:: crapweasel ::
the official blog of
Dave Tompkins

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Today I'm going to pay a mini-tribute to a good friend... and one of the most frustrating people I know.... Chris Walsh (Walshy)... who was my VP-Touchy-Feely when I was president of the University Students' Council at Western.

The story starts out in 1996 when we were in Toronto, and we saw lightning strike the CN Tower. Walshy then remarked about how amazing it is that we got to witness the event, because lightning will only strike the tower once, and it will never strike there again. But before I could even begin to argue with him, he had already changed his mind -- something he did on a regular basis then. He then said something along the lines of...

Actually, There's a 50/50 chance that lightning will strike the CN Tower again, because it either will... or it won't.

Now I'm sure that I may have heard that kind of logic when I was a kid, or when I first learned about probability theory... but Walshy was clearly the first educated person I heard use that kind of logic, and to at least pretend to believe it. To my err, I made a big deal out of his stupid logic... and so he started using that expression for everything.

What are the odds that you'll win the lottery? 50/50, because you'll either win the lottery or you won't.

He still uses this expression all the time. But if you think this is frustrating, wait until you really get to know him. So why this little tribute? I found two pop-culture examples of his logic that I managed to TiVo ... and so I'm posting them here for everyone to see, and for Walshy to delight in.

1) A clip from Corner Gas (I kept the surrounding scene)
2) A clip from the Ultimate Poker Challenge (a little long, but I decided to keep the entire hand)

Oddly enough... in both clips the people speaking are Canadian, but as Walshy would say... there was a 50/50 chance of that happening anyway.

As a rule of thumb, I haven't been posting links to articles from The Onion because, well... I just assume most people read The Onion weekly on their own. However, today's 'community voice' article I Wish Someone Would Do Something About How Fat I Am was especially funny... nay... appropriate... as I'm heading out to the Memphis Blues Barbeque House for an Elvis Platter.

Michael Jackson Beat It. Get it? -sigh-

The end of an era. Subway will soon no longer accept stamps. -Sigh- I have a hundred kicking around my apartment somewhere. Check out the Subway card: TNG.

So I'm watching the Cincinnati Kid, and Eric Stoner (the kid's real name) does something odd. Before the big poker game they investigate the decks of cards to make ensure they are legit... but he smells the cards. That's right... He smells them. I thought it was maybe a metaphor or something... smelling for something fishy... and then it hit me. He's smelling to see if the cards are marked! If there was any ink (or possibly invisible ink) used to mark the cards, then they would have some sort of odour. Okay... not the biggest insight of my lifetime, but I'm just happy I figured that out.

Some of the videos on Vancouver's own BaitCar.com are hilarious.

For only the 2nd time ever, the Miss Universe is Canadian -- but check out Natalie Glebova's National Costume. Huh?