Sunday, September 23, 2012

Vinohrady Street Art

It's hard to catch these on foot, when the stores aren't open.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Abbot & Costello Explain Unemployment

from one of my bears . . . .

The unemployment numbers explained by Abbott & Costello. 
COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.
ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible Times. It's 9%.
COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?
ABBOTT: No, that's 16%. 
COSTELLO: You just said 9%. 
ABBOTT: 9% Unemployed. 
COSTELLO: Right 9% out of work. 
ABBOTT: No, that's 16%. 

COSTELLO: Okay, so it's 16% unemployed. 
ABBOTT: No, that's 9% . 
COSTELLO: WAIT A MINUTE. Is it 9% or 16%? 
ABBOTT: 9% are unemployed. 16% are out of work. 
COSTELLO: IF you are out of work you are unemployed. 
ABBOTT: No, you can't count the "Out of Work" as the unemployed. You have to look for work to be unemployed. 
COSTELLO: BUT THEY ARE OUT OF WORK!!! 
ABBOTT: No, you miss my point. 
COSTELLO: What point? 
ABBOTT: Someone who doesn't look for work, can't be counted with those who look for work. It wouldn't be fair. 
COSTELLO: To whom? 
ABBOTT: The unemployed. 
COSTELLO: But they are ALL out of work. 
ABBOTT: No, the unemployed are actively looking for work. Those who are out of work stopped looking. They gave up. And, if you give up, you are no longer in the ranks of the unemployed. 
COSTELLO: So if you're off the unemployment roles, that would count as less unemployment? 
ABBOTT: Unemployment would go down. Absolutely! 
COSTELLO: The unemployment just goes down because you don't look for work? 
ABBOTT: Absolutely it goes down. That's how you get to 9%. Otherwise it would be 16%. You don't want to read about 16% unemployment, do ya? 
COSTELLO: That would be frightening. 
ABBOTT: Absolutely. 
COSTELLO: Wait, I got a question for you. That means there are two ways to bring down the unemployment number? 
ABBOTT: Two ways is correct. 
COSTELLO: Unemployment can go down if someone gets a job?
ABBOTT: Correct. 
COSTELLO: And unemployment can also go down if you stop looking for a job? 
ABBOTT: Bingo. 
COSTELLO: So there are two ways to bring unemployment down, and the easier of the two is to just stop looking for work. 
ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like an economist. 
COSTELLO: I don't even know what the hell I just said! 
ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like a politician.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Funky french keyboards

well, the only thing really funny about this is me trying to print Mrs' crosswords using this keyboard . . . it reduces my normal machine like efficiency to that of a sub-normal human.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Germany Knocks Greece Out of Euro

Germany Knocks Greece Out Of Euro Championship

by EYDER PERALTA

 

Germany scored three goals in the second half to knock Greece out of the European Championship, today.

 

As we reported, it was a match dubbed the "debt derby," because it pitted the Eurozone's weakest economy with its paymaster.

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/06/22/155596473/germany-knocks-greece-out-of-euro-championship

 

I just think its funny . . .

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Mandles

Yankee Candle releases Man Candles that smell like sawdust, freshly mowed grass, and other very masculine things

 | Posted by Rachel Raczka  May 15, 2012 04:54 PM

·                                 E-mail

When writing this post we were first concerned that the term "mandles" might confuse readers into thinking Yankee Candle entered into the men's summer footwear category. Alas they are not -- they've released a collection of limited edition home fragrances branded as Man Candles with soon-to-be classic scents like:

Riding Mower: "Hot sun. Cool breeze. And the intensely summery scent of freshly cut grass."

2 x 4: "The warm, unmistakable scent of freshly planed wood and sawdust evokes a sense of confidence and quality."

And who could forget?:

First Down: "This combination of orange, patchouli, vetiver, and leather is as exciting as game day."

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/fashion/stylephile/2012/05/yankee_candle_releases_man_candles.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed2_HP

Monday, May 7, 2012

Providence Place Book Store

it usta be, that book stores were common in malls, I mean, before Barnes & Nobles and Borders super stores, there was always a Waldenbooks and a Doubleday or something -- at least 2 . . .
 
now f'rinstance, tho', this is the entire Fiction section in the only store that sells books in the whole mall, the biggest, nicest mall in Providence, RI . . . its mostly a comic book store . . . groovy in-store music, tho'.
is it due to the implosion of the super stores, the advent of the internet & e-books, or the common shift to new media?

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Saturday, March 17, 2012

spond

 

Mrs has found – playing Word with Friends I can only assume – that you can respond, but you cannot spond . . . that is, etymologically: spond could have come to English from Latin spondere thru the Old French, as did respondere, but it did not.

It is a good thing, I think, for it would enable a false declension . . . spanned, spend, spinned, spond, spund, spynd?  

We just think its funny.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Dear Mother-in-Law Bar

near Karlovo Namesti ...
one hardly knows what to say ...

Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Dragon of Pruhonicky Sady - Prague

oh, it gets is a little confused between the legends of St. George and the history of real events, but there's a story of a dragon slaying in this history, which now we feel was a giant crocodile that had somehow wandered so far afield that it started terrorizing the residents of the ancestral czech farmlands . . . .

Monday, January 30, 2012

Meth Bible Camp

I just think its funny . . .

Via Wonkette.com

 

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

old dogs learning new tricks . . .

Well, the other day, at the aromi restaurant, our favorite waitress disclosed in the process of describing the night’s specials, that provolone is smoked mozzarella . . . whoa! . . . wait a minute! . . . hold the phone! . . . provolone is smoked mozzarella .. . since 1972, when we first started getting hoagies at franks hoagie hut in Houston, we have loved provolone, but we never realized provolone was smoked mozzarella . . . dang . . . .

Now today, at lunch at Las Adelitas here in Prague, we asked the waiter if they had posole today (because we had been told before that they only had posole at lunch, not at dinner), and he said, “no, only on Thursday” then he went on to say they (Mexicans) called it Huevos Posole . . . wait a minute! . . . hold the phone! What has posole got to do with eggs? Oh- no – not huevos (and we don’t pronounce the H, he told me with kind condescension), huevas, Thursday. . .  What ? Thursday in Spanish is Huevas? How could we not know this? But then we couldn’t think of any other day names in Spanish . . . We could come up with Mardi Gras in French is Fat Tuesday, and that Spanish would be sort of close to French, prob’ly . . . but no others . .. so I looked it up, Monday thru Sunday en espanol:

Lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes, sábado, domingo

Lunes is obvious from Luna, Moonday,

Martes is close to Mardi, as we expected

Jueves is close enough to huevas for us,

Sabado is like soboto in Czech and sabata in Italian, Shabat (sabbath) in Hebrew . . .

But

Domingo, as in Santo Domingo?

Well that’s a puzzler . . . 8^D

 But we figger if we’re still learning we aint dead yet . . . .

 

 

Monday, January 9, 2012

Laughing Jesus

From Willie Mc's Yoga Studio, Kerrville TX

Laundry

I just think its funny.