mariness

Thanks to ICFA, golf, ICFA, more golf, and recovering from ICFA and golf, I've been pretty much out of it (and mostly offline) for the last week or so, but not so out of it that I have not been kept abreast of the latest developments in modern culture:



Thanks – I think thanks, anyway – are due to the BBC for recording this in the first place and Eric Gjovaag of the Blog of Oz for directing my attention to it, and also reminding me of a similar glorious moment of human achievement:



to cleanse your ears, as it were.

Or if you really need to cleanse your ears, this clip sent my way by various people. (YouTube won't let me embed that one.) akashiver is right to note that the editing on this, like every other Britain's Got Talent clip, is blatantly manipulative, but...I sniffled. And then headed back to the Muppets.

The internet reminds me that today would have been the birthday of the late, lamented Jim Henson, the man who brought us pigs singing the Banana Boat song:



Not to mention John Cleese with puppets:



And, of course, the best performance Kenny Rogers ever gave of this particular song:



The marvel isn't just that he made people laugh, but that he's still making people laugh.

Spider Monster!

Thanks to Tor.com for the link.

To help celebrate, here are some Muppets, which apparently I can't embed without knowing my YouTube password, which I have determined is not the password that I thought it was, but which I am otherwise blanking on. In looking for that one, I came across this one, which I actually like more, and is, as you shall see, equally appropriate in an explosive kind of way.

May fireworks and utterly awful for you but tasty junk food fill your day.

I think we can all relate to this:

I seem to have gained a permanent hand attachment this morning. Many of you taking a close and scientific look at this hand attachment would probably call it less of a "hand attachment" and more of a "feline creature customarily called a cat," but the point is, I can't seem to get it off my wrist and hands. Possibly because I spent less time than usual at home this weekend and now apparently must make up for my failures by donating the use of my wrist into a heating pad.

But anyway. I have pretty much zilch interest in the VMA awards, so, you know, no particular opinion on the Kanye West whatever one way or another, and I was continuing to ignore them completely until I heard that Lady Gaga showed up to the awards with Kermit the Frog as her date.

This is awesome. This is so awesome that I immediately started to think, out loud, on Twitter, which Muppet I should bring to a major awards show. Besides proving that I should stop thinking out loud, on Twitter or anywhere, this started up a minor Twitter furry with various people making Muppet suggestions. The problem is, you see, that if I bring Animal he would doubtless eat many of the awards, causing people to hate me; if I bring Gonzo he would doubtless bring along his entire chicken harem, which would a) be distracting and b) take up too many seats; if I bring Fozzie I would be subjecting myself to an evening of terrible jokes and sudden sprays of water.

So, looks like so far the real contenders are Robin (Kermit's little nephew, just cause I like him); Beaker (because lord knows the poor Muppet desperately needs a night out from exploding things); and Lew Zealand (because if an awards show needs anything, it's a Muppet willing to throw fish at appropriate moments.) Hmm. This is a very, very tricky choice. Maybe I need to create my own Muppet Whatnot instead.