Category Archives: Gimme a Break

My whack neighborhood

Here’s a couple of photos from FortuneLand, to show you, the able reader, just how strange real life can be.
Chimera
See what happened here? Some fool prefers your average conifer to the locally prevalent deciduous trees, so they denuded a friendly pine and strung its balls (as it were) from this lowly bush. So they have unwittingly created a kind of hybrid tree, a chimera if you will. How insanely modern.

Fashion!
Here we see what happens when elitism goes horribly awry. These people have obviously spent a lot of money to inhabit this expensive lakeside home, and to purchase formidable statuary, and even more to have these very fashionable leather frocks custom made for that statuary. See how nicely they fit? Multiple fittings cost money too, you know. Let’s applaud this show of taste on Milwaukee’s East Side.

Donald, say it aint so

>Imagine this head bald<
http://www.hossli.com/2005_portfolio/images/DJT-Headshot-JPEG.jpg
“A lot of people want to see it shaved,” says Trump of hair

Irrelevance is a theme in FortuneLand of late. Pawn sees no point in even bothering to document the latest imbroglios and revelations coming out of the Bush administration, so his attention has drifted to irrelevant celebrities. In his latest act of radical irrelevance, Donald Trump has made a bet with another vastly irrelevant chap, World Wrestling Entertainment owner Vince McMahon. Whomever loses must lose their locks as well.

Couldn’t happen to two less relevant guys, or two worse heads of hair.

Trump has 50 percent chance of losing hair – CNN.com

Epilog: Trump won McMahon lost

Dobbsian rancor

We’re not big fans of Lou Dobbs here in Fortune Land, but you have to hand it to him when he revs up and spins out some really good rancor*. Here is the start of this week’s rant:

NEW YORK (CNN) — An incompetent attorney general, who says he wasn’t fully aware that nearly 10 percent of the U.S. attorneys who work for him throughout the country were being fired and permitted the 110,000-person Justice Department that he leads to give inaccurate information at best, or simply lie about it at worst, to the Congress and the American people, has the full confidence of the president who’s lost the confidence of most people.

And this is what passes for a big-time, dramatic, historic constitutional crisis in 21st century America? You’ve got to be kidding. This is the most partisan, politically driven administration in history, and we’re all supposed to be surprised by its conduct and motivation in the firing of these U.S. attorneys? Please.

*Much like leaving dog shit on a ceiling fankaya_ceiling_fan.JPG

From incomptetence to ineptitude, Justice losing its head

Justice looses its head

Quietly, while the city around them roils over the revelations that Justice Department officials have lied to congress and carried out a political purge of US Attorneys, White House officials and others with ties to the administration have been trying to figure out just who they can get confirmed once AG Alberto Gonzales gets his head lopped off. And whose name is being floated as a replacement for the soon to be axed AG A.G? Why it is none other than former Judge and US Attorney, and current Secretary of Homeland Security and proven incompetent, Michael Chertoff. The man who, with help from “Brownie,” oversaw the conversion of a large portion of the American Gulf Coast into a replica of a third-world country.

Yeah, that’s what our Justice Department needs, there’s been just too much integrity and competence there up ’til now, let’s let Mikey fix it!

More here, at Politico .

Hounded out: Fur and loathing in the dog world

Labradoodle“Dorgis, labrodoodles, spoodles – crossbreeds have never been so popular, but they won’t be winning Best in Show at Crufts any time soon. As the world’s biggest canine contest gets under way, Ed Caesar laps up the controversy that’s got Britain’s dog lovers in a tailspin”
So begins the account of this prestigious dog show in The Independent today. Just love the headline! Raz has written before about those wicked cool Schnoodles

Headline Story, Page 1, Above the Fold!!

Steve Epting/Marvel Comics

Captain America Is Dead;
National Hero Since 1941

By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES
Published: March 8, 2007

Captain America, a Marvel Entertainment superhero, is fatally shot by a sniper in the 25th issue of his eponymous comic, which arrived in stores yesterday. The assassination ends the sentinel of liberty’s fight for right, which began in 1941.

Yes children, this is what found its way onto the front page of The New York TImes for a while at least, at the electronic edition

Elsewhere on the web tonight, “A former U.S. Navy sailor is arrested on terrorism and espionage charges.” shouts CNN, it font red with pent up emotion.

Wot?

Reflecting upon things British today, having just completed my application for a British passport, I was pleased to be led by Lady Wit to this fine compiled List of British words not widely used in the United States over at Wikipedia (the best excuse to bunk off in a long time).
But some apparently want to merge this list, which focuses primarily, it seems, on vulgar and colorful phrases (Pawn’s favorite kind) with the more urbane and staid List of words having different meanings in British and American English. Pawn has just one word for that: Boring!

12-step program for e-mail addiction stumbles

By way of Network World’s Paul McNamara comes this chestnut
of a blog post in response to a Rueters story Twelve-steps to curing e-mail addiction. I’m rather skeptical of technology addictions in general, but in this case the cure is arguably worse than the symptoms. Check out these steps, like #2: “Commit to keeping your inbox empty.” Virtually every step in this twelve step program involves doing something with your email. This is akin to asking an alcoholic to work in a liquor store. McNamara’s response? “What am I missing? I’m already committed to keeping my inbox empty. I’m so committed to keeping my inbox empty that I’m checking my e-mail more often than hibernating animals breathe. I don’t need more commitment. I need to be committed.”

Came across this picture on The Times website. This actor was The Coroner of Munchkin Town in “The Wizard of Oz”. I just like the picture, makes me think that this is what Elton John will look like in a few more years.