Perhaps you are familiar with Sister Wendy and her Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting. She’s the British nun who has her own TV show where she raoms the halls of art museums, giving us a detailed survey of the history of western art. Even if you’re not, you may still appreciate BBC America’s irreverent answer, Sister Randy, the chain smoking, shave needing, art critic nun. (Requires a plugin, but the automatic download is painless.) For example, here’s what she has to say about modern art:

<A piece of modern ar hangs on the wall. It looks like colored blurs. Sister Randy walks on, sporting her usual “Flying Nun” attire.> “Art of the twentieth century raised many bold and daring questions. " “Is this painting upside down, sideways, or right side up? Was this painting done by a monkey? Exactly what the hell is this painting? Was this painting done by a colorblind monkey, or is this painting done?” “Is it done? What the hell is it? Good lord in heaven, is it done? Is it too late to kill this colorblind schizophrenic monkey before he paints again?” <She’s on her knees now.> “Oh God and Jesus in heaven, please don’t let this monkey paint again! " <She takes a long, slow drag on her cigarette, and then walks off.>

If you are offended by potty humor, you really don’t want to see her lecture on impressionism.

BBC America has recently begun showing an odd game show called Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook. Strangely appealing, this show features two contestants, brought on by a friend because of their utter lack of cooking ability. The host, a wildly popular British chef, walks them through the creation of a gourmet dish. His walkthrough is quick – no time for lollygagging – and he criticizes the inevitable mistakes (burnings, spills, and the like) with an over the top faux anger. He also sings to the food and dances little dances, and makes the contestants do the same. At the end, the friends are blindfolded and taste the two dishes. The one that tastes best (the chef votes in the case of a tie) wins. Usually a food processor, though I did see one fellow win a toaster. The loser gets a bottle of champagne (to wash the taste out) and a meal out. It’s no Iron Chef, but it’s amusing nonetheless. The good folks at BBC America have collected the recipes on-line so you can follow along.

October suprise? The military may be getting ready to unveil Aurora, possibly before election day. Aurora is the long-rumored secret aircraft that has been supossedly undergoing test flights for years.

Discovery.com has a very nice Halloween group of pages up. Sure, there’s educational things there, but there’s a bunch of fun stuff, too.

Mr. Beans everywhere, rejoice! The last of the three-wheeled Reliant Robins rolls off the assembly line in December.

At a pro-environmental rally here in Athens yesterday, R.E.M. made a surprise appearance, performing on the courthouse steps. I missed the show, but thanks to a handheld digital video camera and my local newspaper, I could watch in Quicktime or RealVideo.

Mister Pants finds the best stuff ever. After the revolution comes, he’ll be the only one weblogging, and the rest of us will be bowing before the master. Case in point: Rabbi Phunkiewsky’s school of new communication. Requires flash, and is wickedly funny. Oh, and if you aren’t subscribing to Mister Pant’s pantsmail, you’ve really missed the boat. It’s too late to learn about his experience eating a soggy sandwich really fast over the sink, but it’s not too late to become a subscriber.

The User Meeting’s over. I’m resting now. It has been a very long week.

This week, the company I work for is hosting our annual users’ meeting. This is a tradition in our industry – software development, or, specifically, software development for electric utilities. Our customers from around the country are in Athens for the next four days. As Customer Support manager, I’m giving the “keynote address” Wednesday afternoon. This means that this weblog likely won’t see much in the way of updates until later in the week. I’ll leave you with this (and expand upon it later): TiVO rocks.

Everything I ever learned about quantum physics may be wrong. On second though, considering the grades I earned in my quantum physocs classes, that’s not saying much. Better to say “Everything anyone ever learned about quantum physics may be wrong.”