SNIPPETS

JANUARY 19,  2010

From AFP:  A musical version of Barack Obama's rise to the White House has opened in Frankfurt, with the 'president' thrilling audiences with a rousing chorus of "Yes We Can" in a country still charmed by his message of hope...Obama underscored his trademark theme with a chorus of "Yes We Can" and sang a lover's duet with his wife Michelle in a show producers hope to take one day to the United States.

Then there's the sequel:  "Obama - the Forced Retirement"

JANUARY 18,  2010

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A California middle school was put on lock-down while authorities responded to a call about the safety of a student's science project, officials said.  Students at Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School in San Diego were evacuated after the 11-year-old student brought his project to school Friday, and parents were contacted and told they could pick up their children to take them home, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.  The project, which the student made in his family's garage, was a motion-detector device, made of a Gatorade bottle, wires, and electrical components. There was no substance in the bottle, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Maurice Luque said.

Maybe we should focus on guys who get on airliners with strange things taped to their undies.

JANUARY 17,  2010

NAPERVILLE, Ill., Jan. 16 (UPI) -- A Chicago man who tried to use a fake credit card with his name misspelled by one letter has been sentenced to 27 months in prison, officials said. Gregory Butler pleaded guilty this week in DuPage County Circuit Court to possessing a counterfeit credit card, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.

A sentence of 27 months for one letter wrong?  I could understand that for two letters, but where is the understanding, the recognition of what a poor education can do, the credit for a man who almost spelled his name right?  What is this about?  Standards?

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.