Oddities and Humor

Orange screwdriver...

vodka and orange juice

Now you know how my mind works..

I'm in the 2 percent, Edgar. Instead of coming up with a tool and a color, my reaction was, "Why are they asking me about a tool and a color?"

You and me both, 'Boita. I asked the very same question.

Then I said 'blue shovel.'

Everybody is clued before they begin. Probably not the same as taking it unawares.

Airline passengers asked for extra cash for fuel


Passengers will not be allowed to leave for Britain unless they pay 10,000 rupees (about $200) each, Bhupinder Kandra, the airline's majority shareholder, told the BBC.

It was not clear if the passengers were stranded on the plane or at the airport.

But that incident came just days after 180 other travelers flying the same route were stranded on a Comtel plane at a layover in Vienna until they could raise more than 20,000 pounds ($31,000) to fund the rest of the flight to Birmingham, England.

http://www.kansas.com/2011/11/17/2106122/airline-passengers-asked-for-extra.html#ixzz1dzDkQ1C1

I thought that by now there would be a thread on why Jesus would want to kill the president. Perhaps there is, but I just missed seeing it. If you know of one, link please.

rich people are so weird, ed...

"Court documents filed in a legal battle over the $400 million estate of Huguette Clark shed light on how the reclusive and eccentric mining heiress--who died in May at 104 after spending the last 22 years of her life in a hospital--spent her fortune. "

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/hugette-clark-reclusive-copper-heiress-spent-her-fortune-165316792.html

"Au Nain Bleu, a doll and toy shop in Paris, was paid $2.5 million between 1997 and 2006. A friend of Clark's said her dolls were "her closest companions."

I once knew a woman that thought her dolls were her real children.

A Massachusetts fisherman pulled in an 881-pound tuna this week only to have the federal authorities take it away. It sounds like a libertarian twist on the classic novella by Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, but for Carlos Rafael, the saga is completely true.

Rafael and his crew were using nets to catch bottom-dwellers when they inadvertently snagged the giant tuna. However, federal fishery enforcement agents took control of the behemoth when the boat returned to port. The reason for the seizure was procedural: While Rafael had the appropriate permits, fishermen are only allowed to catch tuna with a rod and reel.

It would seem that unlike the fictional New England shark hunters in Jaws, Rafael didn't need a bigger boat, just a better permit.


In an interview with the Standard-Times of New Bedford, Rafael disputes the claims from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) enforcement division that the humungous tuna was trawled from the bottom of the Atlantic. "They didn't catch that fish on the bottom," he said. "They probably got it in the mid-water when they were setting out and it just got corralled in the net. That only happens once in a blue moon."

And while Rafael is denied the mother of all fish stories, the federal impoundment of his catch also means he's probably losing out on a giant payday. A 754-pound tuna recently sold for nearly $396,000. NOAA regulators do not share any of the proceeds from the fish's eventual sale with a fisherman found in violation of federal rules.

"They said it had to be caught with rod and reel," a frustrated Rafael said. "We didn't try to hide anything. We did everything by the book. Nobody ever told me we couldn't catch it with a net."

Rafael says he has meticulously prepared for a giant catch like this, purchasing 15 tuna permits over the past four years for his groundfish boats. He even immediately called a "bluefin tuna hot line" (yes, such things exist) to report his catch. "I wanted to sell the fish while it was fresh instead of letting it age on the boat," he said. "It was a beautiful fish."

Proceeds of the sale from the fish will be held in an account until the case is resolved, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Law Enforcement. "The matter is still under investigation," said Monica Allen, deputy director with NOAA Fisheries public affairs. "If it's determined that there has been a violation, the money will go into the asset forfeiture fund."

Which should mean that he's entitled to keep the fish. The authorities were remiss in allowing anyone to go fishing who had not been given a copy of all the regulations and signed that they had read and understood them. An important principle of law is that it has to be known and understood by those it is applied to. It doesn't matter whether he did read them and understand them as long as he as signed that he has. In which case the authorities are in the right.

Not otherwise. But with $400 grand at stake it might be a different matter if his father is not a Congressman or a 5 star general.

It's the workers wot gets it in the neck.

Does the AFF pay the overheads encountered when running the AFF. Or will the offices of the Mass. branch be given a makeover? Or will the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) enforcement division go into action for a share to uprate its own offices?

I don't know the law well enough to discuss every nuance like that.

if you're driving the turnpike in PA, don't drive in the black stuff...

http://news.yahoo.com/sticky-goo-pa-turnpike-disables-over-100-cars-120956851.html

"PITTSBURGH (AP) — A flood of gooey muck dropped from a tanker truck disabled more than 100 cars and damaged an unknown number of other vehicles along a nearly 40-mile stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, officials said."

One more reason to oppose the death penalty.


Convicted Murderer Criticizes Governor For Giving Him A Reprieve
www.huffingtonpost.com
SALEM, Ore. -- A condemned inmate who was scheduled to be executed next month is slamming Gov. John Kitzhaber for giving him a reprieve, saying the governor didn't have the guts to carry out the execution. Two-time murderer Gary Haugen had voluntarily given up his legal challenges, saying he wants t.....

Wolf Pack Fails To Raise Orphaned Infant
onion.com
GRAND MARAIS, MNA pack of timberwolves failed to adopt and raise a human infant abandoned in Pat Bayle State Forest, local rangers reported.....

"Whoseafraida" the wolf...

http://news.yahoo.com/wandering-wolf-inspires-hope-dread-094012216.html

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A young wolf from Oregon has become a media celebrity while looking for love, tracing a zigzag path that has carried him hundreds of miles nearly to California, while his alpha male sire and a sibling that stayed home near the Idaho border are under a death warrant for killing cattle.

Backcountry lodge owner Liz Parrish thinks she locked eyes with the wolf called OR-7 on the edge of the meadow in front of her Crystalwood Lodge, on the western shore of Upper Klamath Lake, and hopes someday she will hear his howls coming out of the tall timber...

I laughed at this, you've probably seen it, if not enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQpbzQ6gzs

I know just how those kids felt. I would have been devastated if some joker had pilfered my hard earned candy.