Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Squirrel's Nut Cache - 11/11/10


The Nut Cache - a collection of recent things I found interesting, or amusing, or nutworthy.

I'm a "foodie", and I'd never heard of Cook's Source magazine until last week. Now, a lot of people have heard of Cook's Source... and not in a good way. I understand that intellectual property rights can be complicated, however, folks who write things; like books, or songs, or articles, or blog posts; own the product of their labors. How could you get a job as a content editor at a magazine and not know that? Well, Cook's Source magazine editor Judith Griggs, it seems, never learned that. When author Monica Gaudio found out that Cook's Source had published an article from her blog without permission and complained about it, she was told by editor Griggs, "But honestly, Monica, the web is considered 'public domain' and you should be happy we just didn't "lift" your whole article and put someone else's name on it!" When the story came out, folks took a hard look at Cook's Source, and found articles "lifted" from NPR, Martha Stewart, Food Network, and other sources - all copywrited. Sadly, Cook's Source is trying to play it up that they're the victims here. I doubt Cook's Source will be around much longer. (H.T. my sister-in-law Julia)

French car maker Renault is going to make an electric car. That's not really Nutworthy. They want to call their electric car "the Renault Zoe." That's not really Nutworthy, either. What is Nutworthy is the fact that two families, with daughters named "Zoe," sued Renault to try to get the name of the new car changed, because "children who have the first name Zoe could face a lifetime of mockery for sharing the name of a car." You can't make this stuff up! I wonder how girls named "Mercedes" cope? I seem to recall that Karl Benz named his automobile after his daughter, Mercedes, back in 1901...

All library books have due dates. We all know this, and, yet, we've all missed a due date or two over the years and had to pay a late fee. But, for some reason, whenever books are really late, libraries tend to wave those late fees. I think the Boston Public Library should have insisted on collecting the $4,391.80 late fee for the two 60-year-past due books, myself.

I don't normally include video in the Nut Cache, but this one is just too funny. I saw this on Facebook yesterday, and I still laugh every time I see it. Could be the best football play ever! Gutsy call, too! The quarterback should get an Academy Award as well as the touchdown for his great acting job!



Weddings can be elaborate affairs involving the coordination of myriad details. With so many details to be seen to, there are many things that can go wrong. The friends of bride Jillian Sherlock didn't want her to be upset during her wedding, so they kept it a secret that the wedding limousine had been carjacked outside of the church right before the service. "As police cordoned off the front of the church with crime scene tape, inside, the ceremony went on as planned, and another limo was dispatched to take the wedding party to the reception." - and all without the bride knowing anything was wrong! The car thief has not yet been caught.

Social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, & MySpace, have become commonplace. People can't do anything without tweeting it or posting it to their wall. That includes stupid criminals, like this guy, who used the computer in a house he'd broken into to log into his MySpace page. When he was done, and left the house, he was still logged onto MySpace, making it really easy to ID him later. Dumb criminals sure make the cops' job easier to do!

And the Nuttiness goes on and on...

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