Old Favorites

In my time Before Blogging (BB), I had a definite websurfing routine. It involved going first to check out the news, weather, and sports, and then I went to a couple of sites that were funny and checked them out. After a while, this got somewhat boring, and so I started branching out a bit more. The first place I ever ventured off the Beaten Path was to the Obscure Store, which remains one of my very very favorites. I read a few blogs at first, and always have enjoyed the idea of someone going through all the weird pages on the web for me so I didn’t have to. As for how I took up blogging myself; well, I used to email links I found to Maggie and other people, and at some point I figured it would be about as much effort to just code those on a website instead of emailing them out. I was wrong, but that’s how this site you are reading came to be.


Anyway, I thought it would be fun to find some of the links I used to check out on a regular basis but now forget to, because I am more busy, if not focused, with my Web Time. First and foremost on the list has to be the News of the Weird site. This site comes out with new material every Monday (or so) and I’ve even had an item or two used in it. I am especially fond of the weird search engine, where you may enter in any term to search through the database. I suggest you enter in your city or state. Consider this:

1997 -- A 21-year-old, allegedly intoxicated man was spotted by police on an Austin, Minn., street in January urinating on a car but was let go with a warning when he persuaded police it was his own car. A few minutes later police returned and arrested the man for DUI, having figured out that he was urinating on the car's door lock to melt the ice so that he could get in and drive away.

Next up is the Straight Dope site, which answers stupid and not-so-stupid questions about various things. Vastly entertaining. Of course there is the Onion, but everyone goes there. Except maybe my mom. Maybe that’s because she still doesn’t know what a beeyotch is. I always ended up my weeks with Friday’s edition of the Economist, which is the place hippies love to hate. Nothing worse than good economics! Well, and news. It’s one of the few places that will report on the 2/3 of the world that the US media ignores. Also out on Fridays is Failure magazine, which more often reports on things that aren’t failures than things that are, but it’s entertaining nonetheless.

How do I know so much about Art?

Answer: I have a bachelor’s degree. In ART! Similarly, Dr. Science may not really be a doctor, but he knows his science. Remember, he has a Master’s degree. IN SCIENCE! Dr. Sciences’ whois page is really funny. It starts out:

For a man who weighs over 300 pounds, who is well past the prime of his life, who has neither bathed nor dabbled in social intercourse for over a decade, Dr. Science is surprisingly normal.

Maggie sent that page to me. She knows I love Dr. Science because I used to listen to Dr. Demento. Rhyming with that, she did a new review earlier this week on Memento. Read it if you haven’t already.

An update on Courtney Love’s fight against the record labels. Via MeFi.