Dotorcycling, and The Case of the Missing Horror Director's Skull

Fresh round of dotorcycling.


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March 11, 2023

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Oscar reflections, 2024:

-When Jimmy Kimmel read that "online criticism" near the end of the show, and it soon became apparent that it was supposed to be Trump, I thought it was a stupid idea. "George Slopanopouos"? That's just poor writing. The real Trump wouldn't write anything THAT dumb. Then I realized that... no, it couldn't be... yet somehow it was. It was Trump who was doing his worst Idiot Trump impression, but it wasn't even an impression. It was somehow... just himself. 

Actually Trump- "Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be. Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but cheap, ABC “talent,” George Slopanopoulos. He would make everybody on stage look bigger, stronger, and more glamorous. Also a really bad politically correct show tonight, and for years - Disjointed, boring, and very unfair. Why don’t they just give the Oscars to those that deserve them. Maybe that way their audience and TV ratings will come back from the depths. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a serious man, haha. 

Hundreds of millions of people the world over were laughing at that numbskull. The schoolyard bully- turned president- turned bitter ex-president, was making fun of someone's name and height and looks, and was just got held down and given a red belly in front of the world. And how? Oh, just by quoting him verbatim. (And then asking if it was past his jail time.)

-It shouldn't bug me this much, but it drives me absolutely crazy when they do a bad job with the In Memoriam segment, which is every single time. (Talk about first world problems! Somehow I have the luxury of this bothering me.) You couldn't even read the names, and they were just a backdrop for some singing and dancing. They totally miss the point, year after year, that during the In Memoriam, we reflect on those who left us, and in our reflection, we honor them. 

Minor point, but it ended on Tina Turner. Was she the greatest movie star who left us in the past year? 

Sorry, again, I know this is ridiculous! But there's so little ritual left in modern day life, and the Oscars In Memoriam had always been one of mine. For years now my go-to In Memoriam has been the TCM one that they put out at the end of each year. I just tune into the Oscars one to see how ridiculous it has become.

-I loved the Native American song halfway through. Imagine that just 50 years ago Sasheen Littlefeather was nearly attacked on stage by John Wayne (the pretend Indian killer.) Who says there's no moral progress?

-Speaking of 50 years ago, what a great way to honor one of the greatest moments in Oscar history than by having John Cena present naked, or seemingly so. That was clever, and funny, and the way the show should be. 

They missed quoting David Niven though. It was one of the quickest, wittiest remarks of all-time. Right after the streaker left the stage, he said, "Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off his clothes and showing his shortcomings?"

-There are many ways the show illustrated or suggested the past vs the present. I've never quite understood why I like it so much but it has something to do with marking the passage of time, yet remaining somehow grounded in the past. Yes, there were some real lowlights (like seemingly endless of surface level puns and wordplay masquerading as entertainment) but all in all, great show. And I came away with some movies I need to see!

March 11, 2024

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The director of Nosferatu and Sunrise, F. W. Murnau, left us on this day in 1931, a day after suffering injuries in a car crash. He was given a funeral in Hollywood and then shipped over to Germany ("Dracula-style") for a second funeral. And that was that... until 2015 when his grave was desecrated and his skull was stolen. There was candle wax on the ground around the grave, so it's believed that the culprits were satanists. His skull hasn't been recovered.

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I was blasted in the face with a racquetball last night! My goggles flew off and I was laid flat. When I got home I asked Emma if it left a mark. She asked if I was talking about the dark circles under my eyes that made me look like a cartoon drawing of a sleepy person.

No, that wasn't what I was talking about, but apparently I have dark circles under my eyes that make me look like a cartoon drawing of a sleepy person!

March 11, 2022

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If Pelosi takes impeachment off the table, I'm calling 2020 for Trump. His inevitable argument: "I'm strong and the democrats are weak. They hated my guts but had no fight. They won't fight for you. Love me or hate me, I get things done." That will resonate.

March 11, 2019

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I'm watching the Michael Jackson documentary... just can't wait until the end when he dies.

March 11, 2019

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But how do you pay for it? Returning the corporate tax rate to what it was during the prosperous 50's and 60's might do the trick... back when both parents didn't have to work for the family to still be middle class.

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March 11, 2019

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Meet the Press points out, at the rally last night the president encouraged boos for the press, discouraged boos for Kim Jong Un. Seems backwards somehow. 

Maybe it's backwards that he's even encouraging and discouraging boos to begin with. Take a step back, what the neck is going on? It's like he's trying to manage a wild west mob.

March 11, 2018

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Enjoying their morning coffee.

March 11, 2018

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For what it's worth, since I started drinking a quart of water a day I've lost a pound every other week, without changing anything else. As they say, the more you know...

March 11, 2017

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Well that's never good news...

Alternet- Ted Cruz's father says that Ted was anointed by God become the next president

March 11, 2016

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Each time I eat a fig I think about Jesus cursing that poor fig tree. He wanted some figs but it didn't have any, so he cursed it, saying that nobody could have any anymore. The next morning his disciples discovered that overnight it had just withered away. That's actually considered one of Jesus's miracles! Can you imagine a meaner or more petty miracle??? 

Well you know who he takes after.

I'll admit that if it's true, it either means he's the Son of God or a sorcerer. 

Yep...that's what I think of each time I eat a fig.

March 11, 2016

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A 45 degree swing in the temperature tomorrow? (High 62, low 17.) Is that possible?

March 11, 2014

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Took my first steps in two months. Celebrating with red raspberry wine and Lawrence of Arabia.

March 11, 2011

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On this day in 222, the teenage Roman emperor Elagabalus was murdered alongside his mother, Julia Soaemias Bassiana. His reign was marred by various scandals involving sex, money, and food.

Yeah, food scandals. They had food scandals back then. At one banquet, they butchered 600 ostriches, just to eat their brains. At others, they served marble, spider aspic, and tarts made of lion dung. If it's not a scandal to serve marble, spider aspic and tarts made of lion dung, I don't know the meaning of the word scandal.

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The Great Blizzard of 1888 began on this day, along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400 people.

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On this day in 1946, Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, was captured by British troops.

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Shemp Howard joined the human race on this day in 1895.

You might remember him from his famous catchphrase, "be-be-be-be-be."

Save your sanity. Don't watch this.

https://youtu.be/XBOrcsqY6xo

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Douglas Adams joined us on this day in 1952.

"The story so far:

In the beginning the Universe was created.

This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

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Other notable birthdays- Johnny Knoxville (1971), Bobby Abreu (1974)

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The Shining cuckoo clock.

https://www.wired.com/2007/06/the-shining-cuc/

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My dad was telling me about the contraption they might need to put in his heart and I almost said, "What's your heart's problem, can't get it's head out of its ass?" But I thought better of it. Either that or I couldn't pull the trigger quickly enough.

March 11, 2023

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Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov- "I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened."

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Aristotle, Metaphysics- “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

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William Shatner- “Ever put a dog down? When I have to put a dog down and I’m at the vet, I cup my dog’s head and I say, ‘I’m with you baby, I’m with you.’ And the injection goes in and the dog looks at me with love, and that’s it. You don’t know they’re dead. That’s how you die. It’s abrupt. My wife’s brother walked out of the living room and into the bedroom. There was a thud. His wife walked in, and he was dead. Death comes anew to all of us.”

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Aleister Crowley, The Lesser Key of Solomon- "You can only accomplish your object in life by complete disregard of the opinions of other people."

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Montaigne- "Why is people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people."

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Joan Didion- "I'm not telling you to make the world better, because I don't think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I'm just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave's a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that's what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it."

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Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms- "The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.

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Ricky Gervais- "What a year she’s had. She became a role model for trans people everywhere, showing great bravery in breaking down barriers and destroying stereotypes. She didn’t do a lot for women drivers, but you can’t have everything, can you?"

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Hagakure- "When one departs for the front, he should carry rice in a bag. His underwear should be made from the skin of a badger. This way he will not have lice. In a long campaign, lice are troublesome."

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Aquinas- "How is it they live in such harmony, the billions of stars, when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds?"

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Charles Bukowski, Women- "That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen."

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Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow- "This is the essence of intuitive heuristics: when faced with a difficult question, we often answer an easier one instead, usually without noticing the substitution."

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Mitch Hedberg- "One time I went to a craft fair, and I see a jar of jellybeans, it said "Guess how many jellybeans are in the jar, and you win a prize." Aw, come on, man. Let me just have some. I'll tell you what, you guess how many I want, if you said "a handful" you are right."

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Henry Miller- The World of Sex- "Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such. Life is now, every moment, no matter if the world be full of death. Death triumphs only in the service of life."

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Hunter S. Thompson, age 17, "So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who estates securely on shore and we are the existed?"

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Julio Cortazar- "In quoting others, we cite ourselves."

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Addendum 

From the Facebook profile of Historical and Archeology:

On March 11, 889, a 22-year-old Japanese emperor wrote in his diary about his new black cat.

“On the 6th Day of the 2nd Month of the First Year of the Kampo era. Taking a moment of my free time, I wish to express my joy of the cat. It arrived by boat as a gift to the late Emperor, received from the hands of Minamoto no Kuwashi.

The color of the fur is peerless. None could find the words to describe it, although one said it was reminiscent of the deepest ink. It has an air about it, similar to Kanno. Its length is 5 sun, and its height is 6 sun. I affixed a bow about its neck, but it did not remain for long.

In rebellion, it narrows its eyes and extends its needles. It shows its back.

When it lies down, it curls in a circle like a coin. You cannot see its feet. It’s as if it were circular Bi disk. When it stands, its cry expresses profound loneliness, like a black dragon floating above the clouds.

By nature, it likes to stalk birds. It lowers its head and works its tail. It can extend its spine to raise its height by at least 2 sun. Its color allows it to disappear at night.

I am convinced it is superior to all other cats.”



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