Accent on the Moo

For Kahnotty Boy and his Pile o'Dead Cow neighbor:

Cows also 'have regional accents'

Cows have regional accents like humans, language specialists have suggested.

They decided to examine the issue after dairy farmers noticed their cows had slightly different moos, depending on which herd they came from.

John Wells, Professor of Phonetics at the University of London, said regional twangs had been seen before in birds.

The farmers in Somerset who noticed the phenomenon said it may have been the result of the close bond between them and their animals.

Farmer Lloyd Green, from Glastonbury, said: "I spend a lot of time with my ones and they definitely moo with a Somerset drawl.

"I've spoken to the other farmers in the West Country group and they have noticed a similar development in their own herds.

"It works the same as with dogs - the closer a farmer's bond is with his animals, the easier it is for them to pick up his accent."

Peer pressure

Prof Wells felt the accents could result from their contemporaries.

He said: "This phenomenon is well attested in birds. You find distinct chirping accents in the same species around the country.

"This could also be true of cows.

"In small populations such as herds you would encounter identifiable dialectical variations which are most affected by the immediate peer group."

Dr Jeanine Treffers-Daller, reader in linguistics at the University of the West of England in Bristol, agreed that the accent could be influenced by relatives.

She said: "When we are learning to speak, we adopt a local variety of language spoken by our parents, so the same could be said about the variation in the West Country cow moo."

Yippee Skippy!

Yippee Skippy!
Originally uploaded by azLee.

New season starts Sept. 17th!

Pluto, the Dwarf Planet

Pluto, the Dwarf Planet
Originally uploaded by azLee.

Passed along by a friend. I think he got it from a Philly paper.

Space Wino

Space Wino
Originally uploaded by azLee.

For those Trekkies out there (glancing over at Mikey and Jefftrey): I present Modern Drunkard Magazine's "Space: The Wino Frontier"

For Yer Entertainment

MY COLE SLAW RECIPE

by Emo Philips



1. Chop cabbage into large bowl.

2. Look for green peppers.

3. Drive to store.

4. Choose green peppers.

5. Carry them to cashier.

6. Drive home.

7. Find wallet.

8. Drive to store.

9. Buy green peppers.

10. Drive home.

11. Chop green peppers into bowl.

12. Look for mayonnaise.

13. Drive to store.

14. Buy mayonnaise.

15. Drive home.

16. Mix mayonnaise into bowl.

17. Look for raisins.

18. Drive to store.

19. Buy stupid raisins.

20. Ignore stupid cashier's snickering.

21. Drive home.

22. Mix raisins into bowl.

23. Look for miserable lousy stupid carrots.

24. Drive to stupid lousy store.

25. Buy miserable stupid lousy carrots.

26. Call stupid miserable snickering cashier a Nazi.

27. Crawl to car.

28. Drive home.

29. Chop stupid damned miserable lousy carrots into damned stupid lousy miserable bowl.

30. Look for finger.

31. Look harder for finger.

32. Look everywhere for finger.

33. See cat scurrying away.

34. Follow cat into new neighbor's house, surprising him in middle of drug deal.

35. Dive over sofa to escape gunfire, landing on cat's tail, causing cat to screech and jump up into new neighbor's face and claw his eyes as he's bending over the sofa about to shoot you, enabling you to grab the gun from his hand, enabling you to hold the gun on him until the cops arrive, who then arrest him and drive you and the cat to the hospital where the cat's stomach is pumped and your finger is found and sewn back on good as new.

36. Collect reward of half of neighbor's property from drug auction, then just buy all the delicious cole slaw you want from a nice deli

Websites As Graphs

Via Brian who viaed Simon who, in turn, viaed from drawn.ca.

www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/

Yes I Can, Motherflocker!!

This is hilARous! Via Babs:

"I Was a Boozer, a User, and a Loser!"

Folks - meet Florrie Fisher (vintage 1970). If she reminds you of Jerri Blank of Strangers with Candy fame then you are correct! Yep, Florrie and this PSA were the basis for the show. She's a hoot.

It's in 3 parts due to it's length (just over 25 mins. all together)

The Musee Mecanique

The Musee Mecanique
Originally uploaded by azLee.

I found this this museum's site via Jonno, who posted some pix from his recent visit to it.

Although I don't think i've ever mentioned it, I've always had a love and interest in stuff like this. I have this pipe dream of being able to afford to buy these items and learn how to restore them.

For Those "Grey Gardens" Fans Out There.

This is an article, apparently in the local Hamptons paper titled Dan's Papers about Bouvier Beale, Jr., the nephew/grandson of the the two Edies and cousin to Jackie Onassis. I thought I'd pass it along:

"Bouvier Beale, Jr.
Real Estate Investor


By Debbie Tuma

After spending many memorable moments visiting his grandmother, Edie
Beale, at Grey Gardens in East Hampton, Bouvier Beale, Jr. and his
family were back last week in this same historic house, recalling his
childhood memories.

"My father, Bouvier Beale, Sr., who was an attorney in New York City,
used to drive us out here every year in February, to celebrate my
grandmother's birthday," he said. "We used to take `Big Edie,'
as we
called her, out to the best restaurants in East Hampton for lunch,
and then drive her back home. Every time we went to a restaurant, she
would sing a song at the table so everyone would hear. She was a
trained opera singer, and she had a good voice." Her
daughter, "Little Edie," who was Bouvier Beale Jr.'s aunt, also loved
to sing and dance, but the two of them chose to remain together in
Grey Gardens until Big Edie's death in 1976, when she was in her
eighties.

This was also the year that the famous cult film, Grey Gardens,
produced and filmed by Albert and David Maysles, came out. These two
renowned documentary filmmaker brothers had spent six weeks filming
the two Edies, who were fascinating and colorful recluses and were
also related to Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, whose family was from
East Hampton.

"My Dad was Jackie's first cousin, and I'm her first cousin once
removed," explained Bouvier Beale, Jr., as he sat in the sunroom on
the original wicker furniture from his grandmother's former
house. "Jackie Kennedy's father was Big Edie's brother."
When asked if he'd ever met Jackie Kennedy, he said, "I spoke to her
many times on the phone, and she sent a beautiful Cartier silver gift
to my wife Eva and I for our wedding in 1980. Jackie also attended
Big Edie's funeral. She and my Dad were cousins and good friends, and
they used to meet for lunch in New York several times a year."
Bouvier Jr. met his wife, Eva, on a blind date in New York City,
where she lived. In 1980, a year later, Little Edie sang at their
wedding, which was held at a church in Bridgehampton, followed by a
reception at Gurney's Inn Resort in Montauk. After studying
communications at Boston College, Eva has maintained a career as an
executive with Air France, taking the family around the world. Now
she is working on putting her family's collection of photos, letters
and poetry into a coffee table book about the two Edies.
"I was just amazed by the amount of letters, poems and diary entries
written by Little Edie," said Eva Beale. "I feel she is watching over
me, wanting me to put these into a book for the whole family, and the
public to enjoy. It will dispel many of the myths surrounding her and
her mother, and tell their real story."
Bouvier Beale, Jr. explained that he, his wife Eva, and their two
daughters, Tatiana, 21, and Maria, 17, were spending the month of
July at their home in Amagansett, as they do each summer, and they
had attended a party at Grey Gardens a few weeks ago to celebrate the
30th anniversary of this movie with Albert Maysles. Beale and his
family flew in from California, where they live outside of San
Francisco, and where he works as a real estate investor.
"It was so exciting to come back to this house for a party, and to be
part of all the buzz that is being recreated around Grey Gardens,
from the hit off-Broadway show, to the new Broadway musical that is
due to come out in November, to an upcoming movie starring Jessica
Lang as "Big Edie," and Drew Barrymore as "Little Edie," he
said. "It
is hard to believe, after 30 years, that all this is happening now."
Beale looked around at his grandmother's beautifully restored and
redecorated turn of the century home, and out the windows to the
magnificent pool and gardens of hydrangeas, wisteria and lilies. "I
can't believe the difference how this house has changed, and what a
great job the current owners, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, have done
fixing it up," he said. "I left the Hamptons in 1966 to go away to
prep school, and then relocated to California. The first time I had
stepped foot in this house was last year, at the invitation of Ben
and Sally." He said the second time he and Eva had been to the house
was at the recent party, hosted by Frances Hayward, who has rented
the house year-round for over a decade, except for when Bradlee and
Quinn return.
"At the party, it was great to see Albert Maysles again, and to see
the screening of his movie at Guild Hall following the party. It was
also good to see the screenwriter and director of the new movie,
Michael Suscy, who may be consulting with us about some of the family
history."
Bouvier Beale, Jr. explained a little of his own history. He was born
in New York City, raised in Glen Cove, L.I. and he came out to East
Hampton to visit his grandmother each year until 1966, when he
graduated from Westminster Prep School in Simsbury, CT and entered
Syracuse University, before moving out west.
"This house looked much as it does now, but after that, it went
downhill, due to lack of money after Big Edie's divorce, and it hit
its worst point about eight years later, when the Grey Gardens movie
was filmed," he said.
He explained that although the house had been paid for and the taxes
were low, the two Edies lived on the remaining money, but didn't do
any maintenance or upkeep on the house.
"Back in the early 1970s, pre-women's liberation movement, single or
unmarried women were essentially powerless, and it was a combination
of that and economic pressure that made them decide to choose an
unorthodox, free-spirit life as recluses, which is the way they
wanted to live," said Beale, Jr. "Today, I don't think that would
happen, since women would go out and work."
During his visit, Frances Hayward was giving a tour of the house for
the first time to Bouvier Beale's two daughters, Tatiana and
Maria. "We wanted them to see this house, since they've heard all our
stories about it," said Beale, who pointed out some old photos of his
aunt and grandmother on the table, and to a sketch of Grey Gardens
framed in the entrance hall.
He and his family will be returning to California this week. His
daughter, Tatiana, said, "I recognized the bedroom that Big and
Little Edie shared from the movie, but it looks so much better now.
I'm excited about the upcoming movie on Grey Gardens. Drew Barrymore
is one of my favorite actresses."

Well, THIS Is Definitely Pushing Up My Stats Counter!

And who said nudity doesn't pay off? I just did a quick check on my stats and saw that I had a walopping 116 hits the past hour. Now, that has NEVER happened here in the past 2.25 years I've had this blog, so I was a bit surprized.

Turns out, my site seems to be a big hit in the Republic of Korea (aka South Korea). Apparently, my pic of a very naked, very tied down supposed Hugh Jackman has made it somewhere on to to this website. A popular one there, it seems, giving the amount of hits I've received in the past hour alone.

Short Buses and Tangled Up Tubes

I want one of these! It's so awfully cute! Although, I'm expecting it to talk.




######

Star Trekin'

There's a whole bunch of these over here. Found via Nala.

######

This came up in a convo over on AOL and was SO glad to see it again!:

Liza vs. Carol

For your enjoyment:

OH MY DEAR LORD!

I CAN'T believe I found these! I was going through my high school class's Yahoo group and a classmate of mine had posted these to the group and I'm in both.

This first one -




was taken when I was in 5th grade (the 1970-71 school year) and was of the two 5th grade classes' hockey teams. I'm the tres cute kid below and to the left of the trophy and to the left of the top half of the other kid's head.

This one --




is of my high school graduation in 1978 in the U.N. General Assembly room (yeah, that one that you see on the news. Yeah, I went to the UN School). I'm in the third row up, the third person from the left (light colored sports coat).

For Karen

Happy Birthday, MTV!

Although I haven't watched it in years and really see no need to (when was the last time they played a video? And there's nothing that they currently air that I'd be interested in), a friend over on AOL reminded me that it was 25 years ago today that they went on the air! In honor of their birthday, here's the first video they played:

Law and Order: Special Muppets Unit

This is just too frellin' funny!



va SlowCode via Gothamist.

Feeling a Bit Flat....

MAke Yourself a Simpson via Sparky via Lots of Co. Max.