Monthly Archives: November 2005

Nov302005

Christmas Ideas For Yours Truly

About a year ago, I started a wish list on Amazon.com so I could keep track of titles that piqued my interest. I never intended to make the list public; it’s been purely for my own notekeeping up until now. The fact is, I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of posting a list here on my blog or sending it to everyone in my e-mail address book, because it seemed presumptuous or even arrogant to assume that anyone would want to buy me a gift for no particular reason. (Not to mention the potential embarassment factor once people have proof of how low my tastes actually run.)

However, as Anne pointed out to me recently, Christmas is fast approaching and I’m not the easiest guy in the world to buy for. So, for the benefit of my friends who read this and never know what I might like (as well as, I suppose, any strangers who might feel the need to send me stuff), I have re-evaluated my thinking about wish lists and decided to go ahead and post a link to mine. If you live here in the valley, I urge you to use this list as a source of ideas only. Write down the title and go buy the book locally — Sam Weller’s and The King’s English need your support. As for my friends who live out of state or otherwise don’t wish to see me in person this holiday season, feel free to use the Amazon system.

And now, without further lame preamble, I give you:

Bennion’s Amazon.com wishlist.

Happy shopping…

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Nov302005

Cool Photo of Mimas

I won’t make the “that’s no moon, that’s a space station” remark, because every other blogger who’s ever posted a picture of Saturn’s moon Mimas has already said it. Even so, I gotta say that this thing looks enough like the Death Star to give me the willies. We’d better hope that really is just a big impact crater there in the upper hemisphere, and that this thing doesn’t someday start moving toward Earth under its own power…

Mimas with rings.jpg

Technical note, for those who may care: this image of Mimas against the backdrop of Saturn’s rings was taken by the Cassini spacecraft. Details can be found here.

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Nov292005

Pecorelli Again!

Interesting…

You may recall that the death of Hunter S. Thompson last spring inspired me to reminisce about a colorful character I once knew — or knew of, to be more accurate — a writer by the name of John Pecorelli. You may further recall that I was subsequently contacted by some acquaintances of Pecorelli’s (see this entry and this one if you want to refresh your memory).

Well, it’s happened again. Earlier this afternoon, someone calling themself CAY stumbled across my little corner of the InterWeb and left a comment about the legendary Pecorelli in the previous entry. I’ve decided not to let the comment publish there, since it has nothing to do with the entry’s actual topic, but I’ve reproduced it in its entirety here, along with my response:

Continue Reading…

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Nov292005

More South Park Kids

That South Park-ifier I found the other day is turning out to be a lot of fun. Two of my three loyal readers, The Girlfriend and Cranky Robert, have submitted their visions of themselves to the proprietor of this blog, and I’ve also cobbled together my own version of Anne. I am frankly amazed at how accurate these things are, if you know who they’re supposed to be. To illustrate, I’m going to post these new examples here with links to photos from my gallery for comparison. And because all the images I’ve posted lately are probably making download times miserable for the poor schmucks like me that are still running on dial-up connections, I’ll put them below the fold, for your convenience. Click through if you dare!

Continue Reading…

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Nov292005

Presenting Gary Coleman in His Greatest Role

Thanks to an assist from one of you lovely readers out there, I’m now able to show you Gary Coleman as he appeared in the Buck Rogers episode “Cosmic Wiz Kid,” which first aired on November 15, 1979:


Gary Coleman as Heironymous Fox

For the record, he hasn’t changed much in the last 26 years. Well, aside from the crow’s feet, a shorter haircut, and an improved sense of fashion, of course…

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Nov282005

The ’80s in a Nutshell

I’ve been googling around trying to find a photo of Gary Coleman as Heironymous Fox in that Buck Rogers episode I mentioned earlier. No luck on that front, but I did find this gem of an image:


This picture contains just about everything you need to know about television in the early ’80s… I love it!

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Nov282005

Just Another Guy Buying Dog Food

So, the Girlfriend and I were at PetSmart yesterday, picking up a Christmas gift for her poodle, Rusty. (In case you’re wondering, we bought him a pleather aviator’s coat with a faux shearling lining, very dashing and manly. Hey, he’s a poodle, he needs all the external machofication he can get.)

I’d just picked up the bag containing the new dog-jacket from the cashier’s counter and was turning to leave when I nearly collided with another shopper. I drew up short and let him pass by without really seeing him. Just another guy in a hurry, I thought, trying to get in and out of the store on a busy day with a minimum of hassle. I’d taken several steps toward the exit before I managed to process my quick impressions into a complete picture:

African-American (obvious), probably about my age (crow’s-feet around the eyes), vertically challenged in a major way (he rose only to the level of my chest, and I’m only a hair over five-six), and there was something familiar about his face…

I stopped again and put my hand on Anne’s arm.

“That was Gary Coleman,” I said.

Continue Reading…

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Nov282005

Gonna Have Myself a Time

I’ve only recently become familiar with the TV series South Park, and I still haven’t decided exactly what I think of it. I find that for every joke that connects with me during any given episode, there are three more that leaving me sitting in stony silence, wondering why in the hell I’m wasting my time with this vulgar crap. Still, the jokes that do connect are brutally effective, and there’s also something oddly endearing about the look of the foul-mouthed main characters, crudely drawn and barely animated though they may be. Now, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I know what I would look like if I were magically transmogrified into a South Park kid:

Scarily accurate, isn't it?

So what do you think? Can’t you just see the plush toys made from my cartoony likeness?

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Nov262005

Huh… This Is Unexpected

I just took the Tortured Artist Test, fully expecting to learn that I’m one shot of absinthe away from dying unloved and frustrated in a drafty garrett somewhere. As it turns out, though…

I am 32% Tortured Artist.
I know Art, I just don't live it.

I have some artistic ability, but it is probably a hobby and doesn’t drive my life into a dark abysmal hole where I am alone and against the world.

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Nov252005

Homemade Toys

A week or so back, I followed a link from Boing Boing to a wonderfully nostalgic LiveJournal entry in which the author recounts how he saved a beloved childhood toy from the junkheap. This particular toy was made for him by his father some time in the late ’60s; it’s a spaceship control console, probably inspired by Star Trek or Lost in Space, built of plywood and decked out with knobs, toggle switches, big ol’ throttle levers, and, best of all, working lights and motorized, spinning “scanner screens.” The entry includes several photographs of the console, and it’s truly a beautiful relic of a time that now seems impossibly remote, before Xboxes and iPods and all the other things that kids think they need these days to have a good time.

Continue Reading…

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