Saturday, July 12, 2008 - 5:03 PM EDT

Hey, Anne, it's me again!  I neglected to stress that, when mentioning our big Independence Day celebration recently, although our beer was cheeap and American, our fireworks were all made in China.  Nevertheless, the Festo children had a great time and they still have all of their fingers, so I suppose all is well.  

 Thanks for stopping by our little corner of the world; and you're right, it's not that bad.  People like pictures.  I know I do!  And hey, we feature innocuous things like Pokémon and pictures of carnival prizes.  Nothing wrong with that.  It's just that scantily clad women and the occasional off-color remark aren't everyone's cup of tea.  And I wouldn't want anyone to be offended, at least not anyone I actually like!  Recently, a picture of Sara Underwood (she was a Playmate) I posted has become increasingly popular on Google images, it comes up in the first page.  She is posing with the Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big) Ibanez guitar, so perhaps that explains the wide appeal.  There's nothing like that to account for the "Sam Fox phenomenon," as it's come to be known.  Suddenly hundreds of hits (including some countries like Iran and Saudia Arabia, amusingly enough), and then, just as suddenly, nothing.  Odd, like much of the internet, I suppose.

Great pick with Moxy, by the way.  I have that first Moxy record on CD.  Sail On, Sail Away is what is known as a K-SHE classic here in Super Happy Fun Town.  In the 60's and 70's K-SHE 95 FM was a free form "progressive" rock radio station.  It's still a rock station, but now it's owned by Emmis Communications.  Listeners can still get a glimpse of K-SHE's halcyon past on Sunday mornings from 8-12 am (US central) with the so-called "Classics Show."  I believe you can listen online, if you are inclined to do so, at www.kshe95.com.

A K-SHE classic by any other name is still a K-SHE classic.

—Ruth Hutchinson (The supposedly "world's oldest DJ" on K-SHE years ago.  She was in her 60's or 70's when she was on the air.)

Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 1:40 AM EDT

Just dropped by your blog, Manny. I hadn't been around yet to see the Rush stuff you mentioned, so I took a visit. You had a couple of Rush entries, Snakes and Arrows covers. I dug the turtles...all eight of 'em.  Much more so than Vanessa Hudgins' (?) relationship advice. She sounds a bit like a Stepford Wife.

I think I'm a little zoned out today because I watched that 15 inning All-Star game last night right to the end. It took a Canadian to finally step on home plate and finish the thing . There wasn't much Blue Jays representation, so I cheered for Morneau (there were two other Canadians in the game, but they were both NLers, and I always cheer for the American League), who ended up winning the Home Run Derby (although you'd never know it), and scoring the winning run in the game. I think the game took 4 hours 50 minutes, something like that.

Yeah, you know it's interesting the way there seems to be a strong pocket of popularity for Moxy the further south you go in the US. They seemed to have a lot of popularity in Texas, too. Not that you're the South, more officially the "gateway to the west", right? But "Super Happy Fun Town" is catchy, too.

I took a visit to the K-SHE website. I'll probably give it a listen one of these days. I like checking out other radio stations. It's pretty cool with the Internet that you can listen to stations from literally everywhere. A couple of years back there was a station (can't remember the name) out of Chicago that I listened to on the computer. They did a pretty good overnight show of classic rock called "Sanctuary". A woman in her 60's or 70's hired to be an on-air personality for a rock radio station? Wow, good for her!

You mentioned that all your fireworks were made in China. I've been out shopping the past couple of days, and I'm starting to become convinced that everything is made in China now!