Pirates of the High Seas

And you thought they didn't exist anymore!

Where have all the new cars gone?

So, no one's buying new cars right now. No one wants to pony up the money with the economy in the gutter. Automobile makers, manufacturers and their employees are growing more desperate as their hopes of a prosperous 2009 swirl slowly down the drain. Recently, a conglomerate advertisement for all automobile makers in the state appeared on television. It's rather depressing that these huge, wealthy companies are pooling their resources to beg the public to buy up their product.

And where do unsold cars end up?

Gathering dust: (click pic for more)

Death By Peanut Butter

Just in case you aren't deathly allergic to peanuts, there's a new way it can still kill you: salmonella.

Do yourself a favor if you eat products that have peanut or peanut butter in them; read this article. And then go throw out those peanut butter crackers.

Peanut butter in jars are still deemed safe.

Leap Second??

Marvel at the ingenuity of modern man. This year will be one second longer than last year. What are you gonna do with your extra second on December 31st? I think I'm gonna go for a longer new Year's kiss. Awh, Yaah!

HERE IT IS!

They found it. Call off your dogs. : )

"Like Such As..."

If you haven't reveled in the misguided utterings of the current reigning Miss Teen South Carolina, see the video. The t-shirt above (which tastefully arranged her speech into the shape of the USA, should assist US Americans who have no maps like such as myself in identifying it next time) is available at this site. You'll also want to see their Pageant Geography t-shirt which carefully explains where the US is, South Africa, The Asian countries and as a bonus... the Iraq.

Merv Griffin Dies at 82

Say "so long" to one of America's most venerated performers.

Merv Griffin Passed away Monday, August 13, 2007.

Oscar the Death Cat

I thought petting a cat was supposed to increase your life expectancy... click pic for story.

No News Would Be Good

I concur.

I don't watch the news anymore. Is it my repressed American upbringing? Or is it my sense that American News Agencies aren't painting a complete picture? Seems that if you want the macabre, and grisly you don't need a horror movie. Watch the news.

(See more at INNINGS)

Paul Newman Tops Up Kenyon College

I think this story is rather great, actually. Paul Newman is donating $10 million to his Alma Mater, Kenyon College. Always wanted a Paul Newman of my own* because he managed to stick by his woman all these years (and he's fabulously good looking) and here he is giving back to his former school in no-name Ohio. I think that's pretty stellar of him.

Also, I love his mint chocolate cookies, despite their exorbitant cost. As it says on the package:

You might, m'lady tweak my nose.
You could, m'lord step on my toes.
But Heaven help those poor bozos,
who try to filch my Newman-O's!

Indeed.

*It's OK, I f0und something better : )

Maroon and Orange

I am wearing both today.

Standing in support of the Virginia Tech survivors and families.

Wipe Out!

I've had bad days, but this takes the cake! (From Fox News)

Computer Tech Accidentally Erases Info on Alaska's $38 Billion Oil Fund
Tuesday, March 20, 2007

JUNEAU,
Alaska — Perhaps you know that sinking feeling when a single keystroke accidentally destroy hours of work. Now imagine wiping out a disc drive containing an account worth $38 billion.

A computer technician at the Alaska Department of Revenue deleted applicant information for an oil-funded sales account — one of state residents' biggest perks. While reformatting the disk drive during a routine maintenance check, the technician mistakenly reformatted the backup drive as well and, suddenly, all the data disappeared.

A third line of defense — backup tapes that are updated nightly — were unreadable. "Nobody panicked, but we instantly went into planning for the worst-case scenario," said Permanent Fund Dividend Division Director Amy Skow, about the computer foul-up in July that ended up costing the department more than $200,000.

Nine months worth of information concerning the yearly payout from the Alaska Permanent Fund was gone: some 800,000 electronic images that had been painstakingly scanned into the system months earlier,the 2006 paper applications that people had either mailed in or filed over the counter, and supporting documentation such as birth certificates and proof of residence. The only backup was the paperwork itself — stored in more than 300 cardboard boxes.

"We had to bring that paper back to the scanning room, and send it through again, and quality control it, and then you have to have a way to link that paper to that person's file," said Skow. Staff working overtime and weekends re-entered the lost data into the system by the end of August. Last October and November, they met their obligation to the public and a majority of the estimated 600,000 payments for last year's $1,106.96 individual dividends went out on schedule.

Former Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus said no one was blamed in the incident. "Everybody felt very bad about it and we all learned a lesson. There was no witch hunt," said Corbus.

According to department staff, they now have a proven and regularly tested backup and restore procedure.

If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times...

Nagging doesn't work.

Pop Princess in Close Shave

Britney Spears flies coach from FL to LA on Friday, stops into a hair salon and requests a completely shaved head. The kindly owner of the establishment refuses and tried to mother the poor girl a bit. At which point Britney takes a set of clippers and shaves her own head. The owner takes pity and evens up the trim for her (making the best out of a bad situation) where upon Britney reportedly looked at the mirror and cried, "What have I done? My mom's gonna kill me." She then decided to cross town to a local tattoo parlor where she got two tattoos. A crowd gathering outside vied for glimpses of the meltdown volcano inside.

Good girl, Britney. Way to scare yourself silly by doing something non-lethal, but visually appalling. Way to cry for attention in some way that will not have permanent lasting effect. I applaud you. And now, let's see if we can help you get some dignity back, too.

I'll take the Hybrid...

So, finally, concept cars with fuel cell capability are becoming less of a "concept" and more of a "car." I have been waiting for something realistic and approachable (although price-wise, I'm sure it is anything but approachable) to appear on the car and driver scene. Ford unveiled its Edge with HySeries Drive (registered trademark). I don't care what a car looks like so long as it can drive up to 400 miles with zero emissions! Don't act like you are not impressed! Just go ahead and wish you had one.

No doubt there are drawbacks, like running out of electricity on the side of the road, or ending up someplace where you have to plug it in for four hours before you can drive again (is that really true? how annoying!), but, still, gasoline is such a brutal taskmaster that I'd love to see the human race get out from under its thumb.

Mmmm, efficiency!

Tom Noe Before and Afters

I guess the moral of this story is, "don't invest in rare coins."

9/11 Remembrance Hole

Honoring the Hole.

Weird News Is Old News

From a Savannah Web Board:

By the Way, What Stories Have Been No-Longer-Weirded?

Eighty such themes have occurred so frequently that they have been “retired from circulation” since News of the Weird began publishing in 1988, and for the next few months, they’ll be reviewed here.
Too many pranksters nowadays kidnap school or business mascots (like inflatable Ronald McDonalds) and vandalize them or hold them for ransom. Some libraries do have policies to have patrons arrested for long-overdue library books. The incidence of fires increases as smokers hooked up to an oxygen supply simply must feed their habit. And gasoline thieves who work at night need to check the tank somehow to see how full it is, and all they brought with them are matches or a lighter. These stories used to be weird, but let’s face it: no longer.

Das Mail Man

The Anti-Mail Man is German after all. (Wasn't this a Seinfeld episode?)

Bizarre Kennedy Death of the Day

Do you know how Joe Kennedy Jr. died? Testing how much explosives a plane could hold without exploding. He never found out. And they never found him. But then, you try flying a plane full of explosives and see how you like it!