a hurricane of yuck

Zyzzyva is an American weevil (a type of beetle). The word zyzzyva is the last word in many English dictionaries so it is sometimes used to mean "the last word." This is why the magazine ZYZZYVA has the slogan "The Last Word." ZYZZYVA is a journal of West Coast writers and artists published out of San Fransisco since 1985 and edited by Howard Junker.

The Triassic period lasted from about 250 million years ago to about 200 million years ago and was a transitional period betwen the Paleozoic Era and Mesozoic Era. At the beginning of the Triassic, the world land masses were still joined as one in a formation we know as Pangea. By the end of the Triassic and the beginning of the Jurassic, Pangea had begun breaking up. The Triassic ended with a major extinction event that was especially severe on ocean species. The Triassic was especially transitional for life on Earth as many old species died out and newer species came into existence. While it wasn't until the extinction of the dinosaurs much, much later that mammals really flourished, it was at the very end of the Triassic that the first mammals began to appear. The Triassic was the beginning of the "Age of Reptiles."

See also: Bush Administration, Nazi Germany

Demagogy is the political practice of preying on the public's fears and prejudices to gain political power or achieve a political objective. Demagogy generally isn't so much outright lying as much as it is logical fallacies, half-truths, omissions, distortions, distractions, nationalistic rhetoric, false dilemmas ("Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."), and/or demonization/scapegoating.

Adolf Hitler is generally regarded as the epitome of a demagogue.

The Blue Berets is the popular name for the Civil Air Patrol Special Service Corps (CAPSCC), which started as a group of senior and cadet CAP members training in search and rescue and wilderness survival. The program eventually grew into more of a "ranger training" program and airshow team. The Civil Air Patrol (CAP), for those who don't know, is the Air Force Auxiliary.

I was once a member of CAP, mostly because my pepere was and I wanted to be in the Air Force and CAP like him so I signed up. While I never was a Blue Beret (by then it was just about dead because of some folks who got big heads and started hazing and generally being big shot asshats that screwed it up for others), I did take search and rescue (SAR) training as well as wilderness and winter survival training when I was in junior high school and high school. I never got to serve on a SAR mission because the one time our unit was called upon to help with a plane crash in Nashua, my family's phone was disconnected and they were unable to reach me. I was required to maintain a specific set of gear and keep it ready at all times in case I was called for a SAR mission. I would occasionally have to bring it for inspection. I was certified for search and rescue, wilderness survival, winter survival and the detection of radioactive materials.

That last one was a fun one. We were meeting at the National Guard Armory by then and FEMA came in to train a bunch of us. After a good portion of the day was spent reading up on radioactive materials and how to properly detect, locate and secure a contaminated site, we were tested. The instructors tested us by clearing us out of the room, bringing in several cannisters (only a couple of which contained trace amounts of radioactive materials, enough to set off a Geiger counter) and then one-by-one sending us in to find the contaminated cannisters. I don't recall how well I did on the test, only that I was certified to help on a SAR mission involving radioactive materials.

I remember the encampment stories about The Blue Berets and the hazing. I recall one or two of the members of our unit either being Blue Berets (wasn't Hodges?) or at least recalling their attempts at becoming Blue Berets. I had this combination of fascination with the prospect of becoming a Blue Beret and this simultaneous disgust for the apparent machismo in the stories told of them, as I recall, though I admit this could be muddled by my maturity since then and I could have very well aspired to be one whole-heartedly.

I eventually listened to too much John Lennon and turned all hippy peacenik, grew my hair long and quit Civil Air Patrol my sophomore or junior year of high school. My biggest regret was that I no longer got to continue my SAR and survival training and I didn't get to complete my aviation training to get my pilot license.

Rowan Atkinson is a comedic genius. It is truly astounding how well he can convey so much with simple body language and motion and so few words through Mr. Bean and also his character in the movie Rat Race. The influence Charlie Chaplin had on his comedy is very apparent. I also thoroughly enjoy his dark, dry wit apparent in the Blackadder series and his stand-up material.

I was extremely disappointed in the first Bean movie because it was very much America taking something British and ruining it by assuming Americans were too dumb to enjoy it, plus adding in the assumption that no one had seen Mr. Bean here and so most of the gags were watered down retellings of the episodes. Maybe I just watched too much PBS growing up? *shrug* I was very much fond of the new Bean movie because they let Rowan Atkinson write a whole new Bean story as a feature length film, which is precisely what a Bean movie should be. It was like watching a much longer, bigger budget Bean episode, which made me very, very happy.

I don't know much about poodles except that for the longest time I thought toy poodles were poodles and was surprised to learn one day that actual, honest-to-goodness poodles are freaking huge!

When I was younger, we used to frequently visit my Grandpa and Grammy in Caanan, NH, where they lived, ran a store and had a toy poodle named Coco. I used to love spending time with my grandparents and Coco and I still have fond memories of her. I remember how my Grandpa used to feed her the occasional nibble of a Hershey bar, which I later learned is actually bad for dogs. Coco used to always have a bow on her head and my Grammy would always paint her nails. It was actually quite adorable! I was very sad when she passed away, but she was quite old and she had a full and wonderful life with my grandparents. I think my Mom still has a photo of Coco to this day.

Swiped from vireo_blues:

1. It begins with a list of all 26 letters of the alphabet.
2. Comment with something for me to talk about that starts with one of those letters. Make me babble about anything -- TV shows, actors, actresses, food, discover what I really think about stuff!
3. One topic per letter -- I don't care how many letters you pick! I will update the list as topics appear.
4. You can comment multiple times, but only if the letter you chose hasn't already been taken.
5. I will post a new post for each topic talking about all 26 topics given to me.

Anything's fair game.

A is for Afterlife
B is for The Blue Berets
C is for Catamount
D is for Demagogy
E is for Event Horizon (not the movie)
F is for Fantasy World
G-
H is for Hawayo Takata
I-
J-
K-
L-
M is for Medieval Warfare
N is for Nyquist Sampling
O is for Oort Cloud
P is for Poodles
Q is for Quantum Physics
R is for Rowan Atkinson
S is for Sushi
T is for Triassic
U is for The Unknown
V-
W is for Wham!
X is for Xiphosuran (yeah I could have taken H for a similar result, but why be that specific?)
Y is for Yak
Z is for Zyzzyva