The future is now. The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, makes a holographic appearance. It would have been just that much cooler if he wore a Darth Vader costume.

Filmwise has put up a new "Invisibles" quiz - #18: Those Darn Kids. I got 6 out of 8 correct - see how you do.

"Thankfully no-one was seriously harmed during the filming."

My mother outed me in the Walmart checkout line on Sunday.

We were being rung-up and she started talking to me about the most recent X-Files episode she had seen. She's just now starting to get into the show, after 7 and a half years. She always thought it was "like that Star Trek show", which she never really liked. "It's not all about aliens," she tells me. Thanks, Mommy.

So anyway, there we are in the checkout line and she's gabbing about whatever it was she saw. The cashier asks, "What show are you talking about?" Now, I wouldn't exactly say 'we' were talking about anything; a better description would have been that my mother was talking to the back of my head as I placed the bagged items in our shopping cart. As comfortable as I claim to be in my geeky x-files skin, there are just times when I rather that geekiness not be broadcast to the entire world.

Next thing I know, my mother and the cashier are in the throes of a very LOUD conversation - not only about The X-Files, but about my involvement in it. A couple of examples from my mother's mouth:

"She e-mails with the smoking man, you know. Mhm."

"She has every episode on tape, you know. Mhm."

Things are a blur after that. I have a vague recollection of grabbing my mother's shirtsleeve and pulling her away from the cashier as I launched into a sprint for the door.

Well, Whadya Know

Why do tennis balls feel fuzzy?

Tennis balls aren't completely bald for two reasons. The fuzz
is there, for one thing, to slow it down. You might find that
hard to believe had you ever had to receive a cannonball
serve from John McEnroe, but there you are. It facilitates
rallies by increasing wind resistance and preventing the ball
from leaving the stadium on one bounce.

The fuzz also increases racket control by holding the ball
against the strings for just a fraction of a second longer
than would happen with a smooth ball.

[source: Just Curious Jeeves by Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett]

If all the blood vessels in your body were laid end to end
they would span the globe. But were this done, I doubt that
you would be in the mood to appreciate it.

If surgeons removed one of your kidneys, a lung, your spleen,
much of your liver, and more than half your intestines, you
could still live. But it wouldn't make you the best doubles
partner for tennis.

[source: 2201 Fascinating Facts by David Louis]

Hallelujah, Praise the Lord and Pass the Advil!!

Hungover.net rates your favorite poison, allows you to test your memory and win a t-shirt and offers a number of cures, from freaky to classic.

Could this be My Left Foot?

What sounds like science fiction was all too real for Dawn Becerra, who found a parasitic worm lodged in her brain after eating a pork taco while vacationing in Mexico.

I get a daily and a weekly horoscope e-mail from astrocenter.com. I read this in my weekly horoscope when I got into work this morning:

"Mars sextiles Uranus on Tuesday"

!!

I better watch my back today.

"Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness, I'll love you with all the madness in my soul..."

I watched the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert on HBO last night. It was exceptional, but can I just tell you how supremely weird it was to see The Sopranos's Sylvio (Steven Van Zandt) up there on stage rockin' out in his full Rock 'n Roll Pirate Regalia? Springstreen lived up to his reputation as the hardest working man in rock 'n roll, and the encore performance of "American Skin" (about the NYPD shooting of Amadou Diallo) was riveting. Especially since the venue was Madison Square Garden.

Well, Whadya Know

How did that silent "b" get into the word "debt?"

I always had my doubts about silent letters, especially when
a teacher offered to help me remember them with a mnemonic.
Trying to get the spelling of "debt" right made me feel
particularly dumb. In that I may have had something in common
with the people of thirteenth century England, who
couldn't leave well enough alone.

You see the word, which came into English with the Norman
Conquest two centuries earlier, was originally spelled "det."
It came from the French word, "dette," meaning, well, you
know. In jolly Olde England they just loped off the last "e"
and totaled one of the "t's." So far, I like it.

But then the pedants got at it. They did a little research,
discovered that the French word came from the Latin,
"debita," and in the thirteenth century upgraded the English
version. For kids learning spelling, it's been tough going
ever since.
[source: Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and
Mary Morris]

Here are a couple of recent articles from salon.com that I really enjoyed.

In the first, entitled "I Hate TV", a TV critic, same as age me and raised on the boob tube, talks about cutting the cord.

The second, "Faith in the Baby", is a mother's heart-breaking and heart-warming look back on her years raising a mentally retarded son. It's not sappy or sentimental, but it still had me weepy in spots.

Ladies and Gentleman, my new homepage. For now.

Cutey pie.

And in other Litigious News...

This is unbelievable. The Chicago-based American Italian Defense Association is suing Time-Warner, the company behind HBO and The Sopranos, claiming that "the program violates the Illinois Constitution's guarantee of individual dignity."

The Sopranos is a show about men in the Mafia in Northern Jersey and how their mobster lifestyles affect those around them. The show has never claimed to depict the quintessential American Italian experience.

I feel far more insulted by the American Italian Defense Association that they would imply that I could be so easily influenced and have so little mind of my own that I would think that every single Italian-American is a gangster because I watch The Sopranos.

I added my DeadAlive commentary to the ex post facto page.

With a new X-Files episode also comes a review from George and Mike, those Xcursions Guys.

My horoscope from The Onion:

Cancer: (June 22--July 22)
You will inspire a disappointing, half-hearted Lifetime Channel original movie after waking from an eight-hour coma.

I knew it!

Okay, I think I have found a new favorite site! Filmwise looks like the ultimate site for a movie freak like me. And it looks like they have some great quizzes, especially the Invisibles. I'm going to waste some precious time there.