Hai-Karate

I went to one of those local discount department stores with my wife the other day. As she browsed in the women's department, I decided to take a stroll around the store.

So, I'm browsing through the store and I happen to come upon the "cheesy" fragrance aisle.

It was like taking a trip back in time....Old Spice, Brut, Aqua Velva, English Leather, Black Belt and more ....all the classics.

They even had a no frills version of Brut. That's right, knock-off Brut, that has to be some kind of sign of the Apocalypse.

While I'm standing there amusing myself and sampling the various products, a young woman that works in the area starts unloading some boxes right next to me. Since I was there for a while, she asked me if I needed any assistance. I hesitated for a moment, then decided "what the hell, she's not doing anything anyway...", and the following conversation ensued....

Ray: do you carry Hai Karate?
saleswoman: excuse me...
Ray: Hai Karate....it's an aftershave.
saleswoman: I don't think so, but I can check
Ray: don't bother, i didn't really think you'd carry it anyway...it's more of a European thing.

Now she's giving me one of those "are you crazy" looks

Now i have to think of something else to say so i can keep the flow going ...

Ray: what do you think makes a better gift, Brut or English Leather?
saleswoman: um......i think they're about the same
Ray: well, you can't go wrong with Brut, right?.....do you giftwrap?
saleswoman: um, no....
Ray: that's okay.....How much is it?
saleswoman: it's $3.99
Ray: $3.99?! i had no idea it would be so expensive.....thanks anyway.....

Was I messing with her? you betcha! ... but hey! the positive side is that both her and I now have a great story to tell our friends.

But seriously ... Hai Karate aftershave lotion was hugely popular during the late 1970's. My dad and uncles loved the stuff.

As a gimmick, hai karate came packaged with 'self-defense' instructions to fight off the women attracted by the cheap lemony-lime scent. Suddenly dads used to getting Old Spice found Hai Karate under the Christmas Tree.

Microsoft apologizes for NY decals

NEW YORK (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. apologized to New York City for blanketing public property with hundreds of butterfly decals used to promote the company's new MSN 8 Internet service.

"We apologize to the City of New York and the people of New York City," Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president for MSN Personal services and business, said in a statement released Friday.

"We made a mistake with the decals, and we take full responsibility for what happened," Mehdi said. "We are working with city officials to clean up the decals immediately."

On Thursday, Microsoft plastered hundreds of butterfly decals, measuring 12 to 20 inches in width, on sidewalks, doorways, traffic signals and stop lights primarily in midtown.

The city immediately demanded an end to the illegal guerrilla advertising campaign.

Via CNN

'Old-Fashioned Human Wickedness'

The Muslim community, it has been reported, is worried because John Allen Williams converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad. They fear a backlash against their religion similar to what followed Sept. 11, 2001. Some African Americans also are said to be cringing because Muhammad and Malvo are black. Both groups should shake it off. Muhammad and Malvo, if guilty, belong to a separate moral universe of evildoers. They would be no more representative of a religion or race than white serial killers are of their own race.

(Via The Washington Post)

To serve, protect and auction

An idea by an ex-police officer to bring police department auctions onto the internet is going over big.

Propertyroom.com was started by Tom Lane, who worked as a police officer in New York.

iBrotha is the story of a young man so passionate about Apple Mac computers he turns into Malcolm X to get the machines the respect they deserve. By any means necessary.

It explores race and human divisions in a semi-humourous manner using the metaphor of competing computer platforms and an arsenal of hats, glasses and cricket bats. [More]

Free speech or respect ?

Over a year ago Clear Channel Communications which owns the nation's largest chain of radio stations responded to the World Trade Center massacre by sending out a memo with a list of 150 songs that its stations should suspend playing.

The idea was that Clear Channel would simply try to prevent its stations from looking like they were trying to make light of tragedy.

Now, that act is looking pretty visionary after a Charlotte NC, radio station offended some fans after they followed a news report on one of the sniper shootings with Queen’s "Another One Bites the Dust."

The song, by Queen, includes the phrase, "Out of the doorway the bullets rip, to the sound of the beat." That day's victim was shot in the doorway of a commuter bus.

They claim it was unintentional, Idiots!

Puffy the bank Robber?

Thirty year-old postal worker Cazzie L. Williams was arrested by the FBI, according to the New York Post, as he stopped at a Chinese restaurant near his East Orange home to pick up a takeout order. Williams is accused of being the "Puffy Cheek Bandit," one of America’s most prolific bank robbers, who is charged with sticking up some 27 banks over the past four years, netting himself well over $100,000.

As for that snazzy nickname, an FBI agent involved with the case told AP, "It looks like he's got swollen cheeks. I don't know if he put something in his mouth or that's the way he was."

The Real Motive For War
Daniel Ellsberg is the former Pentagon official who leaked a report that was later named the Pentagon Papers and was part of a chain of events that helped to bring an end to the Vietnam War. Ellsberg sees many connections between the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the one just passed by Congress. He also thinks the public is being misled when it comes to the real reason for a potential war in Iraq.

Extemporaneous Rambling

I was at the Gym yesterday, had a great workout.

The gym that I go to is one place where I refuse to go into the men's locker room. Why? Well, my friend Joe who agrees with me explains it more eloquently, he says:

"It is there that I've seen many examples of the "Missing Link", the bridge between Neanderthal and modern man. These man-beasts still smell of the wild, and have some traces of animal left in them, as exemplified by the fur on their shoulders and backs. They apparently feel uncomfortable in clothing, because they remove them as soon as they can and proceed to walk around in a natural state for long periods of time"

Enough said!

Otherwise:

My index finger has been sore lately. I suspect it's from left clicking the mouse all day long at work and at home.

I can live with that, at least it's not carpal tunnel, although I run that risk as well.

Well, I've been spending a lot of time reading other blogs and the amount of quality stuff out there is quite impressive. I wish I could read more, but there's simply not enough time in the day. I have to balance my time between career, family, wife, and blogging. it's a balancing act for sure.

Since my time is limited, I rely on the few web sites that I read to be thought provoking, entertaining, inspiring or just plain old well-worth-the-click.

I'm sure there are thousands of sites that could foot that bill, but who has the time ... unless one is willing to give up on ordinary mundane living and sit in front of the monitor all day.

________

Two new links have been added to the blogrolodex this week Ronn and Fresh.

On the home front:

My family and friends in the DC/MD/VA area are relieved by the recent turn of events

In the blogosphere:

Oliver calls the sniper "Sniper Idiot", I agree, I think perhaps now a more appropriate name would be "Dumb Sniper Idiot", of course, the reasons are obvious.

George considers the black/white perspective of the sniper arrest. "White van, white guy. Not a white van, maybe not a white guy. I was thinking the same thing G.

I'm considering the self fulfilling prophecy angle.

The alleged sniper may have been on to something when according to Chief Moose, he asked the chief to repeat the following statement: "We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose." Indeed perhaps we have.

My sincere condolences to the victim's families.

And finally, to Ron Lantz the truck driver who spotted the suspect's car and called police. Good job.

No Cheap Thrills

If you were planning on visiting the New York Museum of Sex which just opened in NYC last month (a first of its kind), you may want to think twice before wasting your money.

Joe Queenan of the Wall Street Journal was less than thrilled, his article is here

Excerpt:

The exhibition is heavy on fetishism and deviant sex, with the usual Betty Page bondage movies, meticulous designs for punishment machines, and grainy films of famous porn stars in action. Like the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the Museum of Sex provides yet another opportunity for aging Baby Boomers to canonize their fabulous youth, with album covers of Jimi Hendrix, Cream and the Turtles replaced here by posters of Xaveria Hollander, Annie Sprinkle, Linda Lovelace and Vanessa del Rio. Without these sexual pioneers, the museum seems to suggest, Americans would still be holding hands and listening to Pat Boone records. Never mind about Nero, Casanova and the Marquis de Sade, the Village People of their time; if it didn't happen in New York, it didn't happen.

The first exhibition the museum has mounted is titled "NYC Sex: How New York Transformed Sex in America." This is yet another opportunity for Manhattan to pat itself on the back. Without New Yorkers to show them the ropes, how would those yokels in Des Moines and Chattanooga ever figure out how to procreate?

At $17 a clip, the museum is more expensive than the Met, the National Gallery and the Louvre rolled into one, and a case can be made that those institutions have better collections of erotica.

Joe, you have persuaded me to stay away from that place, I'll put my money to better use. And if I'm so inclined I'll go to the original museum of sex - The Internet - which has been up and running for years, and doing a damn fine job of distributing lascivious material to the masses.

Mastercard Commercial Parody A must see! Priceless!

(found via Metafilter)

Clinton Supports McCall for Gov.

H. Carl McCall's Democratic gubernatorial campaign got a much-needed boost yesterday as former President Bill Clinton stumped for him at a Manhattan rally and then hosted a fund-raiser on Wall Street to replenish McCall's near-empty campaign war chest.

Clinton was the latest in a series of nationally known supporters to appear with McCall. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) recently stumped for him, and on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle came to New York City to praise McCall.

McCall's last financial disclosure reported that he had only $1.1 million on hand, compared to Pataki, who had $12.2 million.

Cleaning out the closet

CNN has this story

Attorneys for NBA superstar Michael Jordan filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing a woman of attempting to extort $5 million from him in exchange for keeping quiet about a relationship they had more than 10 years ago.

Jordan, 39, is seeking a "trial by jury on all issues," according to the suit.

In the suit, Jordan acknowledged he had a relationship with Knafel "a decade ago" and that he paid her a quarter of a million dollars not to disclose it.

"Under threat of publicly exposing that relationship, Ms. Knafel extorted Mr. Jordan into agreeing to pay and paying her $250,000," the suit states.

Since then, the suit claims, Knafel through her attorneys has "attempted to extort additional money from Mr. Jordan." The alleged extortion demands were made to one of Jordan's attorneys in Chicago.

Your Airness, these things have a way of coming back and biting you in the ass bro.

You should have never offered to pay her that $250K, as soon as you did that you became nothing but a chump in her eyes. She played you for a fool.

But, the funny thing is, men and women both cheat on each other, and yet men are the ones with the horrible reputations and also the ones that keep getting caught. One could only assume that it's because women go about it intelligently are not as boastful about it as guys are

What them worry?

Mad magazine turns 50

You might notice Alfred E. Neuman's gap-toothed grin is a little wider this month.

MAD, the nation's preeminent humor publication, is celebrating its 50th anniversary with October's issue #423, and not even the magazine's editors, writers and artists - the self-proclaimed "Usual Gang of Idiots" - know how it lasted this long.

Explains co-editor Nick Meglin, who has been with the magazine for 46 years: "There isn't an issue that doesn't have something for everyone, regardless of your taste."

One quality that kept them going for so long I think is the fact that they are very good at keeping up with the changing times. The flow of fresh and funny new material is never ending, after all, life itself is a comedy.

Moment of Introspection

Feeling cynical? Just can't keep up with the world? SFGate.com columnist Mark Morford offers a genuinely bright moment with this piece

Seek out nuance and counterargument and subtle irony and contrarianism and balance and perspective. Realize it's never as one-sided as they want you to believe. Read more outside your normal box of viewpoints and interests. Find out for yourself.

Remember the world does not consist of simpleminded and reductive good/evil polarities, but, rather, is a living organism, interconnected and breathing and dying and renewing in constant flux, religions interflowing, beliefs inbreeding, crammed full of ecstatically bejeweled people who are just as contradictory and confused and gorgeous and kaleidoscopic and baffled and sleepy and horny and lost and desperately craving of juicy unfiltered spiritual nourishment as you are, in this very moment, as you read these words.

?

It's always a damn shame when a young life ends due to foolish misadventures.

But when I read in a New York Post story "Subway-Surfing Teen Killed In Bronx." I realized right away that this kid should have known better.

This young man's demise came when he fatally knocked his head on an overhead beam while playing a risky game of "subway surfing". The article also pionts out that this 18 yr old was "6 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 275 pounds."

Say it ain't so Spree

Newsday Reports

Sprewell lashed out at Knicks president Scott Layden and at Madison Square Garden president of sports team operations Steve Mills for their recent decision to fine him $250,000 because he failed to report his fractured right hand injury when it occurred. He was especially upset that they banned him from associating with the team for an indefinite period, and he suggested Layden's performance should be scrutinized as closely as his own.

Despite these woes, I still remain an Optimistic fan

But Barbara of Newsday is less than optimistic, she says:

Do you, Mr. and Ms. Knicks fan, have that kind of patience? Are you really ready to stomach a 20-something-win season just so the Knicks can win the LeBron James lottery next year? Well, ready or not, here it comes. Without Antonio McDyess, the Knicks could very well be the worst team in the Eastern Conference and the second-worst team in the NBA next to Denver. Yet that doesn't mean the Knicks won't be worth watching.

Barbara, I'm Just not going to give up on the Knicks, I'm sure they'll get their groove back

Meanwhile, NY1.com reports that:

Attorneys for Latrell Sprewell announced Monday the New York Knicks star is suing The New York Post for $40 million over an article he says is false.

The article, written by the Post’s Knicks beat writer, Marc Berman, claims Sprewell broke his hand throwing a punch at a partygoer after someone vomited on his boat during the off-season. However, Sprewell says he hurt the hand when he accidentally fell on his boat last month.

The 405 Club

Leave it to the Sunday New York Times style section to uncover a not-so-exclusive subculture that’s been around for well over a year now: the 405 Club. This refers to the monetary amount many young and unemployed white-collar workers receive weekly as unemployment compensation after being laid off.

Pocket change at best.

'Son Of Sam' chimes in about the DC Sniper

(AP) _ In a letter received Monday, "Son of Sam" serial killer David Berkowitz asked the Washington-area sniper to "stop hurting innocent people."

Berkowitz, who terrorized New York City in 1977, wrote Rita Cosby of FOX News to offer his theories of the shooter who has killed nine people and wounded three others in Virginia, Maryland and Washington since Oct. 2.

"I feel that I have been feeling this person's anger and rage toward law enforcement," Berkowitz wrote from Sullivan Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Fallsburg, about 80 miles northwest of New York City. [more]

Takes one to know one I suppose.

Owners of White Vans Catch Heat

The Baltimore Sun reports that people who drive white vans for a living are always thinking about their alibis. Many say they have been the subject of unwarranted suspicion.

One man who drives an unmarked white Astro van said schoolchildren taunt him.

"You just don't know what I've been through," said Robert Drake of New Carrollton, who works as a trash collector in Washington and part time in cleaning businesses in Laurel. "Kids getting off the school buses yell "Sniper!" and then run away.”

ATTN: Coffeeholics

According to this book, caffeine makes you smarter, wittier, thinner, more productive, more fun at parties and sexier.

An interesting read that helps dispel some common misconceptions about caffeine. But personally I wouldn't increase my caffeine intake overnight, the stuff is still addictive and there are other unanswered questions to be considered.

Still, it's always important to get both sides of the story.

"Caffeine is a safe, almost magical tool for releasing our hidden potential," according to “The Caffeine Advantage,” a new book/rationalization by noted coffeeholics Bennett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie Bealer.

The authors claim that caffeine allows us to "achieve whatever it is we want to achieve" and "gives us the extra time we need to accomplish" it. It suppresses our appetites, makes us more alert, heightens our senses, and even gives us more manual dexterity.

I'm sure Mr Juan Valdez would agree 100%.

I was going to comment on Scott Rubush's recent post in which he mentions the Ten Things he hates About New York City but La Blogatrice already did an excellent job with her rebuttal, defending our great city's honor.

Sniperphobia

Jonah Goldberg of The Washington Times reports on why he feels the sniper shootings are al-Qaeda assaults. Reuters has U.S. officials saying that there's no link yet.

_________

CNN reports this story

The police chief at the center of the Washington-area sniper investigation revealed Sunday that someone left a message at the site of Saturday's shooting outside an Ashland, Virginia, restaurant.

It is not clear where exactly the message was found or in what format, Chief Moose did not elaborate. This may possibly be a huge development, and I hope one that will lead to this case being solved.

Jogger Case

NY Newsday currently has a public opinion poll that asks "Should The Five Convicted in the Central Park Jogger Case Be Exonerated?" The answers may surprise you, the results are here.

I haven't been following the case very closely, but based on the info that I'm aware of, it is clear that there are many discrepancies that should not be ignored.

Jimmy Breslin writes a signifcant piece on the lone dissenting opinion of Judge Vito Titone of the State Court of Appeals on the appeal of Yusef Salaam (one of the five convicted youths).

Tomorrow, at the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, defense lawyers are to put forward a motion that the convictions be vacated. I've read that District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, whose office has been reinvestigating the case since Reyes came forward, also plans to be there to ask for a 30-day postponement, citing the need to reinterview more witnesses and review more DNA results.

Many residents in the community are concerned, some are planning to protest outside the courthouse tomorrow morning and with good reason. I vote for exoneration, it is the only decision that would make sense to me at this juncture.

I'll be checking with fellow New Yorker Ronn on Monday, he has been keeping a detailed watch of the developments in this case in his weblog.