Category Archives: News

Blow

As the East Coast prepares for a hurricane, I find myself distracted by its name.

Sandy sounds more like a 50′s musical ingenue.

It makes sense that the name would be dated.  They have been rotating the same names for years, and only retire one if the hurricane has great intensity and destruction.

My name, Carla, was on that list until 1961 when it was the namesake of a Category 4 hurricane that struck the Texas coast.  Hurricane Carla did over $2 billion in damage and killed 43 people, and so the name was officially retired.

My aunts used to talk about Hurricane Carla, but I thought they were just teasing me (as I am often full of hot air).  However, it remains one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the United States.

Let’s hope Sandy sings a showtune instead.

Oops, there it is

Meteorologists — they rarely get it right, and they’re never held accountable.  From time to time, we’ve probably all felt that way.

Well, there’s one weather team that is putting their forecasts through a daily ‘accuracy check.’

Alabama’s 13, the NBC station in Birmingham, has the motto ‘where accuracy matters.’ And it’s a challenge their meteorologists are taking seriously.

At the end of each forecast, they display the day’s actual high and low temperatures head-to-head with the predicted temperatures.  Correct predictions get a big green fact check; misses rate a negative red.

It’s not like they can do much about it at that point, but I appreciate their willingness to showcase the egg on their face.

Bless their hearts.

The whole universe…

So this happened yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mars Rover team visited the set of The Big Bang Theory
for their taping last night.

I join geeks everywhere in being equally excited that…

  • real scientists joined forces with TBBT clique, and
  • they’re taping new episodes.

Hurry up, fall season!  Bring on the new shows!!

This just in

A few of my friends — okay, really just one, but I hate to name names — have had a lot of fun on Twitter slamming Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO series The Newsroom.

To be fair, said friend slams a lot of other shows as well, but since I happen to agree with most of those observations, I don’t take issue.

But when he repeatedly tweetslaps –and retweetslaps — The Newsroom?

I cannot stand idly by.

Now, even I will admit the pilot was an explosion of exposition and classic Sorkin sermons.  But if we wrote off every series’ first episode for being exposition-heavy, the Harry Potter movies would have ended at Sorcerer’s Stone.  

You have to establish characters before you can build relationships.  That’s a given.

For those of you lucky enough to have stuck around for Sunday night’s episode of The Newsroom, your patience was rewarded.  Fewer sermons.  More focus on the relationships in the newsroom (which, if you’ve worked in one, do blow up like that from time to time).  Even some cultural references to add to the fun.  And did a few of you shed a tear at the ending?

I’ll take that bet.

And I’ll be DVRing The Newsroom this season.  And next.

Starstruck

Like nostalgia?

This image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, captured by four NASA telescopes, is estimated to be millions of years behind.

Wrap your head around that one, and have a nice day.

Point the finger

Officers, I have your thief.

Or a pretty good theory, anyhoo.

Someone stole almost 400,000 toothpicks from a manufacturer in Athens, Georgia.

Since there were no signs of forced entry, the owner thinks a former employee might be the culprit.

Sure, that would explain it.  Or maybe it was Stan Munro, the mastermind behind…

Toothpick World

Munro says he buys his toothpicks from a wholesaler to create his toothpick replicas of famous landmarks from around the world.

Look at the detail — they are incredible.  And that is why I think he’s a prime suspect.

After his endless hours of sitting in one spot and holding a steady hand to create these masterpieces, I’ll bet Stan would enjoy making a run down South and organizing a toothpick heist.

Don’t you?

Park these cars

I was sad to hear that Tom and Ray were retiring after 25 years on Car Talk.

Then I felt incredibly lucky to know them.

I worked on the Car Talk website for two years.  On paper, the job was everything I loved rolled together.

The Internet.  Writing.  Humor.  Radio.

But Tom and Ray took the job to a whole other level.

Click and Clack are, in person, exactly who their listeners have heard on the air for over 25 years.  They are funny and cantankerous and smart and sweet and stubborn and incredibly generous.

They know who are, how they want to live their lives, what they do and more importantly do not want to do, and have managed to turn that into an amazing life for themselves and their families.

We should all be so lucky.

Enjoy being even lazier, guys.  No one deserves it more.

Breaking legs

Quick — name this actor.

I’m guessing most of you can’t.  Only the most insider of Broadway theatergoers will recognize him.

But give it some time — this understudy just got his big break:

Michael McKean’s leg.

James Lecesne, an understudy in the play The Best Man on Broadway, was tapped to replace the This is Spinal Tap legend after he was struck by a car and broke his leg on New York’s Upper West Side last Tuesday.

James got the news a couple of hours before showtime and, after making sure someone would walk his dog — I like him already — headed right to the theater.  Understudies rehearse their parts once a week, but many never go on.

Ever.

I met Vanessa Redgrave’s understudy for A Year of Magical Thinking a few years ago in Central Park.  She never went on, and yet knew that entire one-woman show.

Just in case.

So, while I would never wish an accident on anyone, I’m glad this one was a ‘lucky break’ for James Lecesne –

A Broadway star!

Fit for a queen

People in England speak English. It makes foreign travel a bit easier for we language-challenged Americans.

But they still talk funny.

Not the accent — it’s lovely.  The words and phrases they use in street signs, menus, and casual conversation.

This photo reminded me of my favorite ‘Huh?’ moment during my first trip to London.

If you’ve been there, you recognize the instructions at the entrance of the subway trains in the Tube. “Mind the gap” (don’t fall in the crack between the train and the platform) — so wonderfully British in its phrasing. I liked it so much, I bought a postcard.

And now, on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, I post this photo. Because I’ve taken a lot of subways during my trips to England…

But I’ve never met the Queen.

Hard-boiled

Everything’s bigger in Texas.

Just ask Cookie Smith’s chickens.

Not that the three hens are saying who laid the ‘super egg’ in Cookie’s chicken coop in Abilene…

But you can be sure one of ‘em is feeling it.

The shape and color of the mutant egg were consistent with the hens’ usual production.  But it measured an entire inch longer and weighed in at five ounces — three times the norm.

And it’s no wonder.

When Cookie cracked the big egg open, another egg — completely intact — came rolling out inside the first egg’s white.

Yep, the chicken-who-does-not-wish-to-be-named produced a rare ‘double egg,’ which experts say is perfectly safe to eat.  But Cookie took a pass.  And who can blame her?

A double stuff Oreo it’s not.