No Deep Meaning, I Just Thought it Funny

An article from the East Valley Tribune came up in my reader; Basically, the code compliance division of Gilbert (AZ) sent a notification letter to a seven-person prayer group affiliated with one of their local churches asking them to stop meeting in member's homes.

It was the second code compliance/church-based, home meeting stop order in a couple of months, which the town council had already decided to address after the first, through a modification of the regulation.

According to the story, the irony of having an obviously unconstitutional action come up in a town famous for their observance of "Constitution Week" wasn't lost on their mayor. So, I did a quick Google to see how or why the town was famous for their observance of an obscure week.

As I went through the website devoted to the city's festival, I glanced at some lesson plans for families and other small groups.

Among the suggestions was a reading activity about the development of the Constitution which culminates in something along the lines of a play called "Unite or Die", which included the following parenthetical note;

(For challenged readers, consider assigning them the part of Rhode Island or New Jersey)

Which for some reason made me laugh.

Lede: Why Not James K. Polk Day?

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa wants President Obama's Aug. 4 birthday to be a state holiday, right up there with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole Day, King Kamehameha I Day and even Christmas.

State Rep. Della Au Belatti, D-25th (Tantalus, Makiki, McCully), would like the Jan. 20 date of Obama's presidential inauguration to be forever known in the Islands as Barack Obama II Ohana Day.

And even Republican state Rep. Gene Ward, R-17th, (Kalama Valley, Queen's Gate, Hawai'i Kai), hopes to turn 4,124 square feet of overgrown scrub land owned by the state Department of Transportation into President Barack Obama Birthplace State Park.

Honolulu Advertiser

Indiana Cab War

After filming a piece about a privately-funded, New Year's "Safe Rides" program with the GM of an Evansville (IN) cab company, the television crew noticed metal roofing nails on the ground around their van. After further investigation, nails were also discovered in both driveway exits.

Naturally, suspicion has fallen upon the workers from a competing cab company, who watched the interview unfold.

Mike Coffman: Reluctant Wallflower

After breaking his ankle on the golf course behind his house, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) joked with Lynn Bartles of the Denver Post about the health care system, as he related the story about how he received treatment from a McDoctor, then consulted an out-of-network provider as an out-of-pocket expense.

Unfortunately, his injury also meant that he was largely sidelined at his annual New Year's Eve bash, which traditionally includes a Chinese dinner, followed by speeches and a touch of Russian dancing.

My Own ClickBait

This blog has only been operational for just over a month and though I've taken jabs at others for posting clickbait, I thought that I'd add to the frenzy of year-end lists by noting this site's top posts.

• By far, SailRabbit's most popular post has been the tale of David Fairhurst, a man from Carmel (CA), who filed suit against a local paper because they called him an "armed stalker".


• Second on the list also involves a legal case, but this time it's the justifiable cause of Lance Shultz, who has sued the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) for a violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).


• One of my early posts, where I looked at the "clunkers" that were only clunked as one still remains popular, but primarily because of the traffic source, I'm sure it's just for the car porn.


• If you were to add the posts about each of the following subjects and counted their individual tags as one, they would all rank higher. But over the course of the past month, Sarah Palin, John Edwards and the ministorm surrounding Clay Aiken and his "voter fraud" have all been relatively good to me.


• And finally for the purposes of this list: Allegedly Mark McBride, a former mayor of Myrtle Beach (SC) and the president of one CoC was posting "anonymous", "derogatory" comments about another local Chamber to the forums for the Myrtle Beach Sun News.

For those just stopping-by, kick your shoes off and stay a while. As it says up top, I'm posting "more than just the same old links".

And for those who may be interested or who have a blog to feed, please feel free to bookmark and there's always a full-post RSS available, plus I should have this site's Twitter broadcasting within a day or two.

Hat tips are always welcome and most of all, considering the date...

Happy New Year to one and all!
May the next decade be better than the last.

Giggles & Guffaws

The "Coal Miner's Daughter" featured in this clip about National Coal Miners' Day punctuates several sentences with nervous laughter, as she recounts that her grandfather died of black lung, her uncle became disabled from mining and how her father had "a rather large rock fall on him", which may have left him permanently disabled. You can't really tell by the way, the reporter packaged the piece.

And, because WTFR's website doesn't provide for embedding, I flipped over to YouTube to see if they have a channel.

Unfortunately they do not, but it did lead me to find the following viewer-uploaded blooper, which may be reward enough.

Holiday Hold Music

Though it's not actually a Thanksgiving song, I've always liked this ballad about a news-filled meal.