Rhode Island

NEWPORT, R.I. - Mr. Potato Head is missing, and police want to know who took the tourism-touting tater.

The 6-foot tall, 150-pound statue was stolen Friday from the driveway of a private estate. James Leach called police after he heard his driveway alarm sounding about 3 a.m. He looked outside and saw a vehicle near the street.

The statue was located within the gates of the 17-acre Malbone Estate which were open at the time, Leach said.

In 2000, the Rhode Island Tourism Division introduced the Mr. Potato Head figures to promote the state as a family tourist destination. After the advertising campaign, several of the statues were auctioned off on eBay, with proceeds benefiting charity.

“We are wondering where and when it will turn up,” Leach said. “So far, no ransom note has been found.”

I just cannot believe this. It is not every day that you get a chance to photograph the two most beautiful girls on the planet. It was terrific fun to get to visit with both of them last weekend. Of course I didn’t get to be with them as much as I wanted - and I probably never will - but for the short time we got to spend together I was just captivated. I love them both so much that it hurts. I love them and I miss them and I hope that I get to be with them again soon. (Click the thumbnail for a larger image.)

Here’s another one of my dad’s photographs. He’s been kayaking all over New England for the last year or so. He’s got a thing set up so he can have his camera on the end of the kayak while he’s … er … kayaking. (Y’know, there really aren’t any synonyms for kayaking.) I just think it’s a cool shot.

LONDON — A giant Mr. Potato Head statue given by a U.S. town to its twin town in central England had to be removed because local residents said they didn’t like it.

Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where the “Mr. Potato Head” character featured in the “Toy Story” movies was invented, sent the seven-foot-tall plastic effigy to the town of Belper where it was put up outside the local McDonald’s.

Note: I was born in Pawtucket, RI.

Once upon a time … many, many years ago … my dad and I went somewhere. I don’t remember where. It’s not important. When was it? I don’t remember that either. I think I was a teenager, but I might have been in my twenties. That’s not important either. We were in Rhode Island. I remember that much. Or maybe Massachusetts. We stopped for gas. It was $.89/gallon. She’s Waiting by Eric Clapton was on the radio. It’s a great song. At the end it sort of trails off and fades into whistling. My dad was pumping gas and when he got back into the car we were both whistling.

We didn’t talk, just kept whistling until the end of the song, both of us slapping the dashboard in time to the music. It was a moment, y’know? It was cool. The next song was Invisible Touch by Genesis and we both knew all the words to that one, too. We sang the whole thing together, just grooving through traffic. Neither one of us said anything about it, and when the song was finished and a commercial started, we resumed talking about whatever it was we had been talking.

Now, x number of years later, whenever I hear one of those songs, I think about that day.

Here’s a shot of me and my little sister Jenny. This is a house on Goddard Street in Providence, RI.

The view from my dad’s back porch is beautiful.

I was born in Pawtucket, RI … when I was kid at St. Paul’s elementary school in Daytona Beach, FL, I used to always feel a special connection to Jesus because I, too, had been INRI … Wow! I thought I was the only one who ever thought that …

I’m laying on the floor at half past midnight. We don’t have a desk here yet. The monitor, computer, scanner, webcam, and just about everything else in the new office is on the floor. Typing while on your stomach is an odd thing to do. Sylvia’s on the other side of the house sleeping now. There is the hum of a hard drive, a ceiling fan, and the constant whir of the air conditioning, but otherwise the house is quiet.

The move was fairly uneventful. Ryan visited on Friday and helped us pack for a few hours. Dave Simmons was there for a bit as well. The great pack-up was, as usual, a haphazard, unorganized trial of “Where did you put …?”, “Did you remember …?”, “Is that gonna fit …?” and such. We started boxing things on Tuesday night and by Saturday afternoon we had the collected detritus of two late-twenty-somethings crammed into a 14′ U-Haul straight-jobbie. Chris was there Saturday helping us load the truck for two or three sweaty, dirty hours. Jenny and mom were there helping too, of course. Jenny left for her girlfriend Alicia’s house near Tampa in the middle of the day; we packed the small TV, the computer monitor, the ceramic Darth Vader that Nana Rainy made me in 1978, and a bunch of other fragile items into her little Red Honda Prelude before she left. I took a shower in the empty condo in Casablanca East in which I’d spent the better part of the last three years, hopped into the cab of that U-Haul (shirtless, because like a dolt I had packed every shirt I had and wasn’t about to put on a filthy one for the two-hour drive to Tampa), swore at myself for leaving my big black cowboy hat in Tampa two nights prior, and drove … (Oh, and Todd, even though they lost, my Colorado Avalanche hat was my trusty companion the whole time we were moving.)

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I swore I wouldn’t link to Furious George because I’ve already seen it linked everywhere else in Bloggerville. But when I went there and got this message: “The monkey releases a horde of killer bees into the ventilation system of a crowded office building in Providence, Rhode Island,” I knew I had to tell everyone I knew to visit.

Another crazy link from Jason:
I am amazed that the world’s largest fully-functional Tetris game is in Rhode Island.

On the trip from Jacksonville to Los Angeles I scored 508348 points with 420 lines at level 30 on my Gameboy Tetris … not that that makes me cool or anything …