Friday, March 29, 2013

When Pigs Fly



Crabby Pants and Reporter Cheryl P. on the hunt for odd news

In a Pig's Eye 

Yesterday I woke up to hear a strange report on  the local Kansas City news. A gas station attendant found  an insulated  medical cooler containing two eyeballs that had been  left on top of a trash can at a Conoco gas station. Yes, you read that correctly...eyeballs.  Two eyeballs packed in ice in a cooler just sitting there.  Needless to say, this caused a bit of a panic.  Who leaves their eyeballs at the gas station?

It turns out that two men in a blue Toyota with Nebraska plates left them there, according to the security cameras.   Still, the investigators were concerned that perhaps these were supposed to be at an eye bank and that there might be some urgency involved in figuring out where they belonged. However, police called all the area hospitals and transplant centers and none were expecting deliveries of eyes. 

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Heaven It's Not

Springtime in the Midwest
I am cranky!  Yes, today is definitely a day for Crabby Pants to visit here at TAOBC. I could blame it on the weather.  A foot of snow in late March didn't help improve my mood, but actually it is a combination of smaller annoyances, which I will get to shortly.

There was a movie...although for the life of me I can't remember which one...that espoused the idea that Heaven was a place where the things you loved doing  in life would be yours for eternity. Does anyone remember which movie that was in?  Darn, that is going to nag at me trying to remember where that came from.  Anyway...if Heaven would actually turn out to be spending Eternity doing all the things we love to do,  then  Hell must be doing the things we hate doing...forever...and ever...never ceasing...into Eternity.

Cheerful thought don't you think?

Friday, March 22, 2013

Are You Judging Me?

Did you know that no one has ever come up with a perfect bracket for the NCAA Men's basketball tournament....or if they did they kept it a secret.  No...we would of heard about it.

As it turns out, according to Jeff Bergen, a mathematical professor at DePaul University the chances of picking a perfect bracket is 9.2 quintillion.  That's 18 zeros.

Of course, to win an office pool, you only have to do better than the next guy.  That is what Crabby Pants is opting for.


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

I Can't Believe You Said That



Over the last few days, I have seen several news reports and read a number articles on the subject of anonymous comments left on the Internet.  Nearly every web site has a comment section at the bottom so that the readers can weigh in on the subject being discussed.  The comment sections are meant to illicit open communication and the sharing of ideas.  Sounds like a good thing, doesn't it?


HHHMMMMM...maybe not.
 
First of all... there are all types of forums, blogs, and news outlets that offer spaces to leave comments.  I love ...yes LOVE comment sections.  Some of the best reading on any given web site are the comments.
Even if you are a person that prefers not to weigh in because you are uncomfortable writing your opinion down, by all means read the comments. Of those that DO comment, there seems to be a wide disparity in how they comment.

On my blog, for example, nearly every comment is polite and has a legitimate point of view.  Often your comments have swayed  my opinion on an issue.Of course, there would be times, I totally disagree with you as well. BUT...  Even when I don't agree with your viewpoint, I am always interested in your thoughts.  AND every once in a while there is some awful, hateful, obscene tidbit  that I just have to dump. (that is extremely rare)

Friday, March 15, 2013

Fortunes and Futures




Please Don't Be My Friend

 Misty VanHorn, of Sallisaw, Okla., was arrested for trying to sell her children on Facebook in order to get money to bail her boyfriend out of jail, CBS affiliate KWTV reports.


Police say the 22-year-old VanHorn tried to sell her children, ages 2 and 10 months, to an Arkansas woman via Facebook.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Time Has a Way Of Throwing It All In Your Face



 Thought Number One:  TIME is on my mind


It's that time a year again. Daylight Savings Time.  Only this time of year we lose an hour...yes...what feels like "it's 6 AM, right???"  is now "Oh, hell,. can it be 7:00 AM already??". It could be said that  DST and I have a love hate relationship and this time of year it's the hate part. While I bask in the change when I get to set my clock back an hour in Fall and have that hour all over again...to sleep as it's 2:00 AM, after all.  I curse the missing out on it.  I did a post way back when about   George Vernon Hudson  and the history of DST. (feel free to click on those links for more information)

This year was particularly bad as I have a virus that I can't seem to kick.  Having spent the last several days in bed, watching endless TV,, I couldn't  escape all the references to time...more specifically the passage of time.  After seeing all the assorted programs that are making me feel old, it appears that I can't afford to lose hours.Seriously, I want my HOUR back.

Friday, March 8, 2013

You Might Want to Rethink That

click to enlarge
This has been a busy week in the odd news category. A couple of the mainstream news items that I am sure you heard...of course you did...because it was reported over and over again... The TSA is now going to let passengers bring small pocket knives on board and 2 hockey sticks, or two golf clubs or 2 ski poles per person.  The TSA doesn't believe knives to be a threat  but you still have to keep your shampoo down to 3 ounces or less.  Then we all heard the chilling tape of the nurse that refused to administer CPR to a dying patient.  It came out that the woman apparently had a DNR order in place so, I believe that the nurse wasn't in the wrong.  It didn't make it any easier listening to the audio. I, for one, think I am going to recheck my "advanced directive" and make sure that everyone can and should, at least give it a shot, to save my life.  Yes, remember the broccoli  incident? Yes, the next time I aspirate on broccoli and try to die in the middle of a restaurant, I want CPR... the Heimlich Maneuver first, then CPR.  

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Name Shame




Thought Number One:  Should There Be Any Limits on What Parents Name a Child?


For the last decade or so a number of rather unique, if not down-right crazy, baby names have appeared on birth certificates all over the world.   That is especially true in the United States where there are no rules concerning what you name your child.  AND ...that, my readers, has led to some very creative parents hanging some very unfortunate names on their offspring.  What others might deem imaginative, the general populace may think of as weird.  Take for  example the names Lemonjello, Loser, or Hashtag.


Just last November, little baby girl Hashtag Jameson was born to parents that really love Twitter.  They probably Tweeted about the arrival of little Hashtag but they most assuredly updated their status on Facebook.  That is... the real Facebook.  Not the Facebook that is a little boy in Egypt.  When people hit the "Like" on Facebook,  let's hope that they were hitting the little blue button and not hitting the  little girl in Israel named Like.