SNIPPETS

MAY 4, 2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Police in Columbus are looking for a man they say robbed a bank near downtown, then handed two $100 bills to passers-by as he ran away. FBI Special Agent Harry Trombitas said the man robbed a Huntington Bank branch early Monday afternoon after showing a teller a gun in his waistband. Trombitas said the man was running up the street when he encountered a mother and daughter window-shopping.

Sounds like the kind of guy who should be working for the Obama administration.

MAY 3, 2010

TORONTO, April 30 (UPI) -- A Canadian company is creating designer wood-chopping axes starting at $200 and selling for up to $500 at a New York outlet.  Graeme Cameron, 38, and Peter Buchanan-Smith, 38, the New York-based designer who paints, varnishes and stains the axes, said the tools are specially designed to cut through even the most difficult pieces of wood, the Toronto Star reported Friday.

Look, if you have a favorite murderer, it's a thoughtful gift.

MAY 2,  2010

PALM BAY, Fla., April 30 (UPI) -- Police in Florida praised the courage of a 62-year-old man who used his handgun to foil a bank robbery.  Ruben Torres, 62, an off-duty security guard, said he was at the Space Coast Credit Union in Palm Bay Thursday when a man entered and began behaving suspiciously, the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported Friday.  "He wasn't disguised or anything. But he put a Wal-Mart bag on his head, walked to the counter and gave the teller a note ... He even took the bag off his head and gave it to the teller to put the cash in," Torres said.

People who put Wal-Mart bags on their heads are especially dangerous, and very frugal.

MAY 1,  2010

FASHION STATEMENT:  From the New York Daily News:   Casio watches are cheap, dependable - and the timepiece of choice for bombmakers.  The watches have been used so often in terrorist plots that the feds have urged airport screeners to look out for them.  They've been cited as evidence that Guantanamo Bay detainees need to be locked up.  There are, of course, millions of Casio watches sitting innocently on the wrists of upstanding citizens, but they have also been tied to numerous bombing attempts, with terrorists rigging the circuitry to make them into timers.  Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the foiled plot to blow up 11 U.S.-bound airliners in 1994, chose Casios.

Well, I guess it's some kind of recommendation.  But how can you name drop?

APRIL 30,  2010

CARACAS, April 29 (Reuters) - Delighted at his cyber success, Venezuela's new Twitter convert President Hugo Chavez on Thursday invited Cuba's Fidel Castro and Bolivian President Evo Morales to join the micro-blogging site too.  After several months grumbling that social networking sites in Venezuela were dominated by opponents of his socialist government, Chavez opened his own account this week and was clearly elated to have gathered 106,000 followers in two days.

Let's take all those 160,000 followers and put them on the no-fly list.