To:

• My mom, still going strong after teaching leukemia a thing or two about trying to bring her down
• My loved fully and foreverly Radioactive Spouse, the finest woman any man could ever hope to have and to hold
• My daughters and daughter-in-law, who daily bring to mind the joy of being both a parent and grandparent
• My blog feiends of the female gender with children

Have a happy and Wonderful Mother’s Day. Now please, take a nap. Leave the dynamos tornadoes children and details of the day to me and the boys. We’ll take care of everything.

And even clean up after ourselves.

Love from your son / husband / father / father-in-law / blog feiend aka Jam

This whole “blog” thing - it’s too much pressure.

I quit.

Thanks, folks. It’s been real.

That’s what radioactive grandson Will told us this morning when he called, full of excitement and a two-year-old’s Good Cheer.

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, the Radioactive Spouse and I wish you a fine and merry one. To all our feiends: we hope you at least get a break from your work-a-day routine, and find joy and reasons to be of good cheer in the days ahead.

And! Another Discworld-based treat for Terry Pratchett fans. Yesterday evening I was flipping through TV channels, looking for something good like Pinky and the Brain reruns. Imagine my surprise when I saw the word “Hogfather” in the listings. Turns out Mr. Pratchett’s book was made into a TV mini-series, released last year and brought to the US airwaves by ION Television.

Two words: fan. Tastic. Of course now I want (a) to see it again, and (b) more! More!

One can hope, yes?

Ook!

Today is the one and only annual Monkey Day, a campaign I did not create but fully appreciate. As part of this year’s Monkey Day festivities, I am pleased to announce the winner of a typically weird fabulous radioactive monkey prize.

For suggesting such a weird fabulous item for my radioactive scavenger hunt - which ran most of November and yes, continues in December and still isn’t finished - the monkey prize goes to…

Dear family To whom it my concern,

Forget the yodelling pickle. I want one of these.

To whom this my concern: consider this item officially added to my Christmas wish list.

Available from Archie McPhee.

How someone could not want one of these - I can’t imagine. If you’re a not-wanter, please explain.

Thanks!

To all my feiends - blog, new, unmet and real - radioactive greetings on this (US) Thanksgiving day. May your moments be filled with reasons for giving thanks, may your plates be piled high (or at least sensibly overloaded), and may your real and virtual palates be thrilled with all manner of tasty bits.

And may we all remember… we must do more than merely think about “those people” — the needy, the hungry, the all too easily forgotten, the ones with no champion. We must act. Then “those people” will have reasons to give thanks as well, and that’s pretty cool.

I know many of you regularly go above and beyond in matters of giving time, money, and material goods, and that’s even more cool.

So let’s remember, yes? Thanks. You’re the best, dear feiends.

Glowing regards,
Bill (and Beth)

Wherein your seriously RL-inundated Radioactive Overlord tries to catch up. Read on for an ode to visitors, a special birthday greeting, what’s up with RaJMa and an extraordinary Halloween “treat.”

New visitor Alice wrote these kind words in a comment:

You are a very comprehensive blogger. I salute you.

Alice, I’m pretty sure no one’s ever called me that before… but I really appreciate your words, and not just because they’re a perfect intro for this unusually comprehensive post.

Several first-timers have commented in recent days, and to each one of you I’d like to say:

I apologize.

Normally I try to go overboard with new visitors; I reply here and when possible, leave comments on the visitor’s weblog.

Family matters have taken priority, made me scarce in all things blog, and rightly so. Still, I will catch up with each of you soon. I promise.

Speaking of family matters, today we say Happy Birthday! to Radioactive Daughter R aka R2aD aka Annie, part-time spider huntress and full-time mother of grandson Austin. Please join me in wishing Annie the best and happiest birthday and year of her life so far.

Speaking of so far, the summary of medical news for my mom aka RaJMa and her newly joined battle against acute myeloid leukemia is “so far, so good.” Her test results have been encouraging, and her doctor recommends she begin treatment this weekend. The next couple weeks will be the worst; this is the part where the treatment could prove fatal. Her doctor believes without treatment, she could die in the same time frame, so - yeah. But her heart is strong, she’s in good health - other than dying from acute leukemia (and that’s her line not mine) - so she’s smiling… and ready for whatever awaits her in the days ahead.

My mom is of course awesome, and I gotta say: I love you, mom.

Speaking of– er. Kinda didn’t leave much in the way of segue material, did I. That’s okay, because this Halloween Freakout Treat stands on its own just fine. I found this figure while shopping with the Radioactive Spouse; needless to say we weren’t looking for Bobble-head Jack-O-Lantern Clowns but hey, when Cthulhu The Jack-O-Clown calls? I answer.

So my feiends… if you want to see the charming creature, look below the fold. If you dare.

Also please note depending on how you view this post, you might not have the benefit of a fold. Sorry; deal.

Yes my radioactive yet astonishingly attractive blog feiends, today - September 19th - is the one and only annual International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Picky OCD Attentive readers might notice I did not end the preceding sentence with the ubiquitous pirate expletive “arrrr!” I did not do this for a reason, and that reason is: I… don’t know. Don’t exactly have a good reason, really. Just wanted to be, you know. Different.

Thing is, it’s Talk Like A Pirate Day, not Blog Like A Pirate.* Yes, yes, blog posting shares many similarities with talking i.e. use of words, sentences etc. And whether spoken or blogged, talking like a pirate is way way fun. But still.

Different, remember?

So. Following the lead of Captain Slappy and Old Chumbucket (the Pirate Guys), I hereby issue a Radioactive Challenge: sometime today, talk like a pirate. With words. Spoken aloud. To someone other than yourself. I will; how about you?

Doesn’t have to be a stranger although you’re more than welcome to push the boundaries of generally acceptable social behavior and– well, talk like a pirate to a stranger today. Feel free to practice in your comments here and elsewhere, and please! report back with details of your day’s piratical encounters. As for What To Say and How To Say It, there are lots of great tips here and here; avail yourselves.

See? Avail yourselves - that sounds like something a pirate would say, right? And it’s not! Isn’t this fun?

By this time you’re most likely shaking your head and asking yourself, “Why oh why do I keep visiting here? My brain hurts.” Believe me I know exactly what you mean. So I’ll stop now, and leave you with this helpful video clip from Captain Slappy and Old Chumbucket, the madmen Pirate Guys behind Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Enjoy.

* Not that there’s anything wrong with that.