Wow, it’s all about sheds. In the UK, where a shed is really a shed.

On of the postcards in the Lileks feature mentioned previously is Fjord’s Smorg-ette. Which of course reminds me of Roy’s Western Smorgy still operating in Richland, WA.

With the help of modern research techniques, here are some other extant Smorgs:
Sampan Chinese Smorgy (Stockton CA)
Perry’s Smorgy Restaurant (2 locations in Honolulu HI)
King’s Smorgi Restaurant (Roseville CA)
Peking Smorgi (Merced CA)
Wang’s Smorge (Modesto CA)

And the Smorgasbords (with a few Smorgasboards thrown in)
Diner’s Smorgasbord (2 locations in CA)
Smorgasboard (Reseda CA)
Two Tony’s Smorgasbord (Carmi IL)
Charlie’s Smorgasbord (Vincennes IN)
Knotty Pine Smorgasbord (Lebanon IN)
Paul Revere Smorgasbord (Ocean City MD)
Sveden House Smorgasbord (St Clair Shores MI)
Homer’s Original Smorgasbord (Cincinnati OH)
Kay’s Smorgasbord (Oil City PA)
Miller’s Smorgasbord (Ronks PA)
Shady Maple Smorgasbord (East Earl PA)
Duff’s Famous Smorgasbord (Pigeon Forge TN and Richmond VA)
Hermitage House Smorgasbord (Nashville TN)
George Washington Smorgasbord (Williamsburg VA)
Smorgasboard Restaurant (Barboursville WV)

Lileks hits the nail on the head (again): “But the pedestrian artifacts of yesterday take on extra meaning when the pedestrian artifacts of the present tend to suck.” This is from his new series on postcards from restaurants.

This morning on the way out to the garage, I saw two brown rabbits on the lawn. Cute!

Artist and knitter Hildur Bjarnad

I wish my workplace had slang as cool as this.

If any DVD release called for a theme party, this is it: ABC’s After School Specials!

I found the 2001 Futurama calendar, so I’m adding on to the Calendar Bonus Feature from previous:

Growing Up in Tier 3000 by Felix C. Gotschalk
The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
The Anti-Death League by Kingsley Amis
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
The Funhouse by Benjamin Appel
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Earthman, Come Home by James Blish
Free Zone by Charles Platt
Quarantine by Greg Eagan
Up the Line by Robert Silverberg
Steel Beach by John Varley
Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
Dragon Masters by Jack Vance
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
The Zen Gun by Barrington J. Bayley
The Drive In 2: Not Just One of Them Sequels by Joe R. Lansdale
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
The Movement of Mountains by Michael Blumlein
Halo by Tom Maddox
The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess
Bill, The Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison
Crashcourse by Wilhelmina Baird
Immortality, Inc by Robert Sheckley
Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

So I runs acrosst this mention of “Home Children” in Canada: more than 100,000 children sent to Canada during the Child Emigration Movement. I think, “Child Emigration Movement?” Sure enough, there’s a whole history of settling the colonies with orphan (or as orphan as they needed to be) children.

Many of the children were sent to “farm schools,” which lends a whole spooky air to the day care I attended of the same name (they had a sheep and some chickens).