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Word Spy is a fun site tracking “recently coined words and phrases, old words that are being used in new ways, and existing words that have enjoyed a recent renaissance. These aren’t ‘stunt words’ or ‘sniglets,’ but new words and phrases that have appeared in newspapers, magazines, books, press releases, and Web sites.” Anyway, among the recent entries is “poo X,” referring to the newly fashionable practice of breeding poodles with other breeds of dogs. This results in horrible names like “Schnoodles, Labradoodles, goldenpoos, peke-a-poos, Jack-a-poos and Scoodles,” and some weird-looking dogs, I’m sure. Those dogs are so going to get beat up…

Last week I mentioned the backlash towards France’s unwillingness to back any resolution authorizing force against Iraq, resulting in the lame renaming of French Fries to “Freedom Fries” at restaurants around the nation. Well, the French have retaliated in this food fight, starting a website selling pretzels “for seven euros ($7.56) each, with one euro going to a children’s charity…before being sent to the White House in a historic mass action.” Although my natural tendency is to ridicule the French because they usually deserve it for one reason or another, I definitely give them credit for making fun of W in such a clever fashion. Now stop being such assholes!

“The Czech National Theater said on Monday it was working on an opera to commemorate the surprise gold medal victory of the Czech men’s Olympic ice hockey team in Nagano in 1998.” Must…stifle…hate…of…Jagr. There, I mashed all of my negative feelings into a tiny little ball, to be released during my afternoon commute home. Beware of a Green Jetta on Route 235 at, oh, 4 o’clock today.

Sign the petition at originaltrilogy.com to convince George Lucas to release the original, theatrical release of the Star Wars trilogy on DVD, not just his remastered, bastardized version. Go ahead and put on your “director’s cut,” but please PLEASE let us see the originals on DVD!

Because apparently in this time of multiple international crises the federal government has nothing better to do, “U.S. government officials are discussing the current five-color terror threat alert system to determine whether… a slightly higher warning level [should] be added within orange if the U.S. begins military action against Iraq.” I so want to make fun of this mercilessly, but it’s really a sad indication of bureaucracy gone awry. Even a little change to this system means millions of dollars in publication, administration, and other associated costs. And as if that isn’t enough of a waste, precious time and resources are being diverted to work on an endeavour that will ultimately mean little to the average citizen, and more than likely will confuse people on what is already (justly) perceived as a capricious and arbitrary system.

Update: After consulting my box of Crayola Crayons (as I know W and Tom Ridge must do during their play dates high-level meetings), perhaps “Macaroni and Cheese” and “Atomic Tangerine” are appropriate replacements for the boring “Orange” level. See, I couldn’t resist making fun of this mercilessly 😉

Time for some Friday Flash Fun! Spacerunner is a simple, but strangely addictive game. Enjoy!

After three and a half years and “more than a million years of computation by more than 4 million computers worldwide, the SETI@home screensaver that crunches data in search of intelligent signals from space has produced a list of candidate radio sources that deserve a second look.” Although this is definitely a milestone, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the project is on the verge of a breakthrough in its search for extraterrestrial life. In fact, UC Berkeley physicist Dan Werthimer, SETI@home chief scientist, says, “I give it a one in 10,000 chance that one of our candidate signals turns out to be from ET.” Still, if nothing else, “SETI@home has performed the most sensitive and detailed SETI sky survey to date, has demonstrated the power of the Internet for doing scientific distributed computing, and has allowed the general public to participate directly in an exciting research project.”

After my two “pro-war” posts, I felt I needed to balance things out by making fun of W and the impending conflict. The latest set of cartoons at “Get Your War On” are hilarious.

I don’t want to make this page into a “pro-war” screed, but John McCain has a well-written editorial in support of the war in The New York Times.

In an op-ed article in New York Times, William Safire reveals some ulterior motives for France (and China and Syria) wanting to block the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq: “the three nations may not want the world to discover that their nationals have been illicitly supplying Saddam Hussein with materials used in building long-range surface-to-surface missiles.” Apparently, France and China have been using Syria as an intermediary for some time in order to supply Iraq with 99 percent unsymmetric dimethylhydrazine, an advanced misisle fuel, and HTPB, a transparent liquid rubber used as a binder for solid propellant whose sale to Iraq is specifically forbidden by the United Nations. If these allegations are common knowledge to arms dealers, as Safire suggests, then it provides some damning evidence, to say the least. Safire concludes, “This detail about the France-China-Syria-Iraq propellant collaboration makes for dull reading, but reveals some of the motivation behind the campaign of those nations to suppress the truth. The truth, however, will out.” Let’s hope so.