The Park Bench

Odds and Ends

2008-10-06T07:02:00.000-05:00

Did you hear the rumor that Patrick Stewart might (please, please) be joining the cast of "Doctor Who" as a rival Time Lord? [Trek Web] - Seriously, who even cares what the plot's going to be? I'd be happy watching them play volleyball.Check out these sweet little Nerdbots made by a duo of Kansas City artists from recycled materials. [io9] - They're adorable and adoptable.Given how bad the

Crazy chicks! No, seriously, they were crazy.

2008-10-03T12:37:00.002-05:00

If you've read The Park Bench for a while, you know about my probably unhealthy fascination with absurd personalities, the crazier the better. A friend recently introduced me to six extraordinarily bizarre women and in turn, I thought I'd share them with you. Collectively, they're known as The Mitford Sisters. Daughters of England's Lord and Lady Redesdale, the sisters grew up isolated in the

Odds and Ends for Friday

2008-10-03T06:50:00.000-05:00

Have you heard about the Ig Nobels? These awards honor "weird" science (as opposed to "fringe" science which honors Joshua Jackson for being hot). Among the studies tapped this year: researchers who investigated the claim that Coca-Cola works as a contraceptive, a psychologist who discovered that food that sounds better tends to taste better and a pair of archeologists who determined that

Colbert makes Gotham City his bitch...without even mussing his hair!

2008-10-02T11:47:00.007-05:00

Stephen Colbert kicks ass in every pop culture realm. Check out the cover of his upcoming special issue of The Amazing Spider-Man: I love it.

It's the Z that makes them Zexy.

2008-10-01T20:14:00.003-05:00

Am I a huge perv for thinking this looks disturbingly erotic? Like I just stumbled on a horrible, horrible sub-genre of romance novels where half the readers are furries and the other half are the people the furries are afraid of? If this were a novel, I imagine the back cover copy says something like this: Tristian and Isabel find passion in the verdant fields of Elysium while Jessica and Rex

Odds and Ends for Tuesday

2008-09-30T11:10:00.000-05:00

Did any of you catch the season premiere of "Chuck" last night? What did you think? I really enjoyed it - it seemed like a tighter show with a faster pace and better direction. The gags were good and the actors really seem to be settling into their roles. One sad note, though: the green Buy More salesman outfit does nothing for our beloved Adam Baldwin. Can't they change it to a more flattering

Spoilers are the devil's work!

2008-09-29T12:12:00.000-05:00

Preface: Here’s the thing you should know before reading this – I have the kind of cold that has rendered my brain incapable of all but the simplest functions. I share this with you because below is a post on a subject I’m starting to think I may have written about once already but if I did I can’t seem to find any evidence of it. So this is my preemptory attempt to apologize for redundancy. Or

Friday odds and ends

2008-09-26T08:00:00.005-05:00

Further evidence that one day Stephen Colbert will rule us all: he'll be appearing in the next issue of Amazing Spider-Man, presumably in two dimensions.Johnny Depp has signed on to play the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland film. In far, far less exciting news, Depp also will appear in a fourth Pirates movie. If they promise to make this one run less than 17 hours, I might

David Blaine disappoints

2008-09-25T14:01:00.004-05:00

Crowds in New York were apparently disappointed yesterday when David Blaine didn't fatally plummet headfirst into Manhattan soil and then instantly resurrect himself and get taken away to the Mother Ship: Here are some other tricks David could try to disappoint people: TAME A FROTHING, VICIOUS, RABID LION!!...with understanding and hugs. WALK ON WATER!!...in a very large bathtub with a

Odds and Ends

2008-09-24T11:56:00.002-05:00

Who caught "Fringe" last night? I'm liking that show more and more. John Noble is a scene stealer and Joshua Jackson is still looking fine. Tuesdays are turning into good TV nights - even "House" is better this year! In other slightly more relevant news... Did you know that today is National Punctuation Day? Let's start inserting unnecessary semi-colons in everything we write today and

Why “Heroes” doesn’t do it for me anymore

2008-09-23T12:50:00.002-05:00

When it first premiered seemingly seven or eight decades ago, I eagerly tuned in to “Heroes” thinking the premise sounded astonishingly brilliant. And I watched it for the first full year, ending up with more of a luke-warm feel about the whole thing rather than that shiny enthusiasm I’d initially cultivated. Then the second year totally lost me and I bailed on it completely. Last night, I

Nerd Man of the Month: Bruce Campbell

2008-09-22T07:30:00.002-05:00

There are legendary men...and then there are the men who make the legendary men feel so inadequate they have to hold each other and cry. Bruce Campbell is one of those men, a cult icon like no other. He's done it all. He's played Elvis. He's sung a Duran Duran song and woofed on national television. He's played a guy with a chainsaw for a hand and yes, he's even played himself. Those are just a

In praise of Carrie Fisher

2008-09-18T11:55:00.004-05:00

I've always admired unusual people and by unusual I mean truly, deeply bizarre, the kind of folks who talk without any sort of verbal inhibitor, rendering them deeply funny and truly honest in the process. That's why, to me, Carrie Fisher just keeps getting more and more superb with each passing year. She reminds me of a classier Mae West or a Dorothy Parker without the cruelty and so much

I read "Cosmo"...so you don't have to

2008-09-17T07:33:00.000-05:00

The most important things I learned from this month’s issue of “Cosmopolitan” magazine: "To give my pad an elegant autumn vibe, I can place a few white pumpkins in the center of a table. They’re a sophisticated alternative to the usual holiday stuff.” Like, ahh, what do you call those things? They're kind of round. Charlie Brown likes them. Orange pumpkins?