Today's Rant

At a recent research group gathering, several people didn't know who David Lee Roth was. Not that I'm biggest fan, but I know who he is. I joked that I was going to have a series of lectures on pop culture. Today, I explained that David Lee Roth is the lead singer of Van Halen. The response: "Who is Van Halen?" The top songs I came up with by Van Halen were "Jump" and "Right Now". Emily piped up, "You Really Got Me."

What? That's not Van Halen. It took me awhile to come up with The Kinks as the originator of that song. (I'm disappointed in myself too.) I didn't know (or at least remember) that Van Halen had a cover of the Kinks' song. Emily insisted that the Van Halen version was the famous one. What?!? I'm not sure how to measure that, but it just seems wrong to call that song a Van Halen song.

I was searching for the lyrics to a Christmas song on the Web, and the first page that came up was one that was titled "Hanson Lyrics". Sigh.

Emily said that she likes some remakes better than the original. I suggested Madonna's "American Pie", which Emily claimed she had never heard. YouTube to the rescue, and she was scarred for life.

Transformers Sequel

A while ago, I saw the trailer for the Transformers sequel with a friend. The trailer started with Shia going to college and the Transformer said something mildly amusing. And then the action starts. My friend was a little disappointed in the movie. He thought it was going to be a buddy comedy: Shia goes to college with his robot friend and hilarity ensues. Maybe that can be the next sequel.

Yea, Get Fuzzy!

Get Fuzzy Made Me Laugh

Sneak Attack

Frank and I explored a local park last weekend. We took a little path along the river. There were stacks of hay on the trail. I'm not sure for what. Frank was walking in front of me. Suddenly, he gasps and spins, which makes me gasp and jump backwards. It was a squirrel. A squirrel. It was behind a hay stack, eating something and didn't seem to notice or care that we were coming. The squirrel ran up a tree next to the path.

I teased Frank, "A squirrel?" He said, "It was going to kill us."

On the way back, Frank made a bunch of noise so the squirrel knew we were coming. I reminded him that squirrel wasn't afraid of us, and we knew where the squirrel was this time.

In the Family

My dad's cousin Julie had a birthday party for her mom, my dad's Aunt Norma. Aunt Norma turned 80! My sister is a big fan of Aunt Norma, so she was bummed she couldn't attend. (Jessie lives in Der Fatherland, Germany.) Dad told Aunt Norma that Jessie would have attended if she had more notice (so it was Julie's fault that Jessie didn't attend). Aunt Norma said, "80 years wasn't enough notice?" oooo, burn! Aunt Norma's last name may be Wise but she's all Sprenkle.

Unuseful Translation

When I'm going to need to have to translate this?

Spanish: Tu gato parece muy alegre.

English: Your cat seems very happy.


Transparent Language doesn't know my cat at all.

Can It Be True?

Greg Paulus Visits Ann Arbor, May Transfer to Michigan for Football

I agree with my dad's take on the story, but he also backs up his thoughts: "I had heard that there was a chance that Greg Paulus would be drafted as a quarterback. That seemed unlikely when I heard it, and I think it's a story because it makes a good story. I doubt that the NCAA will let him play college football. I remember Art Schlichter who was a quarterback at Ohio State and with the Colts. At some point, he decided to go back to college and play basketball. The NCAA said he had already used his eligibility."