These are the categories in the Super Bowl pool I’m running for people who don’t know enough about football to be in an actual Super Bowl pool:
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After a lengthy knifemaker hiatus, the series returns with our sixth member of the 1981 Knifemakers Guild Directory: John (Mike) Bassney. John (Mike)’s picture looks something of a cross between John C. Reilly and Tom Selleck — in other words, like a totally awesome knifemaker. This is really our first knifemaker whose picture looks like someone I would want making my knife. He doesn’t look like a cowboy, or a family man, or a terror, he looks like the sort of guy who would take your knife order and just get right down to business. He’s even wearing what I presume to be a knifemaking apron. This guy would have gotten my business… if I would have ever ordered a custom made knife in 1981 in the greater Wisconsin region.

Something else great about John (Mike) — according to his bio, he went to SUNY Buffalo, graduated, and then moved to Wisconsin. Why is that great you ask? Well, I’m not sure, but I think this is our first confirmed college graduate knifemaker, which is something.

His motto is “I simply wish to make the best knife I can with the material available and at the same time work in line with the customer’s wishes.” That’s modern business-speak. He’s like a corporate executive. I love this guy.

John (Mike) Bassney today

Sadly John (Mike) Bassney is no longer a member of the Knifemakers Guild according to their member list. He was only a probationary member in 1981, so maybe he didn’t make the cut, or maybe he simply let his membership lapse. He might have lost interest in knifemaking altogether, it’s hard to know.

The Google record on Mr. Bassney is quite slim. John (Mike) Bassney turns up nothing that I didn’t write myself, John Bassney is likewise unhelpful.

Mike Bassney, though, does provide us with three hits. He apparently went to Painted Post High School in Painted Post, New York from 1958 to 1962. That would line up well with him graduating from SUNY Buffalo in 1968, so this is probably him. This guy thought he taught shop in Michigan during the 1970s (possible, since he ended up in Wisconsin by 1981). He still appears to live in Lodi, Wisconsin, and he has a job at a local Subway in Columbus, Wisconsin. He’s the host.

Knowing about his knife proclivities, I can surely say that this is one Subway I would never rob.

Previous knifemaker: Scott Barry
Next knifemaker: Pierce Franklin Beck, Jr.

Other 1981 Knifemaker’s Guild Directory Pages: first page, all pages, all pictures.

remember

Today’s fauxlogism is Flagel.

After a while, I can judge within a few seconds either way just how much laughter we can get. Sometimes, I’m dead wrong. In Silent Movie, there was a sequence that no one will ever see; it’s on the cutting room floor. The sequence is called “Lobsters in New York.” It starts with a shot of a neon sign that reads “Chez Lobster.” The camera drops down to restaurant doors and pulls back. The doors open, the camera goes inside, and we see greeting us a huge well-dressed lobster with claws and tails; around the camera come two other very well-dressed lobsters in evening clothes. The maitre d’ lobster leads them to a waiter lobster in a white jacket, who leads them to a table. They order, then follow the waiter lobster to a huge tank. In the tank, little people are swimming around. We thought this was hysterical. The lobsters choose some people, pick them up squirming around, and the sequence ends. Every time we saw this sequence, we were on the floor laughing. When we showed it to an audience… they did not laugh at all at “Lobsters in New York.” They stared at each other. Not one snicker. Finally we got some embarrassed sounds and yawns. We threw out the entire sequence as a result.

“My Movies: The Collision of Art and Money” by Mel Brooks, excerpted from The Movie Business Book by Jason Squire, ed. (1983).

Be Kind Rewind, directed by Michel Gondry, is about people who create homemade, low budget reproductions of famous movies. In that spirit, Michel Gondry has released his own homemade, low budget reproduction of the Be Kind Rewind trailer. Weird.

I’m a little unsettled by Gondry’s decision to portray Mos Def by putting on an afro wig and big black gloves, but whatever…

PS – this was totally CrazyMonk territory.  Sorry.

Via Adfreak.

Delightful.

I am writing to let you know that the University sent an e-mail this morning informing some members of our community that an external hard drive containing personal information, including social security numbers and dates of birth, was stolen from a locked office on the main campus earlier this month. Of the more than 38,000 persons who received the e-mail, about 8,300 were former and current Law Center students and staff.

The information that was contained on the hard drive pertained to fees associated with the student health insurance program in which Law Center students and some staff participate. This program is administered through the main campus Office of Student Affairs.

The notification from main campus informs those affected about steps they can take to protect against misuse of the disclosed information, including fraud and identity theft. The University has established a website (identity.georgetown.edu) and a toll-free hotline (866-740-2458) that includes additional information.

University representatives will come to the Law Center to conduct an information session on Thursday, January 31, at 4:00 p.m. in McDonough 203.

This incident has prompted us to review our security measures at the Law Center. I have initiated a Law Center-wide examination of practices and policies that pertain to the collection and storage of, and access to, sensitive information kept in both electronic and paper form.

I am deeply concerned about this breach of data security. The Law Center will do everything we can to support and assist those affected.

T. Alexander Aleinikoff
Dean

Ellen Page (Juno) sings/improvs a song about Diablo Cody:

I like how Michael Cera knows to just sit there and do nothing.

Via Waxy.

Ron Paul (8/20/35) is one year older than John McCain (8/29/36).  Who knew?

In honor of Ron Paul receiving over 60,000 votes in today’s Republican Florida Primary, here are a two celebratory pictures:

Ron Paul doesn’t believe in Evolution.

Ron Paul is Revolting.

The Ron Paul masses will be here in 3, 2, 1…

The Producers was first written as a novel. It talked too much, so I made it into a play, which ended up with too many locations, so I turned it into a film. It was right out of my own life experience; I once worked with a man who did make serious love to very old ladies late at night on an old leather office couch. They would give him blank checks, and he would produce phony plays…

When we finishd the picture, we took it to the Lane Theatre in Philadelphia for a sneak preview around Christmas, 1967. Nobody came. Twelve hundred seats. Eleven people showed up…

“My Movies: The Collision of Art and Money” by Mel Brooks, excerpted from The Movie Business Book by Jason Squire, ed. (1983).

Fauxlogism.com now comes with audio pronunciation, just like a real dictionary.  Here’s my current favorite.

Today’s fauxlogism is Computrification.

Son of a bitch!  Corn Mo played in DC and I missed it.  What the hell?  He’s got an upcoming show in Cambridge.  If you live there, go see it for me please.

Of the top 100 websites, there’s a surprising number (38) that I’ve never heard of:

• 8 – Hi5.com
• 14 – Fotolog.net
• 20 – Skyrock.com
• 23 – Megarotic.com
• 24 – Mail.ru
• 26 – Seznam.cz
• 27 – QQ.com
• 35 – Youporn.com
• 40 – Megavideo.com
• 41 – Wretch.cc
• 42 – Free.fr
• 43 – Sina.com.cn
• 44 – Yandex.ru
• 45 – ImageVenue.com
• 49 – Onet.pl
• 50 – Vkontakte.ru
• 51 – MetroFlog.com
• 52 – Uol.com.br
• 54 – Allegro.pl
• 65 – Odnoklassniki.ru
• 66 – FC2.com
• 68 – Netlog.com
• 71 – RedTube.com
• 75 – Rambler.ru
• 76 – WP.pl
• 77 – Nasza-Klasa.pl
• 78 – Lwiw.hu
• 81 – 163.com
• 83 – Taobao.com
• 84 – VNExpress.net
• 86 – Yourfilehost.com
• 89 – Fotka.pl
• 90 – Sendspace.com
• 94 – Badongo.com
• 96 – Badoo.com
• 97 – Terra.com.br
• 98 – 6.cn
• 100 – Globo.com

Various local versions of Google.com are in the list 22 times.   RumorsDaily is ranked 433,041.

Everywhere you look today there’s a story about how Obama’s huge victory in South Carolina “transcended race” or how voters were “not swayed by racial politics.” Maybe those people are looking at different exit poll numbers than I am, because when Obama takes in 80% of the black vote and comes in last in the white vote he didn’t transcend race — he was lofted to victory almost exclusively ON race.

Now that race has become an issue (which it wasn’t in Iowa), I’m curious how he’s going to play in white America.  Could this sweeping victory actually be Barack Obama’s campaign’s death knell?

Click to big-ify.

Via nicholas.

Click to big-ify

Both the New York Times (on 11/18/07) and the Boston Globe (on 1/27/08) recently published pieces critiquing the graphic designs of various 2008 campaign logos. Considering that both papers are owned by the same parent company, one might expect them to have similar slants to the story. Here’s how the two compared:

NY Times on Hillary Clinton:

Boston Globe on Hillary Clinton:

The Hillary type palette is far from fresh and colorful; it is begging for legitimacy instead of demanding respect. It projects recycled establishment. The type has a tired feeling, as if the ink has been soaking into the page too long. The Hillary logo has the look of an ’80s newspaper layout or an investment company. The tall lower-case reminds me of someone with their pants pulled up too high. I wonder about the significance of the three stars and three stripes. A third term?

Comparison:

Both agree that the choices made were conservative. The Times however thinks the choices were interesting, the Globe finds them tired and recycled.

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Today’s fauxlogism is Argumentum ad Hitlerum.

You got Nine Inch Nails in my Daft Punk.

Via YesButNoButYes.

Los Angeles was originally known as “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula” (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of the river Porciúncula).

Via Neatorama and Wikipedia.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is still working on turning American McGee’s Alice into a movie. I’ve been waiting for that damned movie for eight years. Can somebody please call somebody and make it happen? Can I blame this one the writers’ strike? The game’s trailer still makes me smile:

Via BoingBoing.

Fan Death is a South Korean urban legend which states that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can result in the death (by suffocation, poisoning, or hypothermia) of those inside.

Via Barzelay.