Volcano Cool

Mount Etna has been erupting for about two weeks over in Sicily, as it does from time to time. Etna mostly doesn't do the cataclysmic, waste-laying Mount St. Helens thing, and anyway doesn't seem to be doing that this time, which frees us all—or me, anyway—to worry somewhat less about the danger it poses to the villages around its lower slopes or the nearby city of Catania (pop. 311,000), and instead to marvel at the extremely bitchin' photographs being taken of this thing, particularly by one Giovanni Isolino, of Agence France-Presse.

Metal!

Going for a walk, checking out the hellish red glow of the smoking lava oozing down the side of the 11,000-foot stratovolcano in the background, behind the church. As one does.

This kicks way too much ass.

From the dawn of time, Man has faced the eternal choice between good and evil.

I'm sorry, but this is Mount Doom. That's Mount Doom.

Imagine being melted by a tidal wave of Sicilian lava. Hell yeah. That's how I want to go.