We already know the Japanese are among the world's leaders in strangely suggestive products. Now there's this...sleep aid.
These people need to die in a fire
So you can get this new Liberian non-circulating $20 bill (worth less than US$1) that "commmemorates" 9/11 (in part by showing the denomination of the bill in two parts...because 9+11=20 after all). Then the National Collectors Mint decides to cover it with silver leaf and sell it for "face value".
Last July, a North Caronlina resident complained about her license plate starting with WTF after her grandchildren told her its common Internet meaning. North Carolina will now be issuing free replacement plates on request for anyone offended.
And finally, a 2005 story about how someone in Germany was going around and putting little flags with W's face on them in piles of dog poop. The article notes that authorities were a bit uncertain what they could have done about this, as "there is no law against using feces as a flag stand and the federal constitution is vague on the issue. " (Probably NSFW, has picture of dog poop.)
“Notes from the floor of ALA. Number one, the place is huge and has cool stuff. Number two, we've picked up an amazing amount of swag. Thankfully, much of this swag has been in the form of totebags for carrying all of the other swag. Number three, ALA gets mad props for having a bag check area. My shoulders thank them. Number four, if I ever do this I'm bringing a pair of coconut halves with me for the period of time until I can get to bag check. Number five, I have found out that there exists a movie about curling called Men With Brooms. I must find a copy. That's it. Bye.”
Labor Dispute! So Teresa and I leave the hotel to go get some lunch. As we pass by the Doubletree, we see that there's one of those giant "Labor Dispute! Shame!" banners out front. As we're walking back from lunch, we see a similar banner being set up in front of our hotel. Bemused, we stop off at the lobby and ask if they can say anything about what's going on. The desk clerk hands us a flyer, which reads as follows: In case you were wondering... ...why people are passing out flyers in front of the hotel.
The carpenter's union is protesting against one of the hotel's minority investors. The investor is building a hotel in San Diego, and they have chosen not to hire a contractor associated with the carpenter's union. The union is NOT protesting against our hotel, the management, or the employees.
We are excited to welcome all of our guests and look forward to providing you with warm and caring service during your stay.
Well, I guess I don't need to worry about whether the staff is going to walk out.
Taking a step back, I have an issue with the whole "labor dispute banner" thing. It's fine as far as it goes, but the complete lack of either additional information on the banner or a simple website link means that people driving by have no way of knowing whether such a banner means "our employer beats us with sticks and wants us to pay for the sticks" or, as in this case "a minority owner is using non-union labor somewhere completely else." And I'd like to know this, because while I'm not fond of some of the unions out there, I recognize that many of them have served and continue to serve useful purposes. Logically, this is something the NLRB should handle...but if not them, somebody. Just a searchable database of labor disputes, with 500 words from labor and 500 words from management trying to lay out their positions.
Canada is looking at approving an international treaty that looks like it was written by the RIAA. (The best part is, treaties are apparently not subject to full parliamentary approval, so the government could actually do this all by itself.)
Not being offended trumps free speech
The article is somewhat biased, but there's enough actual quoting of the decision in question to make it clear that, no really, it is that messed up.
Parental authority? Wossat?
So...a twelve-year-old who was grounded took her dad to court...and won.
I think the decision is made... So Nala hasn't left the bedroom of her own accord in over two months. Teresa picked her up and carried her out here the other night; she started shaking as soon as they got past the bedroom door. She spends the day huddled under the bed, coming out only to eat or use the box. She spends at least some of the night on the bed...but we've not gone as much as a week lately without having to unexpectedly dump bedding in the laundry.
She's incontinent, arthritic, and mentally...Not The Same Cat. (And, lest we forget, at some point dying of cancer.)
She has no quality of life.
She goes in Thursday morning for what would normally be a checkup. Unless they have a miracle cure for most or all of her issues on hand, she's very likely not coming back.
“Uh, notes for future posts: let's see, movie reviews. Iron Man, Speed Racer, Prince Caspian. Goofy Prince Caspian fanart idea. Morning radio and listening more to the Spanish language stuff than to Adam bloody Carolla. Update on the cat. Oh, yeah, Mesa drivers, gotta rant about Mesa drivers. Right.”
Dry-cleaning...a pick and a pan So about a month back, Nala peed on Teresa's (nylon & polyester) trenchcoat. I volunteered to take it down to the drycleaner...and promptly forgot about it. Wednesday of last week, I get a call from her asking if I've taken it in. No. Turns out she'd *just* been told that she was going to have to do a presentation *the next morning* for the kids at her school trying to sell them on her proposed summer day-camp activity. Said activity is a mystery camp, which she pitches wearing the aforementioned trenchcoat. I somehow have to get this trenchcoat cleaned by not much after 7am...and it's already near 6pm. I call the drycleaner I've used lately...they can't do it that fast. Crap.
I pull out the phone book and spot the ad for One Hour Martinizing. It claims one-hour service on items brought in in the morning...and they open at 6am. So I call them, and the guy on the other end confirms that yes, if I bring the item in at 6am, it'll be done by 7am. Sweet! It then occurs to me that I can avoid getting up at 5:30am to drop that off if I can get the coat there before they close at 6:30pm. I make it by 8 minutes, aided by having used it before and thus knowing where it was. (They're the ones who failed to get the cat vomit out of the wool blanket a few years back.) And suddenly, no, they can't get it done before 8am. Despite what they told me over the phone not 20 minutes previously. I am...displeased. (When I call her, Teresa isn't any happier.)
For lack of anything better to do, I head back over to our we've-used-them-recently drycleaners, 5 Star Cleaners. (These are the ones who succeeded in getting the cat vomit out of the wool blanket without damaging it.) The girl behind the counter calls the owner...who allows as how he could get it done by 7am. Ecstatic, I hand over the coat. When Teresa picks it up the next morning, the owner explains that he hadn't managed to get it completely done, but that it should be done enough for her purposes. (I get to live!) Because it's not done, he charges her half...and invites her to bring it back to get it finished (for the other half of the money). We did that this past week, and the finished coat is immaculate.
So yeah...no question about who we're going to from now on.
More weird spam In the past few weeks, I've gotten two more noteworthily odd spams. The first appeared to be a fairly standard Nigerian scam...except it claimed the money was in Japan. Last I checked, Japan isn't the sort of lawless place where you can just be disappeared without anyone caring.
As for the second...well, it's not as good as the death threat one, but it's still pretty amusing:
“If I hadn't of course already known that I was in Sun City. I would've been able to tell just by noticing that that strip Mall that I drove past, had a little place called the Oxygen Store. Definitely a specialize kind of retail.”
“Apologies if this duplicates anyone else's post. I haven't checked my friends list today. If you are in the East Valley in Phoenix and you are going to Tempe Market place to drop off your taxes do not attempt to get in the line of cars that is on the east side on Rio Salado. Go past that turn in at Penny Lane which is the 2nd entrance. Park over by Bevmo, they've got a little tent up in the corner of the parking lot there. Do not try to wait in your car. The line is literally no exaggeration a mile long. 'K bye.”
Ever driven past those zoning hearing signs and wondered what was going to be discussed, but certainly weren't about to stop, park, walk over, and read the signs? The city of Chandler has solved this by putting zoning hearing notices on a map-based web site.
“So I'm coming back from Anon site and I crossed back into Gilbert, and I glance at the city limit sign and I see that Gilbert is sister cities with 2 other places -- some place in China, and I didn't catch the other one at all -- as I said, I <i>glanced</i> at the sign... and I started to wonder. How do you become sister cities with some place? Do you just, you know, throw a dart at the map and then call up the mayor of the other city and go, hey, you wanna be sister cities? Or is there like an international, you know, matching thing -- you know, eSistercities? Do you, y'know, match it on 27 points of, 27 axes of compatibility or something? How does that work?”