Duck Goes Moo!

More Obesity Cartoons Here

Bob Barker is retiring and the Rosie O’Donnell wants the job; even more so, Bob has endorsed her for the job.

Oy vey, I think that’s enough to make me stop watching Price is Right whenever I remember it’s on. I have many a fond memory of watching the Price is Right and Press Your Luck when I was home sick from school as a kid.

Wendy’s may be looking for a potential buyer. They’ve been suffering from poor sales and may look to a buy-out to revive the company.

I wonder if a Wendy’s purchase will lead to the franchise returning to St. Louis? I miss their spicy chicken sandwich something awful. The Jack’s Spicy Chicken at Jack in the Box is good… but it’s not quite the same. Plus I miss the Wendy’s fries and frosties.

You know who I think should buy Wendy’s? Google.

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Sad, but true.

A Washington judge is suing the pants off of a couple who run a dry cleaning biz. Why? Because they misplaced his favorite pants. The lawsuit is for millions, all for what the judge is calling “fraud”.

Why would a judge be so concerned about pants? Don’t they wear those long robes?

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Archaeologists believe they may have found king Herod’s tomb, though there are no bones and no inscriptions proving it as such.

But this is actually fitting in with the history of Herod, the former ruler of the Holy Land. It is believed that Herod’s tomb was ransacked by the Jews during their revolt against the Romans. Herod was viewed as a puppet under Roman control, so not finding a body in the sarcophagus, which was found in pieces, is somewhat fitting, as his body was most likely desecrated. Still, the sarcophagus and the shattered remains of the tomb seem to fit in enough with what was written back in those times of it.

This new discovery is causing a bit of a kerfuffle. Some Israelis are starting to claim this as further evidence of their historic right to the area, and some Palestinians now fear a Jewish influx in the area, who are claiming the found object as Palestinian artifacts.

Paris Hilton was late to her probation hearing and the judge sentenced her to 45 days in jail.

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Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday from complications stemming from a fall that damaged parts of his brain. He was of course the famous author of books and stories such as “Slaughterhouse Five” and “Harrison Bergeron”, but had spent his more recent years being a fierce critic of the bush administration and working with various peace organizations.

Johhny Hart, creator of B.C. and other such comics died of an apparent stroke while drawing. I liked the B.C. comics as a kid, but do admit I liked them a bit less when I got older.

The main mind behind Microsoft Word and Excel is going to be jettisoned into space. Bon Voyage.

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Officers in Jupiter, Florida found La Russa seemingly passed out in his vehicle at an intersection last night. They took him into custody where he blew a .093, which is above the .08 BAC in Florida. He was said to be cooperative about the whole situation.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070322&content_id=1854231&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp

Ever since July of last year people from Cuba and beyond have been holding their collective breath as they have waited to see if Fidel Castro, who was raised on a prosperous sugar plantation and grew up to become the leader of his people (via a revolution or two), will live on to rule well into the 21st century or if he shall finally pass on from this world.

A Spanish newspaper has recently reported that he is suffering greatly from three botched surgeries:

The Spanish newspaper said in a report posted on its Web site on Monday that Mr. Castro, who has not been seen in public since July 26, had suffered from diverticulitis, a serious ailment caused when the bulges that sometimes form in the colon of older people become infected.

In Mr. Castro’s case, that later led to peritonitis, which is an inflaming of the stomach lining, the newspaper said. Describing his condition as “very serious,” the paper said Mr. Castro was being fed intravenously.

Doctors first removed a portion of Mr. Castro’s large intestine and connected the colon to the rectum, the paper said. But the operation failed and fecal matter found its way into his stomach, causing an infection.

Later, doctors drained the infected area and performed a colostomy but that also failed, the paper said. A third operation implanted a prothesis. A Korean version failed, prompting Cuban doctors to order one from Spain.

taken from the New York Times

Like him or not, Castro made a big impact upon the world… or did he? Is Castro just an American obsession or did his revolution change more than his own country?

Even more so, when he dies, will his revolution die with him? Will his brother continue to rule in his place or will the exiled Cubans finally have their day as Castro’s administration crumbles without him?

We may not have long to wait to find out. My guess is that the people will call for elections after Castro’s death, and if that is not allowed by those in charge at the time then that may indeed be the end for Castro’s Cuba.

Here’s a first: It seems that the entire isle of Manhattan has cut one.

Jocularity aside, much of the NYC area and areas of Jersey smelled like sulfur for an extended period of time, closing down businesses and schools all across the area. Many feared it was natural gas or something otherwise flammable or toxic, but in the end nothing caught fire and no one died from it as far as anyone has reported.

This is much like an earlier incident in 2005 where much of the same area smelled like maple syrup.

What is next year’s smell going to be? My guess: fresh baked brownies.

It has happened again. A US sub has collided with a Japanese ship, except this time it was a merchant vessel and no one died, thank goodness. Apparently neither the sub or the boat were severely damaged.

Over at the Magic Kingdom a bouncy, flouncy orange tiger who’s tons of fun, fun fun has been accused of punching a 14 year old fan.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2536148,00.html

With Gerald Ford’s recent death many have come to praise the former president… but not everyone.

Many still grumble about his pardon of Nixon, but Christopher Hitchens has even more reasons to dislike the guy:

http://www.slate.com/id/2156400/?nav=tap3

Note: Christopher Hitchens generally has something bad to say about anyone and anything under the sun and beyond.

Okay, so yesterday James Brown, Godfather of Soul, died and now today Gerald Ford, former president, has died? Please, please tell me Shatner is not next on the list.

Are people who spend serious time in online communities less likely to care about real-world issues? The World Development Movement (WDM) thinks so. They’ve been putting up signs and carrying out a campaign in Second Life to remind Second Lifers that there is a real world out there with real suffering, poverty, and starvation.

Will the rich elite of the future spend the majority of their time in virtual worlds, escaping the devastation and filth of the real world? That is one view, but another is that persistent virtual worlds will eventually lead to new jobs in these virtual worlds. That may sound a bit far fetched, but I think there are already no-skill jobs that you can get paid for in SL already, the most common ones being exotic dancing and sexual services, but it is already expanding to sales jobs and other less tawdry means of employment.

Comedian Sasha Cohen, aka Borat, recently picked the wrong New Yorker to play his bit on and got a severe beating for it.

Personally, I actually enjoyed the “Borat” movie, but there were times at which I thought he wasn’t being so funny and was in reality just being an ass to perfectly innocent people. I felt sorry for some of the people who had no clue what to do with this insane character. Though I must admit I laughed harder at the “Borat” movie than I have in a long time (the movie is best seen in a theater where a whole crowd of people lose their minds at once).

In some ways, I feel a bit of Shadenfrued at hearing that Sasha finally got popped for bugging people who are just trying to go about their normal lives, but I still appreciate the little bit of chaos he introduces into the world.

Still, I feel there is no love in his humor. He’s no Mel Brooks, who kids because he loves, or even a Lenny Bruce, who was trying to expose hypocrisies in modern culture. It is true that “Borat” did expose racism and homophobia in America today, but in the end I don’t think that was really his goal. It think he plays these characters so that he can have an excuse to annoy people and not have any of the guilt attach to his “real” self.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20749117-5001026,00.html

BTW, Sasha Cohen is also being sued by a someone who lost her job due to “Borat”, and since he signed the legal waivers as “Borat Sagdiyev”, a fictional character, he may actually have no protection from lawsuit.

“60 Minutes” reporter Ed Bradley has just been reported as having passed away from Lukemia at age 65. I actually did not know he was ailing, but he’s always been one of my favorite reporters.