Some thoughts on links

If you click some of the links that I embed in my messages, you'll notice that some of them are, shall we say, odd. I do this because, like the little easter egg surprises that developers hide in the menu structures of virtually every DVD that comes out nowadays, I think it's fun to stumble across the unexpected.

Allow me to elaborate (and recognize that even if you didn't allow me to elaborate, I would proceed regardless. This is, after all, my blog and I answer to no one. Well, my wife, but that's in the real world, not the blogsphere.)

Let's say I've written something that contains an opportunity to link to a famous American broadcaster. Like the CBS/60 Minutes curmudgeon Andy Rooney. The conventional approach would have me linking to his home page at CBS News. There's nothing overtly wrong with this. It serves as a valuable starting point for learning all about the man who has come to typify the acerbic and satiric show-ending opinion piece. Few people do the signoff as he does, and he truly does represent a unique example of an era that will soon exist solely in our collective memory.

The site, however, is about as middle-of-the-road as seventysomething CBS news producers will allow. One can't help but yawn when the milquetoastness of it all becomes fully apparent. You will doubtless remember nothing from your visit after 48 hours (pun somewhat intended.) In short, it's flippin' boring.

A quick trip out to the fringe might reignite your curiosity, however, and leave your brain with something that will prompt you to wake up laughing at 3 a.m. weeks from now. For example, Chickenhead.com has this repository of too-hot-for-TV Andyisms. This Quicktime movie of a cantankerous Rooney contending with AliG (a British hip hopper/actor who seems to be popular these days, for some reason) is similarly classic, if not exactly mainstream.

Star of television's The A Team and general man-about-town Mr. T. is another great example. His Internet Movie Database entry is tame enough. The Flash-based movie, Mr. T. Goes For A Drive, is decidedly less sober. It's beyond funny. Similarly, The A-Team Drinking Game is significantly closer to the edge of the comedic spectrum than the previously-linked IMDB entry.

So as you read my blog, pay attention to the links, because you never know when they'll send you off on a magical mystery tour from which you may not emerge until your tummy recovers from the laughter.