SNIPPETS

AUGUST 27,  2010

(Reuters) - While most travelers flock to Mexico to sip margaritas on white-sand beaches, a hardy few choose lesser-known tourist sites where they are chased down by immigration agents or risk their lives in dangerous slums.

I don't want to sound competitive, but anyone in Arizona can get those thrills by slipping into their car and heading south.

AUGUST 26,  2010

NEW YORK, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A New York comedian said he is spending five days barricaded in his bathroom to kick his addiction to the Internet.  Mark Malkoff, 34, said he is filming his quest to spend 5 days offline in the loo and the video will be available to watch Sept. 12 at MyDamnChannel.com, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.

I want to assure you this is not one of our readers.

AUGUST 25, 2010

From the Washington Post:  Ready to feel old? Most of the students in this year’s freshmen class were born in 1992. College professors will have to review their cultural references to figure out which ones their young whippersnappers will understand.

In other words, they were born after Johnny Carson said his last "good night."  They were born after Reagan.  They have always known e-mail.  And this is very depressing.

AUGUST 24, 2010

Washington (CNN) -- Shirley Sherrod, who received an apology after being forced to resign from the Agriculture Department in July, declined an offer Tuesday to serve as the agency's deputy director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach.  The newly created position was designed to improve the department's civil rights efforts and image nationwide.  Sherrod said she also turned down an offer to return to her previous position as the department's director of rural development for Georgia.

I'm sure there are many unemployed middle-management people in this country who would love one of those jobs.  This woman is a self-interested egomaniac.  Maybe she's waiting for someone to make her life story into a musical.

AUGUST 23, 2010

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - The misuse of one little vowel frustrates a lot of Nevadans who get irritated by the mispronunciation of the state's name - using an "ah" instead of "a."  Outgoing Assemblyman Harry Mortenson is proposing more tolerance. The Las Vegas Democrat is working on a resolution for the 2011 legislative session to make the "Ne-VAH-da" pronunciation equally acceptable to the one with the short "a."

You think this will rival the Emancipation Proclamation? 

AUGUST 22,  2010

SPRING HILL, Fla., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- It took a while to get going, but 101-year-old Mimi Rosenthal now has her third tattoo, courtesy of a Florida tattoo artist.  This one went on her left arm, and next time she might get one on her butt, she said in an interview in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

Why?

AUGUST 21, 2010

SOUTHLAKE, Texas (AP) - A Texas teenager who broke curfew is headed for a reluctant adventure in baby-sitting.  Robert Rausch placed an advertisement offering his daughter's free baby-sitting services in the community newspaper in Southlake, a wealthy suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth.  The advertisement names Rausch's 16-year-old-daughter and says, "Want a FREE BABYSITTER for a night out?" It explains that she is in trouble for missing her curfew and offers 30 hours of free baby-sitting.

I'll bet this kid turns out very well.