Sometimes a fella has to spruce himself up a bit.

And they all belong to alligators on Lake Okeechobee in Florida.

A remake I can understand, but will George be donning a kimono? Will he take on the role of Kikuchiyo, played by Mifune in Kurosawa’s film? Will there be a golden moment when he introduces himself, which we’ll compare with Pete Postlewait’s Kobayashi?

Now why would any self-respecting golden want to mix it up with an alligator, much less one that weighed 700 lb?

Cooper did. Last year he was taking a casual swim in a South Carolina canal when the big alligator attacked. He survived, but the gator had to deal with Cooper’s human friends, and met with an untimely end.

In Coral Springs, a six-month old puppy named Jasmine took on an alligator, who got as far as the death roll maneuver, before Jasmine’s owner prevailed.

Coming soon to the sky near you, Saturn, Mars and Mercury plus the Beehive cluster.

History assumes that Cortes and his army infected natives with European microbes, decimating the population. An epidemiologist challenges this belief, and offers up his own explanation for the massive numbers of deaths.

He believes that the plague known as cocolitzli could well be a form of hemorrhagic fever spread by rodents.

It can be a very complex exercise indeed.

So which came first? The chickens still aren’t revealing their family secrets. But a chicken farmer, a geneticist, and a philosopher just might have the answer.

Yesterday on our way back from the beach, we stopped at a McDonald’s. One of my sons homed in on the $1 menu while the other son went over to Subway. We managed to completely ruin our appetites for our barbecued rib dinner.

A food critic from the New York Times checks out many fast food stops across the nation, and lives to tell the tale. And he does mention the smell that said food leaves behind in the car.

If you follow the posts much at all, you’ll note more and more references to wildlife appearing in urban surroundings, and usually coming to grief.

There are several reasons, one being that there are more animals.

Dinner of ribs, corn on the cob, fruit salad, other stuff mentioned earlier. We could have chosen a better movie, although it does have its fans.

Lots of traffic, but the scenery was nice.

Fried Chicken
Barbecued Ribs
Hamburgers
Fruit Salad
Macaroni Salad
Chocolate Cake
Sushi

We might or might not go get sushi at some point.

Fried chicken dinners are picked up at a very important juncture in the film. I don’t think they actually get to eat these dinners, sorry to say.

Kitchen scenes with Richard Gere manning the stove. No one likes his cooking.

If you didn’t see it, you don’t want to know.

Many dishes, wonderfully prepared by Food Network chefs. However, no one is actually seen eating this food except a young boy.

Let’s limit it to humans ingesting food, not dinosaurs ingesting humans. Sam Neill encounters food of an unnamed sort in an institutional-size can. He scrapes the bottom of this can hungrily as a fellow actor enjoys a Nestle bar. Sam gets one for dessert.

The light this morning is much better. Yesterday afternoon I gave up on trying to shoot them indoors. But outside, the wind was blowing too hard.

The malaria pathogen and the potato famine pathogen both use the same protein code to infect their hosts.

This does not mean that one day you will have to be excused from work because you have come down with Irish potato famine. But researchers may be able to produce a single drug that could attack both microbes that cause malaria and potato famine.

Not the irritable, flightless birds that can rip out your guts with their sharp claws. Chasing the citizenry of Innisfail, North Queensland they are.

a) the Irish
b) the Scottish
c) the Welsh
d) the English

Give up? It’s b) the Scottish.

Bought at the Mountain View farmers market this morning.

Shortly after 8 pm, PDT, according to the USGS.

We debated going to the Marin Headlands in the ferocious wind, having been mightily buffeted on our outing to Hawk Hill some time ago. Yesterday, the winds were so strong that I was very grateful for gravity, especially when we stood atop one of the gun emplacements at an old battery.

The tunnels provided the only relief.

To celebrate the grad’s return, we indulged in some of his favorite foods - filet mignon and home fries, along with another try at onion rings, this time using Thomas Keller’s batter.

I hate it when a recipe involves ‘three parts of this to two parts of that’. We didn’t get it quite right, but the result was quite good.

Maverick is an old family favorite with Jodie Foster at her feistiest.

Last night, I seriously considered getting one of their famous hot dogs. But it was so crowded. Next time for sure.

Seems that many customers consider it one of the last food bargains around.

What did I buy? About 300 chicken legs and thighs. Well, almost. But I spent most of my time looking at this.

The idea is so simple it just might work.

The actor, still known as ‘Whistler’ around our house, is set to appear in ‘Challenger’. Feynman’s part in the investigation of the Space Shuttle Challenger is the subject of the movie.

Leftover roast chicken, cold asparagus and some of the macaroni salad made ahead for the weekend. Listening to Johnny Yuma, Johnny Cash. Reading the Mercury News review of X-Men, The Last Stand, which the guys are going to see this afternoon.

In the Netflix queue, The Cars That Ate Paris, Blow Up and Brokeback Mountain.

Years ago, a son waited till a colleague posted an item on craigslist. Then he and another colleague proceeded to flood the seller’s mailbox with frivolous and highly annoying questions. All the while sitting next to the persecuted worker who exclaimed louder at each succeeding missive.

A hapless individual in the UK put up his car for sale on eBay. He will never get this kind of attention again in his entire life. Nor will he ever be offered the services of someone else’s wife.

It’s a wonderful thing that they picked on someone with his wits fully intact.

She can recall each day of her life from early childhood, and has kept a diary. The good, the bad, the people, the weather.

If we all have this ability, perhaps evolution has decreed that we also don’t have the wherewithal to deal with so much data, considering our current brain toolset.

Websites of the future might provide ways to organize the vast, entire minutiae of our lives rather than just putting our photos in order.

A hummer that is 8-1/2 inches long, yet still builds a tiny nest.

Yahoo and eBay are helping each other out, and now Google and Dell are doing the same. Who’s next?

For those of you who come here only to read about record-breaking fish, here are pictures of the 14.5 ft pregnant shark.

As their numbers soar, wildlife officials are concerned, especially when the birds go after baby tortoises and murrelet eggs.

The bear showed up in Germany last week after leaving the Italian Alps. German farmers were shocked at the sheep and poultry carnage along the bear’s trail. The order went out to kill on sight.

Meanwhile, the Italians were furious at such a response. Relations between the two countries are strained.

Someone must have tipped off the bear, who is retreating from Germany.

I cleaned the sink with Comet. Then I spritzed Windex on the toilet, including some in the bowl. As an afterthought, I poured in some bleach.

Then I remembered the article just a day ago (that I can’t find) warning against mixing household cleaners. And to leave the bathroom immediately after cleaning. Too late. My eyes were burning already.

Oh, the perils of cleaning house at the end of a long day. Here’s what the Beeb has to say about it.

Since I haven’t really cooked for several days, it was either another sandwich or a salad. Neither seemed particularly appealing.

Out came the chicken quarters, which were roasted. The carrots were steamed and buttered. The asparagus stirfried.

I’m not a Woody Allen fan, and was surprised at how much I liked Match Point. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers has Elvis eyes. No wait, a second later, he could be Kiefer Sutherland’s brother. He’s good.

Video of a very active eruption more than 1,800 feet below the surface.

How is it that a bear can hibernate all winter, barely moving, and emerge from its den with stronger bones in the spring?

When humans are inactive for long periods of time, such as during illness, our bones grow weaker. Scientists are studying the way that bears recycle the calcium in their bodies to keep their bones strong.

When the kids were little, naptime meant a few books, then they’d settle down while I left some music on. Sometimes this meant Johnny Cash.

Sunday when we went to fetch a very tired grad, he fell asleep in the car to some of the same songs, which seem awfully lively to sleep to. But he did.

It is possible to power a model rocket with Oreo cookie filling. But don’t try this at home by yourself. No really, don’t do it.

Out of Oreos? Apparently, Gummi Bears and Pixy Stix also work. But please, apply rocket science responsibly.

According to Briefing.com via the ABC News blog, Osama has moved from the mountains of Afghanistan to a Pakistani valley.

Watch out, this one was wounded by Fish and Wildlife agents. In Renton earlier, not too far away, there were three sightings of bears.

Or so they say.

You’d think, in this age of digital cameras, that someone would be able to take a decent photo.

Up north, bears find a reliable source of free food. Homeowners are urged to take down feeders in spring and summer to discourage bears from coming into their yards.

Researchers have succeeded in generating hydrogen using waste materials from a Cadbury factory.

The day is approaching when traffic will be more bearable.

A story about how Bear, who once had a long, glossy tail, lost it because of Fox and his trickster ways.

The plan was to greet the graduating son with the giant Pooh balloon, which could take up half the space of his doorway.

We didn’t know he was in the shower, unable to hear either the persistent knocking or the doorbell, so there we stood in the torrential downpour. I was forced to use Pooh as an umbrella.

Never use a helium balloon as rain gear, especially Pooh. He became very depressed, unable to rise to the occasion, and turned upside down once we got indoors. Even after a brisk towel-down, he was still unhappy. My son wondered why he clutched a fish in his paw.

It was a diploma.

Killed by shotguns after assuming what police called an aggressive stance.

Greek and Turkish pilots have a history of airspace disagreements. This time, the dispute ended in the crash of both F-16s. The Turkish pilot has been rescued, but refused to climb aboard the Greek rescue helicopter.

Horseman on the Roof is a wonderful movie, just not suitable for dinner. Many characters are seized by what is referred to as ‘cholera’, the most immediate symptom being vomiting.

Tonight, Dinner Rush was close to perfect. A large portion of the film takes place in a hectic restaurant kitchen, where the staff deals with a particularly busy night. I had no expectations for this movie, and as usual, was pleasantly surprised to find it so good. There are ‘fork frozen in the air’ moments, as befitting anything involving mob figures, but wow. I only wished my food had been fancier than grilled cheese and salad.

Brown bears have not been seen here since 1835, when they were hunted nearly to extinction by farmers. However, authorities told hunters it was okay to shoot this bear, which has been on a steady sheep diet.

After being shot with both a Taser and a tranquilizer gun, the bear did not survive its adventure near the UW campus.

Drug researchers find a compound in a scoop of soil that is effective against a strain of Staphylococcus aureus when tested in mice.

If you know how to listen, you will hear the sounds of countless numbers of birds migrating.

This article links to tips on constructing an inexpensive microphone and free software to help identify what you hear.

The two Australian miners trapped for two weeks in the rubble of a Tasmanian gold mine kept their spirits up by singing the Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler.

That’s the one with the line about ‘. . . the best you can hope for is to die in your sleep.’

The rescued miners can no doubt sleep better now that they have sold their story for approximately $1 million.

It seemed to be raining hardest when we were on the road.

My younger son received his degree in electric engineering/computer science this morning at Cal.

I will look up this rose’s name soon.

Grads with outdoor ceremonies tomorrow are checking the forecast, and parents are rounding up umbrellas. A sprinkle or two can be tolerated but downpours are not acceptable. I can see the rain running off those mortarboards now.

Our Cal grad promises to let us know if there will be a move indoors.

Name unknown, from my mother’s garden. I’ve tried for years root cuttings without success.

Users noted with some alarm that the Russian music site seemed to be down for much longer than usual. Rumors began to circulate of its possible takedown by no less than Putin in his new concern for intellectual property.

The site now seems to be operational, enjoying double the visitors it had before all the fuss.

The big guy who likes doughnuts, that Homer.

Tri-tip seemed a good choice.

It is possible to thoroughly enjoy a bad movie, especially if we were curious about how awful it could be. From the moment of Tea Leoni’s first screech (lamentably early in the going) to the obligatory, avuncular lessons from Sam Neill addressing any nearby young adult, we were merciless.

Begging for Leoni’s early death was useless. Deciding which extraneous characters would die was pretty easy. When the group came up against what appeared to be an electrified enclosure, I sincerely hoped that Neill would grab it and pretend to be electrocuted again. Actually, if the entire cast had succumbed at that point, it would have been less painful for all involved, viewers included.

The son who was home admitted it was not the worst movie he’d ever seen. That would be Mangler 2 with our old favorite, Lance Henriksen. I’ll take a pass on that one.

Amazed by the alligator’s ability to heal quickly from traumatic wounds, Henry F. Gomez, M.D. and professor at the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center Medical School, is conducting studies in a field that few have chosen.

The average alligator is submerged in a pathogen-ridden environment of water and mud, yet this is no deterrent to its ability to rise above disastrous injuries. As Dr. Gomez gathers information, it is necessary to get blood samples from a large number of alligators.

To get their attention, empty soda cans are tossed in the water. (Casual litterers might want to take note of this when taking refreshment near alligator-infested waters.) Then the gators are bled and released, snouts pointed toward the water. It takes 15 minutes from start to finish.

Details and pictures here.

At the Central Park Zoo, guards, especially those in the snow monkey area, are more alert in the days leading up to Passover. Orthodox Jews removing leavened items from their homes are known to bring sacks of bread and cake to lend variety to the typical zoo diet. Observers note that the monkeys are the primary recipients.

Zoo officials frown on this annual practice, saying the animals get sluggish and fat from the extra food.

British researchers say that the doll depicts an unrealistic body image, and that little girls aspire to this image when they become adolescents.

Because for some inexplicable reason, Dueling Banjos is looping in my brain. Out! Out!

Hey Girl, Ray Charles and Michael McDonald
Thief of Hearts, Tina Turner
Battle in the Forest, House of Flying Daggers soundtrack
I Knew You Were Waiting, George Michael, Aretha Franklin
Graceland, Paul Simon
Feeling Good, Michael Buble
Don’t You Worry Bout a Thing, Stevie Wonder
Nothing Can Come Between Us, Sade
You Promised Me, Ingrid
One Step at a Time, George Strait

Somewhere in the garage, He-Man and his assorted fellow action figures wait patiently for two little boys to come back and play again.

One of those boys is graduating from college this weekend, and the other has been gainfully employed in the grown-up world far from Eternia for a couple of years now.

There was a Christmas when plastic muscles were fastened onto arms still clad in footed pajamas. Swords went high in the air as little voices tried to imitate the reverb sounds of He-Man extolling the virtues of the power of GreySkull. They wore He-Man underwear.

In this article, a journalist revisits the Masters of the Universe.

Blue Stilton fanciers have created a unique new perfume that is the essence of their favorite fermented dairy product. A dab here and there on selected pulse points will insure that you or a lady friend will attract attention at the next social gathering.

To say nothing of the possible adoration of strange dogs.

If you spend long hours at the computer, as many of us do nowadays, there’s a compelling reason to get up and move around. Recent research shows that deep-vein thrombosis is not confined to jet travelers.

It’s the new drug, sold by enterprising young students in restrooms and outer reaches of the playground. At schools where sodas, candy bars and potato chips are banned, the market in forbidden goods thrives.