Archive for October, 2006

Five Halloween safety tips

Monday, October 23rd, 2006
  1. For large groups of trick-or-treaters, always set at least one child ablaze, ensuring enough light that other children won’t trip over uneven pavement.
  2. Only separate shards of X-Acto blades from rodent poison once you get home; doing so in the dark will lead to inevitable mixups and tummyaches for youngsters with allergies.
  3. If a home has its porch light off — but an expressionless face can be seen peering from a cellar window — consider limiting your child’s unattended visit with the resident to no more than four hours.
  4. If a close-fitting mask causes your child to fall down a well, use fishing line and a paper clip to retrieve her goodie bag. Nobody likes wet candy.
  5. Although children dressed as SS-Sturmbannführer Michael Lippert are not required to “pretend execute” children dressed as Ernst Röhm, many parents find this bit of theatricality kindles the spirit that makes Halloween such a delight.

Five owners of ambitious combovers

Monday, October 23rd, 2006
  1. Zero Mostel
  2. Gene Hackman (retired)
  3. Donald Trump
  4. that Chinese guy I always see on MUNI
  5. Rudy Guiliani (retired)

Five terrible fake pledge-week specials on PBS

Monday, October 23rd, 2006
  1. Surviving members of every 50s doo-wop band fight to the death with clubs — shirtless and totally coked-up — in massive Thunderdome-like arena
  2. cast of Monty Python comments on previous pledge-season Python commentaries (available on DVD for one-time $200 donation)
  3. Gwen Ifill leads a group of American schoolchildren on a field trip to the Beijing factory where your tote bag was manufactured
  4. Suze Orman and Johnny Knoxville kick each other in the genitals for 90 minutes
  5. Antiques Roadshow guests offered immediate cash on the barrel-head; provided they can eat their entire antique in three minutes

Five phrases you may substitute if you are intimidated by overt swearing

Monday, October 23rd, 2006
  1. brassel frassel
  2. futza mucker
  3. cockle spoker
  4. snaggle brassa
  5. sacka liquor

Five possible signs your congressman thinks your teenaged son is hot

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
  1. mysterious dinnertime calls from “underwear police” reveal Capitol Hill area code
  2. last-minute codicil of House highway bill briefly renames your town “Jimmy’s Erectionville”
  3. “official” email invitation to congressional lap-sitting session clearly comes from AOL address
  4. extravagant gift of gladiator movie box-set personally delivered by Rep (perspiring in full gladiator costume)
  5. interest in son’s education seems limited to repeated insistence he read Death in Venice

Five things you did while MySpace was down

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
  1. repeatedly checked progress of floppy emo forelock
  2. wrote lengthy longhand list of “friends”; “de-friended” each by means of vigorous horizontal pen strokes
  3. idly doodled “Dr. and Mrs. Good Charlotte” in margins of your Consumer Math book
  4. cutting — again with the cutting
  5. imagined own funeral (and how sad and sorry everyone will be)

Five groups, apart from “women and children,” who should get to leave a sinking ship first

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
  1. people who always use turn signals
  2. persons who have never purchased a greeting card
  3. Broken Social Scene
  4. everyone who can and does continue to publicly breakdance
  5. un-ironic wearers of suspenders

Five persons who will eventually appear in every rock documentary

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
  1. Thurston Moore
  2. Joe Perry
  3. Henry Rollins
  4. Flea
  5. Chuck Klosterman

Five excellent Iron Maiden songs (and what each is ostensibly about)

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
  1. “Flight of Icarus” - Greek myth of Daedalus, Icarus, and the wax wings they made
  2. “Aces High” - Battle of Britain (1940)
  3. “Run to the Hills” - US destroying Native American life and culture (1800s)
  4. “The Trooper” - Battle of Balaclava (1854)
  5. “The Number of the Beast” - Damien: Omen II (1978)