RIP: George Carlin!

Wow. Pity he didn't survive the current administration. He had a history of heart problems and it finally claimed him, he had a fatal heart attack Sunday afternoon, he was 71. He had some pretty insightful and incisive stuff, in fact, one could say that he finally had a place for his stuff. He was the first host of Saturday Night Live in 1975, appeared on The Tonight Show 130 times, "He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989". "Carlin won four Grammy Awards for best spoken comedy album, and it was announced Tuesday that he would be awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor."

And here's something that I definitely did not know: he got his start in 1960 with George Burns! I wonder if there's footage of that around, I'm sure it will surface soon if it's available.

He'll be missed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/ap_on_en_tv/obit_george_carlin

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/06/comedian-george.html

An easy road rage conviction and other News of the Weird

Jessica Vasquez, 19, was arrested in Indianapolis in April for a road-rage assault, but swore she was only exercising self-defense. Her victim, an 81-year-old woman whom Vasquez said was driving too slow, had been punched in the face, yanked from her car and thrown to the ground, suffering leg fractures in 14 places. [Indianapolis Star, 5-1-08]

Somehow I don't think the judge or jury will have to debate this one for very long


Among the items on the menu for world leaders who met in June in Rome to discuss the crisis in world hunger: pasta with a sauce of pumpkin and shrimp, veal rolls, pastry puffs with corn and mozzarella, cheese mousse, Parmesan risotto, ragout of veal with legumes and zucchini pie, washed down with fine Italian wines. [Washington Post-AP, 6-4-08]

They should have been fed MREs or given something on the order of 500 kcals a day during the conference. I've eaten MREs, they're not too bad.


Hardcore Ironies: (1) The prominent Texas personal injury attorney Brian Loncar, whose ubiquitous TV ads offer motorists a "strong arm" if they've been hurt by another driver's negligence, landed in critical condition after a Dallas accident caused, said police, when Loncar's 2008 Bentley failed to yield to an emergency vehicle and was struck by the speeding fire engine. [Dallas Morning News, 5-16-08]

A Lynnwood, Wash., mother has been leading a fanciful campaign to pressure an Urban Outfitters store to remove "sexual"-type books from its shelves, such as Pornogami ("Paper-Folding for Adults"). The mother's surname closely resembles an acronym familiar to prurient young men: Marci Milfs. [Everett Herald, 5-5-08]


Least Competent Criminals

Judgment-Challenged: Howard Shanholtzer was arrested in Garden Grove, Calif., in May in connection with stolen security cameras. Figuring that police might be looking for his white Mitsubishi pickup truck they probably saw on surveillance video, Shanholtzer allegedly stole another pickup, but for some reason, it was another white Mitsubishi. [Orange County Register, 5-24-08]

Wesley Jumper, 36, and Shawn Stewart, 36, were arrested in Charles County, Md., in April and charged with running out of a CVS store with about $500 worth of soap and shampoo. Their easy-to-spot getaway vehicle was the Good Humor ice cream truck Stewart works from at his day job. [Washington Post, 5-2-08]


Bright Ideas

A new stand appeared at the Corvallis (Ore.) Farmers Market in the last week of May, manned by Jeff Oliver, 21, lifelong resident of Oregon. His "Meet a Black Guy" booth let him mingle with shoppers and have their pictures taken with him as he tried, he said, to promote racial understanding and break stereotypes. "Corvallis is not a very diverse place," he said. [Corvallis Gazette Times, 6-1-08]


News of the Weird: proving that not only is the world a stranger place than we think it is, it's a stranger place than we can think it is.