So much for solemn pledges not to write about dead rock stars. They’ve been dropping like flies lately. Except for the Rolling Stones – that’s almost creepy.

But John Entwhistle. I’m really sorry. I used to want to be John. I was a big Who fan. The bass was my favorite instrument, the one I aspired to play. And John epitomized the bass player for me, and I wanted to be him. Not the mod Entwhistle in the picture at the top, the taciturn beardy one below. I came close. I grew the same beard, had the same hair. I just never learned to play the bass for shit. I mean, I was passably okay on my Fender Precision there for a while, and then Punk started and anyone could play in a band but my amplifier started giving me electrical shocks every time I turned it on and I gradually lost interest.

Still. Shit, John is dead.

We’re taking time out from Photoshopping URLs onto demonstrators’ asses to wish Adam a happy second anniversary of his wonderful blog Words Mean Things. Although Adam is kind, polite and thoughtful, he nevertheless has a lot in common with me. Like… eh… we both think the Olsen Twins are scary.

Go there now.

Feral Living fans at the recent BlogCon Europe 2002.

The Chaos Coefficient explained, part II.
[Or, what I did this morning.]

This reminds me that we’re having a family reunion in a couple weeks.

I swear to god, on my way to work this morning I was thinking about the Pledge of Allegiance we recited daily when I was a schoolboy and how strange and reminiscent of a totalitarian regime that is (nothing of the sort is done here in Austria, for example, which hasn’t been part of a totalitarian regime for, eh, years) and how the phrase “one nation under god” always struck me as of questionable constitutionality in view of the separation of church and state; the recent discussion of “god bless america day” over at michele’s is what got me thinking about this I guess.

I even decided to post something about it. Then when I got to the office a guy asked me about buying used cars and that got me so confused it totally deleted the last three hours of my life from my brain and I forgot about it. Then I looked at blogdex and daypop and saw this.

So this means that my brainwaves are influencing Supreme Court rulings. This is obviously a recent development, because otherwise the United States would have a different president. No, wait, it was the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, not the Supreme Court. Doh me.

[For serious discussion of the Pledge, see peace dividend or wKen or basically anywhere but here.]