Srsly?!?

People are having tantrums because in the new Little Mermaid movie, Ariel is a mermaid of color.

Can you imagine what would happen if Tom and Jerry or Mickey and Minnie or Bugs Bunny or Captain America suddenly turned into characters of color?

The righties would freaking self-destruct!

Gimme That Old Time Music... or... Paddle Faster, I Hear...

Tubas?!?

Because someone has to do it.

Bewitched

I was watching Monty Python & The Holy Grail tonight, when this scene came on:

Remember this?

I looked it up on YouTube... then found this:

 

 

We could do worse than having Elvira in DC.

Gimme That Old Time Music

He does have a point, you know...

Gimme That Old Time Music - Holiday Edition

From a friend's Facebook post...

...And, for my friend Badtux, the cat-owned penguin®, a bonus, because they're just that good...

 

 

Mencken and TMF are looking forward to it.

 

 



Gimme That Old Time Music (That I) Heard Around the Barn...

A couple of weeks ago, two big bales of marijuana washed ashore at Jamison's Cove. Since it was tidal water, we had to notify the Marine Patrol and the Coast Guard.

Well, before either of the law enforcement agencies could get there, the bales were discovered by our local seagulls.

By the time the cops arrived....

.... wait for it....

There was no tern left un-stoned.

 

 

And in honor of our stoned gulls:

 



Haz-Mat... It's No Laughing Matter...

Well, yes, yes it is.

Sometimes.

This just showed up on Facebook, from one of the emergency management types:

This ranks right up there with the "Pink Shirt Guy"

 

 

HE shows up in just about every Haz-Mat PowerPoint I've ever seen.  Although, to be fair to PSG, if the crew is going to be taping their boots and gloves and wearing respirators, they should probably have their hoods on too.*

 

 

 

*Not that I have any haz mat training above awareness level. I simply use the rule of thumb: if I'm close enough so that I can't cover the entire scene with my thumb... I'm too freakin' close!!

 



I. Am. EVIL.

A few years back, when we were still in Michigan, I set the picture below as my desktop, then called our IT crew to tell them I had some weird error message on my screen. The tech -- fresh out of college -- looked at it and said, "I've never seen anything like this before."

Poor Aunt Lavinia...

My Aunt Lavinia hasn't been feeling well for the past couple of weeks, so we called the doctor. The doctor stopped to see her (yes, in Maine, doctors still make house calls). When he was done, he asked for a glass of water, so we steered him out to the well (there are still some things lacking here at Chez618). The doctor was leaning over a little too far, and fell into the well.

I pulled him out and told him to treat the sick, and leave the well alone.

(H/T Max Morath, the ragtime pianist I mentioned here)

Speaking of Cats...

 

 

Mr618, the non-cat, non-owned, non-penguin...

Heard Around the Barn...

I was working on the engine outside the Station a few days ago, when I noticed a little girl nearby in a little red wagon with little ladders hung off the sides and a garden hose tightly coiled in the middle.

The girl was wearing a firefighter's helmet.

The wagon was being pulled by her dog and her cat.

I walked over to take a closer look.

'That sure is a nice fire truck,' I said with admiration.

'Thanks,' the girl replied. The firefighter looked a little closer. The girl had tied the wagon to her dog's collar and to the cat's testicles.

'Little partner,' I said, 'I don't want to tell you how to run your rig, but if you were to tie that rope around the cat's collar, I think you could go faster. '

The little girl replied thoughtfully, 'You're probably right, but then I wouldn't have a siren.'

Good Fire Training Video

Via The Happy Medic...

Exactly!

From the lovely yet talented Mrs618...

Heh, indeedy.

Fox "News" - Fair and Balanced...

...and dumber than a box of rocks.

Only Fox would get a press release naming the crew of Asiana Flight 214 as "Sum Ting Wong," "Wi Tu Lo," "Ho Lee Fuk" and "Bang Ding Ow" and run with it.

As Curt Varone says on his Fire Law blog, "YCMTSU."

Actually, Like, You Know, Whatever...

Just saw this on Yapfui...

"You know," "whatever" is a really annoying term -- "like" "you know." We're "just sayin'."

When it comes to the most annoying words or phrases used in conversation, those four top the list in 2012, according to the annual Marist Poll.

But, actually, you know, like, they actually missed like the most annoying word yet...

Today's society seems to use "actually" the way kids use "like," which is starting to make me cranky.

I had to call the auto insurance folks the other day. The agent said "I'm actually looking at your account now." "Wow, you're ACTUALLY LOOKING AT IT?!? Wow, how cool is that?!?"

Where I used to work, I had to sit through a PowerPoint on a new software application... "Here, you can see I'm actually signed in..." No, you're NOT actually signed in, it's actually a screen capture of when you were actually signed in. I actually wanted to actually puke all over the presenter.

Or, to put it another way:

Although actually means “in an actual manner,” “really,” or “truly,” it has come to mean “in point of fact,” as well. I don't see this one abused too much in the written word, but some people (is it only MBAs, or does it just seem that way?) preface nearly every sentence with the word, and toss a few more into the middle of the occasional sentence, just in case we think they might be talking about something fictitious. Like hopefully and basically, actually is just an (unsuccessful) distraction from what the rest of the sentence says.

And, no, it's not only MBAs.

Just sayin'.

Too Good To Pass Up

Okay, I've been trying to be a good boy and cut back on the political diatribes, but this one was just too good. I think even if you're a Republican, if you're honest, you'll have to admit this is pretty funny. Plus, it shows that Obama's been listening to Jeff Foxworthy.



"Romnesia"

As Foxworthy's buddy Larry the Cable Guy would say, "I don't care who you are, that's funny right there."

Love It!

This past weekend, Knox and Waldo Counties in Maine held a joint exercise, simulating a plane crash into Penobscot Bay.

Best part of the whole story?

Ray O. Sisk of the Knox County EMA was the director of the event, and assisted in organizing the various agencies and the volunteers to ensure the exercise was as effective as possible for everyone involved.

According to Sisk, the volunteers were mostly people that they had worked with in the past, and included members of the Ragged Mountain ski patrol as well as some members of the Waldo county government.

“We call them 'red shirts,'” said Sisk, as an homage to the Star Trek actors who were known for being victims in every episode.

You can't make this stuff up.

Picture Source: http://www.trekp.com/gallery01.htm

I hope Gary doesn't mind if I link to him.

 

... After A Word From Our Sponsors...

Up here in Maine (and across New England, I'm sure), we've been treated to a new commercial from Dish Network, featuring a bunch of Bostonian-Americans discussing something called -- apparently -- the "hoppah." I haven't heard such thick Boston accents since Jack Kennedy.




This led me to wonder... does Dish do variations of this commercial for different regional accents? I tried calling Dish to find out, but the not-so-nice young lady at their call center called me an "@sshole" before she hung up on me.

Next up, we have a commercial from Little Tikes, for some new flying toy, with a typical Little Tikes theme song (couldn't find the exact commercial, but this one gives you the general idea):



Then, we were treated to the new Toyota Prius commercial: 



Am I the only one discouraged by the fact that Little Tikes sounds more grown up than the freakin' Prius?

Are you telling me the only way to sell a car is to sing like a 5-year-old?

Ya Can't Make This Stuff Up...

Today's "Hint from Heloise" (as seen in the Portland Press-Herald):

Dear Heloise: Twice in two years we have had a skunk move in under our patio enclosure.

Anyway, all I did was put a boombox-type radio on the floor and let it play on an all-night talk-radio station at a loud volume, and in the morning, the skunk was gone.

Was it the volume or the content?