I’m sure all our hearts and prayers are with Ron Jeremy today, as he fights for his life with an aneurysm near his heart. I’ve never met the man, but as a porn projectionist back in the mid-eighties, I certainly became familiar with his work. Difficult to believe that “The Hedgehog” is only a few years older than I am, as he looks much older. Of course, the life of a porn star is a hard one.

As concerned as I am about Ron, the item that caught my eye was a headline that read, “WATCH: Woman Eats Cat Hair Voraciously.” It was accompanied by a photo of a woman who appeared to be in the process of licking a cat (I didn’t click through to the story, so I don’t know if this is her preferred method of ingestion or not – my first vision was of her sitting down to a big cereal bowl full with a spoon and some milk).

Now, why the fuck would I (or anyone) want to “watch” somebody “eat cat hair voraciously?” I can think of a few things more disgusting to watch (one of which would be video of this woman hacking up a fur ball), but not many.

I also saw a headline that read, “Rock Legend Recording His First Album In 4 Decades” with a photo of somebody that I didn’t recognize. So I thought, wow, whoever that legend is, he really didn’t age well if I can’t even recognize him. Then I clicked through to the story to find out that it was about Sixto Rodriguez.

I’m sure Vernon and you more erudite folks out there know who that is, but, frankly I never heard of him, which of course has nothing to do with his talent or anything like that but I’m pretty sure that in order to qualify as a “rock legend” I really should have heard of you. Not that I’m a music expert, of course.

Turns out Sixto wasn’t much of a hit in the US, but he was a major deal in South Africa. OK, so maybe I’m being jingoistic, but it doesn’t seem like having two hit albums in South Africa in the early seventies qualifies you as a rock legend. Maybe a South African rock legend.

Anyhow, I’ll have to listen to his stuff, and see if it’s any good.

Good news for ‘niners fans, as Nate Silver is predicting a San Fran win over Baltimore in the Super Bowl, which I think is coming up on Sunday. To the extent that I care, I’ll be pulling for the Ravens, since they have former SU guy Art Jones, and also because I’ve been a big fan of Edgar Allen Poe ever since I was just a youngster (“A Cask of Amontillado” was probably the first story to ever inspire nightmares). Poe helped shape my rosy outlook on life.

Speaking of Poe, I also saw (though I didn’t read) a story that the world’s first alcoholism vaccine is about to begin clinical trials. I’m not sure why you need a vaccine to become an alcoholic – beer seems to work pretty well for me, and I don’t even need to shoot it.

Yesterday was a bit of a disappointment for me. I ordered a new chair for my home office (I think the one I’m using is something like 15-16 years old; I’ve had it longer than I’ve had my wife). The old one is still comfortable, but it doesn’t adjust vertically (or any other way, for that matter, except to tilt or not to tilt), and I need something that’s just a little bit higher. So, I ordered one (and did the Amazon credit card thing to get $50 off, so it was a pretty good deal).

Anyhow, it was supposed to come yesterday but, sadly, it’s coming FedEx. And every time it rains a little in Memphis (FedEx’s “hub”), FedEx falls to pieces and can’t deliver (funny, UPS almost never seems to have these weather-related delays). It did make it to Syracuse last night, so hopefully they can manage to get it to my place some time today. As long as I can get it put together tonight and have it for my work from home day tomorrow.

Oh well, time to get back to work. Have a good one.