Our international fandom comes to an end....

I took the pictures of my top 5 celeb crushes down. My crass attempt to revive the blog with sexy pics of celebs had some unforeseen consequences. They were bringing in a ridiculous number of hits, but none of them were actually reading content or returning to the page. We got 485 hits in 10 days from 50 countries. Here's the list of where our horny visitors came from, in order or highest to lowest frequency:

United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Australia, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Brazil, Belgium, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Hong Kong, Hungary, Austria, Chile, Singapore, Romania, Denmark, Greece, Bulgaria, Israel, Serbia, South Africa, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Trinidad And Tobago, Russian Federation, Ireland, Thailand, Argentina, Philippines, Taiwan, Egypt, Brunei Darussalam, China, Jordan, Turkey, New Zealand, India, Croatia, Peru, Korea

Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart

How Far We've Come

The presidential debates were last night - just to state the obvious. While the debate's 'winner' is being....well...debated, there is one point that can't be argued.

On September 30, 1962, James Meredith was escorted onto the grounds of Ole' Miss as the first black student to attend following forced desegregation. Riots, the National Guard, and two deaths later, the University stood with a reputation that would continue to haunt it - as NPR argues - to the present.

On October 26, 2008, Barack Obama approached the podium with the world watching. He would stand and debate with John McCain as the first black candidate for the United States. Forty six years prior hundreds of white students stood scowling, enraged, as a black man dared to enter their campus, American turned and watched, waiting to see the outcome. Yesterday, thousands of students and others welcomed a black man to their campus, thrilled that the candidates had chosen their school as a national stage.

Featured vehemently - even to the point of tiresome - in the debate was the term 'pork barrel spending.' Wikipedia defines the terms origins as "early in American history, when slaves were sometimes given a barrel of salt pork as a reward and had to compete among themselves to get their share of the handout."

And there they stood. Two men vying for one of the most powerful positions in the world. A nation sat waiting to hear what they had to say, but perhaps we had all learned something already.

Look how far we've come.

International Fame

Apparently the way to increase international traffic on your blog is to post pictures of Katherine Moennig and Mary Louise Parker. In the past 24 hours alone, we've had visitors from France, Germany, Sweden, Serbia, Japan, Brazil, Malaysia, Poland, UK, Chile, Canada, Hong Kong, and Finland... all from searches for those two ladies. I know because I put a tracker on the blog. Big Bro is watching you!

And now for the gentlemen (who like gentlemen)

Here's my top 5 list of celebrity crushes (in countdown format):

5. Joel Gretsch | from the 4400

4. Matt Benstead | Limey Model
3. René Fris | The Tim Gunn of Shear Genius (I know, I know)

2. Seth Meyers | from SNL

1. Dennis Quaid (hoo, child)

trying to prevent a blog's slow death

None of us have posted on this blog for a week. That must be some kind of cardinal sin of blogging. I'm sure our 3 readers want more action, or they'll stop reading! Since Britney Spears and Bob Dole have proven sex sells, I'm posting my top 5 list of celebrity crushes.

1. Zooey Deschanel

2. Naomi Watts

3. Daniella Sarahyba
4. Mary-Louise Parker
5. Katherine Moennig

[EDIT: I took down the pictures because they were bringing unwanted traffic to the site.]

upcoming concerts

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

bold = Eli is definitely going.

9/26 black kids (black cat)
9/26 cut copy (930 club) sold out
9/28 the dodos (sonar)
9/30 stereolab (930 club)
10/6 nick cave (930 club) sold out
10/8 hot chip (930 club) ... def. not going, but would recommend
10/22 minus the bear and annuals (930 club)
10/22 octopus project (black cat)
10/27 billy bragg (930 club)
11/6 the mountain goats (930 club)
11/28 dr. dog (philadelphia)

Let me know if you'd like to join me for any of the shows that aren't sold out.

It's Friday

iPod love.

So today I was looking for songs by Laura Love on my iPod and I discovered that I have 823 songs with the word, album, or artist including the word "love" in it. Since I never let things concerning my iPod rest, I decided to do a little math.

I have 13,169 songs total. This means if I calculate the percentage ("love" songs divided by all songs) then I get .0643177, or about 6.43%. That's a lot of love, considering everything you could possibly write about. My friend Carly has 1,343 "love" songs and 22,033 (Jesus!) songs total, which makes her love song percentage a pretty solid 6%.

Because I'm at work and bored to death, I decided to go a step further. "Love songs" don't necessarily have to have the word "love" in it, so I compiled a short list of words that are synonyms of love and how many are on my iPod:

• passion- 30 songs
  
• marry+marriage- 7+14=21
  
• heart- 247 (I mean, christ, people- can a brotha get some original lyrics?)
  
• romance- 10
  
• sex (generalizing)- 58
  
• erotic (again, generalizing)- 1 (can you guess which song this is?)

I of course went through and tacked on a "-1" for songs with more than one of these words in it, Frank Sinatra. Accounting for the Minuses, which were -52. So, 823+347-52. That leaves me with a total of 1,118 love related songs- of course, this is only by title, so I guess this would be uncreatively titled love related songs, right?

My iPod thusly has a 8.5% uncreatively titled love related song ratio. What does yours have?

9/11 Birthdays

These (famous) people were born today:

Harry Connick Jr. (41)
Ariana Richards (29)
Ben Lee (30)
Ludacris (31)
Elephant Man- The Rapper(33)
Richard Ashcroft (37)
Taraji P. Henson (38)
Moby (43)
Virginia Madsen (47)
Elizabeth Daily (46)
Kristy McNichol (46)
Scott Patterson (50)
Amy Madigan (58)
Brian De Palma (68)

Makes you wonder how one can celebrate a birthday today without offending anyone...
(From DListed)

Email Limericks

there once was a pigsty on ray
with two straight boys, two girls and a gay
so dawn called a meeting
to issue a beating
so we'd all remember our bitch day
-Eli

there is a young girl named jessie
who hates when her house gets messy
so she brought out her whip
and gave it a rip
to make the culprits confess
-Eli

there once was a limey named ed
and tupperware filled him with dread
his meals all in bowls
show portion control
he tosses leftovers instead
–joe

there once was a homo named joe
who everyone wished had a fro
he sure could bake
a nice pudding cake
but he couldn't stop saying "hey bro"
- Eli

there once was a lady named dawn
when she cleans, in a flash, mess is gone
you blink: mopped are floors
you snap: got the mo'er
but damn! there's a shoe in the lawn
- Joe

There once was a puss called Duncan
He sqwarked and he squealed till his grub come
One day he persisted
Till Ed's mind got a-twisted
And now he's locked in the dunjun.
-ED

Their once was dog named Max
who paraded himself as a cat
One day he goofed
When he forgettfully woofed
A blunder that we can call lax
-Ed

There once was a kitty named Pilgrim
And next to her mate Max she looks real slim
She hates his brother
(They cause quite a stir)
I think it's because she can't fufill him?
-Joe

Dawn: ‘I like these here rhyming poems!’

Joe: ‘limericks my sweet lipschen, limericks.’

Dawntor of the Sky People.

I also procured a headlamp.

'You have chosen wisely'

I have purchased an indiana jones hat for my outdoor adventures. I am extra excited that this hat fits my freakishly oversized head. I think it is an extra large mens.

Lemons2Lemonade

Me: When life gives you lemons, you paint that shit gold.
Andy: ...
Andy: When life gives you lemons, you eat a miracle berry and then eat the lemon
Andy: IT IS DELICIOUS
Me: ...
Andy: I AM YELLING

Links to things I find hilarious

Cosby Show clip (credit to Shanie)

Shopping penguin (credit to Aaron)

Junkie elephant (credit to Jamie)

Bushism - How many people?!