cryptique

When someone adds water to the liquid soap container in an attempt to stretch out the supply. Especially when there's a new container a few feet away in the closet.

"Southern Rain" - Cowboy Junkies "Freight Train Rain" - The Reivers (Zeitgeist) "Louisiana Rain" - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers "Ray Ray Rain" - Bettie Serveert "Shadows in the Rain" - The Police "Little Bit of Rain" - Fred Neil "Traction in the Rain" - David Crosby "Naked in the Rain" - David Crosby & Graham Nash "Rain Hail Shine" - Icecream Hands "Can't Stop the Rain" - Los Lobos

His is one of those obits about which I thought "He was still alive?"

"Happy When It Rains" - The Jesus and Mary Chain "Nine Million Rainy Days" - The Jesus and Mary Chain "About You" - The Jesus and Mary Chain (all from the same album)

I will never buy a 3-D TV. If the day comes when only 3-D TVs are sold, I will quit watching TV.

Resurrecting a very old thread. Nearly four years later, I still haven't bought an HDTV (except for an older, used CRT with a relatively small screen that I got cheap from someone at my office, and still haven't hooked up to HD service), but the World Cup is coming around again... Also, I wanted to post a link to this fascinating article. The gist of it is that virtually everything the HDTV manufacturers are trying to tell you about their sets is completely made up. For example, 60 Hz, 120 Hz, 240 Hz -- doesn't make a damn bit of difference in terms of motion blur, to human eyes. And an in

As far as I know, milk crates -- at least the plastic ones -- have never been big enough for 12" records. People have stolen them for years because they make for excellent dorm-room storage. Back when I was in school, someone produced slightly larger plastic crates (not used for milk) that could hold LPs, but these tended to be flimsy and you couldn't really fill them up with records without risking a crate failure. I have three ancient wooden Pepsi crates I use to haul around a portion of my collection.

Any website that forcibly resizes my browser window.

Saw Conan and his entourage on Friday up at MSU, in the Spartans' basketball arena. I'd already read or seen some of the material (thanks to the web), but that didn't tarnish the overall show, which was quite enjoyable. It's an odd mix of Conan's musings on his situation, planned bits with others (Andy Richter, Masturbating Bear, the Chuck Norris lever with the Michigan woman who Conan follows on Twitter), video clips, songs with Conan on guitar and vocals, and guest appearances (a comic opened, and a former Tonight Show writer did a short standup set during the course of Conan's show ... oh,

Those of you posting your "scores" ... did you find the actual answers somewhere? Because the comments section has vastly differing opinions on most of these. There are only four that I can identify with 100% confidence. Three others that I think I know.

Update: OK, I took the plunge. Currently on its way is a Garmin nüvi 765 with lifetime map updates, which I bought on Amazon here. After doing a LOT of research, I decided to raise my price range a bit so I could get a few additional features and lifetime map updates. I have some experience with Magellan units (via Hertz car rentals) and I liked them, but updating maps looks like it's expensive (and maybe difficult) and the maps it comes with are (reportedly) two years old. For a long time I was looking at a TomTom XL 340-S Live, because I was attracted to the ability to do Google searches a

Those first few moments of a hot shower on a cool morning.

Well, that's part of why I get scornful. I've know far too many people, some of them very close to me, who are serious alcoholics, and have ruined their lives with alcohol. Such people are virtually everywhere -- and you'd think that with a ubiquitous gallery of cautionary examples, others might take a hint and moderate their intake ... but they don't. Nobody thinks it will happen to them. This is part of why I wish I could be more accepting (or should I say less judgmental). There's a fine line between being someone who has made a decision to drink too much and a person who no longer has an

This is where I insert the emoticon, just for sheer irony.

Over the years I've just seen way too many people do incredibly stupid things because of alcohol, and I lost any fascination I might have once had with it. I haven't been drunk in at least a decade (probably much longer), and when I do drink, which is very rarely, it's something really good, and I have only one glass, two at the most. These days I have little patience with people who are incapable of having a good time without alcohol. Back in high school I got the (mistaken, naïve) impression that alcohol was something you got out of your system by your early to mid-20s and then you became

Bottom line: It may not be the best idea to seek meaningful advice about a personal issue on a message board for a rock and roll band.

That's what I was thinking. As was I. Are your friends still 19 or something? There's more to life than getting drunk and making an ass of oneself.

The new remaster. Sounds like they did a good job with it.

That goes for any other place, too. Except an actual concert.

A beautiful, cool morning after rain, when I'm the only one out on the streets as the sun is coming up.

Hilarious that some people think disliking HMD is a mark of pretentiousness. I just don't think it's that great a song. I still like it, and it's part of one of my all-time favorite albums. But if I never hear it live again, that's just peachy with me. Also, "Reservations" is one of my favorite Wilco songs. So combined with my "meh" attitude about HMD, I'm not sure exactly what that says about me. I've been a Tweedy fan since 1990; I've seen the bandwagon come and go.

To the contrary, I don't want the pace to be rushed ... but for a few episodes in a row, there didn't seem to be much pace at all. I need *some* story to keep me going, but instead they were spinning their wheels, merely exploring the characters, rather than propelling them forward in any kind of interesting narrative. This last episode took the car out of the driveway and edged it out onto the road. With luck, that road will remain a pleasant side street and not a superhighway.

I don't dislike it, but it will never be one of my favorites. And yes, it is "cheezy."

With Sunday's episode (5/9), I feel like this series is finally done warming up and starting to hit its stride. I was getting a bit bored and frustrated with the slow pace, but the whole thing seemed to pick up some steam with this latest episode, and they've captured my attention again. Now hopefully they'll keep this momentum going. I recall having similar trouble at the start of "The Wire," though I don't think it lasted four episodes. I guess they just do things at their own speed down in N'awlins.

It irritates me that politicians are exempted from the do-not-call registry. When I say I don't want anyone outside of my family and friends calling my phone, I mean ANYONE.