Flying Spaghetti Monsters Are Shipping

FSM orders placed Oct. 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th (and possibly 27th) are shipping out today.

UPDATE: FSMs ordered Oct. 27th and 28th are out the door.

We didn't reach our goal of getting completely caught up, but we're getting close.

As soon as we have news about the Pirate fish, I'll announce it here.

Secrets

Seen any secret societies lately? Cult of the Eye

The Flying Spaghetti Monster Report

It's beginning to feel a lot like Fitzmas...

Yesterday orders placed on Oct 20th went out with the orders that came in on the 19th. I was so busy getting them ready, I didn't get online until now to let you know. If you can't find your tracking number, check your spam filter or spam folder or whatever spam control device you use.

Today, orders placed Oct 21st are going out and I'm working on the ones that arrived on the 22nd. I hope to get caught up to real time this weekend.

UPDATE: Orders place on Oct. 22 also went out today.

In answer to a question about the Pirate fish: it's coming soon but I don't have a date (I believe it'll be a matter of days).

Flying Spaghetti Monsters Shipping Report

Today FSMs ordered on October 19th are on the way to their new homes.

I'm dreaming of a big Fitzmas
With every news report I see

Flying Spaghetti Monster Shipping Schedule

FSM orders placed Oct 17th and 18th are going out today (Wednesday).

We now have about a one-week lag time between receiving orders and sending them out and we're trying to be back on schedule by the end of October.

Normally we ship orders within 24 hours, but we got behind because we took pre-orders for a certain googly-eyed, noodly emblem.

That Pirate Fish should be swimming in soon. We're excited.

Flying Spaghetti Monster's Friend: UPS

Googly eyes are on UPS.

Today orders placed on Oct. 16th shipped out.

Flying Spaghetti Monster Helps Deliver Packages

"Brown" has been touched by a noodly appendage.

On Monday FSM emblems ordered on Oct. 11th, 12th and 13th will ship out.

Update: Also all packages ordered Oct 15th went out today (Monday).

Ring of Fire Enterprises in the News

I've been so busy, I neglected to tell you that I was interviewed by Paul Nussbaum for an article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer and we'll be in tomorrow's Washington Post.

The article in the Inquirer was titled Evolving fight for religious icon:

In a nation that wears its heart on its bumper, the war over Darwinism has evolved into a fish fight.

First, there was the Jesus fish, symbol of Christianity. Then there was the fish with feet, symbol of evolution. Then there was the truth fish, a big fish with the word "truth" eating the Darwin fish. Then there was the dinosaur eating the Jesus fish.

These plastic proclamations have spawned schools of other fish intended to annoy, amuse or simply befuddle. There is now a gefilte fish, with a Star of David and Hebrew-style letters. A horned sinner fish. A winged angel fish. A chubby Buddha fish. An " 'n chips" fish.

The origin of the bumper fish is, like the origin of other species, disputed. But it appears that the first fish emerged from the pre-automotive mists of time as a symbol of Christianity. The Greek letters that form the word for "fish," transliterated as icthus or ixthys, can be used as an acronym for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." Legend has it that early Christians used a fish symbol to covertly identify themselves to each other.

These Christian fish, some unadorned, some with the Greek letters iota, chi, theta, upsilon and sigma, which look something like IXOYE, and some with the word Jesus, began to appear on car bumpers in the 1980s during the Reagan presidency.

...

The reaction was swift. With the adaptation of feet, and the sometimes less-than-subtle addition of the word Darwin, the fish was transformed into a symbol of evolutionists, liberals and wise-acres.

Why did Darwin-fish people put the symbol on their cars? Unsurprisingly, a college professor has studied the question.

Tom Lessl, an associate professor of speech communication at the University of Georgia, trolled parking lots in several states for cars with Darwin fish. He left questionnaires for the owners, asking, Why did you put it on your car, what audience did you hope to reach, and what does the Darwin fish mean to you?

The 51 responses ranged from hostile to whimsical.

"Mainly I did it to annoy the Christian right wing," wrote one respondent.
"It is a symbol of my belief in evolution and my irreverence for organized religion. ... I have it on my car in good humor, not at all to offend anyone," another said.

"I bought the Darwin fish and put it on my car mainly because I thought it was good for a chuckle," another said. "My only problem with the Darwin-fish is that I don't want to give the impression that I equate Darwin with Christ, and I also believe that both men would be slightly annoyed to see how they've been idolized and [made] commodities."

Lessl said the responses showed the Darwin fish was "subject to very different interpretations ... but a substantial majority seemed to treat this as a worldview statement."

When battles over evolution are in the news, as with the current Dover, Pa., court case, sales of fish jump. That case, now being tried in federal district court in Harrisburg, pits a school board that required students to be introduced to "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution against parents who contend that it violates their religious freedoms.

...

Nona Williams, co-owner of Ring of Fire Enterprises of Ben Lomond, Calif., which sells more than 20,000 emblems a year, including about 3,000 Darwin fish, said the old stand-by Darwin has been eclipsed by the dinosaur-eating-the-fish emblem.
"A lot of people were really upset when the Christians came up with the truth fish and asked us to do a tit for tat. But we didn't want to do that," Williams said. Instead, she and partner Rob Watson created the dinosaur emblem, as well as what Williams calls "our naughty fish," a Darwin fish copulating with a Greek-lettered fish.
....

The current best-seller in the evolution wars is the flying spaghetti monster, which isn't even a fish. It's a googly-eyed, tentacled ovoid that is a parody aimed at the "intelligent design" movement. Its promoters argue that the universe was created by a flying spaghetti monster.

Williams said she doesn't know what will come along next, but she is sure something will. It's the nature of evolution.

Spaghetti Monsters Flying

Today orders that were placed Oct 8th, 9th and 10th are going out.

When you get your FSM emblems, please take a photo and send it to Bobby for his web site for his page on Flying Spaghetti Monster sightings.

Now, I'm going to start packing up orders that arrived on Oct. 11th.

Flying Spaghetti Monster Emblems Are Shipping Again

More Flying Spaghetti Monster emblems have been created and are flying out again.

Packages shipping today are for orders placed on October 5th 6th and 7th.

Depending on the carrier you chose, you will receive an email from the post office or UPS letting you know your package is on the way. If you chose UPS, the email you receive will include a delivery date.

If you chose the postal service, you'll be lucky to get any information except an announcement that we prepared your package for mailing.

I'm having trouble with one of my email addresses (nona at dslextreme dot com) so if you sent email to that address I might not have received it. Please use kittylover at gmail dot com

Thank you for your orders and for your patience as we work to catch up.

P.S. Pirate fish are coming soon. Watch this space for news.

Flying Spaghetti Monster: New Shipping Report

Yesterday all order placed before Oct. 5th were shipped. If you didn't receive your tracking number, please check your spam software.

We're shipped all the emblems we had on hand, but do not despair, more are on the way to us. By the end of the week, shipping will resume.

Flying Spaghetti Monster News & More

I've been sloughing off on my reports lately but not on shipping activities. As of today (Saturday) FSM emblems for all orders placed before Oct. 4th have shipped (that is unless your credit card charges were declined in which case I sent an email to let you know).

I haven't had any time to read blogs or news - I'm getting almost all my news from TV (Keith Olbermann is doing a great job of it) and a couple of friends are sending emails.

Thanks to Doug for a link to this great article about Bush's rehearsed "discussion" with the troops in Iraq. Baghdad Bob Scott McClellan has taken to attacking the press for asking unrehearsed questions and PRAISE THE SPAGHETTI MONSTER, someone in the press has finally mentioned Bush's jaw jerks. YESSSSS! I'm not the only one who noticed the jerk's chin has been trying to escape from his face for months.

Keith Olbermann interviewed Dana Millbanks and they talked about Bush's "body language". Apparently the swagger is gone and Millbanks said Bush is "twitchy". I can't remember which one, but Keith or Dana also mentioned the jerking jaw.

But wait, there's more. My good friend Dada located an article explaining why the chimperor's jaw is dancing around. It's the drugs.

Capitol Hill Blue:

President George W. Bush is taking anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.

The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the PresidentÂ’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” says one aide. “We can’t have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally.”

Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay.

“Keep those motherfuckers away from me,” he screamed at an aide backstage. “If you can’t, I’ll find someone who can.”

BushÂ’s mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the PresidentÂ’s wide mood swings and obscene outbursts.

Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a “paranoid meglomaniac” and “untreated alcoholic” whose “lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad” showcase Bush’s instabilities.

“I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed,” Dr. Frank said. “He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.”

Dr. FrankÂ’s conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.

The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical dependency. Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas governor and his first campaign for President.

“President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies,” Dr. Frank adds.

The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article.

The exact drugs Bush takes to control his depression and behavior are not known. While Col. Tubb regularly releases a synopsis of the PresidentÂ’s annual physical, details of the PresidentÂ’s health and any drugs or treatment he may receive are not public record and are guarded zealously by the secretive cadre of aides that surround the President.

Veteran White House watchers say the ability to control information about BushÂ’s health, either physical or mental, is similar to Ronald ReaganÂ’s second term when aides managed to conceal the PresidentÂ’s increasing memory lapses that signaled the onslaught of AlzheimerÂ’s Disease.

It also brings back memories of Richard NixonÂ’s final days when the soon-to-resign President wandered the halls and talked to portraits of former Presidents. The stories didnÂ’t emerge until after Nixon left office.

One long-time GOP political consultant who for obvious reasons – asked not to be identified said he is advising his Republican Congressional candidates to keep their distance from Bush.

“We have to face the very real possibility that the President of the United States is loony tunes,” he says sadly. "That's not good for my candidates, it’s not good for the party and it's certainly not good for the country."

Yet Another FSM Shipping Report

Today orders placed before Sept. 29th are on the way or are going out. Watch your email for tracking numbers.

Pastafarians have been asking when the Pirate fish will arrive and we now have an ETA of the first week in November.

Proof of Existence of Flying Spaghetti Monster

Gary Starkweather has uncovered evidence of the early existence of the His Noodlyness:

BBC NEWS Science/Nature Oldest noodles unearthed in China:

"The remains of the world's oldest noodles have been unearthed in China. The 50cm-long, yellow strands were found in a pot that had probably been buried during a catastrophic flood. Radiocarbon dating of the material taken from the Lajia archaeological site on the Yellow River indicates the food was about 4,000 years old."

This clearly is proof that the world was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster 4,000 years ago.

Bad Theory Is Supported by Questionable Statistics

ABQjournal: Bad Theory Is Supported by Questionable Statistics:

" The theory of intelligent design, when looked at scientifically, is a bad theory. It has only one thing backing it up: questionable statistics, which say it is improbable that life as it is now would have emerged without an 'intelligent designer' guiding the process. Why teach a bad theory in a science class?

Evolution has multiple sources of evidence to back it up, not just fossil records, as is commonly believed. For example, the similarities in some body parts of various animals is evidence of evolution. Though they are used for different things, the bone structure of the human hand is similar to that of the fins of dolphins, the hooves of pigs and the wings of bats.

Take the example of bat wings: If you look closely at a bat wing, you'll see a tiny thumb and fingers. This suggests that humans and bats evolved from a common ancestor.

The counterargument from 'ID-ers' may be that, well, a 'higher power's made them that way. You can play the 'higher power' card anywhere (whether you believe that power is the Christian God, Allah or the flying spaghetti monster), but that's entirely theoretical� there's no proof, no evidence.

Anything without evidence is just speculation. Evolution has evidence."

American Politics Journal -- Pundit Pap

And now for something completely different:

American Politics Journal -- Pundit Pap:

"Bill Frist, whose own mysterious indictment for his magical intuitive powers selling a great deal of stock in his own company just minutes before the value plunged a la Martha Stewart is forthcoming. Frist, no matter what happens, will lose his Majority Leader position in the Senate and, of course, will never be able to run for President of the United States (thank the Lord, Buddha, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, depending on whom you worship)."

Another Flying Spaghetti Monster Shipping Report

Shipping out today are orders placed between Sept. 18th and 21st including some orders placed on the 22nd.

And now back to work....

Update: ALL orders placed on the 22nd are also going out today.

Flying Spaghetti Monster Emblem Report

Shipping today are all orders placed through Sept 17th except for 3 that are going via the postal service. The USPS web site where we transmit our tracking data, is not working properly. We'll try again later today.

I forgot to mention that in addition to orders throughout the U.S., FSM emblems have gone out to Canada, the U.K., Sweden and Israel.

UPDATE: A noodly appendage reached down to touch USPS's web site and made our tracking information go through. All packages are now shipping.

Next up are orders placed on Sept. 18th.

Pastafarians Rejoice!

I've been so busy filling orders for Flying Spaghetti Monster emblems, that I haven't had much time to write anything except shipping reports. I'm still trying to catch up to real time with shipping, but I wanted to take a few minutes to respond to some comments from you wonderful Pastafarians.

One person requested that we make more FSM items and we will when we can, if FSM's prophet, Bobby Henderson wills it. We are working for him. We're a tiny 2-person, home-based business (we can't afford to hire employees and we don't have any kids to use for slave labor) so it takes us a while to accomplish our goals. Rob has a real job, so I do most of Ring of Fire's work. This allows us to provide personal service and I read every email you send or every comment to this blog, but when I get too busy, I can't personally answer each one. I love hearing from you all though, so please continue to send your questions, complaints and suggestions.

Our first priority is to get back-orders of FSM emblems shipped out. While I'm doing that, the factory is working on the Pirate fish. I'm sorry I don't have an expected date for the Pirate fish emblem but I'll post that info here as soon as I have some news.

We aren't taking pre-orders for the Pirate fish because I'm overwhelmed with back orders for the FSM emblems and am still trying to catch up.

Someone commented that we make it hard for you to place orders and I realized we needed to make that easier so Rob created an ad which is now in the sidebar of this blog. It will take you to Ring of Fire's web site where you can quickly and easily place your order.

If you have a blog or a web site, feel free to copy the blog ad or an image from Ring of Fire to link to. Rob can create an ad to your specifications, so feel free to ask him at robinbobbin@gmail.com Help us spread the good noodles of our Lord and Pasta, the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

In closing I'll sign off like one Pastafarian did when he placed an order: "RAmen & Hallelasagna!"

Flying Spaghetti Monster Shipping Report

On Friday most orders placed on Sept. 14th and 15th were shipped, however, six orders placed on the 15th are going out today (Saturday).

RAmen!

Shipping Out Flying Spaghetti Monster Emblems

Today's shipment includes all orders placed on Sept. 13th and at least some of those that were placed on the 14th.

New orders accepted at Ring of Fire Enterprises.

Flying Spaghetti Monster Emblem: Oct 6

Emblems shipping today via UPS / USPS are Flying Spaghetti Monsters ordered on Sept. 12th.

Now working on orders placed Sept 13th which will ship tomorrow (the 7th).

Thank you Pastafarians!

Flying Spaghetti Monster Emblems: Shipping Report

Going out today are FSM emblem orders placed on Sept. 11.

I kind of feel like I'm catching a cold or something and I'm really, really tired. I'll get to those orders dated Sept. 12th next, but I'm slowing down a bit, temporarily.

Thanks for your patience.

Flying Spaghetti Monster on the Move

Shipping today are orders placed before Sept. 11, including one little monster crossing the pond to spread the good noodles in the U.K.

Up next: orders placed on Sept. 11.

Flying Spaghetti Monsters Shipping Out

Today all orders for FSM emblems placed before Sept. 4 are going out and later today I'll start working on orders placed on the 4th. I will complete as many of those as I can before the mail carrier and the UPS driver arrive in early afternoon.

Thanks to all you wonderful Pastafarians for your orders and for your patience with our backlog.

To place a new order go to Ring of Fire's site and click on the picture of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Update: Also shipping out today are all orders received on Sept. 5th and 6th.

Please check your email for tracking numbers.

Praises to his Pasta greatness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster emblem cometh (or some nonsense like that).

Update II: All orders placed on Sept 7th are also going out today. Later today USPS and UPS will email tracking numbers to you.