Remember I said real frugal people don't rob banks?

Now the FBI agrees:

“Frugal Felon” Not So Frugal
Hits Second Bank This Month

The New Yorker would never stoop to saying YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY WON!

From their contest page:

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS CONTEST AND SWEEPSTAKES.

A purchase will not improve chances of winning.

CONSUMER DISCLOSURE: You have not yet won.

To see my entry, click here (yes, I know I should've used the dog with the open mouth, but I didn' t know there was one).

Things you learn while pricing insurance for the cats

"Feral" is a breed, according to at least one insurance company.

The world's tamest feral cat lives with us, but we think of her as an exotic shorthair.

Now this

From the Post:

In a surprise move, folks at Chicago-based Tribune Co. are reportedly reeling in the wake of news that CEO Randy Michaels has banned, literally, some 119 words and phrases from being used on-air at his company's flagship radio station, WGN.

Going forward, area residents are less at risk of hearing such cliched phrases as "perfect storm" and "behind closed doors" on the news talk station's airwaves, although the fact of the matter is the list of 119 that cannot be utilized includes such common words as "alleged," "authorities" and "officials."

Sixteen of the banned words or phrases appeared in the first two sentences of this story.

I'd find it hard to run an ESL news blog without the word "officials".

In this, for example, the official was actually the Assistant U.S. Trustee. If I used that mouthful of a title, I'd have to explain it to my audience -- and they don't really need to know what it means. They just need to know that someone in a responsible position at the courthouse tried to stop this swindler.

Sorry -- this alleged swindler.

What would I do without "alleged"? Or "accused of"? Or "the charge says"?

Real Frugal People Don't Rob Banks

That's why I put "frugal" in quotes here.

Nice of him to let the cashier keep some of her employer's money. But if he's caught, he'll go to jail just the same. He needs to do some cost-benefit analysis.

I see this all the time in the FBI press releases. People risk losing their freedom for years, not to mention their good names, for an amount of money they could've earned in a year or two.

So when do we get to the Modern Optimal?

Everyone's heard of the Medieval Warm Period (maybe all the more since we weren't supposed to believe in it -- that worked for the Tooth Fairy, too), but I didn't know that it "used to be known as the Medieval Optimal before it became politically incorrect to think of a warm climate as desirable".

More from Lorne Gunter on unaccustomed warmth:

Grapes grew in southern England. Norse settlers established farms in Greenland. And the plagues and territorial wars driven by scarcity that marked the Late Middle Ages were centuries in the future -centuries notable for their coldness during the Little Ice Age (1300 to 1850).

Peace and plenty. Why try to hold back a tide like that?

Not that they're trying to scare you or anything