Bush urges U.N. to spread freedom...BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

OK. If you read this story carefully, Bush didn't really say "By any means necessary." In fact, upon further reflection, I've mischaracterized the President here. It would be more accurate to say, "By any means necessary if it would result in an economic benefit, otherwise, just ignore it."

Surviving the Sunday Comics - A Guide

I've been noticing a disturbing trend lately - the comics aren't so funny anymore. Perhaps it's because I'm older, have more sophisticated tastes or am just plain jaded, but many of the current comic strips bore me.

In fact, a couple of years ago, I started selective reading to save time and prevent eye injury from pervasive eye-rolling. Victims of the culling process include Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible, For Better or for Worse, Wizard of Id and Mutts. Out of respect for a long history where I owned 16 books as child, I still scan Garfield, but it's rarely funny.

Fortunately, there still are some pretty funny comic strips that deliver chuckles on a regular basis. I'll present them here in scientific order of funniness.

Get Fuzzy. This is one darn funny comic strip. The interaction between Bucky the cat, Satchel the dog and Rob, their owner is clever and inspired. If you like comic strips about pets, drop Mutts and Garfield and read Get Fuzzy. (click image to enlarge)





Pearls Before Swine. This is a welcome addition to the San Francisco Chronicle. The characters and plots are great. What's not funny about some crazy crocodiles trying to eat some zebras. And their current story arc about Family Circus is hilarious. (click image to enlarge)





To be continued...

Fun tid-bits from Wired Magazine - Sept. '07

It's hard to resist 'free,' so I recently upped my magazine quotient when American Airlines offered me the opportunity to score some free subscriptions in exchange for a languishing lot of frequent flier miles that I was never going to use.

I made bad selections, like Blender, which is far inferior to Spin, but also some good ones like the Wall Street Journal and Wired Magazine. It's the latter that has brought the most entertainment value. After several issues, my only regret is not to have subscribed sooner. It's like Popular Science (which I also subscribe to), but more fun and hip. To prove that point, I'll share a couple of fun articles from the Sept. issue.

Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides Then Sit the Hell Down
Thank God for this article. As a marketing writer, I would like to hope that 20-slide, sub-seven-minute presentations would be adopted by business types around the globe. Unfortunately, I'm not that naive. Limiting the number of slides and time required to present them would have the sublime effect of forcing presenters to get to the point.

What's Inside: Snausages Snawsomes
Fortunately, my dog's diet is more or less limited to Eukanuba, Trader Joes dog biscuits and random meat scraps from a bbq dinner. After reading this article, I'm glad that the only time my dog has had "Snawsomes" is when it came free with a dog toy pack from Costco. Let's just say that "corn syrup" comes before beef, and the beef is most likely "skeletal or that which is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart, or in the esophagus; with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of the skin, sinew, nerve and blood vessels." Thank you, Wired, for this valuable PSA. Just say s'no to Snawsomes.

Beware These Six Lamest Social Networks
This social commentary on social networks is right on the money. Short and sweet, but still able to produce a chuckle. My faith in humankind is weakened slightly knowing that this is a social network site for Thomas Kinkade, painter of lite.

I could go on and on with other fun articles, but I'll save that other posts. Plus, I've got to get cracking on Popular Science and Wall Street Journal and Esquire and Business Week and Spin and Newsweek and Consumer Reports and...yes, I have a problem.