King, President, etc.

I’ve had a messy, frustrating, generally bad week, and next week’s lining up to be worse. I have nothing for you, really.

As a peace offering, read the whole story behind that famous meeting between Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon.

It is December 21, 1971, the same day Kurt Waldheim was chosen to succeed U Thant as Secretary General of the UN. But Bud Krogh doesn’t have anything to do with that, because he has two minutes to prepare for Elvis and try to think about how he’s going to pitch this to Nixon, who may or may not be aware of who Elvis is.

Elvis wants to give Nixon a loaded handgun as a gift but is told that’s not a good idea. Thought that counts, though.

Awesome.

Dr Pepper Delivers

Hilarious. Dr Pepper is following through on its tongue-in-cheek promise to give everyone in America a free bottle of their soda, if Chinese Democracy dropped in 2008.

The album will finally be released on Sunday, so:

Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper’s Web site. They’ll be honored until Feb. 28.

I hope this turns out to be good publicity for them, because they’re being awfully good sports about it.

Do or Not Do

Ok, you drive into a parking lot, and the guy in the space next to you is shutting his door as you pull up. You see him glance back to see if the door closed completely, and he walks away. When you’re parked and have your things together, you look over and the door isn’t closed. And the dome light’s on.

The guy is fifty yards away already. What do you do? (What do you do?)

Tim & Anne & Johnny & Alice

The Daily Mail has the first picture of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter.

[girlie scream]

I’m not a rabid Johnny Depp fan or anything, but this sounds really good. And I am a rabid Alice In Wonderland fan. I have popup books, and an old facsimile of the original “Alice’s Adventures Underground” in Carroll’s own handwriting. And those Guinness ads, framed, and antique cigarette cards (are there non-antique cigarette cards?). Et cetera. No kidding.

Very cool. Burton and Depp make beautiful things together.

Attached

Man tries to pay bill with spider drawing

I’m still doing that silent chuckling thing you do at work, over this, ten minutes later. Seriously. Go read it.

(via Laurel)

Done.

The deal is done.

Read more »

:o)

This might be the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in weeks.

And now the other section closes…

Locals: I heard this on the radio late last week, but haven’t seen or heard anything about it since.

I-64/40 is supposedly re-opening almost a month ahead of schedule.

And there was much rejoicing.

Thanks but No Thanks

Why do people keep sending me emails that start with “This is probably disgusting, but…” or “This is probably going to piss you off, but…”

Please. If you’re writing me an email, and you notice that it starts with anything like that, hit the delete button.

And maybe lose my email address.

I have more than enough stress and annoyance in my life right now, without your passive-aggressive drama.

Thank you,
The Mgmt

Beneath the Sheltering Sky

I’ve been obsessed with archaeology since I was a kid. It’s public knowledge, I think, that I used to do paleontological work in Montana — but before I was given that opportunity, I directed most of my fascination toward ancient Egyptian art and architecture. I even took classes in it, in college.

I was lucky enough to spend some time in Egypt a few years ago, and prowling those old temples was just as amazing as I knew it would be. Saqqara was particularly interesting to me, since that’s where it all started, and the pyramids there are so incredibly ancient — hundreds of years older than even Giza. There’s graffiti on those pyramids that’s older than Rome.

Aside: And I remember walking with my friend Abdou, chatting about Zoser’s tomb, and catching a millisecond glimpse of something that instantly registered as total vastness, over my shoulder. I turned, and that was the best, most breathtaking view of the Sahara that I’ve ever seen. Mindbogglingly beautiful and overwhelming.

Anyway. So I was excited to find that they’ve uncovered a new pyramid in Saqqara, that they believe belonged to Queen Sesheshet — the mother of Teti I. They’ve been finding more ruins, as they dig away the sand that was casually dumped just anywhere, by early explorers. This one’s not nearly as old as some, but that means there are a few seriously gorgeous engravings and paintings still intact.

Look. I love that this guy’s expression is like, “I KNOW!!”