perfidy

I can't believe it's May. Which shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, as I can hardly believe it's Wednesday. My confusion is heightened, this week, by two shocking discoveries.

First, while watching The Big Lebowski at 2:00 in the morning I noticed something that I never saw the first dozen times I watched the film. The Dude's bowling shirt, on the back, says "Medina Sod." Which is odd, since there is a Medina Sod in Medina, Ohio, where I grew up. Apparently, there is also a rock band in Boston named Medina Sod, and of course you can get the obligatory Medina Sod replica bowling shirt to become, body and soul, just like the Dude.

The Akron Beacon Journal, once a fine paper that had the foresight back in the early nineties to register the "ohio.com" domain, has apparently decided that no, anywhere, will ever need to see an article that's more than six months old. So, I can't read the article written back in '08 that talks about the local connection to the Big Lebowski. I did glean, from Google's search page, that Medina Sod Farms did OK the use of their name in the film.

Weird to watch a film you've seen umpty-billion times, and belatedly realize that the shirts worn by a big chunk of the cast through much of the film have your home town's name on the back. Way to be alert. Even drunk, I should've noticed this sooner.

Second, as the father of young children, I have perforce been watching a lot of children's television. Granted, I don't pay a lot of attention, all the time. But I have come to enjoy Spongebob. I particularly like Plankton, who is touchingly, gleefully, and incompetently evil. But I discovered, when I glanced at the credits, that Mr. Krabs is the Kurgan. Yes, Clancy Brown - the evil immortal swordsman from the best movie of all time, The Highlander - is the voice talent for Mr. Krabs. My mouth just dropped. Now, I keep expecting Mr. Krabs to start screaming, "It's better to burn out, than to fade away... Another time, Highlander!"

It is a strange and beautiful world we live in.