Octopus: 1, Aquarium: 0

LOL. And some days, you have to wonder if animals aren't smarter than we give them credit for. =)

Thanks to the AP for the photo and caption... and the laugh!

This image provided by Heal the Bay shows a two-spotted octopus, a tiny female known for being curious and gregarious with visitors, and believed to be responsible for causing a tank leak at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Heal the Bay, Tara Crow)

(Note: Carolyn, if you happen to read this post, how on earth do I make an individual post's title look like a URL link? I've linked the title to the URL, but it appears as the same color as the rest of the text, so no one would know the title is a link. Haven't I seen you do this before on FPC?)

November 2008 - Get Out the Vote!

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We Got the Beat

In 1977, the movie Saturday Night Fever was a huge hit with moviegoers. Even for those like me, who weren't around at the time, the BeeGees song "Stayin' Alive" instantly brings to mind the image of a white-suit-clad John Travolta boogieing down on the disco floor. Oh, but that song! Once it's in your head, you can't get it out!

Turns out, that might just be a good thing, if you're ever in a position to save someone's life.

I ran across a news article today about a small study conducted at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. The study found that people who listened to "Stayin' Alive" while practicing CPR kept up the perfect rhythm and speed to keep someone alive until that person could get more extensive medical help. Even better, apparently just thinking about the song's rhythm while doing CPR also kept up a near-perfect beat!

I'm never going to think about that song again without thinking of this study. Oh, and the other song the study found that keeps up the near-perfect beat?

Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." Sheesh. Right rhythm, wrong message. =)

SO Glad I Don't Own a Car at the Moment...!

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Things that make me laugh

On the subway: A little boy asleep on the train, fighting to stay upright, but slumping to one side or the other, then jerking upright, like a puppet on strings. (I wonder—did I look like that when I was nodding off during more than a few college lectures?)

On the street: A "living statue" dressed as the Statue of Liberty... only this "lady" would have a 5-o'clock shadow at the end of the day!

In the park: A man holding up a stick for his Jack Russell terrier, who was SO clearly thinking, "Come on, come on! Throw the stick! Throw the stick! Pleeeeaaaassse throw the stick!" The dog was positively quivering with eagerness to run after it.

Also in the park: A boy throwing a stick for a pug... and the pug looking back at him with this expression on its face as if to say, "Well, what do you expect me to do? Go fetch it yourself." Obviously not as much a retriever type as the terrier was!

On St. Marks Place: A cafe entrance that makes me laugh every time I pass it (photo to the left). I've just got to get a picture of myself underneath that entrance sometime!

I'm not leaning in this direction...

One of the TV shows on my TiVo I enjoy watching is How I Met Your Mother on CBS (Yeah, yeah, so it's Friends minus 1 person--there's a reason this sitcom formula worked for Friends for so long!). I haven't caught it lately because of a new time conflict with Gossip Girl (guilty as charged!), but if I happen to be home, HIMYM is one of the shows I turn to.

Recently, there was an episode where Marshall, Lily, and Robin spend the night in Marshall & Lily's new apartment and discover it's crooked--the floor is slanted, pictures hang askew on the walls, and loose round objects roll toward the door (while the three of them are playing Hungry Hungry Hippos, Lily wins every game).

I thought it was just a sitcom thing--surely there aren't actually buildings like that! Well, as I found out recently, there really are crooked apartments.

I was looking on Craigslist for a new place to live, and responded to a post in the Ditmars area of Astoria. When I went in, I thought it was just a figment of my imagination that the stairs up to the apartment were crooked (and no, the photo here is not crooked--if you look at the molding on the wall on the left, you see it lines up perfectly parallel with the edge of the photo... and shows that the stairs have a decided slant to the right!). 

Then I thought, okay, maybe that's just a quirk of the stairway. Nope. The room they were renting also leaned to the right! Talk about your dealbreakers! I'm "crooked" enough, but living in that place would quickly drive me nuts!

As soon as I got to the street, I started laughing, because what was running through my mind was that old childhood nursery rhyme:

There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,

He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.

He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse.

And they all lived together in a crooked little house.

How I Met Your Mother photo: CBS.com

Stairway photo: me

The True Meaning of Sportsmanship

All I can say is "Wow. Wish more athletes (and people in general!!) were like that!!"

All right, all right already...!

Barack Obama's been slowly winning me over, less for what he's doing right than for what Hillary's campaign has been doing wrong lately. And I'm coming to see that he'd have a better shot at beating McCain in the fall. So while Hill's still my girl (I voted for her in the primary, and I'd loveto see her as the President), I'm realizing that maybe what this country needs right now is not a strong leader who can "lead from day one" but a strong leader who can inject some hope into a country that's been beaten down under the weight of worry over the economy and jobs, terrorism, and the war in Iraq.

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Besides, I can't help but like the guy and his wife. Barack and Michelle make a great team. :)