Being surrounded by writers on all sides in my personal and professional worlds, I’m ever sensitive to titles of books, articles, blog posts, etc. I’ve run across some bad ones and thought I’d reduce them ala David Letterman to a Top Ten list. So, here it goes…

10. – Unmentionable Cuisine – Year Published: 1979 – Author: Calvin W. Schwabe

9. – Let’s Make Some Undies – Year Published: 1954 – Author: Marion Hall

8. – How to Get Fat – Year Published: 1865 – Author: Edward Smith

7. – The Pleasures of the Torture Chamber – Year Published: 1930 – Author: John Swain

6. – Children are Wet Cement – Year Published: 1981 – Author: Ann Ortlund

5. – Scouts in Bondage – Year Published: 1930 – Author: Geoffrey Prout

4. – How to Cook Husbands – Year Published: 1899 – Author: Elizabeth Strong Worthington

3. – Reusing Old Graves – Year Published: 1998 – Author: D. Davies & A. Shaw

2. – Sex After Death – Year Published: 1983 – Author: D.E. Frey

And, drumroll please, the absolute worst title is…

1. – Preserving Dick – Year Published: 1867 – Author: Mary D. R. Boyd

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it…Tip of the Hat to Stupid History by Leland Gregory for some of the raw material for this post.

Sound familiar? You might remember this old saw from your elementary school days. A common, though not creative, taunt intended to stir up trouble between parties instigated, usually, by a third party.

This latest tempest in a teapot is very likely brought to you courtesy of the Clinton campaign and is certainly facilitated by the media. Since when is someone else responsible or accountable for what another person says? The Reverend Jerimiah Wright’s comments aren’t news people, they’re taunts intended to “scare” voters away from Obama.

If the standard is now that people will be held accountable for anything their friends and acquaintances say or do, then we’re all in big trouble. Recognize this for what it is people, tall grade school. The bully is roaming the playground looking to stir up some action. If that’s all it was, that would be fine.

But, I think this is a now becoming a proxy for the race issue; using the words of an angry black man to stoke the fires of intolerance. The message is implied, it’s never clearly articulated, but it is “if you support Obama, you will be letting an angry black man set the agenda for the country, and that’s scary, you don’t want to do that do you?”

Aside from the obvious school bully angle, the racist play is the most insidious of all. Wake up! Think! Don’t fall for it!

This video is so appropriate on so many levels…the world economy is real, and it’s here to stay. It’s not just day laborers who are affected and the trend.

HT: Pete

Well, Ohio has Big Butter Jesus and Texas has the hemisphere’s second largest cross. What’s Indiana got? Apparently something smaller than the second largest cross and less creative than Big Butter Jesus, a big concrete cross, but not big enough to unseat Texas. Why bother to build a big-ass cross when it’s not even close to making a world, nay, hemisphere record? A waste of money and what an eyesore!

Wonder how many meals for the hungry and clothes for the cold that cross represents? Just food for thought…


HT: Ray

That’s it, I’m not talking about her anymore, and neither should Obama. I could spend 1,000 words describing why, but conveniently, a comic strip artist, RJ Matson, has beaten me to it and represented the situation in a visual form much more effectively:

Attribution: RJ Matson

That doesn’t scratch your itch? Then how about this well reasoned piece by The Daily Kos that works through the math of pledged delegates and super delegates. The punch line is Obama only needs 43 more delegates to be able to deny Clinton the nomination, which is as good as winning it. I’m not doing the article justice, it was really well written and is a very logical approach. Check it out.

OK, since the ‘net these days is a multi-sensory experience, how about some video? Jon Stewart does his normally thorough job of using humor to call out the asinine behavior of public figures. He shows Obama now start to use the “ignore Hillary strategy” and calls him out on it. He shows Hillary “trusting the voters” before primary season, and now, not so much. It’s hilarious and well worth a view. BTW, The Daily Show gets full marks for making its content available online.