Food on a stick

Random signage which, without the text warning you of drowning and strong currents, might give you the impression that there are dangerous black creatures under the ice trying to grab you. Maybe the designer watched old Star Trek episodes with changelings a few too many times. Illustrating a person drowning in an iconic fashion that would be understood regardless of language would present a challenge though. Maybe a rebus would work in this situation where it would have a picture of hole in the ice + a picture of a guy jumping into the hole = picture of a blue guy with X X for eyes.

My brain is on a news meltdown after reading most of the news over the last few days. It's too depressing to even comment on, as what is there left to say that hasn't been said already? I've purposefully stayed away from politics over the past 2 years since it's a really tired topic and it usually draws far too many kooks and wackos which I can live without. The more I read the news, the more I daydream about moving to a cabin above the Arctic Circle, learning survivalist skills and waiting for the world to finally do itself in. On the bright side, I don't think I'll have any problem keeping my vow to never return to the US to live.

I have been craving corn dogs lately. Those unfamiliar with this delicacy which blends meat, cheese and cornmeal on a stick, should have a look at a corndog recipe [pdf 96k] and take a gander at the Corn Dog Festival where people do fun things with corn dogs. National Corn Dog Day in March had the best poster ever this year featuring corn dog sperm. There are chili-cheese-onion variants of corn dogs as well. At some point during Vappu, obviously after a beer or two, I started to think that the grilli's around Helsinki might love to have food on a stick in addition to the delicious, yet terribly messy to eat when drunk, sandwiches. Could there be a more perfect food for drunks? :) Perhaps Pronto Pup would be interested in a Finnish distributor. Mmmm.... chili-onion-aura cheese corndogs at 2am...mmmmm.

A new book from David Kahn might interest cryptography history buffs, The Reader of Gentlemen's Mail: Herbert O. Yardley and the Birth of American Codebreaking, was just released by Yale University Press. It's apparently the first biography of Yardley who was the key figure behind MI-8 and the "Black Chamber" who later became something of a cryptographer for hire. Kahn is an excellent author on the topic so it should be a very good book.