Prognosis: I think I'll live. Yes, it's a tough life battling nature. Today, I decided to resume a favorite chore of mine, which is trimming the large foilage I have growing in front of my palatial estate. For years, I was able to do an Edward Scissorhands with the only mishap being a cut extension cord. But today I had some visitors who had not announced their arrival. The dreaded yellow jacket family! And they certainly didn't take a shining to a noisy disruption of their abode. Therefore, they went into attack mode.

At first, I thought maybe some pine needles had brushed my hands, so I dropped the trimmer and looked down to see two bees on my arm. Not quite snakes on a plane, but I didn't take a shining to getting stung either. All in all, fairly minimal damge, only 5 stings. I had ice and had to call my brother who had some Benadryl, as I knew he would. He kindly got me some other stuff, in addition to some Raid. Can't recall the last time I was stung. I'm not allergic, so that was not a worry, but it's an odd feeling when you see yourself getting stung. Very strange.

Meal of Links

Mr. Mix turned me on to "Criss Angel: Mindfreak". I'm hoping he makes David Blaine disappear.

Man is killed by his own homemade cannon, More disturbing is state police quote: "A lot of people have homemade cannons, this isn't an unusual hobby." WTF?

Finally, an honest op-ed piece on secondhand smoke. Check out the old Penn & Teller rerun for further debunking.

Exercise Yard

No World Cup today, but the Browns season tickets arrived. This is the 60th anniversary of the Browns. The tickets are an homage to the different types of those printed in years past. I think it's significant that the only player visible on the tickets qas chosen for the Chiefs game. It's Larry Johnson, the new Jim Brown, based on how he tore up the league late last year. All in all, the Browns did a great job with the tickets.

Visitor

18 Across: Former Sandinista ruler (6 letters) Answer: Ortega