"Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time." -- George Carlin (died June 2008)

Spit Happens

funicular

"Funicular." It starts with fun, so it can't be bad, right? Wrong. That would be like sticking your head in a raging furnace, hoping to see a fern.  Chances are 80-20 that if something is "-icular" it is going to be nasty. You know what I mean:  cancerous prefixes like "test-" or "mast-" -- and manslaughtery ones like "vehi-" or "curr-" -- all leap immediately to mind. But to be "funicular," in particular, is to be ropey and nasty. The root of the word is "funicle," which in botany is a term that refers to the stalk of an ovule or seed. In…

Dead Cat Bounce

If shooting a frail little kittie out of a high-powered cannon is your idea of fun, then just wait until you try Dan Fleming's "Kitten Cannon" game -- where the aim is not only to watch the fuzzball fly, but to make that feline soar as far as possible by ricocheting its body off of trampolines, bombs, and TNT stockpiles...but look out for the Venus Fly Traps and metal spike pits! I'm a cat lover and I can't seem to stop playing this game long enough to finish my letter to the ASPCA.  Ah well, maybe it isn't so bad: this tortured…

"You are more useful to Nature dead than alive." -- U.G. Krishnamurti (died 2007)

Rest in Green Peace