Bag of Randomness

  • McCain loses blinking contest.  Link
  • For fellow Daily Show fans – Jason Jones and Samantha Bee appear to be getting their own show.  Link
  • If liking the feel of new socks on your feet is wrong then I don’t want to be right.
  • Rightly or wrongly, a U. S. president gets the credit or blame for the economy.  But I wonder how many presidents have left office with the Dow lower than when he started.  George W. Bush was sworn in on Saturday January 20, 2001.  The previous day, the Dow closed at 10,587.59.  Yesterday the Dow closed at 8979.26.
  • Man, I’ve been in the doldrums as of late and I can’t figure out why.
  • KitKats taste best right out of the freezer.
  • That’s the only candy bar I eat, if you consider that a bar.
  • I turned over to PBS for a brief moment to check out the Texas Senate debate and heard an extremely stupid question asked by a moderator.  Her question, and I’m paraphrasing, “Both of you state that you would punish businesses that hire illegal immigrants.  Lets say you hire a contractor to do some work on your house, and the contractor brings over illegal immigrants to work.  What would you do?  Would you call immigration? Would you allow them to work? What would you do?”  Come on, give me a break.   Like you can tell someone is an illegal immigrant just by observation.  She didn’t even clarify the question by stating that the contractor told you he hired illegal immigrants.  And if it’s an issue that that don’t speak English, that’s a weak argument because there are plenty of legal immigrants that do not speak English.
  • I learned that Dallas Cowboys radio voice Brad Sham has a cameo in the Oliver Stone movie W.  He plays a reporter at a press conference of all things.
  • MoOM – The Museum of Online Museums
  • Strip club offers seniors free flu shots.  Article
  • Super Bowl tickets are expensive, no telling what they will be when the Super Bowl comes to North Texas.
  • Dallas ISD continues to disappoint.  For those of you that don’t know, because of an accounting error, they are short $84 million and had to lay off teachers.  Notices were announced yesterday, and the news coverage was just heartbreaking, especially seeing the young students crying.  Just think, at one time people went to teaching for the job security.
    • Posted in Personal | 2 Comments

    Baylor University backs off plan offering perks to retake SAT

    Baylor University, facing sharp criticism for paying already-admitted students to retake the SAT and try to boost their scores, said Thursday it “goofed” and would probably end the practice.

    The school in Waco, Texas, offered enrolling students a $300 bookstore credit for retaking the college entrance test and $1,000 if their scores rose 50 points or more. The carrot prompted a wave of criticism, on campus and nationally, as an unethical bid to boost the school’s rankings.

    Full Article

    Posted in Texas | 1 Comment

    Say it ain’t so, Joe, I mean Sam

    “Joe the Plumber,” the Toledo, Ohio, man whose complaints about Barack Obama’s tax plan were featured in the final presidential debate, owes the state of Ohio almost $1,200 in back income taxes.

    According to records on file with the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, the state filed a tax lien against Samuel J. Wurzelbacher for $1,182.98 on Jan. 26, 2007, that is still active.

    Full Article

    Posted in Political | 3 Comments

    Last Titanic survivor sells mementoes to pay for care

    LONDON (AFP) – The last remaining survivor of the Titanic disaster is auctioning mementoes from the doomed liner to pay for her nursing home fees, a newspaper said Thursday.

    Millvina Dean was only two months old when the Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank in 1912, but now at the age of 96 she is struggling to make ends meet and hopes to make 3,000 pounds from the sale.

    Personal items going under the hammer include a 100-year-old suitcase filled with clothes given to her family by the people of New York after they arrived there following the catastrophe.

    Dean has lived in a nursing home for the last two years.

    “I was hoping to be here for two weeks after breaking my hip but I developed an infection and have been here for two years. I am not able to live in my home any more,” she told the Southern Daily Echo newspaper.

    “I am selling it all now because I have to pay these nursing home fees and am selling anything that I think might fetch some money,” she added. “The fees are quite expensive. The more money I can get from the auction the better.”

    Full Article

    Posted in Goofy | Comments Off on Last Titanic survivor sells mementoes to pay for care