Another clipart sample

Lion vs. unfortunate little 18th-century woodcut guy. Wonder who's going to win.

Well, it worked -- sort of . . .

Dover sent some "Christmas in July" samples, among others, and the temperature's gone back down into the eighties!

What do you do when you need some beer foam . . .

early in the morning?

This morning, I wanted a photo to illustrate a post (elsewhere) about what Stephen Colbert is calling "Thursday's post-racial beerfest".

Despite what you might think, I

1. did not have any recently used beer mugs lying around, and
2. was unwilling to pour a cold one before starting my work.

So what did I use? Baking soda and vinegar.

When it was through fizzing, I poured off the liquid and took a picture of the mug with the foam clinging to it.

I'd post it, but it was done for hire and doesn't belong to me.

True Story Based on a Major Motion Picture

Let's start with the headline of this story about a bank robber in Monroe, WA:

Former High School Star Athlete Sentenced to Prison for Armored Car Robbery

. . . Klutz Who Was Always Picked Last in Gym Lands Job Writing FBI Press Releases. Well, I'm just guessing.

Now the subhead:

Defendant Used Ad on Craigslist and Flotation Device to Make Escape

This isn't quite what it sounds like. He didn't post an ad saying GETAWAY DRIVER NEEDED @ BANK OF AMERICA and give the time and date.

He posted an ad for landscapers, telling them to show up in their work clothes. Being a landscaper himself, he put on a similar outfit and pretended to be spraying weeds around the bank grounds. He went on to spray an armored car driver with mace, grab some money, and disappear in the crowd of landscapers. (It seems he got the idea from a movie.)

And yes, he tubed away.

The rest of the story is sadly predictable. Alcoholism, spending, cheating on his pregnant wife with a teenager. Vegas with "friends".

Six years.

"Our emotions were as raw as the chicken in the fajita I was served at the restaurant."

A family's drive from Vancouver to Disneyland with two small kids is recounted by their dad, James Kwantes, in an article called (what else?) "Are We There Yet?"

In Carmel, California:

a man dressed in a shirt, tie and dress pants walked by in his bare feet, talking on a cellphone.

He hardly looked out of place.

That guy probably doesn't realize he's a Discalced Carmelite . . .

That's Entertainment

Soon to be a major motion picture: The Hardy Men, about the adult lives of the Hardy Boys. Ed Solomon, the screenwriter, says, “It's about guys who are now completely screwed up, who don't speak to each other anymore, who live in different parts of town and have to deal with their own complicated psyches. It's a comedy."

Critic Robert Cushman tells us what he really thinks about Noel Coward’s play Fumed Oak: “The play is snobbish, misogynist, one-sided and undoubtedly expresses deep, and deeply discreditable, impulses in its author. I loved it.”

Familia Values

Cult-like drug cartel gives to the poor, slaughters rivals

. . . and it's run by a "purported Evangelical Christian" who doesn't let his drug runners drink or, well, do drugs. Plus:

La Familia uses Bible scriptures and self-help slogans to inspire its traffickers

From self-help slogans, deliver us, O Lord!

Where even to start with the questions on this one?

Is this guy an Evangelical gone bad, or a cynic who seized on Evangelicalism as a way to build support, keep his minions out of the merchandise, and stand out in the crowd of Mexican crooks?

Why Evangelicalism instead of Catholicism? (Because you can't tell Catholics not to drink?)

Does he really think financing drug rehab centres cancels out enabling the addictions that put people there?

That drinking alcohol is worse than shooting policemen?

That he's a practising Christian?

Who knows? After all, he calls himself "El Mas Loco".