SNIPPETS

MAY 30,  2010

(AP) Race driver Tomas Scheckter's need for speed apparently goes beyond his 20th position start in Sunday's Indianapolis 500.  Scheckter got a speeding ticket Friday night on Interstate 65 in Indianapolis, where the speed limit is 55 miles per hour.

Oh, come on.  He was simply following the old wisdom:  "Practice, practice!"

MAY 29,  2010

LOS ANGELES, May 28 (UPI) -- A Cerritos, Calif., woman was charged with welfare fraud for receiving more than $60,000 in benefits while hiding assets including a Maserati, officials say.  Tangela Ridgeway, 35, was arrested with eight others this week in a massive welfare fraud sweep for receiving benefits while concealing ownership of a home, business, a Nissan SUV, the upscale 2006 sports car and other vehicles, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

Look, with the cost of insuring a Maserati, no wonder she's on welfare.  Can't we be sympathetic?

MAY 28,  2010

(Reuters Life!) - Greek telecom engineers cut off the telephone line to the prime minister's house while attempting to disconnect a customer who was behind in payments, the telephone company said on Wednesday.  The Athens phone number of the customer in arrears was the same as that of Prime Minister George Papandreou's home number save for one digit, telecoms company OTE said in a statement.

Isn't this the country that just got bailed out by the European Union?  Look, what's a digit here and there?  One zero, two zeros, who cares? 

MAY 27,  2010

LONDON, May 26 (UPI) -- A British alcohol education group said its survey indicates more than half a million Britons arrive for work with hangovers each day.

And most of them work for the BBC.

MAY 26,  2010

From London's Telegraph:  A mobile phone company has suspended the number 0888 888 888 – after every single person assigned to it died in the last 10 years.

Died?  Whacked would be more like it.  Apparently, crime bosses liked the number.  No more.  Read the story for the thrilling details.

MAY 25,  2010

(Reuters) A library book borrowed by the first U.S. president, George Washington, has been returned to a New York City's oldest library, 221 years late.  Washington checked out the book from the New York Society Library at a time when the library shared a building with the federal government in lower Manhattan.

This is New York.  Believe me, they'll sue the estate.