Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Death of a Chairman

Yesterday, in what I think is a wonderfully ironic death, the Chairman and CEO of McDonald's died from a heart attack.
Jim Cantalupo was 60 at his death. It seems surprising he lived that long. Maybe in all fairness he never ate the food produced by his company, but I still can't think of something like this since Dave Thomas of Wendy's (if you will remember a few years back) also died of a heart attack. But then, who didn't see that one coming, it's not like he was an image of a health-nut.
You can read the full story at USAToday.com.

The reader will also notice I no longer use links to the Washington Post's Website. This is because they now require the tedious hassle of registering. While I realize they simply want to find their demographic, it's annoying as hell as thus far USA Today's website has not done this. So to save the reader time and trouble, I'll use registry-free websites.
And if you do decide to register, be sure to lie about your age, gender, and location. It's fun to muck these things up. As far as the Post in concerned I am a 97-year-old living in Armenia. And no one the wiser...

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

An Olympic Struggle

Currently Greece is still preparing for the Olympics that will be held this summer in Athens. And they still are not finished! Read the full story at the BNN here.
I have travelled through Greece multiple times, including the summer of 2003 and 2002 and I can say that in the past two years all of Athens has been preparing for the Olympics. Why they still are having trouble meeting construction deadlines is beyond me.
One reason may be the lack of safety in Greek consturction sites. So far there have been 40 to 50 deaths a year in construction there! I find this amazingly tragic, and maybe I can not blame some construction workers for going on strike. Greece should have though of this well before, though. Now the summer Olympics are approaching the motherland of the Olympic Games...and they aren't even ready.

Saturday, April 10, 2004

In The Spin Cycle



This picture courtesy ofThe Capital Times

Having just read Howard Kurtz's novel Spin Cycle, about how the White House under the Clinton administration tried to put their own "spin" on the news, I was prepared for National Security Adviser Condaleezza Rice's seemingly coached testimoney as she appeared before the comission investigating the 9/11 attacks. From my perspective, everything that came out of her mouth seemed rehearsed, and no doubt it was. She attempted to contradict everything Richard Clark had come out and stated earlier. To read a full column about the situation visit this.

Monday, April 05, 2004

Fear & Loathing at the Cherry Blossom Festival


The moron in this picture is likely going to glow in the dark and grow a third arm.

(image borrowed from a website of Columbia University. See the complete website here.)

Yes, it's spring in Washington when the annual horde of tourists come to see the cherry trees in blossom at the Tidal Basin. The cherry trees are currently in bloom so go see them (if you are so inclined) while you still can. Or just visit the National Cherry Blossom Festival website for more details.

I have to say, this is one of the worst years for the festival my short-term memory can remember! Every year despite the thousands of tacky tourists, something compels me to walk down to the Jefferson Memorial to see the blossoms. Usually it's not so bad, but today when I visited it was cold as the Arctic tundra and windy as the Mongolian steppes.

And let's not forget the beautiful Tidal Basin itself. Always the place to go if you are looking for trash, pollution, funky smells, and dead Potomac fish. I'm surprised the cherry trees haven't mutated and rampaged through the city yet, having to be so close to the cesspool known as the Tidal Basin.

"Why is this news?" you may ask. Well, it seems this week a student at George Washington University (where I am applying to grad school, incidentally) may have committed suicide by throwing himself into the Basin while visiting the cherry blossoms with friends. Were the blossoms that bad this year? Man! The victim apparently made some comment and then threw himself into the murky waters. Check out the whole story in the Washington Times.

Ah, spring is in the air...