tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51021752024-11-01T06:38:10.640-04:00Bob Rhubart: Humor. Opinion. Comment. Rants. Neurosis. Sometimes all at once.Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.comBlogger161125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-73288905013238119892020-12-13T11:54:00.002-05:002020-12-13T11:54:33.871-05:00

Holiday cheer is in short supply in 2020. Under the weight of rampant news  the Coronavirus, political turmoil, and economic uncertainty, I find myself desperately grasping at any yuletide diversion.  If you are similarly in need of such a diversion, you’ve come to the right place. This episode is based on an essay I wrote in 1995. It was originally published in several regional print

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-38554900539860147622020-11-07T13:59:00.008-05:002020-11-07T14:25:09.790-05:00

The previous episode of this podcast focused on aliens who have traveled through outer space to visit the Earth. This episode flips things around a bit to focus on a member of a very exclusive group of Earthlings who have set foot on solid ground that is not earth. On November 14, 1969 a Saturn V rocket -- more than 360 feet long and weighing over 6 and a half million pounds, lifted off from

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0Bay Village, OH 44140, USA41.4883493 -81.942570113.178115463821158 -117.0988201 69.798583136178848 -46.7863201tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-84370954378619843252020-10-03T15:10:00.004-04:002020-10-08T11:22:20.335-04:00

We’ve been conditioned by books, movies, and television to have certain expectations regarding extraterrestrial visitors. Whether they’re cute and cuddly, like ET, or hideous and rude, like the critters from the Alien and Predator films, we have it in our heads that visitors from beyond Earth will be, if nothing else, interesting. But there is another possibility...

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-16354995684266782512014-03-23T20:50:00.006-04:002014-03-23T20:57:10.130-04:00

What do you really know about the entertainment industry? My friend Miki Yamashita, an actor and writer living in Los Angeles, knows it from the ground up. While Miki may not have achieved the kind of showbiz status that would make her a TMZ target -- not yet, anyway --  her tireless efforts at building her career as an actor resulted in roles in  Law and Order, One Life to Live, As the

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0Bay Village, OH 44140, USA41.4883493 -81.94257010000001241.440775300000006 -82.02325110000001 41.5359233 -81.861889100000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-27640839720767982792014-02-04T10:50:00.000-05:002014-02-04T10:50:04.765-05:00

The bit below is another from my archives. Originally published during the Christmas season sometime in the late 90s, I've hastily dusted it off and updated it to coincide with the 55th anniversary of Barbie's introduction. For fifty-five years little girls (and little boys with open-minded parents) have elbowed their way to the foot of the family Christmas tree to frantically claw at gaily

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-70833989445749447432012-08-29T17:07:00.001-04:002012-08-29T17:07:18.770-04:00

  By Bob Rhubart The human race owes exactly half the credit for its continued existence to husbands. Without husbands the race would have long ago died out, or possibly just evolved, somehow, into a female-only civilization with one of the Gabor sisters as the queen. The important point here is that the human race, along with all other living things, relies on the natural

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-70478118486240322912012-04-18T10:36:00.001-04:002012-04-18T10:44:46.833-04:00

“According to the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) April Transit Savings Report, individuals who ride public transportation instead of driving can save, on average, $844 this month, and $10,126 annually.” - From a press release from the American Public Transportation Association. With gas prices on the rise yet again, commuters  who in the past have avoided public

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-3004049542112603322012-03-15T10:00:00.000-04:002012-03-15T10:00:03.992-04:00

There are many ways for a guy to affirm his masculinity. Some  -- mixed martial arts cage fighting, for instance, or bungie jumping into a mountain chasm -- carry for the regular guy a significant risk of the humiliation that comes with whimpering and wetting your pants in public.  But for most guys, guys like me who aren’t ultra-violent ‘roid freaks or suicidal Jackass wannabees, power

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-12441923434564587902012-03-05T18:57:00.002-05:002012-05-07T11:16:07.913-04:00

When you see the phrase "electric vehicle," what's the first thing that comes to mind?  Is it "environmental responsibility?" "Small carbon footprint?" "Ed Begley Jr.?" My guess is that whatever thoughts or images the phrase "electric vehicle" conjured up for you, they had little to do with the sort of essential mating ritual-related stuff that has made the automobile such an 

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-88131166638652703902012-03-04T15:10:00.001-05:002012-03-13T07:45:58.570-04:00

An open letter from a Baby Boomer to Generations X, Y, and Whatever… It's a fact: the human body will ultimately, inevitably fail. Today you may be absolutely dripping with youthful health and boundless vigor. With reasonable maintenance you may live to a "ripe old age." But the key word in that crusty idiom is "ripe." As is the case with a piece of fruit, the human body reaches it's peak

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-77993996129134882642011-12-31T10:57:00.001-05:002011-12-31T10:57:28.453-05:00

North Coast Greyhound Adoption & Connection of Ohio (NCGC) has several recently rescued dogs that need temporary foster homes. If you've been thinking about adopting a rescued dog, please consider opening your home on a temporary basis to one of these fantastic animas.For more information on fostering please visit North Coast Greyhound Adoption & Connection of Ohio.

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-59505391766047507512011-10-28T15:23:00.001-04:002011-10-28T15:23:47.675-04:00

Vermillion, Ohio - November 1, 2011 — Celebrate the holiday season and help support greyhound rescue at the free North Coast Greyhound Rescue Holiday Open House, December 4, 2011, 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm,  at Canine Sports LLC, 1607 State Route 60. Bldg C, Vermillion, Ohio. The free North Coast Greyhound Connection Holiday Open House is the perfect opportunity to learn more about retired

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-11259307051298403722011-03-30T16:45:00.001-04:002012-03-13T07:47:44.836-04:00

Spotted this item from NPR: So You Think You're A Superfan? : The Picture Show : NPR Last month, we asked you to send us photos of yourself with your favorite musician, and to tell us about the time you waited outside the club in the freezing rain for hours and finally got to — gasp — MEET THE BAND! It brought to mind a funny story... A couple of years ago my buddy George and I saw Robbie

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-57126512989325350742011-03-30T15:44:00.002-04:002013-02-21T07:20:11.100-05:00

Amazon Cloud Player? No thanks. So Amazon is getting a lot of attention with the introduction of its new cloud-based music service. Yawn… I don’t see that it stacks up at all against Rhapsody, a truly cloud-based music service. About two years ago I was at QCon San Francisco and had a great, wide ranging conversation with a software engineer from Rhapsody.  About a year later, while

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-48007555118298578422010-12-25T21:18:00.001-05:002010-12-25T21:18:35.916-05:00

One of a series of game review videos I did that appeared in two different publications: TapTilt, an experimental magazine for the iPhone, and Sideways, an equally experimental magazine for the iPad. Both were produced by SIdeways LLC, which is doing still doing innovative stuff in e-publishing.  del.icio.us Tags: iphone,adult swim,ipad,game review Technorati Tags: iphone,adult swim,

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-51404694938260952322010-12-25T20:47:00.001-05:002010-12-25T20:47:18.532-05:00

This is the last of a series of game review videos I did for Sideways, an experimental magazine published exclusively on the iPad. While the magazine only put out three issues, the company behind the magazine, Sideways LLC, is still very much alive, and doing some truly amazing stuff in the e-publishing realm. Technorati Tags: ipad,predators,chillingo,fox digital entertainment,sideways.

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-9673764314801118582010-10-06T19:23:00.001-04:002010-10-06T19:23:58.954-04:00

Among my friends hot peppers are not so much a culinary matter as they are a gauge of manhood. While some guys go in for bungie jumping or skating down the sides of tall buildings, my buddies test their testosterone by eating things that other people use to repel muggers. Let’s face it, hot peppers as a flavor enhancer are fine. But at the point where the cook is using life-threatening peppers,

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-20305304127465983222010-05-21T12:35:00.001-04:002010-05-21T12:35:19.621-04:00

Reading E-Books Rewrite Bookselling in today’s Wall Street Journal got me thinking about how much the manner in which I consume media has changed of late. Several months ago I cancelled all of my cable movie channels and re-activated my NetFlix account; I stream the movies more often watching via DVD.  Similarly, I also recently started using Rhapsody (love it!), a fantastic alternative to

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-45735269651293123622010-04-21T21:34:00.001-04:002010-04-21T21:36:29.465-04:00

As iPhone music apps go, Top 100s by Year by Bing is pretty damn cool, especially if you’re a pop music fan of certain age. But after combing through some of the year-by-year lists, I have questions about the source of the data. For the year 1962,  the BillBoard Top 100 list has many songs in common with the Bing list. But focusing on the top ten, there are significant differences…

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-5788761363948856912009-12-21T14:11:00.001-05:002009-12-21T14:11:55.350-05:00

The Rise Of Republican Nihilism | The New RepublicThis fascinating article by Jonathan Chait includes lovely bit: "In the right-wing mind, the world we live in at any given moment can be described as the free market, the American way of life, perhaps not a perfect world but a cherished and fundamentally free one. The next advance of liberalism will always bring socialism, tyranny, a crushing

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-51338447801068236922009-12-21T11:47:00.003-05:002009-12-21T12:06:52.595-05:00

How good is Avatar? So good that I managed to sit through the entire experience (three hours, factoring in the previews of coming attractions)  without visiting the men's room.  For a man of a certain age, that's really something.  I can't think of a movie I've seen since passing the half-century mark nearly six years ago that wasn't interrupted by at least one hurried trip to the john.  The hype

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-45243962306829479542009-05-28T09:51:00.003-04:002011-04-27T11:39:50.847-04:00

In his Wonderland column in today's Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger accuses the Obama administration's efforts to increase automobile fuel economy standards and drive the transition to alternative energy sources of killing an important element of American culture: When Barack Obama announced that the government will use its fist to wave onto the highways of America cars that get 39 miles to

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-70776018267149677012009-03-02T11:57:00.002-05:002009-03-02T12:02:55.325-05:00

For five decades little girls (and little boys with remarkably open-minded parents) have elbowed their way to the foot of the family Christmas tree to frantically claw at gaily wrapped presents in anticipation of finding Barbie. Today many of Barbie's fans are adults who continue to collect Barbie stuff. But you have to wonder if some of these mature fans aren't thinking that it's about time for

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-68920322891755534392008-11-12T08:31:00.001-05:002008-11-12T08:31:38.511-05:00

Being a fan of CBS's Big Bang Theory, I wasn't exactly surprised that this week's episode opened with the characters speaking Klingon.  But I laughed anyway.  The fact that a fictional language -- or maybe it's a real language created to flesh out fictional characters -- remains such a fixture of popular culture is funny in itself. And that was the inspiration for a column I wrote about

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5102175.post-43018159644927556532008-11-05T18:13:00.001-05:002008-11-05T18:13:23.980-05:00

I voted by absentee ballot a couple of weeks ago because I had to be in Denver for a technology conference on election day.  Given the reported voter registration issues -- real and contrived -- and the way things played out for the last couple of presidential elections, I assumed it would take several days before we'd know the real winner. So I was completely surprised when I returned

Bob Rhubarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04512499189299732353noreply@blogger.com0