The Subprime Tsunami Awards

In 1998 "Titanic" swept the Oscars. "Subprime Tsunami" can expect no such honors. Sure, some players may get indictments and be hustled out of their offices by government suits but it's not the same. Time to create a special award for subprime talent. Since the Golden Turkey is taken another name is needed. How about The Platinum Plunger? Or more simply, The Subbie? Whatever. The name of the award isn't as important as the ceremony and who gets what. Picture this:

The show opens with a sizzling number by The Equity Strippers. Wearing little more than a few licks of paint. Shaking their booty and singing "Don't cha wish housing sales were hot like me?" The audience eats it up. M.C. David Lereah of the National Association of Realtors cracks a few jokes about the girls' curb appeal and shouts out--


The Envelope Please! Read more...

Beer Culture

Farley's brother fights beer culture
Tom Farley uses improv to help children resist drugs and alcohol
BY RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press

Almost 10 years after the drug overdose of Chris Farley, his older brother is still trying to use the tragic story to get others to do what the late comic couldn't: avoid alcohol and drugs.

Tom Farley doesn't warn teens they'll end up in a van down by the river if they fail, as the overcaffeinated motivational speaker Matt Foley, his brother's famous "Saturday Night Live" character, once did.

Instead, the 45-year-old president of the Chris Farley Foundation appears at Wisconsin middle and high schools using humor and teaching comedy improvisation techniques to show teens they can resist peer pressure through positive communication.

To parents, he delivers a stiffer message in a state that loves its beer: Keep your house free from alcohol for your kids' sake.

He hosted Madison's first town hall meeting this month to discuss the above-average drinking rates among middle-schoolers, which he said was fueled by parents allowing kids to raid liquor cabinets and beer-stocked refrigerators.

Tom Farley said he's trying to fight Wisconsin's culture of drinking — one kid and parent at a time.

"The Chris Farley brand brings with it credibility," he said. "They know that Chris was a genuine kid, a Wisconsin kid who grew up in this environment and made some decisions and ran into problems. We use that as a starting point."

Mabel Tainter Benefit Concert

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Tuesday night, March 20th

See Mabel Tainter Website for details.

Good job Al !

Just a late notice of our good friend out being charitable. I wonder how long he and the team were snowed in...

clipped from www.dunnconnect.com Agriculture Snowed in OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Al Ziehl, of Downsville, drives his team of horses through Downsville Wednesday as they pull a hay wagon and boat trailer. Ziehl gave wagon rides to and from the lakes in Downsville during the Downville Sportsmen’s Club’s Ice Fishing Contest Feb. 18. But before he could get all of his equipment home, the pair of snowstorms hit the area, snowing in his rig and forcing him to wait for better traveling weather. Barbara Lyon/Dunn County News

Beggars Opera

A glimpse backstage... a little bored, but a pretty costume.

The Interview With God

The Interview With God

This is nicely done.

Russian journalist who angered country's military falls to death

Sounds like Putin is returning to Stalinism.

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk Ivan Safronov, defence correspondent for the Russian newspaper, Kommersant. Photograph: Valery Melnikov/Kommersant/AP   A senior Russian journalist who embarrassed the country's military establishment with a series of exclusive stories has been found dead outside his flat in mysterious circumstances. The body of Ivan Safronov, 51-year-old defence correspondent for the newspaper Kommersant, was discovered on Friday. He apparently fell from a fifth-floor window. "For some reason, it is those journalists who are disliked by the authorities who die in this country," the mass-selling daily Moskovsky Komsomolets observed yesterday. "Ivan Safronov was one of those. He knew a lot about the real situation in the army and the defence industries, and he reported it." The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in January that 13 Russian journalists had been murdered in contract-style killings since 2000, making the country the third deadliest state for journalists, after Iraq and Algeria

Some places to visit when time allows

clipped from bbs.keyhole.com Colca Canyon, Peru : Deepest Canyon on the Earth Vredefort Crater, South Africa : Largest impact crater on the Earth ScoresbySund Fjord, Greenland : Longest & Deepest Fjord on the Earth Mera Peak, Nepal : Highest Vertical Drop Dead Sea, Israel & Jordan : Lowest Elevation on the Earth Angel Falls, Venezuela : Tallest water fall on the Earth Wilkes land, Antartica : Thickest Ice Sheet on the Earth

Is history repeating?

SUBPRIME MORTGAGE MELTDOWN

Edina-based Maribella is the latest casualty in an industry hit by defaults, housing decline.
BY JENNIFER BJORHUS Pioneer Press

My brother Brian was making reference to this sort of thing a month back, while being quite pessimistic for the future of home-builders in the MPLS metro area. Seems to me a similar thing happened with Milken's junk bond crisis, or a Keating's Savings and Loan debacle. Makes you wonder when the government will be called upon to bail-out this situation with our tax dollars, as well as find some scapegoats for their regulatory shortcomings. Lenders have been perhaps not quite predatory, but certainly aggressive in finding borrowers wiling to commit to borrowing more than they could afford to repay. There's an interesting tally of these at the Implode-o-meter.

The new Bud Frump

How fun is this!

Patrick has landed a main role in the upcoming MHS performance of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. You'll want to make plans to attend this show and see him singing, dancing, and delivering show - stopping comic relief. I've located a page that describes the show.



I'll be tracking tickets for this look behind the scenes at the World Wide Wicket Company, Inc.

Just doing our part...

Interesting report on US efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. It suggests were doing a better job than our European critics. Somehow that doesn't surprise me. I suppose we adapt to change more quickly here in most regards, emissions shouldn't be different.

clipped from washingtontimes.com

Finger-pointing critics often vilify Americans as the sole cause of global warming. But the typical image of SUV-driving, energy-hogging Yankees may be bogus

a new analysis of U.N. data reveals that U.S. efforts to reduce greenhouse gases actually beat European policies.

new evidence suggests America's efforts are more effective than those of Europe's,

according to a study by H. Sterling Burnett of the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute.

The United States has spent more than any other country on research and technologies to reduce emissions

the U.S. rate of growth in carbon dioxide emissions from 2000 to 2004 was eight percentage points lower than from 1995 to 2000. The original 15 nations of the European Union increased emissions by 2.3 percentage points

From 2000 to 2004, greenhouse gas emissions from the EU countries grew at nearly double the U.S. rate.

U.S. businesses are succeeding where European bureaucracy is failing,

Winter returns...

I need to go outside again now?

It's a dogs life

Let's Make A Deal ?

This article left me wondering how much I really want to be haggling with my doctor (or "health care provider" as they now refer to them) over setting of prices. I've already heard a bit about "customers," or "health care consumers." Remember when the medical community referred to us simply as "patients." I think I'd rather be a patient. Given the number of possible prices available for the identical procedure, it seems they have left us no choice but to dicker on the price like we're trying to buy a used car...