What To Do When Your Chewing Gum Has Lost Its Flavor

Faithful Readers may recall the post about children's manners, or lack thereof.

Well, it seems good ol' Chicago has nothing on the children of Detriot. A boy visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts was chewing gum ( Wrigley's Extra Polar Ice, to be precise), and apparently it lost its flavor. What's a kid to do?

Stick it on to the $1.5 million Helen Frankenthaler 1963 painting, The Bay.

The director of the school said "Even though we give very strict guidelines on proper behaviour and we hold students to high standards, he is only 12."

Oh, please.

Two Spoonfuls Of Whiskey...

In his 1695 travel book, The Western Islands of Scotland, the redundantly named Mr. Martin Martin refers to a quadruple-distilled whisky known as usquebaugh-baul . Usual whiskeys are distilled only twice. Quad distilling yields a drink that is 92% alcohol, while a typical whisky would be about 40% alcohol.

Martin wrote: The first taste affects all the members of the body: two spoonfuls of this last liquor is a sufficient dose; and if any man should exceed this, it would presently stop his breath and endanger his life.

Now it seems that the fine folks at the Bruichladdich distillery are attempting to recreate the recipe on the Isle of Islay, ultimately producing 5,000 bottles of the potentially hazardous libation which they are calling Perilous Whisky.

You can see some images from the distillation here, if, as a Bruichladdich spokesman says, the distillery doesn't explode during the process.

Animal Death Match - Championship Round

Still no news this year about pythons. Jeesh.

If you are keeping score at home, here is a re-cap:

Burmese Python vs. Siamese Cat - winner : Python
Burmese Python vs. Alligator - winner: Python

The newest round of Animal Death Match was recently held in Australia.

Grandma vs. 14 foot long Salt Water Crocodile - winner: GRANDMA!

I am hoping to get together some funds to send Grandma to the Everglades for a relaxing holiday, and if she HAPPENS to come across a python, well, that's good blogging, friends!

To The Moon, Alice!

The average distance of the moon from the Earth is about 239,000 miles.

That means that my Toyota was officially made it to the moon, and travelled an additional 50,000 miles past it!

Next stop, Mars!

Go, car, go!

How Much Is That Doggie In The Airport?

Street value: $25 million.

That is the amount of drugs (liquid heroin and cocaine) that were seized in a great big drug bust, in which the drug smugglers were using retriever puppies as their mules. After placing the bags of drugs into the puppies bellies, they waited patiently for the shaved fur to grow back, covering up the surgery scar.

When you have to resort to surgically implanting bags of drugs into the bellies puppies, you have reached the end of civilization.

There is truly only one word for it: despicable. Preferably said like Daffy Duck.

I Get It Already! I’m Becoming A Dinosaur!

First, there was the death knell of the film camera market. Estimates say that 92 percent of all cameras sold are now digital.

Then came the announcements that Nikon and Kodak are exiting the film camera business and that Konica Minolta is exiting the camera business altogether.

Sooner rather than later, film will be as difficult to procure as flashcubes.

Today, they have announced the end of the megapixel race.

"In compact cameras, I think that the megapixel race is pretty much over," says Chuck Westfall, director of media for Canon's camera marketing group. "Seven- and eight-megapixel cameras seem to be more than adequate. We can easily go up to a 13-by-19 print and see very, very clear detail."

And with that, the manufacturers of digital cameras have given up the useless pose of pretending that their product is an old-school camera, and are letting their design sensibilities run wild, allowing form to follow function and no longer mimicking the size, shape and features of film cameras.

But I happen to really like the size, shape, feel and look of film cameras.

And will photographers opf the future wear those safari jackets overloaded with lenses, film canisters and filters? I think not. A blow to sterotyping and fashion, to boot.

My Birthday Is Just Around The Corner

If any Faithful Readers are pressed for ideas for a birthday present for the CaptainStL, the nice folks at Christie’s are holding on auction the day prior, enabling last minute gift purchases.
I wouldn’t mind waiting an extra day or so if overnight shipping is too expensive.

But I have just the right spot in mind for the portrait of café proprietress Madame Ginoux by a relatively unknown artist named Vincent Van Gogh. It was finished in February of 1890, so it is rather dated, but you know, I am fond of it because she has books on the table (Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin).

Early bidders should be able to snatch it up for somewhere between 40 and 60 million, although the last Van Gogh portrait up for acution, Portrait of Dr. Gachet, sold for $82.5 million in 1990.

I love you guys. I hope ScubaSteve is free to help me hang it up when it arrives...