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Alpha had his school Christmas holiday program. While we were walking to the cafeteria/auditorium/cafetorium, we passed by display cases containing artwork from the various classes. I don’t know which grades did these turkeys, but apparently a number of students were handed line-drawing turkeys which they were supposed to color or otherwise decorate.

I wish I knew the story behind this.

• Did the child happen to glance at the stack of magazines in the art room, see Obama’s photo, and just decide that he would look good on a turkey?
• Did the child purposely put Obama’s head on a turkey body as a statement of how poorly he thought the government was being run?
• Or was the child thankful for Obama and trying to indicate that by associating him with Thanksgiving?
• Is the small picture to the right of Obama’s head a picture of a turkey with Obama’s head on it? Was that the inspiration for this art? From where did that come?

The world may never know.

I find the most interesting part to be the bicycle handlebars. Why a bicycle? Shouldn’t he be holding onto the handlebars? So many questions . . .

The best herbal supplement out there has to be Ginkgo Balboa.

With a name like that, how could anything else compete?

Ginkgo Balboa – the undisputed heavyweight champion of the herbal-supplements world!

What?

It’s ginkgo biloba?

Oh, never mind.

Here is another scene from the unreleased Wolverine movie (click on the image to see a full-size version) :

Here is the text, in case your browser has trouble with images:
Wolverine (in defeat) : Aaaggh!!!
Wolverine: All of my attacks have been thwarted…
(last frame shows Jim Tressel): By the power of the sweater vest

You may also want to see the previous episode of X-Men Rivals.

This page intentionally left blank.

That statement bothers me. The page was blank, before you put that statement on it. But now it is no longer blank, so you can’t have left it blank, because you printed words on it, so it’s not blank anymore, etc.

Here are my suggestions – things you could print on the page – for improving this fiasco:

• This is the only sentence on this page.
• This page was supposed to be blank, but we had to print this line.
• There is no meaningful content on this page.
• We felt like wasting paper, and this page is a result of that.
• Federal regulations require that there be no blank pages in any document.
• Nothing to see here; please turn to the next page.

To really improve it, how about this:

The following page is intentionally left blank.

And then you can have a truly blank page on the next page. Perfect!

Also, the statement really should have an “is” in there.

This page is intentionally blank.

That makes it a complete sentence.

“This page intentionally left blank” implies that the page was with blank, but then it left…on purpose too. They were together for such a long time. Now blank is lonely. Without the verb “is”, the only other word that could be a verb is “left”. If it is written as a sentence, then “left” must be the verb.

Or maybe blank is really a location. The page was there, at blank, but then it left, so it is no longer there. Got out of blank…left there in a hurry. I would expect that “blank” would then be a proper noun – the name of the place – so it should be “Blank”.

Last thought on this conundrum, this one regarding if you have both “is” and “left” together: maybe left is a direction.

This page is intentionally left blank.

All you need to do is find the page that is intentionally right blank and then you’ll have a matching pair.

I may or may not have said the following line this week:

“Take that plunger off your brother’s head!”

Thanks a lot, Big Idea Productions.

Next time you need to create a superhero character, please make his accessory thingy something cleaner, more hygienic. Remember that thousands, even millions, of children will be watching that character and some will try to copy him.

Why plungers? Why something that is so unsanitary? And why on his head, of all places?

Why not toothbrushes?
Or foaming-soap dispensers?

Think of how he could clean up crime or scrub out injustice.

Watching the Florida-Florida State football game earlier today, I was pleased that the television announcers recognized Tim Tebow’s habit of putting Bible verses on his eye black.

A little background here for those who may need it:
Florida Gators are a college football team. Tim Tebow (also known as TimTebowTimTebowTimTebow to some people) is the quarterback of said team. Tebow has decided to take advantage of the national attention that being a leader of a high-profile team brings – he puts scripture references on the black stickers that athletes put under their eyes to reduce the glare from the sunlight.

He apparently figured that, as long as cameras were going to be featuring his face during games, he might as well make use of it. He changes the verse every week, and this week it was Hebrews 12:1-2. Here is the picture of Tebow just before the game (he’s a little teary because it was his last home game).

Side Note: Regular readers of Some Blog Site will notice the similarity between Tebow’s different-verse-for-every-game habit and SBS’ different-verse-for-every-blog-post habit. Please note that SBS was doing this before Tebow started doing this, so I appreciate the flattery. Anyone who wants to promote Bible verses in everyday life is more than welcome.

Back to topic: Tebow’s verses have gathered so much attention that the game’s announcers mentioned his verse this week, just as part of their normal conversation during the game. Hmm…it seems that anything Tebow does gathers much attention and is reported on the TV, but let’s stick to the topic.

The announcers noted it was Hebrews 12, they looked it up, and they read the verse.
On the air.
Out loud and everything.

I was quite impressed that they did that (kudos to CBS), and I was pleased that Tebow’s plan to increase the Bible knowledge of the general public actually worked.

I mentioned these events to my wife. She tried to recall Hebrews 12:1-2 from memory, but it didn’t sound like what the announcers had read, so I looked it up. No, not to correct my wife, because her version sounded more familiar than the announcers’ version.

The announcers had read Hebrews 12:12 on the air:

Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble

But Tebow had written Hebrews 12:1-2. That’s read as Hebrews twelve, verses one and two. Not Hebrews twelve, verse twelve.

It looks like Bible literacy still has a ways to go.

At least Tebow is doing something, and at least the announcers tried. If you just look at the verse, it does seem to make sense in the context of a sporting event. It could be good to use, but it is not what Tim had hoped they would read.

I was talking to a co-worker who was born and raised in an Eastern Bloc country – one of the old communist countries next to Russia. He said that he, and everyone else he knows from there who is now in the US, cannot understand why Black Friday is so popular.

“People wake up so early and stand in line just to get a good deal on a gift! Why is that fun?”

He will not do that. He said that for so many years that was daily life. His family had to stand in line and wait just for their needs – bread, milk, eggs, etc. – so now that he is in the US he appreciates the availability of things.

Standing in line for shopping is a bad thing and a sign of bad government / oppression / etc. and he will not do that just to save a few dollars. The country was communist while he was there, and standing in line for goods is not a pleasant memory for him.

I thought that was rather enlightening.

Remember that when you’re doing your Christmas shopping and you are waiting in line voluntarily – there are plenty of people who are waiting in line for their survival. Appreciate your freedom and your prosperity – something for which you can be thankful.