Write-a-Thon, plus whatever happened to Jeff Dembowski?

Do you guys remember Jeff Dembowski? He was almost like a regular over at the tuna blog, but then he disappeared.

Jeff!


Jeff!


Nothing.


Today I am doing this Write-a-Thon thing, and I want you to pledge money. It is to help children write. You don't want to get in on that? The information is here: http://www.826valencia.org/news/007835

You can pledge online and everything. Just make sure you use my name, Ray Halliday. Pledge today, tomorrow. If you pledge, I will share with you everything I "produce" today, even if it is embarrassing. Maybe especially.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Ray Halliday
(helpful author)

Ray Halliday: Enthusiasms

As most of you know, I have lost my enthusiasm for almost everything, and have a hard time doing or wanting to do much of anything. Not so with pineapple, mostly. As most of you know I am pretty much of a pineapple purist and find messing with it (grilling, juicing or putting it in drinks) somewhat disappointing.

Yesterday I went to see They Might Be Giants, who I love. I got to see my friend Dominic play in the opening band and I was amazed to see how well he projects his rock and roll attitude way, way out into the bleachers. It was neat to see! But I couldn't help, during the whole show, thinking about how I was pretty claustrophobic and far away. *sigh*

Still, I try and try. Today, it almost seems like summer in San Francisco. Amazing! You could smell grass and leaves on the morning air. So I am going to try and go to the library and then out to golden gate park to see the Impressionists. I hope they will wake me up a little.

Also, I put a bunch of vanilla yogurt over my pineapple this morning. It seems like a very "kid" breakfast to have. But it was so great that it made me wish it was tomorrow already. Plus, I am listening to Phil Ochs, and I'm finding it hard to break away to get my day started.

Who said I'm not enthusiastic about stuff?

A Film by Ray Halliday

Here's something I found. Dates (what are dates anyway? Are they always dried?) at least dried ones, come with a hole in them. Using my CSI skills I am going to say that that is because there used to be some sort of pit in there. Well, guess what you can do with that hole? Did you guess shove an almond in there? If so, you are right.

Why isn't this the biggest craze ever? And who wants to put up some seed money for the most million dollar idea ever?

This is a great film, but I'm not sure if it works. So far, for me, it hasn't. I will check back later and try and post it again. I think they may have to check it for obscenities.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your day.

Ray Halliday: No Pineapple

Hey, everybody! I just got back. I bought some generic q-tips, and some dried fruit (not pineapple) and I was going to find a pineapple but they was all green. Really green and really large and I just didn't want to go through all that waiting. I have a mango that's really not ready to go until tomorrow. And I have a some bananas and I will have one in a minute. But it's just a day sort of devoid of interesting fruit stories. So, I thought I would show you what I might look like if I finally got that rhino horn I've always wanted.

Please enjoy the rest of your day.

Ray Halliday: Almost Forgot!

Here is the actual pineapple #11. The last one was number ten. I started eating this yesterday morning, and forgot I wanted to take its picture. Here is what it looks like with its bottom cut off. This pineapple, by the way, was almost past its prime when I bought it. Honestly, I am not sure how to tell what condition a pineapple is in. Some of them are kind of green, and that should tell you something. Some of them are sort of brown, over the limit brown. And some of them look like they're kind of moldy on the outside. These signals are telling me something. But most the time I am not at all sure what.