Ah, this made me happy. Especially the “cat yodeling” application. The “corporal cuddling” methodology is actually one we have used, with a great deal of success, with Ralph — in fact, after repeated use, his middle-of-the-night berserker rages are a thing of the past.

In comparing myself to geek archetypes such as those depicted in this film, I have come to a realization: I am not really a geek. I’m more of a nerd, really.

Thanks to Mr. Maxwell for passing this along.

(11:07:47 AM) Zero: google is a horse of many colors
(11:08:05 AM) Castle: the man wears white shirts in may.
(11:08:24 AM) Zero: the horse has a broad yellow streak from its anus to its belly button
(11:08:54 AM) Castle: ______ loves horses and leaves pus trails.
(11:09:22 AM) Zero: ______ has been squeezed by the ______ tentacles before
(11:09:40 AM) Castle: praise be to _____’s lover. amen
(11:09:53 AM) Zero: forever and ever, amen.
(11:10:13 AM) Castle: the man takes off his white shirt and does a lil dance.

I would attempt to offer some explanation or interpretation of this IM exchange, but I feel it is much more meaningful as I encountered it.

Yesterday on my way home I saw a couple of fuzzy, long haired hippy types out playing curbside croquet golf. The improvised, obstacle laden course made me think of the peculiar variant of croquet my sister and cousins and I played during yesteryear summers. We’d start at one end of the yard and end in the other. Given that our yard was about an acre and a half and included an orchard, hills, fencing, and a pack of yapping neighborhood dogs, these games could take more than an hour to complete and usually involved a good deal of sweating and debate, and sometimes even bloodshed.

It is a shame that we adults, with all of our dignity and responsibility, tend to give up such foolish games. A rousing game of field croquet sounds very satisfying to me right now.

True “Extreme Croquet” may, on the other hand, be going a bit too far.