Very Local News

• The folks who do the CNN Financial Update podcast all sound too happy. The economy is in the toilet and they all sound like they are cheering it on. I'm sure they think they are making the best of a bad situation. I prefer the guy on APM Marketplace, who sounds like he is about to cry when he goes over the numbers each day.
  
• I stood on top of the parking garage today at lunch and watched a thunder head roll in. The wind was blowing in to it. The lightning was bright and frequent. I went back in about ten minutes before the rain fell. I could feel the building vibrate from the wind.
  
• I heard a story today that a prison official noticed that pidgins were having trouble flying around the yard of the prison.  It turns out they were trained pidgins carrying in drugs and contraband cellphones. Pretty ingenious. Then again, the kilo brick on that one bird's leg gave it away.
• I heard a story about artificial grass today too. No watering. No mowing. Pays for itself in like four years. You can even put a dog on it. They did mention fluffing it with a power broom. That sounds interesting.
• MTV is taking money for political advertisement for the first time this election. Who the hell watches MTV any more?
• The praying manti have not yet hatched.