Dear Cleveland

I'm sorry things went down the way they did. I don't blame LeBron's desire to ditch you for the white sands, hot ladies, and warm weather of Miami, but I think we can all blame him for constantly referring to himself in the third person and for potentially starting a terrible new trend wherein douche bag free agent athletes announce their decisions with hour-long television specials. I for one cannot wait for this winter's Adrian Beltre: The Choice, wherein he announces which lucky team's outfield he's going to decimate next.

But it's ok. After all, you're still known for your steamers.

No no no, get back from that ledge! That was just a little humor. A little ha ha. You've still got a lot of people to look up to, Cleveland. Take this guy:

That handsome devil is the host of the Price is Frickin' Right, and he's from right there in Cleveland! He's also hosted a hilarious comedy show and starred in his own sitcom. Is it any wonder that the ABC network stopped being relevant about the time he stopped CARRYING their primetime network? Not at all my friends. Not at all.

You know the best part? Old people love the Price is Right. A lot of them end up there, like there's a bus to it or something, and where are a lot of those old people from? FLORIDA! No more Plinko or Hole in One for those old farts; it's nothing but Card Game and Safecracker for those LeBron loving bastards!

Wait, what's that? You say he's fat? You say it was actually the "will they or won't they" dynamic between Louis and Oswald that actually carried "The Drew Carey Show?" You liked Bob Barker better and wish he'd come back? The only thing you'll "Witness" with him is the complete and utter destruction of a ham sandwich?

Hey, get out of the bath tub and put the hair dryer down, IN THAT ORDER! Ok, maybe Mr. Carey can't quite replace the King. Maybe we should try another local sports hero.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Cleveland Indians designated hitter Travis Hafner! Part of the Tribe since 2003, Hafner hit over 100 home runs and tallied over 400 RBI in a four year stretch between '04 and '07. And he's got an awesome nickname: Pronk! It's because he's part PROject and part dONKey. No one embodies your city's working class whatever like the hard nosed Pronk!

Hmm? Nobody gives a crap about the Indians anymore? They've turned Jacobs Field into a homeless shelter? You say it's been three years since Pronk was any good, that counting stats are stupid and modern sabermetrics say he's kind of a bum? That you're actually a "Witness" in a lawsuit against that racist logo on his hat?

WHOA WHOA WHOA! Drop the razor blade! You're doing it wrong anyway. You want to go down the road, not across the street. Can't you Clevelanders get anything right?

Fine. Last try. And I guarantee there is no way you'll be able to refuse this next guy as your new savior.

Even though he (sadly) doesn't sparkle like that in real life, Mike "The Miz" Mizanin has made quite a name for himself in the entertainment world, first as a giant douche on "The Real World," then as a giant douche on several seasons of that Real World vs. Road Rules nonsense, and now as a giant douche as one of the WWE's top sports entertainers. In the past two years he's held the Unified Tag Team Championship and the United States Championship, both multiple times - so he's already won more titles than any other Cleveland-based athlete ever will. He's the Miz, and he's AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWESSSSOMMMEE! (It's on his shirt so it must be true.) (Seriously though, he's one of the only reasons to watch Monday Night Raw nowadays.)

I can tell by the blank stare on your face, Dear Cleveland, that I have won you over. As always, professional wrestling can solve all of life's problems.

Wait, why is there an empty bottle of Drain-O in your hand.........?

Mt. Rushsomemore

I Stole Your Lunch is bursting with patriotic spirit today. Let's add a few more faces to Mt. Rushmore to memorialize a few individuals who've been vital our nation's success:

Jack Bauer
There's a reason those terrorists everybody's so afraid of haven't been able pull off anything better than shoe bombs, underwear bombs, and other such clothing-related works of genius, and it's not because the Feds have limited the amount of toothpaste you can carry on a plane. It's because of these black ops types that we will never hear about. Who better to represent our shadowy, morally-ambiguous-but-well-meaning heroes than Mr. 24.

Ted Williams
Iconic ballplayer of the forties and fifties spent many of his prime years as a naval airman, flying 39 combat missions in Korea and occasionally serving as John Glenn's wingman. Often displayed the uniquely American trait of hating absolutely everybody. Conveniently his frozen, severed head will provide great reference for Rushmore's sculptors.

Tiger Woods
If there's one set of ideals the American Dream stands for above all others it's making money, getting famous, and collecting broads as if they're Pokemon and you gotta catch 'em all. Unluckily for Tiger he left his Pokedex where his wife could find it.

Hulk Hogan
He's got the red, white, and blue running through his veins. He successfully fended off both the Iron Sheik in the 80's and Sgt. Slaughter in the 90's when that no good maggot defected to Iraq and started burning Old Glory on live TV. When handed a microphone he is the modern day Abraham Lincoln. The Big Boot/Atomic Leg Drop combination has felled more evil foreigners than Teddy Roosevelt, the Patriot Missile, and the Predator drone combined. Get him up there.



Interesting aside: I Stole Your Lunch tried very, very hard to add a woman to this list. For a whole twenty minutes our crack brain trust suggested and then cast aside suggestions including Vanna White (discarded because most Americans can't afford a vowel anymore), Paula Deen (not enough stone in the Dakotas for giant, poofy hair), Janet Reno (leading candidate until intern reminded us that epic dance parties were actually led by Will Ferrell in disguise), Elin Woods (feisty but Swedish or something), and Sandra Bullock (being just so damn cute and likable are not traits for which the country is known). Tank Girl, Princess Leia, and Judge Judy also received various levels of support, but none of them seemed to fit. Are we here at ISYL just stupid? Are we missing someone? Is it Hollywood's fault because they'd rather have a big, strong man rescue Angelina Jolie when they should just hand her a pair of shotguns and tell her to shoot terrorists for 120 minutes while wearing nothing but an American flag? Is it the media's fault that our most influential female politician is known mainly for scaring her cheating husband so badly that he was willing to lie about his adultery in front of a grand jury? Is there something lacking in the X chromosome that prevents female songwriters from dreaming up ditties about how America is awesome and everyone else can go to hell? Are women merely less susceptible to jingoist baloney? Regardless of the answer, I Stole Your Lunch finds this problem quite troubling.

Hold on - I've just been handed something:

Serena Williams
Tennis is the only truly international sport that Americans care about on a regular basis rather than just every four years and then only for pretend because it's an excuse to drink and Serena's right at the tippy-top of it. Routinely beats the crap out of the perfect blonds the Russians keep cranking out in secret Siberian genetic labs. Athleticism not hindered in the least bit by badonkadonk unique to American women.

You're a placeholder for now, Serena. Consider us locked in eternal deuce until the Anti-Palin comes along and dropkicks the sexism out of the country or until Toby Keith gets that operation. Hopefully they will look kind of alike so we won't have to completely rework the monument...

Happy NSAAM!

Halter Top Day has come and gone and the temperatures here in Beantown have climbed up into the high 80's, taking an existing problem and amplifying it ten fold. In response, I Stole Your Lunch would like to remind everyone that July is National Swamp Ass Awareness Month. Originally conceived by the overly sensitive nose of one Benjamin Franklin, NSAAM seeks to educate us all about the dangers of body odor and the steps that can be taken to prevent it.

Dangers:

• Smelling like swamp.
• Smelling like ass.
• Smelling like all of the above.

Preventative Measures:

• Daily bathing. Not just your face and hands; everything.
  
• Washing your dirty undies. Turning them inside out and putting them back on will not do the trick.
  
• Deodorant.
  

Sounds simple, right? And yet so many people get it so wrong. Many err so badly that they leave in their wake a stinky trail not unlike a rainbow of rotten eggs tracing the way to a pot of sour milk. In the spirit of Arizona's new immigration laws, the following set of stereotypes will aid you in recognizing and avoiding those afflicted with swamp ass.

1. Fat Man in Jorts - Perhaps the easiest to spot. The bigger you are, the more you're going to sweat on a hot day. Science has proven that a thick layer of denim keeps any potentially cooling breeze while simultaneously amplifying stench. Especially rank when carrying lost cheese or bacon in unreachable fat folds.
   
2. Sketchy Old Dude Brown Bagging It On The Bus - Do not dismiss this character's random shouts and seemingly inane rants - this is actually a complex mechanism of ecolocation evolved to replace the subject's blurry, often spinning vision. Little known fact: his sweat glands are where flavored vodkas come from.
3. Hippie Girl On A Bicycle - Often attempts many of the preventative measures outline above, but decreased mental function due to frequent crashes and/or use of too much cheap hair dye has left her incapable of understanding that organic soap made out of cabbage does not clean a damn thing.
4. Cab Driver - Orson Welles got it all wrong in "The Time Machine." It won't be factory workers that devolve into Morlocks, it'll be these half-man, half-machine horrors. As a very wise man sings every Thursday night: Boston Cab/ what's the deal?/ Who put you/ Behind the wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel?/ Learn the language,/ Learn to drive,/ Take a shower, try to get me home alive!
5. Anyone Leaving An ATM - These things are veritable incubators of swamp ass. If you see the tell-tale worn blankets and pile of garbage that mark an ATM as being stinky enough to have spontaneously generated a toothless hobo, just put whatever it is on your credit card lest you be jumped from behind and forced to sing hobo songs.
6. Jersey Shore Looking Douche Bag - If you haven't learned by now to avoid those exhibiting popped collars, frosted, spiky hair, and the hypnotic orange shimmer of tan-in-a-can, I Stole Your Lunch has yet another reason: these beefy buffoons typically skip the deodorant and just dump a 16 oz. glass of cheap cologne over their heads. Congratulations, fool, now you smell like cologne-covered shit.

I Stole Your Lunch hopes you enjoyed this little Safari of Stink. If not, blame loyal blogonaut Candace; it was her idea. Happy NSAAM!

On HTML5

Standards bodies and web browser developers have had their collective knickers in a twist over the specifications of a new version of the basic language of the web, HTML5, for the last several months. This new standard promises a richer multimedia experience without the need for 18,000 ridiculous plug-ins. Lovely.

Except it's missing something. Something very important. Something that will change the web forever. Here's an example of its use:

{lil jon}"Yeah!"{/lil jon}

Note: I'm using { because Blogger discards tags with the proper doohickeys on either side. I can't eve put one of those doohickeys here. You know what I'm talking about. Do not threaten to revoke my geek card, or call my mama, or ice me. Just shut up and play along.

Bring the King of Crunk to your web page! It's like GeoCities sound effects except better, and unlike Adobe Flash it isn't for posers and thus it will work on your iDevice. Further examples include:

Please measure {lil jon}to the windoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow{/lil jon} and {lil jon}to the wall{/lil jon}.

I love shooting clay pigeons. {lil jon}Aw skeet skeet God damn.{/lil jon}

{lil jon}Pardon me, would you pass the Grey Poupon?{/lil jon}

Developers have been working night and day to add to the HTML5 spec, to the detriment of these other tags which we have been promised for HTML6:

• {autotune}I'm on a boat!{/autotune}
• {rmwaso}I'm on a boat!{/rmwaso} (Repetitive Meme We're All Sick Of)
• {jr}Stone Cold! Stone Cold! Stone Cold!{/jr}
• {sooooooooooooooooooookie}{/soooooooooooooooooooookie}

You spin me right round baby right round like a record baby

The recent transition of ESPN360 by 357 stupids to simply ESPN3 marks what hopefully will be the last gasp of one of the dumbest marketing trends in recent history: attaching the number of degrees in a circle to the names of various products that have little to do with circles. Those of us who prefer radians are finally vindicated.

What, really, was the point? Geometry is not edgy. Am I missing something by sitting still in my chair while playing with my XBox360? Does Anderson Cooper suddenly look like Pam Anderson if I spin around in a circle like some kind of cracked out hobo trying to catch his tail? Does Norton 360 protect me from up to 2 pi viruses? The hell.

Which brings us to a point near and dear to I Stole Your Lunch's cold, cold heart: marketing is quite possibly humanity's most ridonkulous invention. It's right up there in the dumbass pantheon with shoe bombs, MacGruber, and selling firearms to NBA players. If marketing were given human form, it would be the Situation.

Case in point: in an effort to attract the extremely important "normal" demographic, the Sci Fi channel recently spent millions of dollars to hire a consulting company and rename itself after a disease you get from being too friendly with the lovely ladies at On the Hill Tavern. Thus the SyFy channel was born, and geeks everywhere giggled as one. This may have been ok had they shifted their programming to include the secret adventures of Vincent Van Gogh, but the only thing they added was a wrestling show, thus successfully attracting the sci-fi dork/wrestling fan demographic. That would be me and two random hipsters in Oregon who think mixing lightsabers with side headlocks is somehow ironic and celebrate every episode of WWE on SyFy with a PBR toast and a bicycle high-five. To summarize: why would people start watching your channel if you aren't changing your programming? Oh, right, because your name is silly and they want to stare at the logo you spent way too much money on.

I've observed two predominant purchasing patterns in my time. One involves a cult-like brand loyalty. The other is the famous "cheap shit" philosophy, in which I Stole Your Lunch is a firm believer, where decisions between brands revolve completely around price and which coupons are available at the moment. Neither camp gives a crap about the color of your label or how many ladies your spokesperson had relations with.

Which brings me to my final point: marketing is a great profession. I'd give up being an Interweb celebrity in a heart beat to be a marketing consultant. I just sat down and actually watched a block of commercials, counting the ones I thought I could've come up with while drinking a bottle of Jameson on the toilet. The only one that didn't make my list was for Boch Honda; I would never cast Ernie Boch in anything.

So Capital One, I'm talking to you. LET ME WRITE ABOUT VIKINGS ATTACKING SILLY THINGS AND SMELLING FUNNY AND GENERALLY NOT HAVING ANYTHING TO DO WITH WHAT'S IN MY WALLET!!!!!!!