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Mexico Trip Update: This month I've mostly been researching and constructing an itinerary for my son's and my trip throughout Mexico. My scaredypantsaphobia is causing me to reconsider flying. (The last time I flew was out of New York City on a stormy winter afternoon. The plane directly behind us on Runway 13 crashed into the Hudson River killing 157 people.)

You can see how our Mexico trip plans are developing by going to La Busca 2001 -- currently under frantic construction. Subscribe NOW to receive notices whenever this website is updated from South of the Border.

I recently had my Dada read on the Dada server. My secret name is Milton Bradley. The animal which symbolizes me is the moray eel. The color of my soul is bantam-belly cerulean. The celebrity I most resemble is Annette Funnicello. My most important time of day is the Mesozoic Era. And the flavor which identifies me most is gamy.

Quote of the Month:
"This whole case is going to shed a bad light on the BDSM group."
From an unidentified woman with ties to The Spokane Power Exchange, a BDSM (bondage/discipline/sadism/masochism) club whose president/poet, Edmund "Evilone" Ball III, was recently arrested in connection with the abduction of three Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute students.

Sadomasochist Ball and his perv buddies were arrested, handcuffed, made to suffer the degradation of being searched, fingerprinted and photographed, then incarcerated and fed gruel... They gotta be lovin' this.

From Spokesman-Review.com
Sunday, November 12, 2000 (a mere few days after running the "Nazi Priest" article)
Watching the recount like a hawk
`HEY, IF YOU'RE READING THIS . . . THIS IS BU`NK TYPE!!! THIS IS NOT TO RUN IN THE PAPER!!!! 0j0 0j0 0j0 0j0 000 000 XyX XyXyX XyXyX XyXX 0j0 0j0 0j0 0j0 000 0000 00 00 000 XyXyXyXyX XyXyX XyXyX XyXX THIS IS BUNK TYPE!!! THIS IS NOT TO RUN IN THE PAPER!!!! 0j0 0j0 0j0 0j0 000 0000 00 00 000 Xy

Some Dan Rather weirdisms from election night:
"These returns are running like a squirrel in a cage."
"It was as hot and squalid as a New York elevator in August."
"This race is as tight as a too-small bathing suit on a too-hot car ride back from the beach."
"We've lived by the crystal ball. We're eating so much broken glass, we're in critical condition."

Coin-flipping page. Click here to flip a coin.
Heads I win; tails you lose?

Top 100 Languages

"I've been doing the Fonda workout: The Peter Fonda workout. That's where I wake up, take a hit of acid, smoke a joint, and go to my sister's house and ask her for money."
Kevin Meaney

Hijacking Journalism or Pioneering it?
Here come the new media activists, with their video cameras, laptops, and microphones, providing up-to-the-minute radical "news." But can their marginal coverage be anything more than empowering propaganda? From Red Pepper.

Dancing to the "Star-Spangled Banner" is against the law in several American states.

Roger: Uh, I've already been to Texas, Washington, D.C. 
and France, but thanks for asking.

Pollock, Plato, and New Sheets: The Adventures on an Art Critic at IKEA
A stream-of-consciousness tour through IKEA, the Swedish furniture store for the masses. Ruminations on the state of art today and the way a person can buy an entire identity all in the comfort of one store. From The Stranger

"I'm an optimist, but I'm an optimist that carries a raincoat."
--- Harold Wilson

Mad Magazine celebrates its 400th issue. In a culture of parody, how does satire function? If there's no straight man, how does a joke work? A Mad magazine editor reveals the pressures of staying funny in a topsy-turvy world. From San Francisco Weekly

If the great horned owl were to be totally stripped of its feathers, the naked bird would weigh less than its feathers.

Our Founding Yuppie: Ben Franklin
Office parks are taking over America. But what is office-park culture doing to the national character? And who in history best represents the new exurban office-park mentality? The unlikely answer, it seems, is Benjamin Franklin.

The sole purpose of this box is to inform you of its purposelessness.

Mexico's Palenque
The official homepage of the current archaeology dig at this classic Maya site. From Mesoweb

"Women and cats will do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."
--- Robert A. Heinlein

All This Talk of Anarchy
Beneath tweedledum politics and brand-name culture, anarchism flows like an underground river, broad and deep. So why can't we get past the surface? From Adbusters

Philosophers are often criticized for holding strange and impractical ideas. Few have held ideas as radically counter to common sense as the Irish philosopher Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753). At the center of Berkeley's thinking is his extraordinary claim that nothing in the world exists except for ideas.

The history of chewing gum.

December 17-23: SATURNALIA
The most beloved of all Roman holidays, this weeklong festival honored Saturn, the god of agriculture. It was celebrated most heartily by slaves, who were granted freedom for the week. Household roles were reversed, with masters waiting hand and foot on their servants, enduring their complaints. Almost all business in the empire stopped as people indulged in a gay round of feasts, games, gambling, visits, and gift giving. Sound familiar?

"I love boxing. Where else do two grown men prance around in satin underwear, fighting over a belt?... The one who wins gets a purse. They do it in gloves. It's the accessory connection I love."
--- John McGovern

Life support systems on the International Space Station provide oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, and manage vaporous emissions from the astronauts themselves. It's all part of breathing easy in our new home in space. From NASA Science News

An increasingly popular term I hope to avoid: "Mouse potato"

Building a Dome Home
Do you want to live in a house that is both environmentally friendly and energy efficient? Build your own dome home. Noel Neighbor did, and tells the story of starting from the ground up. From BackHome Magazine

Half-Frozen Frogs have Chilling Tale to Tell
When the northern half of the planet tilts away from the sun each year, a Canada frog expert gets a "tad anxious" about his amphibian subjects. But not too anxious. Frogs can freeze "as hard as hockey pucks" and survive sub-zero temperatures for months at a time. From Environmental News Network

In 1547, British law was amended to end the practice of boiling people to death as punishment for criminal behavior.

Breathless: Silence Broken on Autoerotic Deaths What a way to die. Autoerotic asphyxia is the clinical term for a climax- intensifying chokehold taken a step too far. This sado-masochistic ritual may be yet another example of America's stubborn refusal to talk about sex perpetuating injury and death. From Nerve.com

Cool word: patois [n. pa-TWAH or PAT-wah.] pl. patois [pa-TWAH or PAT-wahz]
Patois is a form of language distinct to a particular region and lacking in literary tradition, or a creole. The word sometimes carries a negative connotation, suggesting that the speakers are uneducated. Patois most often describes a rural or provincial form of speech, but the meaning has been broadened to encompass other jargons as well. Near synonyms include cant, argot, idiom, and lingo. Introduced into English between 1635 and 1645, patois is akin to the Old French patoier (to handle clumsily). It is thought to come from the Old French pate (paw).

Abuse Charges Rock Guru's Followers
Sai Baba, a self-proclaimed holy man with as many as 50 million devotees around the world, has been charged with systematically sexually abusing boy disciples for years. From The Telegraph

Chuck Yeager, chosen to fly the Army's Bell X-1 to attempt to break the sound barrier, had suffered two broken ribs during a drunken horseback ride only two nights before the scheduled flight. He was in such pain he couldn't stretch his right arm, and had to use a sawed-off broomstick handle to reach the cabin door.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
--- Thomas Edison

Much ado about SG344
Later this century a relic from NASA's earliest space exploration efforts might return to Earth, if current estimates are confirmed. The near-Earth object, which follows an orbit almost identical to our planet's, looks like an asteroid but may be an Apollo-era rocket booster.

Germany condemned the death penalty as it opened its World Court lawsuit against the United States over the execution of two German citizens last year in Arizona.

"Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is."
--- Mark Twain

Next issue: Christmas

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