Yer up, Yer down!

A little play-on-words for Europe (Yer up) to start things off today. There is certainly good reason for most major cruise lines to leave Europe in October/November, planning to hibernate in the warmth of the Caribbean Sea until mid-April. Europe can get mighty cold, and the Northern Atlantic Ocean is not necessarily a cake-walk when it comes to smooth sailing. Yesterday, the British cruise ship "Balmoral" faced 60 mph winds and 50-foot seas. Because they service the UK and have mainly UK passengers, they're stuck with having to live with whatever weather abounds in that part of the world. And from this unfortunate event, a handful of passengers actually had to be hospitalized in Spain due to broken bones from the jolting. I'll bet those passengers wished they had invested in the airfare to fly to Miami or San Juan, to take a cruise in the 80-something degree weather and smoothness of the Caribbean Sea. There are also cruises departing from cold-weather ports in the US as well, and frankly I'm amazed at how many people are willing to shiver for a day or 2 coming and going, just so they can save on an airline ticket. Oh well, enjoy laying on the Lido Deck in your longjohns and down parka!

I saw a report on USAToday.com, that tourism in South Dakota for calendar-year 2008 was up by 2.8%. A National poll was taken, and it was discovered that as many as 6 people cared. You have to wonder what passes for news sometimes...

Who Dat on the corner? Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
No - it's Carl!

They are either civic-minded folks or people with image issues, but in several dozen cities across the USA there are men (and a few women) who dress in homemade superhero costumes at night, patrolling questionable neighborhoods to deter crime. Seriously. Phoenix has The Green Scorpion. New York City is home to Terrifica, while Orlando's Master Legend and Indianapolis' Mr. Silent are just a few of the 200 gunless, knifeless vigilantes listed on The World Superhero Registry. If you're like me, you sleep better at night just knowing such a registry exists. Most of these Mighty Mice presumably have day jobs, but they see themselves cleaning up the mean streets at night. According to two recent reports, in Rolling Stone magazine and The Times newspaper of London, these "Reals" as they call themselves seem to share a couple of major complaints. They're nearly all bored from a lack of crime, and during the summer they tend to get skin irritations from their itchy spandex outfits. Maybe it's harder to track down savvy criminals dressed in a San Diego Chicken outfit than originally thought. I mean, think about it. Say you're a criminal. You're in San Quentin and your cellmate asks if you were taken down by the FBI or a Homeland Security Task Force. You hang your head a little, and whisper, "No, it was those 2 do-gooders, Burnt Marshmallow Girl and The Plaid Pilgrim." Your street cred will never be the same, Homes.

In case you think I'm kidding, here's a link to a Rolling Stone article on Master Legend and his sidekick, Ace: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/25020634/the_legend_of_master_legend
And another from New York magazine on Terrifica:
http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/10359/

Here's one from the BBC News, in a similar vein. Torvald Alexander, 39, was leaving his house December 31st in Edinburgh, Scotland, heading for a New Year's costume party. According to the report, as he was preparing to leave he came face to face with another man, who was just in the process of breaking in to his home. It turns out Mr. Alexander was garbed in his full regalia of the evening for the party, dressed as Thor, the hammer-wielding Norse god of thunder! He had on a Viking helmet, breastplate and was carrying a huge hammer. Alexander said the burglar took one look at him, turned, jumped out the window, slid down a sloped roof and landed on the ground, where he took off running.