I know it's standard for zombies to close comments, but I did it by accident. I swear!

Right...:)
Better watch your brain..:)
HUGGGGGGGG

Yes, I too have noticed Zombies are everywhere! The good thing about Zombies is that they do not need health care and do not need to concern themselves about our current health care crisis nor do they have to concern themselves about the November elections nor do they have to worry about gas prices or unemployment or that green mold that is growing in my refrigerator. Hmmm, I wonder what Zombies DO worry about? ;-)

Just aim for the zombie's head and all will be well again....
r

Yeah, the heat does that to you. Of course, if the zombies come to your house looking to eat brains, they'll starve. Wait, did I say that out loud?

Shoot, Matt...what a rant!! And that pic at the end...sure it was an accident?...:)) I'm with Poppi - aim to explode.

I hate anything to do with zombies, oh, except for Shaun of the Dead. That was funny. What happened with your generator? Didn't it work?

I have been seeing zombies for a long time, now. They don't look like this picture though. They walk around with angry expressions and blank eyes. They are called citizens. Cool post, Maestro. R

Good morning,Matt,
your story reminds me of the time that I have spent in India.It was not the heat only which climed one day to 106°F ;on top of that we have had to live with extremly high humidity.On this particular day people died like flies.One man pulling a riksha,dropped dead to the ground.
During the heat season,people sleep on the upper deck of their houses.
I am glad you survived,Matt.
If a boiled brain accounts for a post like this one here ,it was worth the trouble.
Next time though make sure you spend the night on your upper deck to escape the heat within your house and also the danger of being potential prey for wild biests and vampiers.

I"m so sorry you didn't have any AC or power these past few days - oh my gosh, how awful!

But I'm glad you adapted and went to the movies! I agree - I loved MIB 3 - and I'm excited about "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter", which doesn't come out here till August, which still gives me the time to read the book...which is too expensive for my strained budget and not at the library. Sigh.

As for "So", do you know the podcast "Lexicon Valley"? Just Google "Slate, Lexicon Valley". It's absolutely fascinating - each week they explore an aspect of the English language, and recently they did a whole episode about the current uses of "So". I won't spoil it for you, but it's definitely worth a listen.

Glad you have your power back and beware of zombies, which are, in my opinion, the scariest monsters of all!

Sorry ab.the tipo;it should say vampires.So...?
I give you an extra rating,if the button allows me to do so.

Linda, you're a brave woman to hug a possible virtual zombie.

Elizabeth, maybe the trick to escaping zombiness is to worry about something - anything?

I thought it was center of mass, Poppi. Abdomen, chest, the bigger targets, but no smart zombie would give that kind of information away.

What Cranky said...wait. What?

That was pretty brazen, Queenie.

cc, it's a portable generator, just enuf to power the refrigerator, water pump and water heater.

Sam, I know the zombies of which you speak. Alas, they live and breed amongst us in vast quantities.

That's good to know, Heidi, but isn't the upper deck to escape the mosquitoes? Actually our basement was the coolest place in the house.

Alysa, appreciate the Slate reference. The word should be banned.

Thanks, Heidi.

We, too, were exiles for 3 days. Glad you're ok, Matt. r.

my xbox is my only escape from this "real" world....
all zombies live in D.C.....
R

Zombies and vampires and aliens, oh my! I get what you're saying, Matt, and yes, I think the younger population is being desensitized against killing.

Chinese people think a/c will make you sick so every summer there are near fights over the remote controls....i am willing to wrestle to avoid any additional sweating.

...next time (and you know there will be a next time) pretend you are a cave man, and what would a cave man do on a hot sultry night with the cave lady gone....? Write something craven while sitting in a kiddy pool with the hose running, sippin' whatever is closest and coolest... bet the chicken would come check it out, gotta be hot in their coop.

I checked my collected writings of Abraham Lincoln. All the zombie stuff was in his second inaugural address.

also,the zombies have to hold off for a bit........i ordered the new Kel-Tec KSG and ain't got it yet....heh-heh...

P.S. It's Apocalypse when it's used as a noun:

"The anticipated Apocalypse petered out." (peter is a verb in this case)

and apocalypse when it's a verb:

"Dude! He got all apocalyptic on me!"

Glad you are back. Honestly, there is nothing good I have to say about zombies. ~r

Eeeuw. Gross. Love, Some girl.

So...I'm gonna like go out on a limb here and guess you won't be watching the new season of "Walking Dead" uh.

SO good to know you went to the movies SO you stay cool. Too bad Lincoln was SO-SO. SO, on that note, I want to wish you a happy independence day.

OMG...When one returns from Europe and Asia and finds the actions and movements of ones fellow North Americans a bit odd and perplexing. I suspect we got a bit off the beaten trail by our diets. I also suspect that all these zombie movies must mean something. Is this a united premonition or what? I seem to think so. I think that all this fascination with the half dead to the full dead is that in our heart of hearts we know what is coming and it is not going to be pretty.
On the other hand, we make fun of countries like India. I am starting to realise that make fun of it as you will but at least the Hindus are not consumed with movies and TV series that is all about horrific things like that which we are consumed by. I kind of like the fact the many of the films there are about love, dancing and spiritual growth while ours is about eating the faces off. or Zombies eating the faces off regular folks who have not been infected. Last night for instance this current TV show about two women who are waitress's, the on going joke is about zombies eating there faces off. Enough is enough.
I too have a weakness when the heat is too hot and my enthusiasm for anything goes to nothing knowing that I can always escape through the woods to my own personal Cool Paradise.

Getting tossed back into the 19th century can make a person irritable. We lost our power for 7 days last winter and lived huddled in front of our fireplace with only oil lamps for power. We cooked on the grill and took quick, cold showers. That the human race lived like this for 50,000 years is enough to squash nostalgia for the good old days...oh, and they didn't have antibiotics. R

Thanks, Jon, you too. From the news on NPR (in my truck) it sounded as if D.C. got it worse than us.

Steel, D.C. might be their command center, but I've heard they've set up outposts all over. Beware that x-box, btw, it just could suck you into its innards.

This could be a good thing, Erica, what with the proliferation of grisly news coverage, maybe it gives the kids a sort of protective shell. Our kids are extra sensitive with animals, which they find more innocent than humans.

We sold the chickens, Kate. Part of the process of getting our house ready to put on the market - an apocalyptic thought process all its own.

Thanks, Con. Abe was a damned good man with an axe. Too bad he never caught the jazz bug.

Steel, my Mini-14 should keep us relatively safe.

Thanks, Joan. Other being left pining alone at home I gather your apocalyptic weekend was endurable.

Thanks, Songbird, I forgot "ewwwww."

David, you know me too well.

So Emily, et tu? Et tu.

Algis, one of the most delightful movies I've seen in years was filmed in India: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It's a story about old farts, but our young-adult kids went with us and said they liked it. Nary a zombie, vampire or alien showed up in the plot.

I hear you, Gerald. I suspect our ancestors were a tad tuffer then.

Yah, Matt, if you want an example of demonising, check out a film called "Five Days of War", a more or less true story about the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 and the difficulty reporters had getting the word out to the West.

Why? All the nets were concentrating on the Beijing Olympics and no one could be bothered. Besides, who cared about Georgians (even though they were part of the multinational force in Iraq)?

Meanwhile, the atrocities kept piling up.

I can understand the super cool ironic skepticism of the generations that follow us... we thought we were jumping in with both feet and changing the world, yet everything we hope by the Mad Men and corruption of money to power... our lids and grandkids are looking at a world of change not of their choosing... in a way they can see themselves stuck with cleaning up the mess and picking up the tab after a half century of party time following WWII.

All the news that fits our agenda. Yeah, Bo, and it's getting worse.

Mac, I think part of it is the passivity that comes from staring at screens to the exclusion of practically all elsse. The shit's piped directly into their synapses without screening. "Role" models show them how to react to stimuli, the optimum being the least reaction possible. Keep those receptors open for an important announcement: kill your parents.

Here's a link to the Slate commentary on the idiotic use of "so" by so many otherwise seemingly intelligent people. Thanks again, Alysa.

mattie - post apoc. is the rage. kids throw "when the apoc. comes..." and toss something out. yeah, i think younger people view it as inevitable. what i wonder is: how does one work to make a life, if one believes that? its weird to me. thanks for your take.

and glad your power is back.

Heat waves account for more deaths per year than all the hurricanes, tornadoes and snowstorms combined. True. You could look it up when next you go Googling.

So, zombie films? Not so much.

A day or two of cool air may make things look better. Here's hoping.

My kids have been preparing for a a zombie apocalypse for years. When my daughter was in middle school, she did a French project about it (comic) The school called me in a panic and worried that she may be in the depths of despair (since it was such a morbid thing) and wanted her to see a therapist. I had to explain that zombies were just popular culture and cited several books in our surrounding public libraries. I thanked them for their concern, and told them to alert me to any other things but in this case, I was sure it was just a zombie thing. My daughter was really on the cutting edge back then and it hadn't quite skewed down to the younger groups. She even had an idea ( this was several years ago) about designing zombie families ( like the ones that you put on the back of mini van) We suggested a friend's BF who had printing company. In the last year, we have seen them on the market. It is wild how ideas move.

Cranky: SNAP.
I noticed your absence, Matt. Sorry that such suffering was taking place. I met three zombies just yesterday. They are everywhere. One was a zombie who kept saying "awesome" for no reason as she promoted an energy drink at the supermarket. Soul sucking times. Sending healing thoughts towards you and the generator.

If you want to see a good movie, watch 'Moonrise Kingdom.' Looo000ooved it!

Okay, so you have heat stroke. Turn up the AC, take a nice long nap and call us in the morning. K?

Lezlie

MUST EAT BRAINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The current facination with zombies and vampires isn't a way to condition us for the Apocalypse, it's a commentary on who we are.

Vampires: Either big business, the financial industry or government (or all three) take y0ur pick.

Zombies: Brain dead consumers following the scent of fresh meat. Average American.

Gay Vampires: Gays

Fast Zombies: A good reason to have FEMA camps.

Fear of Zombies: Good way to sell ammuniton (see Hornaday's Z Max...yes I own them...in 9mm and .45 ACP. I also have some shotgun shells on the way.

Good post!

Not so sure that many of the younger types are trying to make a life, Daisy, rather than simply settling for living "in the now." Hedonism now for tomorrow the Koch Bros. hovercraft fleet will vaporize us.

I believe you, Jeremiah, which is why I can understand the attraction of rowing out into the middle of a lake on an especially hot day.

Me, neither, Schmoop, unless it was called, say, Barack Obama: Slayer of Right-Wing Zombies.

Thanks, JL. Cool at the moment is definitely cool.

Snarky, has your daughter considered making a pitch to Spielberg?

Ferns, now that I'm cool again I can say, bravely, that suffering doth make the soul...aw, that's bullshit. Thank gawd for air-conditioned movie houses.

Margaret, anything by Wes Anderson with Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton in it, and endorsed by you...how could I go wrong?

Nap! Thanks, Lady L, that is precisely what I...need...now...zzzzzzzz....

Matt,I too have seen movies,in fact,in India.The movie I swaw then was the best movie I have seen in my whole life.It was called "Apurna".

Algis,thank you for your account of India.Times have changed yet there is a lot to be learned from this beautiful,ancient subcontinent .

No, Bob. NO! BOB!!!!!

Doug, quite happy with CorBon DPX. Brings fast FAST FAST relief, and doesn't upset your blood/lead levels.

Apurna? Thanks, Heidi. I'll keep an eye out for it.

my daughter & son-in-law came home from the movies recently giggling like kids (my daughter is 30 & her husband is 41)...they said there were two zombies walking down the highway. My son-in-law turned around and drove by them again slowly for a closer look while my daughter screamed at him to go faster. They were laughing about it, but swore it was true.

Matt,India had one of the best film makers then,and this man would chose people from the street to fit the different characters.
I forgot his name,but I know that he had been outstanding.
The language of thefilm was in one of the native dialects,it could even have been in Bengali.
Although I did not understand the language,the action was so excellent that I had no difficulties understanding the course of action.

The good news, Sharon, is they didn't try to run the "zombies" down.

Heidi, those are the best movies, when you don't need dialogue.

By and large (whatever that phrase means) zombies are 2nd-rate monsters. Just more proof of the deterioration of society when a proliferation of recycled, mindless flesh-munchers takes the media by storm. Just like a James Bond movie, the best horror shows depend on the quality of the villian/monster. And you want to know who is inhuman? Everyone who lived before the A/C era. Why? Cause they didn't invent A/C. The ignorant fools.

I Love to say`
`
Verily Woe to:
`
Lawyers (bah ones),
scribes (fake news caste)
Know-it-all creepy duh duds
`
Let's just go out for some milk.
I am now into chocolate milk.
`
www.clearspringcreamery.com /
?
No be too bloated or you no sleep.
Too much milk causes odorless gas.
We sip at the 4th zombie class acts?

You write like commenters ref:`Homer.
Homer thinks these jokes Look`Bloody!
Thanks. I changed plans. I sip 'Fat Tire'
and
You can drink a Jug of Chocolate Milk.
The milk helps me sleep as if at a teat.
You just lull-off. You sing lullaby too?

Mother Nature's Milk is goo goo coo.
No act cuckoo at the 4th celebration.
We may never view another babe hen.

My Daughter is milk maiden.
We get way too much cream.
Green grass turns pure white.
`

Dunno, Stim. I grew up before we had a/c. Hard to imagine. I remember we used to wrap ice cubes in towels and put on our faces when it was really hot. But this was in Wisconsin. Pobly never got as hot as 80.

I love chocolate milk, Art. My favorite? Yahoo. Nothing's more refreshing, unless it's Miller Time.

Zombies are rather a clever pagan response to the whole
Christian idea of life after death, is my opinion.
The most terrifying book i ever read was actually one of
Stephen King's: 'pet cemetery'. The idea was that if you buried yr
pet there, it would come back. But...as a kind of zombie monster.
The hero of the book's 3 yr old son dies, and he buries him in the pet cemetery, and he comes back....yikes!
~
The most horrifying zombies are of course your loved ones, who died and came back.

Some say zombies are a racial memory of the Black Death, when your loved ones became carriers of death...

~
i have always preferred vampires, for they are fully sexual beings.
Werewolf is a good metaphor for the Freudian id...
~
Our young are being conditioned for something these One Percenters got planned for us, that is for sure. It is kind of sad to see a whole generation of blank eyed sociopaths, but, well,
to tell you the truth, i really don't expect to have children,
so who gives a damn. I got very little stake in our future.
I would like to see a real apocalypse someday:
etymologically, it means ''ripping off the lid". Letting the truth
come out in its irresistible glory,
plain for everyone to see,
and frying the bad people, like in a mighty heat wave
that never ends.

I am rather disturbed by Father Abraham being a vampire hunter.
I was in the supermarket today, leering at the beautiful gals
in dishabille on the covers of the glam mags,
when i came across a nEWSWEEK "100 most influential people of all time" ....there was einstein,and fdr, and ...abe.
I looked in that stern magisterial face for minutes.
It was..charismatic..those eyes...

I just love reading heat-induced hallucinations! It's almost as much fun as vampire burning and zombie blasting!

Jim, thanks for the zombie background. It never occurred to me it might have European roots, as I'd thought it started with the Haitian voodoo rituals. I was reluctant at first to even consider seeing the Abe-as-Buffy flick, feeling toward him as do you and that it would be somehow sacrilege to involve him as a character in such a hokey fairy tale. But the timing was right, my main interest was getting into the a/c theater at the start of a movie. It was saved, I believe, by an actor who handled the role with sufficient gravitas, which took some doing considering the silliness of the plot. His acting enabled me to suspend my considerable disbelief throughout most of the movie. A little too much with the special effects and gratuitous violence, but, after all, the victims were only zombies.

Maybe that is my problem, Procopius, heat stroke.

I have no interest, fear or opinion on zombies, vampires and all that goofy baloney. I have real things to fear like rednecks in the deep wilderness with loaded guns carrying half-filled bottles of Jack Daniels.

Why does Jackson Browne singing "Before the Deluge" keep going through my head?

Matt, heat, makes me sad to say the least. But, as for the zombie talk, I like what someone I do not know, have said..

""I also have always liked the monster within idea. I like the zombies being us. Zombies are the blue-collar monsters. George A. Romero ""

Glad you are better now, air condition is a cool condition. !!

Hear ya, Blackie. Or cosmic aliens in three-piece suits at Wall Street lunch meetings planning franchise locations for Soylent Green processing plants.

Thanks, Rog, now that damned tune is haunting my brain, as well.

Hi, Afrodite! I'm sure there are those in their penthouse suites looking down with smirks on their faces, sipping martinis and murmuring to each other about how to deal with "The zombie problem." They're looking down at us. Yeah, so far as they're concerned we are the zombies.

It's all the flesh eating bacteria and face eating behavior that's got me paranoid. It's hard for me to believe the 1% really has a workable plan in place for anything.

I missed this, I've been a bit scatter-brained lately. You don't think it's too late do you?

Scatter brained DP..interesting I would have thought you were more off around the world in 80 days with never ending spare couch change. : )