A while ago, I came across an extremely cool website – it was an alphabetical list of animals and which zoos in the world had the species on display.  My computer since crashed, launching my previous list of bookmarked sites into a cyberspace void.  I’ve been trying to find this site again lately, but to no avail.  I know some fellow tangenteers are good at doing research and also like a good challenging hunt.  The prize?  Getting to use the list to locate the zoo of any animal species you wish 😉

Oh yeah – and you win my thank you.

I’ve been waiting to post until I catch up on reading my friends’ blogs, but I am realizing that if I do that I will never post.  Sorry Taylhis, Jamiahsh, JustJ, Whatever, and even MareMare whose blog I haven’t read in over a month!  Sigh… Where does the time go?  I have a couple of normal things I want to blog about, but that will have to wait as geek.com has just now posted on a third video from the maker of the car from the past we know as Herbie the Love Bug, Volkswagen.  They have decided to take up the cause of environmentalism and try to change people’s attitudes through what they call the Fun Theory.  A couple of weeks ago they started with trying to get people to burn their own energy by using the stairs instead of the escalator.  I remember my days of visiting malls and seeing the stairs used only infrequently when they were next to an escalator.  Often though, I would use the stairs simply because they were faster than waiting behind someone on the escalator.  Of course, if there was no one on the escalator I would climb up or down them like stairs to be even faster since the stairs were moving.  Anyway, see what they did in this video:

Next, they added something to a trash can to get more people to throw their litter away:

Just today I learned about their newest video.  This one involves a bottle collector, something I have yet to see around here.  For that matter, I don’t know of any sort of effort to collect recycling outdoors.  Many places like schools have some sort of indoor recycling of course, but that’s far from a large-scale municipal effort.  Is it just my area?  Surely we’re doing it somewhere in the US?  Of course, being a European company Volkswagen made these videos on the other side of the pond we know as the Atlantic Ocean, so it may well just be a European thing.  Meet the video game bottle collector:

The videos are actually larger than the small window we get here on Tangents, so you will probably want to click on them to open them up on their Youtube pages.

Yep… once again… an extra inning pitching duel.  Captain J started off the afternoon just after 4PM with a single homer.  A-Rod, Johnny D, and Posada added their own throughout the game.  However, single HRs often do not win games, correct?  I do think the Yanks went a bit too deep in the bullpen… but that is just a bit of armchair coaching.  Final: Yankees 4…Angels 5 in 12.  At least it was a late afternoon game unlike Saturday night into the wee hours of Sunday.  Game 4 Tomorrow Night 7:30… C.C. back on the hill!!!!!!!

The Bears are 3-0 on Sunday afternoon and 0-2 on Sunday night.  They played the Falcons this week – they lost.  What else needs to be said.  As always, since 1985, the Bears are inconsistent at best.

UGH!

We visited our local zoo this weekend (to feed my zoo addiction, it had been awhile), and when I  got home, as usual, I decided to research some of the animals we observed.  As I was researching these animals on the internet, I came across some ultra-cute baby animal pics, and I thought I might make a fun game on my blog of having people guess which animal is what type of baby – HAVE FUN!  Don’t worry about posting your guesses – other people can just ignore them or use them as hints if they get stuck.

Here is an added picture of the same type of animal, a little older – per a request in the comments for a better picture:

Now I want a sandwich.  I’m watching a show about sandwiches.  Roast beef of all kinds and now a ground beef sandwich that isn’t a burger.  It looks like a sloppy joe without the sauce.  Just cooked ground beef.  It looks good.   It is just amazing the number of ways you can make beef sandwiches.  On to Philly Beef Steaks and Hoagies.

I’m not sure how somebody got a job traveling around the country tasting various sandwiches.  Can I have that job.   Ok, maybe not.  Some of these sandwiches look just bad.

Now this got me thinking of my favorite sandwiches.  I’ve written about my comfort foods before, so I may have to give a list of just sandwiches.   I guess I’m thinking of things that you normally won’t find in restaurants.     I guess this week, I will try a few sandwiches and see what I like the best.

Ok, so who had a haunted house in their neighborhood when they were a kid?  For us, it was a haunted road located in a Chicago suburb about 15 minutes away from ours.  Actually, my group of friends were from a few different area high schools, and we  had all heard of Munger Road from kids at our schools.  Back in the ’90’s when such haunted tales were spun that made us actually want to visit, the road was a deceptively secluded partial dirt side street that ran through a forest preserve and connected two main thoroughfares.  At night, the road was dark, isolated, and spooky.  There were many rumors about the incidents that took place on Munger, but here is the basic story:  There was a little house right next to the railroad tracks.  The ghost story said that the man who lived in the house was mowing his lawn when he was hit by a train.  I can’t remember if the train supposedly derailed or if the man got too close or what happened, but his ghost was said to haunt this area, along with ghost trains.

It was a fun place for our group to check out while we were in high school, and we did note some strange happenings.  We would see mysterious headlights that would disappear (there was no place for a car to turn off the road!).  My friends had a police scanner in their car, aka, a fuzzbuster, and the thing would go berserk down Munger.  Because it was a dirt road, our cars would come out very dusty, but once there were distinct handprints on the trunk.  Now as an adult, I can think of scientific explanations for this, but at the time, it was scary!  There was also the time a cop came out of nowhere (we had been up and down the road several times and didn’t see him), pulled us over, but he was really nice about it and sent us on our way.  I found it odd at the time because we had about seven teenagers stuffed into my friend’s teeny little hatchback car, and the police officer didn’t even say anything about it, much less write us seatbelt tickets.  For months afterward, we would tell the story and call him ‘the Scooby Doo cop’.

In recent years, I’ve heard that the house has been torn down, and I wonder if kids still go there.  Unfortunately, there has been at least one homicide around the area of Munger Road, which adds a whole new element to the fright.  During our haunted house tour in Illinois the other weekend, we drove within yards of Munger, but we didn’t stop – we wanted to see haunted house attractions!  Besides, I don’t even know if the area has the same sort of spooky appeal it had over a decade ago now…

I’ve found a little bit about Munger on the internet, including these stories, but I have yet to add my own.  Maybe next time we’re in town we’ll drive by, just to see how the area has changed and what has become of Munger…

So it’s finally Halloween, time to share your own ghost story, or tales of rumored haunts near where you grew up.  Add them to the comments section below, and have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I could have used another more colorful metaphor to describe the announcing prowess of one of my oh, soooooo favorite commentators,  Joe Buck for FOX Sports is so one-sided, anti-Yankees that it is downright disgusting.  No where was this more true than in the bottom of the 10th inning of the still going on Game 2 of the ALCS.  What was a seemingly easy double play turned into an advanced runner to second and an out at first.  Funny that as the Angels had back-to-back picture perfect double plays.  And we go to inning 12 at 12:17AM after A-Rod ties the game at 3 all..

Ok… back to the failed double play.  The defensive player at second NEVER HAD HIS FOOT ON THE BASE.  What was worse is that he straddled to so blatantly… nowhere close. but yet he was shocked and Mike Scioscia, himself came out to argue the call.  So Mr. Buck argued that it was a gimme, neighborhood ball.  After the inning was complete and the game progressed, ol’ Joe made what for me was the closest he has ever come to a retraction.  Apparently, in the two other perfect double plays, the player indeed had his foot on the bag.

I have at times pushed the mute to silence the golden tones of the fine and talented broadcaster.  Really need to look into other means to listen to the games.

Now, we have the fifth pitcher for the Yanks coming up.  Apart from the announcing, it has been a dandy of a game.  The rain is starting to pick up so they better wrap it up soon.

4-3 in 13 innings.  The Yankees win!!!!!  ThAAAAAAAAAAAAA Yankees WIN!!!!  Off to the West!  Good night!

I will be in the company of two very lovely ladies this evening while I am entertained by the wonderful actors of the Williams County Community theater.

It was a wonderful evening that started with dinner at the local Mexican restaurant.  There was a time I could not say that in Williams County since there was more than one Mexican restaurant.  Now we just have one restaurant and a Taco Bell (which is not a Mexican Restaurant). Good food, good company, what more could you ask for.

Well, we went on to the theater and saw a wonderful show, that is what we could have asked for.  The Ohio part of my family was completed when my oldest daughter made it to the theater.

The show was “The Little Shop of Horrors”.  It should be known, that I loved the 1960 black and white movie.  I was not a fan of the 1986 musical version.  The play is what the 1986 movie is based on.  I was only looking to be impressed by the many people working on the show.  I did not think the show would impress me.  Happily, I was mistaken.  The show itself brought back many memories of the original 1960 show.  Of course, I still wonder why they had to add music, but that is me. 😉

The story was the one I remembered.  Mysterious, blood thirsty plant makes a small rundown flower shop a place to stop.  For me the sign of a good musical is that the music does not interfere with the story.   The three street urchins were a treat to watch and listen to.  If the rest of the show had been pedestrian, these three would have made the show.  They were that fun.  The actor playing Mister Mushnik was also very good in his role.   He had the worried shop keeper down to a ‘T’.   The actors playing Audrey and Seymour had very good chemistry and their acting and singing voices meshed well.  They were interesting and fun to watch.

Now on to Audrey II.  The voice and acting of the monstrous plant were two separate actors.  From what I saw, they must have put a lot of work into their performances.  Matching ‘mouth’ and plant movements to the words coming from offstage must have been a difficult timing situation.  I saw this performance two times this weekend, and I was impressed both times.  Again a plus to the show.

Now those who know the show and have seen it on stage before may have noticed I missed a character or two (5+???) .  One final actor played the remaining roles.   I was very impressed.  Many different characters from one actor.  He made each and every character different from the others.  Even though everyone in the audience could tell that this was the same actor, he impressed me with the talent he displayed on each character.  That and being able to sing while pretending to be under the influence of laughing gas… Wow!!

I wish I would have been able to see this show the first weekend.  I would have loved to give my opinion to others who were still wondering if they should see it.  From what I could tell, it almost sold out the last weekend.  A good turnout for a wonderful show.

tonight after watching the Bombers take game one in the ALCS thanks in no small part to C.C. Sabathia’s excellent pitching plus some errors in the field by the Angels, I watched my latest DVD rental.  I have never seen a Sam Raimi  directed effort apart from the blockbuster Spider-Man films.  Apparently, he was well regarded as a low-budget horror maker and made his return to the genre last year in the aptly titled, Drag Me to Hell. This decidedly B-movie was equal parts fright, gore, and humor (mainly from some of the ridiculous situations, but I think this was the intent… not taking itself too seriously).

The film follows a bank loan employee who is a possible candidate for a promotion to assistant manager.  Christine is approached by an elderly gypsy woman (complete with a creepy glass eye) who is in need of an extension on her delinquent mortgage payment.  When the request is denied, the old beggar woman takes it quite personally and places an evil spirit upon our heroine and (you guessed it) strange, horrific things begin to happen that only Christine is witness to.

Christine’s boyfriend, Clay, is skeptical to say the least.  However, he does accompany her to a psychic who knows how to rid the woman of her problem before she is literally… well… you know dragged to hell.  Goofy, yes but is there a b-grade horror film that isn’t?  Plus, you get to see the wide acting ability of Justin Long who you may remember  from the live-action Alvin and the Chipmunks…. so maybe not so much since he was the voice of Alvin.