SNIPPETS

AUGUST 24, 2010

Washington (CNN) -- Shirley Sherrod, who received an apology after being forced to resign from the Agriculture Department in July, declined an offer Tuesday to serve as the agency's deputy director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach.  The newly created position was designed to improve the department's civil rights efforts and image nationwide.  Sherrod said she also turned down an offer to return to her previous position as the department's director of rural development for Georgia.

I'm sure there are many unemployed middle-management people in this country who would love one of those jobs.  This woman is a self-interested egomaniac.  Maybe she's waiting for someone to make her life story into a musical.

AUGUST 23, 2010

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - The misuse of one little vowel frustrates a lot of Nevadans who get irritated by the mispronunciation of the state's name - using an "ah" instead of "a."  Outgoing Assemblyman Harry Mortenson is proposing more tolerance. The Las Vegas Democrat is working on a resolution for the 2011 legislative session to make the "Ne-VAH-da" pronunciation equally acceptable to the one with the short "a."

You think this will rival the Emancipation Proclamation? 

AUGUST 22,  2010

SPRING HILL, Fla., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- It took a while to get going, but 101-year-old Mimi Rosenthal now has her third tattoo, courtesy of a Florida tattoo artist.  This one went on her left arm, and next time she might get one on her butt, she said in an interview in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

Why?

AUGUST 21, 2010

SOUTHLAKE, Texas (AP) - A Texas teenager who broke curfew is headed for a reluctant adventure in baby-sitting.  Robert Rausch placed an advertisement offering his daughter's free baby-sitting services in the community newspaper in Southlake, a wealthy suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth.  The advertisement names Rausch's 16-year-old-daughter and says, "Want a FREE BABYSITTER for a night out?" It explains that she is in trouble for missing her curfew and offers 30 hours of free baby-sitting.

I'll bet this kid turns out very well.

AUGUST 20, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, England, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Officers in an English police department have accused their superiors of wasting time and treating them like children with new rules on appropriate underwear.   The guidelines issued by the West Midlands police say underwear for both male and female officers must be of an "appropriate color" and "inconspicuous..."

No wonder Sherlock Holmes wanted to remain independent.

AUGUST 19, 2010

Law enforcement news, from the Washington Examiner:  Two fire-breathing bartenders face up to 45 years in prison each for performing flaming bar tricks.  Jimmy's Old Town Tavern owner Jimmy Cirrito said his bartenders have been entertaining his customers -- by juggling bottles of alcohol and spitting out streams of flames using matchbooks and lighters -- for more than a decade and no one's complained. But shortly after midnight on July 24, two of his longtime employees were hauled out of the Herndon bar in handcuffs and charged with three felonies each plus other misdemeanors.

Baffling.  I thought fire breathing and juggling alcohol were the normal practices in Washington.