Train your dog the sarcastic way

Via Optical Poptitude

Eat Your Way To Large Hooters

F Cup Cookies make breast implants obsolete. Making your breasts bigger is now as simple as eating 2 cookies a day. (What they don't tell you is that you'll be wearing size 3XXX pants along with your F cup bra.)

Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2004

The Living Room Candidate via Design Observer:

When television emerged as a mass medium in the early 1950s, TV advertising became an essential campaign tool. In 1948, there were TV sets in just 400,000 American homes. Over the next four years, the number rose to nineteen million. In 1952, Madison Avenue advertising executive Rosser Reeves proposed the first political advertising strategy for television. He convinced Dwight Eisenhower that spot ads-twenty-second commercials played during such popular TV programs as I Love Lucy-would reach more voters than any other form of advertising. This innovation had a permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run.

Art de Toilette

Been trying to avoid the moment of truth? You'll love to weigh in on these gorgeous scales by wendy gold
Via Notcot

Mass Plague Graves Found on Venice "Quarantine" Island

World's First "Quarantine" Island:
Workers came across the skeletons while digging the foundation for a new museum on Lazzaretto Vecchio, a small island in the lagoon's south, located a couple of miles from Venice's famed Piazza San Marco (see a map of the Venetian Lagoon). The island is believed to be the world's first lazaret—a quarantine colony intended to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
Its presence may have helped Venice recover more quickly during the devastating outbreaks. more

La Tomatina Festival

I was still pondering what to do with my bounty of tomatoes when it came to me in a flash: I'll have my own tomatina festival! It'll be the highlight of the Niagara on the Lake social season and you're all invited.

My President

Via Grow a Brain

Public Toilet

public toilet Via everlasting blort

What is it about "goof' that I don't understand?

St. Catharines Standard

A St. Catharines man who held a steak knife to his girlfriend's neck and threatened to kill her because she called him a goof, will return to court next month for sentencing.

Years ago when I was a social worker in Toronto one of my clients was badly beaten by her boyfriend. When I asked him what had brought on such a violent attack he replied, "she called me a goof" as if this were such an egregious affront that it justified his behaviour. Apparently goof is a very powerful epithet indeed (followed closely by geek and dork, I presume).

It's All Greek To Me

Evidently the 19th century passion for classical style was as popular in Russia as in North America and the wealthier people sought to recreate the classical dimensions of the Parthenon when building their own homes.
Above is a Greek Revival building I saw at English Russia. It reminded me of the National Historic Site (below) where I worked until recently, a fine example of a North American Greek Revival architecture built in 1834. Both buildings have details reminiscent of the Parthenon, those magnificent columns and the pedimented gable, but the house above has put a distinctive Russian spin on the architectural genre.

America's Top Seven Most Hated Substances

America's Top Seven Most Hated Substances:

With the ever encroaching nanny state movement in America let’s stop and look at some of the most silliest things the feds have decided to disallow the use, importation, possession and/or sale of to protect you from yourself.

Via Cruel

Ex-ter-min-ate!

Daleks bid to make world record:
A bid to create a new world record and have the biggest number of people dressed up as daleks in one location has taken place in Manchester.

Via Boing Boing

Does this luggage make me look fat?

Y's Mandarina:
The baby of Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto and Italian accessories company Mandarina Duck, Y's Mandarina takes the materials of travel accessories and fashions them into svelte shapes to wear about town - and further afield.
Via Been/Seen

In Living Color

The most improbable object imaginable—the lowly, lumpy potato—played a leading role in the Great Leap Forward of color photography. The story begins in 1903, when two imaginative French inventors, Auguste and Louis Lumière, seized the pomme de terre and made it the basis for a dazzling new imaging process they called the autochrome, an innovation that would transform a monochromatic world into one suddenly gleaming with color. More

Rot in hell, Stuart Little!

Remember when I said I liked Stuart Little? Well I hate him now- HATE,HATE,HATE!

It started like this:

The rest of my family, being gainfully employed, was at work today. I asked myself, "What do retired ladies do with their time?" The answer I came up with was, "Polish the silverware." Yes, you heard me right. And no, I have not hired a ghostblogger. When I put the silverware box, full of blindingly shiny cutlery, back in its drawer I noticed some evidence that mice had been there. I decided to check out the three linen drawers below. Shouldn't have done that. What a fucking mess! You know I seldom use profanity on my blog although in real life the f-word is one of my verbal ticks. (Mr. Nag used to ask me if I ate with that mouth.) Anyhow using naughty words shows how f---ing mad I am.

Pee, poo, blood, shredded bits of Victorian linen tablecloths and napkins as well as festive seasonal paper napkins, candles and unidentifiable detritus. And did I mention the smell? It was worse than a kitty litter box that hasn't been cleaned in months. Clearly Stuart Little's hos had been using the drawers as a nursery for their numerous illegitimate vermin. I threw out two large garbage bags full of stuff.

Watch your back, Stuart Little. There's a thin line between love and hate and you've crossed it.

I thought foams were so like last year

In 2005 I blogged about foams being passé, El Bulli's plan to sell its outdated techniques to the masses is just not cutting edge enough for The Nag. This year I'm feasting on water baked in a salt crust and air tartare.

El Bulli for you:

It would take El Bulli, the Spanish restaurant that is regularly voted the world's best, 125 years to get through its reservations backlog for this year alone. But for foodies desperate to sample its pioneering molecular gastronomy, help is at hand.
With tins of ingredients with wacky names such as Lecite, Algin, Kappa and Metil, cooks can create sizzling fruit jellies, spaghettis for the gluten intolerant made of pureed vegetables and water, and the solid cocktails that are El Bulli's trademark.

I'm not certain what the reaction would be if I placed an ethereal foam concoction on the dinner table. I suspect I'd have to bread and deep fry it before I could tempt Baby Nag to sample it.

Canadian Idiot

Canadian Idiot via Uncorrected Proofs

Dijon photo project

Dijon over 100 years:
I love these"this is now, that was then" photo collections. Pass your cursor over the photos to see what life in Dijon was like 100 years ago.

Blues thing

Best surprise at John and Jenny's wedding yesterday? Jack de Keyzer was the entertainment!

Cities in Australia and Canada are rated the most liveable in the world

Where the grass is greener

"With low crime, little threat from instability or terrorism and a highly developed transport and communications infrastructure, Canada and Australia are home to the most liveable destinations in the world."

Absence of terrorism would not top my list of must haves if I were looking to relocate. Surely good schools and health care and a rich cultural milieu must count for something?

Hipster Olympics

Hipster Olympics

An ironic video via Boing Boing

Gold Rush In The Amazon

Eldorado do Juma Slideshow

A Cat’s Map of the Bed

A Cat’s Map of the Bed and lots of things you didn't know about cats.
Alas Chez Nag has been feline free for years but this map brings back memories.

Via Plep

Rock On

history of the rocking chair

we all know that the rocking chair is a distinctly american passion, its origins, however, are less clear. adding skates or rockers to the bottom of chairs probably evolved from the cradle and the rocking horse, which both predate the rocking chair. apparently no one thought to apply the idea to furniture for adults until the eighteenth century. the word 'rocker' originated in the 15th century and indicated the person responsible for rocking the cradle. in the 18th century it also meant an orator who put others to sleep.

Via Daily Jive

We're drowning in a sea of red!

Baby Nag has a bit of a green thumb. He loves to grow things from seed. He takes tremendous pride when his little green shoots start to leaf. And then he loses interest. This year Mr. Nag rototilled a large garden on a friend's property. He planted tomatoes and pumpkins that Baby Nag had started and mulched them with straw. Because our friend has very low water pressure Mr. Nag takes garbage cans of water over on his pickup truck to irrigate them every other day. His tender care has paid off in spades. We are eating tomatoes at every meal. Sandwiches, sauces, salads and salsa; roasted, boiled and raw. We are giving them away to all our friends and still they keep on coming. The picture above is today's harvest. Excuse me while I boil, skin and pack them in freezer bags.

Riddle me this...

I'm going to a wedding tomorrow. In truth my life has been an unending social whirl since leaving work last week, luncheons, dinners, weddings... It's a good thing I'm retired cause I no longer have time to work. Also referring to me as "my wife, the retiree" makes Mr. Nag feel young, or at least younger than me (which he is not). I was determined not to buy a new dress for this event despite the fact that I am still grasso from all the buon alimento ingested on my trip to Sicily in April. If I have to squeeze myself into an outfit with a shoehorn then by god I'll do it rather than spend money on something I'll likely never wear again since I plan to lose all that weight really soon (don't smirk). I pulled two dresses from the nether regions of my closet - two pretty floral patterned ones bought at the Ralph Lauren outlet at deep discount long ago. Which was the best fit? Why the size 4 assymetrical hem beauty! The size 8 sheath was uncomfortably tight. What's up with that? Tell me why a a size 8 would be so much smaller than a size 4 by the same designer. The last time I was a size 4 was in 1991 when, after a serious illness, I weighed 89 pounds. I must have bought this dress in a fit of optimism or more likely couldn't pass up a bargain, fit be damned. Do you reckon this bizarre reverse sizing is an effort by the ever compassionate fashion industry to make rounder folk feel better about themselves? Yeah right.

motelsign.com

I'd hate to have to admit that some of my happiest times were spent here. Sad emblems from motelsign.com.
Via Coudal

The Seductive Power Of Smoke

Smoking does not hold a space on my spice rack of vices but this video is very seductive.


Via 3quarksdaily

Into the club scene?

Then you'll love this collection of photos of clubs in Newfoundland by Scott Walden.

All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus

Via Dot Dot Dot

How Safe Is Your Car?

My Camry will protect me in a car crash as long as I hit something head on. If I'm T-boned fugedaboudit.
ConsumerReports.org - Car crash test

Who's Your Favourite Village Person?

Do you find yourself torn between the rugged good looks of the cowboy and the manly muscularity of the construction worker? Now you can get two Village People in one hunky package thanks to Cowboy Hard Hats.

"Finally, a hard hat designed for the true cowboy - the perfect alternative to conventional hard hats. These hats combine the classic cowboy hat look in an ANSI-certified hat..."

Via Notcot

That's the Flavor I've Been Missing

I used to be a big fan of Public Enemy (much to Nag Jr's chagrin and embarrassment). The political and social consciousness of the music appealed to me. I'd do housework rocking out to "Fight The Power" but after having been inadvertently exposed to Flavor Flav's meltdown on that abominable reality show, The Flavor of Love , I figured it was all over for them. I may have been wrong. I listened to "Harder Than You Think" at THAT TRUNCHEON THING. It rocks.

Note: It was very hard for me to use the American spelling of flavour. It just feels wrong.

Nasty Business at Three Amigos Summit

Police accused of using provocateurs at summit:
"Protesters are accusing polic;e of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que. Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged 'agents provocateurs' have been caught on camera."

Check it out

You Can Almost Taste It

Immerse yourself in a chocolate world.
COLOURlovers brings us the chocolate palette.



The Colors and Tastiness of Chocolate

T.S. Eliot -vs - Portishead

T.S. Eliot -vs - Portishead

Via 3 Quarks Daily

If this is Friday it must be blueberries

week color food is an interesting experiment in monochromatic eating. I'd be fine the first part of the week (I'd gorge on tomatoes, saffron rice, asparagus, etc) but those blue foods would sicken me. I'm thinking the blue Curacao might induce some wicked headaches.

Via Mental Floss

What Book Am I?

You're To Kill a Mockingbird!

by Harper Lee

Perceived as a revolutionary and groundbreaking person, you have
changed the minds of many people. While questioning the authority around you, you've
also taken a significant amount of flack. But you've had the admirable guts to
persevere. There's a weird guy in the neighborhood using dubious means to protect you,
but you're pretty sure it's worth it in the end. In the end, it remains unclear to you
whether finches and mockingbirds get along in real life.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I'm not sure who the weird guy in my neighbourhood is - could it be Mr. Nag?

Via Lori

Flowchart

Is it f*cked up? What to do, if so.

It's been as dry as my sense of humour

Our lawn is an unattractive shade of pale yellow. I've had to remove large dried up clumps of ferns, phlox and bleeding hearts leaving stubby, empty patches. Max has assembled his toys on one of the lusher areas.


I had to search awhile to find anything in bloom.

I'm Distressed By Distressed Denim

Toxic fashion in Mexico

Factories in Tehuacán, Mexico, produce distressed denim for big-name US brands like Levi’s, Guess and Gap. But, say local activists, some also produce harmful side effects - contaminating the water supply and sterilising the earth.

5 Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water

Are you still drinking bottled water? I guess I haven't nagged you enough so here's yet another post from me on the issue.
5 Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water

Via Presurfer

I'ma get you love drunk off my hump

This story reminded me of that Black Eyed Peas song I love to hate:

Aroused pet camel smothers woman, 60

An Australian woman was killed by a pet camel given to her as a 60th birthday present after the animal apparently tried to have sex, police said today.

Salvador Dali on What's My Line

Via RaShOmoN

Toronto 1977-2007

A collection of photos of Toronto taken 30 years apart























Remarkably little has changed in Toronto since 1977. The trees have grown and the vehicles are modern but the streetscapes pictured here were ugly then and are ugly now.
This project reminds me of Christopher Rauschenberg's re-do of Atget's Paris photos.

HILLARY NUTCRACKER

Her stainless steel thigh teeth will pulverize any nut that stands in her way to the Whitehouse!
I wonder how she'd get along with my Talking George Bush Doll?


HILLARY NUTCRACKER Via Grow a Brain

Bigger than your bike, smaller than your typical European parking space

From Dark Roasted Blend a large photo collection of the World's Smallest Cars. There are some real gems.

Surface View

Surface View creates incredible murals. Check them out.

Via BB-Blog

Thirty Years Ago Today

Picturing Words

The Power of Book Illustration:

Pictures add beauty, color, and life to the printed page. They engage us, prompt our imagination, and appeal to readers and non-readers alike. Explore the power of pictures through these examples from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ collections in science, history, and art.

A center spread shows a full elevation of the Indian’s “Cradle Spring” frame

Via Woods Lot

Awesome Animation

Picasso’s Girl with a Mandolin, Animated by Michael Tavarez

Too cute to eat

Cute animals made out of food!
They're so cute I'd want them to be my friends.

Via Coudal

Putin Porn

Okay so it's not porn but I got your attention. Maybe if Steve Harper did a tasteful little western themed semi-nude spread like this with sloe eyed cows and spurting oil he'd go up in the polls. On second thought.....

Vladimir Putin goes fishing |

More executions

Bush's lethal legacy:

The Bush administration is preparing to speed up the executions of criminals who are on death row across the United States, in effect, cutting out several layers of appeals in the federal courts so that prisoners can be 'fast-tracked' to their deaths.

Do they not find the fact below even the slightest bit disconcerting?

To date, 123 prisoners sentenced to die have been proved innocent and released. Anti-death penalty activists and lawyers have raised serious doubts about hundreds of others.

Separated at Birth?

Is it my imagination or is new Defence Minister, Peter McKay turning inyo a Modigliani painting?

Unsecure Wi-Fi network?

swissmiss suggests that you get one of these:

Old women in the news

The world's oldest person died in Japan at 114. I wonder what it's like to be the oldest person in the world. There are some mornings when I feel like that person but it's probably not the same.
Mississauga mayor, Hazel McCallion was on the news last night making a transit announcement and she looks like the oldest woman in the world (right).
Brooke Astor has (finally) died at 105, likely not knowing how old she was or even who she was.
At the age of 107 Canadian born Mary McCarthy, though wheelchair-bound, is still going strong in Cuba despite the fact that the US government has frozen her assets since 1959. The situation's desperate - she's running out of money for booze and smokes.
In other old lady news, The Nag has decided to slow down and smell the roses (also weed, feed, spray and prune them). Yes, I am retiring once again! If I live to be 117 I should have almost enough time to do all those things I've always wanted to do.

Most Expensive Paintings

Top Ten (10) Most Expensive Paintings Of All Time and an explanation of what makes them so special and worth the exorbitant price.

Via Neatorama

Cash cow - I mean koi

Got some extra cash kicking around? Make neat origami figures with it.
Via Dot Dot Dot

Ring, ring, doorbell ring, baby come on in

Ahhh, Leo Kottke. Used to listen to him a lot. This song would cheer anyone up, even an old Nag. He did an updated version of Rings on Sixty Six Steps with ex-Phish bassist, Mike Gordon, but I don't like it as much as this one, probably cause this makes me feel young and sorta frisky.

Grandmaster Gregory in da hizzouse

The Pardoner's Tale adapted to rap.
Via MetaFilter

Bummer and Lazarus

The Story of Bummer and Lazarus:
Bummer and Lazarus were two stray dogs that roamed the streets of San Francisco between 1861 and 1865. They became famous for their expertise at killing the rats that infested the city in those days, and for their unique bond of friendship. Newspapers vied with each other in reporting their escapades, whether it was stealing a bone from another dog, getting locked overnight inside a jewelry store, or stopping a runaway horse and cart on Clay Street. On June 16, 1862, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors exempted them from a strict ordinance that banned all dogs downtown without a leash and/or muzzle, and allowed them to roam, unfettered, wherever they wished.

Thank you Hanan. The Nag loves nothing better than a good dog story.

Thanks but no thanks

Watermelon Steak
I can't believe this is for real! Everyone knows that watermelon exists only to be pumped full of vodka for a cool refreshing buzz.

A Public Divorce Ceremony

On My Knees:

Eight hours
eight installations @ eight stations
a celebration of eight years of marriage
crawling on her hands and knees through the streets /crawling to the water

Desiree Skylark's My Little Pony Rescue Home

Tour Of The Rescue Home Living Room!

Here you go! The moment you've all been waiting for! Photos of the whole collection of Rescue Ponies who live at our home. I'll try to guide you around the living room as we go, but don't be shocked if your eyes take a while to adjust to the coloured pictures ahead!

Lots of pictures with cute little captions. Not having had any daughters I never got the opportunity to play with My Little Ponies. Baby Nag had a blue boy pony that some little girl bought him for his birthday one year but it really never came out to play (it was probably scared of the Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!). I like the ponies but I wouldn't want to be completely surrounded by such pastel cuteness.

Via Presurfer