You gotta love English cuisine. The UK government has given Heinz the go-ahead to label their tins of baked beans as counting towards your recommended daily intake of five portions fruit and vegetables. Apparently spaghetti-o’s and soup will count as well. Health experts are, as expected, horrified.
Category: Random Links
Links that I’m reading/watching/listening to/thinking about
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Bardot is no more.
Bardot – one of the bands I put on my mix CD – has just called it quits. Ahh, the first Popstars band implosion.
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General Tso’s chicken
Who is General Tso and why are we eating his chicken? Now we know. My college roommates and I would always wonder this when we placed our weekly order to Bai-Ju’s Noodle House in South Bend. On a similar note, did you know that Paul Simon got the song title “Mother and Child Reunion” from a chicken-and-egg dish he spotted on a Chinese restaurant’s menu? You need never be puzzled by your take-away again. (Original link courtesy of Fredo.)
Edited 18/04/2025: Original link is dead and not archived, so replaced with similar.
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Stop the presses!
Roger Ebert‘s website (actually the entire Chicago Sun-Times site) has a new design. I like it! Much less image-oriented, which means it doesn’t look so bad when I surf with the images off. I think the blue is nice too. I just wish they hadn’t filled in the “o” in the logo URL. That bugs me.
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Steve Irwin
“There’s no doubt that many Australians experience a collective cringe over Irwin’s showman-like antics. Unlike Americans, they’re put off by his impassioned testaments to his own sincerity, the preachy tone of his “saving the world” pitch, and his hair-trigger, often comical sentimentality. ‘Australians like people who underplay,’ ventures documentary-maker Malcolm Douglas. ‘Even Paul Hogan underplayed stuff, whereas Steve Irwin comes across like a used-car salesman selling everything down the camera.’”
Here’s a great article about Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. I found the description of his childhood and early career pretty hilarious. You also get to read about how he met his wife. (“Crikey, a sheila who loves wildlife and can take a good hit on the head, that’s the woman for me!”) Interestingly, it also tackles the issue of his curious non-fame in his home country. He pretty much represents everything that makes Australians cringe about themselves. Good reading if you’re a fan (like my Dad).
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Flash house
“Web Designer Builds Home Out of Flash”. My friend Ferret sent me that link, and if anybody could do it, he could. 🙂
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Go Mets!
Ahh, baseball. It looks like my Mets could have a good year! They certainly got off to a great start against their hated rivals. (And no, I’m not playing Fantasy Baseball this season. I learned my lesson when I got spanked in my league last year.)
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Map
Hey, click on this link and add your location to the map! It correctly guessed that I was in Sydney, yet for some reason the dot it added for me was in California. Go figure.
Update: Don’t bother. It got linked everywhere today and the resulting traffic killed it.
Edited 06/04/2025: Link is dead and not archived.
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The Royal Tenenbaums
The Snook and I finally saw The Royal Tenenbaums tonight. I didn’t like it as much as Ebert did. I seriously think I might have liked it more if every single actor in it hadn’t been so recognizable. Instead it was a steady stream of “Look at Gwyneth Paltrow being so un-Gwyneth Paltrow-like!” and “Gee, isn’t if funny how Ben Stiller keeps wearing the same tracksuit?” Their characters were based on costumes and gimmicks, and I couldn’t find a single person to like or identify with. I also have a history of not liking movies without plots (and this one didn’t have much of one). If any of you really liked it, can you explain why?
(Clarification: I’m not saying I didn’t like it. It was entertaining. It wasn’t my favorite movie of the year, though, and I think I only laughed out loud maybe once, as opposed to the guy behind me who guffawed all the way through it. What did he get that I didn’t get??)
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Acquitted
Apparently having Bono as a character witness was a good defense strategy. Peter Buck got acquitted of those air rage charges. I’m not sure if I believe his “non-insane automatism” excuse, though.