Wednesday Night ONT - April 22, 2026 [TRex]

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans. Now that the sweet, sweet flow of SPLC "research" money has dried up, the ONT no longer has the budget for totally organic grassroots protests. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers in this difficult time. The bar is open.

Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT which means another edition of random overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Good will offerings of amusing puns are happily accepted. Pants are optional. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors. This is a Tucker, Candace and Megyn free zone. Please.

[Top photo: 1956 and 1958 John Deere 520 tractors, Paul Schmitt, Fort Atkinson, Iowa]

A week late but think of it as an ONT...with an extension.

No, I didn't count to confirm the numbers.

Plumbing hi-jinks:

"Fine" music via The Curly Shuffle (was going to be a mystery link but some of you might have missed it!):

As the saying goes: as a child you watched Curly, as a teenager you watched Moe, and as an adult you watched Larry:

Before the Stooges (but not by much) was Laurel and Hardy:

Math is not usually permitted here, but we'll make an exception:

Get Stuffed you old Crow:

Random music trivia: Rick James only won one Grammy - and it was for songwriting credit on MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This."

The irony is that songwriting credit did not come without a fight. The song samples the opening riff of "Super Freak."

James filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement. It was settled out of court, with Hammer agreeing to credit James as a songwriter, effectively earning him millions of dollars in royalties - and a Grammy.

If you really listen carefully, you just be able to make out the similarity:

World travelers within Maine:

Somewhat related - how many cities or towns or townships in the United States are named "Paris" or some version of "Paris"? Apparently the answer is 23.

There are 11 Dublins.

What about Lebanons? Depends how you count. Fadi BouKaram is a Lebanese photographer who took a five-month road trip across the U.S. to find them all. His count is 43 Lebanons cities and towns still standing today. The number was formerly 50 but some cities changed names or lost their population and became ghost towns.

The Brennan Monorail - I will admit that I thought this was a fake when I first saw it. Never heard of it before and the video is clearly a product of AI.

Brennan's Gyro Monorail

The first gyro monorail patent was filed by Irish-Australian engineer Louis Philip Brennan in 1903. He first demonstrated a small working model of his invention to the Army and impressed them so much that the Army Council recommended £10,000 for the development of a full-size vehicle. However, the Financial Department vetoed the idea, but Brennan, with the help of the Army, managed to raise £2,000 from various sources.

Brennan demonstrated the monorail again at the Japan-British Exhibition at the White City, London in 1910. This time the monorail car carried 50 passengers around a circular track at 20 miles per hour. Among the passengers was Winston Churchill, whose presence helped Brennan garner great support for his monorail project. Despite the initial enthusiasm, the monorail failed to attract investors, and Brennan was forced to abandon his dream.

Dave Mason passed away recently. I'm told by reliable sources that Steve Winwood is the only remaining member of Traffic still among the living.

The Pittsburgh police scanner keeps giving. Thank you people of Pittsburgh!

Offenbach can can for the big ONT finish:

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking ?? The Wednesday ONT is not currently operating under court supervision. It is also not shaped like a lobster. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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