Brian Greenberg reports today that our very own Chenopup has e-mailed him with the latest on that silly pizza stunt they’re trying to put together:

Just wanted to check in. I spoke to my ABC 4 contact yesterday. I will send her an email detailing what we’re doing and she will forward to Buena Vista contact for Regis / Kelly.

 

We may start some local press on this very soon.

I still can’t believe this is actually going to happen, let alone that there’s a possibility of national TV coverage. Crazy, man. I’ll keep you all posted as the story develops…

You get a strange sensation when you see someone you know on the evening news. It’s a feeling of disconnection, like what you’re seeing isn’t really real. You recognize the face in the still-frame, the name pronounced by the anchor, but you’re certain this can’t be the person you know, the one who’s been to your house, stood in your driveway chatting with your dad, drank your dad’s beer. It’s all got to be, as the disclaimers in the movies always say, purely coincidental that this guy looks so much like the one you know, and that he shares the same name, because, well, that just can’t be the same guy.
This curious feeling is doubled if your acquaintence is on the news because he’s done something… bad.

Continue Reading…

Proving yet again that people can get their knickers in a knot over the silliest things (and that the Internet enables them to share their pet peeves with a far vaster audience than they probably deserve), I see that a guy named Pieter Hintjens has launched a campaign to rid the world’s keyboards of that pesky CAPS LOCK key. From his blog manifesto:

Continue Reading…

Perusing the blogosphere’s reaction to the latest “security” restrictions imposed on air travelers, I ran across the following remark:

Continue Reading…

It has come to my attention that today is “National Ice Cream Sandwich Day.” I can’t think of a food item more deserving of its own holiday than the ice cream sandwich, surely one of the greatest achievements of western civilization. I made it through middle school on an ice cream sandwich a day, purchased for 35 cents from these groovy vending machines on which you’d hit a big blue rectangular button, flip open a little door, and watch in awe as this conveyor-feed thingie raised your sandwich up into the slot. The whole thing looked like something you’d build with an erector set, and I haven’t seen a machine like this since about 1985. Sigh… good times.

The holiday I’m really looking forward to, however, is coming up on August 8th; that’s “Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Night.” As anyone who’s ever been in Utah in the fall can attest, that’s the game that’d just keep on giving. Dang zucchini anyway. It’s like an unstoppable vegetable plague…

Oh, good Lord! This pizza thing just keeps getting more and more elaborate. Brian Greenberg has the latest details, but, in a nutshell, these crazy kids are now planning to fly Dave, the owner of Utah’s own Este, out to NYC with a chilled pie (not frozen, as that apparently yields unsatisfactory results) which he will bake somewhere in or around Rockefeller Center. Assuming, of course, that Brian can talk a nearby pizzeria into the use of their oven for some dippy Internet stunt. Meanwhile, Este Dave has decided to challenge three top New York pizza-makers and maybe one in Cincinnati. Brian fears this may turn into a full-blown reality-TV show before it’s over, and I can’t say I blame him. My head-spin is now up to about 45 RPMs; when it reaches 78, I’m going to start talking like Alvin the Chipmunk…

Every once in a while something magical comes along, fills me with wonder, and reminds me that the world actually isn’t a fetid stinkhole of pain and depression after all. I’ve encountered two such somethings today. The first was the doe and two fawns that crossed the road in front on me as I drove to the train station this morning (in the middle of suburban South Jordan, Utah, I might add). And the second is the Pratt Museum’s BearCam, a live video feed from the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary in Alaska, where bears like to congregate in the summer and feast on salmon. I just heard about this awesome little distraction through an article on Wired and within moments of clicking over there, I was watching a brown bear ambling through rushing waters in search of a tasty snack. Simply fascinating.

The camera operates from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Alaska Standard Time; between 1 and 5 p.m., an actual human being makes sure the camera is pointed at the action. Better hurry, though: according to the Wired article, the bears wander off in late August, whereupon the cam will be shut off for the season.

On a lighter note, my recent post featuring a gorgeous Manhattan sunset has generated quite a comments-thread discussion. At issue is whether those flat, round food items made of baked dough and covered in tomato sauce and cheese rightfully deserve the name “pizza” when they’re made anywhere but in New York.

Continue Reading…