Dr. Bloggenstein, I presume?

MY FALL FROM GRACE?
I had a little scare Wednesday night while attempting to clean my gutters out when I fell off my ladder.  I was trying to access my roof and misjudged how far I had to reach to grab onto my chimney to step up and next thing I know, I'm Curly Howard and I lose my balance and head earthward.  Luckily, I was able to slow my fall just enough by grabbing onto the support post of my basketball pole, so the bodily damage wasn't too bad.  I was a bit stunned at first and skinned my right knee up pretty good, but my right arm took the brunt of the injuries, suffering numerous bruises and abrasions—it basically looks like downtown Baghdad right now.  But, my 43-year-old streak of having never broken any of my bones is still intact.  This could've been a whole lot worse, but thankfully, it wasn't...

WTF?!?
Once I did manage to get up on the roof to clean my gutters, I discovered that something or someone had taken a dump on the back side of my roof!  This weren't no bird shit, and I don't know what squirrel shit looks like, but this appeared to be the work of a small dog or cat.  Weird...

GAME ON!
As I type, Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals is underway on the tube.  The grizzled vets of Detroit are up against the youngstas from Pittsburgh, and this has the look of a really great series.  By way of Motown tradition, the octopi have already been flying during pre-game ceremonies.  Perhaps Joe Louis Arena in Detroit should be renamed Octopus's Garden, eh?  By the way, if "octo" means eight, then how come October is the 10th month?

Anyway, getting back to the hockey, there was a time when the Stanley Cup Finals would've been completed three weeks ago, but thanks to their endless postseason, we're just now starting the finals over Memorial Day weekend, and I still say the NHL needs to find a way to somehow shorten the postseason.  Start the regular season a couple weeks sooner, eliminate some of the off-days during the playoffs, play doubleheaders—do something!  I love hockey, but it's not a summer sport.

Oh by the way, my prediction is Red Wings in seven...

YA GOTTA LOSE YOUR MIND IN DETROIT...
Meanwhile, as the Red Wings and Pens do battle at Joe Louis, the Detroit Pistons are home to the Boston Celtics in the NBA playoffs up in the suburbs at the Palace of Auburn Hills and the Detroit Tigers have a home game today as well.  I'd bet the farm that the sports bars in the Motor City are hopping tonight...

LOST CLASSIC #1
"Driver's Seat"—SNIFF 'N' THE TEARS (1979)  This is one of my favorite songs from the late '70s.  Love the pulsating electric piano that drives the tune here, as well as the trippy synthesizer solo near the end that rivals Geddy Lee's solo from Rush's "Subdivisions" in 1982.  Back in the early '90s, I searched high and low for a copy of the album "Driver's Seat" was lifted from, hoping there would be some other cool stuff to be had, but sadly there wasn't.  The song is available on Rhino Records' "Have A Nice Day—Vol 22" CD, and the song was also part of the soundtrack of the film Boogie Nights, although it's not a disco song, by any means.

LOST CLASSIC #2
"Don't Ever Wanna Lose Ya" —NEW ENGLAND (1979)  From the same year as Sniff, I always thought this was a cool song, all about a caring guy worrying and fretting about his girl arriving home safely during a storm—who sez chivalry is dead, huh?  NE's debut album was co-produced by one Paul Stanley of Kiss.  Very cool song—too bad the band never went anywhere...

IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN
I rented Disc 1 of the third season of "The Muppet Show" on DVD this week and the guest star on one episode was late entertainer Pearl Bailey.  I was reminded of a funny story from when I was a little kid, maybe age 3 or 4, when Pearlie May sang the national anthem before a football game on TV—back in the day when they actually showed the anthem being sung before games—and apparently the network transmission was bad because the picture made Pearl Bailey appear to be green.  For the longest time after that, I thought the woman really was green!

BILL BEING BILL
In case y'all missed it, this recently-unearthed video has been making the rounds lately on YouTube featuring my good buddy Bill O'Retard being his usual lovable self while anchoring that jouralistic institution, "Inside Edition".  To be fair, O'Reilly isn't the only one to blow a gasket now and then during taping—Chris Berman does this kind of crap on ESPN all the time, too—but I think we get a pretty good idea of Billy Badass' true colors here...

A BLAST FROM THE PAST
I don't know what made me think of this, but does anyone remember these behemoths you used to find in grocery stores and department stores to test your TV tubes with?  Ah yes, for you youngin's out there, old TVs back in the day had these tubes on the inside of various sizes that would blow from time to time and needed replacement, so you'd round them up and take them to the store and plug them into these big machines and see which ones were bad.  I found this photo and some other cool stuff on this here nostaliga site, so hop aboard the Way-Back Machine, friends...





HERE COMES THE SUN, DO-DO-DOO-DOO...
Here's a cool photo that a friend sent to me the other day.  Thanks, Margaret!