Vintage plaster fish, from Bowling Trophy

These are just some of the lovely vintage plaster wall fish that have been posted on the new blog, Bowling Trophy. There’s no name attached to the blog, but if it is who I think it is, then his one-two punch of excellent photography skills matched with uncanny thrifting ability should combine into a really swell blog.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

I think these fish are great; they often have really great shaded paint jobs that make them look almost like sugar candy or marzipan. Their happy and alluring demeanor always reminds me of the underwater sequence in Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Fishing for a Compliment, by Dale Sizer

My friend Dale Sizer did this cool painting of plaster wall fish on a slice of a log a few years ago.

QUOVADX? Really? Was VZOXYDM taken?

And you thought the aracuan was a nutty bird:

We saw this freaky little bird shake his groove thing this past Sunday, while we were watching the start of Discovery’s new series, Planet Earth. The 11-part series is pretty much a commercial for their Discovery HD channel, but dang if it isn’t effective — about halfway through, we were almost ready to succumb to their siren song. Almost. Thanks largely to Hanford’s line of work, we’re knee-deep in various electronic equipment as it is; we’re a little loath to add one more box to the pile.

However, the series has some truly stunning footage, both in terms of beauty and in uniqueness, and it felt like a disservice to not be watching it in HD. I wouldn’t have guessed that there was so much room for improvement in the old nature television game, but this new series is truly breathtaking — it’s a world away from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Hell, it’s a world away from Shark Week. It was like a really good IMAX film in our living room.

There’s more at the Planet Earth website (you’ll have to enable pop-ups, I’m afraid). The first three parts aired this past Sunday, and the remaining parts will be aired over the next few Sundays.

When I was very, very young (but I can’t remember how young) … I had some vague memories of the Banana Splits that were not quite right. All my Banana Splits memories were from when I was pretty young, but I seemed to have memories of the Splits looking different than they normally do. All this time I had chocked it up to fuzzy, incorrect memories due to my little kid brain. But just a few years ago I came across The Wombles on the Internet, and then it all made sense. I recognized the characters faces and the hats immediately. Those early memories weren’t of the Banana Splits, they were of the Wombles. Who knew the market for fuzzy characters in costumes singing Bubblegum was so big?

I have no idea how I saw it as a kid, since it seems like it was shown primarily across the pond. Does anyone out there remember seeing The Wombles?

It’s always a great feeling to put to rest fuzzy mysterious memories that have been lingering in my head for decades.

Brown Cow yogurt

For years, I scowled at the yogurt section of the grocery store… how could there be “low-fat” and “non-fat”, but no “all-the-yummy-fat” option?

Then I found Brown Cow. Brown Cow is the yum. They’ve got the typical, blah, low- and non-fat versions, but they’re smarter than the average cow: they also offer a full-on whole milk lineup, which have a thick layer of cream on the top. The chocolate, coffee and maple flavors are probably delicious, but I can’t bring myself to try them — if I wanted dessert, I’d be eating ice cream. I stick to the fruit flavors. It’s seriously delicious, I don’t even think about eating any of that silly low-fat nonsense anymore. They also manage to be organic & environmentally friendly without spelling yogurt with an h, which I appreciate.

The great Disney blog 2719 Hyperion has a wonderful post about one of my favorite overlooked Disney characters J. Audubon Woodlore, the park ranger. I fell in love with him as a kid when I saw the classic “In The Bag”, where he makes up a little song and dance to convince the bears to clean up the park. Apparently In The Bag was such a hit that it inspired a record called the “Humphrey Hop.”

The short is available on a Disney DVD called Disney Rarities. Check out 2719 Hyperion’s overview of this great oft-forgotten Disney character.
UPDATE: I need to remember to search Youtube before making any post. In The Bag is on Youtube right now. I’m not sure how long it will be on there, but for now, enjoy!

This is completely silly and gimmicky, and I totally want to do it.

Dinner in the Sky

Dinner in the Sky is an outift in Belgium that will strap you and 21 of your nearest & dearest into four-point restraint, revolving seats around a Benihana-ish dinner table, and use a crane to hoist you 150 feet up into the air to enjoy a meal. I’m not sure if they make you wear those dippy chef hats. And I’m also not sure what you’re supposed to do if you feel a need to visit the restroom mid-meal. An eight-hour rental will run you somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 euros. [via Cynical-C]

I’m bacon!

Last year for Halloween, I was bacon. If you’ve never been bacon before, I highly recommend it. Everybody, you see, loves bacon. It is, as my friend Monica says, the Candy of the Meats.

People do not want to be quiet about their love for bacon, they want to declare it, often loudly. Even the most shy people at least muttered “bacon!” under their breath as they passed me. I have never been so popular, so adored (and strangely, so hit-on) in my life.

I won the costume contest, which was novel for me — I’ve never had a costume that would have even been considered a contender before. It might have been influenced by my handing out bacon to everyone at the party. But I couldn’t be the very embodiment of temptation that is bacon without following through with some actual meaty goodness — as it was, I had more than a few people trying to bite me.

It was a beautiful experience, and one that everyone should be able to join in, so here are the instructions on how you, too, can be bacon for a day:

Read the rest of this entry »

I have a secret love for lolcats, even though I never use them myself. I Can Has Cheezburger has a ton of them “tagged for your convenience”. This Legend of Zelda kittah is so cute it makes me want to poke my eyes out. [via Kotaku]

Here’s another one, because I am weak and cannot resist.

The Island of Misfit Toys has nothing on these things.

[via cribcandy]