tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87262015505483997182011-08-02T19:25:39.727-04:00Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-36667566845293207772009-08-29T15:54:00.024-04:002009-08-30T21:50:14.759-04:00

The history of mankind is littered with needless wars, sometimes over the most trivial of things. Alas, there is nothing I can do for the poor souls lost in these senseless battles, but I can do my part to keep this from ever happening again. In that spirit, I will now answer some of the puzzling questions that have plagued us from the beginning of time. Prepare to be amazed... amused? ...

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-29809003131141849832009-08-03T19:02:00.023-04:002009-08-03T22:07:50.066-04:00

So you don't get your hopes up, I'm not writing about the old radio/TV game show, even though watching people make fools of themselves and feel good about it would be a good subject. OTOH, with Jerry, Maury and about a thousand Judge Wapner wannabes out there it wouldn't be especially original...No, I'm writing about consequences (and that's the truth!). What I have to say is painfully obvious,

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-58882130840245171372009-02-19T10:23:00.003-05:002009-02-19T10:32:49.002-05:00

Since I haven't posted anything in a while, I figured I'd toss something out here to keep my blog company.  This is an article I wrote about power consumption in the office.  Nothing especially witty or charming about it (unlike my regular posts -- ha!), but at least it's something, and it might help you save the environment, or at least a few bucks...How green is green?  Saving money and the

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-34475548093959547822009-01-07T20:46:00.005-05:002009-01-07T21:45:15.773-05:00

No, I'm not going to write about some stupid duck, but I will write about a swan, or more correctly a Swann. Lynn Swann to be precise. Unless you're very young, mentally challenged, have lived under a rock for many years, or some combination of these, you know that he was a Hall of Fame wide receiver for my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.For a few years back in the late 70s and early 80s, I worked

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-6088248669516626532009-01-04T09:47:00.026-05:002009-01-05T19:53:32.300-05:00

As I mentioned several postings ago, I love Vinnie Pie. For the uninitiated, Vinnie Pie is pizza from Vincent's Pizza Park in Forest Hills, PA -- about 10 miles from downtown Pittsburgh. If you didn't know that it's the heart of the pizza universe, it's the kind of place you'd drive by and never think of stopping at.  (Actually it's the kind of place that you'd drive away from as quickly as

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-84526470155030575802008-12-30T20:45:00.010-05:002009-08-03T22:11:16.954-04:00

I learned recently that my nephew has a teacher who works as a coach for the Baltimore Ravens cheerleaders. And in case you didn't click the link (and if you have a Y chromosome you should) when I say "coach", I'm not talking about a pot-bellied person with a megaphone, I'm talking about "Miss January" in the Ravens Cheerleader Calendar. (Seriously!)(As an aside, I'd normally consider anyone

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-45707270976897617322008-12-22T18:51:00.010-05:002009-01-05T19:56:18.377-05:00

It takes a long trip in the Wayback machine (link for you youngsters) to get the source of this quote. It's somewhere between 2100 and 2400 years old, depending on which of the conflicting references you trust. (Either attributed to Xenocrates or Publilius Syrus.)A more entertaining version, "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt", is even harder

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-73628982107399638732008-12-21T18:24:00.017-05:002009-01-07T21:47:28.700-05:00

Though this could be true at almost any time of the year, it's especially true during the Christmas season. Everywhere you look there are cookies, cake, candy and other tasty things that start with 'C', and I feel it's my obligation to help protect people who are trying to lead healthy lives so I try to keep cookies out of their sight. I've found that the best place to hide them is inside me.(As

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-30772971581285391992008-12-20T18:43:00.011-05:002009-03-24T17:06:01.225-04:00

Sorry to disappoint anyone, but the subject of today's diatribe isn't amore, but pizza.  Writing this while I'm waiting for my pizza crust to rise may turn out to be a bad move, but since nobody ever reads this anyway, who gives a rodent's rear end...First off, while it's fresh in my mind, here's the recipe for my world famous pizza crust.  (I can call it "world famous" because I've made it for

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-57109162806578430102008-12-19T21:05:00.014-05:002009-01-05T20:20:12.068-05:00

I really wish I could take credit for this title, but that honor goes to Alfred Hitchcock who at his peak was at least a mite bit cleverer than I can claim to be.  On the other hand, I have a chance to rise on the cleverness scale while Alfred, lamentably, has been in a permanent plateau for nearly thirty years.  Some people would argue that even in his current state he's a mite bit cleverer than

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-90268782588589313192008-12-18T18:18:00.002-05:002009-01-05T20:17:31.266-05:00

That's a bit more pessimistic than I like to be, but sometimes a healthy dose of pessimism is just what you need to cheer yourself up.  The advantage of being down in the dumps is that you have nowhere to go but up (unless the dump caves in under you, that is).Pessimism can actually help you earn a living.  Schopenhauer became famous, in part, for being pessimistic and even writing about it.  His

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-40008709729338493402008-12-17T19:05:00.001-05:002009-01-05T20:16:20.136-05:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure (?) of watching the same guy slip on the ice twice (separated by about 5 minutes and a few tenths of a mile).  Actually I'm pretty sure he wasn't a spy, though he was wearing a trenchcoat, and he was going out into the cold, but if you're going to let little details like that get in the way, you might as well stop reading.Anywho... Yesterday, Oxford (OH) was at the

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-67107011886186956262008-12-16T18:58:00.001-05:002008-12-21T19:20:49.954-05:00

If your german isn't hitting on all cylinders, this quote from Albert Einstein is commonly translated as "The good Lord is subtle but He is not malicious."  Raffiniert can also be translated as "sophisticated" which is definitely not the word I'd use to describe one of my favorite meals, Beans and Barley.As an aside, I like to refer to this dish in broken Spanish as "Beaños con Cebada", or more

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-22272581272910098962008-12-15T20:10:00.000-05:002008-12-16T20:28:22.144-05:00

No, I'm not repeatedly pointing out that someone has stated the obvious, but rather trying (failing?) to cleverly introduce the subject of limericks, in particular dirty ones.  (Fear not -- this will be a PG post!)While some people are fond of sonnets and others go gaga for haiku, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for limericks.  They're long enough to be meaningful and short enough to stay

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-84873764271182108262008-12-14T19:57:00.001-05:002008-12-21T19:21:10.630-05:00

(I suppose François Villon has been dead long enough that he won't be spinning in his grave no matter how inappropriately I twist his words.  Of course, since France is a big producer of buckwheat, perhaps he grew up on them like I did and wouldn't even mind.)Eons ago, when dinosaurs roamed the world and I could still look down and see my toes, my grandma would make buckwheat pancakes a few times

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8726201550548399718.post-70844852284162741772008-12-14T09:34:00.001-05:002009-01-05T20:14:20.340-05:00

If you've ever had the pleasure of getting an e-mail from me you know that despite my generally good grammar, I'm an unabashed ellipsis abuser.  (Probably somewhere in the 200-300 milliCéline range depending on my mood -- sometimes even higher.)  I'm also overly fond of parentheses, dashes and colons...The grammar gods (one of my favorite being Grammar Girl) will tell you that ellipsis marks can

Awesome Alhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14797950881360325648noreply@blogger.com1