Trivial Tuesday

In 2006, illness forced Cuban leader Fidel Castro to transfer power for the first time in his lengthy tenure. Castro first took power after the Cuban Revolution which ended when Batista fled the country in what year?

More from the phone

The movie's over. It's time to go get a haircut.

Having a day off of work is exciting. Maybe I should do it more often.

Don't worry, I'm not going to keep updating like this all day.

Posting from the phone

It's just before noon on Friday. I am at the theater waiting for The Simpsons Movie to start.



That is all.

The Way Back Machine: Ain't Nothin' Changed*

We haven't done an episode of The Way Back Machine in a long time. Here's a brief one until I have something more interesting to tell you.

Do any of the rest of you remember the Mr. Men and Little Miss books? In case you don't, they were a set of children's books in which each book was about a character with a specific trait, which was also the source of the name of the character and book (e.g. Mr. Happy, Mr. Clumsy, Little Miss Late).

When I was in elementary school, I had a teacher who at the end of the year gave out Mr. Men and Little Miss books to all the kids based on their personalities throughout the year. It's always interesting to see just exactly what your teacher thinks of you. My book?


Mr. Chatterbox.

I guess things haven't really changed that much.

^*Bonus points for knowing the group and album for the 1990 song used in title of this edition of The Way Back Machine.

Trivial Tuesday

How about science as our category today? In fact, let's make it food science.

Chocolate is enjoyable for humans and toxic to some animals like dogs. The chemical responsible for this toxicity is an alkaloid similar in structure to caffeine. What is this compound, with a name that comes from the Greek words for food of the gods?

Congrats to Itchy who was only off by a letter in remembering that it is theobromine.

Indiana Jones and the Unannounced Title

As pretty much everyone knows by now, Harrison Ford is working on the fourth and, one would assume, final Indiana Jones film. There has been much speculation on how he will handle the role at the age of 65, as well as what the eventual title of the film will be. With that in mind, I have a few suggestions that Steven Spielberg is welcome to use.^*

• Indiana Jones and the Nostalgic Fanboys

• Indiana Jones and the Enlarged Prostate**

• Indiana Jones and the Money-hungry Studio

• Indiana Jones and the Bad Idea Earring

• Indiana Jones and the Ubiquitous Man

• Indiana Jones and the Very, Very Last Crusade...No, Really. We Mean It This Time. We Promise. Cross Our Heart and Hope to Die. Well, Not Really. I Mean, No One Hopes to Die, Do They? Anyway, We're Serious. It Really Is The Last One.^***

• Indiana Jones and the Superfluity of Sequels

• Indiana Jones and the Lessons Not Learned from the Star Wars Prequels^****

^*All joking aside, who cares if he's 65. I know I'll be at the theater as soon as they release it.
^**Even if I will happily go see it right away, I couldn't do this without at least one "Indy is old" joke.
^***This title might be a little too "To Wong Foo" for most people, so they'd probably have to shorten it.
^****My personal favorite.

Running Diary: World Series of Pop Culture Finale

I did this last year, so why not do it again this year. I promise, no more griping about certain really bad decisions that were made by the judges last night. (Ok, I don't promise no more griping. I promise to try to avoid griping too much.)

9:00 - "This time it's war!" Isn't that really a bit of a stretch for a tagline for this show?

9:01 - We've managed to get to this point without VH1 spoiling who makes it to the final match. Perhaps we've learned since last year.

9:01 - They really are pushing Twisted Misters as the bad guys on the show.

9:02 - "Thank you for being a friend." Everybody loves a good Golden Girls joke.


9:03 - Yeah, the missed high five from Almost Perfect Strangers is getting a little old.


9:04 - The first category is Dirty Dancing. It's all about the movie and we hear that at least one of the members of APS has never seen it.

9:06 - D'oh what is Baby's name. Melissa pipes up with "Frances" and on the TV, Rachel echoes her answer and gets the point.

9:07 - Well, if Lucien didn't know that Wayne Knight was the answer, Rachel's "Newman" comment may have helped.

9:08 - Rachel wins the category 4-2 and Lucien is out. That may hurt since he was almost solely responsible for the last win for APS.

9:14 - New Category: Two Hit Wonders. Are they more or less memorable than one hit wonders?

9:16 - Come on...You've got to know Whitesnake. And she does, it just takes a few seconds.

9:17 - I can honestly say I haven't thought about the Fine Young Cannibals in many, many years.

9:17 - We go to a tie breaker and it is Madonna's studio albums.

9:18 - "Confessions on a Dance Floor" How did Robert remember that one?

9:19 - Robert wins yet another tie breaker and there is only one Almost Perfect Stranger remaining.

9:20 - The category is The Pitch. (Pat gives a pitch for a TV show, and they have to name it.)

9:21 - Come on, Kelly. Say Small Wonder. Oh, she misses it and Tod steals. He goes on to get the next one and win the category. Unfortunately, he's the only player left for his team, so he has two more rounds to win.

9:26 - Scorsese film quotes. That could be tough. It's Robert vs. Tod. The best players I have seen this year are going head to head.

9:27 - I thought Todd wasn't going to get Casino for just a second there.

9:27 - Todd misses Gangs of New York and Robert steals. That might really cost him.

9:28 - Both of them miss a quote from The Aviator and it sends Wocka Wocka to the finals. I feel bad for Almost Perfect Strangers, but I really like Wocka Wocka and I'm glad to see them move on.

9:31 - We're previewing the final and once again Twisted Misters is obnoxious. If they aren't actually the world's biggest jerks, they really need to have harsh words with whoever is editing.

9:33 - Robert very politely tries to divert some of the praise from himself to his teammates.

9:34 - A Simpsons category! Have I mentioned that I love this show. It's Victor vs. Kelly in a Springfield battle royale.

9:36 - Something tells me we're headed for a tiebreaker.

9:37 - Who shot Mr. Burns? Of course, it's Maggie. No charges were filed, because, in the words of Clancy Wiggum, "No jury in the world's going to convict a baby. Um...maybe Texas." We're going to a tiebreaker after the really long break.

9:42 - Tie Breaker: Emmy Winners for Best Drama Series

9:43 - These guys are unbelievable at this, but Kelly fails to get the last one and is eliminated, while Victor does an annoying victory dance.

9:44 - Now Pat is spoiling movies. (Here, I'll spoil one that won't be out until November of 2008: Snape kills Dumbledore)

9:46 - It sucks to get home improvement shows mixed up with Eddie Murphy movies (not that it matters since Kelly added 2 anyway).

9:47 - Twisted Misters is now up 3-1 and only Robert is left. If you'll forgive me for going all Han Solo on you, I have a bad feeling about this.

9:52 - Pat jinxes Robert by pointing out that he's never lost a category. (Not that it isn't obvious that he'll lose just based on the fact that there's less than 10 minutes left and 3 people left on Twisted Misters)

9:54 - Ruth! Ruth! Baby! Ruth!

9:55 - Keep hope alive Robert. Say The Great Outdoors. Yes, going to a tie breaker (again, not that it matters)

9:56 - Now to break the tie, they have to list the cast members of Little Miss Sunshine. Unfortunately, Robert doesn't have the final answer.

9:57 - Twisted Misters wins and is obnoxious AGAIN. I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that I cannot stand those guys.

9:58 - Seeing the interviews at the end, only reinforces the thought that Wocka Wocka is made up of a group of good people, and Twisted Misters...well, they aren't.

That's it for this year. Hopefully, next year there will be someone to make them shut up and put them in their place. With that, I will end and the only thing left to say is...

Go home, smell you later. Oh, I wasn't going to mention that. Oops.