SNIPPETS

JANUARY 16,  2010

From The Times of London:  A floor collapsed beneath a group of about 20 members of Weight Watchers as they gathered to compare how many pounds they had shed over Christmas.  Members of the weight-loss club were lining up to compare readings on the scales when they heard a bang as the floor came away from the walls of their meeting room in Växjö in southern Sweden.

It's Sweden.  They'll blame Bush.

JANUARY 15,  2010

BOSTON -- Duty calls for an East Boston resident.  Someone is getting called for jury duty...but it's no human.  A family is trying to figure out how their pet cat was summonsed for jury duty.

It was probably done by the same people who run elections up there in Massachusetts.  We'd better watch carefully on Tuesday.

JANUARY 14,  2010

From The New York Times:  Americans, at least as a group, may have reached their peak of obesity, according to data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Wednesday.  The numbers indicate that obesity rates have remained constant for at least five years among men and for closer to 10 years among women and children — long enough for experts to say the percentage of very overweight people has leveled off.

There's still a lot of effort to be made, but contrast this story with the constant global-warming-style panic announcements we've had on the subject in the last year or two. 

JANUARY 13,  2010

BUFFALO GROVE, Ill., Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Police in a Chicago suburb say a father whose twin 9-year-old daughters were disrupting his driving pulled into a police station for teachable moment.  The Buffalo Grove Police Department said the man stopped at the station Jan. 5 and asked an officer to help explain the dangers of hitting someone and pulling their hair while they are driving a car, the Pioneer Press reported Tuesday.  The girls told the officer they "shoved" their dad because they wanted him to stop singing.

Smart father.  Probably not a good singer.

JANUARY 12,  2010

WASHINGTON (AP) - D.C. police said a woman awoke to find a stranger cuddling her in bed. Police said they don't know how the man got into the Glover Park home early Sunday. Sgt. Nicholas Breul said the woman woke up and startled the intruder, who fled the scene. Police said the woman was not injured and she was not able to give a good description.

That John Edwards, he could never remember his address.

JANUARY 11,  2010

Jan. 10 (UPI) -- A New York cabbie spent Christmas Eve tracking down a passenger who left $10,000 in his vehicle, the passenger said.  Felicia Lettieri, a 72-year-old Italian grandmother visiting relatives in New York, told Sunday's New York Post she left the money in a cab driven by Mukul Asaduzzaman, 28, on Christmas Eve after being picked up at Penn Station.

The great part is that the cabbie is a pre-med student from Bangladesh who refused any reward for his good deed.  I hope he gets plenty of publicity, and a scholarship.  He came here to study medicine, not to blow up a plane.

JANUARY 10,  2010

LAKELAND, Fla., Jan. 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. grocery chain Publix said it is no longer offering a free calendar after being slammed for leaving the attack on Pearl Harbor off the publication.  Publix made the decision to no long offer the 2010 calendar to customers after a Florida radio talk show host strongly criticized the supermarket chain for failing to note the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese surprise attack that pulled the United States into World War II, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Friday.

The issue is not that December 7th was left off.  The issue is why.  Why did no one associated with this calendar note the date and the omission?  Well, here's why:  Think education.  Think schools.  Think teachers and the way teachers are trained.  Think history courses designed by radicals.  You'll have your answer.

JANUARY 9,  2010

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- The gunman who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II says he will begin considering book, film and television documentary offers after his release from a Turkish prison later this month. 

Maybe a musical.  Or even casino commercials.  This is pretty sick, but a reflection of societal values.