THANK GOODNESS NO ONE HAS TOLD HIM ABOUT THE MEWS YET: Mark Bittman, the NYT's Minimalist, has maximized my problem of getting reservations at some of my favorite previously-under-the-radar Outer Cape establishments, including the beloved Wicked Oyster. I hate when that happens.

AND ALL THE WORLD WILL LOVE YOU JUST AS LONG... AS LONG AS YOU ARE: This year should provide some exceptionally good viewing of the Perseid Meteor shower late Sunday night/early Monday morning.

I PUT ANOTHER NOTCH IN MY SLIPSTICK CASE: I'm delighted (but of course not surprised) that there exists the Oughtred Society, dedicated to the history and preservation of the sliderule.

Noted via Steve Jackson Games.

HE DID NOT INHERIT THE TWINS FROM HIS GRANDFATHER: He's 23, but is there a player in the Major Leagues who looks younger than Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum? I'd card that boy if he wanted to see Red Dawn.

A DREAM UNTHREATENED BY THE MORNING LIGHT COULD BLOW THIS SOUL RIGHT THROUGH THE ROOF OF THE NIGHT: For absolutely no good reason, I have the song "Learning to Fly" stuck in my head. More specifically, the chorus (to the extent that any Pink Floyd song can be said to have a chorus), with that ridiculous "tongue-tied and twisted, just an earthbound misfit, I" line. (Actually, the whole song pretty much blows.)

So here's a little weekend timewaster for any of you looking for something to waste your time: what other songs sound like they were written by people who weren't doing so well in their ESL class?

P.S. No one gets to nominate Paula Cole's "I Don't Want to Wait," as it's just too easy for I.

SHE POINTED AT THE BLACK CLOUD IN THE SKY, SAID "THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LEARN TO FLY": For someone who named this blog for an early Superchunk song, I don't really blog about them that much -- but recording no new albums in six years will lead to results like that. (That said, they played outdoors in Brooklyn last month, and some of it's on YouTube.).

So we have to rely on appreciations, like Noel Murray's piece on the AV Club this week inducting their 1994 album Foolish into their Hall Of Fame. "Had more young bands copied Superchunk's honest emotion, smart wordplay, and taut, energetic performance," Murray writes, "The last decade of indie-punk might not have been so insufferable."

Here's the videos for Foolish songs "The First Part" and "Driveway to Driveway", plus a live performance of "Water Wings", the best rock song ever written about Icarus. It's not my favorite Superchunk album, but it's half of a great one.

STILL, BETTER THAN BOAT TRIP: We all know that it's been a long, hard slog for Cuba Gooding, Jr. since that Oscar win for Jerry Maguire, but hanging out at notorious NYU bar "Down The Hatch?" That's low. (Note, however, that in prior litigation, the owners of Down the Hatch claimed it "attracts an upscale 21- to 30-year-old crowd.")