Hydrant fountain.

This morning, in the aftermath of the last two days’ Blacksburg Steppin’ Out Street Festival, I came across this ingenious modification of a fire hydrant, permitting the attachment of a hose and the use of it as a drinking fountain, so that water would be available to venders and festival-goers.

Fraggle Rock on DVD.

I’m excited — Fraggle Rock has been released on DVD. Tough Pigs has a great write-up about the DVD and about the series, reminiscing about what makes great the Doozers, the Fraggles, and the Gorgs. Answer: a whole heck of a lot.

867-5309.

A bunch of members of an on-line community got together and called 867-5309 in 62 different area codes. 51 were not in service or otherwise disfunctional, with just 9 leading to evidence of actual ownership. Having done a little random-digit dialing in my time, I can provide some assurance that this is a pretty low …

Here, kitty kitty kitty.

Brian Dowdell’s cat, Fred, got a little…er…plugged up. He took it to the vet, who gave the cat an enema. This process was repeated over the course of weeks, and it got expensive. So Brian decided to take Fred’s situation into his own hands. Don’t try this at home, kids.