I yoinked this from some guy’s blog … I’m just going to shamelessly quote his entry (fair use, etc., etc.) since he did a great job:

The hottest thing in German music right now is a 4-year-old girl’s made-up song about a crocodile.

Joy Gruttman’s song, “Snappy the Little Crocodile” (“Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil”), is the No. 1 song on the German charts. Her family posted the song on a Web site as a joke, but a radio station in Cologne, Germany, got hold of it and made it a hit.

Gruttman is the youngest recording artist to make it to the German Top 10, let alone No. 1. “Snappy” beat out songs by Kylie Minogue and Linkin Park. The song is even appearing as remixes in German dance clubs.

http://213.158.118.36/schnappi/

Download the MP3 now. It’s better than badgers and Kenya (mirror).

EDIT: Looks like here’s the official site.

Update, March 2005: The original site and MP3 download links have been down for a while. If you still want to download the music, you can get the .torrent file from mininova and download it with a BitTorrent client. Personally, I use Azureus.

Update, March 21, 2005: The BitTorrent link is no longer working. Rather than continuing to update this old entry, I’ve posted a new one with a eDonkey2000 download link for the “Schnappi das kleine Krokodil MP3”.

So, for work, I travel from New Jersey down to Virginia — I fly out of KTEB (Teterboro) into KIAD (Dulles). Today, the winds were ferocious and I was due to return. I’d gone to the airport, they boarded us and we taxied up to the runway — it was 4:30 PM. Then, we were told we had to wait, perhaps up to an hour. Maybe 30 minutes later, we were told that there was “an incident” at Teterboro and that we would be going back to the airport and getting off the plane.

Well, I was finally able to find some news that explained what that “incident” was on 1010wins.com :

Winds gusting as high as 50 miles per hour damaged a school, felled trees and knocked out power to thousands of homes across the state Wednesday and may have been a factor in an aircraft accident at Teterboro Airport, authorities said.

A Gulfstream IV twin engine jet carrying two crew and seven passengers slid off the end of the runway as it was landing at Teterboro in blustery conditions shortly after 4:30 p.m. No injuries were reported.

The plane hit some trees at the end of Runway 24, but did not catch fire, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The extent of damage, the origin of the flight, and the operator were not immediately known, authorities said.

The airport in Bergen County was temporarily closed and traffic was diverted to Newark Liberty International Airport, said Tiffany Townsend, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports.

So, I’m staying the night at a very generous co-worker’s apartment and I’ll be flying back tomorrow afternoon, weather permitting … lets hope we don’t have another “incident”.

EDIT: Here is a link to the NTSB aviation accident database‘s synopsis of their investigation.

Many people find eating raw beef dangerous and raw egg yolks disgusting … but let me introduce you to one of my favorite Korean dishes which combines the two called yuk’oe.

I’m not exactly sure how it’s supposed to be pronounced, but I’ve seen it transliterated from Korean to English many ways: yuk’oe, yuk hoe, yuke, hyoo-kwe, and on and on. But no matter how you spell it or say it, it means the same thing: a beefy sweet gooey mess of goodness that slides down your throat. It’s hard to find a restaurant that serves it, and I wouldn’t risk ordering it in a sketchy looking place … but if you manage to find a classy enough Korean restaurant (which really don’t exist — most Koreans tend to open sushi restaurants around here), and you’re feeilng adventurous … give this dish a try.

I’m a big fan of Steve Buscemi, but this morning I saw something very disturbing on Google News … a picture of Macaulay Culkin.

Now, in and of itself, that’s not very scary. What’s scary is the double-take I did when I first saw the picture. I thought to myself, “Boy, that must be a really young picture of Steve Buscemi …” until I realized it wasn’t him! See for yourself:

For appropriate photo credit, here’s the original article where Macaulay gets smacked down for dope posession and the picture of Steve.

Just makes you wonder … is Macaulay actually Steve’s love-child? Hmm …

Update: Alex at Martini Republic beat me to it by two days … damn! Great minds think alike, or fools rarely differ.

Living in New Jersey, I try and keep abreast of timely issues. What’s hot right now? Governor James McGreevy came out of the closet as a homosexual and announced his resignation.

What I find funny (or, perhaps sad) is the reaction and response to this from the general public. The LGBT groups have jumped on the bandwagon worshipping him as another “out” public figure. The media has been busy working up the scandal of his alleged affair with Golan Cipel. But, that’s all just a load of wool and the public’s eyes have been covered, it seems.

Steve Yuhas wrote an article that comes close to the real issue, but misses the point, too.

So, what is the point? What question should we be occupied with? In Socratic style, I’ll start with a question:

What will become of the position of Governor in NJ?

McGreevy hasn’t resigned. He has only announced his resignation. Quoting the CNN article linked above:

His resignation will take effect November 15, and State Senate President Richard Codey, a fellow Democrat, will serve the the remainder of his term, which ends in January 2006.

If McGreevey’s resignation had taken effect before September 15, state law would have required a special gubernatorial election on November 2.

Essentially, the Democrats get to appoint Richard Codey as NJ Governor through January 2006 without the chance of an election. How convenient. So, what of this Codey fellow? Here’s a statement he made following the McGreevy announcement. Here’s a quote from an interesting blurb about him:

[…] Codey is extremely knowlegable about both harness and thoroughbred racing and has backed racing related legislation in the past.

Codey’s brother, Don, is the general manager of Freehold Raceway in New Jersey.

The common element here is both McGreevy and Codey using their positions to protect their personal interests. What about serving the State of New Jersey?

I’m no fan of our former Republican Governors like Christine Whitman, but we need someone who will work to bring more big businesses into New Jersey and create real jobs in big companies instead of just upgrading folks from welfare up to minimum wage jobs. After 9/11, I wouldn’t be surprised if companies are more seriously considering NJ for their offices over instead of Manhattan. Lets make NJ really attractive to them so their decision becomes trivially easy to make.

Apparently someone got liquored up, hopped in his GMC Yukon SUV, and went on a rampage, smashing up 17 cars and doing a bunch of property damage.

Police arrested Matthew Lyman, 24, on suspicion of driving under the influence and multiple counts of hit-and-run driving.

Witnesses said that the destruction began some time after 2 a.m. Tuesday when a dark GMC Yukon SUV began smashing into parked cars. The driver went north on Mission Boulevard, turned east on Turquoise Street, south on Bayard Street and then headed back toward the beach on Tourmaline Street. All along the way, he smashed into cars parked at the curb, demolishing many of them.

Someone posted a series of pictures in an excellent photo-essay: How many cars can you hit in one night???.

One fire hydrant, one flower shop, one dog, and nineteen cars, not including his own (I omitted pictures of four cars with minor damage).

And people say New Jersey drivers are bad …

Normally, this kind of news is just plain shocking (*) (pun intended) but what makes it even more so is that it happened in the parking lot at the building where I work.

Police said they recovered the stun gun, several knives, a face mask, camera, gloves, condoms, alcohol wipes, a crack pipe, a DVD player and a number of X-rated DVDs.

Damn. How do you respond to that kind of incriminating evidence? (In an Austin Powers-like voice:) “Honestly, it’s not mine!”

My lovely spouse emailed me this link today with the message of “Hungry?” Upon visiting the link, it immediately made me think of this site.

Ah, the line between life and art gets blurred again. I think what Amazon lists as “Features” is especially worth an extra chuckle.

On Monday, November 10th, I took my first trip to the dentist in over ten years, and my first trip to an oral surgeon ever. I decided to blog a brief recollection of that morning …

For a long time, I’ve had this tooth all the way in the back of my mouth, where I couldn’t really brush it properly. Eventually, it decayed and a chunk of the enamel wore away, or more likely, chipped off, exposing the soft juicy insides of the tooth. Surprisingly, this resulted in very little pain or discomfort, so I just let it go. I figured, perhaps it’d decay enough to become loose and I’d just pull the bugger out.

Well, after what I’m guessing is a couple of years, the tooth finally decided it was time to come out. Of course, it had its own ideas about how it was going to come out: not the easy way by becoming loose and having me tug the sucker out of my mouth, oh no, nothing that easy. It felt as though it was pushing against the only adjacent tooth, causing every other tooth in my head to ache. The pain was so incredible that I was taking Aleve (a form of pain-killer incorporating naproxen and sodium as the active ingredients) every 8 hours for three or four days straight. The pain was bad enough that I actually woke up with my teeth throbbing in the middle of the night and I’m a very deep sleeper.

So, this past Monday, November 10th, I did something I haven’t done in over ten years. I went and saw a dentist. For those who know me, they know how much I dislike going to doctors and dentists (thus, why I hadn’t been to a dentist in over ten years), but this pain was absolutely unbearable any longer. I said to my tooth in my best Spaghetti Western voice, “Partner, this mouth just ain’t big enough for the two of us.”

Fortunately for me, the dentist was willing to see me first thing on Monday morning at 10:00 AM — basically, he would squeeze me in before his normally scheduled appointments for the day. He chatted with me for two or three minutes, then examined my teeth. He saw that awful tooth that’s been conspiring with my other teeth for the past several days, and without hesitation, told me that it would have to come out. Yay! I was so nervous he’d suggest trying to save it with a root canal or some other ridiculousness. No, he agreed, it’d have to come out, and that he would refer me to an oral surgeon.

An oral surgeon?! Wow, this is getting serious. If you can believe it, I’ve never been to an oral surgeon before in my life. I had no idea what kind of medieval torture to expect. I couldn’t help imagining some dingy little office with some crazy old guy with a tray full of assorted metal torture devices making corny tooth jokes. Well, as luck would have it, my dentist referred me to an oral surgeon and had his receptionist call their receptionist while I was there and found out that they could see me right away. I got directions to their office and away I went.

I can’t begin to describe the number of thoughts — some totally wacky, most just paranoid — that went through my mind as I drove the four minute drive over. I was more than just nervous, I was a wreck. I smoked a cigarette in the car thinking to myself, “This might be the last cigarette I smoke for a few days, depending on how painful it is to smoke after this …” — everything was deliberate. I couldn’t believe how irrational I was being about this whole thing, but I was, and I couldn’t help it.

To cut a very long story short, the nurse who prepared me (I believe she was Russian or Ukranian) was excellent at making me feel more at ease, and the surgeon was excellent that too. All in all, I was treated better by these folks than I’ve ever been treated by any medical professional I’ve ever been a patient of.

During the actual tooth extraction, the doctor told me what was going on — which is a very important thing for me, which I find most doctors can’t be bothered to do since they’re so busy. He has a very steady hand, and made what I thought would be an intolerable process of administering Novocaine into something that I almost enjoyed: I felt six light pinches on the surface of my gums, and it was all over. I couldn’t believe how painless it actually was. Once the anesthesia was in full effect, they started on the extraction. He told me to close my eyes, that I’d feel some pressure, and to relax. After what seemed like fourty seconds or so of pressure which I couldn’t really feel except by the force it exerted on my neck, the tooth was out. It was over.

What’s so amazing is that even after the tooth was out and the Novocaine wore off, my mouth felt great! The horrible pain I was feeling the previous few days was totally gone, and the wound in my gum from the missing tooth didn’t even hurt! It was incredible. I was so thrilled. This went as well as it could possibly have gone, even more than I could have imagined.

Curious what the tooth looks like? I asked if I could keep it and they put it in a little green plastic thing and sent me home with it. If you want to see it …

Dossy’s right #1 tooth

(don’t click on the link yet, I haven’t put the picture up yet.)

Someone pointed out this blog and fundraiser that successfully mixes together something I like (boobies!) and something I hate (breast cancer). The Second Annual Blogger Boobie-Thon for Breast Cancer is collecting donations for The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation as well as a lesser contribution to PAWS 8K.

Donations will be collected up until October 11th, 2003. Apparently, they’re already up to $4,500 in donations in only 5 days. Combine the web, a blog, hundreds of pictures of boobies, and a plea for donations with a PayPal button, and you’ve got the winning combo for a fundraiser. All for a good cause.

(I really ought to donate something.)