I guess ‘people that look like their pets’ is now passe.  It’s now all about styling to look like your favorite Muppet.  And the comments to that post prove that Sam the Eagle really does have an odd sort of sex appeal.

Also in the news: Beaker’s rendition of Ode to Joy (below) has been nominated for Best Music Video in this year’s Webby Awards. Hopefully it won’t go to his head.

Even if it’s not your thing, it would be hard not to know that feng shui was out there.  For the Western world this fad turned trend has grown and twisted into all kinds of unpredictable permutations.  There is feng shui for your cat, feng shui for your office cubicle, and just about everything else you can think of to the total of more than 10,000 book entries on Amazon.

Early on there was a division between traditional Chinese orientation of the compass points (based on where the nasty, dusty desert was located etc.) and a revamp using a grid for the rest of the world based on where your front door is. Okay fine, modification and adaptation are all a part of living cultures.  But what about outer space?

Where is the book on feng shui for your space ship, space station etc.?  We can see from popular TV that when the basic feng shui rules are ignored, bad things happen.  Watch any original Star Trek episode and more than likely you’ll see some evil alien come through the door that is behind the captain’s chair (key rule, never sit with your back to a door.) Think about how the all white/silver (too yin) world of Buck Rogers worked out for him. And what about all that real clutter, a.k.a. space junk, out there? It’s starting to cause serious problems just like clutter in your closet back on Earth.

Part of the problem is figuring out  where exactly is North when you’re in space. Does it change depending on what planet you’re orbiting?  Do computer screens count as windows? How do you hang crystals or wind chimes in zero gravity? It’s time to start thinking about these things.  Like anything else it’s a lot easier to figure out up front than trying to retrofit something already built.

Whenever there’s upheaval in the news, and when isn’t there?, there’s something comforting in the black and white world of Benton Fraser, RCMP in the old series Due South
.  He always holds the door for women and stops his horse at a red light. It’s been a long time since it was on the air, so the styles are a bit retro now, but the stories are timeless in a quirky, offbeat way and there is a loyal cult following that shows no signs of dying out – see the Wikipedia entry for all the details.  Supposedly all the characters, no matter how brief the appearance, are named after Canadian historical figures, so see how many you know (Maggie Thatcher is the freebie.)

People think they’re being tolerant  of unusual names and being  multicultural by having enough spaces on the form and making a desperate attempt to sound things out without creating swear words inadvertently.  But what about people with well, funny names?  Legitimate, multi-generational family names like Pancake or Six? Turns out the discrimination is rampant and the jokes unending.  Being on Facebook is getting to be like having a social security number – hard to function in the modern world without it, but Facebook assumes these are fraudulent applications and makes the appeal process extremely unappealing.  Read the article in the Washington Post and if you are lucky enough to have a funny name, revel in it!