The band Men at Work recently lost a plagiarism suit involving the flute riff in their 80’s hit, ‘Land Down Under.’ Unfortunately, the flute part sounds like, ‘Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,’ a ditty we used to sing at my Girl Scout camp. In fact, the song was written by an Aussie girl guide back in 1934. Although she died in 1988, Larrikin Music (who apparently made a recording of the song) successfully sued the group. You can listen to clips of both songs and hear the similarities if you read this article – which also explains what…
Tag: NaBloPoMo posts
Need a gift for the chronically daydreaming research scientist in your life? Me neither, but apparently knockout rats are ideal. Up until yesterday, I had never heard of a knockout rat, although the name is reminiscent of both fainting goats and a litter of narcoleptic puppies I once saw in a documentary. There is an ad for knockout rats on the back of Science magazine, you see, and that was the last thing I saw before falling asleep last night, so all day today I’ve had the phrase ‘knockout rats’ kicking around my brain pan. Knockout rats, knockout rats… It…
If we write to taste life twice, as Anais Nin once suggested, then why do we blog? Perhaps it’s to give others a little taste of our own lives. I wonder how many bloggers were active diarists before going online. I wonder, also, how many of those who made the transition from pen to pixel have quit keeping an offline diary. I love blogging, but I also enjoy keeping an offline journal. I certainly write differently here than there. My offline diary serves many purposes; besides recording memories, it is a place for me to dissect and digest experiences. I…
There’s not much to say about the charmingly named ‘Butt Face Towel,’ since the product literally spells it out for you. I won’t even bother making a cheeky crack about it, although its clearly begging for one. I can think of a slogan for them, though: ‘Butt Face Towels. We’ve got you covered – sort of.’ If you are going for a certain decorating motif, however, these boldly labeled towels could be helpful. Perhaps you only stock your pantry with generic household items. Why, these towels would fit right in! That’s a rather narrow marketing niche, though. I’ll bet these…
The other day, a little bird recommended an interesting article to me. It’s a take on creativity written by Scott Bourne over at the Photofocus blog. In it, Scott mentions how low self esteem stunts creativity, and how freeing it is to let yourself fail. While I’m familiar with those ideas (although I seem to need constant reminders) what was new to me, were his ideas on being authentic: “I learned this concept best by listening to John Paul Caponigro. He was talking about other art forms and mentioned that in Asia for instance, artists don’t worry about coming up…
If you know Italian, you can imagine my confusion upon seeing this sign on the restroom door of the Maccheroni Grill here in Texas. ‘Uomini’ means ‘men,’ you see, so I hesitated to walk in. The other sign, at least, read both ‘signore,’ and ‘men,’ so after standing in the hallway for a few baffled moments, I opted for door number one: Uomini. Phew! Not a urinal in sight. It was the ladies room, all right. On the way out, I asked one of the wait staff about the sign. She just shrugged and said that, ‘It was painted by…