Apparently some parents will do literally anything to ensure their child arrives on-time to
a tennis lesson. Even of it means flying them in a small plane, landing it in the snow of a nearby golf course!

Just can’t make this stuff up…

What makes this story even more wild for me is I work just around the corner from that golf course. In fact, I drive past the fairway every weekday!

Living in Chicagoland, I can’t count the times I wished I had a helicopter or plane to get me across the area.  Not that it would be feasible, but its fun to dream of escaping the gridlock that can occur here on a daily basis. Crazy as it was, this guy actually did it!

I meant to blog this earlier this week since it occured this past Saturday, but alas, it slipped my mind.

I know I’m not the first to post a link to this video but it’s fun to see. Recently a couple hundred people froze in place at the same time inside NYC Grand Central Station. It’s not a protest, just a fun prank. Enjoy!

Also available on YouTube.

Short but classic dumb criminal story:

“MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Two Australian robbers were sentenced Tuesday for their April Fools Day heist at the Cuckoo Restaurant, where they thought they were hauling away a big sack of cash that turned out to be bread rolls. Benjamin Jorgensen, 38, and his accomplice Donna Hayes, 36, were sentenced in Victorian County Court after pleading guilty to robbing the restaurant in the southern Australian city of Melbourne on April 1 last year.

During the holdup, Jorgensen grabbed what he believed was a bag with the Cuckoo’s cash earnings of about $26,000, but later found it was full of bread rolls, the court heard.

He also fired his gun accidentally in the caper, shooting Hayes in the buttocks.

Judge Roland Williams told the robbers they were a “pair of fools,” before sentencing Hayes to eight years in prison and Jorgensen to seven.

Earlier this week, defense lawyer Greg Thomas said Jorgensen had been under the influence of drugs at the time, had made a full admission to police and was remorseful, News Ltd. newspapers reported.”

A regular Bonnie and Clyde? Not so much…

There are a number of levels of humor in this one.

1. The heist took place on April Fools Day last year. Not getting off to a good start in the whole planning thing…

2. Grabbing a bag of bread rolls which they was thought was really full of cash. Nice job looking in the bag…. Hopefully the rolls were fresh and tasty…

3. Accidentally shooting the accomplice in the bum. Well it could be worse… I’m sure that Ms. Hayes does not write any love letters to good ol’ Benjamin…

4. Ms Hayes got a longer prison sentence. The mastermind? Really? I’d expect this kind of numbskullery from the guy. Especially since he was the one on drugs…

5. They held up a restaurant named “Cuckoo”. ‘Nuff said…

Its been a while since I posted maily due to being on vacation and busy times this summer. Nothing like getting back into the groove with this article in the Washington Post yesterday that is quite a surreal tale of an attempted robbery. What robbery ends with the intruder apologizing for breaking in to the wrong place, sipping wine and getting a group hug? Ha! Sounds like something from a Saturday Night Live sketch, but this really happened.

Photo Credit: Vincent Ma

Not much to say about this story other than it cracked me up today (pun intended). At least this alleged thief’s name makes sense based what they were stealing. Even the cops were chuckling:

“She’s facing potentially three years of incarceration for three rolls of toilet paper,” Chief Lon Walker said, stifling a laugh as he talked to KCCI-TV about Suzanne Marie Butts. “See, I can’t say it with a straight face.”

Of all the places to steal from too, a courthouse? Not only is it a dumb place to steal anything, I’m sure their toilet paper is probably one step from being sandpaper!

When you link to Google Maps and ask for directions from say Chicago, IL to London, UK you will get this result (also in the screen capture to the left). Notice in step 20 it recommends literally swimming across the Atlantic Ocean 3,462 miles to the shores of the United Kingdom. Hilarious!

It’s refreshing to see Google found a way to place a sense of humor even in its Maps tool. I found this in a post on consumerist.com.

The Bears Superfan sketch from Saturday Night Live is a favorite of mine as I have discussed in previous posts. It appears they are back minus Chris Farley in a commercial for Reebok. The commercial is funny and classic superfan humor, however I don’t particularly like this one. It would have been better to release the sketch a couple months ago. Now after a loss in the Super Bowl it does not have the same affect. The real problem I have with it is Adam Vinatieri, the kicker for the Colts is in the sketch this time. I really don’t want to be reminded about the Super Bowl loss now and he’s not even funny. The Superfans are still funny and use that classic “Daaaa Bearssss” phrase. However someone… eh-hem ‘fumbled’… the timing on this one.

Click below to watch the video

(more…)

I’m not the first to find this series of videos but I had to share it. This is a great site where they “blend” various objects not meant to be blended.

Items such as a golf club, hockey pucks, cellphones, a garden rake, an iPod, golf balls, marbles, and various other things. Who would have thought this would be entertaining, but it is!

Mind you its essentially an ad for this blender used in smoothie shops, however it is incredible to see objects like the iPod below get chopped into small bits. Kids don’t try this at home!

A Canadian blogger named Kyle MacDonald decided one day that he wanted to play a real world game of “Bigger and Better”. You know, that game you may have played as a child where you start with a practically worthless object and compete against other friends to trade it for some thing bigger and better. Then turn around and trade it again for something even better, and so on. The person with the biggest/best thing at the end wins.

Well this is the ultimate version of this game. Starting with a single red paperclip, this guy wants to end up with a house, by bartering for it. At first I thought, he would never come close but wouldn’t you know it as of 2 days ago he met his goal 1 year and just 14 trades later. The journey across the U.S. and Canada for these trades is much more entertaining than it sounds. His blog was the epicenter of the trades and he keeps a great journal of this wild story. It’s one of those “I wish I would have thought of that” ideas that was just crazy enough to work!

Now and then a baseball manager entertains the crowd by throwing a tantrum on the field arguing a call. Some classics from Lou Pinella come to mind as well as Billy Martin and Earl Weaver. But I have to say this video from Sunday is currently the best manager explosion I have ever seen. This guy lost it like no other manager that I can remember in the past decade. His name is Joe Mikulik the manager of the Colorado Rockies single-A minor league affiliate. Here is a good breakdown of this particular blowout.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg felt like taking a 15 minute “cat nap” during a hearing today. I wonder if she had a pillow to make it a little more comfortable for her to sleep in our highest court. The picture on the left depicts this funny scene.

It seems highly technical matters of political redistricting in Texas do not interest her. It wouldn’t interest me much either, but it’s her job to be interested because of the importance of her position. Not to mention the importance of her ruling.

Just a thought for the Justice: Drink more coffee and maybe a Red Bull or two.

The 2006 Winter Olympics began in Torino, Italy last night with the opening ceremonies. I enjoy watching the Olympics for the most part, though there are some events I wonder why they are even an “olympic sport.” Luge for one. Jerry Seinfeld has a classic routine on the luge. It makes me laugh every time I read it:

“And that other one that I love is the luge. You know the luge, where the guy wears the slick suit. This is on the bobsled run, but it’s not even a sled. It’s just bob. It’s just a human being hanging on for their life, this is the whole sport. Just ahhhhhhhhh… “oh he pointed his toes… oh, this guy is a tremendous athlete”.

The luge is the only sport I’ve ever seen that you could have people competing in it against their will. And it would be exactly the same. You know, if they were just picking people off the street, “hey hey hey, what is this ?! I don’t wanna be in the luge”. You know, you put the helmet on them, you wouldn’t really hear them screaming, just:

- purrrrrr -
“you’re in the luge, buddy”
“ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh… aaahhh…”
“World record. Didn’t even wanna do it”
I wanna see that event next year, the involuntary luge.”

Ha! Good stuff. Go USA!