Derp Dog and the Magic Dude

And I wasn't sure what this little kid was doing at first...

Not AGAIN

Have you heard of Dinovember? It’s a month-long tradition created by Refe Tuma. After the kids’ bedtime, Refe and his wife set up a scene with dinosaur toys. In the morning, the kids wake up and find that the dinosaurs painted pictures, played boardgames—and even teepeed the bathroom!

Random Pillow Fight of the Day

The winner: Us!

I salute you, Imp in a Baseball Cap!

This kid has the right reactions for any news regarding any Kardashian.

Sunrise, Sunset

Guerrilla stickers stick again. These Obama sunrise logos are appearing on street signs in Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina. (Created by ad agency BooneOakley, the decals are apparently free at GObamaNC.com.)

Does this qualify as mischief, pernicious or otherwise? Dunno! Here's another question: Are there any sticker campaigns going on from the opposing party?

Just Hum Along If You Don't Know the Words

To protest the wastefulness of driving giant Hummers, the founders of Tag a Dummer have created a giant letter “D” which can be superimposed over the auto’s “H”. It turns a Hummer into a Dummer. See?

Whatever your feelings on this sort of mischief, the particular alteration above seems richly deserved. But as much as I like a troublemaker, I winced a bit at the site's disingenuous legal notice:

The creators of this website do not endorse any form of vandalism. The intention of the website is to educate people about driving certain vehicles that are on the market. Whatever a person does with the resources available on this site is 100% this person’s responsibility.

Yes, I'm sure the Dummer creators would be shocked (shocked!) to find that someone was actually using their big letters. (And do they actually qualify as vandalism?) No worries, though. Hummer owners are known for their enjoyment of a good hoax. After all, one could argue that they're playing one of their own every time they get behind the wheel.
Last Thing: It's doubtful that Hummer/Dummer owners will be persuaded to change their ways because of an adhesive letter on their car. So is the only rationale in adhering the letter their ridicule? While the petty part of my brain (about 92% of it!) applauds this notion, the Tag a Dummer website succeeds so admirably in its stated goal of educating visitors about Hummers, I wonder if they should stick with that and subtract the stickers. (Oh, and I believe the sticker above is a nice satirical twist on Hummer demonization)

Your Philanthropist Crushed My Austin Martin

Philanthropist/actor Paul Newman (1925-2008) loved practical jokes (e.g., director Robert Altman found 200 live chickens in his trailer courtesy of Newman). The actor also had a passion for cars. As recounted by Eric Lax in Paul Newman: A Biography, he liked to combine the two:

[Newman's cars] became a joke with friends such as Robert Redford, who once gave Newman a Porsche as a present. The car, however, was a wreck — dented from an accident and missing its engine. Redford paid a dump truck driver to deposit the car in Newman’s driveway with a note attached: “Happy birthday.”

Newman had the car compressed, then placed in a wooden box at the Redford estate... He conceded that Redford won the gag by never acknowledging the box.

In his New York Times blog, Dick Cavett wrote of a similar incident in which Newman had Redford's Austin Martin sportscar towed away at night, compacted, and then returned to Redford's driveway.

The following morning the [crushed car] was gone from the Redford lawn. Dawn revealed it: it had suddenly and mysteriously found its way to the Newman residence, where it could be plainly seen . . . on the roof.

What I like about this is that Robert Redford left an apparently authentic blog comment in Cavett's column: “Paul replaced my Austin with an identical one of showroom quality”!

Campaign Blast from the Past: JFK & LBJ

During the 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson made an airport stop in Amarillo, Texas. And it was there that LBJ stepped up to a podium and delivered a speech nobody heard.That's because nearby pilots gunned their engines and Johnson's words were lost in the roar. (One assumes that the pilots were either mischief makers or Richard Nixon supporters... or both!) LBJ was not happy about that. Not one bit.

Here's a shot of LBJ during happier times, as a college student during the 1920s. Weird, huh? Like you, I'm so used to seeing the statesmen of yesteryear as older adults, this goofy young man takes some getting used to.

*My sources are here.

"Gotcha!" Hall of Fame: Scott Ableman

Washington, D.C. native Scott Ableman noted that his colleague, Walt, always parked his car in a remote location. What was the big deal about a little scratch or a wee ding? Oh, it’s a Jaguar.

As you can see below, Scott and his co-workers gleefully plastered Walt's distant Jaguar with a variety of colored Post-It notes. Excellent! The resulting Post-It Note Jaguar was both surprisingly appealing and a good reminder for me as to why I don't own a luxury auto: They just attract too much attention.