Friday Fun (v.1.16)—Dawn Summers, Crocodile Hunter

It's been awhile since my last link dump, but the interwebs have been in their autumn doldrums.  But, here are a few items worthy of your time ...

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As you will recall, last month, "Dawn Summers", n/k/a "Stephane", a/k/a "Wilma", went on an epic, whirlwind vacation-crimespree with her sidekick, MadBrooklyn.  The full and unintentionally hilarious report of the misadventures of two New York gals on the backroads of the Midwest is now posted, in serial format.  The Iowa segment is my favorite, but you should start at the beginning and read the whole story.  It starts slow, but picks up hilarious momentum once the gals leave Denver, and civilization as they know it.

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Given Dawn/Wilma's fear of animals, including mouse-eating chickens (seriously, read the trip report!), it's probably best if she avoids flying in the future.  You just never know when a crocodile will hijack the flight and kill all the passengers.

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On a more serious note, there have been several tragic youth suicides in the news recently, related to bullying and taunting based on their real or merely perceived gay orientation.  One gay college student, Isaac Katz, wrote a gripping essay for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the experience of being taunted at school and facing a homophobic, and nationally famous, father at home.  The short essay really captures the experience facing many kids today, and hopefully will make some folks think about how they may inadvertantly make life difficult for gay youth, or even youth just perceived as gay.

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The philosophy major in me loved this article on trolleyology, a field of ethics that explores the psychological differences between sins of commission and sins of omission.  Just to be clear, if you hit a bad suckout to crack my monster hand, I will gladly tie you to the trolley track myself.  Well, as soon as Iowa gets trolleys.  So, the important take-away point for y'all is to avoid playing poker against me within driving distance of San Francisco.

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Via Andrew Sullivan, awesome memos regarding censor panels' suggested changes to two of my favorite movies of all time:  Monty Python & The Holy Grail, and South Park:  Bigger, Longer & Uncut.  For The Holy Grail, the censors failed in attempts to remove the classic line, "I fart in your general direction," while in South Park, the negotiations over which profanities and obscenities made the cut is hysterical.

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Via the DailyWh.at, here's an entirely too cute and overly peppy dog video of the day.  People who train their dogs like this must be stopped, as they give a complex to real dogs, like my Berkeley, who runs around like a maniac, unless biting my feet to get treats.  Still, pretty entertaining ...