Dave's Blog

United Breaks Guitars

Have you seen this video yet? Apparently this guy watched United Airlines baggage handlers being rough with the luggage (sound familiar?) and had his fears confirmed on arriving at his destination and found that his expensive guitar was broken. United refused to pay for it, so he wrote this great, funny, good-natured song, made a video, and posted it on YouTube. Four million views later, United had a major public relations fiasco on its hands. I find that deeply satisfying on so many levels, which include the power of music, creativity, social media websites like YouTube, and the little guy over the mega corporation. Yay!

Kubb

I may be repeating myself here (I'm too lazy to check back through my blog archives), but I love Kubb. What is Kubb, you ask? Basically, it's a yard game that involves tossing dowels at blocks and trying to knock them over (Google it). I know, it doesn't sound like that much fun, but I'm here to tell you that to try it is to like it. Everyone I've introduced it to wants to play again and again, and many have bought or made their own sets.

I first came upon Kubb while walking around Lake Harriet in the middle of February, 2008. A bunch of people were gathered on the ice out in the middle of the lake, so I went out to investigate, and here is what I found (see pic below). I pulled up a beer and a brat (friendly folks, them Kubbers) and started hurling lumber. Before I went to bed that night, I'd ordered my first Kubb set online.

I've played on sand, snow, grass and asphalt and always had a great time. This weekend I played with a bunch of kids in the summer sunset and had trouble getting my game back when it was too dark (for me, at least) to play.

You gotta love a game that you can play while holding your baby...

Sweet Tri... Um... Quadcycle?

As seen in a Canal Park antique store in Duluth for a pretty penny (I think like $500.00). Check out the belt drive... smooth!

One Week Ago Today

...I rode my bike this far in about eleven hours. And then I laid down and whimpered.

Lake Creature, Part 3

Alright, I know I'm belaboring this Lake Creature thing, but I just want to show you the photo I snapped last night at sunset to show how real she looks in the twilight. You know, the thing I just love about this is the surprise factor, the way the installation happened almost like a practical joke, or a really great graffito, or a flashmob, or something like this.

Naughty Spoonerisms

Over on the Magpo Facebook page (come be a fan and join the discussion!), I'm trying to get people to send me their favorite Spoonerisms. Spoonerisms are where you interchange phonemes in two different words (usually the first consonant or syllable), such as Jude Law/Lewd Jaw, or Son of God/Gun of Sod. You know the deal. The best use of Spoonerisms, in my opinion, is when they are implied within a poem that is meant to make you slip up and say something dirty. Like the classic "I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit." My Grandma loved that one, and taught it to us kids at a very tender age. But her (and my) favorite was:

I'm not the fig plucker,
Nor the fig plucker's son,
But I'll pluck your figs
'Til the fig plucker comes.

Now that's what I call poetry! Got any good naughty Spoonerism poems? Share!

Lake Creature, Part 2

Interesting piece explaining the sudden, unheralded appearance of the creature of Lake Harriet. Check it out.

By the way, there is a "name the creature" contest, and I just made a submission: Summer.

Lake Creature

This creature appeared in Lake Harriet last week. The first time I saw it, riding my bike past at sunset, it looked startlingly real. Here's the website.

Wanna be Facebook Friends?

So, I've posted a Magpo Facebook page that I intend to start maintaining a little more vigilantly. And I'd love it if you "became a fan," as it were. Haven't gone Twitter yet (well, I've got an account, but I never really do anything with it). Anyway, come on over and join the discussion, meager as it is so far. Let's talk and laugh about words and language and stuff!

The Devil's Kettle

I was up in Grand Marais on a family camping trip, where we hiked up to see The Devil's Kettle, which is a pretty mind-blowing feature near the end of the Brule River... half the river falls into a hole and disappears. Nobody knows where the water goes. From Atlas Obscura:

"There is a mysterious waterfall in Judge Magney State Park in Minnesota. Half of the water drops 50 feet into the Brule river; the other half falls into a cauldron and disappears! Dyes and ping pong balls have been dropped into the pothole in an attempt to trace its route and find its outlet--presumably the water winds its way underground to Lake Superior a mile away--but the other end of the Devil's Kettle has yet to be found. "