R.I. Couple Finds Rare Pear in Clam - NEWS - STRANGE - Comcast.net

RARE PEAR? R.I. Couple Finds Rare Pear in Clam - NEWS - STRANGE - Comcast.net: "R.I. Couple Finds Rare Pear in Clam"

Amazon.com: Opposites: a Beginner's Book of Signs:

I asked Brainbench for "Learning" for Presentation Skills at a beginning level. It sent me to this book on Amazon. A board book. A children's board book. Sigh. Amazon.com: Opposites: a Beginner's Book of Signs

Telegraph | News | Reclaim Hallowe'en as Lite-Nite, says bishop

Telegraph | News | Reclaim Hallowe'en as Lite-Nite, says bishop: "The Bishop of Bolton, the Rt Rev David Gillett, says that Hallowe'en was not originally an occult celebration but has picked up 'dangerous' traits over the centuries." But later in the article he admits the damn holiday has pagan roots. The article doesn't point out any difference. But as the referring page pointed out to me, "'tis the season for embarrassing hysterics over occultism and the cruel, intimidating tactics of devil-worshipping trick-or-treaters." Lite-nite? Jesus!

This came from the back of a flyer for a new "Family Christian Store" nearby. Honest to Buddha, I am struck dumb.

In case you can't make it out, the top caption says, "Meet Bob & Larry." The bottom one: "Meet Horned Avenger."

Couldn't make this stuff up.

washingtonpost.com

Front page. Top hed: "Rita Slams Ashore..." Teaser lead: "With 120 mph winds in the region, authorities say the worst has probably yet to come."

Copy editor oversleep today?

Pavilions - 2005 National Book Festival (Library of Congress)

For shame! From the National Book Festival website, the following typo: Pavilions - 2005 National Book Festival (Library of Congress): "Curatorial Viewpoint: C. Ford Peatross, Library of Congress Curator of Architecture, Design, and Engineering, will be in the pavilion showing visitors how they can again online access to unique drawings and other visual materials featured in his new book, Capital Drawings: Architectural Designs for Washington D.C., from the Library of Congress. The book will be available in the book sales tents on the festival grounds. Please see the site map for tent locations."

Hasidic man upset over image

First, I thought, did you say one point six million? Now I'm not so sure how I feel about this. If it were my face, I'd want to have been asked for permission before some guy, no matter how renowned an artist, used my image to make many thousands of dollars. But it would have to be a spectacularly bad image of me for "severe mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment" to ensue. Interesting case. Hasidic man upset over image

Press Wrestles With Grammatically Incorrect 'Virgin'

Just add the freaking hyphen! For crying out loud, life is too short. Press Wrestles With Grammatically Incorrect 'Virgin'

Fun at the Post

This was the left column on the Washington Post's front page a little while ago:

Opponents of the evacuation of the West Bank settlement of Sanur set fires today
to slow troops enforcing the order. (AP)

--------------------------------------------------------

Kids Return to 'New' Campus
Latino youth advocates beautify grounds, seek
to tamp down gang influence at a Md. school.

>>>>>>

For a minute there, I thought, with all the stabbings lately, one was somehow related to the other.

Note to Post editors: Try to remember what pics you're running at the top of the column, eh?

News Story - Verizon Online

Here it is, the biggest injustice one can do to our daughters (yep, bigger even than letting them drive!): News Story - Verizon Online: "'To allow a teenager to purchase the morning-after pill in the same manner as she would purchase cough drops or bubble gum is the biggest injustice one can do to our daughters and granddaughters,' state Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long had written in a June 24 letter to the governor. 'Governor Pataki, please protect our daughters with your veto pen.' "

U.S. Alleges Voting Boas in Boston

Voting boas? In Boston? That would be something to see. News Story - Verizon Online

From Srebrenica to Baghdad - What the genocide taught us about intervention. By Christopher Hitchens

War crimes. Plus damn good writing. Just go read it. From Srebrenica to Baghdad - What the genocide taught us about intervention. By Christopher Hitchens

Writers Store: The Three Paragraph Rule - An Excerpt from "How to Write a Great Query Letter" by Noah T. Lukeman

"Their might be spontaneity, but their won't be chaos."

"It is nearly certain that his manuscript, too, will be longer than it needs to be, less reigned in. "

Yep. These two fine sentences are from an aritcle by a bigshot agent about how to write a "great" query letter. Hmm. You think Lukeman recommends proofreading? This kind of error really bugs me.

Especially when said article is an excerpt from an e-book Lukeman wants me to buy. An 80-page e-book. For $24.95. Discounted from $40. I'm not making this up. Check it out.

At 3 egregious errors in about 1,000 words of sample . . . no, thanks. And Mr. Lukeman would say the same thing if I sent him a query with "their" used instead of "there."

News Story - Verizon Online

First Black Woman in Georgia? News Story - Verizon Online: "Ga. Justice Is State's First Black Woman "

Seen in the Washington Post

"'The Washington Times yesterday inadvertently published a photograph of D.C. City Administrator Robert C. Bobb misidentified as the late soul singer Marvin Gaye.' -- Wednesday's Washington Times."

Fade to Black-On Line Magazine

There are no words for Telly Savalas performing "Loving Feeling." Heaven help us. Also on this site, Greg Morris, Phyllis Diller, and more. Fade to Black-On Line Magazine

AP Wire | 06/02/2005 | Saudi Arabia mulls ban on women drivers

OH MY GOD!! No wonder the U.S. is such a mess! It's women behind the wheel. AP Wire | 06/02/2005 | Saudi Arabia mulls ban on women drivers: "'Driving by women leads to evil,' Munir al-Shahrani wrote in a letter to the Al-Watan daily. 'Can you imagine what it would be like if her car broke down? She would have to seek help from men.'"

Amnesty International Report 2005 - Amnesty International

Here we go. Just like every other year. Amnesty International Report 2005 - Amnesty International: "During 2004, the human rights of ordinary men, women and children were disregarded or grossly abused in every corner of the globe."

capnwacky.com | Unfortunate Star Wars Costumes

This is the first site I've posted to both my regular blogs. The "Stop It" in this case is purely dramatic, because I adore being amused by some of these people and comments. Keep going until you see the very worst costume at the end. capnwacky.com | Unfortunate Star Wars Costumes

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Opinion / Op-ed / Why Islam is disrespected

I have to say, uh, "Ditto." Just Stop It, Muslim World! In Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Opinion / Op-ed / Why Islam is disrespected, Jeff Jacoby wrote: "Then there was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who announced at a Senate hearing that she had a message for 'Muslims in America and throughout the world.' And what was that message? That decent people do not resort to murder just because someone has offended their religious sensibilities? That the primitive bloodlust raging in Afghanistan and Pakistan was evidence of the Muslim world's dysfunctional political culture?
No: Her message was that 'disrespect for the Holy Koran is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be, tolerated by the United States.'
Granted, Rice spoke while the rioting was still taking place and her goal was to reduce the anti-American fever. But what 'Muslims in America and throughout the world' most need to hear is not pandering sweet-talk. What they need is a blunt reminder that the real desecration of Islam is not what some interrogator in Guantanamo might have done to the Koran. It is what totalitarian Muslim zealots have been doing to innocent human beings in the name of Islam. It is 9/11 and Beslan and Bali and Daniel Pearl and the USS Cole. It is trains in Madrid and schoolbuses in Israel and an 'insurgency' in Iraq that slaughters Muslims as they pray and vote and line up for work. It is Hamas and Al Qaeda and sermons filled with infidel-hatred and exhortations to 'martyrdom.'
But what disgraces Islam above all is the vast majority of the planet's Muslims saying nothing and doing nothing about the jihadist cancer eating away at their religion. It is Free Muslims Against Terrorism, a pro-democracy organization, calling on Muslims and Middle Easterners to 'converge on our nation's capital for a rally against terrorism' -- and having only 50 people show up.
Yes, Islam is disrespected. That will only change when throngs of passionate Muslims show up for rallies against terrorism, and when rabble-rousers trying to gin up a riot over a defiled Koran can't get the time of day." [emphasis mine]
Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is jacoby@globe.com.

Methamphetamine Use at Work Slows

Not only is this hed stupid, it's inaccurate, as the use of meth hasn't slowed, the growth of meth use slowed. Shame on the Post. Methamphetamine Use at Work Slows: "Methamphetamine Use at Work Slows"

News Story - Verizon Online

News Story - Verizon Online: "The 3-foot-high cardboard box was discovered by a granite bench outside the John C. Kluczynski federal building " Clever bench.

US News Headlines - Verizon Online

US News Headlines - Verizon Online: "Longtime St. Louis Library Clerk Dies at 88, Then Leaves Behind Gift of $350,000 to Buy Books " Again. The AP has cornered the life after death story.

News Story - Verizon Online

News Story - Verizon Online: "ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Four members of a notorious street gang killed a pregnant teenage gang member because she later became a federal informant, a prosecutor said Monday." Um, later? After she was killed? C'mon, AP!

News Story - Verizon Online

News Story - Verizon Online: Another from the AP: "'It's just really quiet here,' said David Merriman, whose parents live about a mile from the McGowans. 'A lot could happen right next store and you wouldn't even know it.' "

The New York Times > Week in Review > Episode VII: Revenge of the Writers

Do not let writers talk. Another example, this one from a British SF author, Richard K. Morgan. The New York Times > Week in Review > Episode VII: Revenge of the Writers: "'We're starting to look inward, rather than outward,' Mr. Morgan said. 'There are exciting and scary things going to be happening in our bodies.'"

Society's Toxins, Caught on Tape

William Raspberry's column on that handcuffed 5-year-old in Florida contains an interesting reference I want to write about a little later today, if I can find the time between working on my novel, making earrings, and taking the backup child out to buy Nationals' hats this afternoon. Meanwhile, here's the paragraph that annoys me:

Society's Toxins, Caught on Tape: "My guess is that if a child bore scars of physical abuse, we'd move to intervene. But psychic wounds leave scars, too. Is there no way for the community to intervene to minimize them? Can't we provide counseling -- private counseling, not counseling that would be seen as serving the schools systems' interest -- for parent and child? Can't we look at ourselves (as so few of us did during my own childhood) and ask what godawful messages we are sending to kids whose parents are too poor, whose hair too nappy, skin too black, families too disreputable to warrant much respect from teachers -- or protection from the rest of us?"

Washington Nationals : News : Washington Nationals News

Washington Nationals : News : Washington Nationals News Bylined Bill Ladson/MLB.com: :
"'Tell all the Nationals fans who come out there to put their red [clothes] on,' Robinson said.

"When asked if that included President George W. Bush, who plans to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, Robinson said, 'Well, he can where a red tie. I know I can't tell him what to do.' "

Shame on Major League Baseball.

A Little Mystery Solved: Boats Built the Pyramids!

From an education site, no less:
"When building a pyramid, boats carried the stones up and down the river."

Critic Unsatisfied--Another AP Hed

This headline suggests there's one critic of Donald Rumsfeld's lack of accountability. Shame on AP. Again. Signed, the Unknown Copy Editor.

"Critic Unsatisfied by Prison Abuse Probe "

News or Painfully Obvious? Another AP Hedache

"Number of U.S. Serial Killers Unknown"

Today's ESL (Sub-)Headline (AP)

"Police Find Vehicle of Salon Owner Day After He Was Stabbed to Death With Two Clients"

The Daily Whim: Democracy on the March

In The Daily Whim: Democracy on the March PhotoDude writes this:
"Even Bin Laden must see that the next step in escalation against the insurgency won't come from US forces. If they keep killing Shiites, you'll see thousands reformed into militias, and they'll deal with the insurgency in ways US forces never would. Now that most Sunnis have rejected Zarqawi as well, I doubt we'd see the civil war so many think would follow in that circumstance, indeed, one of Zarqawi's goals. It seems clear that he has overplayed his hand, and will probably be lucky to get out of Iraq alive.
"Yet Bin Laden wants him to go after the US. With a country full of loose weapons and willing recruits, the largest attacks Zarqawi has been able to mount in Iraq have been car bombings. Deadly, to be sure. Terrorizing, indeed. But you're going to have to bring a whole lot more to the party, Sparky, if you want to take on The Great Satan."
Thanks, Reid

Today's Obvious Headline

Experts: BTK Suspect Lived Double Life

Why?

42.