Saturday, March 03, 2007

I'll have the roast duck with mango salsa


If you like the Geico cavemen as much as I do, you'll love Cavemanscrib.com.

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Sunday, February 18, 2007

Tech Support in the Middle Ages

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Saturday, February 03, 2007

Football on Muscle Relaxants

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Thirty Things You Didn't Know About Alton Brown



#1. Alton Brown grinds his own peppercorns. With his teeth.

#2. Alton Brown's chili cheese fries are healthier than raw carrots. Even after he adds the bacon and lard.

#3. Alton Brown brushes his teeth with wasabi and gargles with pickle brine. But still his breath smells like lemon merengue.

#4. Alton Brown can boil a three-minute egg in thirty-seven seconds.

#5. When Alton Brown was born, he collected the hospital slop they'd left for his mother and made it into an zesty, appetizing goulash. The dish fed the entire maternity ward for a week.

#6. In the first, as-yet-unaired episode of Iron Chef America, Alton Brown single-handedly defeated an all-star team of Bobby Flay, Cat Cora, and Hiroyuki Sakai. The secret ingredient was 'whimsy'.

#7. Alton Brown doesn't reduce sauces. He demoralizes sauces.

#8. Alton Brown prepares his fugu blindfolded, with one chopstick and a plastic spork. Alton Brown ain't afraid of no chump neurotoxin.

#9. Alton Brown's blender has four speeds: 'stir', 'mix', 'frappe', and 'plasmify'.

#10. Alton Brown can split a pineapple in half using only his pinkies. For coconuts, though, he has to use his thumbs.

#11. Alton Brown knows where capers come from. And he grows his own, on a Chia pet in the pantry.

#12. On Rachel Ray's show, she shows people where to eat for less than forty dollars a day. When Alton Brown eats, people pay him.

#13. Alton Brown slices ham so thin, it can only be seen using an electron microscope.

#14. Some knives can slice through a tin can and still cut a tomato. Alton Brown's knives can slice through a Pontiac, and still cut a tin can.

#15. Grown men have been known to weep for joy in the mere presence of Alton Brown's vinagrette. His hollandaise sauce can kill a man from sheer ecstacy at forty paces.

#16. Alton Brown can eat just one Lay's potato chip. If he ever bothered to eat food he didn't make himself, that is.

#17. Alton Brown once got carried away slicing carrots, and julienned his cutting board. Undaunted, he sauteed the splinters in olive oil and spices -- and they were delicious.

#18. Every Burger King Alton Brown has walked into has immediately closed forever -- try as they might, they simply can't 'do it his way'.

#19. Alton Brown can pair a wine with any food -- including hot dogs, ice cream, raw eggs, Alpo, sawdust, and soylent green. It's people!

#20. Alton Brown's cakes don't rise. They ascend.

#21. Some meats are so tender, they seem to melt in your mouth. Alton Brown's meats are so tender, he's had entire turkeys vanish into thin air.

#22. Alton Brown's no saint. But if his chicken Kiev cures one more kid's leprosy, the church will reconsider the evidence.

#23. Alton Brown doesn't whip potatoes. Alton Brown's potatoes whip themselves, if they know what's good for them.

#24. Alton Brown's other car is the Wienermobile.

#25. Alton Brown's show is called 'Good Eats', because 'Multiple Shuddering Mouthgasms' didn't play with the network's target demographic.

#26. Alton Brown's freezer operates at minus-twenty-seven degrees. Kelvin.

#27. Alton Brown once prepared shrimp gumbo for a cooking competition, using only salt, water, canned Spam, and a packet of Arby's 'Horsey Sauce'. He took second place. He would have won, but one of the judges was allergic to shellfish.

#28. Alton Brown can fit three hundred and forty-two cookies on a standard-sized baking sheet. Without any touching.

#29. When Alton Brown slices onions, the onions cry.

#30. Alton Brown was once asked to participate in a blind orange juice taste test. He was the only person able to successfully identify the brand, style, vintage, temperature, pH level, distance to the orchard, age of the grove trees, and the names of the workers picking the fruit. Including the one who needs to start washing after bathroom breaks.

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A little fun with stick figures



You can see I have a very distorted body image.

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Friday, February 02, 2007

How Microsoft would (re)design the iPod Package



A great video, actually created as an in-joke by Microsoft, and a reminder to those of us who are in marketing and advertising. Bonus points for using one of Claire's favorite pieces of music, Breakfast Machine from Peewee's Big Adventure.

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Friday, December 15, 2006

Stop! Or I'll...uh...OK...huh?


Back in college, Gretchen and I were perusing the aisles at a grocery store and came upon this package of cheapo "Police Force" "play equipment". We laughed so hard at the (apparently very stoned) cop. I regret not buying it on the spot and have always kept an eye out every time I'm in a grocery store. Looks like someone else found this funny too. I guess I'll just have to settle for a picture, for now.

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Sunday, November 26, 2006

Is that a Walther PPK in your trousers, or are you happy to see me?


Here's a little bit of humorous (yes I spelled that right) reality for those of us who have delusions of looking good in the little blue swim trunks that Daniel Craig sported in Casino Royale. Gretchen - your fantasy is safe with me.

The James Bond Trunk Challenge - London Daily Mail

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Thursday, November 09, 2006

Sometimes you go to Washington with the congress you wish you had!

First the House, then Rumsfeld Resigns...then the Senate! Is it Christmas already?

Oh- and Santorum is gone!

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Thursday, October 26, 2006

Foodie Humor


This made me laugh

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Saturday, October 14, 2006

Why Don't Republicans Use Bookmarks?

Because they like to bend pages over.

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Wednesday, September 27, 2006

George W. Bush's AOL Searches Revealed

Sunday, September 24, 2006

A Ladybug's Tale

Claire has requested this little video that I found on YouTube, so I posted it here so she can find it again. I hear that this is a proof of concept and/or pilot for an animated series that showcases different aspects of the natural world. I think it's pretty funny and evidence that someone has seen the pod-racer scene in Star Wars a few times.

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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Charlie's Nemesis?

We should hook this kid up with Charlie... IN A STEEL CAGE!!!!

Karate Baby - video powered by Metacafe

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