“He-elp meeee! He-elp meeee!” - The Fly

Yesterday blog feiend Avery Gray asked, “RaJ, if I tagged you for a meme tomorrow, would you be up for it?”

Correct answer: “Maybe” and/or “First tell me more” or something similarly cautious.*
My answer: “Sure!” Because, I thought, what could happen?

I’d like to take this opportunity to say, “D’Oh!”

I am kidding of course; almost always I don’t mind getting tagged for memes and this is no exception.

But still.

The meme for which I’ve been tagged is titled, and I quote, “Ten Literary Characters I Would Totally Make Out With If I Were Single and They Were Real But I’m Not, Single I Mean, I Am Real, But I’m Also Happily Married and Want to Stay That Way So Maybe We Should Forget This.”

Try saying that one real fast three times.

Since this is definitely the most girly meme-theme I’ve ever seen, I checked the Worldwide Guy Club membership bylaws (please oh please…) but didn’t find anything that would prohibit me from doing this meme.

OF COURSE NOT. Stupid committees.

Note to self: initiate emergency edit of Worldwide Guy Club membership bylaws. Too late for me of course, but there are others who might be saved.

Anyway. Having been fairly tagged I hereby submit, in no particular order, my ten characters. And yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus requirement that I perpetuate the meme by tagging others. Rest assured I will do so, my feiends. Rest assured.

1. Elizabeth Frankenstein, from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I’m not sure why but this is one of the first that came to mind as I pondered this meme. Resident meta-geneticist Dr. Francis (”Don’t call me Frank.” “Okay.”) Enstine has often said he carries a torch for poor, tragic Elizabeth. Of course Dr. Enstine also connects himself to an intravenous caffeine infusion system, so… yeah. Suspect at best.
2. Applecore, from The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams. In case you’re unfamiliar with her character, Applecore is (a) roughly six inches tall and (b) a winged fairy. But these are neither obstacles nor even challenges, because “fairy magic.” Aside: this is a great story; if you haven’t read it, add it to your list.
3. Caroline Ingalls, from Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. If the Radioactive Spouse had been born a hundred years earlier, she could have been Caroline Ingalls. If so I’d have been the happiest Charles in the frontier world. The fact this is pretty much her (the RaS’s) all-time favorite book series is of course a factor; I’m not completely stupid.
4. Dina Dalal, from A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. As I read this moving and disturbing story about several interwoven lives in turmoil-plagued 1970s India, I found myself feeling strong empathy for this widowed seamstress struggling to make ends meet and live on her own in Mumbai. Again, if you haven’t read this book, consider doing so. Fair warning: don’t expect to remain untouched, no pun intended. Seriously. You might cry. It’s a powerful story.
5. Ixpar Karn, from The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro. While Ms. Asaro’s fiction might not show up on Literature classics lists, her books are some of my all-time favorites. Ixpar Karn is a fine character, a headstrong, assertive, valiant leader. If I were a Jagernaut - one of Ms. Asaro’s astronaut-warrior cyborgs - stranded on planet Coba, I would be hard pressed to not engage in ritual snogging.
6. Melanie Hamilton, from Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. If Scarlett doesn’t deserve Rhett, she certainly doesn’t deserve me.
7. Martine Desroubins, from Otherland by Tad Williams. Yes another character from one of Mr. Williams’ books; what can I say, I’m a hopeless fanboy. At least this character doesn’t hail from a different species. Martine is a recluse, blind since early childhood, and a reluctant hero able to draw from unexpected wells of strength to survive capture by a murderous psychopath and save her friends from a horde of deadly foes. I heart Martine.
8. Mariko, from Shōgun by James Clavell. Mariko is incredibly graceful, beautiful, serene, and– wait. Mariko is married, isn’t she. Ca-rap! Well, too bad I’m leaving her on the list.
9. Delphine Angua von Überwald aka Angua, featured in a number of Discworld novels by the inimitable Terry Pratchett. Yes, Angua does happen to be a werewolf, but most of the time this would not bother me (full moons being the understandable exception). Angua is a member of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch; in other words, she’s a cop. [Insert requisite girl-in-uniform remark here] Unlike her City Watch associate Cheery Longbottom Littlebottom (duh), a heavily bearded female dwarf with a thing for earrings and makeup, Angua. Is. Hot. [Insert requisite howl-at-the-moon remark here]
10. Last but not least: Tricia McMillan, also known as Trillian, from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Two words: math. Whiz.

I realize several of these might seem a little strange or obscure, but they’re the best the monkeys could provide on short notice. And considering what I pay ‘em to write posts for me… yeah. They should all be fired. But I digress.

And now! The moment several of you should have been dreading waiting for: das tags. I’ll name just two, though anyone interested is more than welcome to pick this up.

First - Ransom Note Typography’s Jon Deal. I’m looking forward to seeing how he works in some of his signature “hetero man crush” targets, something I considered doing but don’t have the skillz to pull off.

Second - Pardon The Egg Salad’s Velocibadgergirl, because I suspect she’ll have even more fun with this than I did. Which I did in fact have. Fun. Of course if she’s already done it then she’s off the hook.

Thanks for reading along. Anyone care to name one or two of their favorite smoochy characters from literature, whether high-brow or low?

Wait! Igor! I should have listed– er.

Never mind.

* I was going to say “circumspect” instead of cautious because I (1) like the word and (2) get paid double for extra syllables, but I was afraid someone might get confused and think I wrote/meant “circumcised.” You can’t imagine how often that happens to me.†
† Wait for it… waaaiiit for it…

Here there be dragons answers… for the meme-puzzle-quiz posted earlier this week.

1. In my senior year of high school I had a minor part in a play. The character I played was a girl. Kind of a tomboy character, but definitely a girl. I had a lot of fun with the part. - False. No shame if you got this one wrong; the tone of the post made this one an easy set-up. Truth: I had a leading part, a guy named Emil who talked a lot and eventually jumped off a cliff. Or maybe he was pushed, I can’t remember. Either way, GUY. MALE. MANLY. Etc.
2. I have no problem letting my online gender identity get a little fuzzy. Or a lot fuzzy. And for that matter, pink and fuzzy. I think that means I’m extremely secure, but I suppose a meaning of genderously fuzzy isn’t out of the question. - True. If the original post doesn’t persuade you, see the nice, pink, somewhat inappropriate award in the left sidebar. If you’re still not convinced, the voices in my head would like a few words with you.
3. There is a specific pattern to the mix of true and bogus answers in this list. - True. 2, 3, 5, 7 = the first four prime numbers = true answers. Aside: if you’re one of those people who think ‘1′ is a prime number, all I can say is - we’re not Going There.
   
4. I’ve seen all the movies in the “Halloween” series (including the latest remake) but I only like the first one and the 20-year anniversary. - False. I’ve not seen any of them. *smiles and hums*
   
5. I like most types of nuts, but finding nuts mixed in with chocolate or ice cream drives me– well, nuts. I won’t eat them; I eat the good parts and spit out the nuts. - True. Except Snickers of course, because - well. Seriously, if I didn’t like Snickers? There’d have to be something wrong with me; that’s way beyond weird.
6. I’ll eat eggs i.e. fried chicken embryos, but only if cooked over medium or scrambled. Poached eggs look too nasty, and just the thought of eating raw eggs in any form almost makes me gag. - False. I heart Eggs Benedict, and in my younger more (physically) awesome days I added raw eggs to my consistently chunky powdered protein energy drinks. They tasted like snotty dirt but I didn’t mind; I was a healthy, energized 30-year old Growing Boy. Gag? It is to laugh.
   
7. I once showed a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger as “Terminator” to my hair stylist, and asked her to make my hair look like his. - Er. True. Er. In my defense I had no idea what such a style would be called, so a picture seemed like the only way to communicate what I wanted. And while I didn’t remotely exactly resemble Ahnold, someone did once refer to me and a friend as, and I quote, “you two Terminator types.” The fact she was asking us to collect trash at a picnic did not in any way diminish my stupid grin satisfaction.
8. There is no specific pattern to the mix of true and bogus answers in this list. - False. Of course.
   

There you have it, my feiends. Four true, four false. Several people came close, but only Luisa Perkins got all four correct by virtue of figuring out the prime-number pattern. Thanks! to all for humoring me; I hope you found some amusement in the process.

Tag goes to the winner! And okay, anyone else inclined to play along. It’s fun; you should try it. If you do, be sure to visit Mcewen the originator to see how the post was supposed to be written. Somehow I managed to change random facts/habits into weirdness.

So what else is new, right?

Think of it as a radioactively mutated meme.

Note: upon further review i.e. me rereading the original post, turns out this was supposed to be eight random facts / habits, not eight weird things. Duh. Also Oops. So much for my renowned reading skillz. Well! Too late now kthxbai!

Blog feiend Mcewen seems to think I don’t adequately document my innate and pretty much unbounded weirdness, so she tagged me with an 8 Weird Things meme. Here’s what she said about me in her 8 Weird Things post; see if you can spot the part that makes me smile* every time I think about it.

In my turn I tag … 3. “Radioactivejam” because she has a tendency to be cryptic and needs to be nailed down, [not easy with that jelly substance.] (emphasis added)

Can you believe it? That’s like, the second or third time someone’s referred to me as a jelly. Do I seem like a jelly to you, my feiends? I know the distinctions between jam and jelly aren’t always clear (especially around here), but I am most definitely a jam, The Veronicas fandom, way-pink Girl Blogger Award and Victoria’s Secret discounts notwithstanding.

Anyway. *ahem*

Eight weird things? Okay but I’m feeling sorta jelly-ish right now, so maybe I’ll knit braid bend a few rules. Like… I’ll list eight weird things but only four of them will be true! Tee-hee!

Sorry. I’ve no idea where that came from.

Does this make my bu– stop it stop it NOW!

. . .

Pardon us while we regain our composure. … Thank you; let the meme begin.

Eight weird things, four of them true
To discern which is which, a task for you
In my weirdness prime I seem to be
(and for the record I’m he, not she)

1. In my senior year of high school I had a minor part in a play. The character I played was a girl. Kind of a tomboy character, but definitely a girl. I had a lot of fun with the part.
2. I have no problem letting my online gender identity get a little fuzzy. Or a lot fuzzy. And for that matter, pink and fuzzy. I think that means I’m extremely secure, but I suppose a meaning of genderously fuzzy isn’t out of the question.
3. There is a specific pattern to the mix of true and bogus answers in this list.
4. I’ve seen all the movies in the “Halloween” series (including the latest remake) but I only like the first one and the 20-year anniversary.
5. I like most types of nuts, but finding nuts mixed in with chocolate or ice cream drives me– well, nuts. I won’t eat them; I eat the good parts and spit out the nuts.
6. I’ll eat eggs i.e. fried chicken embryos, but only if cooked over medium or scrambled. Poached eggs look too nasty, and just the thought of eating raw eggs in any form almost makes me gag.
7. I once showed a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger as “Terminator” to my hair stylist, and asked her to make my hair look like his.
8. There is no specific pattern to the mix of true and bogus answers in this list.

Can you guess which items are true, and which are false? There are indeed four of each; I’ll post the answers later this week. In the meantime - when you finish analyzing my weirdness, click on over and visit Mcewen. Her stories will touch your heart I am sure.

One more thing: according to meme rules I’m supposed to tag eight others with this meme. Since I’m feeling like Little Miss Anarchy today, perhaps I’ll tag four… or eight… but not list names until the “answers” post later this week. Muwahahahahahahaha!

* I mean it. I’m smiling right now. It’s funny! Did I not flaunt appreciate my honorary Rockin’ Girl Blogger Award? I don’t know why but at this point in my husband / father / “papa” grandfather life, the thought of someone reading posts here and thinking I’m female just cracks me up. Even if the she reference is just a typo, it’s a perfect intro for even more weirdness on my part. Mcewen - thanks for helping make this an easy post to write.

Is there such a thing as a skeleton lock? Perhaps.

You’ve heard of skeleton keys, yes? Of course you have. A skeleton key opens a certain kind of lock, but the lock’s “correct” name is not skeleton lock.

It’s called a warded lock.

Interesting word, warded. If you move the last two letters to the beginning and capitalize the E, you get my middle name. Thus warded is an anagram of Edward.

Or is it the other way around? Like, Edward is an anagram of warded…? Er.

Sorry.

I mention this because I’ve been tagged for a Middle Name Meme by blog feiend Luisa Perkins. As she explained in her Middle Name Meme post, the object is to describe oneself by creating an acrostic with the letters of one’s middle name. And since (1) I want to and (b) the meme’s instructions don’t say I can’t, I’m going with my middle name’s anagram.

Whimsical is how I see and try to show myself online.

Amazed by all the gifted folks worldwide whose blogs I heart to read.

Radioactive I am not, though I enjoy the fallout to no end.

Devoted to my wife, who is also my dearest and best friend.

Employed by a large company whose small software team I lead.

Distracted by most anything with bright colors or a shine.

Ta-da!

If you like memes and want to do this one, let me know and I’ll consider you tagged. And if you’d rather not use your real middle name, that’s fine with me. In fact if you want, I’ll be happy to help you pick a name; just specify short, medium or long. We’ll think of something.

One more thing. The picture (above) shows an actual warded lock found in our home. Nice, soothing radioactive glow, yes? And in case you’re wondering, the picture hasn’t been altered except for crop and resize.

And what about you? Any old-fashioned warded locks in your home, or on your stuff?

This post glowingly* brought to you by the letter R.

* Please pretend ‘glowingly’ is an actual word. Humor me, okay? Okay. Thanks!

Blog feiend BadAunt remembered how to speel my name and url, and sent a giant spider tagged me for this meme. Thus are you subjected to reading the following five reasons why I blog.

1. So my brain doesn’t leak out my ears.
2. Because sometimes the voices get a little raucous.
3. All the cool kids were doing it.
4. I make new feiends.
5. My mom said I could.

Seems like I should tag someone… hmm. I know! The first three people who (a) read this post and (b) don’t comment with at least one reason why they blog (or don’t blog) - those people will be tagged. I mean it! I’ll use my trusty StatCounter and hunt you down like a duck! Plus I’ll use exclamation marks! Excessively so! Also improper sentences!

Okay that’s enough punishment, even for me. And I gotta go.

My mom said so.

This week’s Blog Fodder topic asks:

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up and why?

The award for Best Answer I’ve Ever Seen for this question goes to blog feiend Demosthenes, who says his childhood ambition was, and I quote, “to be an allosaurus.”

My ambitions? Fly a helicopter, scuba dive … boring! Worse still, one of my persistent childhood goals was to become knowledgeable.*

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?

A: A nerd.

Many different things interested me, and I enjoyed reading and *gasp* learning. Although I do remember being called “Brainiac” by my siblings, I don’t think I acted like a know-it-all.†

Speaking of annoying know-it-alls, last week I shared this mysterious spamment:

This week our clever feiend iknowall10‡ switched computers - or at least IP addresses, because “blocked” - and kindly provided yet another spamment. Oh joy for fun! Sweet mysteries revealed!

Ah.

that that that…?

Peace and issues?

Parsit’?!

Not secret, my feiends. Simultaneously all.

* While I did enjoy reading comic books, I spent a lot of time reading encyclopedias. And dictionaries. Etc.
† This is, as you might suspect, a lie.
‡ Is it just me or does iknowall10 make you think of… cadiz12?!

Hey-ey kids! It’s clown meme time, courtesy of DraMa aka Angel, who seems to think I “deserve” this just because I repeatedly taunted encouraged her to accept and embrace a certain cicada invasion. And despite the fact she did indeed manage to not only face the swarm but capture several minutes of totally bug-infested video, I still get stuck with to enjoy this lovely, five-infested meme. As will several of you my feiends; as will you.

INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so:

An Island Life

Whee! All The Way Home

Melanie in Orygun

Queen Of Drama

Radioactive Jam

Next, select five people to tag:

The five not-recently-tagged ( by me at least ( I think ( sorry if I’m wrong ’bout that ) ) ) radioactive victims honorees* are:

• Elasticwaistbandlady
• Archshrk
• Erik
• Rhonda
• Jhianna

Aside: if you my feiend are so inclined, you’re welcome to pick this up even if you’re not formally tagged. Probably you already know this; I’m just saying.

And now without further ado / to-do / doodoo: the meme.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Wringing my hands and working like a maniac in anticipation of the Y2K disaster. Kidding! I was never even slightly worried about that. Plus the bomb shelter added considerable resale value to our home … okay ten years ago I was (a) not blogging, (b) working ten minutes from home (now more than one hour; d’oh!) and (c) contemplating first-time grandparenthood (now four; more = merrier!).

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Still paying off those bomb-shelter loans. Kidding! One year ago I was (a) working more than one hour away from home, (b) enjoying a fine pair of grandsons, and (c) blogging about something I called a WordPress backslash fix. Aside: that post was my first to hit the big time with the Great And Powerful Oz Google™; it’s a good example of totally amateur yet highly effective “search engine keyword-seeding.”

Five Snacks You Enjoy

• Krispy Kreme donuts
• Cadbury Caramel Eggs
• Sardines
• Earwax candy
• Twizzlers

Five Songs That You Know All The Lyrics To
I thought about listing the first five songs from The Veronicas album but decided to play fair instead.

• “Wild Thing” - The Troggs
• “Louie Louie” - The Kingsmen
• “There She Goes” - Sixpence
• “Stairway To Heaven” - Led Zeppelin
• “Jesus Just Left Chicago” - Z.Z. Top

Five Things You Would Do If You Were a Millionaire
Thanks for the big IF there, meme-creator. Thanks for that vote of confidence! Okay I am not upset, not really. Also I’m not a millionaire. Not yet anyway. But I digress. I would:

• Digress less (Ha! Chance not).
• Work less
• Travel more
• Share more
• Whine the same

Five Bad Habits

• Frequent and/or extended digressions
• Procrastination
• Occasional loud belching
• Exceeding posted speed limits
• Eating Krispy Kreme donuts toenail picking

Five Things You Like To Do

• Hang out with the Radioactive Spouse
• Visit Krispy Kreme Buy useless stuff
• Family activities
• Amuse the grandsons
• Blog

Five Things You Would Never Wear Again

• Anything in this post’s second picture
• School uniform i.e. blue shirt, tie, pants
• Unibrow (no I will not explain)
• Skirt and pantyhose (ditto)
• Raggedy jeans with “Kreamo” patch

Five Favorite Toys
I realize some “adults” might list things like laptops, cars, and golf clubs; I’m saving those for when I grow up.

• Franken Monkeys
• Roboreptile
• Evil Clown Nesting Dolls
• Corporate Zombies
• Timmy the monkey

The end. For me at least. You? Not so much. Muwahahahaha!

* If you find yourself having a Bartleby† moment, that’s cool; you’re still my feiend.
† i.e. Melville’s “Bartleby The Scrivener.”‡ And if you need me to explain still more, let’s just say I would prefer not to.
‡ One of my favorite short stories. I think about his signature line all. The. Time. Yeah, I’m weird like that.

The In-Infamous Five Question Meme goes radioactive.

I noticed blog feiend Erik recently survived a second round of questions and answers at The Electronic Replicant, so - possibly because I left my AFDB at home - I agreed to let him “give me five.”

Cheese and crackers, man! What an awesome set of questions he gave me; read on, my feiends.

1) You are on your way to work, when suddenly a wormhole to the far side of the galaxy opens in the middle of the road. You are thus the first to meet the alien being that emerges. Despite your protestations, you are now Earth’s unofficial First Contact ambassador. What will you say to the visitor?
“Farti!” Definitely “farti” because seriously, what are the chances?

2) A wandering trading caravan emerges from the wormhole. They plan to stay on Earth for a few weeks, and then will move on to the next planet and the next. Whatever you said must have really impressed them, because they offer to let you and a few other humans come along with them. The only catch is that the caravan probably won’t be back to Earth. Would you go? Why or why not?
Hey-ey kids! Chance of a lifetime! In-ter-stellar road trip, step-right-up! Yes I’d go, so long as “few other humans” could include immediate family. But not Al Gore.* Sorry, I’m sure he’s like, sincere, and probably punctual but I can’t imagine… galactic warming? No. *shudders*

3) Suppose you decided to go. The master of the caravan will allow you to bring along whatever trinkets and baubles you think will sell on alien worlds, and will also allow you to bring exactly five other items that you may always keep. Clearly, he does not mean practical items like shoes or a toothbrush. What would you bring?
This is the tricksy one. Okay. five things:

• A towel. (Aside: remember my feiends, May 25th is Towel Day.)
  
• Bucky The Spork.
• A Leatherman multi-tool. Because sooner or later I’ll break need to fix be called upon to fix something on an interstellar spaceship, and how cool will that be, huh? Yeah man!
• An über-compact fusion-powered notebook / camera / recorder† with a built-in transgalactic communicator. Because, dude. I am so blogging this trip.
• A certain little yellow monkey, currently causing trouble protecting a traveling journal somewhere in western Canada.

4) Suppose you decided to stay home after all. The caravan master offers you a parting gift. You may choose among super-brain pills, a flying car, a robot butler, or an invisibility belt. Which would you choose and why?
Aaaah! I was wrong, this is the hard one… *sigh* I would choose… the super-brain pills, because then maybe I could figure out a way to have the caravan master give me one of each. I know that sounds horribly evil and greedy but I. Would. Share. Honest!

5) Suppose you ended up taking the super-brain pills. You now have a head the size, shape, and color of a watermelon. But you also now have the most fantastic mind the world has ever seen. What would be the first task you set it to?
You mean besides coming up with something to keep the ol’ melon from rotting, right? Because that would have to be first-first, otherwise “big problem.” But we won’t count that one ‘kay? ‘Kay. First task… hmm.‡ I know! First task: create more super-brain pills. Then I’ll get my blog feiends to take them so we can look uniformly freakish unleash our prodigious brains on the world’s biggest problems.

Like spam. And Paris Hilton Britney Spears other slightly more important stuff.

* * * * *

If you’re interested in participating in this In-Infamous Five Question Meme, let me know in a comment. I’ll come up with five special questions just for you. They won’t be as good as Erik’s but I’ll do my best.

* Mr. Gore just happened to poop pop into my head; you could insert pretty much any politician’s name in that space.
† Acquired from someone in the caravan, in exchange for a spare titanium spork. And a towel. Shrewd dude, that trader.
‡ Must… resist… temptation to form Focus Group…

Blog feiend Steph didn’t need to twist my virtual arm, pull it out of socket and beat me over the head to write an “eight random things about me” meme. But wait. How can these be random?! I don’t have a randomizer in my head, do I? Is there a list of Everything About Me from which I can pull eight items at random?

This might prove unnecessarily* difficult.

1. I like pie and pi in pretty much equal measures.
2. All my socks are white Hanes ankle-height types.
3. Spiders bug me. We will not peacefully coexist.
4. “Mai-uh-hee / mai-uh-hoo / mai-uh-haw / mai-uh-hah-hah…”
5. There is a piece of something stuck in one of my pinky fingers. It’s been there for at least a year.
6. Given a choice between eating an onion or an earthworm, I would seriously consider choosing the earthworm.
7. Mmmm, chocolate…
8. Mondays do not bother me.

Since I managed to get Π (pi) all over this post, I’ll perpetuate a little more randomness and tag Π (pi) blog feiends instead of eight. This will of course make things easier for me, and should leave a few slices of blogger pie for everyone else. Thus without further ado I give you: The iEight Π Taggettes!

• Archshrk
• Cadiz12
• Lia
• Wildflower

Note to the Taggettes - when it’s your turn to do so, feel free to list a random number of random things, and tag a random number of other people. I think it’s more in line with the spirit of the meme, yes? And if you need help coming up with a random number, check here.

* Yet (safe to say) not unexpectedly so.

Notable Day The First: A Day In WikiHistory

Novembrance postmeister and blog feiend Luisa Perkins tossed a handful of magic meme dust into the ether and invited me to play History Tag.

1. Go to Wikipedia and enter your birthday without the year:
January 13!

2. List three events that occurred that day:

• 888 - Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks. This of course is a boring real Odo, not “Constable” Odo the shapeshifter.
• 1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th moon of Jupiter. And I thought the moon was named after that actress from Ally McBeal; go figure, eh.
• 1972 - Prime Minister Kofi Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheamphong. They’ve been sending letters and emails asking for help retrieving their vast secret fortunes ever since.

3. List two important birthdays:

• 1961 - Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress. Stella! STEL-LUH!
• 1977 - Orlando Bloom, English actor. Aka Legolas, aka Will Turner.

4. List one death:

• (tie) 858 - King Ethelwulf of Wessex, and 888 - Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor. The former because “Ethelwulf” might be my new favorite name, and the latter because, dude. What kind of an emperor lets history remember him as Someone The Fat?!

5. List one holiday or observance:

• Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm designated January 13 “Steve Yzerman Day.” It’s a hockey thing, you must understand. And along those lines I’d just like to say, “Go Rangers! Woohoo!”

Hereby passing along this nice and easy blog post project to Cadiz12, Lia, Omar, and Sirdar. Enjoy!

Notable Day The Second: Today

And sad to say no, it’s not A Good Thing. My “main” computer at home is now completely useless, flummoxed by an operating system (Linux) automatic update gone bad. I’m writing this from our severely memory-challenged i.e mind-numbingly slow “other” computer. And I can’t take much more. So I’ll be off-grid for at least a day while I try to figure out some way to repair or replace the operating system on the main PC.

I hate computers. I really do.

That is all.