2blowhards.com is all on about music, books and architecture. It’s a great little story about pre-conceived notions, the universal acceptance of music, and the inaccesible nature of capital-L literature and capital-A architecture.

Ranting a bit today, sorry. And nostalgic, now that I’m back in NYC, for some good Mexican cooking,

Actually, Mexican food has nothing to do with the post, except that poor Michael got some good grub in California and is now missing it. My hook is, every time I read this kind of thing, I have to sit and wonder why in the world a city the size of NYC has no good Mex, or even better, Tex-Mex. Provided I could find a space and get all the permits, I could be there in 24 hours serving honest, tasty Texas grub. I think the vast majority of Noo Yawkers would quail in horror at their first taste of real pico de gallo, and my life as a restaurant magnate would be over before it got started.

Oh. My. Lord.

SHOCKED six-year-old Leah Lowland checked out a mystery bulge on her Incredible Hulk doll and uncovered a giant green WILLY.

Curious Leah noticed a lump after winning the monster, catchphrase “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry,” at a seaside fair.

And when she peeled off the green comic-book character’s ripped purple shorts, she found the two-inch manhood beneath them.

Horrified Leah immediately ran to mum Kim and reported the find. And last night Kim called for a ban on the saucy toy. She said: “A hulk with a bulk like this just shouldn’t be allowed.

“Considering the doll is only 12-inches tall it’s amazing how big his willy is.

“And it’s definitely not an extra piece of material left on by mistake.”

Do yourself a favor (?) and go look at the pictures. Like I say, “wacky.”

Found it at Country Store…

…so says Chris at Flyover Country:

One of my jobs at the lake is to mow. We have a tractor with a mowing attachment and a riding lawnmower. I mainly take the tractor job, it takes a little longer but I like to drive the tractor.
You would think that after several years of doing this I would learn to wear a pair of pants while mowing, but nope. Woke up this morning with a nice case of poison ivy on my hip and on my calves.

Well, who wouldn’t?

UPDATE: I completely spaced out the best part of the post, now added and underlined above. I highly recommend wearing pants while mowing, whether it be with a tractor, riding mower, or the push kind. Nekkid mowing is a royal pain in the…well, you know.

You can get your daily dose of insider dish on the Tour De France from, of all places, Midland’s own Eric Siegmund at the Fire Ant Gazette. Who knew a flatlander could tell you all about the the race run in the French Alps on twisty roads that lie like discarded string on the mountainside, disguising the face of the devil?*

* Schtick stolen from Junior Miller, who is apparently gone for another damn week, depriving me of my morning Gentle Musings.

All too infrequently, ACDouglas unleashes a corker, and I think again that there is hope for the insufferable high-brows of the world:

I like TV wildlife films. Truly I do. And I’m grateful for them as well. How else would I experience all those natural wonders? Without TV wildlife films I’d have to go out there, wouldn’t I. Out there where the animals live. Out there in steamy jungles, fetid swamps, dank forests and bone-chilling waters. Out there tramping through pouring rain and blazing sun; through sandstorms and blizzards. And when I wanted to rest I’d have to make do with makeshift shelter: no air conditioning, no running water, no toilets, no Seinfeld reruns. It’s enough to make a civilized man shudder and slop his café brûlot about.

And this was from 1999! I wonder what he thinks of the nature shows on the toob nowadays.

I’m sure there’s someone else out there with worse luck regarding their blog qua blog, but I’ll be damned if I know who it might be

The story so far (short version)…..

The evil and incompetent hosting company known as Feature Price has been bought out by Atlantic.net. Feature Price has shut down without giving Atlantic.net access to their equipment. Atlantic.net generously promised to get former Feature Price customers back up and running within 72 hours if we signed up with Atlantic.net. The naive housewife/blogger from Oklahoma actually believed them and signed up, received some contradictory instructions, asked for clarification of these instructions and heard no more for well over 72 hours. Naive housewife said bad things about web hosting companies and the state of Florida in general and started looking for a web host in Oklahoma where she could at least drive over and get in someone’s face if they ever try to ignore her. But finally on the 4th day….a response from Atlantic.net…

I don’t know how the story will end but I will be back eventually.

Lynn

This after her previous host garbled up her MT installation, gobbled up her MT database, then denied any knowledge of ever supporting MT, forcing her to go to a hand-coded blog (shudder). Lynn defines grace under pressure. Good luck, and you can always call Nothing Special. Os is tops.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal does something that too few city dailies bother to do anymore: an investigation into the unsavory tactics of the industry that built, and continues to sustain, the entire reason the newspaper exists. That’s rare anymore, at least in my experience.

The article itself is quite disturbing: basically, gamblers who have done nothing wrong, and broken no law of any kind, are being detained, strip-searched, harassed, handcuffed, interrogated and physically intimidated by casino security guards, under the watchful eye of the state Gaming Control Board, and with the explicit support of the Las Vegas PD. The guys they’re giving the business to are so-called advantage gamblers: hole-carders, card-counters, shuffle-trackers. Big-brain types who know how to regularly win at blackjack because of sloppy dealers and/or bad casino practices and/or plain ol’ mathematics. Hell, one guy did nothing more than find a row of $1 slots that were set to pay off as if they were $100 slots — a humongous mistake by the casino, but it’s their mistake. The casinos don’t give me my money back when I make a stupid mistake at the tables.

If you fancy yourself a gambler, you want to read this article. Kinda scary when state agencies are showing up on your doorstep simply because you beat the system designed to make sure you lose. What next? Are they gonna be arresting people for taking advantage of mis-marked prices at the grocery store?

Found it at Heretical Ideas…

Big Bill Quick is back in the saddle, ladies and germs.