It was with a sad heart I received the news that the Wikipedia article on Bob Sacamano was deleted. Sacamano is a character on “Seinfeld” whom Kramer often references as a friend of his who has some odd qualities, like having synapses too large to be affected by electroshock treatment. The best thing is that Sacamano may have the most impact on the “Seinfeld” cast of any of the characters often mentioned, but never seen. The runner-up would be Jerry’s cousin Jeffrey, whom we never see but know he must look something like a horse.
Sacamano’s greatest moment for me is in the episode “The Chicken Roaster” where a neon-red sign bathes Kramer’s apartment in crimson glow until he finally convinces Jerry to trade apartments with him. Over the course of the episode, Jerry becomes more like Kramer and Kramer becomes more like Jerry. Until Elaine finds herself in the position of needing a Russian sable hat and Jerry pipes up with:
“Y’know my friend, Bob Sacamano?”
Elaine replies, “Isn’t that Kramer’s friend?”
Jerry says, “Yeah, but he called last night at 2 AM, we talked for 4 hours. Anyway, he sells knock-off sable hats in Battery Park.”
Of course we find out later that these knock-off hats are made from rat hair. Elaine has to go to the Burmese (or Myanmar) jungle to get J. Peterman to sign off on it, which leads to a fantastic “Apocalypse Now” spoof.
That said, Lifehacker.com has turned me onto deletionpedia. It’s a website that features all of the articles that Wikipedia deletes. Now there’s a place where you can still look up things like obscure unseen sitcom characters and minor Star Wars bounty hunters (however you can still find that on Wookiepedia). Have some fun, kids. The free sharing of information won’t be stopped by the anal-retentive bureaucrats at Wikipedia anymore!*
*I have no illusions that Wikipedia will ever give me my own article.
“The Daily Show” pretty much hammers this stuff out on a daily basis, but this one is especially beautiful. I’m going to go ahead and get the no-prize though for saying that the only reason Bill O’Reilly doesn’t call the Palins “pinheads” is because you don’t want to be throwing around accusations of microcephaly at people who already have a kid with Down’s.
My good friend, Jessica, who lost her mother to breast cancer a few years ago, is participating in the Breast Cancer 3-Day. The participants in this event walk 60 miles over the course of 3 days in order to raise money for breast cancer research, education, treatment, and screening. Jess is more than half-way to her minimum pledge of $2200, however she set a personal goal for herself at $3000. Anyone who knows me knows I have a special place in my heart for breasts, but not a whole lot of money, so scrape some pennies up from under the couch cushions and under your car seat, click on the ribbon up there and make sure Jessica hasn’t been training in vain for the last 7 months. Good luck, Jess!
I noted yesterday while talking with some friends that no one’s made enough of a fuss over the weird names Sarah Palin’s giving her kids. Then I found this name generator (click the picture above). In another world, my name might have been Shank Piston Palin (and I would have been born to an unwedded teenage mother). It’s not bad, but it isn’t as good as Seven or Soda Costanza.
I have always been a fan of Deadpool. I came of age during the aforementioned “big shoulders, big guns” craze of 90s comics, and Deadpool was always sure to be carrying big guns. His costume looked like a rip-off of Spider-Man, but I was willing to overlook this because you never saw Spider-Man carrying a rocket launcher. A friend of mine turned me onto the first Deadpool ongoing series which was written by Joe Kellyand illustrated by Ed McGuinness, whose genius lay not only in bringing an unparalleled degree of humor to the series, but also in building up Deadpool’s cast of supporting characters and nemeses.
I was disappointed when Kelly left the book, however Christopher Priest’srun took the series to new territory in the marvel universe while keeping the same degree of humor, however the book seemed to go downhill afterward. The stories and plots got more and more convoluted, and the wisecracks got more and more hackneyed. “Cable & Deadpool” seemed like a stupid marketing ploy to me, though Fabian Nicieza did a great job with it while trying to sort out some of the continuity gaffes which now plagued the character.
Fortunately, that’s all over. Daniel Waytakes on the character fresh off a guest arc in “Wolverine: Origins” with an unofficial Secret Invasion tie-in. True to form, Deadpool takes on an entire Skrull mother ship complete with one Super-Skrull inside a baseball stadium while wearing a stupid mascot costume. Paco Medina’s art is perfectly suited to both the humor and action which come hand-in-hand with a good Deadpool story. As an added bonus the end of the book has a biography of the Merc with a Mouth. Defnitely worth picking up.
Marvel.com ran this article on the many armors of Iron Man which have been introduced over the years, from the “Golden Avenger” costume up to his present day Extremis model. You should have fun watching how the expectations of the armor’s capability grew as real world technology advanced. Iron Man’s greatest asset as a character is the fact that he could change his costume in any given issue. I think that’s why he seemed most popular during the early 90s when comics went through that big shoulders, big guns phase where War Machine was the coolest thing you’d ever seen. Anyway, it’s lots of fun to go back and look at the history of the character now that the movie’s coming out on DVD.
Warning: Do not click the picture below unless you have at least an hour of your life you don’t want back.
Snares in Action
“Off-Road Raptor Safari” has to be the greatest internet game since that “Sex Tetris” game or even “Snood.” Imagine you’re driving the Warthog from “Halo” on the box canyon map, which just happens to be infested with velociraptors. Your mission is to kill raptors and get them to the time platforms that send them to the future so the corporation you work for can study them. You can transport the bodies using your handy-dandy mace-like SNARE!!!
The gang at Flashbang Studios knows their dinosaurs, as evidenced by their current project, Jetpack Brontosaurus. When hit, the raptors explode a cloud of feathers, making the game feel like a giant chicken round-up. Mad points can be earned not just by making kills and getting them to the transporter, but also by doing insane stunts, collecting tokens, and doing maximum damage to your car, which never falls apart and almost always rights itself when flipped.
For a relatively simple game, Raptor Safari is obscenely addictive and frequently entertaining. Play at your own risk.
Anybody remember how in “Shawshank Redemption” the character, Brooks, contemplates robbing the grocery store where he works so he can go back to prison where he feels safe? Then the sad bastard hangs himself instead.
Well this guy isn’t taking the coward’s way out.
The real life Brooks has spent more of his life behind bars than free and says “I just do better in prison.” I seriously want this guy to have a half-hour show where he talks about what he’s learned from life every Sunday. I would watch it religiously (pun intended). He’s full of amazing quotes like, “Havin’ stuff don’t mean nothin’.” I’m not joking. This man has found a way to live a life where relatively little is asked of him and he gets free shelter, food, and HBO. He also doesn’t look like someone who gets raped in the shower. If I had to guess, I’d say the Aryan Brotherhood has his back.
Last night I went to the Atlanta Braves game, where the Braves soundly trounced the Rockies, but before all that could take place, I watched an interesting exchange in the parking lot. My dad, who found himself in possession of two parking passes, decided to commit an act of true altruism by telling the parking attendant that he was paying for himself and the car behind him. As we started into the parking lot we heard the attendant shout back, “This car?” Dad just turned around and shouted, “Whichever,” which only seemed to exacerbate the problem. Ultimately he had to park right in front of the entrance and go explain his intentions to the parking attendant and the recipient of his kindness before we could move on.
I’d hate for someone to get the impression that I’m making some kind of Ben Folds fanpage here, but BEN FOLDS FIVE is getting together to play “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner” straight through. The event will kick off a new MySpace program called Front to Back where bands play their most critically acclaimed albums from beginning to end. The tickets went on sale Monday morning. The actual concert venue is the UNC Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill, NC on September 18th. This is a Thursday night, which means I probably can’t go. But I definitely can’t wait to watch it. There isn’t a lot of video of Ben Folds Five playing songs from this album, which is a shame because it’s arguably their best.
