The Westphall Hypothesis

Beginning its six season run in 1982, St. Elsewhere garnered little critical acclaim and virtually no viewer response as a sleepy medical drama set in a dilapidated teaching hospital in Boston. In all respects, it would have been an easily forgettable hour-drama if not for the series finale, which has become the stuff of nerdy legend. In the final episode, a main character's autistic son, Tommy Westphall, is shown staring at a snow globe with a tiny version of the teaching hospital inside. Given that the final moments of the show are completely at odds with the rest of the show's 100+ episode run, it is generally assumed that all events depicted in the show were a figment of Tommy's imagination.

In our crazy modern times, such a gimmick seems interesting, but not too outlandish. I mean, just watch more than three consecutive episodes of LOST to get what I'm talking about. But the story gets better. Some bright spark assumed that if St. Elsewhere was just the figment of a character's mind, then every crossover episode it ever had must have also occurred inside little Tommy's head. The main lynchpin of this theory rests with Homicide: Life On The Street, a crime drama produced by Tom Fontana (St. Elsewhere's creator). In more than one instance, doctors from Elsewhere appear on the show, presumably making the entire Homicide run similarly a product of Tommy's psyche. One of Homicide's main characters was a cop by the name of John Munch. Yeah. This guy:

For those not in the know, John Munch later appeared as a main character in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Since L&O:SVU belongs to the same universe as all of the Law & Order universes, Tommy is also responsible for one of television's longest running franchises. It doesn't stop there, either. Munch appeared in an X-Files episode, an episode of The Wire, and in an episode of The Beat (also the series finale of Arrested Development. Shit yeah). Also, let us not forget his brief stint on Sesame Street.

If your mind isn't fully and thoroughly blown yet, let me just cut to the chase. Through an extremely tenuous and unlikely series of connections, over two hundred and eighty television shows currently compose what has come to be known as the Tommyverse. Or I might have just made that name up right now. Either way, think of it. A lot of minor shows, but a vast majority of stuff you've probably seen. Stuff like Cheers; Alf; M*A*S*H; Las Vegas; Heroes; I Love Lucy; The Office (both versions); Crossing Jordan; Buffy The Vampire Slayer (therefore Angel) and Firefly; Doctor Who (all incarnations); Friends; Seinfeld; The Brady Bunch; Home Improvement; Matlock; The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air; Boy Meets World; Gilligan's Island; King Of Queens; Malcolm In The Middle; Alias; Knight Rider; Touched By An Angel; the entire Star Trek universe; the entire Crime Scene Investigation universe; and Moesha. In the unlikely event that you still care, just check out the full map below (click to enlarge), courtesy of this site. Tommy bless you, good sir.

If you want a key to the whole thing, you'll find it here. There's something else that gets me though. As a Buffy fan, I was instantly reminded of the season six episode "Normal Again", in which it is suggested that the entire Buffy universe may be the hallucination of a troubled teenage girl (who can't really kill vampires and prevent multiple apocalypses). What could this possibly mean? Are insane Buffy and little Tommy Westphall the only "real" characters on TV? I'd say: "Sure, why not."

Bizarre Dinosaurs And Flight Hazards

Let's be brief.

In the December of 2007, John Updike (who I guess is qualified to speak as a paleontologist) published an article through National Geographic entitled "Extreme Dinosaurs". Does that not pique your curiosity? Extreme Dinosaurs? Sign me up for that, please. But seriously, these real dinosaurs pose some serious questions. Like, for instance, why the hell this would be an evolutionary boon in any way:

Other than just looking cool, obviously. I think they're for courtship rituals. These dudes just turned into peacocks. Also seriously cool is the Styracosaurus. It's the one that looks like a 'roided-up triceratops. Check out the photo gallery for all of them.

In other news, I found a site that sells umbrella-concealed swords. Yeah. For real. That is all.

Afro Samurai

Those of you unfamiliar with the Afro Samurai franchise, prepare to have your minds blown. There is apparently a manga series in which a man with an improbably large afro moves at impossible speeds in order to kill robot clones of themselves. This already awesome concept got a whole lot awesomer in 2007, when Afro Samurai made the leap to the screen with one of the finest anime I've had the pleasure to watch. (Bebop still wins.) The five-episode miniseries featured music composed by The Wu-Tang Clan's RZA. Yes, the RZA. Even better, the man who lent his voice to the titular* character for the English dub (which is surprisingly good) was none other than Samuel L. Jackson, which just about makes this whole thing the third most awesome thing on Earth. Obviously, the number one spot is occupied by another television show (see above), but the second spot is reserved for the Afro Samurai full length affair released earlier this year, Afro Samurai: Resurrection. The film followed the events of the anime, but with a bigger budget, tighter animation and far more resurrection than you would expect, even for a movie with the word "resurrection" in the title. But I know how hard it is to understand a visual phenom through words alone. Allow me to play you out.

*Seriously. The main character's name is "Afro Samurai". It's unfortunate.

EDIT: I just found these links. They look pretty good. Also, I think you should all know that in my YouTube page's "Videos Currently Being Watched" box, I see not one, but TWO videos claiming to have captured the ghost of Michael Jackson.

World's Ugliest Dog

This year's Ugliest Dog competition is over, and a boxer named Pabst is the new champion. But there was some serious competition.

Pabst is the first one. And let's not forget my personal favorite, Squiggy:

Composed entirely while clearing my hard drive of unneeded pictures of ugly dogs.

Optical Illusion

This is perhaps the most visually impressive optical illusion I have ever seen.

While it may look like alternating spirals of blue and green, you're actually looking at a spiral of one color. Go ahead and take a closer look. I pulled it up in GIMP and everything. Same color. (via Discover Magazine.)

Rufus Harley

Earlier today, whilst whiling away the hours in the normal way - looking up jazz musicians and making fun of their names (dude's name is Bix) - I stumbled onto a lesser known artist who deserves some serious celebration. Rufus Harley is the world's only jazz bagpiper. No joke. While having a comparatively small catalogue of music, he has left an indelible mark on the city of Philadelphia, where he was celebrated as a cultural icon.

If you want more Rufus (and who wouldn't?) you can check out this review page. It has some radio.blog tracks on there.