Oddities and Humor

MediaShift . The Twitter Effect: How Social Media Changes the News Narrative | PBS
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The Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold, best known for the bleak and cynically fatalistic love poem, "Dover Beach," once described journalism as "literature in a hurry." As the news cycle has been spurred on by Twitter and social media, and quickene...d to the point of being nearly instantaneous, I can't help but wonder what Arnold would think of the 21st-century version of "in a hurry," and of the recent tendency toward brevity and first-person narration at the expense of both news value and style.

He would probably have said "To hell with thee all, my sweet slumber I hear call"

Electric-blue lobster caught off Prince Edward Island

A fisherman hauled an extremely rare blue lobster out of the waters off P.E.I.'s North Shore Wednesday.

Blair Doucette landed the lobster in North Rustico. Only about one in four million lobsters is blue. The colour is caused by a genetic mutation.


A blue lobster landed in North Rustico Wednesday.

Wendy Doucette, Blair's wife, told CBC News in 30 years of fishing he has never seen a blue lobster. They are considering donating the lobster to a local aquarium.

The last blue lobster reported caught off P.E.I. was in 2009.

I quit in '82, so approx 30 years ago. I've gotten to really enjoy breathing as time goes by. I was a heavy smoker when I did smoke.

My father smoked pipes and cigars, and my memories are fond re all that, especially of the duck grabbing his cigar when we stopped at a lake or pond along the Merritt Parkway for me to see the ducks (I haven't been back, don't know about whatever the waterway was).

On pot, I'll never smoke it again (didn't much in the first place, being pre baby boomer). I'm not opposed to brownies though, and I qualify for med marijuana if I wanted to exert myself. (Yawn)

Hot here. Frizzling.

Fair play to you for kicking the habit Osso, I've no real objection
to pot, it's just smoking I'm against. I lived in Amsterdam for years
so I grew accustomed to it as an everyday thing just like alcohol, in fact
I am in no doubt that drink has caused more grief and killed more
people than all the other drugs put together. I detest alcohol and what
it does to people.
On a lighter note there's no harm in a "Space-cake" is there
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTuXkfg_tc0

PS. lovely lobster, yum yum.

Sigh, I'm enough hard of hearing that I miss the words in a bunch of clips. But I could guess that one.

Reminds me of the one time I did have brownies. We had a tech who was a cause of much ruckus, and one day she brought in some brownies. We knew they had pot in them but we weren't concerned. On the other hand, I was working late by myself, and somewhere around 8 pm, long after I was supposed to be gone but still running a series of tests, I tried a brownie, and then another one, and then the last one.

Good grief.

(I did the tests over again.)

You were spaced out...

I suppose in fairness to alcohol, it doesn't do the damage, it's
the people who overdo it that cause the mayhem.
There's nothing wrong with a sociable beer or a glass of wine
with a meal, it's the binge drinkers that cause trouble.

I smoked corncob pipes as a boy. Made my own and filled them with harvested tobacco from the parents' buttes. They smiled, seeing how cute it was.

A woman who thought she had buried her mother 15 years ago got a shock when the old woman turned up alive and in Florida.

Grace Kivisto, 56, from Knox County, Illinois, had been told human remains found in a local brickyard in 1996 belonged to her mother, who disappeared over 40 years ago

But investigators using DNA analysis last week told her family the remains were not those of their missing relative.

Then, yesterday, detectives told Mrs Kivisto her missing mother had been found, alive and well, in Jacksonville, Florida.

She told WQAD.com: 'I was out gardening, and a detective came to tell me that they had found my mother. Alive!'



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2010201/I-buried-mother-15-years-ago--shes-turned-alive.html#ixzz1RHq5sbqf

Sorry, no photos available to go with story.

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Defecating postman keeps job

A Portland, Ore., mailman still has a job with the U.S. Postal Service despite making a stinky delivery on his route.

In April, a Portland homeowner took pictures of the postman as he defecated in a yard near some bushes in broad daylight.

The unidentified mailman was taken off an unpaid suspension and moved to a different route, a postal service official told local news station KOMO News on Friday.

Don Derfler saw the shocking act through his living room window.

"He started pulling his pants down and started defecating, and at that point I grabbed my camera and started to take pictures," Derfler told KGW-TV.

He was baffled by what he saw.

"This is how they respect our property?" Derfler said at the time. "It's just not right, and it's also a biohazard."

Dozy crook snared trying to turn off camera

HITCHING his way up a CCTV pole, this daft crook thought he would disable the camera and get away with his crime.

But instead, the bungling bandit gave police a clear shot of his face moments before disabling the device.



The lad, who is today being hunted after a dinghy was stolen from a boat yard in Blyth, hoped to conceal his identity after breaking into the yard with a pal.

But he was caught on camera clambering up the pole to reach up to the CCTV equipment.

The two thieves then helped themselves to a dinghy from the yard, and used it to get across the River Blyth from the Cambois side of the water on the south side to the north of the town.

Then after making their journey, they abandoned the boat and continued towards north Blyth on foot.

Police are today appealing for witnesses to the break-in, which happened between 4.20am and 4.30am on Saturday, June 19.

And they are asking the public to take a good look at the picture to see if they can help identify the crook.

Northumbria Police’s Blyth Neighbourhood Inspector Trevor Oakley said: “These two men have broken into the boat yard with the intention of stealing a boat in order to avoid the long walk round to North Blyth.

“Although the dinghy they stole was recovered, they have still committed an offence by breaking into the yard and by taking the boat.

“I'd appeal for anyone who recognises the man in the image to come forward and contact police.”

The dummy ought to have smashed the camera.

OR perhaps he should have worn a mask before he smashed the camera.

Or perhaps he ought to have backed up the pole.

hehe, You guys couldn't have been an accomplice! You're too bright!

A video even David would love.

97-Year-Old Dies Unaware Of Being Violin Prodigy
www.theonion.com
ROCKFORD, IL—Retired post office branch manager Nancy Hollander, 97, died at her home of natural causes Tuesday, after spending her life completely unaware that she was one of the most talented musicians of the past century and possessed the untapped ability to become a world-class violin virtuoso...

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/07/cant_hug_every_cat.html

That's funnier than the cat in a hat, tsar. Thanks for the smile.

Another oddity.

The son of a Baptist minister, Stan Freberg was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Pasadena, California. His traditional upbringing is reflected both in the gentle sensitivity that underpins his work (despite his liberal use of biting satire and parody) and in his refusal to accept alcohol and tobacco manufacturers as sponsors—an impediment to his radio career when he took over for Jack Benny on CBS radio.

Now the humor. (inspired by neco nomad)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBN5NyFSGzo&feature=related

I grew up listening to Stan Freberg, letty. My first record for my collection was by him. Unfortunately, my big brother borrowed it to take to school, then dropped it and broke it. 78s are fragile.