Just now, the time stamp on the op-ed is 8:28 p.m. and the temperature there is 102 degrees, in other words, typical summer conditions for the desert. Indignation is one thing, but if somebody can work up enough energy to type a letter to the editor in that heat, they've just moved up a grade in awesomeness. More power to them. It's an Arizona dust storm, then.

It's all about inspiring classic dance routines...Astaire and the coat rack, Astaire dancing on the ceiling. T-Mobile had a tough act to follow, but did a fine job. Short, funky, and cool: 21st Century all the way! They forgot to give the "Queen" a purse, though. (Don't know about linking it here, but go to You Tube and search for "royal wedding" and "T-mobile.")

You're right, bandarr, he really is a nice-looking gentleman in his other pictures. Posing as Ernst Blofeld for the faculty photograph might be considered high humor among physicists. They're strange people. Nevertheless, many of his publications involve lasers and knees...I think we have just discovered the man who paid his way through college by designing that laser-table Fry-A-Bond setup for Auric Goldfinger. Shirley Bassey singing in your head, yet? If not, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Wg6k9cWhM

Nah, you'll find women doing this...once. I shot a big gun, but it wasn't a .700 Nitro Express, just my boyfriend's hunting rifle with a special load. My shoulder was sore for a couple days -- I had shot it on the stand, which transmits more of the kick to you. That's why so many of them are holding it freehand. A few of them obviously know what they're doing and they're still awed by this. And the noise...! Wow! Fun to watch. Now you know why we don't see kraken, graboids, and mastodons around any more.

"Percy" in Blue Latitudes, which is also useful for the explanation of the Captain Kirk connection, and also why that one shuttle's name was seemingly misspelled as "Endeavour." Just overall, really, it is a good book, start to finish (and no, I'm not connected with it anyway; my library actually was giving it and other, lesser books away for free). But...it's "Percy."

"It's still alive in our culture even though we don't have any proof scientifically." Oh, the wonder of it all. Thanks, Dave! That really made my day, er, night. Whatever. It made me happy. As for leprechauns, yes, the Centre should investigate them (as soon as it wraps up the unicorn thing as well as the correct way to spell "Center"): I think originally they were supposed to wear red, not green. We need to get this straightened out by next March.

Maybe it's time for another "How good were the Beatles?" This good. That's just the demo! (Yeah, McCartney didn't have a complete lock on enchanting, melodious songs.)

Arrr, maties - we be in good company. TLAP Day is older than we though: "...fall to't, yarely, or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir." "Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master's whistle..." -- Willie the Shake, opening The Tempest Yare! A good pirate always tends to the master's whistle and not with yer scurvinly cow-grog, either. "Sack" is what the Shake recommends and lots of it. It be verrry swale.

Alligators: Dressed to kill, but tastefully--for the last 200 million years. (Hey, it's not easy to get a Queen reference into a New York gator-in-the-drains story!)

Who cares how they pronounce it, as long as they don't mess with "the right to love Awful Awfuls." ??? Whatever you do, don't even think about changing the name of Arkansas.

Abe Vigoda is still alive. So's that lobster probably, and still dining out on his tales of a first encounter of the BMOOGLE kind. That's is exactly the sound I heard Richard Dreyfuss make at least twice in J**s. (Sounds like Lang had much better luck with his spear gun than Dreyfuss did, but he forgot to take along the cage - wow!) All the small fish off the island motated out when Bruce and the camera crew arrived, so we missed hearing the FWOOSH on the soundtrack. Thanks for filling in that gap with astute field observation skills!

This is such a good video - good music, too. Here's what the same ride looked like in 2005, which just goes to show you how smart they were to put Steve McQueen on their police force back in 1968. He really knew his way around town.

Guys...uh, guys?....well, in case ANYbody is interested in looking elsewhere on Monday, here's the Iranian Seismological Center's online earthquake list (really!). And for verification, here's the latest earthquakes list put out bythe USGS (where some people will be studying the Grand Tetons on Monday).

This is the same writer who calls people up and asks them ridiculous questions? There are deep waters here....(BG) Dave (subliminal message--GO FOR A SECOND ONE YOURSELF!--end subliminal message), I thought you were joking with those adjectives. This is awesome writing. There's an odd consistency here with "Pearls Before Breakfast," the 2008 feature he won the first Pulitzer for: if more busy, work-bound people (there's a video of it at the feature online at the WaPo) had a little bit of their attention reserved for the beauty around them -- in this case a world-class violinst playing some of the best music in the world -- they might also have it available to stay focused on the beautiful little life in the back seat. Anyway, Mr. W's first prize-winning column is a good antidote to this one that is so difficult and painful to read (what a wrenching experience it must have been to write!)...and so is something like the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, which I think I'm going to go watch again to recover a little.

So...what's going to be the show's finale in May? Wish: Jack somehow ends up heading out to California, and it's Christmas time and he's carrying this really big teddy bear, and the guy sitting next to him on the plane, as they're taxiing along to the LAX terminal, tells him how to relax by taking off his shoes and making fists with his feet, and then the guy freaks when he sees Jack's gun, but Jack says, "It's okay; I've been doing this for eight years" and then...

PS: While living in the Southeast (western Alabama) in 2005, I learned that everybody mows their lawn before a major hurricane. That way, the grass doesn't get out of control while you're waiting for all the debris to be cleared. I'm serious. People in the Southeast are awesome (and neat).

This just in: Glouches Gloches Gloucestersh English authorities have released the text of a ransom note received just a few hours ago: "De chEeZes roll Or U nVer will mow uR lawNz agn."

Unfortunately James Whitmore isn't with us any more, but maybe James Arness could pass along some handy giant-ant handling tips. The trailer to "Them" was a little overwrought, but it was still a good movie. Never go into the storm drains without a few good Wilhelm screams packed away for emergencies.

Back in the 70s, when crocheting was really big, I tried to make a hat once that came out not too unlike this model. If only I had just called it "Going Hyperbolic" -- now that WBAGNFARB. "Crocheting Mathematicians" -- well, maybe for a technofunk group.

This strange urge to shout grew as I read points 1 through 8...finally, I could take it no more. Somebody had to say it and I did, out loud, right after reading point 8: "Dave Barry is making this up." The shark was a big clue. The final retraction was excellent, too! Dave won't really be in trouble 'til the Florida DMV gets on his case, and it's never gonna happen: right now, they're booked until at least mid-century, handing out all those driver's licenses.

That is so sad. Any kind of art is interesting, sometimes because it lets a genius flower, and sometimes because it provides a memorial of the good stuff in a flawed individual. For instance, what he did in Heartland (1979). Everybody in that production earned the Western Heritage Award. It has been depressing to see Ferrell lately, too. Yeah, I know, but I just couldn't laugh this once.

This sounds like someone whose biggest thrill in life would have been getting that Lifetime Bathroom Pass. Either that or Barry Manilow/Busta Rhymes is really ticked that the cover's been blown.

Expendability. A couple of other second opinions.

And the raccoons have claimed another generation of Barrys--oh, wait! maybe he's trying to fake out the raccoon camera guys into thinking he's on their side now, and when they get close, out comes the Ministerial Broom of Severe Whompage! Only it won't work. Nobody gets the raccoons. Except maybe the squirrels.

I love the note about the tiny, new American citizen turning into a maniac on the plane (he must have read some of Dave's columns!). What a wonderful thing these people are doing. Just wanted to pass along something interesting @InternetHaiti retweeted tonight, an effort Wired.com has put together. We tend to focus on the immediate need, because it is so great; these folks are also thinking about the long term: http://haitirewired.ning.com/profiles/blogs/haiti-rewireds-mission It launches next week, per the RT.