Best of Friday Fun

Friday is the day devoted to fun on Sullicom blog. It might involve food, it might involve games, it might involve creative time wasting. Whatever it is, the purpose is to deliver smiles and laughs.

Among the fun favorites...

Simpsonize Me - meet my family and find out about another fun diversion that will show you what you'd look like if you lived in Springfield.

Bow Man - brush up on your bowmanship with this addictive little game I discovered on the "Say No To Crack" blog.

Ghost Story - one of my Halloween-week posts, I revisit an experience in a haunted inn.

Pez - is it the tiny, brick-shaped candies that's the allure, or the fun, collectible dispensers? Maybe both? Just be careful you don't turn into the crazy Pez lady.

Banana Pudding - who can resist one of the world's greatest comfort desserts? So delicious it has inspired songs and makes me feel like dancing!

Moon Pie - another guilty pleasure snack food. Variations abound, but there's only one Moon Pie.

Finger Safety - maybe the worst corporate video ever made, I hope they at least came in under budget. I wonder what ever became of Earl?

Enjoy!

Friday Fun - Bozo, Ho, Ho

The photo at the left comes from a gallery titled "Santa Trauma" that we have on baltimoresun.com in which readers can upload shots of unhappy visits to St. Nick. I don't know who the terrified tot is, but I'm sure many of you can relate.

I can. Of our three kids, Courtland, our oldest, was the one who was most spooked by Santa. He was also suspicious of the Easter Bunny and Bozo the Clown. Perhaps the most traumatic event of his youth involved both Santa and Bozo.

We lived in Chicago when Courtland was born. And if you've ever spent time in that city, you might know that Bozo holds a special place in the hearts of Chicago residents. For years and years the clown had a Sunday morning show on WGN TV, and getting tickets to the show was nearly as difficult as scoring front-row seats to the seventh game of a World Series (but who in Chicago would know that?).

WGN was and is owned by Tribune Company, which also owned the paper where I worked. Every Christmas, the company held a party for employees' families, during which children lined up to visit not only Santa, but Bozo. They were seated side-by-side - a double whammy that was certain to scare the bejeezus out of nervous little tykes.

Courtland fretted while we stood in line with him and his sister Flannery, but he held it together pretty well during the dual lap-sittings, as you can see from the photo at the right. His trauma came afterward.

The party started winding down and we were on our way out of the building, walking down a long hallway. As we neared an intersection with another corridor, suddenly spinning around the corner was Bozo and his entourage!

Courtland stopped dead in his tracks, as did the clown, who in his big Bozo voice said, "Hi there!" All the color drained from Court's face and he stood stone still and silent, his fingers clamped vise-tight on my hand.

A few seconds later, Bozo and his posse took off. Marcy said to Courtland, "That was so cool! Bozo stopped and talked to you!"

Courtland quickly corrected her. "No. No he didn't. He was talking to dad."

The boy was obviously shaken by the encounter, so we didn't say anything else about it and went on out to the car.

As we're driving home, from the backseat, Courtland finally says, "Did you see his hair? It was really red."

Marcy and I looked at each other. "Yes. It sure was red."

A few more minutes of silence.

"Did you see his feet?," Courtland asked. "They were really big."

"Yes. They were really big," said Marcy.

And that was it.

There's little reason to fear Bozo these days. His show's been off the air in the Windy City for several years. Courtland's 12 years older now and we live in Baltimore. Even if Bozo were to show up this Christmas, with that hair and those big feet, he'd never fit down our chimney.

Friday Fun - Lileks and Moore

I don't mean to sound like Scrooge, but the holidays rarely put me in a jolly mood. So, I set out this morning in search of a few good chuckles.

Always a sure bet to make me snicker is one of my favorite sites, lileks.com. I first introduced you to James Lilek's hilarious site back in August. He's recently redesigned the site and added a few more fun galleries.

Lileks has gathered lots of cultural relics from the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s, like advertisements, cookbooks and postcards. He also has a very funny blog and podcasts.

What I particularly enjoyed on this visit was the Coffee & Chrome gallery, a visual feast of postcards and ads for restaurants and diners - the types that most anyone from my generation remember from years past. It's a great, fun time trip.

The Stupidist Angel

Another quick fix for the holiday blues is Christopher Moore's book, "The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror."

For anyone unfamiliar with Moore, he's been compared with Carl Hiaasen and Douglas Adams. His books are far-fetched and funny, and he's got a wise-ass attitude that gives them a delightful edge.

I first discovered Moore through his book, "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal." This thoughtful fiction about Jesus' missing years is funny, insightful, playfully irreverent, but overall is respectful of the Christ story.

"Stupidest Angel" is a delightful, quick read about the chaos that ensues in a Pacific Coast village during the Christmas season. It involves angels, zombies, a former action-film actress, a hyperactive dog and more. Many of the characters are familiar from other Moore novels.

It's been a long time since a book has made me laugh out loud, but this one did more than once.

Friday Fun - Bow Man

For a period of two or three years in my early teens, I was a mighty deer hunter. Not just a deer hunter, but a BOW hunter. Manly stuff. Arrows, big curved stick with a string on it. Yep, that's me at the right. Nice tush, huh?

About this time of year, along with Brother Dave and our friends Rudy and Clifton, we'd head down to Kentucky's Land Between the Lakes, a magnificent outdoor recreation area in the western part of the state. We'd camp out at night, which was lots of fun, then hunt during the day, which wasn't fun. Sitting in a tree all day in December is uncomfortable.

I wasn't much of a threat to the deer. Frankly, I didn't even see many, which amazes me now because almost any morning I can look out on the hill in our backyard and see one or more deer trespassing in our garden, eating whatever plants we've grown.

Even had I seen one back then, I don't know that I would have had the nerve or heart to get off a shot. I know I certainly couldn't shoot a deer today.

However, shooting arrows is fun. But if you don't want to shoot at deer, what can you shoot at aside from a bale of hay? Well, how about another person?

Obviously, shooting at a real person is not only a problem, it's against the law in most states. And I suspect not many of you have a bow and arrows sitting around in the closet or garage. Lucky for you, I've got a solution.

I first encountered the game of Bow Man on the Say No To Crack site. The game is actually one of many freebie games you can find at Armor Games. Start by playing against the computer. It takes a few turns to figure out what to do (click on Bow Man, pull back the cursor, select the angle and release). But once you get the hang of it, it's hard to stop.

Have fun - but be careful!

Friday Fun - Cool Places

I'm sitting here, having just come out of my turkey coma and waiting for the Alka Seltzer to kick in. I feel like I gained 10 lbs. in a single day. Maybe I did. I'm too afraid to step on the scale and find out, though.

Food is about the last thing I want to dwell on today, so I thought I'd share some very funny blogs with you. Some I've visited often and others I've just recently discovered. But all are worth a few minutes of your time and should leave you laughing out loud.

Say No To Crack - a humor site with lots of funny videos, cartoons, games and amusing observations.

Olga, The Traveling Bra - I linked to this one just a couple of days ago. A deliciously readable travel blog, which the blogger describes, appropriately, as "Keeping the World Abreast of All My Exciting Globe-Trotting Adventures!"

Neatorama - another arcade of eclectica. Videos, games, curiosities and odd items. Make sure you check out the Kitty Conversation post.

Thinking Out Loud... - the blogger, Valerie Morrison, serves up "ramblings, humor, news, motivation, parenting, rants, technology, finance... plus a whole lot more." Essentially, it's whatever the heck she feels like talking about and most of what she has to say is very entertaining.

Treat yourself to something other than leftovers today and check out these blogs.

Enjoy!

Have To Share This With You

It feels good to laugh out loud. Through a series of blog links, I arrived at Olga the Traveling Bra's blog. Check out her Turkey ala Olga post.

Friday Fun - Ohio State vs Michigan

The Game is in Ann Arbor this year, thus robbing more than 100,000 fans of the experience of watching - and feeling - the Best Damn Band In The Land's stirring ramp entrance into Ohio Stadium.

At Ohio State games, the band is as much a part of the experience as the football. And no true fan would show up late enough to miss the band entrance. You literally feel it happening. The band gathers under the stands in the closed end of the horseshoe. Then you start to feel the rumble as the drums start pounding. The drum squad then marches down the ramp and assembles on the north end of the field as the thousands of fans clap in unison. Once they're in place, the rest of the band marches out to join them. As soon as all are in place, they begin to play "Buckeye Battle Cry." Then the drum major high steps onto the field, moves through the middle of the assemblage and takes his or her place in the front. The major slowly arches backward until the plume of his or her hat touches the ground. At that point the place goes wild and the band begins marching down the field with fight song blaring.

This sort of tradition is what makes college football sooooooo much better than the pro game. Being there and soaking in the spirit of these sorts of soul-stirring rituals gives me goose bumps and often brings a tear to my eyes. I've been to a few NFL games and the experience can't hold a candle to a college game. It's overly commercialized, overly sensational and at times approaches soft-porn. Give me a college game - any college game - anytime.

Michigan Jokes

I was delighted, but not amaized (pun intended), to see how many sites there are devoted to Michigan jokes. I've included links to the source of each one listed below. Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Q: How many batteries does it take to beat Michigan?
A: 1-AA

Q: How do you make University of Michigan cookies?
A: Put them in a big Bowl and beat them for three hours.

I hear that Lloyd Carr is only dressing 25 players this Saturday. The rest can dress themselves.

A guy in a bar leans over to the guy next to him and says, "Wanna hear a Michigan joke?" The guy next to him replies, "Well before you tell that joke, you should know something. I'm 6' tall, 200 lbs., and I am a Michigan alumnus. The guy sitting next to me is 6'2 tall, weighs 225, and he's a Michigan alumnus. The fella next to him is 6'5 tall, weighs 250, and he's a Michigan alumnus. Now, you still wanna tell that joke?" The first guy says, "Nah, not if I'm gonna have to explain it 3 times."

Q: What did the Michigan grad say to the OSU grad?
A: "Welcome to McDonalds. May I take your order please?"

And there are so many more...

Beer Me

If you want an authentic Ohio beer to swig while watching the game, try to find an eight pack of Little Kings. These 7-ounce bottles of ale are brewed by Cincinnati's Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company. It's a cream ale, so it's not the lightest drink you'll find. But they go down dangerously easy and provide a decent kick after a few. So, if you're driving, surrender those keys before the first sip.

When I was in college, I worked as a bartender at a campus bar that, alas, is no longer there. Thursday nights we had a special deal of three Little Kings for $1.25. We kept the bottles in 30-gallon trash cans filled with ice and we must have sold thousands of them every Thursday. I still have calluses from opening those suckers with wet hands.

Enjoy your weekend and The Game!

Friday Fun - Bunny Art

We have a house full of pets. There are two Labs (Daisy and Gypsy), Sharon the cat, Big Guy the gold fish, Buddy the hamster and Bunny the bunny. But only one has shown an aptitude for art.

It was Bunny who is responsible for the creation at the left. It started out as a cardboard box flap that I put in her cage for her to play with. A couple of days later when I went to feed her, I noticed that she had nibbled it into the shape of another rabbit. I guess I hadn't realized how much she wanted a playmate.

I've seen works from other animal artists. There are paintings by monkeys and recently on television I saw a story about a guy who dips worms in paint and lets them wiggle all over a canvas. But this is something quite different than random squirms or finger splats. Does Bunny have talent?

I sought out critical input from some artists whose work I admire and opinions I respect. Here's what they had to say:

From Alan, professional animator and published author: from the artist's POV - her eye for detail is matched by her desire to mix her creative juices with her digestive ones. Bravo bunny - you're on your way!

From Spleenal, talented cartoonist: i like it. the "cut out" shape elevates the bunny form to more of a symbol or icon. it also bridges the gap between "flat" art and sculpture and attains a cool 2.5D feel. but mainly i see a corruption of the playboy bunny symbol. in producing it out of cardboard is your rabbit trying to make a comment of how sex has been cheapened? and is the fact that it's not new card refering to the fact that much of what we see as new is nothing more that recycled ideas from the past? that's one smart bunny.

From Howie, accomplished artist and instructor at a prestigious art college: Well it's hard to get away from oneself. At Art School in Portraiture & Life Drawing Classes one often sees how one's own image keeps appearing. For example the live model gets up on the stand - The skinny guy ends up drawing a skinny model, the chubby student draws a chubby model, despite what the actual model really looks like. Also the reverse happens. The chubby student (wishful thinking) draws a skinny model, etc. ...........Since I don't know your rabbit personally, it's had to tell if your rabbit was re-creating his/her own image or a wishful representation of themselves........ You and your family and those close to the rabbit, (maybe only other rabbits) will have to be the judges of this. On another thought-----If one rotates the picture, then the boot of Italy appears, and artists often turn their artworks to get a fresh peek and new sense of their artworks. Did you actually see the rabbit working on it the way you present it?? Or perhaps the rabbit worked all around thus creating a different image from each side. And Matisse often looked at his paintings in the early morning dawning light claiming it allowed him to see them freshly, - so perhaps you should also examine your rabbit's artwork from all sides and at dawn.

Hard to argue with the those in the know. Have an opinion of your own? Share it with us in the comments. In the meantime, I wonder what she'd do if I put a block of granite in the cage?

Rabbit Opera

Moving from the visual to the performing arts, here's a golden oldie from another talented bunny, Bugs, from his operatic classic, "Rabbit of Seville."




Have a great weekend

Friday Fun - The Session

Beer & Music

This round's on me. Although I'm not a full-time beer blogger, I do write about it from time to time, and I do drink it more than occasionally. On the first Friday of each month, true beer bloggers engage in what is known as "The Session," in which the brethren all weigh in on a common topic. This month's theme - Beer & Music. Tomme Arthur of TheLost Abbey blog is the session host this month, so stop by and see what he's culled from all the blogs.

It isn't exactly like looking for a needle in a haystack to find references to beer and drinking in music. Country music is littered with drunken inspiration. Either a situation is driving someone to drink, or drink is setting up the situation. Kind of symbiotic.

Here are a few of my favorites, some of which I've served you before.

Porter Wagoner, who passed away earlier this week, put forth one of his best efforts in "Mysery Loves Company." It's an amusing clip in that it's a vintage video from Porter's old TV show, but you can see immediately that the video doesn't match the audio. What's funny, though, is that they sort of catch up to each other about 55 seconds in. Nevertheless, a classic country drinking song.




When we lived in Austin, one of the local bands I liked was the Asylum Street Spankers, a sort of jug band that sounded like they were time-transported from the 1930s. One of their best novelty songs is simply titled, "Beer." This link takes you to an audio clip of a live performance at The Cedar in Minneapolis.

Here are links to a couple of my earlier posts that included some of my favorite drinking songs. Todd Snider's "Beer Run" is an infectious tune that you'll curse me for introducing you to. And one of my all-time favorites is Webb Pierce's "There Stands the Glass." Brother Dave suggests The Wood Brothers' "Alcohol of Fame."

Now it's your turn to pick up the tab. Have a favorite drinking song? Share it with me and others in the comments field.

Enjoy (responsibly)!

Friday Fun, Oct. 26, 2007 - Ghost Story

Twenty-three years ago this week I experienced the closest thing I have to a personal ghost story.

Matt, a classmate at Ohio State, had told me of some strange things that happened to him when he worked at the Buxton Inn, the state's oldest continuously operated inn, located in Granville, Ohio, about 30 miles east of Columbus. Matt attributed these things to the Buxton's resident ghost, known as the Lady in Blue.

I mentioned that I'd like to do a story about the place, so Matt contacted the inn's owner, Orville Orr. Orville agreed to give us the run of the place one weekday afternoon. During the week, there weren't many guests staying in the inn, but people did come to the Buxton in the evenings to eat in the restaurant. Orville said we were welcome to prowl around until the dinnertime crowd arrived.

It was a typical late October day in Central Ohio - cool and cloudy with darkness moving in early. We arrived around 4 o'clock in the afternoon and started walking the hallways. After about a half an hour of nothing out of the ordinary, we went into the empty restaurant and sat down. Matt was telling me another of his stories when just over his shoulder, I noticed a swinging door move slightly. Matt saw me looking past him and he turned. Then we saw the door slowly open as a woman in a Colonial-style blue dress entered the room. It was a lady in blue! Yes, a lady in blue, but not the Lady in Blue. It was an early-arriving waitress, bringing a tray of silverware into the dining room to begin setting the tables. We composed ourselves, apologized for scaring her more than she scared us, and returned to roaming the hallways.

I was walking down a second-floor corridor a few feet ahead of Matt when I heard him shout, "Did you see that?" I spun and noticed that a fire door between us had closed after I had passed through. I opened it and rejoined Matt. He said that a large ceramic pot that had been propping the door open had moved, allowing the door to close. I hadn't seen it, and was frankly pretty skeptical about his observation. I slid the pot back in front of the door to prop it open again.

The second time, I saw it.

The pot moved. About four to six inches. Across a carpet. And the door closed.

A couple of minutes later, down in the bar, while we nervously sipped our drinks, Orville explained that the Lady in Blue is a gentle spirit and a bit of a show off. "She likes to perform," he said, noting that many feel she was an actress in life. He said our experience was much like what others reported, although some actually have seen her.

I can't say that I've seen a ghost. But, I can say I saw a 10-lb pot scoot across a carpet to allow a heavy metal door swing shut.

Here's another link to information about the haunting of the Buxton Inn.

And, if you want a fun way to waste hours of time, here's a link to a list of ghost cams set up at other reported haunted spots. This site also links to places where you can buy your own ghost-detection equipment if you want to go out and find your own spook.

This isn't what we drank in the bar that night, but it's in the spirit of the season. This concoction comes from the BarMeister site.

Ghostbuster

2 oz Vodka
1 oz Blue Curacao
Fill glass(es) Orange Juice

Add vodka, curacao, then orange juice.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Fun, Oct. 19, 2007 - Pez

In the movie "Stand By Me" one of the characters declared that if he could have only one food the rest of his life it would be Pez.

Who can argue? Not only are the little brick-shaped candies delightfully flavorful, the dispensers are just way cool.

The image at the right is from a gallery of modified Pez dispensers at Sweet World Pez. If you elect to visit the site (and I highly recommend it), you'll find customized Pez poppers that range from amusing to blasphemous.

The video below features a woman named Kellie who likes Pez maybe a little too much. I kept wanting to see what would happen if she tilted her head back.



Have a great weekend!

Sehr Kühl!

Von gestern Pfosten wird in Deutschen übersetzt!

Friday Fun, Oct. 5, 2007 - Banana Pudding

When Brother Dave sent me his BBQ and Soul Food Tour post, we spent some time reminiscing about our mother's banana pudding. It was pretty basic stuff - vanilla wafers, vanilla pudding, ripe bananas and meringue.

Dave made the observation that not only can't you find banana pudding in many restaurants these days, but when you do, they often top it with a glop of Cool Whip or some other sawdust and paste concoction instead of the meringue.

It's truly worth the effort to treat yourself to the real deal and I found this terrific recipe on the Texas Cooking Website. Not only does it use meringue, it also uses real pudding instead of the boxed stuff.

While you're throwing the recipe together, grab a copy of Southern Culture on the Skids' "Double Wide and Live" CD and play their song "Banana Pudding" over and over and over.

And now, it's the weekend and all this talk about bananas has me feeling like Carmen Miranda! Bailemos!



Have a great weekend of your own!

Friday Fun, Sept. 28, 2007 - Curse of the Billy Goat

The baseball year is coming to an end and my Cubs are doing their best to kill me. They're dangerously close to losing their division lead with only three days left in the regular season, and bedeviled Cubs fans like me are wondering if the Curse of the Billy Goat is at work again.

The curse can be traced back to the Billy Goat Tavern on Lower Michigan Avenue. It's a historic bar and grill that's literally under Chicago's Magnificent Mile.

The Goat, as it's familiarly known, was the model for the old Saturday Night Live's Olympia Cafe skit. They really do shout, "Cheezborger! Cheezborger! No Pepsi - Coke!"

As in the skit, patrons line up in front of the lunch counter where their orders are taken and then famously called to the cooks. The food isn't great, but is sufficiently greasy to coat your stomach in defense of the many glasses of Schlitz or shots of Early Times (or both) you can drink in the perpetually dark, underground bar.

The Goat has long been a hangout for Chicago's journalists, many of whom are memorialized on the walls. The late, great columnist Mike Royko was a regular and his "Wise Guy's Corner" is still there.

During our 11 years in Chicago, it was one of my all-time favorite places to drink and socialize. But there's that darn curse.

The curse started when the Cubs' owner, P.K. Wrigley, prevented the tavern's owner, William Sianis, from bringing his pet goat to game 4 of the 1945 World Series. Sianis was so upset, he cried, "The Cubs ain't gonna win no more!" Well, it was effective. We're still waiting to get back to the series for the first time since the curse was invoked. You can read the full history of the curse and more about the Billy Goat Tavern here. And my former colleague, Rick Kogan, wrote a terrific book about The Goat, called "A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, A Curse, and the American Dream."

Now excuse me while I curl up in the fetal position for the rest of the weekend.

Go Cubbies!

Friday Fun, Sept. 21, 2007 - Moon Pie

Take a little cardboard, some foam insulation, cover it with chocolate and what do you have? Something pretty close to a Moon Pie.

I'm a GooGoo Cluster man myself, but have eaten my fair share of Moon Pies - both chocolate and banana. I always found the flavor much less satisfying than I had hoped, but there's something about them that just oozes fun.

Maybe it's the name - Moon Pie. Say it three times, slowly. It's like jumping jacks for your mouth. Your lips pooch way out for the "Moon" part. There's a satisfying "P" to pop as you go into the word "Pie," which stretches the corners of your mouth to the limit. Ah, doesn't that feel good?

The treat has even been immortalized in song, most notably Vic McAlpin's "RC Cola and a Moon Pie," covered by NRBQ, Big Bill Lister (heard here off a link from an NPR story about Moon Pies) and by bluesman Nelsen Adelard, seen below in a performance at B.B. King's Blues Club in Hollywood.



If you've worked up an appetite for a Moon Pie but can't find them around you, here's a recipe for a homemade version off the allrecipes.com site.

Enjoy!

More Fun

Here are a few more things to put a smile on your face as you head into the weekend.

When John McIntyre shared his family Bourbon Balls recipe, it led the two of us into a discussion of another candy I fondly remember from growing up in Kentucky - Divinity. Ironically, just a day or two later, I followed a link off The Chef From Hell's blog to Noshtalgia, where I found this Divinity recipe.

And speaking of The Chef From Hell, JP had this Kentucky Beer Cheese recipe posted Thursday. If you're looking for something to round out your weekend football food spread, this should do the trick.

Finally, much thanks to my colleague Elizabeth Large, the terrific restaurant critic for The Baltimore Sun. Elizabeth was kind enough to mention Sullicom on her wonderful Dining@Large blog. I hope I haven't disappointed her readers who have stopped by for a visit.

Oh, and the photo is one of my favorites of our youngest - MoJo - who you've previously met in posts about hot sauce and Boog Powell. She always makes me laugh.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Friday Fun, Sept. 14, 2007 - Finger Safety

Here's a little "finger" food for your funny bone.

"IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU". So reads the title card on what may be the worst corporate video ever made. More familiarly known as "Finger Safety," the video had gained cult status almost immediately after it was made in the 1970s.

The "talent" on the video is telephone guy Earl Tice from the Hiram, Ohio Long Lines Office. Poor Earl is clad in a navy blue leisure suit and is parked on a stool between a green curtain and a folding table. Earl, apparently inspired by a friend who lost a ring finger while installing some shelving, tells his fellow employees how they can avoid a similar fate. To help him, he uses a bunch of props he seemingly picked up at the local Woolworth's on the way to work that morning.

The best moments come when Earl pulls the Handi Wipes veil off secret props and demonstrates all sorts of dangers awaiting your digits.

I had a copy of this on VHS that I sadly lost in one of our many moves over the years. But God bless YouTube, which is like the box in the basement where you find every tape you ever lost. The site has several copies of this priceless piece of video, including the one below.

Hey, Earl - where can I get one of those company cars?

Friday Fun, Sept. 7, 2007 - Simpsonize Me

Let me introduce you to my family. Left to right are Flannery, the Remarkable Marcy, MoJo, your humble blogger, and Courtland.

This lovely portrait was the result of much fun we had a couple of months ago with a site called "Simpsonize Me." The site was a promotion for the "The Simpsons Movie" and Burger King. You can upload a photo - headshots work best - of a person and the site will soon spit out a cartoony likeness. You have options to customize or tweak the caricature further, then can export it to your computer. We took each of our portraits, which are eerily spot on, and then Photoshopped them into the group shot.

The site is a lot of fun, but you need to make sure you've got the latest version of Macromedia's Flash to make it work.

Say what you will about Burger King, but they've got a sense of humor. While I'm not a fan of their food, they've put together a couple of the most fun promotional Websites I've found over the past several years. In addition to simpsonizeme.com, you should check out "Subservient Chicken." Here you'll find a man in a chicken costume standing in a living room. There's a command line in which you can tell the chicken what you want him to do. And he does it - or wags a finger at you if you request something off color.

If you're looking for wonderfully fun time-wasters this weekend, I heartily recommend both sites.

Emily and Dave's Roasted Reds

Our niece Emily and her husband Dave recently announced that they are expecting their first child in April. As you may have read in my Food for the Soul post from Sept. 2, names are not taken lightly in this family. The parents-to-be say that if it's a boy, the name will be "Flavius Geddemannus Nikstaitis, King of Hackettstown." We are all hoping for a girl.

In celebration of their happy news, I offer you Emily and Dave's recipe for roasted reds.

- two large ripe red peppers

- two cloves of fresh peeled garlic

- about three tbsp of olive oil

- same amount of Balsamic Vinegar

- some fresh basil, cut into bits

- a dash of dried oregano (if you don't have fresh basil)

Take the peppers and roast them over fire, until the skin turns black all over. Dave says he does them on the gas flame of the stove, turning them regularly with tongs to get all sides burnt, holding them in the fire wherever it is still red.

Next, put the peppers into a brown paper bag, close the bag, and allow them to stand for quite a while, until they cool down. The steam and residual heat will cook them slightly.

Now take the peppers and run water over them while you rub off the skin with your hands and remove the seeds and skin. Cut them into serving size pieces, about 1" x 2" or so.

Put the pieces into a bowl, and add the oil, vinegar, sliced garlic and herbs. Toss and allow to marinate a bit.

This is best prepared ahead of time and allowed to marinate. Stir it around every now and then to get all the pieces coated well.

Serve with fresh crusty bread and some nice ripe brie cheese.

Have a great weekend!

Texas Haiku

Marcy reminded me about this the other day. I wrote it shortly after we moved from Chicago to Austin in 1997 and it still makes me chuckle.

I hear the cows moo.
My neighbor's name is Elwood.
We live in Texas.

Friday Fun, Aug. 24, 2007 - Kentucky Drinking Game

My colleague and fellow native Kentuckian, John McIntyre, told me a couple of days ago about the "Kentucky Drinking Game." Here are the rules:
- two Kentuckians, each with a bottle of whisky, go into a room
- they stay in the room until both bottles of whisky have been consumed
- one Kentuckian leaves the room
- the other must guess which one left the room.

In addition to being a funny guy, McIntyre is the Assistant Managing Editor for our copy desk at The Baltimore Sun. He publishes one of the wittiest and most informative blogs about the English language I've ever read. The blog, called "You Don't Say", should be required reading for every college English and journalism class in the nation. It's well worth a look.

By the way, McIntyre recommends the game be played with Woodford Reserve.