More proselytizing by license plate

This license plate orders you to be holy - UBHOLY. Or maybe they really like UB40 but wished that they had sung christian reggae.

I just wonder how effective license plate evangelization is. Are you converted? It has the drama the fundamentalists like. In the blink of an eye at the stop light I realized that I had been saved. Then the guy behind me honked because the light had been green for a while. "What are you having a religious experience or something?" he yelled. Why yes, yes I was.

tags: license plates, proselytize

We must stamp out the cuculoupe abominations!

This article announcing the accidental cross (abomination!) of cucumbers and cantaloupes caused me to run out to my garden and ensure that I hadn't also produced a freak of nature. My cucumbers are starting to produce but my cantaloupe is behind so I am safe. Here are two sample cucumbers from the garden, the yellow one was very overripe because it was hidden behind foliage and left on the vine to long. The green (hopefully perfectly ripe) one is almost 18 inches long (as shown by the included 18 inch ruler).

tags: gardening, Delaware, cucumber, cantaloupe, cuculoupe

Pick an Apocalypse to prepare for.

It turns out I am already prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse. Having an apocalypse team ready to go for such an event is very important.

Take the quiz:
What Kind of Apocalypse Are You?

Zombie apocalypse
You are stubborn and headstrong, but your methodical and straightforward nature comes in handy when you are in the middle of a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. Just remember that a little flexibility and paying close attention to your assets will help you a great deal when fighting off hordes of the undead. Don't let the lumbering beasts of terror get you down, with a little determination you can get through anything.

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!
Remember, aim for the head!

(via Exploding Aardvark)

tags: Apocalypse, Zombies, Apocalypse Team

Seafood you'll crave after watching the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

We saw the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last night. In this sequel the characters showed an ambiguity of morals (except for Orlando Bloom's William Turner, of course) that created good fights and dramatic tension in the movie.

The movie was as fun as the first one, and the special effects, especially for Captain Davey Jones and his crew, were seamless. Davey Jones' cursed crew are slowly turning into collections of sea creatures and, rather than scare or horrify me, it made me hungry. I shouldn't have seen it on an empty stomach. Here is the list of what I crave.

Stone Crab Claws - my favorite are in Key West in October when they are in season, yum! Go to the Half Shell Raw Bar to eat them.


Conch Fritters - best are at the Rusty Pelican on the Rickenbacker Causeway on Key Biscayne.


Fried Calamari - but the dipping sauce has to be perfect, I actually prefer a good marinara sauce, simple yet delicious. (calamari is squid, or maybe Kraken, but not octopus)


Mussels Fra Diavolo - because making a deal with Davy Jones is like dealing with the devil.

tags: Stone Crab Claws, Conch Fritters, calamari, Fra Diavolo, movies, review, food, Pirates of the Caribbean

Separated at birth: Davey Jones and Cthulhu

Davey Jones and Cthulhu, separated at birth?







I know I seem to have Lovecraft on the brain lately, but when it is thrown up in your face like with Davey Jones, the villain in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, something must be said. Let's explore the similarities between Captain Davey Jones, in his recent Disney incarnation, and Cthulhu, unspeakable Great Old One. (Spoilers follow people, you are warned!)

Davey Jones: Tentacles suitable for playing the organ.
Cthulhu: Suitably tentacled.

Cthulhu: Waking him will drive you insane.
Davey Jones: Driven insane by his lost love.

Cthulhu: Lives in a city under the sea (just like SpongeBob SquarePants).
Davey Jones: Drives a boat under the sea (just like SpongeBob SquarePants).

Davey Jones: Stores his still beating heart in a chest.
Cthulhu: Alien creature who may not even have a heart to pump its blood.

Cthulhu: "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming"
Davey Jones: On his ship Davey Jones likes sailing

(Not this Davey Jones!)





tags: Lovecraft, Cthulu, Science Fiction, movies, Davey Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean

Baby don't get mad, that's how we roll.

Baby don't get MAD
That's How We ROLL.

I assume this is from the song, "We Roll", by Dame Four.

Communication by soaped rear window, while I waste time on this blog!

More Crazy Delaware Blue Hen News Round Up - now with more chickens

License Plates and the Delaware Blue Hen:

The other day, I think I actually saw the car driven by YoUDee, the mascot for the University of Delaware. I assume that his license plate would be "Blue hen", but that he would be unable to spell and put BLUHENS. YoUDee himself (stands for UD, University of Delaware, get it?) is a giant Delaware Blue Hen. (and can skate as shown in this picture from the University of Delaware YoUDee website)


The Delaware militia men (and eventually the University of Delaware sports teams, and Delawareans in general) got the nickname, the fighting blue hens, because of the successful breed of rooster they used in the cock fights they staged during their leisure time between battles in the Revolutionary War. Delaware troops also fought well against the British, but no chickens were used.

Roasted Chicken Anyone?

The Delmarva peninsular (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) is world famous for the chickens they raise. If you drive to the southern part of Delaware you cannot miss the chicken houses for the smell, especially if you have the top down on the convertible, whew! One Laurel chicken house staged an impromptu Fourth of July barbecue when it caught fire and killed 3000 chickens, at an estimated damage of $13,000 (about $4.33 a chicken!). Firefighters were able to douse the fire with BBQ sauce and a spicy Jamaican rub.

The 8000 survivors will not be allowed back into their home until the damage is fixed. I am thinking of taking up a collection for these poor chickens.

New Jersey's Gambling Loss is Delaware's Gambling Gain:

In a stunning example of why less government is better, New Jersey's budget balancing woes have forced them to shut down the Atlantic City casinos. New Jersey's loss is Delaware's gain as stranded gamblers are so desperate that they are boarding busses for Delaware gambling areas at Delaware Park and Dover Downs.

Only essential state employees are still on the job in New Jersey. They should be careful not to call the gambling inspectors, park rangers or anyone else on the payroll nonessential, lest the voters wake up and realize how nonessential the Governor and the State Legislature might be. The shut down of the casinos and subsequent reapportionment of gamblers between the states should be good research fodder for econometricians down the road some day. Unfortunately, you cannot gamble on cockfighting in Delaware anymore. I guess those Blue Hens finally beat all of the other chickens.

(this is to catch up from the last Delaware Crazy Blue Hen News Round Up, which had no chickens)

tag: Delaware, YoUDee, Blue Hens, Delmarva, chickens, gambling, New Jersey

Swarms of Firebugs

Not pyromaniacs, but Pyrrhocoris apterus, at least that is what my research seems to indicate. These bugs were forming huge clusters on the brick walkway and on available plants. The trick was to avoid stepping on them during the move.

As far as I can tell they are firebugs. This is close to their mating season.

Circle of Life.


tag: garden, firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus

Lego Liberty Bell at the Philadelphia Airport

I captured this picture of a Lego Liberty Bell at the Philadelphia Airport. It is tucked away on the A terminal, but you can't take the moving walkway, if you do you, will go right past it. I thought it might be appropriate for the season, "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

That is a lot of Legos.

Some others have noticed it and also taken pictures.

tag: legos, Philadelphia Airport, Liberty Bell

This aura quiz and the decline of civilization

Your Aura is Violet

Idealistic and thoughtful, you have the mind and ideas to change the world. And you have the charisma of a great leader, even if you don't always use it! The purpose of your life: saying truths that other people dare not say Famous violets include: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony Careers for you to try: Political Activist, Inventor, Life Coach

What Color Is Your Aura?

(found at Exploding Aardvark)

This reminds me of the indigo children, so called because their auras are indigo, and supplied as a New Age reason for why there is growth in the number of children with attention deficit disorder and Asperger's syndrome. The indigo child concept was first publicized by the book The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived., written by the husband and wife Lee Carroll and Jan Tober. And these two have cashed in on their own phenomenon with many more books and a cottage industry (Think L. Ron Hubbard and Dianetics, but with him actually, maybe believing it!). Carroll describes himself as a channeller for Kryon, an angelic being. Whatever.

The indigo children in turn are evocative of the blue children described in the fist novel in the Stephen Baxter Manifold series, Manifold: Time. Firstly, Baxter remembers that he is writing science fiction. His blue children are programmed by the downtimers, the descendants of humanity in the extreme far future, trillions of years from the present, almost to the heat death of the universe. They send messages and the means back to the blue children in the present to destabilize the false vacuum of the universe. Much more interesting than plain old ADD.

Now, it is one thing when traditional religions are replaced with an atheistic rationalism borne of empiricism and scientific thought. What I can't stand is the downward slide toward neo-paganism represented by taking any belief from anywhere, worship the trees, crystal energy, alien revelations, Scientology, New Age fluff and turning it into a full blown religion that I am supposed to respect as much as any other. Conveniently, most of these new "beliefs" have as a tenant that they cannot be understood by "Western", patriarchal, rational, empirical (pick your once neutral, but now perjorative term) science. This disbelief in simple science and the scientific method will be the end of civilization. This distrust is also found on the complete oppoiste side of the coin among the fundementalists of the "estabilished" religions.

I suppose I am a hypocrite (see blog title), should Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism or any of these older religions be any more "rational" than one I just invented today? Some part of me I can't explain (and cannot be measured by empirical means) says so. The history of the older religions and their reliance on building a code of ethics based on their beliefs may perhaps be what separates them from the others. I am not worshipping crystals!

tag: auras, indigo children, New Age, Stephen Baxter, Science Fiction, religion