Going, going...gone

This was a bittersweet day for NY Mets fans as Shea Stadium, opened in 1964, was torn down to make way for shiny, new Citi Field. I grew up with Shea and loved it as much as any inanimate object not named GI Joe, right down to the Home Run Apple (which, if you don't know, is a large apple that came out of a top hat when a Met hit a home run -- silly, but it was our silly, second only to "Bernie Brewer" sliding into a giant stein of beer in Milwaukee).

Of course, I didn't realize how brutally ugly Shea was until I started seeing other ballparks around the country. And boy, was it ugly, with the deafening sound of planes taking off and landing at nearby LaGuardia throughout every game.

But it was the magical place where I got to witness Doc Gooden chalk up 16 K's, the inaugural interleague game against the Red Sox, and even the Police in concert with REM opening for them.

So, I will miss you Shea Stadium, warts and all.

Reason #871 to hate heavy metal...AND Jersey

JERSEY CITY (WABC) -- A chunk of burning hot metal crashed through the roof of a Jersey City business this morning, and it wasn't immediately clear where it came from.

The hunk of mystery metal made a two-foot square hole in the roof of the business, Al Smith Moving at 33 Pacific Avenue, at around 9 a.m.

The metal has two holes in it and was reportedly so hot that workers at the business couldn't touch it for a half hour.

Nobody inside the business was injured.

In 2007, a mysterious piece of metal landed in a Bayonne home.

Aliens 2, New Jersey 0 - Garrito

Found: Patty O'Furniture's long lost brother

That's right, it's good ol' Phil McCracken, he of prank phone call fame. Of all places, I found proof of his existence in Seattle's Lake View Cemetery...mere yards away from Bruce Lee's grave! I was there in '05 snapping photos, when I looked down and saw his famous moniker etched on top of a tombstone. A little research (Wikipedia) shows that Phil's actually a noted sculptor (who knew?!) who has exhibited in places like the Smithsonian. Yeah, that Smithsonian. Makes me wish I had actually taken notice of his work, instead of focusing on his awesome name. Now, has anyone seen Mike Hunt?

©2009 Garrito

Art is creepy

I took in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art last week. Not all that impressive. This piece was interesting, in a nightmarish way, but then I kept having to turn around to see if it was following me.

©2009 Garrito

Less Cramp-ed

Lux Interior, the lead singer of The Cramps, was admitted to rock'n'roll (well, rockabilly) heaven today. I thought some bikini girls would be a good send-off.

This is a tram HOW?

This photo I took of Portland's Aerial Tram (while driving!) got me wondering why they didn't call it what it is: a gondola. "Aerial Tram" sounds like it came from the same geniuses who brought us "Sky Bus". It's a plane. A plane! (No, that's not my Herve Villechaize impersonation.)

©2009 Garrito

Digging for gold

Not since Seinfeld's "it wasn't a pick, it was a scratch" incident has an object on a fingernail caught people's attention. Here we see Cipto Purnomo of Indonesia showing off the 24-carat gold, 7.5mm-tall statue of Buddha he created, weighing 1.5g. Via BBC News:

So this rabbi walks into a bar...

Oy vey, this is funny. Thanks to CT for sharing.

Night of the Living...Roadkill?!

My guess is you can't be charged with vehicular undeadmanslaughter.

Sacrificial Lamb: now in goat flavor

LAGOS (Reuters) – Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

"We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat," he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

Somebody hates sand traps more than me

I play golf (badly). Believe me, there's nothing worse than ending up in the bunker, even more so if your iron weighs over 1000 lbs. Bet this guy wishes he could have a mulligan.