This Week's Columns

        Dennis Hastert

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) held a press conference aimed at the working class, saying President Bush's trillion-dollar tax cut was for their benefit. Then, it was discovered those smiling around him, at the "good news," were not workers, but lobbyists. According to a memo sent to them, they were to wear no suits, and: "If people want to participate... they must be DRESSED DOWN, appear to be REAL WORKER types."

    Judy Garland in
    The Wizard of Oz

Academy Award-nominated American film actress and singer Judy Garland (1922-1969), best remembered for playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, began performing on stage with her sisters at age two, billed as The Gumm Sisters. (Judy's real name was Frances Ethel Gumm.)

                Canada Goose

Gaggles of Geese fly together in their "V" formations to reduce drag, allowing them to fly up to 70% farther. And, since the front bird does not benefit from this position, the geese take turns, while the rest of the gaggle quack their support. And, they can fly high. Mountaineers in the Himalayas report seeing flocks of geese fly over their heads at 29,500 feet (almost 9,000 meters). Should one goose become ill enough to drop to the ground, two other geese will break ranks to "nurse" that one back to health, or until its death, before continuing. (Canada Geese mate for life and share parenting responsibilities.)

            Black Hole Quasar

Quasars are among the most distant objects astronomers have found. But even at those great distances they are extremely bright. Scientists say these are not stars, but extremely violent galaxies. Their sizes are huge, as big as twice the distance between the Milky Way and our neighbor galaxy, Andromeda. That's about 4,000,000 million light years across.

               Salman Rushdie                                 Ayatollah Khomeini

Here's another quote from English-Indian novelist Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (1947- ): "Free societies are societies in motion, and with motion comes tension, dissent, friction. Free people strike sparks, and those sparks are the best evidence of freedom's existence." (This man was condemned to death, on February 14, 1989, by the former Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for writing his book, The Satanic Verses.)

According to WFAA-TV Channel 8 Evening News September 9, 2008, DISD officials were at a loss to explain a recent increase in pregnancies among teenage girls. The announcer then finished the report with, "No one has any idea what is causing these increases." Duh!

   Fourth District Court of Nebraska

Judge Richard M. Jones, of Douglas County, Nebraska, was suspended after 17 complaints against him were investigated. Examples: He was caught making death threats against another judge, while another judge in his building accused Jones of throwing firecrackers into his office. Add to that a little kinkiness, when several probation officers complained Judge Jones insisted on witnessing urine collections from defendants on or seeking probation.

                 Hare

Over 5,000 infants are born each year in the United States with a cleft lip or palate (about one in every 700 births). In olden times it was thought this condition was caused when the unborn baby's pregnant mother had her path crossed by a Belgian hare. (That's how the derogatory term "hare-lip" began.)

             Ludington Statue

Paul Revere is remembered in history for his "Midnight Ride," made famous by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. But what about Sybil Ludington? She made her heroic ride just as dangerous and just as important as Revere's, and rode 40-miles, twice as far that night, while she was only 16-years-old.

                      Nadezhda

According to world news services, on September 17, 2007, Nadezhda (Hope) Khalina was born, weighing 17.1 lbs (7.75 kg). And, just as amazing, her mother, Tatiana, 42, had already given birth to 11 other children, all of which weighed 11 lbs (4.98 kg) or more. [The Guinness Book of World Records says the heaviest baby ever, weighing 29.23 lbs (13.26 kg), was born in 1939, but died two hours after birth.]

A depiction of the helium
atom. In the nucleus, the
protons are in red and
neutrons are in blue.
(Click on Picture to Enlarge)

The nucleus of an atom is very much smaller than the size of the atom itself by a factor of about 23,000 (uranium) to about 145,000 (hydrogen). Scientists have estimated, should enough nuclei be stripped from their atoms to fill a cup, that cup would weigh 50 trillion tons.

King Louis XIV of France was the first dinner host in recorded history to provide his guests with a complete set of dinnerware. Prior to this idea later catching on through Europe, those invited to a meal were expected to bring their own knife and/or fork. Of course, back then, fingers were fine for eating many things, as well.

                                                                         Poor Richards Almanac

American statesman Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was not above stealing (plagiarizing) other writers' quotes. Here's what he felt about his dishonest practice: "Why then should I give my readers bad lines of my own, when good ones of other People's are so plenty?" (There were no copyright laws back then to stop him.)

  Mumbai Train (AP Photo/Gautam Singh)

Mumbai, India, is notorious for its overcrowded train system, which transports 7 million commuters daily. Of this number, 10 of these passengers will not return home. That's because, on average, each day, that's how many are crushed, run over or electrocuted to death by this form of transportation. In April 2008, India's Central and Western Railway was forced to open files showing, over the last 5 years, those people who lost their lives involving a train, totaled 20,706.

                    Money cart

On September 6, 2008, a female employee of an ATM service company was robbed at gunpoint as she was loading money into the machine in the parking lot at Lake Highlands Wal-Mart. According to Dallas police Cpl. Gerry Monreal, the technician was pushing a shopping cart full of cold, green cash, all by herself, at around 5:30 AM, when a man approached her from behind. After demanding money, he grabbed an unknown amount of cash and ran off. (Doesn't make sense, does it?)