LOST on Flash Forward

LOST makes an appearance on the pilot of the new pre-apocalyptic show Flash Forward. Anyone see the reference?

H/T the illustrious Tom Peeling.

100 Confessions: Birthday

(76) Like Smeagol, I take advantage of my birthday.

Four days before my birthday:
Wife: What do you want to make for dinner?
Greg: Let's go out! It is my birthday next week.

Two days before my birthday:
Wife: Wow, it's cold in here. (Signal that I should turn up the A/C)
Greg: Yes, it really is. Can you turn up the air. It is my birthday in two days.

This week I started four days out and found success. Next week, I'm going to try a whole week in advance and see if I can stretch the birthday privileges....

StormTroopers and 9-11: Too Soon?

Oooh. Kinda funny but...too soon?

100 Confessions: Foucault

(75) My first semester in grad school, I literally read Foucault in every class. Don't know who he is? If you pursue a graduate degree, you will. Promise.

The guy is everywhere. He's brilliant yes.

Does anyone really know what he's saying?

Kinda.

100 Confessions: American Catholic

(74) My oddest Church experience:

I was in Washington, D.C. for a semester internship. One Sunday, my roommate and I decided to adventure out and try some random church. I didn't have my glasses on and from a distance I saw a sign for an "American Catholic" Church. What is that? Sounded good though. So I walked up the church, met the priest. The priest was dressed in all red and had torso-length dreadlocks.

After I took a seat it struck me that this wasn't a very diverse congregation. The priest came up to talk with us.

Me: "How is American Catholic different from Roman Catholic?"
Priest: "Actually, it's African-American Catholic. You all sit tight and enjoy the service!"

It did seem odd to us when a girl came out and did a sort belly dance on the altar. The priest got in there and did some dancing too. As it turns out, the priest was a defrocked Roman Catholic priest who started his own church after allegedly molesting a young girl. He argues that it's all a lie and the Roman Catholic church is racist.

Wild experience.

GopherLink! Calvary Nudist Baptist Church of Tyler, TX. Only in Texas. Is this real? Should I be able to ask that question? Website (clean) here. H/T Rod Dreher

100 Confessions: Copy Editing

(73) I did a brief stint in copy editing at my first newspaper job. It didn't last because I would get crazy stories. Really crazy stories. One reporter would commonly turn in 6000-word stories. The news hole was 600 words. And my job was to make it fit.

I would basically end up rewriting the story. One time the reporter in question covered a local council meeting that was completely a transcription, no journalistic structure in the midst of it. In the middle of the story, I finally found a quotation. There was no attribution and to this day, I have no idea was it's about. But I ended up nearly on the floor.

"She likes to do it. She's so good. I really like the way she does it for me. Let's keep having her do it."

There may have been some reference to lawn-mowing about 1000 words higher. But I had to bring the quote to my editor and say "Look, I know you want a quote for this piece, but what the heck do I do with this?"

100 Confessions: Headlines

(72) I'm a sucker for hilarious headlines screw-ups.

My favorite of all time comes from my editor at my first newspaper, the Town-Crier. He was working in New Jersey. The two best football teams were Catholic schools: Pope John Paul II High School and Christ Our Savior High School. So, of course, one sports headline ended up as:

"Pope John Paul Slaughters Christ Our Savior"

100 Confessions: Trailer Park

(71) In college, I was too cheap to live in the dorm so I lived in a trailer park off-campus. Granted, I lived in my parents RV (which was the luxury sedan of the trailer park). But I still consider it a cross-cultural experience. I may have been the only person there who had a job and the only person who didn't have a tattoo.

I'll never forget one day I was grilling some burgers outside in the middle of the day (no class, no work), and I saw a enormously overweight man breaking up a fight between two enormously overweight women. The guy, who was shirtless by the way, was apparently married to one of the women but was caught in bed with the other. It was the oddest experience. I remember thinking "how in the world did this guy get one girl, let alone two?"

It was a great place though. When my wife and I started dating we planted a garden in the front yard. But when Hurricane Frances came through, the rain just absolutely flooded thing. I had black mold and it was totaled by the insurance company. Before I left I went to dig up the garden I'd planted. It had survived the hurricane, but while I was gone someone had stolen my hibiscus. Yes, a hibiscus. Five dollars at Wal-Mart. Who steals a hibiscus?

100 Confessions: Hogwarts

(70) Given the opportunity, I would totally go to Hogwarts. Enough of this Georgetown crap, I'll learn how to "Septum Sempra" and "Expeliomous." Why spend time learning about the methods of media coverage in American civic life when I could learn how to summon a unicorn to scare away guys in black cloaks? Way more useful. I'd use it every weekend when the goths invade Chinatown to have frozen yogurt.

Oh and only posers would actually eat those "Every Flavor Beans." Its inevitable. At some point they'd end up eating "Toenail," "Crap" or "Raw Toe."

100 Confessions: Batman

(69) Batman is freckin' awesome. I did go through a Superman phase as a kid, but when the Tim Burton "Batman" came out, I converted. The thing of it is, Batman doesn't have superpowers to rely on, but he still kicks butt. He also has a dark-and-twisted past. He becomes the Hemingway Anti-Hero Hero.

100 Confessions: Toys and Stuffed Animals

(68) As a kid, I was sure that my toys and stuffed animals had feelings. This contributed to a very messy room because I didn't want any of them to feel left out if they needed to go in the storage box. It also brought about pangs of guilt if I hadn't played with some of them in a while. (I partially attribute this to a Christmas movie about toys that come to life when their owner is gone. If the owner forgets about them, they die.) The one time I did finally say "Enough, time to get rid of some of this stuff" I think I almost cried when the stuff was gone from my room.

Note to self: tell future children that inanimate objects DO NOT have feelings. It will save heartache.

Tales from DC: Quotable Boss

Heard in the classroom last week:

Boss: "Lutheranism had a hold on Germany for centuries. It really was the quinessential German religion until Hitler came around."
Greg: "Man, Hitler just ruins everything."

Another one:

Boss: "Washington, D.C. is made up something I call the Iron Triangle. The Iron Triangle is the world of journalism in one corner, the world of politics in another, and the world of causes, academia, think tanks in another. The Iron Triangle--"
Greg: "Would be an awesome sporting event name. Can you imagine? 'Welcome to the Iron Triangle!'"

Believe it or not, I'm pretty sure my job isn't interrupting class with random asides.

GopherLink! Harry Potter and the Douche bag Magicians! Watch it here.