David S. Atkinson's Blog, page 211

Did Your Grand Prize Game Training Go To Waste?

Did your Grand Prize Game training go to waste? Are you old enough to remember? Did you train? Did you train despite not living in Chicago?

In case you don’t remember, the Grand Prize Game was a regular segment on The Bozo Show. I was watching on WGN back in the eighties, but the show ran in various forms between 1960 and 2001. The Grand Prize Game involved a kid picked to throw ping-pong balls into a sequence of progressively further distanced buckets. During the era I was watching, the end bucket won you a new Schwinn bicycle.

I admit, my sister and I trained for this game down in our basement. We lined up buckets and threw ping-pong balls inside. We wanted that new Schwinn bicycle. We did this despite the fact that The Bozo Show was broadcast out of Chicago, approximately 470 miles from where we lived, and we had more chance of getting our parents to buy us bikes outright than getting them to take us to Chicago so we’d ever have a hope of getting on the game.

Did anyone else train so fruitlessly? Did you ever have that moment of looking back and suddenly understanding that you were now too old, or the show too ended, and all that training was down the drain?

I know I’m not the only one. There are others out there who had that same moment of disappointing realization.

Instead Of A Full Post Today…Look At This Picture Of A Clam

Instead of a full actual post today…look at this animated picture��of a clam:

Nature is weird.

Does Anyone Mind If We Move Denver And Omaha Closer?

Does anyone mind if we move Denver closer to Omaha? I didn’t think anyone would, but I thought I should ask first.

My wife and I make the drive between Omaha and Denver pretty regularly. Most people tell me I should fly, but when you count in airport times, costs, rental cars, and all that sort of thing it’s just close enough to be kind of a wash. Still, it’s annoying.

Further, there’s only so much between Denver and Omaha that’s important to me. I’m sure there are some things important to at least some people in between, but there’s an awful lot of space there and not all of it can possibly matter.

I’m just asking that we cut out a little of the nonimportant bits and move the two cities closer together.

This isn’t too much to ask, is it? Just let me know. I’d sure appreciate it, even if it only shaves 20-30 minutes off the drive time. Even that would help.

You Say Potato, I Say Potato

For years, I wondered why people were so interested in potato guns. I kept hearing friends talk about wanting to build one, though none of them ever did. Personally, I wondered why they even cared. Then I realized something.

I realized I was thinking of:

while they were talking about:

There is a BIG difference. One is a cheap toy, and the other a dangerous hobbyist device…though technically the term ‘potato gun’ covers both.

My bad.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everybody!

Airline Passengers: Please Refrain From Seeking Fresh Air

Airline passengers: I realize planes can get stuffy. However, I must ask that you do not open the doors. You’d think this would go without saying, but apparently not.

Yeah, according to the article a Chinese passenger opened an emergency exit door because he wanted some fresh air. Granted, the plane was not yet in the air. However, it was about to take off. According to the article, the man did not realize that opening the door was dangerous.

While this is possible, and I’m struggling to imagine someone who wouldn’t think this dangerous, I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea that this guy could have been on one of my flights.

Those doors should stay closed.

It just boggles my mind. Lots boggles my mind, though, so maybe it’s just me. It’s never occurred to me to open those doors when the flight crew didn’t already have them open. I can’t believe someone didn’t stop him.

Readings I Went To This Year

As I’ve mentioned before, I try to hit at least one reading a month���usually at the Tattered Cover in Denver (though the Palahniuk reading I hit this year was put on by the Boulder Bookstore at a church in Boulder). I’ve managed one reading a month again this year (compared to one off last year). Since I’ve hit all I plan to for the year, I thought I’d go ahead and list who I managed to see:

January ��� George Saunders – Tenth of December

February ��� Willy Vlautin – The Free

March ��� Paulette Livers – Cementville

April ��� Timothy Schaffert – The Swan Gondola

May ��� Steven Galloway – The Confabulist

June ��� Tom Robbins – Tibetan Peach Pie

July ��� J. Dylan Yates – The Belief in Angels

August ��� Rebecca Rotert – Last Night at the Blue Angel

September ��� Erika T Wurth – Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend

October ��� Linda Hull – Black Thursday and Chuck Palahniuk – Beautiful You

November ��� Carine McCandless – The Wild Truth

December ��� Cary Elwes – As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride

I think that’s not bad for a year. Just thought I’d share.

Better Airline/Airport Service Would Wow Me

Apparently, there is an interactive wall at the Denver International Airport (DIA) called “Open Windows.”�� This wall uses cameras and the kinetic energy of passers-by to create a light show on glowing LED discs.�� According to the article: “in addition to being fun, the display is one piece of a bigger goal of making DIA the connecting hub of choice, said spokesman Heath Montgomery.”

Great. Yeah, cool displays are what make me choose an airport. You know what would ‘wow’ me? Better airline/airport service.

Seriously, fewer delays/cancellations would ‘wow’ me. A pricing structure that lets me know how much I’ll need to spend for a ticket without a calculator would ‘wow’ me. An airport that isn’t an obstacle course for me to get from gate to gate in would ‘wow’ me. Does anybody really care if there’s a cool interactive artwork?

I don’t know, maybe they do. I can just say that I don’t care so much. I have other concerns when I fly, though I admit that “Open Windows” still does sound cool.

Why Don’t Beehives Have Hair?

Apparently, scientists in Japan have done studies indicating that a resin-like material found in beehives (propolis) may encourage hair growth. God only knows where they came up with the idea to study this, but they did and apparently they found that propolis stimulated hair growth in some limited conditions in laboratory mice.

Oh, yeah? If that’s so���why don’t beehives have hair. Huh? Have you ever seen a hairy beehive?

I don’t see any hair.

I Would Have Kept My Clothes On

Apparently, some naked Norwegian guy saved a duck trapped in ice. As I understand it, this guy was out walking when he saw a duck fall through a hole in some ice. The duck couldn’t get out, so this guy took off his clothes and saved it.

That’s really cool���but I would probably have kept my clothes on.

At least, I like to think I’m a compassionate enough person that I would have gone into save the duck. I think I am. Also, I understand why he took his clothes off. Obviously, he wanted to be able to put dry clothes on afterwards.

Still, he will forever be known as the naked Norwegian man who saved a duck. If he’d kept his clothes on he might have been wet and cold afterwards, possibly risking hypothermia, but he’d have been known as that Norwegian guy who saved a duck.

I have to think that would have been the option I would have taken.