smurf wide web

2001.12.16
Toy of the Moment
What's your Smurf Name? They've compiled a pretty good list of adjective names. If you don't care about preserving a sense of Smurfy Magic, "View Source" of the page, and read through what they came up with.

One thing I noticed about Smurfs, relatively recently: their heads are huge. Papa Smurf's beard kind of hides it here, but they are like footballs balanced on their scrawny little shoulders.

The Official Smurf Site has some interesting history about the boys in blue. (click on "Facts" on the left navbar.) The "history" page propagates the line that they are "three apples high". This always seemed weird when we heard it in the original cartoon, because unless you're talking crabapples, the Smurfs are shorter than that. Years later in middle school French I realize that there's an expression, you say a short person is "as tall as three apples", and that this literal usage of the expression is meant to be a joke that just doesn't translate very well.


Quote of the Moment
The appreciation of pleasing decay is an important one because it is so often neglected
placard in Tom West's (of "Data General" fame) workroom, via "Soul of a New Machine"

Link of the Moment
An interesting study Social Networks and the Prediction of Romantic Relationship State and Fate... turns out if you want to know the likely future of a heterosexual romance, don't ask the couple, and don't ask his friends, it's her friends who will have the most realistic appraisal.