Open letter to Randall

Update: Some time after I wrote this rant, Randall went back and fixed the comic. A small victory for the Society for Spelling "Russell" Correctly. Yay!

The latest xkcd pushed one of my flame buttons:

Here's my responding post on the xkcd forum:

Re: "Fetishes" discussion

Post by bjimba on Wed Aug 27, 2008 1:01 am UTC

Et tu, Randall? Or should I say Randal?

95% of the people named Russell spell it with two L's, yet the rest of the world blindly goes on spelling it with one. What's up with that?

Leon Russell.
Bill Russell.
Rosalind Russell.
BERTRAND RUSSELL.
Gail Russell.
Kimberly Russell.
Jane Russell.
Ken Russell.
Kurt Russell.
Brian Russell. (He was my uncle. He was Potlatch the cook in "Charlie and the Lonesome Cougar".)
Lillian Russell.
Nipsey Russell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russel

I've been fighting this battle for 51 years. Can you tell?

Sincerely,
Jim "bjimba" Russell. With two L's.
http://bjimba.blogspot.com

Of course, aside from that, I love the concept of this comic. After all, I am a B.S. in Math.

Latest "In Contempt"

Kevin Moore's web comic, In Contempt, is frequently brilliant, but every once in a while, he really hits it out of the park.

Beatles on the shuffle

Sometimes, I think my music shuffle is messing with my head.

My entire music library is on disk now, and my computer randomly shuffles through the tunes. I don't categorize anything other than by artist name. So, I assume the computer does not know that, say, John Lennon has any connection with the Beatles.

The last four songs have been:

• The Beatles / Magical Mystery Tour
• Paul McCartney / Coming up (live version, from All the Best)
• John Lennon / Well well well (rehearsal version from a bootleg)
• The Beatles / You really got a hold on me (live from Stockholm, from Anthology 1

I'm going to have to look into the Python random routine, which the moosic player uses.

Sydney, Australia

We're here.

I'm sending this via an internet kiosk in the hotel, so I'll write more when I get home.

Ira Tucker

It's a common belief that deaths that affect you "come in threes". Now, here's my third obituary post in a row.

Ira Tucker, lead singer of the Dixie Hummingbirds, died on June 24th. He joined the gospel group in 1938, when he was 13. Think about this -- he was with the same singing group for sixty years. The Dixie Hummingbirds were a very important influence on American music. Even if you know very little about gospel, you've heard this man's voice, probably due to this song:

Tucker's obituary in the New York Times

George Carlin

Back in the day, we used to listen to comedy albums. Really. In the pre-videotape days, we'd gather together at someone's house and just listen to Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart, Cheech and Chong, or the incomparable George Carlin. Toledo Window Box was one of my favorites.

You got 24 odds and ends, on a table. 23 of them fall off. Whaddaya got, an odd or an end?

Thanks for the laughs, George.

The beat

Rest in peace, Bo.