Happy Birthday Neil

Now here's a prank to beat most I've heard... this was on the radio news this AM. A jogger came across a mound of dirt on the beach with a sign to the effect of "baby here". Said person got the police, who frantically started digging and came across .... a frightened skunk, who promptly sprayed.

Running a bit tired today. Stayed up pretty late getting the new search feature on the website. I'll have to muck with some existing files next week to tune the keywords a bit because right now they aren't optimal. But I'm pretty impressed with how well it works. For the geeks, you can find the package at www.htdig.org.

Ya' know, I thought companies laid people off to save money. AOL-Time Warner just released the figures for what it cost to lay off 2400 people (some who I know) - about $565 million. That's about $235,000 per person. I'm failing to see where the savings are unless this is just creative accounting at work. Once the economy picks up again, they'll have to pay even more to get these jobs filled again... But hey, if Wall Street likes it, who am I to gripe?

The prez is in Missouri or somewhere else insignificant rolling out the new national energy "plan"; which we already know involves building new nuclear plants and churning up a lot of mud in Alaska. He has been criticized strongly for not doing or saying something that would directly concern California, the place in the center of the crisis. Oh come now.... This is politics at its finest. We have a democratic governor, two democrat senators and piles of demo congressman covering all the population centers. The prez may not be the brightest light on the tree, but he's not stupid - and he's undergone political training that would make mince meat of out you and me. He's going to let us wallow in our misery as long as possible. People that are dissatisfied with their local government aren't likely to vote for them next time. Bingo! By helping us out, the prez would make them look like heroes. No, what he's going to do is to find ways to build up the national infrastructure and then trade some Senate votes for crisis relief. You want twenty megawatts at 30 cents per - in July? I want a few billion more on the tax cut.

Speaking of cuts, John Wayne Bobbitt is trying to gain legal control of the knife that made him uhm 'famous'. Wants to sell it on ebay for 3 mil minimum. I think he's underestimated the market a bit. Maybe somebody like Paul Allen will buy it for the next cultural museum, but your average private citizen? Hardly. If a woman buys it, she can forget ever dating or having sex again. "This is the knife that... and now it's mine!" and he's outa' there. He's not gonna' buy it because he doesn't want to give anybody ideas about lightning striking twice. So let's go back to the cultural museum. Most of these are open to and welcome children. This is the knife that uhm.... well, that made John Bobbitt famous. Why? Mommy, who's John Bobbitt? Nope, that won't work either. So that leaves one bidder left - a radical feminist group to use at rallies, kind of like bloody scalps at a indian/cavalry war dance in 1860. Are there any radical feminist groups left with 3 million bucks to burn? John, give it up. Go back to towing cars. You had your fifteen minutes. And as far as memorabilia goes, it's too steep a price anyway. For that, you can get a Marilyn dress, one of Elvis's guitars, and a dozen of Ringo's pinkie rings. Not to mention one of George's bongs (with residue) from the India pilgrimage.