Archive for January, 2004

Five ill-advised giveaway nights at the ballpark

Friday, January 9th, 2004
  1. Chinese Throwing Star Night
  2. Loaded .22 (with scope) Night
  3. Guess Your Cholesterol and Get a Free Footlong Night
  4. Leaky Bag of Urine Night
  5. Nickel Absinthe Night

Five controversial performers coming to your local library

Friday, January 9th, 2004
  1. Professor Candypants (mime & contortionist)
  2. MC Preclear ‘n’ the “Get Audizzited” Crew (evangelical rap crew)
  3. Principal Badtouch (tapdancer & close magician)
  4. Roofie McSleepytime (clown hypnotist)
  5. Whitevan Andy & the Roadtrip Kidz (unspecified travel initiative)

Five ways I tend to feel after speaking with Sprint’s Customer Service

Friday, January 9th, 2004
  1. Like I was just traded to another inmate for 2 packs of menthol cigarettes
  2. Like I’ve been slapped repeatedly with a half-frozen sturgeon
  3. Like I’ve accidentally just agreed to finish the homework of every kid in my middle school
  4. Like somewhere in a big Sprint building, there’s a fat man with a monocle and a top hat smoking a cigar while dancing a jig and holding a fat bag of five-dollar bills with my bewildered face on it
  5. Very, very unclean

Five odd memories of TV

Friday, January 9th, 2004
  1. Uncomfortable to see Fred McMurray and sons all playing Petula Clark’s “Downtown” on saxaphone (late in the run of My Three Sons)
  2. Genuinely saddened when it appeared Fonzie would have to spend Christmas alone in the garage (early episode of Happy Days)
  3. Pulling with all of my mental might for the buxom, wisecracking “Team ABC” (every Battle of the Network Stars)
  4. Utter years-long frustration at my lack of vocabulary to ask why some TV shows looked “inside” or “shiny” [shot on video] while others were “outside” or “flat” [shot on film] (various)
  5. Feeling an awkward but overwhelmingly powerful proto-sexual attraction to Emmy Jo (The New Zoo Revue, early 70s)

Five observations from my first 25 minutes of yoga

Thursday, January 8th, 2004
  1. This Rodney Yee person is in much better physical condition than I am
  2. Yoga is not, apparently, a competition; thus, you are discouraged from yelling “In your face!” at your partner/opponent
  3. “Downward facing dog” makes me feel a little dirty
  4. Lacking a points system, Yoga offers no particular bonus for finishing quickly or making pithy remarks
  5. I remain suspicious of activities in which I cannot wear shoes or drink

Five things I only needed to try once

Thursday, January 1st, 2004
  1. All-day reggae festival (1988)
  2. Chewing on a fistful of D batteries (1970)
  3. Being in a Neil Simon play (1984)
  4. Talking to Pete Rose (1976)
  5. Lead singer in a execrably bad metal cover band (1985)