By RG Johnson
THERE’S A MOOSE LOOSE IN THE CABOOSE
ON A TRAIN THAT IS FILLED WITH PRUNE JUICE
IN A VOICE OF DESPAIR “HOW’D A MOOSE GET IN THERE?”
SAID THE CONDUCTOR WHOSE NAME TAG READ BRUCE
Monthly Archives: June 2009
Pixar Grant’s a Girl’s Dying Wish
Disney’s Pixar Animation Studio received a message from a friend of the family of ten-year-old Colby Curtin who was dying of cancer. The message told Pixar that the girl wanted to stay alive long enough to see Up. She was too sick to risk being moved to a movie theater and a DVD was the only possible option. It seems that Pixar management dispatched an employee to the girl’s home with a DVD, a poster and some toys based on the movie. The girl was able to enjoy the screening even though she could not open her eyes. As the movie played, her mother described the images on screen. The girl passed away several hours later with her family at her side.
This is sad story, but it’s a great thing Pixar did and it was a wonderful wish for a little girl to have. Very nice. I’m sure this simple act by a few people at a big company made a sick little girl very happy in her last hours. Well done, Pixar.
Animation: Sarumomo
Japanese artist Takumi K. made this animation that’s based on ideas from his daughter. It’s a moving story that has been featured on YouTube.
I found this via Cold Hard Flash.
Grimms’ Fairy Tales: The Fisherman and His Wife
There was once on a time a Fisherman who lived with his wife in a miserable hovel close by the sea, and every day he went out fishing. And once as he was sitting with his rod, looking at the clear water, his line suddenly went down, far down below, and when he drew it up again he brought out a large Flounder. Then the Flounder said to him, “Hark, you Fisherman, I pray you, let me live, I am no Flounder really, but an enchanted prince. What good will it do you to kill me? I should not be good to eat, put me in the water again, and let me go.” “Come,” said the Fisherman, “there is no need for so many words about it — a fish that can talk I should certainly let go, anyhow,” with that he put him back again into the clear water, and the Flounder went to the bottom, leaving a long streak of blood behind him. Then the Fisherman got up and went home to his wife in the hovel.
Grimms’ Fairy Tales: Straw, Coal and Bean
In a village dwelt a poor old woman, who had gathered together a dish of beans and wanted to cook them. So she made a fire on her hearth, and that it might burn the quicker, she lighted it with a handful of straw. When she was emptying the beans into the pan, one dropped without her observing it, and lay on the ground beside a straw, and soon afterwards a burning coal from the fire leapt down to the two. Then the straw began and said, “Dear friends, from whence do you come here?” The coal replied, “I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped by main force, my death would have been certain, — I should have been burnt to ashes.” The bean said, “I too have escaped with a whole skin, but if the old woman had got me into the pan, I should have been made into broth without any mercy, like my comrades.” “And would a better fate have fallen to my lot?” said the straw. “The old woman has destroyed all my brethren in fire and smoke; she seized sixty of them at once, and took their lives. I luckily slipped through her fingers.”
Grimms’ Fairy Tales: The White Snake
A long time ago there lived a king who was famed for his wisdom through all the land. Nothing was hidden from him, and it seemed as if news of the most secret things was brought to him through the air. But he had a strange custom; every day after dinner, when the table was cleared, and no one else was present, a trusty servant had to bring him one more dish. It was covered, however, and even the servant did not know what was in it, neither did anyone know, for the King never took off the cover to eat of it until he was quite alone.
Grimms’ Fairy Tales: The Three Snake Leaves
There was once on a time a poor man, who could no longer support his only son. Then said the son, “Dear father, things go so badly with us that I am a burden to you. I would rather go away and see how I can earn my bread.” So the father gave him his blessing, and with great sorrow took leave of him. At this time the King of a mighty empire was at war, and the youth took service with him, and with him went out to fight. And when he came before the enemy, there was a battle, and great danger, and it rained shot until his comrades fell on all sides, and when the leader also was killed, those left were about to take flight, but the youth stepped forth, spoke boldly to them, and cried, “We will not let our fatherland be ruined!” Then the others followed him, and he pressed on and conquered the enemy. When the King heard that he owed the victory to him alone, he raised him above all the others, gave him great treasures, and made him the first in the kingdom.
Grimms’ Fairy Tales: Hansel and Gretel
Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. He had little to bite and to break, and once when great scarcity fell on the land, he could no longer procure daily bread. Now when he thought over this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his anxiety, he groaned and said to his wife, “What is to become of us? How are we to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for ourselves?” “I’ll tell you what, husband,” answered the woman, “Early to-morrow morning we will take the children out into the forest to where it is the thickest, there we will light a fire for them, and give each of them one piece of bread more, and then we will go to our work and leave them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be rid of them.” “No, wife,” said the man, “I will not do that; how can I bear to leave my children alone in the forest? — the wild animals would soon come and tear them to pieces.” “O, thou fool!” said she, “Then we must all four die of hunger, thou mayest as well plane the planks for our coffins,” and she left him no peace until he consented. “But I feel very sorry for the poor children, all the same,” said the man.
Weird Tales: ‘Late Night TV’
By Heidi Logothetti
Heidi Logothetti was born in Northern California and attended Santa Clara University. She currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and works in Washington, DC. She is an omnivorous reader, enjoys hiking, and loves old movies and anime.
Today’s weird little tale concerns a woman and her television. What’s the TV saying? Listen. It has something on its mind. Through the chatter and between the channel surfs, is it trying to say more than you think?
Adult Themes – Not Intended for Young Children
Iran: A Nation of Bloggers
Created by Hendy Sukarya, Aaron Chiesa, Toru Kageyama and Lisa Temes as a student production, this film offers interesting information about the revolution of young people in Iran who have made the repressive Islamic nation the third largest nation of bloggers in the world. It is very well done and packs a good informational punch. Young bloggers getting their words out from under the watchful eye of an extremist religious government is admirable. But a nation that becomes a fanatical religious state run by clerics who kill people for speaking out cannot be trusted even a little. That goes for its young bloggers too. I am wholly unconvinced by the urge to ‘freedom’ in Iran. It requires a fire much stonger than a blog to burn religion out of a government.
Is Amazon Run by a Simpleton?
Tim O’Reilly has posted quotes from an interview with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
“We’ve co-evolved with our tools for thousands of years,” he says, explaining how ease of Kindle buying changes behavior.
“Reading is an important enough activity that it deserves a purpose-built device….It’s a myth that multi-purpose devices are always better…. I like my phone… I like my swiss army knife too, but I’m also happy to have a set of steak knives.”
“I get grumpy now when I have to read a physical book….The physical book has had a great 500 year run, but it’s time to change.”
Hmmm. First of all, anyone who uses the expression ‘swiss army knife’ in a conversation is skating on very thin ice because if he actually owns one he understands perfectly well that those things are not ‘multi-purpose’ at all. And no army in the world carries them. Secondly, if Mr. Bezos is grumpy when he has to read a physical book, he should get out of the bloody book selling business. What a simpleton. During Amazon’s entire history of steady growth as the Wal-Mart of the internet, I have never heard Mr. Bezos utter a single intelligent or captivating remark.
Thirdly, I think it is very clear that Mr. Bezos gets grumpy whenever he has to read anything at all.
Bob Dylan Needs a Blog
This is Bob Dylan with his typewriter. I got the image from a nice blog called Daily Dose of Dylan. I know Mr. Dylan really likes playing his music everywhere and I sure like listening to him when he does it. But I have a message for him too: Hey, you with the boots, you really should make a blog and write in it. Not a fake one. A real one that you write for on a laptop in airports and stuff like that. Or on long bus rides. That would be something I’d read. I always wonder what a blog by Jack Kerouac might have been like had he been around to write one. I don’t want to die without knowing what a Bob Dylan blog would be like.
Iran Protests Are Irrelevant
The rallies and protests in support of opposition presidential candidate Hossein Moussavi or current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran are totally irrelevant. The president of Iran is purely a middle-management position that reports to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenie who is an Islamic religious leader of a theocratic state. The protesters in the current uprising are arguing for their votes to be counted in a meaningless election which does nothing but support a theocratic regime that rules the entire country by their interpretation of the word of god. The religious government of Iran completely suppresses anything that might pass as free speech, it treats women like animals who have no rights and who count as only one half of a man. It also threatens to wipe other nations off the face of the globe.
If I were a crowd of a few million protesters in Iran (after all, crowds often act as a single entity), I would not bother about protesting presidential votes. I would remove the Supreme Leader and the Guardian Counsel completely and by any means necessary. I would eliminate the religious government entirely. Only then would the protests have any meaning. Only then would there be any possibility of a free election. And only then would I take the protests seriously. It’s all or nothing, folks. If you don’t like your government, get rid of it. Meanwhile, you’re just a side-show.
Online Comic of James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’
Robert Berry is adapting Ulysses by James Joyce into web comic form. It’s very watercolory and seems to capture that disjointed free-floating narrative of the novel pretty well.
I found this via Literary Kicks.
Civilization: A Film that Takes You From Hell to Heaven
I love this! It’s a video created by artist Marco Brambilla for installation in the elevators of the Standard Hotel in New York City. The artist worked with a production company called Crush. The video takes you on a journey from hell to heaven. Where’s Dante when you really need him? On the elevators at the hotel, the film goes up toward heaven if the elevator is rising, down to hell if you’re going down. Clever. I think I’ll spend a weekend at the Standard Hotel inside the elevator.