Beam Him Up, Beam Him Back, (Scottie, that is).

You have probably heard by now that the guy who played Scottie on Star Trek died. After all, it happened two years ago. What we find out now, is that it has taken this long to schedule a flight to blast his remains into outer space.


So what happened?


According to Reuters:

The company had originally planned to blast Doohan's remains into space two years ago. But the flight was delayed by tests, then by a misfire during a practice launch last year.

After a short flight the rocket will return to Earth with the capsules holding the remains. Space Services is a commercial venture that charges $495 to send a sample of a person's ashes into suborbital space...

What's this? Blasting him into space, then BRINGING HIM BACK HOME?



I don't get it. I suppose it is the Science Fiction buff in me. My imagination dreams up great
adventures for people whose remains are shot into space. I know if my remains were launched into infinity instead of just planted in the ground, I wouldn't want to come back...


I'd have a slim hope of maybe... just maybe some space alien would find me someday.... (perhaps my capsule full of dust would take out a window on the pie plate space module he is piloting) and this alien being would, in his own language of course, think... Wow look at this.... let me add some water and some hydronium-phosphate miracle powder, point this Illudium PU-36 space modulator at it, then press reverse, of course ....

and POOF!



I 'd be reborn.

I Wonder If He Got Down on One Knee

Remember the guy with the longest arms in the world who saved the lifes of two dolphins by pulling plastic out of their stomachs? Bao Xishun is back in the news! Bao, who is the world's tallest man at 7 feet 9 inches, got married this week, to his 5 foot 6 inch tall girlfriend. I have nothing by admiration for Bao after he did his part to save the dolphins. No doubt, his heart is big, too.












I got to wondering how tall the tallest WOMAN is on the planet... and got an answer .... 7 feet 8 and a half inches. Her name is De Fen Yao...and she is also from China.



Be that as it may, the tallest known living women website has a nice sample of suitors for old Bao, if things don't work out with his new wife.

And the Cannibal Dines Alone... Usually.

A study from some fine folks at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville finds that Cannibals tend to eat alone. And that is a Good Thing. For many reasons. Most of them germ related. Ugh. One obvious exception to this trend is Hannibal Lecter.... in a dinner scene from the movie Hannibal,( the sequel to Silence of the Lambs,) described below in Salon:

By now, most pop culture fans have heard about the big dinner scene in Harris' new bestseller, a scene in which Dr. Hannibal Lecter introduces a novice cannibal to the delight of eating one's enemy's brain. Forget what Sicilians say about revenge being a dish best served cold; the brains in question are not only served hot, but the victim himself is fully conscious as his thoughts are literally dished out as an appetizer. Horrifying!

Pet Food Scare... What is Next?

I took back the remainder of the Special Kitty Beef and Gravy packets to Walmart last week. Now we find out that rat poison from China is the cause of the deaths of dozens of unfortunate pets. It was chilling to me to listen to the report that the "cuts and gravy" types of pet food are sold under almost a hundred different brand names... with one source of possibly contaminated Wheat Gluten, suspected as the culprit.

I think of all the time I spend staring at the back of cereal box, mindlessly reading the ingredients, not knowing where they came from or how they were processed. I'm sure you have read it time and time again yourself. How big of a leap is it to think that a nation of cereal eaters could be targets next?

I'm in a rather somber mood this morning as Sweetie Pea and I eat breakfast.

Rosabelle Believe!

When the news came out today that Houdini's family wants to exhume his body and do tests to see if he was poisoned, I was intriqued. There have been rumors for years that he was murdered, that it wasn't really the peritonitis that led to his death.

But what I always wondered about more than how he died, was whether he communicated to his wife from the dead. Most people know the story about the Houdini spirit message which centered around those two words-- ROSABELLE BELIEVE. It can be found here. In short, it was a code that only he and his wife, Bess, would know.... should he contact her from the afterlife.

She reportedly made this following statement to the Brooklyn Eagle, March 27, 1927.

"He was afraid that if he died before me, crooked mediums would come and take advantage of my grief, deceive me with their tricks and make me say things that would discredit Harry's work exposing fraud and superstition. So he made a plan that whoever died first would try to reach the other in a code, a system we both knew so well by heart that even death would not make us forget. The medium who brings ten words from Harry will win ten thousand dollars as reward."

I first heard of Houdini's pact with his wife through the enchanting Kate Bush Song, Houdini, on her album The Dreaming. Here are the lyrics , from LyricsFreak. It's such a romantic, enduring love-- kind -of -story.... not proven, of course. Also not proven is whether he got his "escape key"

passed to him through a kiss!

Seven Years to Digest Gum? C'mon. . .

I don't know how to break this to you, but your mother LIED. Seriously. If it really took years to digest gum, your intestines would be all stuck together and you would be long dead of gangrene or something by now.

The Flotsam and Jetsam of Spring Junk Day

It did not come early like the Groundhog predicted back in February, and the doom and gloom Severe Weather Storm Team TV people breathlessly say there will be more snow, but nevertheless, Spring is here!

Time to put away the sweaters, find the window screens, and participate in the ritual of Spring Cleaning. There used to be a Junk Day in my small town-- and it was one of the biggest events of the year. You could take literally EVERYTHING out to the curb for pickup. I spotted water heaters, mattresses, and quite literally the kitchen sink out there.

Then for WEEKS, scavengers in their beat up trucks would traverse the neighborhood late at night gathering what they could, like beachcomers carrying off flotsam and jetsam that washed up in the tide. Later on, city workers hoisted whatever remained into their trucks for removal to the landfill.

Junk Day is a thing of the past now. The city says it is too hard on the trucks, there is too much money spent for overtime, and too much potential for worker's comp claims caused by bad backs from lifting all that junk.

Oh well, there's always the summer yard sales to look forward to.

Who is this Man? Who makes his Clothes?

A regular follower of The Goosepath, for reasons I do not know, suggested I find a statue on the net to share with my readers. After giving it much thought, (at least a minute or so), I chose this man to the right, who no one will recognize--- yet, a great many of you have made insults to fat people in his name. It's a shame that this great philosopher, astronomer and mathetmatician is rarely associated with his true intellectual accomplishments. Do you know who he is?

Another interesting fact.... Vincent Price portrayed this man in the movie Son of Sinbad in the late 1950's.

The Goosepath Archive-- 1978

Ripped from today's headlines.... March 15, 2007----Binge Drinking and Drug Abuse a Problem on Campuses. It's about time the media caught on to this one.

The Pompatus of Love

Riding home today I heard this famous phrase in a song... oh you know what it is! And thought... what the heck does it mean? And why haven't I asked before now? Instead of pouring through Steve Miller Band web sites, I went to an authority.... THE STRAIGHT DOPE, and got my answer below:

From Rockin' Radio News:
Vernon Green, leader of the Medallions, died Dec. 24th [2000] in a hospital in Los Angeles. Best known for "The Letter" and "Buick 59," they were the first doo-wop group to record for Dootone Records. Their first release, "Buick 69," backed with a ballad called "The Letter," was a double-sided West Coast hit. Green's famous recitation on "The Letter" contained the nonsense lyric, "the pulpitudes of love," which was later picked up by Steve Miller as "the pompitudes of love"—which became the title of a 1990s film.

I also found this drawing from a site called Salticidae: Diagnostic Drawings Library. There is a credit to Jerzy Proszynski, 2004.






But I doubt Steve Miller knows anything about jumping spiders of the genus Phidippus Pompatus.

Cow Caper Debunked

Growing up in a rural area, I heard stories of "cow tipping," yet I never really knew for sure if this is all made up or if you could really tip over a cow when it was sleeping.

Live Science references a study--- yes, a bonified study on this, (cow-culus?) saying it would take at least two people to do it, but it is highly unlikely you could tip the cow over, even if you did manage to sneak up on the poor creature. They don't sleep standing up. They may snooze, but, and I don't know how they know this, the cow is aware of it's surroundings.

Old Krupnik

I hesistate to endorse anything, because I would hate to create a "run" on something that is hard
for me to get ahold of. Yet, it is too good not to tell the whole world about it. Plus it is cold and flu season. No better cure for the bug up your butt ...
or nose.




(If you are reading this from the monastery up in Newfie, this will warm your bejeebies on a cold winter's nite in some Earl Grey.)


You can also make it yourself:




Fire Vodka (Krupnik)


1-1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
8 sticks cinnamon
2 whole cloves
3 strips lemon peel
1 bottle vodka

Combine honey with the water, vanilla, spices and the lemon peel in a large saucepan. Bring this to a boil cover, and simmer for about 5 min. Add vodka, remove from the heat serve hot or cold.

New Format for Electric Bill

Have you LOOKED at your electric bill lately? I consulted Einstein's chalkboard to figure out mine.


( Energy cost = Actual usage times the speed of light Squared,

times whatever the heck they want to charge --because they CAN. )

Plan "C" for Curling in the 'Burg

Tonight's the night they talk the talk or walk the walk. The Pens could leave Pittsburgh... or soak the state for bajillions of dollars. I say GOOOOOO. I'm sure we'll find SOMETHING else to do.

We could use the Arena for a new Olympic-style Curling team.

Marvelous Night for a Moondance

The total lunar eclipse occurred this weekend.... wow.... more pictures

at this site. There are some really amazing pictures!

To Infinity and Beyond Global Warming

Did you read about the former Canadian defense minister (who himself saw a UFO in 2005) who is calling for all governments to disclose any alien technology from UFO crashes?

He thinks we should look to the technology in the quest to stave off global warming. Ok George Bush-- let's do it.... Open up Area 51 and let's see what is what.

Those tin plates must move through the universe pretty fast. It's a sure bet they didn't fill up at the Get Go Station. (An aside here... I love Get Go. Their breakfast sandwiches are pretty good. And where else can you buy gas, superglue, a bagel and a lottery ticket and be out in 5 minutes?)

The Lion and the Lamb

My fellow Van Morrison fans know the lyrics from Fire in the Belly... "gotta get through January.... gotta get through February..." well, here it is.... MARCH. Will it snow much longer?







According to an old proverb, March weather is.. in like a lion, out like a lamb. But how true is it? Have you ever paid attention? It was in the 40's today... nothing turbulent about the first day of the month yet here... other places have had tornadoes and such, but so far just more gray and blah, cloudy weather. Maybe we should give it a few days. "Kick in" the month-- see what the trend is going to be before we label it one way or another.

Another Snow Man's Fate

My friend has a rather different sense of humor. No word if that is real blood on there.