bookofjoe

Bob McDonnell so needs Lee Atwater

The legendary Republican operative would never have let things get as out of control as they've become in what looked like a cakewalk to the Virginia governorship until McDonnell himself mentioned his up-to-then-ignored 1989 master's thesis from what was then Christian Broadcasting Network University to enterprising Washington Post reporter Amy Gardner, who went to the now-Regent University library and dusted it off only to find it was a treasure trove of buzzwords guaranteed to make Democrats smile and Republicans cringe.

Oh, well.

2009 Mud Olympics (Wattolümpiade)

Over 400 European competitors took part in the various events in Brunsbüttel, Germany during the last weekend in August, contesting for supremacy on the knee-deep mudflats left by the Elbe River when the tide goes out.

[via Milena]

Football announcer malaprops: redundancy department

It's that time of year again; just yesterday I heard:

• "Defensive secondary" (there is no offensive secondary)

• "Offensive turnovers" (all turnovers are by the offense, as possession of the ball automatically puts you on offense even if you were on defense when you recovered the fumble or intercepted the ball or blocked the kick)

• "Offensive guard" (there is no defensive guard position — though there is defensive tackle)

I'm not even going to dwell on "ath-a-lete" (it's actually 2 — not 3 — syllables).

And don't get me wrong: goofy as Tony Siragusa (top) is as a sideline reporter, he's managed to become an asset, both insightful and sometimes hilariously funny, on Fox's NFL telecasts.

Deep-Fried Butter

Ummm, butter.

From Abel Gonzales, Jr., inventor of fried Coke and fried cookie dough, comes this tasty confection (above), to be unveiled to the public at the Texas State Fair in Dallas later this month.

Excerpts from Laura T. Coffey's September 3, 2009 MSNBC story follow.

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To make fried butter, the butter itself needs to have an outer coating, or shell, if you will — something that can withstand the bubbling cauldron of the deep fryer.

“I mean, butter by itself does not taste good,” Gonzales said. “Nobody just grabs a stick of butter and eats it. That would be gross.”

So here’s what Gonzales does: He takes 100 percent pure butter, whips it until it is light and fluffy, freezes it, then surrounds it with dough. The butter-laden dough balls are then dropped into the deep fryer.

For purists who just want the unadulterated taste of butter, Gonzales serves up plain-butter versions of his creation. For others who want a little more pizzazz, he offers three additional versions with flavored butters: garlic, grape or cherry.

“When you taste it, it really does taste like a hot roll with butter,” said Sue Gooding, spokeswoman for the State Fair of Texas. “It tastes great.”

“It’s like a mix between a biscuit or a croissant that is just stuffed to the gills with butter on the inside,” Gonzales said. “I think that’s the best way to describe it.”

An order of fried butter will get you three or four pieces of piping-hot dough in a little cardboard boat.

“Any more than that and I think it would be a little bit too much,” Gonzales said. “A little bit too rich.”

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You will note that Ms. Gooding stated, "It tastes great."

Think it might be time to bring back that old Miller Lite campaign?

[via Weird Universe]

PayPal:Amazon

... as GMail:MacMail.

That's what occurred to me yesterday as I waited and waited and waited for PayPal to process a $7 payment for 6 pencils.

I could've recited the alphabet backwards during the repeated lulls in the transaction.

Paynful.

I still am mystified at how hard it is to print out an email in GMail without printing out multiple other pages from the exchange.

That just never happened in MacMail.

Of course, that was before MacMail stopped working a few months ago for no apparent reason.

Well, it sort of stopped working: I can still send but there's no incoming.

Still, the ease of use makes me default to it whenever I have attachments to send.

But maybe ability to use trumps ease of use, I dunno.

[BrainGenius courtesy of caroline]

Did You Know 3.0

Wrote Milena, "We are living in exponential times."

Woofer = Twitter x 10

Long story short: co-founders Peter Martin and Portman Wills one day decided to create a Twitter parody site requiring entries 10 times longer (1,400 keystrokes) than does Twitter, and they named it Woofer.

See, birds make little sounds called "tweets" but dogs bark — "Woof!"

Maybe you had to be there.

Anyhow, the site seems to have gained traction in the 24 days since it went live on August 14, with over 11,000 people having posted entries.

Ice People of Berlin

From the Theme website:

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1,000 Miniature Ice People

With the polar ice caps melting faster than estimated, the WWF has put up a really clever installation on the steps of a Berlin square that anthropomorphizes ice block sculptures. The ice carved out to look like simple humans melted away in the hot summer sun in a statement speaking to the frailty of nature and the human impact thereof.

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[via Milena]