The Phantom City

In today’s chronicles of men who are far more manly than the rest of us could hope to be, we have Tom Boyle, who lifted the front end of a car off a pinned 18-year-old cyclist, rescuing him. Here’s one of the things Boyle had to say afterwards:

“That boy really impressed me with how composed he was. He was pouring blood everywhere, and he kept saying he didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. He even said thank you to me, and that blew my mind.”

Yep, he was praising the calmness of the victim.

Related: Never, ever mess with a Kenyan grandfather

Link courtesy of Boing Boing

Dr. Strange’s fighting technique appears to have been designed to cause serious self-inflicted wrist injury.

For anyone who’s wondering about the title, here’s a list of Dr. Strange’s sorcerous phrases. Personally, I think he was making a lot of them up.

“…and I’m going to name it Sheppard!”

Sorry, bad Stargate Atlantis joke.

Image courtesy of TV Squad

“Hello! I’m Eric Mills. You know, I’m not the most attractive man in the world, I’m not really much of a dresser, and, let’s be honest, I frankly don’t have a personality that makes up for either of those factors. And yet I get more action than Don Juan and Casanova put together. I bet you’re wondering how I do it! … Let’s say you’re at a party. What you do is, you find a halfway good-looking girl at the bar, and you check out how much she drinks. Does she drink a lot? Is she by herself? You’re in like flynn!” - The Comics Curmudgeon

Ally Babble…Enemy of Batman…Friend of All Mankind.

Even though I come away believing half the stuff is made up, Overheard in New York and Overheard in the Office are consistently entertaining. Recent entries:

Girl: Isn’t your dad Swiss?
Guy: No, he’s Swedish.
Girl: Oh, that’s right: people are Swedish, things are Swiss. Well, actually, they’re interchangeable.
- Overheard in New York

Engineer #1: What the hell were you thinking when you wrote this code?
Engineer #2: Boobs.
Engineer #1: Huh?!
Engineer #2: Truthfully, it’s likely I was thinking about boobs.
- Overheard in the Office

I get around 200 spam emails each day, most helpfully tagged as such by Yahoo and Gmail’s filters. What struck me today is just how mundane spam makes my life sound. Sample subject lines, with commentary:

This Samsung 42 inch HDTV is on us..

That does sound painful. And it’s a good reminder that in only two to three years HDTVs might be cheap enough I’d actually buy one.

Neod doctor!

Probably connected to the first one.

Direct Movies like Hitchcock: Save on PowerDirector Premium!

Yes, there was a time when I felt I would go on and do something creative for a career. Thanks, Spam, for reminding me. At least now I can direct movies like Hitchcock, rather than my current mission of slowly assuming his physical shape.

Webcam?? I just got on… where did u go?

I honestly can’t remember if I even know anyone with a webcam. Kind of creeps me out, actually.

rethought practical joke

Yes, I often do rethink my jokes. Usually they’re much better an hour after I already told them.

huge ax

I do nothing that would require an ax.

Cute sisters, shy and 19, see our pics

If they’re shy, I don’t really know what we’d talk about. (Also, why invite me to see their pics?)

adult video on demand. watch what you are into that day. no memberships

Most people just call that Internet Access.

Someone Wants To Date You

I’m married now, so I know someone wants to date me, but honestly that wasn’t usually the case before I got married.

Single Christians in Your Area Are Looking For You

That might explain why they come through my neighborhood knocking on all the doors.

You have feelings of guilt and embarrassment…

Spam, how do you know me so well?!?

Your health, milori blue

Yes, that would be a really cool name. “To your health , Milori Blue!”

And yes, taking advantage of spam subject lines for a post does qualify this as “shooting fish in a barrel.” At least, if shooting fish in a barrel is a real metaphor, and not just something that popped into my head.

“There are people in this world who don’t like Astro City. Those people we call Communists.” - Comics Should Be Good

I don’t know about Communists, but Kurt Busiek is one of my top three in terms of comics writers. He could write the phone book and still make the setting and characters interesting. My best Ebay find, other than the first issue of Lobo, was a full run of Astro City (so far). I purchased the collected Astro City: The Tarnished Angel first, and was hooked on the atmosphere created in Busiek’s tale of a down-at-the-heels villain who investigates a string of killings. Of course, it helps that the character is based on Robert Mitchum. It’s just as hard not to watch Mitchum on the printed page as it is during a movie.

Forbes Magazine did the list, which should really tell you something right there. They listed Raleigh at #6?!?

I don’t know, Greensboro’s okay, but not as good a place to meet a woman as grad school in Blacksburg, VA.

Ain’t that right, sweetheart?

Link courtesy of Automatic Writing, which also brings up the subject of the parties I didn’t go to while I was still in Greensboro.

Famous logos, if they were created for Web 2.0 sites.

Link courtesy of Good Morning Silicon Valley