Quicker than reading lamelist, scan the “wordle” of my most recent posts to absorb the latest lameness. Looks way better than your usual word cloud.  Create your own wordle here.

In The Mystery of the Dangerous Flying Bats , Popular Woodworking magazine looks at why baseball bats break more than they used to.

Is it due to using a different type of wood?  No, bats break because current players prefer longer, lighter bats with thinner handles and a "bigger business end."

And to make the handles thinner, some players are shaving them. Can’t you imagine the MLB clubhouse equipped with a Brian Boggs shavehorse and set of spokeshaves ?

Given these guys probably lack much woodworking know-how, I have this mental image of the rookie hearing about shaving the handle to improve his performance. I see this kid with his bat all lathered up and his razor stropped and ready to shave. That cracks me up!

Mailinator is simply awesome. Useful for all those lame websites and companies that want your email address. Mailinator provides a disposable email address. This is a nifty email companion to my recent entry about how having a fake name comes in handy.  Mailinator and fake name generator are both free.

A neighbor turned her house into short-term vacation rental after running into financial problems. We have to deal with the usual lame issues of running the kids out of our yard, listening to the blaring radio, the parade of strangers coming and going.

What we did not expect was the group that rented it for a week to produce adult videos. (We have a great view of the backyard hot tub.)  No doubt they were annoyed with my loud pre-schooler endlessly singing the theme song to Bob The Builder at the top of his lungs while he played in the yard. Heh.

Comment spam from Russia was "Please estimate my new blog. Let’s argue on it " Gives me flashbacks to "All your base are belong to us"

I like the fake name I generated on this site .  Unlike some name generator sites, this one puts together believable names.

I started using my fake name for lots of things that don’t need my real name like a Safeway club card, surveys, online forms or registrations.  I think of it as my "altName."  I even created an email and a Facebook profile for the fake name.

The name comes in handy because I have a quick, snappy response that I give without hesitation, just like it is my real name.  I especially like my altName because the name is latino and I am not.  Take that lame marketing peeps!  I even get spam in Spanish.

It’s frustratingly lame being stuck at a red light and not being able to trigger a green light. If you have ever ridden a motorcycle, scooter or bicycle, you know the routine. Here are two articles on how to change a traffic light to green: one for bicyclists and another for motorcycles, scooters and small cars.

A bizarre story is unraveling about the co-founder of Broadcom, Henry T. Nicholas III. Backdating stock options was just the tip of the iceberg. (Be sure to scan the story linked to if you are not familiar with it.)

How can so many people have let this guy get so out of contol for so long? Among lawsuits filed was one involving a secret underground party room that even his wife did not know about.

A secret room! Just what every house needs. I roll my eyes every time my mom rattles off the latest "must-have" home feature she heard or read about in some press release presented as a news story. But this one might be worth pursuing. Not that every secret party room would be used like the one in this news story. (Again, read it if you have not.)

I imagine my mom’s secret party room would have a little TV room for every person, equipped with a big cushy Lazy-Boy, a fridge with an ice dispenser and a bottomless ashtray. My secret room would be just for me. No TV. Just peace and quiet to escape the loudness of a home otherwise run by a noisy pre-schooler.

The local police blotter reports:

JUNE 8 11:44 a.m. A resident reported his boat and mooring buoy stolen from Agate Pass. He had last seen the boat and buoy June 6. The boat was described as a 14-foot Duroboat skiff with 15 horsepower Nissan outboard valued at $15,000. The resident said he did not believe the mooring line had broken. He said he had searched the area by kayak with no luck. No suspects.

Were the the police able to maintain a straight face when they asked whether it could be possible that the mooring buoy was no longer moored to the bottom of this waterway that gets considerable current?

A guy in a powerboat ran out of fuel and had to be towed to Friday Harbor. He had gone to Bellingham (the mainland) to buy fuel in order to save $0.75 a gallon. By the time he got there, the fuel dock was closed. On his way back home (a 10-hour round trip), he ran out of fuel and had to be towed in the dark of night with gale force winds forecast.

According to the math in one of the comments, he probably burned more dollars of fuel to make the 60 mile round trip than he would have saved so no one can figure out what he was thinking. I suspect saving money on gas was a lame excuse for some other reason to visit the mainland. ("Honey, I’m going out to top off the tank… ")