Europeans are absolutely crazy about soccer. This past July, we arrived in Toulouse for our vacation on the day France beat Brazil to enter the semi-finals in the world championships. Toulouse went out of it’s mind. Drunk Frenchmen hijacked anything and everything they could find. They stole dump trucks, were dancing in the street and even commandeered a semi, piled about 50 people on it, and set it on fire. (Yes, apparently, the French light things on fire when they’re mad, and they light things on fire when they’re happy; there’s an odd sense of symmetry there that is indicative about the French life.)
Anyway, I don’t think this is a French commercial - I’m pretty sure it’s Italian - but this is a great example of European soccer fanaticism.
We put together a video of our ski trip with Pat and Val at Whistler, finally. You can find a downloadable QuickTime version on the Video page.
Note: The quality of this version is lower than the Quicktime version available here. For best results, watch the Quicktime verison. Some of the music in this video contains explicit lyrics which may not be suitable for children or work.
Ok. Lets face it. Team America, World Police - the guys who put the “F” back in Freedom - is hysterical. It’s as simple as that. We watched it with Pat (who hadn’t seen it) and Val (who had) at Whistler, and Michelle, Val, and I were all laughing so hard that Pat left the room to go to sleep because he litterally could not hear any of the dialog. It’s brilliantly written and the satire is perfect. But there’s more. There’s a whole layer of funny behind the perfect South Park style of brash, unapologetic messages to the political Left and Right (not to mention the ridiculous habit of celebrities to get involved in world affairs).
Yes, that layer is the sixties TV Series, Thunderbirds. Michelle and I have been fans of this show for some time; we even own all the episodes and both full-length features. Thunderbirds was a brilliant show about a rich father, his sons, and two housekeepers who policed the world, fighting villains and aliens alike with their sophisticated ships and elaborate plans. The creators of the Thunderbirds took their project extremely seriously, and were masters at the art of marionette to the point of a new art being created: SuperMarionation. Aside from their fantastic skill at moving the puppets and their interaction with each other, the creators built elaborate sets in full Mid-Century Modern style: Eames, Corbusier, and Noguchi all feature prominently in their fantastic MCM home. Being MCM enthusiasts ourselves, this feature provides a key entertainment: picking out architectural icons from the scenes.
I’m sorry to both of the supporters of President Shrub out there who still think he’s not retarded. But this proves it. George W. Bush is a Presitard. You heard it here first. The man can’t speak, he can’t ride a Segway, and he sure as hell can’t dance. (Not Suitable For Lunch - NSFL)
You gotta love that Southern education. On our way out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, we came across this home-made closed sign. From the street, it looked like the author had simply run out of space to write on his crappy, poorly painted-over Good Humor sign, but it turned out, upon the requisite closer inspection, that the author had initially written, “Closd”. In a display of clever “outside of the box” thinking, he simply used alcohol (probably some moonshine) to clean off the end of the “D” and change it into an “E”. I imagine the satisfaction in his eyes as he stood back to admire his work before his buddy commented, “Hey, Poodle. That there says ‘CLOSE.’” A couple of swigs of the selfsame moonshine later, a solution was found.
We watched it with Pat (who hadn’t seen it) and Val (who had) at Whistler, and Michelle, Val, and I were all laughing so hard that Pat left the room to go to sleep because he litterally could not hear any of the dialog. It’s brilliantly written and the satire is perfect. But there’s more. There’s a whole layer of funny behind the perfect 
From the street, it looked like the author had simply run out of space to write on his crappy, poorly painted-over Good Humor sign, but it turned out, upon the requisite closer inspection, that the author had initially written, “Closd”. In a display of clever “outside of the box” thinking, he simply used alcohol (probably some moonshine) to clean off the end of the “D” and change it into an “E”. I imagine the satisfaction in his eyes as he stood back to admire his work before his buddy commented, “Hey, Poodle. That there says ‘CLOSE.’” A couple of swigs of the selfsame moonshine later, a solution was found.
