Sunday Burst of Weirdness (Tuesday Edition)

Aieee! Somehow I got the idea that I'd done the Burst this week, but then I looked and saw that I hadn't. And somehow I managed to miss the thundering outcry that resulted from my omission of this feature, so eagerly is it awaited throughout Blogistan.

Ahem.

Anyway:

:: A friend of mine sent me this video, which is the type of thing you often see on Funniest Home Video shows: it's a reporter who gets knocked off his feet by a marauding snow-tube. But it's one of the more impressive feats of knocking a reporter off his feet that you're likely to see.

:: Scotty e-mailed me this article about how, um, thin-skinned Apple fans tend to be (hot on the heels of last week's adventures in Apple satire).

“Last year,” Mr. Manjoo writes, “I praised the iPhone in something of the way Romeo once praised Juliet: The device, I said, is revolutionary — ‘it marks a new way of life. One day we’ll all have iPhones, or things that aim to do what this first one does, and your life will be better for it.’ ”

But because he mentioned that the phone was a bit pricey, “several readers alleged that I was an Apple-hater.” One wrote him to ask, “Does Salon actually pay you or are you being paid under the table by rival companies?”

Anybody who has ever written about Apple products will tell the same story — introducing even a hint of negativity into a review or article will bring down the wrath of Apple’s most fanatical fans.

Hmmmm...fans reacting harshly to the slightest criticism? Fans demanding unflagging admiration for their pet love? Are we talking about Apple fans here, or...New England Patriots fans! Har har har!

(No one is allowed to point out my tendency to fly off the handle at people who say anything mean about George Lucas.)

:: Had this been around twenty years ago, surely New Coke would not have failed. (Embedded sound at the site; be warned.)

OK. Next week I'll try to have the Burst of Weirdness up on Sunday.