More than you can stick a shake at

Two links to explanations of Foucault's pendulum. I've been trying to comprehend this for years. i've had moments where it all seems clear, but never more than moments. Hopefully i'll be coming back to this post and giving it some real thought at some point.

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And the winner is.....

Men's Handball.

i caught it this morning during breakfast, and now i'm hooked. it's enough like basketball for me to know what's going on, but it's got enough soccer aspects to make it feel new for me. plus it looks about as rough & tumble as rugby, so what's not to love? I've fallen for the Croatian team who were just flashy & fabulous during this morning's win over Hungary. They all rock, but since i need someone to focus on, i've chosen Blazenko Lackovic who had an incredible goal this morning (tho i can't seem to find a photo online of that particular moment; i'm hoping one will show up here or here or here eventually). why not Ivano Balic who seems to be the star of the team? because i can't be at all predictable, don't you know that by now?

Gotta go thru NBC's Dummy's Guide to Handball before the next match, which seems to be on CNBC at 2pm on Saturday. And then the finals [when i'll get to see the Croatians again] are on NBC sometime on Sunday afternoon -- hello, VCR!

ETA: There's my boy!

again, ETA: And they got the gold! in fine form! wahoo! [or however you say that in Croatian]

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about a month ago i mentioned that i'd be seeing The Cherry Orchard at WTF... well, i'm sad to say that this production now holds the title of the worst production i've seen at the Festival (and i saw Death Takes a Holiday back in 1990, so it's not like i haven't suffered in that theatre before). I suspect the direction is mainly to blame -- tho the actors have to be held at least somewhat accountable, the acting was uniformly stilted and awkward. this could not have happened by chance -- Michael Greif had to have been pushing them all in a similar direction. and whether it was due to his vision or their enactment of his vision, it just ended up awful.

but, the theatre experience was not all bad. From reading the program, i realized that i had actually seen Lee Wilkoff before -- in Marat/Sade and A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum (which means i actually saw him four times; by the 3rd performance of Forum i remember Kathi & i were silently mimicing the choreography in the back of the theatre). i've now also discovered that i saw Calista Flockhart (in the aforementioned Death Takes a Holiday) back before she was Ally. And I had a classic "It's That Guy" moment -- during intermission i caught sight of Zeljko Ivanek in the audience. I'll admit, i was only vaguely certain what i'd seen him in before (i was correctly guessing West Wing; turns out he was also in 24 and the remake of The Manchurian Candidate), but i was amused to find his picture in the program for the 2001 production of The Dumb Waiter & The Zoo Story.

ETA: Ben Brantley of the NYTimes begs to differ with my evaluation of The Cherry Orchard. Apparently I should have realized that this is "a thoroughly disarming production". Maybe he was the guy two rows back who was [inexplicably, to our thinking] cheering wildly at the end.

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I just happened on these recordings of American musicals in Hebrew:

My Fair Lady

The King & I

Hair

These would go great with my Cats (auf Deutsch) album and my tape of El Hombre de la Mancha...

# posted by Stoat : 8:57 PM

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Didja know that Fanta has Nazi roots?

No, really. The Nazis wanted to get rid of Coke since it was "a menace to European civilization" [never mind the fact that it was kosher]. So the local bottler had severe marketing issues, compounded by the prohibition on importing many key ingredients. German ingenuity came to the forefront and Fanta was born!

now instead of being associated with Deutschers, we've got the Fantanas showing up in commercials. Heaven help us!


all due to dulinor's compulsion to one-up me in crushing people's views of the world

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I'm responsible for shattering someone's world view.

we're running low on sodas, and have a severe dearth of Coke & Pepsi. M came in, announced the problem to the world, as well as his decision to settle for a Fresca. the following conversation ensued:

Stoat: M, i never pictured you as a diet drinking man.
M: This is Fresca.
Stoat: Yep. It's diet.
M: No it's not. It's Fresca.
Stoat: I'm telling you, there's no sugar in that.

PAUSE while M reads the label

M: Zero calories. huh. I bet it's not going to taste as good anymore.

And sure enough, even with the memory of Caddyshack to sustain him, Fresca now disappoints. I really ought to get that brain/mouth filter checked out....

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You know those posters of XYZ's View of the World? Like the New Yorker's view of the world or the Californian's? Well here's a composite map of the world that is being morphed to fit people's misconceptions about the world due to lack of knowledge or lack of caring. very cool. makes me feel more geographically aware than i really am.

via Boing Boing

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Fresh Air has an interview with the writers of Avenue Q. In between a few song clips Bobby Lopez and Jeff Marx riff on the perils of composing in public, being straight in the musical theatre, and The Greatest American Hero.

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Prove Dave Sim wrong

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