If you’re old enough to remember an era with no cell phones or Internet, you might recall a quirky comedian named Andy Kaufman. He did did one of the best Elvis impersonations of the 80s and played the mild-mannered, lovable Latka on the TV series Taxi. He died from a rare form of cancer at age 35 in 1984. But this week a lady claiming to be one of his daughter’s said the former SNL contributor is still alive. I’d be extremely skeptical about this folks. But Kaufman was by all accounts plenty weird enough to try and pull it off: [Read more…]

I’ve often preached to friends and family that, if you want to have good relationships, you must reward good behavior, or at the very least not reward the bad stuff. Admittedly it’s always easier to tell others to do this than to consistently practice it yourself, but it’s not exactly controversial either. This is common sense we all learned by 1st grade and spend the rest of lives trying to unlearn with varying and often miserable consequences. I hope the latter happens to ABC network executives, who just signed vaxxer nut and former playmate Jenny McCarthy to cohost The View: [Read more…]

Strange circular markings have appeared in a fozen pond in upstate New York. There are a couple of posisble explanations: [Read more…]

We are made of lots of water. It’s sobering to think if we run just a quart or two low, madness, misery and eventually death awaits. I was reminded of this in gruesome detail starting Saturday. It was either a stomach bug masquerading as a migraine or vice-versa. By Sunday evening I was severely dehydrated with a thundering headache. Combined with sleep deprivation it got bad enough that I’m pretty sure I began to hallucinate. [Read more…]

Just get used to R. E. M.’s hit song because it’s going to be ubiquitous and at least it doesn’t suck. The header is a little inflammatory, but not that much. School spokes people have said doomsday is a factor in letting students go home a day or two early for the winter break: [Read more…]

I hope the ellipsis conveys my skepticism adequately. If it doesn’t, my apologies. The article this came from features a scientist, errr of sorts, making that claim. Normally, I wouldn’t give it the time of day. But it’s instructive. It sounds almost serious at first, even to a quasi-informed science writer like me who knows just enough molecular bio to be completely fooled by anyone who knows a tiny bit more. But thankfully, this particular reporter, wasn’t satisfied to be a mere stenographer. [Read more…]

Over the course of the week I was hit with several emails informing me of the mystical benefits of bleeding. I even started joking with my friends that all it might take is a touch of new age nonsense combined with ancient medicine and old men wearing robes, and there would be people who would buy into trepanation. You know, cutting holes through the cranium to let bad spirits out. You know what’s coming next, don’t you? [Read more…]