Realm of the Wombat

If you would have told me that at the end of April, the A’s would have one starting pitcher with a winning record, the lowest batting average in the league, and suffered injuries to Harden, Street, Crosby, Bradley, and Loaiza, I’d tell you that the A’s were in trouble.

If you would have told me that at the end of April, Eric Chavez and Nick Swisher were on fire, Frank Thomas had played almost every game, and the bullpen was as dominating as ever, I’d tell you that they were running away with the division.

Fitting then that at the end of April, they sit at 12-12.

Today’s must read: Creighton sophomore pitches both right- and left-handed

Does this make sense to anyone? A penny costs 1.4¢ to produce.

I’ve seen this van a few times, always on near the Berkeley marina or Albany waterfront, appropriately enough. It’s not as vibrant as this sea-scape van, but I’m happy to bring it into the fold.

See more pictures of the Ford Econoline…

Glad we’re all serious about energy reform in this country: the Speaker of the House’s opinion of hydrogen powered vehicles

As a side benefit of seeing the Life Sized Mouse Trap show, I scoped out this minivan accross the street. This is one of the most intricate and detailed vehicles I’ve seen. It seems to be a model of the SF Bay Area sprawled over the surface of the van. I couldn’t find my house, but an impressive display nonetheless.

See more pictures of the Dodge Caravan…

As soon as I found out about this show, I knew we were going. Who could resist seeing a life sized version of the board game Mouse Trap? The show started with a performance by the Oakland based gothic jazz act Knees and Elbows, which Melissa thoroughly enjoyed, and I thought was a lounge act from hell. Then it was time for the main event. One member of the Mouse Trap team was running around in a pink bunny suit with an army hat on telling everyone, “It will never work!” in a German accent. There was some worry that he would be right, but the contraption worked like a charm, definitely better than the small version. This goes down with the Mystery Spot as $5 well spent.

More pictures can be found at Laughing Squid’s flickr page and there’s a video from a previous performance at the official site. This most certainly belongs on Roadside America, but sadly it seems like there may not be any more shows.

See more pictures from the Life Size Mouse Trap show…

Today’s must read: Steroids! The Musical

The price for seeing a movie at the theater goes from $8.75 to your life.

Ok, this is something I probably should have been able to figure out without the help of the internets, but today, PBR said “niner,” and I started wondering why pilot types say nine that way. “Niner” is the pronunciation of nine in the unambiguous NATO phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc.). Other numbers with designations other than their english pronunciations are three (”tree”) and five (”fife”).

The Wikipedia page has many more interesting facts about the NATO phonetic alphabet.

A book where a major storyline is the investigation of a stolen donut is a special thing. The scary part is that this is based on an actual incident at Hewlett-Packard. The rest of the novel doesn’t draw as literally from Max Barry’s time at the computer giant, but what does it say about HP when Zephyr Holdings (the company in Company) has no product, no customers, and seemingly no purpose?

Max Barry is making a pretty nice life for himself (and family) satirizing the corporate world, and Company’s imaginative scenario is equal in stature to his two prior novels. The execution here is good, but not quite to the level of Syrup and Jennifer Government, which are still enjoyable after multiple readings.

Max has set up a website, Tales of Corporate Oppression, for stolen-donut-type tales from the office.

I sort of missed the boat on Bloc Party. Last year’s single Banquet garnered quite a bit of attention, but then I read a misleading review and passed on Silent Alarm. Anyway, I finally gave Bloc Party another chance, and it’s better than I rememeber. Does it live up to last summer’s hype? Pitchfork thinks so, AllMusic gave it four stars, and I think the first half is solid, the second half, pretty mediocre. If you’re into Franz Ferdinand, give it a shot.