Today, I got a comment on a post from April 5, a post which contained only pictures of my neighbors’ house being torn apart by fire. The comment? Read on:

Hi there, I’ve just now found your site whilst I’m hunting on Google as I am seeking some info on electric cellos!. It’s an interesting website so I bookmarked you and I intend to come back another day to have a better browse when I’ll more free time.

— Roxie Fexler

Well of course! Why WOULDN’T you come to my website, and specifically a post about a burning building, to find more information on electric cellos?! But what’s weird is that Roxie seems to be an expert on electric cellos already, since when I clicked the link of her name, it took me here:

Did I click? Of course! From the site:

This is an ideal destination for Christian men and women to find friends, dates, and even soul mates, all within the faith. In just minutes, you can create a profile and be ready to mingle with other members in your area. Our vast membership base and user-friendly interface make ChristianMingle.com a source of Christian romance around the world.

Enjoy our chat rooms, instant messenger, message boards, Bible verse of the day, searchable Bible, and many other great features. Sign up today to start enjoying the Christian community at ChristianMingle.com.

And here’s a quote from a happy couple:

Jason and I were matched through CM … After a few weeks, we went on our first date and when we finished what we had planned, we decided to go to WalMart and walk around so we could talk longer. Before we knew it, 5 hours had passed. … It has been an incredible experience and we both feel that the other is the last person we are going to date (hint hint)!

Thanks ChristianMingle! Thanks WalMart!

Rome Kandi: Host with the most!

A smattering of weird things you should read/watch/think about:

1.) “I Survived a Japanese Game Show”: The first entry is the most recent: I just found it 5 minutes ago! Sure, it has a lot of stupid American “reality” junk on it, but in its defense it boasts a.) the host from “Unbeatable Banzuke,” b.) lots of hypercolor graphics and audience shouting; and c.) some pretty bizarre games. The one I just watched was called “Squishy Squid Face;” the one embedded below is an elegantly simple challenge called “Bonk.” (Rest of the best after the jump.)

2.) It may be healthy, but I’m not biting: Over at Time magazine, humorist Joel Stein has a great take on a practice I’d never heard of until today: Moms eating their new baby’s placenta?

There is so much you can’t know about your spouse when you get married, like that one day she will want to eat her placenta. … So when Cassandra told me that for $275, a woman would come to our house, cook Cassandra’s placenta, freeze-dry it and turn it into capsules to help ward off postpartum depression and increase milk supply, I said, “$275 is a bargain compared with the $20,000 I’ll have to spend to tear out our kitchen immediately afterward.”

Amazing! Fact: I found out hours after first reading this that a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) ate “stir-fried placenta” as a child growing up on a “hippy commune.” His words, not mine! Anyway, I think this would make a great challenge on “I Survived a Japanese Game Show.”

3.) To stick with the human body for the moment: John Schwenkler, a paleoconservative blogger whose thoughts are far more interesting than mine, spins off a topic brought up at The Atlantic (which is by far my favorite magazine): namely, the idea of kidney donors being paid for their, uh, donations. He thinks (and is probably right) that his view is in the minority:

[N]otwithstanding the obviously weird and potentially problematic aspects of open markets in human organs I can’t shake the conviction that carefully experimenting – at the state level, please – with the legalization of such markets and the establishment of other financial incentives to encourage organ donation is absolutely the right thing to do. …  I’m willing as ever to be reasoned with, so fire away.

Please, though, make your objections more forceful than “Allowing people to do X for money might lead people who need money to do X”.

If this type of thing interests you, make sure to read through the comments.

4.) And then there’s this:

Click it. It’s worth it.

]]> http://in3rds.com/blog/2009/07/out-of-the-blue-awards-weird-wednesday/feed/ 8 http://in3rds.com/blog/2009/03/bits-of-absurdity/ http://in3rds.com/blog/2009/03/bits-of-absurdity/#comments Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:18:49 +0000 R. Justin http://in3rds.com/?p=764

Leonid "Cosmos" Chernovetsky, mayor of Kiev, Ukraine, poses in front of journalists to demostrate his health. Meanwhile, at the White House, President Obama writes a note-to-self. (Photo via AP)

Meanwhile, back in the bluegrass state, another public figure makes an ass of himself. Run, Billy, run!

Over at Eunomia, an intriguing (and, I think, spot on) discussion about the “war” on drugs draws interesting reactions. Here, a commentor cries foul over a fellow commenter’s rusty street lingo:

rawshark, on March 27th, 2009 at 1:42 pm Said:
‘The feds aren’t interested in dime packs’
Dime packs? Where’d you learn that term, your bible group? It’s a dime bag and no one deals in them anymore because ten dollars worth of pot would fill a thimble. You’re too far out of touch to talk about this issue. … Most of the pot your kids are smoking is home grown from Kentucky [of course!] or California or it’s hydro weed which is also grown in country and is ten times more pwerful than the stuff you learned about watching Reefer Madness at your Pastor’s house. [bolds mine-R]

On the home front, my son Lewis knows his alphabet… he even puts it in order himself. (Too bad, at 2 years, 9 months, he can’t make most of their sounds.)

And lastly, my graphic designer pal Matt Wilson’s fabulous take on the anonymous Facebook picture:

]]> http://in3rds.com/blog/2009/03/bits-of-absurdity/feed/ 14 http://in3rds.com/blog/2009/03/fungus-among-us/ http://in3rds.com/blog/2009/03/fungus-among-us/#comments Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:02:54 +0000 R. Justin http://in3rds.com/?p=734 The ugliest ad on earth? Maybe not, but it’s certainly worth a look. (Click it, it’ll get bigger.)

I started counting the ridiculous aspects of this little ad, quickly ran out of fingers and had to desock.

1.) How, exactly, can the single word “UGLY” be trademarked? Or is it the combo of the word and the — ahem! — typography?

2.) The after picture: Cleaned up, or just a more powerful flash?

3.) A Google search for “plastigated reconstruction” (“used by NASA on space craft”) brings up one — as in UNO, SINGULAR, ONE — reference on the entire World Wide Web… and it’s to this guy’s ad!!!

And LIMITED EDITION 13 CD COLLECTION??? Does the extended warranty cover that, too? BTW, I know for a fact that Elvis and the guy who comes to clean your tub are one and the same. (Wonder if there’s a “Singin’ in the Shower” special?)

The name and contact info were deleted, by me, so you won’t prank call this poor guy all day and night (as I am already doing). And please refrain in any comments from typing the full name of his business, lest he find this on Google.

There’s actually a full-page version of this, if you can believe it.

What on earth is this? Well, it is an interview between Michael Steele and ABC Radio’s Curtis Sliwa, but beyond that I don’t know how else to describe it:

SLIWA: Now, using a little bit of that street terminology, are you giving him [Jindal] any Slum love, Michael?

STEELE: (laughter)

SLIWA: Because he is — when guys look at him and young women look at him — they say oh, that’s the slumdog millionaire, governor. So, give me some slum love.

STEELE: I love it. (inaudible) … some slum love out to my buddy. Gov. Bobby Jindal is doing a friggin’ awesome job in his state. He’s really turned around on some core principles — like hey, government ought not be corrupt. The good stuff … the easy stuff. [bold mine-R]

No explanation needed on why it’s funny, but I concur with Daniel — no idea what that is. Click the link above to read the whole thing.

As it stands, it’s not me — it’s Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber. I’d already heard he’d secured an agent in Nashville for a country music career; turns out, that’s not the half of it. Over at SecureOurDream.com, Joe’s not only blogging, but shilling a book that he won’t be writing a word of hasn’t written yet, AND a $14.95 subscription to the Joe the Plumber fan club.

The design is awful (though it’s noted that “SECUREOURDREAM.COM VERSION-2 [why the hyphen?] COMING SOON”), and the blog post too innocuous to really get rabid pro-plumber conservatives on their feet:

Congratulations to Barack Obama. The American electorate has decided that he will be our next president. As I have stated, I will honor and support my president, but there will be no free ride. When President-Elect Obama takes office in January, his term of service to the American people begins. We wish our new president blessings of wisdom and good judgment, and we pray he hearkens to our voice if ever we feel our American Dream is being threatened. It will be a loud voice, so good luck trying to ignore it.

None of the links go anywhere, really, except to “coming soon” or more ads for the book. My friend Adam notes that this is probably about a month too late… who really cares about Joe the Plumber at this point? I do think, however, that he might make a good sitcom star — the straight-laced, hard-luck husband whose wife is always getting into shenanigans and whose friends are always looking to him for advice. He’d definitely be as good as Jeff Foxworthy, right?

Click here to read all about it.