David Alber » funny

Skagit County Gnome-Napping Report

David Alber — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:48:11 +0000

Here’s one of the articles I have in my backlog of items to share; it is from a while back.

Back in December, a respectably large cache of garden gnomes was discovered in a Mount Vernon, Washington resident’s back yard when high winds knocked down her fence. The fence was concealing around sixty yard gnomes — at least some apparently stolen from other yards — along with other yard ornaments. See the link for more details.

Seattle P-I: Gnome-napping: Thefts may have created backyard statue stash.

Meadows Field Airport Shut Down by Honey Scare

David Alber — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:44:26 +0000

The Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, California was shutdown on Tuesday by bottles of honey. They did not know they were dealing with honey at the time. From “Bottled Honey Shuts Down California Airport” in VOANews:

Two Transportation Security Administration officers were also treated and released from the hospital after being exposed to what were described as “fumes” from the bottles.

My path to the VOA article: Boing Boing >> Backwards Beekepers >> VOANews.

Poking a Little Fun at the Seattle Light Rail

David Alber — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:56:31 +0000

I like that we are building out rail-based mass-transit infrastructure, but I was a little surprised that the light rail does not have space that works well for luggage.

There is more than six inches between the seats, that’s an exaggeration. There is, however, very little knee space, and definitely not enough space for luggage.

Barney Frank Town Hall

David Alber — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:40:38 +0000

Everybody has seen this already, but for my own records here are video clips of Representative Barney Frank, Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, at a town hall meeting where he holds his own against some attendees unhappy about health care reform. After the first video completes, a second automatically loads and is also worth watching.

The first video sets the tone, but I particularly enjoyed Rep. Frank’s handling of the exchange about illegal immigrants and their status in the bill:

Frank: Illegal aliens are specifically excluded from getting any assistance in the bill. Section…
Mob boos. Somewhere in the exchange some people yell, “read the bill!”
Frank then finds the section of the bill and reads it.
Frank: It’s right in the bill. I will be glad to show it to you.

Some people apparently refused to believe the bill itself, and Frank responds with this zinger:

It is a little odd to be accused of not having read the bill by people who object when I do.

The Sound of Chickens

David Alber — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:41:52 +0000

A couple weekends back I caught an episode of A Prairie Home Companion. It happened to be their “joke show“, which included “The Sound of Chicken’s”, a parody of “The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. The song was actually a repeat from last year’s joke show. Listen to it here.

The show was pretty entertaining, but in addition to the song, the following joke sticks out in my mind:

Q: What do you call a lawyer who has gone bad?

A: Senator.