Webcomics Say The Darndest Things

Roast Beef: The invisible hand of this particular economy may wear a fingerless glove and write checks at the gas station but damned if this money don't have square edges and a certain legal tenderness...It also has tuberculosis and the Hantavirus so I'm gonna go microwave it for a bit

Grrl: "If you need me I will be listening to tape hiss in my room."

Vermont Pete: "I stimulated your mom's package last night."

Randall (see above): "I take the Jurassic Park approach to parenting."

Hovercat: Morbid Edition

So it's been a little while since last I played Hovercat but I thought I'd give it a go. I've been in a pretty morbid mood this week, so I tried "robot suicide." The results were better than I'd expected.

Top of the list was a story from last March about a man who built a remote-control device that could fire a pistol repeatedly. He then used the device to commit suicide outside his home in Australia. FOXNews.com's headline?

Australian Man Gunned Down in Driveway by Killer Robot

The second result was (to me, at least) a really sad commercial from the 2007 Superbowl, about an industrial robot who gets fired from his job at a GM assembly plant. These days it's all the more poignant by its reflection of what many American workers are going through.

And finally, I found a robotic art installation from 2006 featuring "C3" a robot designed to commit suicide by "drinking" Coca-Cola and then spraying the beverage onto itself. Enjoy!

THE Decade of Rock

So we (the office) have been charged by our Fearless Leader to make mix tapes for prizes and glory. Twice before I've attempted this challenge, and both times I was met with bitter failure. The first time out, we were supposed to pick the ten best rock and roll songs, period, from the Beatles' era through to 12/31/1999. The second challenge was to choose the absolute worst songs of the 1980s, which I wrote about back in 2006. Coincidentally, that post marked the first time I realized that people other than myself occasionally read this blog.

Well, this time you're not getting off so easy! By reading this far you have now entered into a legally binding agreement to provide me assistance in this year's challenge. Here it is: pick the decade that had the best music, and provide one track from each year to prove it. For the purposes of this challenge, a "decade" is defined simply as a span of ten years, not necessarily "the 80s," etc.
Now get to it, anonymous readers! I expect playlists in my comments section by Monday morning!

RIP Khan, Number Six: McGoohan and Montalban Die in L.A.

Wired.com's Underwire blog is currently running nice obituary columns for Ricardo Montalban ("Fantasy Island" and "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan") and Patrick McGoohan ("Secret Agent Man" and "The Prisoner") both of whom passed away today. Montalban was 88, McGoohan 80.

I have many fond memories of both "Fantasy Island" and "The Prisoner," but I have to admit that "Fantasy Island" was often formulaic and - I think - mostly stood out because it followed the stupefyingly vapid "The Love Boat."

"The Prisoner," on the other hand, never failed to challenge and surprise the viewer. Hell, the three-minute(!) opening credits sequence had more suspense than a full episode of other spy/action shows of the period. Oddly, though, whenever I think of "The Prisoner," it's the closing credits I remember most. The surreal self-assembling penny-farthing and those blaring jazz trumpets will forever be my link to one of the best television shows ever.