Heaneyland!

...A new what?

When I first glanced at this headline, I thought it was missing a word.

When the president does it, it isn't unconstitutional

Huh, George W. Bush apparently signed a bill that hadn't actually been passed by the House of Representatives. Well, who needs those pesky checks and balances anyway?

Baby, you can hear their car

Now that I've heard the single (downloadable -- legally! -- here) from the upcoming New Cars album, I have to say that bringing Todd Rundgren onboard was a fine, fine idea. (Although, seriously, who is responsible for the lyric "So put me in your Blackberry / And I'll take your e-mail"? Oog.)

The reason this reunion is brilliant is because it solves the problem that reuniting bands generally face: they have to write new songs, and if they were still writing songs as catchy as their old ones, maybe they wouldn't have fallen into obscurity. The solution? Get a new songwriter who is good at pastiche. Could we also get Todd Rundgren to join Duran Duran, maybe?

I may not be in "Wordplay"...

...but I am an uncredited nobody sitting next to Ellen in one of the publicity photos! (And a good photo of her, I thought.)

You can lead a fish to water...

...but you can't make it think. Or can you?

(Via Cute Overload.)

To prevent infestation, be sure not to leave any candy wrappers on the dashboard

While walking home from jogging in the park this morning, I passed a bus with a sign in the window: "This vehicle has been checked for sleeping children." At first I found that reassuring, but then I thought -- what about all the other cars on the street? Are they protected from the plague of sleeping children?

Mmmm, painty

One thing I enjoy about the Amazon Associates program (apart from periodically getting free stuff) is getting to see what my readers are shopping for. Sometimes it's something that looks interesting enough that I buy it myself. Sometimes not.

Nervous attention

Yesterday I recorded a short interview for Weekend America in which I play "Rock, Paper, Anything" against cohost Bill Radke. It may air this weekend, it may not, it may end up being rerecorded for another week -- not sure. In any case, I thought readers might enjoy seeing the sign that greeted me as I entered the building:

I love "As many as 28 or more". Maybe you've seen 28 cameras and you think you know where all our cameras are, well, you don't know nothin'. Really, this is a silly thing to say to a completist like me, because the first thing I thought was "How do I get myself taped by all of them?"

I also enjoyed "As you enter this building, you are warned...", which implies that this sign is not the warning, merely an advisory that as soon as you get through the door, there will be someone there to deliver the actual warning in person. Sadly, this was not the case.

It's always something

This week the thing delaying Six Things was taxes, which of course I started working on yesterday evening at around 7:00 (finishing at 1:30 in the morning). But in honor of the recent holiday -- for which Lorinne is currently at the frickin' White House performing a children's show at the Easter Egg Roll (or Hunt, or whatever it is they do with Easter eggs down there in D.C.), and hopefully thereby teaching government officials important lessons about sharing -- here is a hastily dashed-off single-panel cartoon.

Hey, I think I saw some atheists in the next car

Six things. (Thanks to Lorinne for thing #5.)

Searching for the source of the Amazon

So I was over at Amazon checking out the upcoming Elvis Costello/Allen Toussaint CD when I noticed something mysterious. Most CDs at Amazon sell significantly below list price. A few sell at list price. This one is the first I've seen that sells for more than list price; the cost includes a $1.00 "sourcing fee". Does anybody have any idea what the heck that extra charge is for, exactly?

Hat hat hat hat hat hot hot hot, it's hot in here

Someday, there will be an entire branch of sociology devoted to the study of temper flare-ups on e-mail lists.

(Thanks to Rose for the link.)

I had good intentions

...but still didn't get Six Things drawn. We'll see how tomorrow night goes, but perhaps I shouldn't make promises. To tide you over, here is a sign that amused me, from the trip to Boston:

SoaP opera

I spent this weekend in Boston, and so Six Things will appear on Tuesday. I suppose I could have drawn it after I got home last night, but I was pretty tired, and anyway I was still too distracted from the heady experience of having Snakes on a Sudoku mentioned in Entertainment Weekly (I am personally cited, under my pseudonym of "some guy"). I'll scan the article when I get home.

More Snakes on a Plane-based entertainment (via Jon).

Update: Snakes on a Sudoku was also mentioned in Newsday and the Boston Herald.

Another update: It's already been scanned. (I'm on page two, at the bottom of the left-hand column.)

Time marches inexorably onward, but at least there is cake

It was my birthday on Saturday (I turned 36, thank you for asking), and you may recall that last year's birthday party featured some impressive items, such as a cake decorated with a red panda, and a swing set made out of chocolate.

This year I did not get a room full of topless women (I had to visualize that myself), but I did get a robotic teddy bear keychain from Amber and Jeff, which is pretty close to a robotic red panda in terms of roboticness and cuteness.

I don't know for certain whether the robot teddy bear was Six Things-inspired, but this card from Cindy and Derek certainly was:

The most impressive item this year, though, was an umbrella made of balloons, personally twisted (and displayed below) by Lorinne.

Too cool. Anyway, after the distribution and devouring of some decadent chocolate layer cake baked by Rose, the last batch of revelers ended up playing a few rounds of Rock, Paper, Anything, a game which I always love to play, and not just because I helped make it up in the first place. (The rules, such as they are, are here, most of the way down the page.) It was late and I was tipsy, so I don't remember most of the combinations, but I do remember "paper" being thrown against "grenade"; paper might cover grenade, but not for long.

To sum up: a totally splendid party. Same time next year?

Hollywood wishes it could turn around a sequel this quickly

Each row, column, and deadly deadly snake in this sudoku puzzle contains the numbers from 1 through 9 exactly once. Click here for the answer to last week's Snakes on a Sudoku.

Many things

Six Things will return to its traditional cartoon format next week. Until then --

Slides from a caveman PowerPoint presentation about "fire".

Slide 1
Slide 2
Slide 3
Slide 4
Slide 5
Slide 6

To Orbox or to Orbox B

In a previous entry, I recommended Orbox for people who like puzzle games. Well, a few days ago, I discovered via Jay Is Games that a sequel has been released: Orbox B. It's a good deal harder than the first one, but very well done.

More entersnakement

Snakes on a Plane: The Role-Playing Game.