03.11.09 – Wednesday

Whereabouts: Philadelphia, PA

Word: obviate [ob-vee-ayt] – transitive verb to prevent by interception; to anticipate and dispose of or make unnecessary

Birthday: Lawrence Welk (1903), Rupert Murdoch (1931), Sam Donaldson (1934), Antonin Scalia (1936), Bobby McFerrin (1950), Jerry Zucker (1950), Joey Buttafuoco (1956), Peter Berg (1964), Jesse Jackson Jr. (1965), Wallace Langham (1965), Lisa Loeb (1968), Terrence Howard (1969), Johnny Knoxville (1971)

Occurrence: 1989 – The television show Cops makes its debut. All over the United States, guys in wife-beater tank tops tremble in fear.

Irksome: In its infinite wisdom, Nickelodeon is keeping Chris Brown as a nominee for the 2009 Kids’ Choice Awards. Brown, arrested for beating up his girlfriend and fellow pop star Rihanna, is up for Favorite Male Singer and Favorite Song. Despite Oprah’s protests, Rihanna and Brown are back together so I guess Nickelodeon figures it’ll be all right. In my humble opinion, the people over at Nickelodeon are certified morons. What a great message to send to the youth of America – Hey, kids, it’s OK to beat up your girlfriend as long as you’ve got an exceptional singing voice. Way to drop the ball, Nickelodeon. Hopefully Dwayne Johnson, the host of this year’s Kids’ Choice Awards, will have the good sense to throw Mr. Brown off the stage should the singer win.

Quotation: After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music – Aldous Huxley

Soupçon: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are witren, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. I took this directly from HERE.

Tune: Some people say that the 1980s produced some of the worst music ever. Debatable. I think when Train debuted “Drops of Jupiter”, it showed everyone that bands in the 1990s were capable of making some pretty awful music as well.

Link: Eats – nice website for finding a place to dine out in your area.

Gallimaufry: For you readers who live in Philadelphia, here is some information about the imminent SEPTA strike. Hope things get resolved before that. What a hassle…Marc Shuster is a talented Philadelphia writer. His novel, The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl, is launching May 9^th 2009. Check out Marc’s blog, Abominations…At the risk of revealing myself as a complete nerd, I will admit right here and now that I’m excited to see the new Star Trek movie.