In the News

A few brief odds and ends ... mostly odds ... from the blog fodder file:

The planning board in the town of Vassalboro, Maine recently considered a request for a business permit for a topless coffee shop. I couldn't find any reports on how the vote turned out. Topless in Maine? Well, I guess it gives new meaning to the term "cup of coffee."

A recent story asked whether sex can cause a heart attack. Happily, research shows that while the cardiovascular stress of vigorous sex can indeed trigger heart attacks in some people, especially men, the odds of literally dying of nookie are pretty low. This is not good news for soap operas and movies, in which a character dying during sex is a fairly common plot device (I remember the scene in the movie Private Benjamin in which Goldie Hawn's character told her late husband's mother that his last words were "I'm coming..."). Of course, after a certain age, just the prospect of having sex is enough to cause one to have a heart attack. Not that I would know, of course.

A young woman has decided to auction off her virginity as a creative way to finance her college education, and as of January 15th, the bidding was up to $3.7 million. In today's current economic climate, that's not bad. Maybe this could be part of the economic bailout program for the financial industry ... force them to make use of all their assets, as it were.

And finally,

The Bush administration will finally come to an end in one day, three hours, and 52 minutes from the time I write this. I can't think of anything funny to say about it...which is a pretty bad sign. Mr Obama has his work cut out for him.

That's all.

Have a good day. Stay warm. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo