I think that the "tastes like balls" idiom is meant to evoke an image of licking a scrotum attached to a live human male, not of consuming cooked and seasoned testes.  So, I don't think that this idiom is a fair example of American narrow-mindedness with respect to offal.

Why the f--- are you two analyzing this shit? -____-;

The real question, I think, is why the explicative filter censors "f---" but not "shit."  Is there a principled distinction between the two?

So how do YOU pronounce it?
Be advised that "sa-kay" is pretty far removed from the original Japanese pronunciation as well.

I don't bastardize the bastardization, that's for sure.

At least it's not as bad as karaoke. I mean, really? Where the hell did the English pronunciation even come from? That type of linguistic butchery makes me sad.

Most puddings here in the States come the same way.  The one I had was an Asian branded one.  It's Korean, so I can't be sure of the name -- but I know it's some of the most delicious rice pudding I've ever tasted.

sometimes i get up to pee in the middle of the night... but perhaps that belongs in the stream of unconsciousness thread

Let's talk to Congress about it! It's a lot better idea than a lot of the things they're proposing to spend money on!

I pronounce it "Sucky," myself...can't stand the stuff...sorry. Maybe I've only just had bad, poor, cheap sake, before?

...

Geez, why even hold the Olympics anymore, when it's just a means by which everyone can show off what poor sportsmanship they have? It's making me lose faith in humanity, rather than re-affirming it...

oh my god i cant stop myself from watching this NY lottery commercial with the bunnies in it over and over and over!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF6PyIML0hI

angela why didnt you post about this last year?

Guess I don't watch enough regular television nowadays to have caught that one.  Too adorable.

Really? Other than the Russian dude skater whining about the quad thing and the women's short track blowup with the thrown water bottle, I've really enjoyed the Olympics this year. Most unsportsmanlike things I've seen are people being mad at themselves or at the officials (the Korean women short track team that got DQed had every right to be upset and Mancuso handled herself a LOT better than I would have, if I had a potential gold-medal run interrupted because the official sent me down the track with a hurt skier on it...I think it won her a lot of fans in the process). Sasha Cohen had sour grapes about not making the squad, but she's probably right that our US women skaters probably won't medal against better competition. The Canada-USA hockey game was heated, but was pretty clean. First hockey game I've really enjoyed since...ever. lol.

Compared to the endless lockout talks in football and the nonstop salaries-n-steroids talk of baseball, the Olympics have been a breath of fresh air for me.

It doesn't take much to beat baseball these days... I barely consider it a sport anymore.

I got a laugh at an article about the Pirates in my local newspaper about how they want to stop trading away their verteran players. That is never going to happen. Everyone one knows the Pirates are a major league farm team... and once you're worth something you're on to another team. Pittsburgh is a football (and somewhat hockey) town more than a baseball town anymore.

Mark McGuire: Yeah, I took steroids but it didn't make me a better player. Sure, and I'm going to accept a half-baked apology like that. Funny that a guy that "saved baseball" comes back to destroy it.

The first videos from the interstellar probe were viewed today, privately, by senior members of NASA. Due to the ludicrous nature of the material, it was quickly realized they couldn't show it to the public. A most curious public and aggressive media wanted to know why. An official statement by NASA revealed there was some malfunction; the nanoware should soon correct the problem. Soon enough, they promised, images from other star systems will be streaming on ocular orbs.

The video showed a rocky planet of perhaps 30% water and 70% land. There was no sign of civilization on land, but the aqueous regions displayed a high level of sophistication. The probe did report it had been detected by radar, so they were at least as technologically advanced as early 1900s humans. What puzzled the NASA scientists was that creatures resembling humans lived on land, yet had built no visible structures, nor wore any clothing. Such people could not have developed radar, unless they chose to not wear clothes and sleep unprotected. But far more revealing than the surface images were the equivalent of TV images, on archaic form of entertainment on Earth, that were intercepted by the probe. There were reporters and news and dramas and specials, spoken in a language totally meaningless by giant black and white colored whales. A recent news item consisted of a variety of these intelligent whales debating as to whether or not the land creatures should be in captivity or not, after the death of one of their trainers...

Athletes in general make me nauseous. What good are they doing for the public? I'd rather pay my garbage collector millions of dollars than any arrogant athlete (because garbage collectors actually provide a useful service)! I used to enjoy the Olympics, now I think it's a sham. Originally the modern Olympics were supposed to unite the world and be ONLY for non-professional athletes. Now, it's just a big-business, like basketball, baseball, hockey...

It's even more pathetic that these so-called athletes are supposed to be role-models, but instead we find out that so many of them will do anything to win (as Ashley pointed out, steroids are a professional athlete's best friend... bleh)!

-avatar!

Went to bed last night, had a nightmare / vision / omen / premonition of a city being plunged into the center of Earth's molten core...either that, or Hell came to Earth...

Woke up to the news today to hear a story about another earthquake, this time in Chile...

Logged into Yahoo.com, only to see an advertisement for the DVD / Blu-Ray release of 2010...

Obsessed, fearing, or yearning for the end of the world, are we, these days...?

The irrational monster was hungry. Being irrational, it needed to eat something that did not make sense. It found a man being consumed with thoughts of a woman and it consumed him. Delicious!

Steamed vegetables from Boston Market are disgustingly over-seasoned.  I have a burning sensation in my throat from all the salt.

hoping this is part of the gameplay in the next Akitoshi Kawazu game

If you're riding your bike down a trail and stop to pick some blackberries growing along the side, sometimes people passing by will stare over at you with a strange look that says, "Oh my goodness, you're eating stuff from the WILD? You might get poisoned and die...."
(Then they chomp some fried, processed material and chug a delicious energy drink.)

Raining again? I swear, I'm getting so tired of this pissy maritime weather. But I don't really want to move, since I love living in a larger city. How come most of Earth's big cities are located along coastlines? Who planned this ¤#¤£$!!! anyway?

Since rivers and oceans used to be the big trade routes in the days before interstate highways and airplane cargo, mega cities were born out of PORT cities with lots of trade coming in and out on the water...   

It was useful then, not so much now.  Although these days I think China has now resorted to building mega-cities in their INTERIOR as well as exterior coasts, thanks to internal population shifts and such.

Hahaha, that put such a smile on my face.

Personally, I think it's a bad idea to view athletes as any kind of role model in the first place, and not just because they seem to be failing to their vices left and right anymore. I would rather say I "respect" an athlete more than view them as a role model because, given it's definition, respect is something that earned and can be lost.

This reminds me of the puzzle introducing the concept of scarcity in introductory economics: Why is water cheap and diamonds expensive, when the former is a necessity and the latter has only symbolic importance (excepting, of course, cutting diamonds in industrial use)?  There are a great deal many able-bodied people who could do the job of garbage collecting (or teaching, which is a profession often juxtaposed against professional sports in arguments that athletes' pay is obscene), but few people who are able to play sports competitively at a professional level.

Your garbage collector does not entertain millions in an activity that stirs passion--if not rabid fanaticism--in many.  Although I mostly disdain watching professional sports, I see their value in providing a social glue as a near-universal topic of discussion and also a distraction from the soul-crushing routines of daily life.  So, I cannot muster much outrage at the athletes whose exertions give people something to cheer and to talk about.

Speak for yourself, my garbage man stirs passion in ALL that he encounters - mainly that they don't have his job.

Sry, couldn't resist. Additionally, sry to anyone here that may be a sanitation man/woman.