Dude! Joe's Jottings, Mostly Junk

The original Kermit the Frog has been donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington.

The muppet was donated by creator Jim Henson's widow Jane, along with nine other characters from the 1955 TV show Sam and Friends.

Some of the other muppets in the collection include early versions of Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch.

Henson's oldest puppet, Pierre the French Rat, was also donated.

Jane Henson said the original characters provided five minutes of fun each night after the local news where they mostly mimed to popular music.

The 4 boxed sets of Brother Cadfael.

I have an item going into the yard sale but it is cool enough (in my opinion) to be worth offering to my local f-list @ large first. I have, store-bought and only occasionally watched, all 13 episodes of the PBS TV series, Brother Cadfael, staring Derek Jacobi.

These are in great shape, and the only reason they're "barely watched" is that I have too many other things to watch as well (including this same set on DVD). :)

This is a fantastic series, among Jacobi's finest work, and the care to the history of the period (12th century Shropshire) is impressive (though it isn't always 100% to the books themselves, but that's to be expected). I'm offering the set, all 13 still in their boxes (4,3,3,3 - see photo), for only $15. All proceeds go to the Team Wench C.Y.S. charities, as if the item was sold through the sale.

If interested, let me know as a comment here or in email, and we'll work on coordinating the exchange. I'm willing to wait to MDRF weekend to deliver since that may be the first chance I see some of you.

HOWEVER, I need to have it "sold" by July 17th or else it will be put into the yard sale lot with everything else.

• Joe Shelby notes that time has begun seriously to pass.
• fine, Elm. Be like that.
• Insanity is a gradual process. Don't rush it.
• Hot Potato. Don't Pick It Up.
• Gravity, of course, was merely a discovery. It was there to be discovered. They even keep it on at weekends.
• But that was a different age, when Zaphod was young, brash, and terrifyingly electable.
• the major difference between someone your age and someone mine is not how much I know, but how much I've forgotten.
• Joe Shelby would take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.
• Joe Shelby Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
• Joe Shelby notes the impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks.
• The Door was The Way. Good. Capital letters were always the best way of dealing with things you didn't have a good answer to.
• Joe Shelby is often stuck with technology when what he really wants is just stuff that works.
• Joe Shelby wonders, will everything tie up neatly or will it be just like life: quite interesting in parts, but no substitute for the real thing?

The theater world was eagerly awaiting Tuesday's premiere in London of "Love Never Dies," the sequel to Lloyd Webber's global hit "Phantom of the Opera."

"Phantom" is a tale of gothic romance set in the Paris Opera that has been seen by 100 million people around the world since its 1986 premiere. It is still playing in London and New York, where it is the longest running show in Broadway history.

"Love Never Dies" picks up the story 10 years on, with disfigured genius the Phantom relocated to the bright lights of New York's Coney Island and still besotted with beautiful soprano Christine Daae.

Many "Phantom" fans have trashed the show in Internet reviews based on preview performances.

Some say the score has nothing to rival the earlier show's catchy, romantic ballads such as "The Music of the Night" and "All I Ask of You," and the set design has come in for criticism.

Widely read theater bloggers the West End Whingers dubbed the show "Paint Never Dries."

"What does it say about your directorial career that your tweets are far more compelling, suspenseful, and emotionally honest than your recent movies?"