New fashion trend: Pyscho-chic

$140

(thanks, Anne)

Can you believe they still publish Tumbleweeds?

I got Douglas Coupland’s latest, Hey Nostrodamus yesterday and finished it today. It’s fantastic. I’ve read most of Douglas Coupland’s stuff, and I think this is is best book in a long time. It’s written in several different voices, each completely believable. It’s moving, it’s shocking, it’s a slice-of-life that doesn’t resolve everything but is somehow much more satisfying. Plot is not a conceit as in the last few books, but the stories clip along in a really engrossing fashion.

I joked earlier today that it’s head and shoulders above Shampoo Planet. Ha!

Here is a blog from someone that went from a vegan diet to a highly artificial diet. For a period of time, supposedly ending in April they ate all sorts of crap and logged it, and their general health and other thoughts. I dare you to look at the pictures they took of their stool. Yes, poop.

Gross.

Tokyo Bob Dylan

I mean, if this isn’t enough motivation to make sure I return to Tokyo sooner rather than later….

It’s a four-year old article but I still love the investigative journalism that uncovered the identity, and the story behind this guy who was in every ad imaginable for a couple of years

Holiday Inn has declared today its first Towel Amnesty Day, a chance to forgive guests who have ‘borrowed’ towels.
No, the hotel chain doesn’t want its towels back. It wants the story of why you took the towel and what you’ve done with it.
Mark Snyder, senior vice president of brand management for Holiday Inn, is the first to admit that Towel Amnesty Day is a thinly veiled marketing campaign. ‘It’s about celebrating the brand,’ he says.
Stories have been coming in since the campaign was announced Aug. 18. ‘They are priceless,’ says Snyder, who is considering posting some of them on the hotel chain’s Web site. ‘They are everything from very funny to very touching.’
‘I believe my towel comes from the ’50s. In fact, so long ago I don’t remember how I got it, but I suppose it did follow me home,’ wrote Marcelle Roise of Alamo. ‘It is my dog’s towel, and she is the third generation of dogs to use it.’

Olsen Twins Fight Plaque
Mary-Kate and Ashley, the toothpaste, noted as mary-kateandashley in official correspondence, shipped to stores last week courtesy the makers of Aquafresh, retailing for an average price of $2.77 per pump-dispensing tube.

The teen titans were described as being closely involved with the development of their toothpaste selves, right down to the selection of the flavor.

“They absolutely tested it out,” says Michael Pagnotta of the Olsen twin-controlled Dualstar Entertainment Group.

Aquafresh is looking to lock in the preteen set with the brand, billing it as a “landmark in the history of toothpaste marketing,” and not just because the Olsens, now 17, appear as 13-year-olds on the packaging.

Tammy Szatkowski-Reeves, curator of the Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry at the University of Michigan, points out adult celebrities, including Pepsodent purveyor Bing Crosby, were frequently seen on toothpaste tubes in the 1940s and 1950s.

And unlike Olsen twins detangler, Olsen twins nail polish and Olsen twins soothing eye gel masks, sold exclusively at Wal-Mart, Olsen twins toothpaste, Lukas says, “will be distributed everywhere.”

My museum of foreign groceries gets mentioned on this site devoted to museum stuff.

Most inappropriate blog posting I’ve ever seen. Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing posts a close-up photo of an oozing sore on his body in the hopes that someone can identify it.

Warning: really damn gross.

At my gym is a hand-colored (pencil crayons, I believe) advertisement for day care. It starts off:

Grandma Birdie’s
(formerly Hansel and Gretel Private School)

Mini Kiss, a Kiss cover band, staffed by little people. More pics here
(also Mini Elvis )

Here in the SF Bay Area where it all started, the water bed business is down to one retailer. Nice history-to-date of the product and the industry in the NYT.

The SF Bay Area is populated with all these “Joe’s” restaurants, including many “Original Joe’s.” This article has a great and gritty description of the true original, as well as a follow-on story that explains some of the different variations around the area.

Gross New Jersey Blob story:

The uproar over the blob began about 10 days ago, when a local boater noticed a giant blue and white sulfurous formation floating in a narrow lagoon about 50 yards from the backyard piers of Daddy Tucker Drive. Ocean County health officials and the State Department of Environmental Protection were called in. With some poking, the environmental agency declared it a nonhazardous “organic material, probably algae” that, in decomposing, had risen to the surface.

Amidst all the media coverage, people may miss out on the fact that this newspaper arranged for Gary Coleman’s candidacy, rather than him coming with the idea on his own.

Ms. Eggum is among a growing number of women who spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars adding extra horsepower to their cars, along with 17-inch wheels, custom racing seats and other accessories. Attributes like safety, security and reliability still appeal to women, automakers say, but women are increasingly drawn to power, speed and hot looks, just as men are. Full story here.

A new Congressional report has found that the government’s much ridiculed color-coded terrorist alert system is so vague in detailing threats that the public “may begin to question the authenticity” of the threats and take no action when the alert level is raised.
NYT story here.

I especially enjoy the intriguing plot summary for this new Woody Allen film

Anything Else
Date: September 19, 2003
Length: 1:36
Directed by: Woody Allen
Written by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Jimmy Fallon, Stockard Channing, Danny Devito, Kenneth Edelson, Carson Grant, Diana Krall, Nicolas Pernisco, Kadee Strickland, Joseph Lyle Taylor, Eric Tonken

An older artist becomes romantically involved with a young woman, leading to all sorts of complications.

“May you live in interesting times.” Yeesh.

Schwarzenegger Announces Calif. Gov. Bid
He announced the decision during a taping of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” calling it the toughest he’s made since deciding to get a bikini wax in 1978.

Flushes from both Potty Palooza #1 - a 53-foot truck that turns into 27 lavish loos - and Potty Palooza #2 - a 32-foot truck that opens up into 12 plush potties - will count toward the program — Charmin will make every flush count by donating 10 cents to Toys for Tots for each visitor to the Charmin Ultra Potty Palooza Tour - the ultimate “Charminized” bathroom on wheels that brings a comfortably clean bathroom experience to outdoor events across the country

Full story here.

For six months, Mary Nixon and 10 other orphans were relentlessly belittled for every little imperfection in their speech to test the theory that children become stutterers because of psychological pressure.

Sixty-four years later, the experience still stings.

Nixon, now 76, and some of the other test subjects sued the University of Iowa earlier this year over lifelong psychological problems they say stem in part from the 1939 experiment.

The case has not only thrown a spotlight on an experiment some participants bitterly call the ‘’Monster Study,'’ it has also illustrated the way research ethics have evolved over the years.

There’s that old adage about advertising clutter, and always needing a bigger hammer to make an impact. (I’m sure I’m screwing up the quote but you take my meaning). Obviously the “Increase the size of your penis” spam messages are having problems, because I just got one with a subject line of Break Walls Apart With Your Humungous Knob

Yikes.

It’s National Clown Week!

Of course, what can we infer about any profession that has created:

The Seven Clown Commandments

I will keep my acts, performance and behavior in good taste while I am in costume and makeup. I will remember, at all times that I have been accepted as a member of the clown club only to provide others, principally children, with clean clown comedy entertainment. I will remember that a good clown entertains others by making fun of him or herself and not at the expense or embarrassment of others.

I will learn to apply my makeup in a professional manner. I will provide my own costume. I will carry out my appearance and assignment for the entertainment of others and not for personal gain or personal publicity when performing for either the International club or alley events. I will always try to remain anonymous while in makeup and costume as a clown, though there may be circumstances when it is not reasonably possible to do so.

I will not drink any alcoholic beverage prior to any clown appearances. I will abstain from drinking alcoholic beverage while in makeup and clown costume. I will conduct myself as a gentleman/lady, neither molesting nor interfering with other acts, events, spectators, or individuals.

I will remove my makeup and change into my street clothes as soon as possible following my appearance, so that I cannot be associated with any incident, which may be detrimental to the good name of clowning. I will conduct myself as a gentleman/lady at all times.

While appearing, in makeup and costume, I will carry out the directives of the Producer or his designated deputies. I will abide by all performance rules without complaint in public.

I will do my very best to maintain the best clown standards of makeup, costuming, properties, and comedy.

I will appear in as many clown shows as I possibly can.