Freshman negative 15

The Daily News has a big ol’ story today on the “Freshman 15,” which wasn’t really too much of a problem for me, although that “Sophomore-Junior 45″ really bummed me out after a while.

Anyway, they interview a few girls in college, including University of Delaware student Nicky Hare, who gained five pounds in her freshman year.

So, what, gaining five pounds made her weigh 38 lbs. total? Gee, thanks for setting a good body image example, Daily News.

Dining Hall 101 [DN]

It’s like a conservative blog, in print form!

The Northeast Times, bridging communities:

Memo to anti-Bushers

This is for the President Bush haters and welfare moochers: For the people who claim Mr. Bush hates blacks, I say, shove it. For the people who hate Bush, I say, drop dead. And for the welfare moochers — blacks, whites, whatever — go to work and quit having babies. Get a life. The taxpayers can’t take it anymore.
Jerry Foglia
Wissinoming

Actually, this rises above the kind of debate offered on most blogs.

Memo to anti-Bushers [Northeast Times, fourth letter]

Had I known there was a war going on…

A friend clicked on an Army National Guard ad on Philly.com and saw this pop up onto his screen:

See the world! Defend your country! Possibly lose a limb! Get three free iTunes downloads!

Yeah, this will work.

Receive 3 FREE iTunes music downloads when you sign up to be contacted by the Army National Guard! [Army National Guard]

Jenice Armstrong: Taking the tough positions

Oh, Jenice. Now that your week of Lil’ Kim columns is done and you can’t put your friends on Sexy Singles for almost another whole year, I’m glad you’ve decided to tackle the tough issues in today’s society:

That’s why - as hokey as it sounds - I’m pulling for the 10 sets of parents scheduled to marry today in Brooklyn, N.Y., at a mass wedding that’s part of “Marry Your Baby Daddy Day.”

Even if it is a clever publicity stunt dreamt up by novelist Mary Ann Reid to promote her latest book, “Marry Your Baby Daddy,” (St. Martin’s Press) which hits stores this month.

If you didn’t follow that, Jenice hopes it works out for couples who already have a child together who are getting married today.

What’s next, a pro-tiger cub column?

Moms shun marriage [DN]

Northeast Philly Story of the Day #2

This gem is the lead story in this week’s Northeast Times — and don’t worry, we’ll get to the letters pages soon, and, yes, there is a ton of stuff. It concerns a pot-belled pig that is causing a neighbor to be annoyed and sue to force the owners to get rid of him.

The pig was a gift to Charlie Saunders when he retired from the post office a few years ago. His quote about his gift:

“I wanted a long-legged blonde, not a pig,” he joked.

Ba-ZING!

This little piggie [Northeast Times]

Northeast Philly’s version of a celebrity candidate

There is a ton of news going on in Northeast Philly today. No, no, nothing important — it is Northeast Philly — but it’s important in a Northeast Philly way.

For example, check out this big campaign shaking up for the 2005 congressional race:

A former reality television star appears to be emerging as the top Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz.

Raj Bhakta, who appeared on NBC’s The Apprentice 2, is seeking backing to run next year against the freshman Democrat in the 13th Congressional District.

“I’ve always had an interest in public office,” he said.

Wow! What’s next? Richard Hatch running for U.S. Senate? That dwarf from The Amazing Race running for the House? Bam Margera running for president? That fat woman from America’s Next Top Model running for dog catcher?

The possibilities are endless!

He hopes voters will say ‘you’re hired’ in ‘06 [Northeast Times]

Philly Blogicized: Early Friday night ideas

• Apparently Tom Delay was indicted. We decided to link to the Philly blog that sounded the happiest. The exclamation points really sold us. If you had used an emoticon we would have collapsed under a pile of rainbows and baby lions. [Tattered Coat]

• I mean, honestly, what else would you do on a Friday night but make phone calls on behalf of a politician? [dragonballyee]

• Franz Ferdinand listening party this Friday at Tattooed Mom’s! Oh, snap. [Badminton Stamps]

• You know, I’ve lived in this town my whole life, but I was unaware of this place’s ping-pong heritage. [Philly Future]

The layoffs, they are a-comin’

E-Deep Throat just forwarded us a memo from Inky Editor Amanda Bennett. We hope she (or he?) keeps forwarding to us each week.

It’s long-ish, and there’s a lot of inside baseball, but here’s what you want to know:

18 applied (17 Guild, 1 Independent)

4 accepted

Yikes.

After the jump, the rest of the memo, which at least soothes our fears that the new Inquirer will be any more interesting than the old one. Actually, they’re planning for it, which is a good start. We’ll see how it actually works out.

More »

Mary Jane’s Last Dance

Apparently everything in Bucks County is a-okay, because this strikes us as a ridiculous waste of time — as well as a violation of free speech, but, hey, we’re not a political blog here.

Read the full story, but here’s some excerpts:

Middletown Detective Daniel Baranoski went shopping last week at Spencer’s Gifts in the Oxford Valley Mall last week. [Editor's Note: Oh, that Bucks County Courier Times!]

Baranoski paid $64.62 for a “water bong,” sometimes referred to as a hookah in the Middle East, and three posters depicting marijuana use.

He also bought a poster of three youngsters sitting on the floor in front of their mother’s couch smoking a marijuana cigarette or joint. A pack of rolling papers, bag of marijuana and other joints are at their feet. The poster reads: “Child Hood” followed by “Johnny likes skinny girls, but he never turns down a fattie!”

On Monday night, Baranoski was back - this time with a search warrant.

By the time he left, he took away about $5,000 worth of merchandise either used to smoke marijuana or depict its use. On the same night, Bensalem detectives were over at the Spencer’s Gifts at Neshaminy Mall seizing several bongs from that store.

…

Detectives took shot glasses, dishes, bowls, Frisbees, CDs, magnets, sneakers, headbands, stationery, lighters, pins, bracelets, key chains, cookie cutters and dozens of other “marijuana” merchandise from the Oxford Valley store. The pieces to one chess set were various sized marijuana leaves.

…

Police noted that before they served the search warrant they chased a half-dozen pre-teens and teens out of the store.

Then, they confiscated a “cigarette,” sometimes referred to as a fag in the United Kingdom.

Items seized from mall shop [BCCT]

Important government funds went to this

I know that government waste is always going to happen, because it’s government, and “waste” should probably follow it just about every time it’s mentioned. But I really don’t know why we need barney.gov, the official website of President Bush’s older dog.

Before the election, there was a “Barney Photo of the Day” updated like clockwork, but since then it’s slowly died down to “week” and now “month,” apparently. (I guess before the election they wanted to get that all important Scottish terrier breeder vote.) Take a look:

So, basically, this pooch gets an official dot-gov domain, films made about him and an occassional photo posted to the website. Hey, Republicans! You want to cut programs to fund Hurricane Katrina cleanup and relief? How about you start with barney.gov?

Also, I wonder if this is the safest thing in the world for Barney:

barney.gov [The Freakin' Federal Government]