“Parasite,” by Kiss will surely make the list and Judas Priest will be represented, probably either by “Electric Eye” or “Hell Bent for Leather.” Have you ever awoke to the lovely strains of Testament’s “Trial by Fire?” It’s almost romantic.
Your thoughts?

Normally wine is the stuff that, to uncivilized Philistines like myself, means we’re out of everything else. But lately I’ve actually been looking forward to a touch of the grape with dinner. Or before dinner. Or after dinner.
That’s kind of a joke - in case you’re someone who’s considering suing me.
But it’s appeared to me - with apologies to our in-house wine maven Jessica Yadegaren - that wine’s main function is to give certain people a reason to enjoy alcohol while saying they’re above the alcohol-related shenanigans that often accompany other forms of alcohol. That’s California for you. We like to say we believe in social equality while looking down on as many people as possible for any good reason we can think of. If someone spread the word that the social hierarchy was based on green beans, we’d have expensive green bean tasting rooms sprouting up wherever some could build an expensive bed-and-breakfast next to the suddenly “tranquil, lovely and inviting” green bean fields.
But there is something to the notion that not all forms of alcohol are created equal. I’ve been to a vodka bar in Las Vegas where SERIOUS discussions take place on the various qualities of hundreds of vodkas from around the world. And I can understand that (I learned that while many Swedish and Russian vodkas have a powerful, yet-smooth taste, anything made in California - from my experience - generally tastes like you’re licking an interstate highway). The same, no doubt, holds true for wine (that there’s big differences in quality, not that California wine tastes like pavement). I just HATE the idea of going wine tasting, because it seems like such obvious bullpucky. Ninety-nine percent of the people know nothing about what they’re tasting, and are trying to impress someone with whom they’re on a second or third date.
So, baby steps. I’ll try to get over my bias against wine simply because most of the people who take wine SERIOUSLY live in an unrealistic world of misplaced priorities and cars that are so clean that the air isn’t fit for humans. Maybe I’ll even go wine tasting. But it needs to be with someone who’s doesn’t mind having a beer afterward. A good beer.

I have zombies coming out of the ground, gravestones, pirate skeletons hanging from the porch and other associated bloody things lying about. I also have my favorite bug-eyed dwarf skeleton “Eddie” hanging from a tall branch over the lawn. One of the best moments in my life came Halloween night, when I caught an adult in my front yard, taking pictures.
It’s been a busy week, but I’m really procrastinating on this, and it might not be my typical, world-famous laziness. I actually like the stuff. A lot. We have a big, black skeleton head that lights up inside that my wife wants to make permanent decor. I love the idea, though I admit it would probably be a bit much for parents coming by to pick up their precious little ones from a playdate in February.
Besides - Christmas is coming, when I go really insane with the lights and decor. I was thinking about trying to purchase some real reindeer on the Internet this year …

The question is: How bad does it look to still have my Halloween stuff up? And should I care? Or should I leave it up and just intergrate the Christmas stuff in a few weeks, giving the house a “Nightmare Before Christmas” look? I should probably just get off my lazy butt and take the stuff down … still, I just really love coming home at night to zombies crawling out of their graves in my yard. Is that wrong?

A TMZ reporter spent three hours with Arnold Klein, one of Jackson’s many doctors and closest friends. Klein insisted Jackson didn’t molest the boy … he only peed in front of him. And everybody else.
Klein said Jackson also used to pee at Klein’s office … and his house … in front of groups of people.
Oh, that Michael. He was so eccentric.

Happy Halloween.

“Anyway, let’s assume the bridge has been open for 24 hours when you read this. Even if it were, I’d want to have a few hundred thousand other cars go over the thing before me, just to make sure the king’s men put it back together again properly.”

Well I was right. It was such a quick fix job that the damn thing broke again.

I’m going to wait until 2011, just to make sure.

If not, well … don’t believe everything you read on some schmuck’s blog.

Can we go back, blow up the episodes 1-3 with whiny Hayden Christensen, crappy special effects that looked too much like paintings (at least in the first two), vaguely racist characters serving the story no purpose and dialogue consisting of lines like “I’ve died a little bit each day without you,” and re-do it all with these guys? And whoever’s behind this game?

“Sales, who was typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers’ purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents.”