Hasta Lambada, Amigo!

Hey gang! Welcome back to Thinking Hard. We're on Phelps Watch '08...Michael Phelps has now won 6 of 8 gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. And none of them are chocolate medallions. That, to me, is the biggest rip-off of the olympics. Sure, you get a gold medal, but then what? Back to working the drive-thru at Burger King? "Hey, kid, I'm glad to hear you broke the record of most gold medals won at the Olympics...but you fucked up my order again! Apparently you came in last in the 'Not Fucking Up My Order Relay.'" Anyway, good luck to Phelps with his last two swimming finals and to all of the US Olympic competitors.

Also, you might have noticed we FINALLY made some new friends here on the show. Please welcome Homestar Runner, a quirky animated website that is as brilliant as it is...um...quirky. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the characters on the character menu, then check out "sb emails," where the belligerent Strong Bad answers actual questions emailed by fans of the site. Because no one else would be that stupid to email questions like those. And for those of you living in the "IPod Generation," the Strong Bad emails are becoming available as podcasts...find that link at the bottom of the main page.

And you'll notice "Cubeecraft." I'm sure none of you are familiar with papercraft, but it's been developed in Asia and brought stateside. Picture origami...with instructions...and folding the paper into little cubes that you can assemble by "inserting tab A into slot A, etc." and they actually make things you RECOGNIZE! No more "Is that a swan or a toilet?" Now, people passing by your desk will say "Wow, where did you get that cube version of a Stormtrooper?...I'm such a nerd." Seriously, you download and print the pieces, cut, fold and assemble. It's a pretty cool little site.

Finally, you'll notice one called "Gringo in Peru." One of the founding members of Thinking Hard (of which there are only two), Andy Graning, is moving to Peru next week after recently tying the knot with his lovely wife, Vanessa. He's been posting for about a week now and explains why he's travelling to Peru and how long he could be there... and that he already has a job lined up (Way to go, Andy!). I don't really know why this should feel any different, since he's been in Minnesota and I've been in North Carolina since this online venture began. But it does. My buddy is going "internacional!" Just the mention that he's going to a different continent makes it feel like he's going to a different world. And, in many ways, he is. So I've taken the liberty of translating a few key words and phrases Andy might need while in Peru:
(by the way, these have been verified by Wikipedia, which also reminded me that George Clinton served as president before Sophia Bush...)
- Beer = cerveza
- More Beer = mas cerveza
- Tequila = mas hangovera
- Bathroom = bano
- Where is the bathroom? = donde esta el bano
- Help, my head is stuck in the toilet = ayuda, mi cabeza se ha quedado atascado en el inodoro
- Chalupa = colonblowa
- I think I have food poisoning = creo que he intoxicacion alimentaria
- Did I see a rat tail in that chalupa? = no veo una cola de rata en que chalupa
- Please don't rob me, the American Dollar is worth nothing (this actually works IN America as well) = por favor no me roban, el dolar americano no vale nada

And I've been informed that Andy will still be checking his email via Yahoo!, which he assures me is still active in Peru. I took the liberty of looking up what Yahoo means in spanish.. one definition is Barbaro!...which is the same name of a now-dead Kentucky Derby winner. So, I'm not going to spend a lot of time beating a Yahoo, but I wish Andy and Vanessa a "gran aventura" (great adventure) in Peru from the bottom of my heart...and I'll be waiting with the bottle of tequila for the homecoming fiesta.

Just don't eat the gusano.
-B-