Finally! Finally, I know! ...where the connotation for 'dog's bollocks' comes from. At the end of QI (BBC's "Quite Interesting" - post to follow) Series C Episode 6, Steven. Fry relates that in the 'early years of the twentieth century' children''s construction sets were sold in two varieties, 'boxed - standard' which became 'bog standard' and 'boxed - deluxe' which became 'dog's bollocks' in London slang.

I've wondered about this in the past, because 'bollocks' - literally meaning 'testicles' - is used in a negative context, as in "That's just bollocks' - read: "That's crap" for American audiences - or "Bollocks!" - "Crap!" or as an expletive, such as "Goddammit!". But- "the Dog's Bollocks" means something good for some reason, the cause of which has always eluded me - 'testicles' = bad, dog testicles = good. "Hmmmm," I thought, "now why is that?" Now I know. Thank you Mr. Fry and the QI elves for the third series.

Today's secret code is: CNAD6XNFAH75 

Mittencars!

Why are the Mass Effect 2 hovercars modeled after mittens?

(This is a detail from a picture of a vehicle collection created by 'Monsoontide', 'a contributing member' of foundation3d.com: http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=41184&d=1279694406 )

Lana Del Rey

A friend sent me a message recently: "You need to check out Lana del Rey on YouTube. She's super hot and so is her music. Some of my favs are Outta Luck, You Can Be The Boss, Blue Jeans, Video Games, Diet Mtn Dew, Riding in Cars With Boys..... Um, I just basically like everything I've heard so far. She only has a couple singles out to d/l which is driving me crazy because I NEED all of this shit on my iPod ASAP, not just 3 songs."

She is so completely right.

A quick Google and I found comparisons to Nancy Sinatra (understandable) and Chris Isaak (um, yeah, I guess). Whoever you use as a starting point, what you're going to find is a retro 60's sound in "Kinda Outta Luck" or maybe "You Can Be the Boss" - a kinda lush electronic pop that wouldn't be out of place on a playlist with Poe or Garbage.



[whitespace]



If you're interested in reading, there's a cut and pasted GQ interview in this thread: http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=367909 (scroll down or search for GQ and ignore the intro to the piece - it seems like the writer is trying to be 'hip' or something)

Always beware of roving bands of embittered squirrels.

Finishing out the night with a little Mercury Theater. Happy Halloween - and to all a good night.