'Bred Crumbs

My new favorite side-effects list is in a commercial for prominent antidepressant Paxil, which besides the classics diarrhea, "tremor," and "yawn," may also cause "injury." "I don't know, doctor; I was just taking my anti-depression medicine and I suddenly tore my ACL."

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I am advised by someone who knows better (thanks, Steve) than the Blue Angels don't really go supersonic during air shows. (Subsequent research shows that they fly no faster than 700 mph, a little short of Mach 1.) See, this is why I'm not in the Navy. That and the fruity outfits.*

Another note: if you visit either of a couple of Blue Angels websites, BlueAngels.org and Wings of Gold, you will hear upon loading the page an anthem that would probably be stirring if it weren't rendered in Casio-ese.

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* But of course I appreciate and greatly respect the way the Navy, all our Armed Forces, and all who serve them protect and defend this country. Please don't hurt me.

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After skipping last year in the wake of, you know, everything, the Blue Angels returned this weekend for San Francisco's Fleet Week, and it was good to have them back. I can't really explain why I thrill to see them swooping noisily over the Bay, since I'm not such a fan of military-machine violence. But I do. Maybe it's because they were here during my first visit to SF, and we accidentally got a great view of their show from the vantage point of Alcatraz, with The City as the backdrop. So they coincide in my mind with summer in San Francisco.

Plus, it's fun to try to see them from anywhere that the view of the Bay is obstructed, because their sound, massive as it is, is no clue at all to where to look for them. What with them traveling faster than it and all.*

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This one's for Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans: did you know that there is a maker of digital visual equipment named Sampo? There's also a nice detailing of the great MST-Sampo mystery at Wikipedia.

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I don't see me going to see Punch-Drunk Love, since it has Adam Sandler in it and I'm still scarred from the pretension of Magnolia, a bloated three-hour movie that might have contained an intriguing two-hour movie. But congratulations and gratitude to Paul Thomas Anderson and all involved for knowing that the title should be hyphenated.

Also, no matter what the commercial may claim, I for one will not be seeing The Ring before I die. Reason: I hate children whispering sinisterly in ads or trailers. Kept me away from The Sixth Sense for years.

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Site update: the Crumbtents is finally fully updated, from first crumb to latest complete archive. I added "best of" lists, too.

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* See the next day's Crumbs for a correction of this fun but false "fact."

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Let's be honest, you world travelers out there, as you struggle with a foreign tongue you don't really need to ask for a pencil or know where the airport restroom is or get directions to the produce market, right? Thanks to the Zompist Phrasebook, you can say the things an American really needs to say, like "How much is that in real money?" "You call this beer?" or "There's a corpse on the bed. Please change the sheets."

The Zompist Metaverse, which I discovered because of its Language Construction Kit, has a wealth of other fascinating material, such as well-informed regular political rants, the Excuse-O-Mat, and the oft mass-e-mailed American cultural test. Further exploration led to the omega of Web personality analysis, "What Kind of Quiz-Taker Are You?"

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As I type, Robbie is nearly finished building his own system for digitally recording Television instead of Videotaping, only without having to pay any subscription fees. Which adds more credence to the Slate article forecasting (as have others) the imminent demise of a beloved TV organizing device.

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Coach!? Good lord, what has become of Nick at Nite?

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