This vending machine at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg (where else?), Pennsylvania dispenses the “morning-after pill,” condoms and cough drops. Cough drops?! What about breath mints? Gum? Penicillin? Well, at least they’re trying. When I was in college, we had to sneak into the drug store to buy cough drops.
Filed under News
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 Lincoln Continental is being put up for sale in Smithville, Texas, on March 3 by its current owner, Dan Kruse Classics. Proceeds from the auction will go to the LBJ Foundation. The car is currently on display at the Central Texas Museum of Automotive History in Smithville.
Filed under News
Looks like Obama backed down – again!
Filed under News
I don’t care how fashionable this would look on me, I’m not spending $68 for a piece of lambskin. You could buy a pack of regular condoms for $12. If you’re in a hurry, just grab some cellophane and a rubber band.
Filed under Curiosities
On a sweltering June morning, Jason De Leon shrugs off his pack in a rugged gorge in Arizona’s Coronado National Forest. He hunches down over a scattering of water bottles, checking for dates, and asks a student to take the site’s GPS coordinates. Above his head, along the rock face, travelers have transformed a small, secluded hollow into a shrine lined with offerings: rosaries, crucifixes, candles, scapulars, and small pictures of saints, each bearing a printed prayer in Spanish. “Take care of me in dangerous places,” reads one card. “Protect me from thieves and in evil times,” entreats another. Nearby, a small engraved plastic pendant offers a more direct prayer: “The other side, Tucson, Arizona, 2010.”
This is an extraordinary article by Heather Pringle in one of my favorite magazines, Archaeology, that documents the massive flow of illegal Latin American immigrants through the desert Southwestern U.S. via the items they leave behind. It’s not a pretty picture, as the migrants – desperate for work and a chance at a better life – end up desecrating the environment and leaving mounds of trash. And, of course, who has to clean up that mess? The American taxpayer. As someone of Spanish and Mexican Indian ancestry, I guess I should feel some kind of connection to these people – but I don’t. They’re not really my people – whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. My people are American citizens – whether native born or naturalized – who respect this country and the laws that govern it. My paternal ancestry in Texas goes back more than 400 years. My people settled this state long before the Mayflower Pilgrims even set sail. Still, this editorial highlights a critical dilemma in 21st century America.
Filed under News
Opera singer Leontyne Price is 85.
Actor Robert Wagner is 82.
Grammy-winning singer Roberta Flack (“Killing Me Softly”) is 73.
Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz is 62.
Journalist George Stephanopoulos is 51.
Talk show host Glenn Beck is 48.
Actress Laura Dern is 45.
Filed under Birthdays
1763 – The “Seven Years’ War,” also known as the “French – Indian War,” ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by France, Great Britain and Spain.
1846 – Mormons begin their exodus from Illinois to Utah.
1863 – Two of the world’s most famous little people, General Tom Thumb (real name Charles S. Stratton, 3’, 4”) and, Lavinia Warren, (2’, 8”), exchanged vows before a small gathering of 2,000 of their closest friends in New York City – most of them standing on the church pews to catch a glimpse of the couple.
1863 – Alanson Crane received a patent for the fire extinguisher.
1933 – The singing telegram was introduced by the Postal Telegraph Company of New York City.
1934 – The first imperforated, ungummed sheets of postage stamps were issued by the U.S. Postal Service in New York City. One had to cut the stamps out of the sheet and then put some glue on the back to get them to stick on an envelope. Fortunately, the Postal Service changed this idea after many complaints.
1935 – The Pennsylvania Railroad began passenger service with its new ‘streamlined’ electric locomotive. This engine was 79-1/2 feet long and weighed in at a hefty 230 tons.
1962 – The Soviet Union released Francis Gary Powers, an American pilot who was shot down two years earlier while flying a CIA spy plane over Russia.
1967 – The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, was ratified by the U.S. Congress.
Filed under History
Survivalist Tip: Collect large bags of pure salt to fight off zombies. Many apocalypse survivors will be zombified in the aftermath. Roman Catholics, Orthodox Jews, Fundamentalist Muslims and most residents of East Texas are particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon. Mormons won’t survive the fury, so you won’t have to worry about them. Zombies are defenseless against a barrage of sodium granules. Just make sure there’s no wind blowing in your direction when you hurl the salt into their faces. Otherwise it’ll blind you, and the zombies will take that as an invitation to dinner.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum in a “prayer circle” at a church in Allen, Texas. This is so odd – a bunch of Texas evangelicals surrounding a Roman Catholic from Pennsylvania. It’s sort of like Custer being surrounded by the Sioux.
Filed under News
“I think this week’s outrage over the Komen decision should be a warning to the Republican party about how quickly there was a mass outrage over further and further attacks on general women’s health. You could see the same backlash on attacks on contraception.”
— Kellie Ferguson, executive director of Republican Majority for Choice, cautioning her own party not to pick a fight over contraception.
Republicans for choice?! They must feel like rabbis at a Nazi roundtable.
Filed under News
Chief Writing Wolf 