Stupid Is As Stupid Does

I spend so much time railing about how dumb and insipid the current political race is that I often forget there are other vast wellsprings of stupidity begging for attention. Yesterday CNN reported the arrest of two brilliant criminal masterminds in New York who tried to cash a check made out to one of their friends. The inconvenient fact that their friend was dead didn't slow these geniuses down: they propped him up in a desk chair and wheeled him down to a local check cashing establishment in case anyone questioned their attempt to cash his check.

According to the CNN report, the men left the body of Virgilio Cintron (in the chair) outside the store, went inside and tried to cash the check. The clerk, who knew the dead man, asked the men where he was, and one of the men said he would go and get him, according to police.

As luck would have it, a police detective was having lunch at a restaurant next to the check-cashing store, noticed a crowd forming around the seated body, and quickly realized the individual was dead.

The two would-be check cashers are now guests of the NYPD, charged with check fraud.

But the story gets better!

The last paragraph of the story says - and I quote - " A call to a telephone number listed for Cintron at the apartment he shared with O'Hare (one of the would-be check cashers) went unanswered Tuesday evening."

Hmmm....

Mr Cintron is dead. Mr O'Hare is in jail. Who was supposed to have answered the phone?

Inquiring minds want to know.

On other topics, I'm always gratified to read the comments readers leave on my blog. Some are interesting and thought-provoking, some are fun, and some seize on my random thoughts as an opportunity for entrepreneurial enterprise: yesterday, reader Mike commented that "I charge a $25.00 fee for comments and my interest rate is a low, low 2% (per day) (compounded per minute) (with a daily late fee of $50) (payable in cash)." At rates like those, I may have to finally break down and let Blogger put ads on my space.

Mike, you can call my hotline at 1-800-HAR-D-HAR. Nice try, though.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo