We're watching the roast of Flavor Flav on Comedy Central. Funneeee. Carrot Top's on now and he looks creepy. I forgot he was a prop comic.

The boys are watching the roast. I'm ignoring it for the most part and getting ready to go watch meteors.

Back about 13 years ago I went out to the boondocks with a roomie and various friends and camped so we could watch the Perseid meteor shower at night. Never managed to get anything decent captured on film, but there were some amazing trails right overhead. (We even saw halos around the actual meateors in a few cases.)

The SO's favorite was when he camped out at Chaco Canyon for the Perseids. He was alone in the middle of the desert, once populated by ancient Puebloans (who carved an incredibly accurate solar calendar spiral which still accurately calculates the equinoxes, the solstices, and the lunar 18 year (or whatever it was) cycle). He said it was an amazing experience.

I had hot chocolate and the feral kittens and we sat out in the back yard wrapped up in blankets and it was pretty awesome itself.

Cool website: Seventies Design

Cars, fashion, film/tv, furniture....

eta: Maybe Hec or someone else older than me can tell me - was Barbarella a big deal when it came out, or is it only in retrospect that its awesomeness became clear?

eta²: Also, what was the deal with plastic sphere furniture? Was it to trap naked chicks in them?

eta³: The fact that house interiors don't look like this is almost as tragic as our current lack of jet-packs and flying cars: [link]

Ooh, ooh, just got email from the craigslist lady. Her buyer backed out of the washer/dryer. It's a Kenmore HE3, gas dryer, electric washer, front-loaders. These are good, right? Can't find specifics since it's a 2-yr-old model, but I think at $800 it's a killer deal.

I gotta figure out where I'm gonna get the upfront cash (c'mon, bank!) but I think I gotta go for it, right?

Maybe Hec or someone else older than me can tell me - was Barbarella a big deal when it came out, or is it only in retrospect that its awesomeness became clear?

It was a hit, but not huge. Sort of a millstone around Jane's feminist credentials early on. It wasn't a big midnight movie, but did good biz on the college circuit and took off with video.

Also, what was the deal with plastic sphere furniture? Was it to trap naked chicks in them?

I think they had invented some new plastic injected moulding process that allowed for that stuff.

Incidentally, Douglas Coupland is totally into plastic.

I dig this Habittrail for humans.

Aha! The Mad Men production notes at their website make a big stink about using items which are exactly period for spring of 1960.

But they're using IBM Selectric II typewriters. (Greatest typewriter of all time, incidentally. I used one constantly in the pre PC years.) The first Selectric wasn't on the market until 1961. And the Selectric II didn't come along until 1971.

Of course I looked this all up on Wikipedia and somebody else already noted...

In the TV series Mad Men, which is set in the year 1960, Selectric typewriters are featured prominently on the secretaries' desks, even though they weren't introduced until 1961.

Per the discussion of animals and beds: Baby IN bed, dog ON bed. And another.

My dogs get on top of the comforter. It's what they do.