Weekend Open Thread
“Acting like animals”. The meaning of this phrase is also utilized in the Bible for people who do right in their own eyes at the expense of what is right. Ego generally drives their actions, many of these actions are similar to what wild animals do. Thus, painting a picture of wild animals taking over Judean cities in the Old Testament as a way to describe a people who behaved as if they didn’t realize that they were spirits rather than animals. Enjoy your weekend!
Category: Open thread
Oh wise and all knowing Magic 8- Ball, will the outdated and overpriced Red Hat Software generate the white smoke to signal that Hack Stone once again will be unburdened and secure the first comment for the Weekend Open Thread? Or will KoB’s hired goons be successful in their nefarious schemes to physically assault Hack Stone, depriving the unwashed masses of continuing being deplorable? Magic 8-Ball says…
Smooth move pushing the fundraiser to the top of the pile. Hack almost missed the WOT dropping.
Three in a row. All hail Pope Hack XIII.
Is Hack going to claim the first four posts?
Go ahead and claim the FIRST five post Mr. Stone. Damn shame when all of the haters of The Kob decide to just lay back and give you the coveted title of FIRST. I just dropped by to see if any of the d’weeded deplorables answered the Siren Call of THE Most Adorab;e Deplorable, put the crowbar in their wallet, pried some money out and made a tip into the old jar.
Looks like that restraining order worked. You have to tell your hired goons to break Hack Stone5thumbs, not his ribs. Hack made it an entire week without showing up to the Emergency Room. Let’s see if he can keep it going like with the WOT, and have two weekends in a row with no medical emergencies.
And a tip to anyone finding themselves admitted to the Fort Belvoir Hospital, order the Roast Beef Sandwich, it was worth the pain of KoB having his ribs broken.
Should be red, white and blue smoke.
Except that I’ve heard the new Pope is dyed-in-the-wool bleeding-heart liberal.
And a TENNIS fan…
Also a fan of the White Sox.
That was for Hack, Pope of the weekend.
What the hell happened to you and your ribs, Hack.
All kidding aside (see what I did there (SWIDT)), what’s up?
Well, the story that Hack is telling is that Hack caught the B Strain of the Flu after attending a funeral. After almost a week of Hack hacking, he finally wised up and went to the Emergency Room at Fort Belvoir. Bethesda would make more sense, since it is within distance of a rusting 1980’s Jaguar radius, but Hack knew that KoB had his hired goons waiting to spring their trap. So the good Docs at Fort Belvoir hooked him up with all kinds of meds, and Hack was slowly recovering. Then, on March 31st, Hack sneezed, at that sneeze cracked a rib. Return trip to Fort Belvoir, with X-rays and examinations, and the X-ray showed a broken rib. More meds. Still recovering, Hack Stone returned to the offramp of the River Road Exit of the Capital Beltway. Things were getting better, until the evening of Good Friday. Hack had a big cough, then BAM! Two more broken ribs. Back to the Emergency Room, and now two more broken bones. At least that is the cover story, but we all know that the goons that KoB hires are more competent than the crackheads that Psul of The Ballsack uses.
Broken/cracked ribs are painful, as I recall.
Hope you heal quickly.
Dammit Hack, it’s hard to give you a ribbing when you are hurting.
Get healed soon, red hat doesn’t sell itself.
Oh wise and all knowing Magic 8- Ball:P is Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics) still a turd?
Magic 8-Ball says…
First 6TH on the WOT
4th. Woohoo.
I had every intention of being FIRST this week, and kept refreshing the page … forgetting, in my dotage, that the fund appeal is pinned at the top. The WOT snuck in on me. Sigh … rats of the cong to Hack Stone for his three-peat, and trivia to the masses.
DID YOU KNOW…?
Was an entire European country cut off from the Internet by the accidental action of one person?
By Commissioner Wretched
didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com
Copyright © 2025
Every week, I sit at this computer and try to come up with a witty, engaging introduction for the column which follows. Most weeks, I manage at least to be half witty, and somewhat engaging.
This morning, however, as I rack my brain to find something to talk about here that isn’t spring- or baseball-related, I find myself coming up completely and totally empty.
The field of fascinating facts is not bare at all; it’s the pathway into it that needs work.
So I’ll just hit you this week with trivia and try to be a little more entertaining in this part of the column next week.
You try coming up with something pithy and fun and entertaining every week for eight and a half years … see how you do!
Did you know …
… the iconic voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies originally belonged to someone else? Actor David Prowse (1935-2020), who was inside the classic black armored suit of Vader, spoke all of Vader’s lines during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, in 1977. He was shocked to discover that all of his lines had been overdubbed with the stentorian tones of James Earl Jones (1931-2024). Up until the time he actually saw the final cut of the movie, Prowse believed he was the only person portraying the Dark Lord of the Sith. (Overdubbing the voice is normal in the industry; not telling the actor in advance, however, is a pretty sleazy thing to do.)
… dogs are banned in Antarctica? Once needed for sledge journeys to the South Pole, dogs were banned on the continent beginning in 1994. The Antarctic Treaty required the removal of all non-native animal species, and with dogs the main reason was the possibility that distemper would spread to the native seals.
… you and I are made up primarily of empty space? What I mean is, if you removed all of the empty space from the atoms that make up every human on Earth – all eight billion plus change – you would be able to fit the entire human population of the planet inside an apple. (I don’t know about you, but most of my empty space is inside my head.)
… a world record exists for the number of times a person has tried to set a world record? That record is held by Ashrita Furman (born 1954) of Brooklyn, New York. Furman holds about 200 world records and has tried to set about 500 more. (Some people have nothing else to do.)
… diamonds are really nearly worthless? Like anything else of value, scarcity is what determines what something is worth, and diamonds are anything but scarce. The entire retail diamond market is reportedly controlled by one company – DeBeers, of South Africa – and has been called a “giant, well-orchestrated, monopolistic scam” that is based on a public misconception that diamonds are scarce. There really are many, many more diamonds than people think, according to experts in the field. (Food for thought, that.)
My basset hound and I were walking along pier 39 in San Francisco when we stopped to observe the sea lions. My hound wanted to get closer to the sea lions and play. I explained to him how dangerous the sea lions are; he didn’t care. I explained how distemper could be passed on to the sea lions, he gave me a look that said, “Hey, I’ve had my shots”.
No, the hound was upset with me, he had only one thing on his mind. Have you ever noticed the libido a basset hound has?
… one person cut an entire nation off from the Internet? The nation of Armenia lost its entire access to the Internet in March of 2011 when Hayastan Shakarian (born 1936), who was scavenging for copper, accidentally sliced through the fiber optic cable connecting Armenia to Georgia in southwestern Europe. The accident had catastrophic consequences for Armenia, which got almost all of its Internet service from Georgia – its 3.2 million Internet-using citizens had to do other things during the five hours it took to repair the cable. Large portions of Georgia and Azerbaijan also lost Internet service when Shakarian’s scavenging caused the disruption. Shakarian was arrested by security personnel after the location of the break was pinpointed, but was released by authorities due to her age. In her own defense, Shakarian said she had never even heard of the Internet. (Oops.)
… a famous composer was the youngest student ever at the Julliard School of Music? Composer Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012) became a student at Julliard when he was six years old. He was a child prodigy and, by the time he was five, was able to mimic the piano music he heard on the radio.
… a Polish doctor saved a town during World War II by faking out the Nazis? Dr. Eugene Lazowski (1913-2006) saved the inhabitants of the Polish city of Rozwadow by telling the German troops that wanted to invade that there was an outbreak of typhus in the town. The disease-wary Germans decided to advance around, rather than through, the city, and some 8,000 Poles – Jews and Gentiles alike – were saved from the forced-labor camps. (Smart move, Doc!)
Hayastan Shakarian (born 1936) – Search Images
Yep … that’s her.
… bomb disposal experts once blew up an ironically wrong package? In Bristol, United Kingdom, a bomb squad was called to a suspicious package. When the squad detonated the package, they discovered it was full of leaflets describing what one should do when one finds a suspicious package. (That’s ironic!)
… brain surgery is not a modern thing? Archaeologists and scientists have determined that as far back as 5,000 years ago, a primitive form of brain surgery called trepanning was practiced. Skulls excavated from several Neolithic sites showed small holes cut into them, to relieve pressure on the brain. Several skulls had more than one of the inch-wide holes, and the edges showed signs of healing. (There’s room for a line here about having holes in your head, but I’m not going to do it.)
… you may have spuddled at one point in your life? Don’t fret, though; we all have, I’m certain. Spuddle is a 17th-Century word meaning to work ineffectively, or to seem very busy while achieving nothing at all. (That explains that line on my last job evaluation.)
Now … you know!
EOD will blow up anything. One day a local person of ill repute found a paper bag on his mail box. The local AFB EOD was called to blow it up; later that day the person’s girl friend called and asked if he found the bag of candy she had left on his mail box.
Another time someone left his briefcase in the on-base Burger King – EOD blew that up too.
I’m jealous; however, I’ve no one to blame but myself. I never thought to volunteer for that duty. I know it’s dangerous, but, to blow stuff up and get paid for it. Wow!
Don’t forget to mention IEC’s, that being Improvised Explosive Coconuts.
OOH, and screws that suddenly appeared in the driveway as well? *rustle-rustle*
I once set a bag of 20mm HE rounds on the AF EOD vehicles hood when they drove up to my post. There was about 700 hundred that had been strewn in a field adjacent to my post. The ones I picked up were lying loose on the road where MMS vehicles were passing with 250 lbs for F4’s. The guy completely freaked out, and he had me remove the bag from the hood. He over reacted in my opinion. The Gook guards were stealing the brass to sell. And when the other EOD guys showed up they tossed them in bags the same as I did. They could not blow them up in place. It was too close to an ammo storage unit for our mortar pit.
It reminds of the case of WWII hand grenades that was found on the beach. We were told, “Don’t touch, don’t breath, don’t even look at them funny.” AF EOD came and threw them in the back of a pickup truck and went on their merry way.
When I was copping, I got called to a widow’s house to collect a bunch of ammunition found in her husband’s belongings. Not unusual call at all. What was funny was the old lady waiting in the driveway for me, and refusing to go in the house to show me. When I told her it was safe, she was absolutely beside herself when I just opened the ammo can and started digging through the years of brass to see what goodies there were. Dispatch had told her to evacuate the house as the shells could blow at the slightest touch.
The other funny part of that particular call was the woman telling me that she didn’t know where the ammo came from as her husband didn’t own any guns. As she’s telling me this I notice the Army class A jacket hanging behind her with the sergeant major stripes and hash marks all the way up to the elbow. Ma’am, I know exactly where all this ammo came from, because I too have liberated some cartridges from Uncle Sam.
Probably like this:
“it was full of leaflets describing what one should do when one finds a suspicious package. (That’s ironic!)”
“Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.”
–Detective Frank Drebbin, “Police Squad”
Oh no,
now you have a new motto for federal employees:
“We, who spuddle.”
I claim WOT FIRST!!!! But I was busy spuddling. Aka E-4 Shamming.
Sooo…basically what The Stoned Hacker does everyday? Now we know!
Side note to CW…another fine j.o.b. on The Trivia, Good Sir! You, and your work, is muchly appreciated, as always. Do mention me to Lois.
Lois sends her warmest regards, King.
Happy weekend
Twenty-something, present and unaccountable as i award myself yet another Honorary First.
((((OVER))))
Epstein’s list has yet to be revealed, it must have a bunch of deep-state names on it!
As Director Media Relations for a proud but humble woman owned company and reining First Commenter for This Ain’t Hell Weekend Open Thread, Hack Stone takes pleasure in announcing that the Vice President of our company has signed a new long term lease for our corporate world headquarters opening this weekend conveniently located on Lee Highway and Waples Milll Road in Fairfax. The first 50 customers receive a collectible Red Hat and a hernia check performed by Staff Physician Doctor Psul of The Ballsack.
Anyone catch the news that Pope Leo XIV childhood home was on the market, then suddenly pulled from sale? Hack found the most interesting part is that the home is located in Dolton Illinois, where America’s Favorite Mayor is driving the city off the financial cliff.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/pope-leo-xivs-childhood-home-illinois-sale-now-off-market
Present and unaccountable,
Peasant and no account.
Good outcome of the Medicaid meeting for my brother. The confusion was resolved and they’ll still care for him.
Had four different events drive home to me how much of an influence on other people a teacher has – even a hack guitar teacher. Scary, really.
Fairly quiet in the GB Compound AO.
Tried to go on my usual 4-mile hike through the woods, and found that between the storms and the timbering operations have all traces of the trails I’ve used for 30 years have been eradicated. It’ll be better in 2 years, but for now…
God bless you all, and have a safe weekend.
Even Peter Griffin got patriotic:
“Phony” Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics) works balls.
Anyone want to try to explain why Trump chose to put Tim Poole in the White House press pool?
He is a YouTuber with a history of taking $100,000 a week from Russia to put out pro-Russian propaganda.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/tim-pool-was-paid-by-russia-but-will-joins-white-house-press-pool/
Videos like this where he screams about Ukraine being our enemy…
https://www.mediaite.com/online/watch-alleged-russian-asset-tim-pool-screams-that-ukraine-is-the-enemy-of-the-us/
$100,000 per week. From Russia. His defense? He didn’t know the money he was being paid to put out Russian propaganda was coming from Russia. He said he thought it was from a “shadowy billionaire” paying him to put out Russian propaganda.
And the questions he asked were ones the Trump team told him to ask. You know, like the Kremlin would do.
Hey girl!
My niece, a former Los Angeles Raiderette, used to get calls from an un-named Las Vegas casino saying so and so are going to be at the casino on such a date and we need women to show up. Kamala was apparently getting those calls also back when her sugar daddy Willie Brown was keeping her “occupied” under his desk.
If you don’t have a few of these in your life…your life…sucks!