Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Random local items
(1) In the last two days, two old guys have crashed their experimental airplanes. The first one was 81 years old and died in the crash; the second was 71 and survived with no serious injuries.
(2) Last night two completely separate house fires, both in the same area of Spokane Valley, were caused by microwaved towels which are apparently good for back pain.
I'd never heard of the technique. When I have back pain (which I do this week, as it happens) I just take Advil. Side effect of Advil: sometimes leaves you a bit foggy. Side effect of microwaved towels: house burns up. Hmm, which do I prefer?
(3) The pine trees are dropping baby cones this week. I've never noticed this before, which doesn't mean it hasn't happened ... but I'm reasonably observant of such phenomena. These aren't leftover bits of full-sized pine cones, they're complete embryonic cones.
Later: Oooooops. Examined the situation more closely, and these are not 'baby pine cones' at all, they're hemlock cones. Hemlock cones are little. Time to sing Horse in Striped Pajamas.
As long as I'm being random: Horse in Striped Pajamas is the song that plays in my head whenever I've made a really dumb assumption. But I've always been bothered by the setup of the original Horse in Striped Pajamas. In the song Mr Greenjeans is the one who makes dumb assumptions about various animals, and Captain Kangaroo is the one who supplies the correct answers. This was inverted from their actual characters, because Mr Greenjeans was the show's animal expert, the Jack Hanna type. ¶ 6:49 PM
(2) Last night two completely separate house fires, both in the same area of Spokane Valley, were caused by microwaved towels which are apparently good for back pain.
I'd never heard of the technique. When I have back pain (which I do this week, as it happens) I just take Advil. Side effect of Advil: sometimes leaves you a bit foggy. Side effect of microwaved towels: house burns up. Hmm, which do I prefer?
(3) The pine trees are dropping baby cones this week. I've never noticed this before, which doesn't mean it hasn't happened ... but I'm reasonably observant of such phenomena. These aren't leftover bits of full-sized pine cones, they're complete embryonic cones.
Later: Oooooops. Examined the situation more closely, and these are not 'baby pine cones' at all, they're hemlock cones. Hemlock cones are little. Time to sing Horse in Striped Pajamas.
As long as I'm being random: Horse in Striped Pajamas is the song that plays in my head whenever I've made a really dumb assumption. But I've always been bothered by the setup of the original Horse in Striped Pajamas. In the song Mr Greenjeans is the one who makes dumb assumptions about various animals, and Captain Kangaroo is the one who supplies the correct answers. This was inverted from their actual characters, because Mr Greenjeans was the show's animal expert, the Jack Hanna type. ¶ 6:49 PM
