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...

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.

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.

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...

In the news this week...

If you haven't visited News of the Wierd by now, you don't know what you're missing out on! Here is a recap of some of this week's gems...
(A note: for those of you who live in Washington, you can obtain this weekly when you grab a copy of the Washington City Paper, a local free publication i highly reccomend!)
A 44-year-old man was crushed to death by a slow-moving tractor-trailer when he jumped underneath it to get the reportedly "well-worn" baseball cap that the wind had just blown off his head (Lethbridge, Alberta, November). And a 55-year-old man died of a heart attack, most likely, said the police, during or moments after stabbing his wife numerous times in a domestic altercation (Keene, N.H., December). And a 23-year-old man was hit by a subway car at New York City's 34th Street station when he leaned over the tracks to see the oncoming train, not realizing that it was coming from the other direction (December; the last press report available said the man was in critical condition). [Calgary Herald, 11-19-03] [WBZ-TV (Boston)-AP, 12-23-03] [New York Post, 12-31-03]

Dawn of the Dead

The movie, Dawn of the Dead has come out this month, and hits a soft-spot with me, as I have this weird thing for zombie-flicks. This movie is (bare with me on this...) a remake of the sequel to the original Night of the Living Dead, also an excellent movie. I have not seen it yet but plan to see it at some point this week. I may follow up with a movie review.
If you haven't seen it already check out the way-cool website at Dawn of the Dead. There you can see trailors and other neat and morbid stuff.

Abra-Cadaver!

Sorry for the pause in my usual weekly entires, but it's been Spring Break for us students. More on that. But first, I must cover this recent scandal that broke out at UCLA over the use (and misuse) of bodies for medical research.
If you thought body-snatchers were a thing of the past, think again! Apparently there are people out there who are actually dealers in body parts. Who knew the demand was that high? The story in short is that UCLA was recieveing what it thought was donated corpses (so they claim) from a man, Ernest Nelson, who was in fact a dealer in illegally obtained specimens. Read the latest on this ghoulish story!
A note on spring break...watch out when mixing high-energy caffiene-laden drinks (such as Red Bull) with alcohol (such as vodka). Apparently this dangerous new trend can lead to passing out because of the mix of stimulants and alcohol in the bloodstream. And if that's the most one has to worry about during spring break, than things can't be that bad. Not as bad as, say, Girls Gone Wild.

Another Local Moron

Anyone who lives in the Washington area has been reading, I'm sure, about the case of a man who was struck and then dragged 8 1/2 miles down Interstate 95 to a man's home. The man driving the vehicle, a Brazilian native named Josuel P. Galdino, claims that after coming home from "a certain nightclub in southeast Washington" (Gee, any guess which one...could it be Nation?) he struck the man, but was not aware of it. Furthermore, he was unaware of dragging a man 8 1/2 miles back to his driveway. Even if he was totally intoxicated, I find I hard to buy this story. Read a full version of the story in the Washington Post.
And in a totally unrelated story NASA rovers on Mars today have found evidence that Mars once had water. This should be interesting, so why doesn't it sound ineteresting?

"Tomacco" Plants and Other Nonsense!

It's a classic case of life imitating art this week as News of the Weird reports that a scientist in Oregon has tried to create a "Tomacco" plant (A hybrid of a tobacco plant and a tomato plant) after seeing it done by Homer Simpson on The Simpsons. Ah, the sources of inspiration. And to think modern scientists are using Homer Simpson as a muse!
Now before you rush out to your local nursery and try to purchase one, a study showed that only the plant itself, not the actual fruit, contains nicotine.
Also, yours truly has had his 15 minutes of fame this week in Metro Weekly, under the photos taken at Apex (P & 22nd St. NW) on College Night! Truth be told, this is the second time I have appeared in the pages of Metro Weekly. What can I say, they have good taste!

The End of Dean

We all figured it would happen sooner or later, especially after the primaries started going sour. Howard Dean announced today he is dropping out of the race for the Democratic party nomination. At first I was devastated, but no, not so much any more. It was bound to happen.
But why did he sink like the Titanic is the question. Was it that yell he gave out?
"YEAAHHHHH!"
I should note here that I am a resident of the District (I live on Massachusetts Ave NW...the good end, not the ghetto). And yes, back in the so-called "advisory" primary that preceeded New Hampshire's (in other words, it didn't count) I voted for Howard Dean. It was the only primary that Dean won. Go figure.
What will happen to this country without Dean? And without Astro Turf? Yes, the makers of Astro Turf are declaring bankruptcy.
Thus far the week has been slow in the weird kind of stories I like to comment on, but we shall see what happenens. And in the meantime, if you, dear reader, have any bizarre headlines you'd like to bring to my attention, please email me at aratliff@gmu.edu

Tertiary Post

John Kerry spoke at GMU yesterday! Actually, John Edwards was on campus as well, both speaking at Dewberry Hall in the Johnson Center. Read about it at George Mason's student newspaper, The Broadside.
I'm a Howard Dean man myself. Seeing how he is loosing quickly, though, I figure Kerry is the next best thing, though far from my first choice. As one professor said, Kerry is "an animated stiff!" Flashbacks to Al Gore, anybody?
Also this week was the Westminster Dog Show. And?
I have a dog myself, a beautiful Boxer puppy. But people who are overly-obsessed about their pets genuinely scare me, and these dog shows show just how far some lonely (and I imagine sex-lifeless) people will go, living vicariously through their dogs. I love my dog, but she does not run my life! I could tell some funny stories about a certain ex who worshipped their dog, and some of the craziness that ensued when the dog got more preferential treatment than I did. But I figure that person may be reading, as will my classmates and my professor! E-mail me if you want the dirt. (aratliff@gmu.edu)

My Second Post...

"And on the second day God said..." Actually, I dont know what he said. But the point is, this is my second post. And now to see what's going on in the world of news...
I figure what better way to begin my glance at news headlines than the issue of Janet Jackson...and her breast!
Now, given the amount of sexuality in the media, I guess the only thing that really shocks me is the amount of hype over the whole Super-Bowl breast-baring incident! Seriously people, if you haven't seen a breast by now than maybe it's a good thing you did! In the meantime, Jackson has apologized to the people of this country for what was, she originally claimed, an "wardrobe malfunction." (riiiiiight...) She has been taken off the Grammy Awards. You can see a full story in an article on Washingtonpost.com.
Poor Janet. Actually I should the poor Jacksons, what with her brother Michael Jackson and his current legal drama! Honestly I don't have an opinion about whether he is guilty (this time) or not. In fact, I don't really even care. My prediction is it will be a repeat of the last time in which the boy in question gets a ton of money to forget about what may or may not have happened. And if you need further proof the Jackson clan is totally f#(&@% up, look no further than the career of sister LaToya Jackson (who just recently broke her toe by the way. Why does this stuff get reported in the first place? I guess someone out there cares.

My First Post

This is the beginning of my Blog. Much of this Blog will be concerned with my course Comm 361 that I am taking at George Mason University. Enjoy!