Archive for the ‘cool things’ category

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Rampant Rodentia!

December 12, 2009

– – He ain’t cute, cuddly, or good-looking.  It’s not even a great fursuit.  But you gotta love this guy, and these commercials!

It’s the d-Con Dinner Guest or “Get Out” commercial series, featuring an uninvited guest of the rodent persuasion as he gets into homes where he’s simply not wanted.  In one episode, this life-size, scruffy-looking mouse is confronted by the female homeowner, who sneers,  “You disgust me!”  to our hero.  He’s not shaken; “Prove it!,” he counters in a deadpan monotone.

Maybe you wouldn’t want this guy in your house either, but I’d have him in for coffee and a Danish…he’s refreshing, furry, and a wonderful antihero!- -What a great counter to the usual cutesy mice we see!- –Bravo!!!- –As Soupy Sales would have had it, “Let’s all do the Mouse!”

– -Two paws up for this world-weary, unflappable rodent!


Categories: Brilliant but twisted, cool things, furries, furry, humor, television
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Comments: 5 Comments

Turkeys and T-Rex…

November 27, 2009

– – Dinosaurs, like turkeys, had a wishbone, called a furcula.–I love that name so much I wish I had one, too…fur-cula! It was really the fusion of two collarbones at the sternum, where a bird’s flying muscles link up.  It’s elastic and great for flying.

Turns out that T-Rex and the Velociraptor had wishbones, too.  While they of course didn’t fly*, this discovery is one of the many bits of evidence that shows birds evolved from dinosaurs!

(*Wouldn’t a flying Velociraptor be extremely cool, though?)

– –Happy Thanksgiving from Foxsylvania, BTW!

Categories: animals, cool things, evolution, science
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Comments: 4 Comments

Snarly Dudes Rule “Twilight, New Moon!”

November 19, 2009

– – I’m not into the Twilight saga, ’cause it’s geared in large measure for teenaged girls; romance just ain’t my thing, especially when the romantic leads spend much of their time staring intensely, pining away,  and brooding.  The fact that werewolves appear in the movie, however, rouses my furry interest. Vampires are OK, especially if they’re cool and classy like Dracula, Lestat, or Angel, but bring in even a mundane werewolf, and you’ve got me hooked!

So let’s talk werewolves, which is where it’s at– – this movie deviates from the usual trend of showing a nice, slow, and usually agonizing werewolf transformation.  In my opinion, slow and agonizing is the way to go, so the fans can appreciate it as well as the significance of what’s going on. The lycanthropes of New Moon, however, explode mid-leap into a fully-transformed state, with shreds of clothing flying off them. To their credit, the New Moon weres are impressively large, and are not cookie-cutter interchangeable clones; they are distinguishable by size and fur color, with alpha male Sam being the largest and having black fur.  Other weres are russet-hued, silvery, dark brown, and dark grey.  They also use the personalized eyes of the actors in the digital wolves, which are otherwise as realistic as possible. An additional plus is that the actors are mostly of Native American descent.

So paws up for the wild things, even though this shallow romance has been rated with only  **1/2 out of four stars…

Categories: animals, cool things, furries, furry, movies
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Comments: 3 Comments

Patrick McGoohan Remembered…

November 17, 2009

– – The original Number Six from the ground-breaking series The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan, died in January this year at the age of 80.

The 1960’s television world boasted some of the  best and the worst, ranging from the heights of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone to the depths of…say, The Cowsills. The original Prisoner show was a heady mix of geopolitics, sci-fi, and psychedelia that even The Beatles loved…a mix of Kafka and Orwell that sadly only lasted for 17 episodes but left an enduring impact…

…and Patrick McGoohan was one of the great ones, cool, tough, and cerebral all at the same time!

Categories: cool things, television
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“The Prisoner” Returns!

November 14, 2009

The Prisoner– – Way back in 1967, a surreal series debuted on television called The Prisoner which was part spy series and part sci-fi drama. The British cult hit   featured none less than Patrick McGoohan playing a character called  Six who was held captive in a bizarre place called The Village, a community led by a man called (- -what else?) Two. The ambiguous show was unlike anything else on television of the day, and while incomprehensible to many,  it went on to profoundly  influence television, music, comic books, and movies for decades to come; echoes of The Prisoner reverberated in an episode of The Fantastic Four, in the Twin Peaks series, and even in the comic book and movie of Watchmen, where Rorschach adopted the prisoner’s “Be seeing you” as his personal sign-off.

In the series, a man finds himself inexplicably trapped in The Village with no recollection of how he arrived.  His fellow inhabitants are identified by number rather than name, and are under constant surveillance.  Not knowing who to trust,  Six is driven by a need to understand The Village, his reason for his being there, and how he can escape.  You can read all kinds of things into it…

With Jim Caviezel in the lead role as Six and Ian McKellen as Two, The Prisoner debuts this Sunday evening on the AMC channel…Be seeing you!

Categories: cool things, television
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Crikey!

November 13, 2009

Steve Irwin– – The late conservation star Steve Irwin, known as the Crocodile Hunter, has received a tribute from an Australian scientist by having a rare species of snail named after him, “crikey steveirwini.” The snail has a khaki appearance,  much like Irwin’s trademark shirt and shorts.

Irwin, who died in a freak stingray incident in 2006, has already had a wildlife reserve, a road, a turtle, and an anti-whaling ship named after him...

Categories: cool things, environmental
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The Arica Monster…

November 5, 2009

Arica monster– –Destination Truth recently had an episode with a secondary storyline line on the Arica Monster, a supposedly raptor-like creature inhabiting the Northern Chilean desert.  On the desert road, people have reported seeing a dinosaur-like beast keeping pace with their cars, a neat trick.  Described as large, standing on his hind legs, and having leathery skin, the beast is a fast runner with a distinctive three-toed print who attacks with razor-sharp teeth.

Destination Truth often has comic overtones that MonsterQuest lacks (remember the Mongolian Death Worms episode?), and Josh Gates and his team have such a limited budget that they are reduced to pursuing travel arrangements on Orbitz. They tend to take spills and get sick even while thoroughly enjoying themselves.   As for the raptor remnant, expert opinion is that it was a rhea, an ostrich-like bird with a three-toed print…

Categories: animals, anomalies, cool things, cryptozoology, extinct species, mysteries, television, unexplained, unidentified
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Comments: 5 Comments

The Abominable Snowman on MonsterQuest!

October 26, 2009

Abominable– – MonsterQuest finally came up with their long-awaited episode on the Yeti on October 25th after previous ho-hum episodes on wild dogs and rats.- – Here at last is a cryptid worthy of consideration!  The Abominable Snowman differs from his North American Bigfoot cousin in being more aggressive and carnivorous; he’s nocturnal, and goes after both people and their livestock in the Himalayas.- – You gotta give the big guy credit for that!

Examined were hair and footprint evidence as well as images from cameras.  The most recent footprint from 2008 was actually regarded to be a hoofprint, kind of a drag-impression in the snow distorted by multiple freeze and thaw cycles.  Fifty-year old hair samples supposedly from the skullcap of a Yeti were also analyzed, and found to be from a deer-like creature.  Picture images from cameras set up at different locations were of the usual birds with perhaps an antlered beast or two thrown in.  Lastly, eyewitness accounts of the Yeti were chalked off as being misidentified bears!

There were some interesting sidebars; apparently, the Nazis had sent teams out in pursuit of the Yeti, and locals led the Nazis to a supposed lair where they shot…a bear! I also loved a scene where an investigative team came upon a slaughtered and partly-eaten goat, perhaps consumed by the Yeti; the lead investigator indulged himself in the treat, which had been lying out for five or six days, and found it to be like jerky…”rather tasty, actually,” he proclaimed.–Anyone else up for five-day old goat, partly eaten by who knows what?–Didn’t think so…

It’s well been pointed out that even known identified species are hard to track over wild terrain, so I’m really not surprised by the lack of Yeti evidence. –And why do we call him Abominable, together with “terrifying” and “ferocious?” – – Doesn’t the Yeti just need a good spin doctor?–Why not as in the Tundra cartoon, come up with an Amiable Snowman?

Categories: anomalies, cool things, cryptozoology, furry, rare animal, television, unexplained, unidentified
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Comments: 3 Comments

Nora the Cat!

October 17, 2009

NoraPianoCat— Jazz musicians have often been called cats, and Nora is literally that.  This gray tabby cat was adopted from a shelter in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and when a year old climbed up onto the bench in front of a Yamaha piano in the middle of the night and began to play!   She has continued to tickle the ivories on a daily basis, at times playing duets with her owner and her owner’s students; she also plays alone, gravitating towards the D-E-F range on the keyboard, and including the black keys in her playing.

Nora’s music has been characterized as being atonal, halfway between Philip Glass and free jazz; a YouTube video of Nora’s playing has received large numbers of views, and has been featured on The Today Show and CNN, among others.  A composition by Betsy Alexander has been released called Fur Release:  A Prelude for Paws and Hands which incorporates Nora’s music.

…now that’s one hep cat!

Categories: animal oddities, animals, cool things, furry heroes
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Comments: 2 Comments

My Wish List…

October 11, 2009

monarch– – I’d  really like to have a costumed arch-nemesis; no plain-clothes nemesis for me, thank you very much…those with a costumed arch-nemesis tend to be memorable, like Batman.  People remember the Joker or the Riddler, but almost certainly wouldn’t remember the Freemason or the Certified Public Accountant. An arch-nemesis has a history with you, in many cases arching you for years; it’s a love/hate thing, really.  A arch-nemesis should be colorful but not competent; you don’t want them to actually do you in (for further exploration of the complex relationship one may have with a costumed arch-nemesis, catch the Venture Brothers on Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network).

What about henchmen?–If you have henchmen, they’ll have to go through them to get to you, and maybe your enemy will wear themselves out.  Henchmen give you extra time to get away, bargain, plea, or just work up to a good cry.  Plus if you have henchmen, you’re giving others work in this depressed economy.

Could I possibly get a sidekick?–Batman, Aquaman, and the Green Arrow have one.  I don’t think Marvel superheroes have sidekicks as much; Wolverine would probably kill his. – – Cancel the sidekick; I’d probably be arrested, especially if it was some teenaged guy in tights.   Maybe the sidekick would write a tell-all book, and we’d split the profits and get rich.  Money isn’t everything, but it’s way ahead of whatever’s in second place.

I’d also like to have minions, followers who hang on your every word and do your bidding.  No one’s done my bidding to this point in my life, so I figure I’m overdue.  In this category, I’d like to have a cat’s-paw, which should not be confused with a rabbit’s foot; some of my best friends are cats, and I’m not into the amputation of bodily parts.  A cat’s-paw is kinda like a chief minion or tool that acts in your behalf.–Wouldn’t that be cool?

…and why don’t we have manservants anymore?–If you want something, a manservant is there to get it for you, and wait on you hand and foot.  I’d like to have someone wait on my feet, and a manservant sounds classy; kind of like a gentleman’s gentleman.  You’ve gotta love the redundancy of that!

So I’m gonna ask Santa for these things; I’d be satisfied to get any of them.  If that doesn’t work, maybe I could get some of that federal stimulus money, ’cause these things would be stimulatin’ to me, woo!    😉

Categories: cool things, furry, humor, just plain stupid, Off-topic, television
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Comments: 2 Comments

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