ripxoid

never had much use for a saxamaphone before; they pretty much annoy the crap outta me aside from the birds and the world quartets and such . . .

there was a mean-looking butch chick that played on state street in madison that was really awesome and avante garde but she scared me.

anyway, i hope the best for her, but for now this’ll do it for me saxamaphone-wise . . .

LOS ANGELES – Bettie Page, the 1950s secretary-turned-model whose controversial photographs in skimpy attire or none at all helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution, died Thursday. She was 85.

Uh-oh. Bill O’Reilly ain’t gonna be happy about this. That nutjob is already convinced that we “godless liberals” have declared an unholy war on the sacred holiday of Christmas. Now there’s evidence that he’s right — atheists are trying to steal the holiday from christians!

Worse yet, this new attack in the War on Christmas comes straight from America’s heartland. A greeting card company from Iowa City, Iowa, has now come out with a line of christmas cards for atheists. The company is called Order of St. Nick, and they have designed several cards to please the discriminating atheist. Even the well-known evolutionist P. Z. Myers has given the cards his “blessing.”

Order of St. Nick’s owner and creative director, Andrew Shaffer, puts it this way:

Christmas is a federal holiday in the United States. Every year it grows increasingly secularized, for better or for worse. Rather than feeling like outcasts around the holiday season, it’s clear that atheists are already joining in on the celebration. Why not openly embrace them in the spirit of the season?

Among the card designs are Charles Darwin dressed as Santa, and an evolutionary lineup going from the monkey to Santa Claus. Another card shows a reindeer with a red nose, which reads “The red nose isn’t weird… it’s an evolutionary advantage.” A fourth card shows a snowman and reads “The atheist snowman was a man of science and a firm believer in Darwin’s theory of evolution… until he met his creator.” There are eight card designs in all.

I’ve got to get me some of those cards!

Tommy inspired me to bring you this very merry Metal Moment. Brought to you by MANOWAR.

This is kind of in response to the earlier post about Sinterklaus~

Years ago while teaching kindergarten, I felt it important to present multi-cultural views to the children. So as the Holiday season came, We read books about Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the like. There was an older lady named Karol, who was a volunteer at the hospital and she would come and talk to the children with her THICK Austrian accent. So I invited her to come talk to my class about Christmas in Austria. She told me something about St. Nikolaus and Krumpas (one of St. Nikolaus’ helpers) and it sounded very sweet. DID I MENTION SHE HAD A VERY THICK AUSTRIAN ACCENT?

SO she comes to talk with the class about Christmas in Austria and starts telling the story about St. Nikolaus and about Krumpas (or Krampusse) and how he carries a switch to make sure the children are being good and respectful to their parents. She shows a few old Austrian postcards with pictures of Krampusse and the silence in the room was deafening. Basically he looks like the devil. She goes on to say that St. Nikolaus keeps him in chains to show that he is in control, but if the children are naughty they can be taken away in a sack. (Geeze I hope I am remembering the story correctly!) She then brings out these small twigs or switches with ribbons that had pieces of candy tied to the little branches of the switch. She had one for each child and told them it was a reminder to be good, and that good children were rewarded.

They have a parade that has all kinds of different versions of Krumpasse roaming the streets with switches and chains, then usually St. Nikolas follows them on a white horse to remind them he is there.

Lemme tell you, they were the best behaved children you have ever seen! The parents loved the history of it and only one parent was upset their child was scared that Krumpasse was going to take him away in a sack. But then they were thankful after his naughty behavior was totally curbed (and he was quite the naughty one to begin with).

Lesson learned, get a translator when a sweet little old Austrian lady wants to come “share” with your class.

Lesson NOT learned, I invited her back the following year! he he.

Enjoy the show kids~

*****disclaimer*****

I am not, nor will I claim to be an expert on Austrian cultural history. This is just a (somewhat hazy) recollection of time’s past. Which is another reason I will never be called as an eye-witness for anything!

If you don’t love heavy metal now, I’m at a loss . . .

Sedaris on Stinkerklaas – Funny video about the origins of Christmas and how they celebrate it in the Netherlands.

So here I was on my way into work this morning, driving in downtown St. Louis, when I see one of the City of St. Louis’ grungy orange garbage trucks making a left turn ahead of me, and on the rear bumper was a sticker that read “I (heart) TRASH”… “I’ve gotta get me one of those!” I said to myself. So, naturally, when I got into my office I went online and, thinking I’d find a store or two that sold them pretty easily, did a search for one and… WTF? Found nothing! I mean, the closest I could find was someone’s really crappy image on Flickr… and lots of pics of Oscar the Grouch, natch. So, doing what any enterprising, bored, trash-lovin’ middle-aged guy would do, I opened up Illustrator and made my own fucking sticker, god damn it. This one features a nice, warm, red heart and the great American Typewriter font in medium condensed version. So now all of you unashamed lovers of trash (as well as trashe) will be able to be just like that garbage truck. You can buy one of these in the Ripxoid Shop for $3.99 each.

You’re welcome.

I'll never know how this tasted.

I remember how much Terry Burford used to love Zima—which was kinda weird, because his other drink of choice was Scotch. According to Slate, Miller stopped making Terry’s favorite beer-like beverage in October. I kept thinking I would try that stuff one day . . . I guess I kept thinking that for 15 years or so.

What can I learn from the missed opportunity? Well, I gotta carpe diem every inkling. I gotta get one of those jimi wallets. I gotta watch the Princess Bride. I gotta put a bumper sticker on my car.

Or maybe I should just scour local liquor stores for some leftover Zima.

Key Molecule for Life Found in Habitable Region of the Galaxy

A sugar molecule linked to the origin of life was discovered in a potentially habitable region of our galaxy.

The molecule, called glycolaldehyde, was spotted in a large star-forming area of space around 26,000 light-years from Earth in the less-chaotic outer regions of the Milky Way. This suggests the sugar could be common across the universe, which is good news for extraterrestrial-life seekers.

“This is an important discovery as it is the first time glycolaldehyde, a basic sugar, has been detected towards a star-forming region where planets that could potentially harbor life may exist,” Serena Viti of University College London said in a press release.

Previously, glycolaldehyde had only been observed toward the center of the galaxy, where conditions are thought to be too extreme to host habitable planets.

Glycolaldehyde is a key ingredient for life. It helps to build Ribonucleic acid (RNA), which is thought to be the central molecule involved in the origin of life on Earth. Glycolaldehyde is a monosaccharide sugar, the basic unit of carbohydrates. It can react with the chemical propenal to form ribose, the building block of RNA.

“The discovery of an organic sugar molecule in a star forming region of space is very exciting and will provide incredibly useful information in our search for alien life,” said Keith Mason, chief executive of the England’s Science and Technology Facilities Council.

The finding, made with the IRAM radio telescope in France, was announced Tuesday and will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.