Mexico-touchers

So I saw a Simpsons episode last night where the US and Canadian border/coast guards are fighting over who will save Marge & Homer (who are about to go over Niagara Falls in a Moon Bounce). here’s my favorite quote:

U.S. Customs Officer: Beat it, you puck-slapping maple suckers.
Canada Customs Officer: Take a hike, you Shatner-stealing Mexico touchers.

I’m not sure why I loved that quote so much, it might have been the marvelous Canadian accent

In other news, I finished Malcolm Gladwell’s  – The Tipping Point, a facinating book on the idea of social change driven by connectors, salesmen, and mavens. He has some great examples of how fashion and trends actually happen. There is a lot of buzz on the net right now about how this applies in the online world, the push towards web2.0 and the idea of community based services. If you pull those things together there will be an inevitable crashing and burning of many of the community led efforts, only the strongest or “stickiest” in Malcolm’s new language will survive.

I just began reading “Guns Germs and Steel” which is a famous Pulitzer winning book on human history/evolution. I’m in the first chapter or two but the authors tone is getting to me, he seems to talk down to everyone: the reader, other scientists, and the world at large. Not sure it’ll be any fun reading a book written in that tone.