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In Fact, I Was at the Malls of Montezuma, Checking Out the Stores of Tripoli

Photo of Marine barracks whiteboard that says: 'America is not at war. The marines are at war. America is at the mall.'

It’s a tough job, and whether or not you agree with the U.S. administration’s policies, you’ve got to hand it to the marines for doing a job that many politicians (and their families) don’t want to do.

(Psst! Don’t understand the title of this article? It’s adapted from the first lines of the Marines’ Hymn.)

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"Satan: King of Empires"

Old comic graphic: 'Satan - King of Empires!
Image courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

A couple of observations:

  • Zadcat makes the same observation I did: What about the Ottoman empire? And I’m certain there was at least one Chinese empire that could’ve given the Greeks and Romans a run for their money.
  • Even using their old names, I can locate the first six empires on a map, but I can’t seem to find “Antichrist” anywhere.
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The Jerk Cycle

Preview version of 'The Jerk Cycle'.
Click the picture to see it at full size. Courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

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Make Up Your Own Caption

Cat on cat photo.
Click the picture to see it at full size.

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11 Dead, 100 Injured in…Kite-Flying Festival?

Skull kite.

At a two-day kite-flying festival in Lahore, Pakistan (former home of my good buddy George), injuries and deaths were caused by:

  • People falling off rooftopsStray bullets
  • Electrocution
  • and sharpened kite-strings [Joey’s note: Huh?]
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Song of the Week: "The Sweater" by Meryn Cadell (1991)

Cover of Meryn Cadell's Album 'Angel Food for Thought'.

Those of you who went to Crazy Go Nuts University and hung out in Clark Hall Pub in the early 1990s are probably familiar with Meryn Cadell’s spoken-word piece The Sweater of her album Angel Food for Thought, a number I used to play near the beginning of my DJ shifts before the dance floor really got rocking. If you don’t recognize the title, you might recognize the opening sentences that followed an opening organ riff sampled from the theme to Un Homme et Une Femme

Girls, I know you will understand this, and feel the intrinsic, incredible emotion. You have just pulled over your head the worn, warm sweater belonging to A Boy.

Unlikely as it was, the number proved to be a hit; some people even got on the dance floor when this number came on. For a while, I’d always get a request from some young woman to play the song, and I recall people asking me to put it on a mixed tape for them.

(For the younger readers: Back in the stone-age days of the early 1990s, the most practical way to share music was to pass around recordings made on a spool of thin plastic called “tape” contained in a plastic casing called a “cassette”. We also thought that ADD was caused by evil spirits.)

Cassette tape

The Sweater also got heavy rotation on Accordion City’s alt-rock station CFNY (now “102.1 The Edge”, a mere shadow of its former self) and MuchMusic. Thanks to the magic of YouTube, you can watch the old video:

Meryn Cadell now

So where is Meryn Cadell now? According to Torontoist, Meryn’s now in Vancouver, working as a university professor, happier than ever and…a man.

This Torontoist interview is the inspiration for this week’s Song of the Week, The Sweater [4.8 MB MP3], which will be available for a week, and then will evaporate. (Well, there’s also the matter of my not having a copy of Monty Python’s Penis Song handy.) Enjoy the song, and welcome to the club, Meryn!

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funny

I Find That a Little Johnnie Walker Blue Label Also Heals the Dryness of the Place

Engirsh sign: Five reasons to drink sake.

I like the third reason to drink sake: “for reasons”; there’s a certain Zen koan quality to it.